Life Lately 007

L-R, Top- Bottom- 1. Tempestade. Storm in Portuguese, one of our cats. 2. Sunny day out. 3. Beautiful architecture on Gran Vía. 4. Albacín by night. 5. View from uni in the evening. 6. Entrance wall to Calle Elvira. 7. Plaza Triunfo. 8. Ice cream at La Cala, best coffee ever. 9. Our new adoptee.

Apologies all around for not having updated in so long. I thought I would share some of my Instagram snaps to show you what I've been up to. I've actually started uni lessons now and, a whole month later, am finally enrolled. Spanish administration is not the fastest or most efficient.However, I don't have classes on a Friday and therefore have a 3 day weekend, so I can't complain. We've also acquired a new cat, the little white kitten in the bottom corner, which was found abandoned, so we now have three. How anyone could abandon such a cutie is beyond me.

I have to admit I'm in a bit of a rut with blogging simply because I haven't been buying that much. I'm waiting on some ERASMUS grant money at the moment, which, with any luck, I should have by next week. And then maybe I'll celebrate by going shopping of course... I can't really post much about winter trends either because it's still boiling hot here- a high twenty on a sunny day and I'm beginning to get impatient for the day I can wrap myself up in my coat and scarf. However, my boyfriend is coming out in a few weeks time so I will get a chance to be a real tourist and my parents are sending me out some stuff including my tripod so keep an eye out. Otherwise, apologies for a slow slow month.

Besos

x

What I Bought: Spain Shopping

Shana White Jmper. Quilted grey skirt- a dead ringer for this ASOS skirt

Grey H&M Jumper Dress. Zara Tartan Skirt

Zara Tartan Trousers. Zara Playsuit. Blanco clutch. Blanco sandals.

One of the upsides to having to massively downsize your wardrobe during a move is that when you finally arrive, you get to go shopping. And, of course, once I had unpacked and wondered how so little ended up weighing so much, I headed into town. My favourite purchase so far has been the Zara scarf. I've been wanting a tartan scarf for ages and this is so big and so soft, it's perfect to be matched with my leather jacket. It's still very hot here in Spain but today it rained so it was the first real hint of autum I've seen so far so it's made me excited for jumpers and scarves. I'd also have to say the white Blanco sandals have been a life saver. My old Topshop shoes are well overdue a date with the bin and these sandals just did the job. Although they were cheap, I've been doing so much walking over the past two weeks or so, I've already worn a hole into one of the soles.

In other news, I had my first classes in the University of Granada. As ERASMUS, we had the week to try out a few classes and then decided what we want to do before we enrol much later on- Spanish bureaucracy is not the best organised. Everything takes about a month to get done. But, regardless, I've settled on beginners Arabic, Ancient Greek History and the history of women in contemporary arab society. Bit of a mix but they all looked v interesting. Combine that with the Spanish penchant for partying until sunrise and you'll understand why I'm writing this completely vegged out in bed. But that's just weekends are for!

Hope you're all well

xx  

Bienvenidos a Granada- First Look

Bienvenidos a Granada! Welcome to Spain, or rather, my new home for the next 9 months or so. I arrived a week ago tomorrow, on the Wednesday and promptly went straight to bed, knackered after an early flight followed by a long bus journey. I now have somewhere to live in a lovely apartment block full of other ERASMUS students and I even have two kittens in my flat! Jackpot aha! I'm still getting used to the pace of Spanish life which is generally quite slow... and the fact that a lot of things close for the siesta around 2 and absolutely nothing is open on a Sunday. We've mainly spent most of the days just walking around. Everything in Granada is within walking distance, and when it's nice sunny weather, you really don't mind. Because I've been here before and because I'm here for the whole year, I'm not in a massive rush to go round all the typical tourist haunts such as the Alhambra and the Cathedral

So these are really just a few snaps that I've taken recently and I'm sure there will be more coming. I hope you don't mind. I'm also working on a small haul because I have, naturally, been shopping as my wardrobe has been seriously diminished despite my suitcase eventually being a few kg overweight... My semester starts next week so until then, I'll be making the most of this gorgeous city!

Besos

x

A Rather Big Update

Good  big news everyone! Excuse my Professor Farnsworth but he was the first thing that came to my mind but for this big update, totally appropriate.

For those of you who might not know, I study Spanish at university and I'm about to go into my third academic year, which is an obligatory year abroad. So yep, you've guessed it. I'm moving. To Granada in southern Spain to be precise. I chose Granada because I actually visited the city when I spent some of my gap year in Seville two years ago and absolutely loved it there. I'm doing the ERASMUS exchange which means I still attend university, except the one in Granada, while also working on a mini dissertation type project for my home university. I'm very nervous/excited/lucky to have the opportunity to study abroad.
The first couple of weeks are guaranteed to be very hectic and all of my photography stuff can't come out with me until my parents ship some more stuff over to me later on in the year. Seriously, I have a 23kg allowance and a lot of shoes.... Challenge accepted.
I guess what I'm trying to say is please bear with me while I get settled in. I will probably shift to lifestyle/travel post for a while until my tripod gets to me later on and OOTD's can happen again. I'm not sure about beauty because I'm aware that most of my readers are from the UK and Spanish products might not be of interest? Let me know and I'll share hauls with you too :)

Don't forget you can keep track of me on Twitter and Instagram

which will be updated more regularly

Thanks guys and much love <3

Outfit Of The Day- White Out

Blazer- Topshop

Vest- H&M

Shorts- Zara

As promised, this is wore on our day out in Brighton a few days ago. The Topshop blazer is a new love of mine. I bought it because I absolutely fell in love with it and then argued that it would be perfect for Spain....*cough* It really is gorgeous though and the clean simple and tailored fit to it really suits my figure. And seeing as it was a nice warm sunny day, I ended up wearing all white, quite the contrast to my previous OOTD of all black. It was nice to get the pins out for one last day of sunshine at any rate. I'm sitting here writing this listening to the rain absolutely pour down and I have to go out soon...

These pictures were taken in the beautiful Pavillion gardens so if you're ever down Brighton way, they're definitely worth a stroll round or perfect for a picnic lunch.

xx