London iPhonology

1 - Packing.
2 - When we arrived in London, we ate heaps of sushi in a park, whilst watching first two business men and then two construction workers playing pingpong right next to us.
3 - After walking along the Southbank, which was beautiful in too many ways, we sat by the Thames and drank a glass of Champagne outside but sheltered from the pouring rain. It was one of those moments we'll look back on in a few months or years and just smile because it happened.
4 - The best coffee I had in England, hands down. Look at that wooden spoon.
5 - London oh London, from the London Eye. I saw Michael Fielding near here, but wasn't sure it was him. It was him.
6 - Outside the Tate Modern there were these boys playing, they were probably around sixteen years old. I stood there for a while. The boy on the left, who was definitely the youngest, was just watching too while rolling a cigarette. I can't say exactly why, but the scene was perfect and I could have stayed there for much longer.
7 - In the hotel room before going to see Wicked, which was amazing!
8 - Did a touch of shopping in Topshop Oxford Street!

Even if you don't speak German, this song might make you feel good on the inside.

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Isn't it true, that your whole view on life, the present and past and future, all changes when you leave the place you live?
After two weeks away I feel fresh and different, satisfied and ready. (Not sure for what yet...)

England was wonderful. Just as expected. Where can I start? The people. People are different there. How lovely it is to be smiled at all day and how lovely it is to be talked at and how lovely it is that everyone is capable of being with such ease. It's not bad, the way it is here, but the difference is like hot and cold after living in Frankfurt for so long.

I started the journey with my mother in a tiny car fighting its way through wicked rain to Canterbury where my beautiful grandmother awaited with chocolate digestives and tea. We continued onto London that week and honestly I feel that that city is special beyond words. It's intriguing, layered and seems never ending. Even in comparison to Tokyo (a city that I can safely say I love with ridiculous enthusiasm), it's different and inviting in so many ways. I want to go back and walk through every street and step into every eccentric little shop and cafe and talk to every eccentric human I meet. (Probably only possible if blessed with immortality...)
I hope my future husband resides in London currently, just putting that out there.

After a lot of walking, coffee drinking, sitting-by-Thames-with-Champagne-ing, shopping, show watching (Wicked, anyone?!), a warm safe feeling spread through me and I can still feel it now. Thank you Mum, it made up for everything. I really think it did.

The second week I spent drinking a massive amount of tea, relaxing, reading 50 Shades of Grey (simply hmm on that one) , reading about 124 Vice articles, going down to the sea, and spending time with family I rarely get to see.

But now I'm back and I'm glad. I literally dropped my bags at home before rushing to Annika's. There was a lot of relief and in the morning we ate these delicious savory pancakes with raspberries. (You should look at the pictures on Instagram to get excited like me.)

I'm making a seperate post for the photos I took in England, but for now just listen to this and watch Aaron Johnson.



REM - Überlin from peta on Vimeo.

Break

So this is summer. And I like it a lot. Who wouldn't enjoy days filled with friends and music and laughs and balconies in the shade.

Before I elaborate I need to proclaim my love for my first pair of Jeffrey Campbell Litas! I've been in love with these before I knew who they were by and before I could ever fathom owning a pair one day. So now I own the cliched Litas and am truly in love and so happy I could finally afford to order a pair off Solestruck. Getting them took weeks and a trip to the middle of nowhere to pay a helathy customs fee, but it was all worth it!

Here's a list, because everyone loves a list:

• One night last week we stayed up late and read horror stories about old ladies and dogs and dead dogs and murderers. We put on face masks took too many silly pictures and stayed up talking and rolling around until we finally weren't scared of murderers and fell asleep.
• Chopped some hair off on Wednesday.
• Still have not packed for England!
• Spent today eating soup with Anniman and laughing in Hugendubel ("Jeder von uns ist ein Engel mit nur einem Flügel. Und wir können nur fliegen, wenn wir uns umarmen.")
• I'm off to Albion the day after tomorrow and I can't believe it... I can't wait to: see smiling people, smile at people, see my family, spend time in London, go shopping, see the sea... (...), yet the return to Frankfurt will be beautiful too.

Taupe Suede mm, with these I finally have long legs!

Annika's jewelry and one of my bobby pins

Annika's hair and the best kitchen in Frankfurt (?!)

Bafta said that straws make everything taste better.

Music

Yum

I love this song and it's on repeat. I will write again after England and who knows what will happen, how we will feel, how life will feel- but I still have this warm feeling in my stomach that these holidays could be, will be, filled with memories that we won't want to forget.

A Swedish Shop

I feel like I have to write now, and remember that we only live once and everything can feel ok.
Some humans think too much, and if you are like me, one of them, you also know how tedious that can be. But it's ok and it's good. 'Ok' and 'good' are such ordinary words, but I think they suffice in this case.

Today was my last day of school and it was also 30 degrees. We left without saying good bye to everyone and it felt just right, not too much, just right.

