They Said Never in Your Wildest Dreams

Today marks an official year since I left New York for London.
Hard to believe.

It’s been a rollercoaster, but it has proven to be the best decision I’ve ever made.

Here are my top 10 highlights from the past year in London:

1. The entire beginning, the magic of starting a new life in a new country, the excitement and anticipation of everything to come. It was always a dream, and the challenge of keeping it a reality proved to be an adventure in itself.

2. Moving into my house with people from all over the world, signing my first lease, and finally having a place to base my life here, a place to come home to instead of taking the last train back to Kent where I was staying (even though I was lucky to be staying there at first). It made everything feel a bit more permanent. Even if I didn’t have any sheets for a few months.

3. Finding a job at Jiq Jaq, the art gallery where I spent my first year as a marketing executive/promotional writer. Days in the gallery brought some interesting acquaintances and I also met some great new friends. Marketing wasn’t my first choice, but it was an excellent first job to have, putting together an art catalogue, writing letters and email ad campaigns, learning about the art world and being surrounded by colour. Not to mention the glory of that first salaried paycheck when my bank account was dry as the Sahara.

4. Obtaining my British passport and making my dual citizenship official. The day it came in the mail was the day I knew I could keep my dream alive, even if I ever did have to go home for a while. It was the moment I knew I could always come back and work here with no restrictions. Here, and anywhere in the EU.

5. My recent week of work experience at The Sunday Times was definitely a highlight. It brought back the rush of exhilaration that comes from being in a newsroom and solidified my goals of being involved in journalism. With the task of calling high profile people and researching for future stories, I made quite a few great new contacts and received some excellent advice from the people on the news review desk.

6. Having my first article published in a magazine. I had articles published in newspapers, but Graffiti was the first magazine to let my words grace its pages. It has since changed its name to Art in London, but it is still the same. Seeing my article title on the front cover and four pages of my work and some images in the center as a feature was another rush. Also, becoming the arts and culture editor for a new Vancouver-based magazine project, Haute, and an invitation to be a sub-editor for Seven Magazine.

7. Summer festivals. I was lucky enough to go to both Isle of Wight and Reading festivals this summer. In fact, they were my first camping festivals ever. I’ve always been a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan so being a few feet from the stage with an enormous crowd pushing from behind me when I saw them at Reading for the first time ever was unbeatable. Not to mention Rolling Stones who headlined Isle of Wight, some sunshine, a little bus trip to the English Channel “beach”, good company, dance tents, campfires and fish and chips. Also, though it wasn’t a festival, a trip to Brighton that caused much fun and frolicking on a cold beach and ended up with arcade games, tea and donuts.

8. Love. Meeting S. He’s been there for me since the beginning, making sure I had everything I needed when I moved into my house, spending money on my happiness left and right, moving in with me, making me laugh, taking me to new places and introducing me to a whole plethora of new friends. Not to mention being supportive of my dreams and booking a three day holiday in Budapest for my birthday with a double deluxe room and a private Jacuzzi. So maybe I’m spoiled.

9. The general awesomeness of London, which includes all of the free gigs I’ve been to, the new bands I’ve discovered, the amazing people who have become great friends, the culture, the fact that there’s always something going on, the tube and its usefulness, all of the exhibitions I’ve seen, the beauty of the parks that let you escape from the city noise, the shopping and the markets, the fire pit we built in our backyard for barbeques and parties, the social life, the fact that we have two almost tame foxes living in our back garden the food from all over the world, the new magazines and books I’ve discovered, etc. I am deeply in love with this city. After a year, it’s still just as fantastic and I don’t plan on leaving any time soon.

10. Finally feeling like I’ve made London my home. Also, being lucky enough to be able to visit my other home back in New York twice in this one year. I will always be tossed between the two, I think, but the fact that they both now feel like home makes me quite lucky, don’t you think?

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.
.
.
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.
.


.
RIP Pierre.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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?
.
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?
.
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.
.
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.”
.
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!
.