EAST COAST BOUND

This post is extremely late due to my horrible procrastination and the fact that I just graduated so there was lots to do before school was over. I recently went to the east coast for an extremely educational trip with students from my school. The flight to D.C. was six restless hours long. I was sat in the middle seat and was expected to sleep through the flight. Of course, I was wide awake just about the whole time, leaning over my friend Dean to take "artsy" photos of the sky from the window. I will be posting photos on my Instagram from time to time on @a.shirgul. Once we landed, we were on the go. From museum to museum, we tiredly shuffled through every room, asking when we'll be getting to the hotel to sleep every once in a while. 

We visited just about every memorial, museum, cemetery and college around. My absolute favourite memorial had to be the Lincoln Memorial. Sadly, we were a bit rushed when we were there because of some sort of commotion causing police to arrive at the scene. Going to the Soldier's Home National Cemetery was the most depressing scene. At the time that we were there it was gloomy, windy and the rain was pouring hard, making the moment even more depressing. The amount of unknown soldiers that were buried there is heartbreaking. Georgetown University was beautiful. We had the opportunity to tour parts of the school and being my nerdy self, the library was my favourite place in the whole school. It was massive, with such a variety of different books.

As much as I would like to go on and on about my trip, that would bore everyone to death so I'm going to end these drawled out paragraphs. Enjoy the photos below! (the photos aren't in chronological order).

ari xx. 

COASTAL CITY

I have an extremely large family and a countless number of very close family friends. One couple being my dad's very close friends, Megan and Josh who became close to my mother and I as well. Josh proposed to Megan a couple months back, after being together for years, and of course, she said yes. My dad was later asked by the happy couple to be the best man of their wedding, to which my dad very excitedly agreed to. The wedding was gorgeous and set in one of my favourite places in California this weekend, a small coastal city called Half Moon Bay, about 45 minutes away from San Francisco. I am quite the crier, especially at weddings, and this one just happened to make me shed a tear or two (i think it was the beautiful vows), but I kept myself together and held back the waterfall. I took a couple photos on the drive there and at the wedding itself. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! Congratulations Megosh!

ari xx. 

WANNABE HIPSTER LIFE

I have an extremely odd admiration for hidden places in big cities.  I love exploring and finding new cafes, libraries, bookstores or little towns to chill in.  I find comfort in a quite, isolated surrounding.  I absolutely love Berkeley and Little Italy in North Beach, San Francisco because of the friendly people who I can only describe as hipsters.  Being in areas like these not only make me feel happy because of the people, but because I can vision myself as a college student, studying at U.C. Berkeley, having my own adorable, run-down apartment, and working at one of the many shops and cafes I love so much.  It is definitely important for me to enjoy my time as a teenager, without worries that I will have to stress about independently... without my mum, but thinking about my future, which I hope will be absolutely amazing, makes me excited for what's to come in my life.  I'm getting off topic, as per usual, but I took a little time to find photos of places I love to be, and people I love to be with, I hope you think they are as adorable and wicked as they look. (some photos are Nicole's shh).

ari xx.

NY + CA

About 17 weeks ago, a photo on the explorer page of Instagram caught my eye.  Naturally, I clicked on the owner of the photos username.  @anoulac.  A gossip girl fan.  A Topshop enthusiast.  Never, did I think that she and I would become such close friends.  It started off with a small comment, asking where she got her boots from, and ended up into a full on conversation of our interests and passions.  We ended up having a lot more in common than expected.  I still don't remember how we became so close in such a short period of time.

Anoula and I went from DMing each other on Instagram, to exchanging numbers and Facetiming.  We talk nearly everyday and can both agree that it feels as if we've known each other for such a long time.  We had talked about meeting for the longest time.  Around Christmas time, she mentioned that her mother had thought hard about buying tickets to come to San Francisco.  We were both ecstatic.

Sunday, February 15, 1:11pm, Anoula and I met, making complete fools of ourselves, hugging and screaming while strangers walked by staring in confusion.  We had the most amazing day with her family who I fell in love with right away.  I experienced my first San Francisco bus ride with her, which was not pleasant in any way, but we still had fun.

Meeting Anoula has been one of the most fun, enjoyable things I have ever done.  I can't wait until we meet again when I go to New York!  These are just a couple photos from our adventures.  Enjoy!

ari xx.