europe through my iphone

1.) the streets of rome 2.) pantheon 3.) just chilling at the trevi fountain 4.) pasta in italy. so typical 5.) all new outfit 6.) sistine chapel (illegal photo oops?) 7.) saint peters basilica 8.) my true love 9.) view from my hotel in florence 

10.) the david (some more illegal photo taking..) 11.) the duomo * 12.) the alps maybe? view out the window from venice to amsterdam 13.) another view out the plane 14.) KLM rocks, way better then the peanuts they throw at you in the United States (yeah europe!) 15.) view out the hotel room in paris 16.) eiffel tower (just in case you couldn't tell) 17.) le bon marché 18.) macaron from ladurée, everyone needs to have one of these before they die

I always feel like I was meant for Europe. Everything there is just so... old. Not to mention everyone dresses amazing, including the guys (no athletic clothes unless, catch this, people are actually working out!!). I love it.  

This trip was definitely interesting. It was a mix of good and bad. The first 24 hours were pure awful however. Bad enough that I wanted to turn right back home and crawl into my bed and forget about the trip altogether. 

First 24 hours (home ✈ rome):

(XXX**✈JFK): There was a snowstorm where I live, we got the the airport a few hours early and were there for a few more than we expected, our plane was delayed, and then delayed and then delayed again. It was iffy if we were going to make our flight out of JFK or not but that was confirmed when we got into New York at exactly the same time our plane was scheduled to leave. We asked the people where to go to get catch our next flight which was now to Amsterdam. They told us we had to run, at this point I wasn't feeling very well and when you have to run through a huge airport under stressful conditions when you cannot run and have bad anxiety at 10:00 pm, the odds are certainly not in your favor, and they most certainly were not in mine. I was in tears at this point I wanted to go home, I felt like I was going to throw up or pass out or both.

(JFK ✈AMS): We ended up making our flight to Amsterdam, barely as we were the last people on our plane and they shut the door directly behind us. Our seats were not anywhere near each other and they were all middle seats. Luckily there were nice people who were willing to switch so my mom and I could be together and my dad and sister could too. The flight while we were in the air was pretty uneventful, besides a screaming baby and a woman whose snoring was so loud I thought the plane was breaking. When we landed however the person across the aisle from me was sick, she wasn't waking up and and she was really out of it and then she started throwing up, I literally climbed past a row of seats and pushed past a few people because I needed to get out of there, I just can't handle that stuff.

(AMS✈FCO):Amsterdam has a very nice airport, like better than any airport in the states that I've been to. Our plane ride to Rome was uneventful and generally good (cookies in economy class? another win for europe). We got to rome and waited for an hour staring at the suitcases circle through the conveyor belt again and again, other peoples suitcases, not ours. After an hour and when we were the last people in the entire baggage claim, my dad went to the service desk and asked them where our suitcases were. Well, they didn't know. Like not at all. They thought mine was in Amsterdam (spoiler alert: it wasn't). Apparently they were in New York still and so they were sent to Rome on the flight the next day. They had to wait in processing in Rome for another day so we didn't end up getting our suitcases until Christmas Eve two days later (best Christmas gift EVER) 

So that was my interesting first 24 hours of my trip accompanied with some instagrams (from my personal account). Moral of the story: DON'T FLY DELTA. the end.

Have any of you guys ever had horrible travel experiences? Tell me in the comments!

*I went to venice in between here but there was not any wifi so I didn't instagram
**for privacy

the first day outfit.

it's always the toughest outfit to plan.

the outfit that is most likely the most important outfit of the year. 

so naturally, 

i bought it approximately 18 hours before school started

i'm a slacker, guys, i'm a slacker.

but in a sea of darkness (aka bodycon skirts) i found this skirt 

ah yes i do love this skirt and it was decently priced as well 

win for claire! 

(except i'm broke..)

xxx

claire

the first day..

*insert horror music*

jk

so my first day was pretty uneventful but I am absolutely exhausted

like I want to sleep so bad zzzzzzzzzzzz

 okay now onto my first day..

chinese was scary because, well, it's chinese and different 

but it will be interesting and hopefully fun 

art history seemed fine i really like the teacher

but the class is all seniors except for two D:

my good friend is in it though yay

photo was amazing 

there's only six people in my class and there's six enlargers and macs so that's perfeccccttt

and the teacher seems really nice so that's good

i really like my english teacher but i don't like my class sooo

we'll see  how that goes 

my math class has seven people 

which is slightly awful since that means a lot of participation time for someone who sucks at math..

and my teacher is the most awkward man in the history of the world

and french, oh french french french 

i have such a love hate relationship with this class..

and i haven't had physics yet so we'll see how that goes..

yeah so just incase you wanted to know about my school life, here ya go! 

artsy just got artsy-er

* i made the pictures tiny because theres just so many *

I made these a while back, I can't believe I forgot to share them with you all! I made my super cool fisheyes even cooler by writing on them and I quite like the way they turned out!

Yeah, I was watching the olympics just now and I was just sitting there thinking, hey at least i run (a blog)

ha ha ha 

I'm too funny..

p.s. sorry for the photo overload..

xxx

claire

photos + thoughts

just some photos that i've taken recently with my smokin hot camera <3

Things have been weird lately. And that might be why I haven't been blogging as much as I used to. I've lost all interest in everything I do. Things I used to like are now a chore. All I want to do is lay in my bed and go on my computer. I spend most of my days on tumblr just lying here listening to lana del rey. I've been like this for a few months now, I thought it would go away but my lack of motivation and interest has been never ending lately. I never ask my friends to hang out anymore, I only hang out with them if they ask first. My relationship with God is going downhill, I used to pray every night and now I maybe pray once a week. I used to care about school, now I can't even be bothered. I'm stressed beyond belief. You wouldn't imagine. Like I find church stressful sometimes. Everything stresses me out, anxiety is taking over my life. Everything is bottled inside but on the outside I'm showing nothing. I'm drifting, drifting far away. And I hate it so incredibly much, but there's nothing I can do about it besides watch myself drift.

wow this is the most personal i've ever gotten in a blog post. and to be honest i hesitated a little before i clicked publish, because people I know read this blog and that scares me and I really don't like it. But I promised myself I'd be more honest on here so this is it. The true me is not as glamorous as it seems, sorry guys.

xxx

claire

7th july.

July 7th 2011. 

It is not often that I remember exactly what I was doing exactly a year ago. But this year today I do. 

It was a year ago today that I left for Australia. July 7th 2011 was the scariest and most exciting day of my life so far. 

I can't find the words to say anything about Australia and my experience. It was a beautiful place with beautiful people. In my one month there I fell in love with it. I miss it so much it hurts. Going to Australia changed me so much.

It was the shortest and best month of my life. It went by so fast, it doesn't even feel like it happened, but i'm glad it did.

I was expecting for this to be a longer post, but i guess the only way for you to understand is to go to Sydney for a month yourself and see what happens. 

If ANY of you are ever considering doing an exchange program anywhere DO IT. It will change you. If you need convincing email me and I will tell you why you should.

xxx

claire

pretty floral shoes.

this outfit basically = procrastination from doing history 

the shoes were bought to procrastinate from studying. the shorts as well. and the bracelets i made when i probably should have been doing homework. (i got all of it done, don't worry)

anyways, history is insane and i hardly have time to do much else (erm, except for tumblr..) buuuut it finishes next friday and so then i will have all of my time to be on blogger and tumblr and twitter oh my! 

oh, and would you guys like it if i did a diy post on how to do those bracelets? tell me if you would in the comments!

xxx

claire