the nicest thing

The basics: 4-5 months in London – 5 weeks of courses, followed by an 8-week internship in conjunction with one class. The program allows for plenty of time for London exploration and outside travel, hence the utilization of a blog to help me sort everything out.

So, here goes. I toyed around a bit, trying to choose some focus or theme so as not to bore you with “HIMYNAMEISJINAANDTHISISWHATIDIDTODAY!” type of drawl, but this appears to be rather difficult. While it would be nice to streamline my posts in food and fashion, my wimpy point-and-shoot camera is incapable of capturing any sort of aesthetic detail I would find necessary to specialize in either category. It would also be nice to not be the creepy girl who asks to take photographs of strangers on the street, or who photographs each and every meal.

As such, this blog will have to remain in the vast nebulous of a “travel” blog, where I essentially feel entitled to write on most anything.

Special thanks to (because clearly I've won some sort of award that requires acknowledgements): every member of my most wonderful family – adults who play beer pong frighteningly well, who seemed to be throwing money at me prior to my departure, cousins and brothers who wished me all the best – and particularly my parents, who were more supportive than I could have ever imagined. Paige, who had the most unfortunate luck of being my roommate and thus had to listen to me gripe about all my anxiety and nerves as I made arrangements. Joy, who gave me invaluable travel tips and goodies, making me feel infinitely more confident in coming and being able to navigate sufficiently. Then, of course, thanks to all other friends who shared my excitement  – you know who you are and I adore you all.

The title of the blog is inspired by “Nicest Thing” by Kate Nash. The song itself is rather depressing, but I love it nonetheless. Link below.

Oh, and, do feel free to check out the sidebar links – it’s a small compilation of my favorite fashion / food blogs – you’ll see why I’m entirely unequipped to follow suit.

I’ll close with a sickeningly pretentious quote (on my end) from my favoritest anthropologist Emile Durkheim (from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life):

"Man is double. There are two beings in him: an individual being which has its foundation in the organism and the circle of whose activities is therefore strictly limited, and a social being which represents the highest reality in the intellectual and moral order that we can know by observation--I mean society. In so far as he belongs to society, the individual transcends himself, both when he thinks and when he acts."