Town was boiling. I have to stress that I hate the summer. I absolutely cannot fathom why people would love it. The sun beating down on your skin like an endless heated oven, sweat oozing from every pore, sticky rooms and red bodies? Maybe I'm exaggerating. The sun is a beautiful beacon of light and hope and nature. But I like it when it's cloaked in clouds not out showing off.
Even though it was hotter than it's been for weeks, today was beautiful, ... again.

We spontaneously went to Ikea. And we walked about the bedrooms and made up stories and pretended to live there, as one does. Is there a shop more fantastic than Ikea? I want to hide in a cupboard with friends and stay there over night, sleep in 10 different beds, eat cold meat balls and wrap myself in the children's toys.

We sat and talked for hours. And a hiccup of sadness was nullified by soothing words and feelings.

In a week I'll be preparing for my escape to Albion, and I am anxious to see the sea again.
Tomorrow I'm going to spend time with my lovely mum and hopefully acquire a first bikini for dips in the sea. Then I'm going to Annika's to celebrate the fact that we are in fact alive, and it is truly not always difficult, but instead packed with hours of laughing at long foreheads and silly boys and bare feet.

   

Yellow, Rice and the Main

So it's nearing the end of June now and it's so cold that I'm running out of tights agian. I think humans need the seasons, a kind of natural change that helps us cope with more intimate change that might seem wrong. But I appreciate summer taking its time this year.
I have four more days before I can finally kiss goodbye to school for six weeks. But to be honest, I am just starting to like going again.

Today I nearly fell asleep in class but soon woke up after going into town with the soul sister. It was lovely as expected and we sat in a restaurant between two couples and pulled faces while one of the girls gushed about her degree in Aesthetics.
We went to the river that I usually always take for granted, a beautiful, seemingly endless mass of perfect water dividing what has become home in half.
Three of us sat on a bench and laughed and talked and I got so emotional I definitely asked them to marry me. It's scary to think there's not much time left as we are. But probably just as exciting.

Whenever we have days like this, we always end up saying: In a year we'll remember this day! or What do you think we'll say about today in a few years? and I wish I could stay here forever.

So enough of me going on about those precious hours.
Here are some pictures.

Annika and I sat outside Iimori, where we work...

And got extra treats.

 This is today. And those are the hands of two lovely people.

A & B

I am addicted to this song.

Some unexpected things happened in the space of a week. But really, what can happen in a year?

June Showers

It rained all day today and I didn't have an umbrella. In fact, I think it's still raining now, but I am warm and inside listening to Carl playing with a hairband. It feels more like October than June and that's lovely.
In three weeks I'll begin my last ever summer as a pupil and once again embark on a trip to England which I am definitely looking forward to.

Did Zumba for the first time last night and I now firmly believe that everyone should try it out. Shake your behind around, sweat buckets whilst listening to cheesy music? Are you not even tempted?
(Also, the trainer was attractive in an odd way. Or was it just his enthusiasm?)

As promised, here are a few pictures that aren't part of the project but a result of two days worth of taking photos.

Much better than an outtake, which is why it's also on flickr.

To your left, Topmodel candidate Helena Klaric, to your center and right, me hanging on to people in a circle.

Mmm whipped cream and smarties. Delicious...?

日本人になってしまったんだ！(<-- evidence that I did, in fact, spend half a year in Tokyo.)

♥

I hope something exciting happens. Like meeting Noel Fielding in a lift in Frankfurt or winning a trip to Melbourne or perhaps receiving an anonymous parcel filled with chocolate and shoes and stories about elephants in India.
I like listening to this song, when I need encouragement.

The Seven Deadly Sins

Aren't 'the seven deadly sins' cliche but fascinating? I love what wikipedia says:

The seven deadly sins is a classification of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin.


We do have a tendency to sin. It isn't difficult to commit all seven deadly capital vices in one day.
Annika and I defined a modern, minimalistic version of the seven deadly sins in the name of a school art project. It's probably (easily) the most enjoyable 'work' I've ever done for school.

Avaritia

Invidia

Luxuria

 Acedia

Ira

Gula

Superbia

Our approach was simplistic and I really like the results. We tried to use as little as we could to define each sin. Essential were the bare background and the few props.
All the photos were taken with my Nikon D40 and a Sigma 18-125mm lens.
Slight lighting adjustments, colour enhancing in post editing with Photoshop CS6!

We completed the project over the course of one week, including planing and editing. I'm especially fond of Greed, Gluttony (because it involved whipped cream and smarties) and Envy (because it was hilarious trying to get a good picture of our male stand in/good friend and I looking like a couple).

It's really made me want to start more projects! It's true that it's much easier to complete something if you're not alone.

I'm going to post some of the outtakes of the shoot in my next post!

You should listen to this song while letting the warmth seep through your skin, lying on a breezy balcony, even if you hate the summer.