I’m a contributing writer to a digital magazine and while writing my article I went through old photos from a trip to Phu Quoc, Vietnam for inspiration. It’s been almost 6 years and the first things that come to mind is this lady we met at a market and eating so much seafood I shuddered for months to come at the sight of a shrimp. The island was beautiful and in many ways existed in a vacuum free of major tourism companies and I do wonder if the Phu Quoc I experienced back than is the same today.

Phew!

First half of the semester done! It's been a a rough first couple of months but I'm so happy and pleased with the work I've accomplished! The campaign I've worked on the past two months was chosen best campaign by the creative director of Navii! The feeling when all your hard work pays off is incomparable!

So to explain the title of the post: I went to London! Somehow, drowning in work and endless days of work, I managed to book a plane ticket (frequent flier miles <3), hotel and plan a short itinerary. I went by myself so that leaved some wiggle room in terms of what to see, eat and do! And travelling alone, not as bad as people make it out to seem!

London very London-y; overcast, windy and a bit wet but so, so beautiful! The only word I can think of is quaint! Everything was quaint! Quaint! I only had one full day but I checked everything off my to-do list: Big Ben, London Eye, Covent Garden, China Town (b-o-b-a) and lots of exploring!

So so beautiful! Usually when I travel somewhere I usually look forward to two things: food and friends. When I visited Vancouver it was neither of them (sorry,Van). I'd heard a lot about how beautiful Vancouver is and everything people had told me was true. I wandered around the city a lot, ate a lot, and stumbled upon a very questionable choice of font for the Chinatown name on a map.

What I love the most about New York is how different the look and feel of the city can be depending on where you are. I am so fortunate to have friends and family who are able to show me the city beyond the touristy spots. My last day in the city before flying out to Vancouver I spent the entire day out in the city taking it all in for the last time (with some shopping here and there of course). I felt a little proud of myself for finding places tucked away in neighborhoods where people who actually lived in the city outnumbered tourists.

And once again I found myself in New York. My family flew over from Sweden to spend Christmas and New Years in the city, and my cousin visited for the first time so I took the role of a tour guide and showed him around. After numerous trips to the US and living 5 months in California I thought I'd seen everything but then we stumbled upon Economy Candy in LES where they had candy stacked up to the ceiling. This country is truly amazing.

Sometimes plans change last minute. What do you do when that happens? You buy a plane ticket to the Bay area, which is what I did! My plans for Thanksgiving weekend were cancelled and I suddenly had a whole week to my disposal over Thanksgiving (one of the many perks when studying at CSUF). Even though I had the entire week off I did bring school assignments with me. It didn't feel like "work" though. It's different doing the things you normally do day in and day out in a completely new environment. I guess refreshing is the word I'm looking for here. Besides studying I ate a lot, spent 5 days in San Francisco, spent 5 days in San Francisco eating a lot, visited museums and tried to take good photos of the butterflies at the California Academy of Science.