GOOD-BYE!!!

I have relocated my blog to Fairchild Life!

Go ch-ch-checkitout!

i was out of your league and you were 20,000 beneath the sea

got back from an exhausting weekend in Dublin late last night.  still too tired to write about it all, but that post will come soon.  slept in very late today, then had a presentation for my internship tutorial after class.  the amount of work i do here for 4 credits per class is laughable.  it blows my mind that i manage to do LESS work than a normal semester, because i'm pretty sure i already mastered my 'least amount of effort for maximum returns' approach to school.  

i have exactly one month left in london and i'm very sad to realize that means i have exactly 1/3 of my time here left to go.  although i do have a very jam packed few weeks left and i can't wait to do everything we have planned!!!! i even have my ical all set to go with a big list of to dos (i have a little ocd in me)

new favorite quote

for some reason this just makes me feel better about everything.

tomorrow i go to dublin for the weekend! i'm staying at trinity college and i'm excited to go to the Guinness factory.  i can't believe this is my last trip. means time is winding down...sadsies. 

tiny trenches and wee wellies

yesterday was the ss10 childrenswear shoot. a special day since it was my very first burberry photo shoot and i. was. pumped.  i practically skipped to the tube station.  but of course i got lost for two whole hours on a horrible journey to burberry shoot-land.  it started raining and i had walked for an hour in the cold before i finally found a cab. i now completely appreciate clearly marked road signs and metrocab's dependability.

i finally arrived and all the trouble getting there was worth it.  i walk in to a large table with the set to the right and the BUFFET to the left. unlimited breakfast foods=heaven.  i met the photographer, looked over the shots i had missed, and saw them making the accompanying video of a baby girl. heartbreakingly cute. then it was lunch time and another buffet of food was brought out and served to us.  i think i had about 5 meals in 2 hours and loved iiit.  craft services got blown out of the water. the next round of kid models came in and i got to watch their photoshoots.  i was mistaken as the little girl's mother...still not sure if i should be flattered or not.  either way, i think my 'oh my god no!' scared the photo assistant.  he later apologized. haha. 

the best part of it all was that the entire time the kids were there, two young british guys entertained them.  i started talking to them and turns out they had both just finished college and were working part time as entertainers for kid parties and other events.  they had been hired for the shoot to keep the kids happy when they weren't working, and literally colored and played games with them all day.  it was hilarious to watch these two 20something boys playing hide and seek while wearing decorated pink crowns. i fell a little in love. at the end i even joined in with the coloring and played with the rocket balloons too!

overall i definitely enjoyed being able to see what ad campaign shoots are actually like. I wish i could explain more about the set but it's all super duper secret :) all the SS10 ads will break in february! 

no pain, no gain

November 10

About a 10 minute walk away from the crofton is the Natural History Museum. starting this week there is ice skating there every night, so we decided to go to the student night. i was looking forward to it allll day and even dressed the part of an ice princess in my big gray fur vest.

cut to me stepping on the ice and i am immediately regretting this idea. i don't know how people find it easy to balance on two thin pieces of metal while on a slippery wet surface but i sure don't. i lack all sorts of coordination and balance...ice skating is near the top of the "things caitlin is most likely to fail at" list (#1? tight rope walking). it was a test of my physical abilities and i FAILED. major major fail. i managed to only fall twice but that's because every other moment i was either clinging to the side or was escorted around the rink. my epic fall included my legs sprawled out split-style and the rink cop dude bee lining it over to me. he asked if i was ok and i said yes. then he just stood there and held out his hands because, obviously, i was not okay. he found it pretty funny that the rest of the time i was glued to the side as the group photographer.

melanie and i bailed out early to get our free drinks and watch everyone else from the balcony. then we all took our xmas card pic by the huge tree next to the rink because we are adorable. then we got cookies and hot chocolate!

i may have bruised my ego and wrist (badly) but nothing turns a night around like chocolate goods.

puedo ir al bano?

