In France, I bought a bunch of beauty products. In London, I found a t-shirt mecca at Camden Market. Originally a craft market, the Camden Lock Market is now a thriving shopping area and hundreds of retailers sell clothes and souvenirs. You can find pretty much anything, from your basic “I love London” t-shirt to trendier vintage clothes. I fell in love with the Funky Chameleon brand and bought a few embroidered tank tops.

I felt like one of those people who are offered drugs at a party, got hooked and ended up selling their car for a few grams of crack or whatever is trendy these days. The girl at the counter had me hooked on the best cream ever by giving me a free sample. I decided to do the sensible thing: I just said no. I’m not spending that much on a cream, this is ridiculous, no matter how good it is.

It’s not that I didn’t try to keep in touch with French culture. At first, my mind stretched itself to join the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean – it was exhausting. I listened to French talk shows but I grew frustrated because they seemed to have little relevance to my current life. I tried to translate jokes but failed miserably. I threw the odd cultural reference in that no one here got.

Almost four years of blogging later, today I’m publishing my 500th post.
It all started in October 2006. At the time, I had been a permanent resident in Canada for exactly a year (and I had been in Canada for already two years) but I was still getting comfortable with my new country. I had no idea what I would do with a blog nor did I have any idea how all that (all that being me in Canada, working as a teacher) was going to turn out.

I’m 27 years old today. Not a single white hair… yet.
My plans? None, really. Keep on taking pictures, enjoying the world, traveling, creating… you know, the usual.