Friday, December 31, 2010

Two Thousand and Eleven

So this is the last post for the year, I suppose! I'm surprised I've even been able to blog somewhat consistently for more than a month. Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve and an awesome 2011. My family and I are something of social hermits (we blame 4 years of social solitude in Germany), so no parties for us - just celebrating at home together, :) But regardless of whether you're going to a party or hanging out with family, make sure you have fun!
2010 for me has been relatively quiet and uneventful (not that that's a bad thing, better than having a shit year, right?). Some noteworthy things include:
  • Getting my Driver's License (finally),
  • Making a few new friends,
  • Surviving the enormous snow storm in early 2010,
  • Lots of new music/expansion of personal taste regarding music,
  • Making it through the most painfully difficult Fall/Winter Semester at Uni,
  • Deciding on a Major/Minor for Uni
  • Slowly adapting more and more to life in America
  • Becoming more and more determined to live in Europe (specifically, Germany)
Obviously, not much happened this year. I do earnestly hope that I do more come 2011. I don't make New Years Resolutions because I am notoriously bad at keeping them - by the first week of January, I'll have forgotten most of them. Plus, none of them are particularly long-term (ie: clean your room, donate clothes you don't want, etc...). But yes, I'm hoping that 2011 will be the year that I actually do a lot of things (STUDY ABROAD, FOR EXAMPLE?! OR ADOPTING A GREYHOUND?).
I hope all your New Year's wishes come true!


Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Two Part Catherine-Is-A-Giant-Nerd-Who-Rambles Series

I made two videos for my tumblr, but I decided to stick them on my blog as well! Please enjoy the awkward talking-with-hands and nervous spinning I do.



Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas!


I hope everyone's had a lovely Christmas! I had a rather lazy, although very enjoyable one, :) I got a couple of neat things from my family (including the dress I'm wearing above, from my sister), as well as a new point-and-shoot camera! I broke my other point-and-shoot two years ago while I was in Venice (R.I.P. shitty old camera), and have been bumming off my mom's or my sister's since then. I have a Nikon D60 which I love, but sometimes it's too huge/too precious to just take out for hanging out with your friends and such, you know? Anyways, my sister got an iPod Touch (meaning I can finally steal her old iPod Classic!), and is obsessed with it. The photo above is taken from some vintage cameras app she got.

But of course, Christmas is about so much more than just getting and receiving gifts. Personally, I'm Christian, so there's a spiritual/belief meaning to the holiday, as well as being thankful for friends and family and spending lots of wonderful time with them! Speaking of spending quality family time, I had the most wonderful Christmas dinner - my mom made this delicious Arabic dish called Mansaf and it's definitely one of my favorites. I haven't had it in forever, so I definitely ate my fill last night, :)

Once again, Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

First Snow of the Season







I'm nearly done with my schoolwork, hooray! The school semester was technically supposed to have ended on Wednesday, but my Political Science class has some extended due dates which are running into my Christmas break, :| But that's okay, all I have left is a 5-10 page paper due by Monday, so it won't be too bad! My grades for the semester were decent, two A's two B's and we're still waiting on Political Science. I'm going to try to do much better next semester, hopefully straight A's!
Okay, enough school-talk, Christmas is nearly here! I'm not really feeling the Christmas spirit this year, sadly enough. Mostly because I've been buried under monstrous amounts of schoolwork and don't go out too much. Also, I'm a supreme Procrasti-Santa (totally stole that term from a JCPenney commercial I saw yesterday, but whatevs), so I've still got
all my Christmas shopping to do. Yikes, I'm going to be fighting some crazy mom's in the department stores. After Christmas, I've got a short online class I'm taking to complete some major requirements.
My plans for break include: CHRISTMAS! :D, being a bum, attempting to make lots of cool foreign foods (my top priorities are bento, kim-bap, and macarons), watching lots of movies (Narnia, Black Swan, Tron, Season of the Witch, etc...), and hanging out/catching up with friends!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Countdown: 11 days till Christmas

Wish List

Wish List by MemoryofAmnesia featuring gold chain jewelry


So rather than work on studying for finals (one more exam, one research paper, and one presentation to go!), I decided to make a Christmas wish list. Most of the items on the list are purely wishful thinking, but still, :)

  1. More stripes! I love stripes, usually the really thin ones that make you think of the stereotypical Frenchman with a beret, funny mustache, and cigarette.
  2. MAC Lipstick in Russian Red, I've never splurged on makeup before - probably because I rarely wear any (I'm thoroughly inept). But I'm pretty good with lipstick (mostly because it's pretty hard to fuck lipstick up), and I've been wanting a nice, matte red color for a while.
  3. Wedges, like the Jeffrey Campbell ones above. I initially didn't like these sorts of ankle-boot-wedges-things, but the more I see them, the more I like them. I was browsing through Urban Outfitters online store a while ago (and not buying anything because they are crazy expensive), and saw some similar Jeffrey Campbell wedges (with laces instead of zippers). They were to die for. But $150 for a pair of shoes is rough to come by.
  4. Fjällräven-Kånken backpack, damn those Swedes are onto something. I mean, they've given us IKEA, H&M, Fjällräven-Kånken backpacks, what's next?! Note to self: Move to Sweden.
  5. Clothes with embroidered shoulders, self-explanatory. It's pretty and I like it.
  6. A new cross-body bag, because mine hates me and the zipper decided to destroy itself, :(
  7. High-Top Converse, I initially hated these as well, but after I've seen some cute ways to wear them (like with dresses/skirts, or tights!), I've decided I like them.
  8. Obnoxiously large jewelry, namely rings, I'm not too big on jewelry, but I love large rings! Especially silver ones with large black stones.
  9. Cute, girly clothes, like the dress above.
  10. Anything with bows, I fucking love bows.
  11. More skirts of any kind! because you can never have too many. I especially love high waist, ones, but because I'm ridiculously short (5'3" and not growing!), I can't wear any that go past my knees or I look weirdly proportioned/stubby.
  12. Cool graphic tees/tanks, I've been wearing less and less graphic clothing lately. Mostly because all the designs on my old clothes are not representative of what I like anymore. So it's time to revamp the wardrobe!
  13. A wallet, because mine is too small and I need more slots for cards, :P
  14. Esos lip-balm, I am attracted to the weird shape. Plus everyone seems to like it! (But then again, I've got to watch myself about that, I bought Revlon's Photo-Ready foundation because it had great reviews and hated it. Also, I don't even use foundation, so I don't know what the hell I was thinking).

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

chanel, pre-fall 2011




As I was avoiding studying for my Macroeconomics exam, I ran across these photos of some of the most drool-worthy dresses, ever. I've always had a soft spot for clothing that play up ancient Greco-Roman-Mediterranean influences, so I nearly died when I saw these. They are so perfect and wonderful and aldskfnasd;flk. I won't pretend I know very much about fashion - while I think it's a thoroughly interesting industry, and do try to follow it, I'm most definitely not the expert. Regardless, though, these dresses are stunning.

Thank you for these masterpieces, Karl Lagerfeld. Thank you.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Ich freue mich an 15. Dezember

December 15th, December 15th, December 15th has been my latest mantra. Uni is beginning to get unbearable, and finals begin next week. But once December 15th hits, I'll be home free! While I was in Detroit over Thanksgiving, I found some awesome combat boots and my aunts bought them for me as a gift. I've been wearing them ever since!