I’m feeling too lazy to even form a sentence (besides this one) so this post is going to be in all bullet points.

Madrid: A Weekend

Friday night:

• Arrive really late to Cat’s Hostel
• Cool decorations but kind of gross
• Drunk couple tries to break in during the night – fail

Saturday:

• Wake up at the crack of dawn for free breakfast
• Walk around everyyywhere
• Plaza Major-deserted because we are the only ones awake that early
• Park
• Really beautiful and really big-lots of paths, fountains, and funny trees
• Huge lake with boats and humongous goldfish
• Crystal Palace
• Actually it’s glass
• Waterfall in front
• Black swan! What
• Palace and Church
• Big, white, looks like Vienna
• Prado Museum
• Goya, Rubens, etc…
• My favorite: “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Bosch
• The left panel is dedicated to Paradise, with the creation of Eve and the fountain of life, while the right panel shows hell. The middle panel shows the world in lustful abandon. 
• "lustful abandon" hahahaha

• Authentic lunch
• Sangria!!!
• First encounter with paella
• Horrifying
• 60 cent wine at El Corte Ingles
• .60 liter of wine + .25 jug of water = best purchase of my entire life
• Weird street performers
• Mickey and Minnie (got a pic)
• Guy with no head
• People that look like stones
• One guy I actually thought was a statue-freaaaaky
• Siesta time
• When in Rome

Saturday night:

• Tapas restaurant
• On the 6^th floor of a rando building
• More sangriaaa
• Free shots because everyone loves us
• Flamenco dancing
• Like Irish dancing but with less leg whipping
• Duet and then solos by the guy and girl dancer
• Even MORE sangria
• Too much sangria=early bedtime for all

Sunday:

• Market
• Winds up and down one main street and all the little side streets
• Bought a truck load of scarves
• Leopard scarf=new obsession (wearing right now)
• Lunch in a little square
• Second encounter with paella
• Still horrifying
• DUNKING DONUTS
• Iced coffee has never tasted so good
• Perfect ending to the trip

i was your anger and you were my fear now that it's over of course it's so clear

In my recent quest to keep my afterwork hours busy I had a succesfully full week.

Tuesday we went to Imperial to celebrate Hillary's return to Londontown. I'm so grateful that Imperial is so close, it has saved me a many boring night in Crofton. We exchanged traveling stories and Lee told me the best stuff about Octoberfest. I want to go sooo bad but will learn from their experience and not stay in tents (or hallucinate hahaha). Wednesday some of us met up after work at Porterhouse. There was supposed to be a live band but there wasn't sooo I guess that just means we have to go again. Darn. Porterhouse has a huge menu of beers from around the world so I tried the one and only Swedish beer there-Crocodile!

Thursday was Guy Fawkes Night, which is a holiday celebrating the foiled Gunpowder Plot of 1605 that was supposed to blow up Parliament. All over England they celebrate by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes in a huge bonfire and then a fireworks display. We went to a Guy Fawkes Night nearby in Notting Hill and they do not kid around with this holiday. The bonfire was in fact enormous and the fireworks display was suprisingly good-a tough review to recieve from a bunch of 4th of July loving Americans. It as a really fun cultural event to take part in, and we walked down the road for a drink afterwards at The Elgin-an old Victorian style pub where the Clash used to play!!

Lately at work I've been lacking in things to do. I was given an assignment to do competitive research for the licensing division...I have succesfully stretched this project into a 3-day long extensive research bonanza and am now working on a powerpoint complete with screenshots of competitors websites and a synopsis of all the SS10 campaigns. I know TOO MUCH about luxury sunglasses and timepieces now. I've also been passing the time by listening to a few new favorite bands on YouTube-Spoon and The Sounds.

After work today I leave for Madrid for the weekend with 6 other girls. Wish me luck because 4 years of Spanish class in Wisconsin left me with "puedo ir al bano?" and that's about it...