It's been 26 days since I've moved to UK and 20 days since I've moved into my university accommodation and here I am, at my desk, having some yoghurt and cereal for breakfast while doing a little update. I remember someone telling me, "don't worry after IB, university is going to be a breeze." Well, it's not happening. A shirt project consisting of inspiration, mood, colour boards, research, sketches, final line ups along with a fashion history essay all due in 7 weeks. Along with that are 3 fully packed days each week - Tuesday, Thursday and Friday where I would be pretty much spending my entire day at school with a 10 to 5 timetable. 

But here's the catch. I'm actually enjoying this. I like being kept busy and always having some sort of work to do and trust me, the fact that I'm spending all that time and waking up early to get to that lecture on a monday morning, it's all worth it because I'm doing what I love at university. Everything taught is new to me and at the same time, exciting and interesting. Who knew I would love monday morning lectures so much? 

And then there's wednesday, what they call a "self directed day" which simply translates into a day off. That's when I have my sleep ins without the alarm clock ringing at 8 in the morning. Then I would probably take my time to get ready and maybe head out to Rochester for the afternoon, just a nice chilled afternoon at nice little, old fashioned Rochester. This odd little town which I was initially dreading, might just turn out to be one of my favourite places. Shocking aye? But honestly, there's just this odd calming vibe about it and when you're walking around such an old 18th century liked town with a beautiful cathedral and castle, while having some nice instrumental music plugged into your ears,  you really do tend to have this nice unusual feeling of being lost in time. Almost as if I could just forget about school and everything else for the day and just enjoy the afternoon alone, while admiring the amazing architecture of these old buildings. 

Chatham is where I do my shopping and let's just say I belong at Rochester, not a Chatham person. It's filled with shops, malls, one pound stores, lots of unusual, loud people dressed in pyjamas? See you wouldn't get that in Rochester. So after the few days and upon discovering Rochester, pretty much the only times I would head to Chatham is for university supplies and food shopping at Sainsbury's. And oddly enough, though I'm pretty sure the distances between these towns and to and back my halls are pretty close, I always get this funny feeling that Rochester is so much closer just because there's a long stretch of little vintage, antique shops along the way even if I have not arrived at my destination yet.

And here are just a few photos I took of my new found favourite place to be.
(In order from top to bottom: Rochester Castle (Front Entrance), Rochester High Street, Rochester Castle)

And what's even more amazing is that along with the tiny little vintage shops, there are tiny comfy little cafes where I could sit down and have tea, yes very English right there. I even visited this tiny little confectionaries store yesterday which was just adorable. Even store owners at the Rochester end seem just so much more friendlier and laidback. Speaking of shops, there also are these two amazing secondhand book stores at the far end of High Street and by amazing, I mean freaking amazing. Particular emphasis on Baggin's Book Bazaar because that book store is stunning. Not stunning in the amazing decor kind of way but stunning in the amount of books they have and how old the store is, which just adds onto that nice little feeling I have of time travelling back into the 19th century. The story literally has everything, with 1 pound National Geographic magazines from 1995 to 2010 (picked up a couple), books on cooking, astronomy, naval, military, art, fashion, textiles, crafts, history, etc. Anything. Literally, anything, the collection they have is simply massive. But that's not all, what makes me love this place even more is the fact that these books are very reasonably priced, or at least what I saw with the fashion books anyway which were only a couple pounds. 

Honestly, I think I could get used to this and I'm sure time would start flying by. 10 weeks till Christmas and that surely isn't too long a wait because once the work starts kicking in, all the sewing, pattern cutting and sketchbook work, time will past quickly. So as much as I miss home, my bed, the food, the cheap shopping (which I will splurrrgeeeee on when I get back), my darling Seven, I think it won't be too painful a wait before I get to see them again. And of course Christmas also means I'm finally getting my new phone that I can finally use to Whatsapp, browse the web, google maps (always handy for a lost soul like me). 

And after Christmas, there's still more to look forward to, March 1st 2013. Yes it's my big day but it's also the day where we fashion students are headed to Paris for the weekend! It's still quite awhile away but heck, I'm listing that down on my calendar just for a little surprise whenever I flip my iCal a few months ahead. Then after march, it's just a couple more weeks and it's Easter! After Easter, a couple more weeks and it's the end of the first year and soon enough in June, my summer holiday starts. I suppose listing it all out now, it really isn't that bad especially since I'm getting into the spirit of things now. 

I suppose I'll live. But as of right now, I've got to get changed and start getting ready because I need to leave 10 minutes earlier today for production classes and that hill, is one hell of a hike.