It's Getting Haute in Here

I suppose I’m not much of a role model for the green movement having flown across the ocean five times in the past year, but when you have a home on both sides of the world and five of your friends get together to buy you a plane ticket for Christmas, it’s hard to turn it down. This is part of my excuse for not updating in a month. I spent about three and a half weeks in New York reacquainting myself with snow and the bitter chill of Niagara Falls in winter.
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My friend D came over from London for nine days. It’s the first time I brought a piece of my London life into my New York life rather than the other way around. He said it gave him a lot of insight into the mysterious other half of my life (which really isn’t all that mysterious at all, only different). Besides enjoying the company of family and friends, D and I built a short-lived snowman named Pierre and documented his existence. He was a French snowman, slightly angry, with a lot of attitude. Sadly, he was quickly destroyed by his archenemy, Sun.
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RIP Pierre.
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Another highlight of my trip home was movie nights with my mom to see Juno, a hilarious and heartwarming story about a cheeky pregnant teenager who decides to put her child up for adoption. The story evolves around her relationship with the couple who is set to adopt her child and her high school experience as The Pregnant Girl.
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We also saw The Kite Runner, the controversial film based on Khaled Hosseini’s number one best-selling novel. It was one of the best books I’ve ever read, highly recommended. As always, the book was better, offering more details, but the movie was quite good as well. Plus, I’m a sucker for subtitles. I love em. The actual story is about a boyhood friendship in Afghanistan that falls apart after one boy is raped and the other witnessed it but didn’t have the courage to stop it. Excellent story with a twist at the end: the best kind of story.
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My dad and I spent some time up in Canada at Niagara-on-the-Lake, I was taken out to dinner a few times, played a lot of pool with my brother and scrabble with my gram, celebrated New Years, Christmas and my 24th birthday. All around, an excellent three weeks. Plus, when my brother comes to London in February we’re planning a trip to Amsterdam and our parents surprised us by offering to pay for our flight, hostel and a QPR football game back in London.
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When I came back to London, S told me what my birthday present will be: he’s booked flights and a nice hotel in Budapest for us over Easter weekend! Awesome boyfriend I have, no?
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There goes that carbon footprint again… but I think to discover other cultures and gain a greater understanding of the world or reconnect with family at home, it is worth it. What is life with out travel or family?
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My other excuse for not updating in a while is that I’ve been enjoying a work experience on the news review desk at The Sunday Times all week. Excellent opportunity. I met some great people, made a lot of phone calls and did a lot of research. Mainly, I got to see what a typical day is like in the newsroom. Quite honestly, it’s just a larger scale of The Leader where I used to work. And I still love the energy that comes from being in a newsroom, the constantly changing stories and topics. It’s magnetic and I know it’s where I want to be.
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Friday was my last day. Eleanor Mills, the news editor, said to me, “So, are you ready to be immersed in the giant newsroom of a paper like The Sunday Times?” “I would absolutely love it!”
“Usually by Friday people who come in for the week are overwhelmed and can’t wait to get out of here.”
“Really? If anything, it made me want to do journalism more.”
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I was told to keep in touch with ideas and come back anytime for more. I’d love to. But money is good too, so I’m off to do a bit more job hunting.

First, in more exciting news, Zin has finished the final version of the very first issue of Haute. Here’s a bit of it - the beginning and my article. I’m going to continue to be Culture Editor and am really looking forward to putting together the next issue. We’ve been brainstorming for topics and general story ideas - always exciting. Here's a more readable version and the rest of the articles!
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