Hair New Era

4. Stephen Fry. We were having this discussion in one of the first weeks of term 1: Who in their right mind wouldn’t want him to be their dad, or at least uncle?
5. David Mitchell.

6. And while we’re at it: British comedy in general. Or even the whole British way of life: the less you know someone, the politer you are – and the other way around. So you’re extremely courteous to people on the bus, but once you get to the pub with your best mates, you start ripping the absolute piss out of them. There is a certain ‘cool to be cruel’ aspect to the humour, but it doesn’t worry me because, let’s face it, it is kind of cool to be able to do it in an eloquent and hilarious way. And the best defence is obviously a good comeback.
7. Jonathan Groff

8. Here’s a bit of an exception though: Glee. My friends are divided: there are the ones who love it and those who don’t watch it. And I don’t fall into either category. I watch it, but every episode makes me hate it more. It started off biting and funny, but now it’s just a ridiculously unrealistic show stocked full of ‘very important life lessons’.

I can’t wait to get back! To course mates who are all crazy, arty and extremely talented. It’s actually quite intimidating. Not only can they write so much better than me, they can also draw, act, sing, dance and do pretty much any creative activity possible. A true wake up call, I’ll tell you that.

And the tutors who are funny and weird and brilliant. Who have Wikipedia pages and who end emails to us with text kisses.

And the course itself! I don’t think there are many where you’re able to end an essay with a sentence like ‘Because otherwise, I’m fucked.’ and get a good mark for it. (I should add that it wasn’t the most academic essay we had to write that year. It was an end of the year super essay about our own writing and how it has changed since last October.)

Well, not long to go now. Back to good old England on the 21st.

Finally, here's my attempt at a bit of a summary of my first year at Warwick University, UK.

I’ve met all kinds of people from hyperhipsters to cheery goths, from transsexual to asexual to pansexual to cured gay (read: drowned himself in hardcore Christianity. And let me tell you what a normal person he turned out to be. Here are some of his beliefs: girls are not allowed to wear trousers or have short hair. Decorating yourself in any way (make-up, hair dye, nail varnish etc) is wrong, as is creating or indeed consuming anything fictional. So I’m going so deep in hell it isn’t even funny (it is a bit). Oh, and the world is definitely going to end in our lifetime).

I thought I’d do a list of things I like about my life there, or rather, a list of things that, surprisingly, are also liked by other people I’ve met this year. Quite honestly, I didn't really expect to meet other people interested in them.

1. I suppose it goes without saying, but brightly coloured hair. I’d wanted pink hair for years, but I doubt I’d have ever got round to dyeing mine if I hadn’t gone to a place where it is completely acceptable, even encouraged. In fact, on my course alone (I say alone, but really, our course has the craziest people. What else would you expect from creative writing students?) we’ve already had pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange and bright red hair. And I’m proud to say I was one of the first ones to take the leap.
2. The Midnight Beast

3. Harry Potter

In Estonia when you’re old enough to drink (at least old enough in your mind), it generally means you’re too old to be a Harry Potter fan. I've seen it happen to nearly all my friends. Sure, you’ll probably go see the films, but you’re too cool to get excited about them. That might actually be the best adjective to describe us as a nation: we’re cool. And we don’t generally lose our cool. Yeah, me might hear a great joke, see a famous person or win the lottery, but we’re not going to lose control over our emotions just because of that.

But in the UK, not only is Harry Potter cool (in a slightly different sense of the word), but it’s just so incredibly widespread. Of course everyone’s read and seen them, and they’re among the most common pop culture references. Picture from weheartit.com

We’ve had a drinking game around the names of Harry Potter characters and divided UK’s top universities into Hogwarts houses (Oxford – Gryffindor, Cambridge – Ravenclaw, St Andrew’s – Slytherin and finally Warwick – Hufflepuff. At least we’re being realistic). Every young person fancies Emma Watson (who’s doing a ‘year abroad’ at Oxford now by the way (proving our sorting skills)). Although, Matt Lewis might be taking her place now... (I still can’t believe how fit he suddenly is!)

But funnily enough, the only people to compare my ever-changing neon hair colour to the character Tonks were my brother and his flatmate. (And by the way, yes, that would be my power of choice: the ability to change my appearance to whatever I wanted. I’d be saving a fortune on hair dye alone!)

[to be continued]

This awesome video by the brilliant Jenna Mourey has inspired me to compile an incomplete list of my own. (And I hope it'll inspire someone else to actually create PeopleIWouldFuckBook.com)

Here goes, these are the ones that came to mind today:



Iwan Rheon

Darren Criss

Matt Lewis

Daniel Radcliffe

Emma Watson

Tom Felton

Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan

The History Boys

Nicholas Hoult

Kaya Scodelario

James the Sinnerman



The Inbetweeners

And Patrice, bien sûr

Stefan and Ash from The Midnight Beast

Russell Howard

Noel Fielding and Russell Brand

Snufkin

Jeremy from Peep Show



Audrey Kitching

Severus Snape

Ricky Gervais when he was in his twenties

Kathy Beth Terry

Roger the Alien

The Superficial Writer



The Botwins from Weeds

And Zooey Deschanel

Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass

Groundskeeper Willie

Chandler Bing

Ahh, that was quite fun actually. And possibly therapeutic. I do recommend it.



Pictures from weheartit.com

Picture from weheartit.com

Coco Rocha by Craig McDean for Vogue US (May 2008)
Picture from fashiongonerogue.com

I got the idea to write a list of things about me from Haus of Lili. But right now I only managed to come up with 21. Here they are:

1. I’m 21 years old.
2. I was born in Tallinn, Estonia.
3. Growing up, I was always the shortest one so I’m still getting used to the fact that I’m actually average height now (168cm/5'6'' is average! Loads of people are shorter than me. Really).
4. I like how my name is pronounced differently depending on the language spoken. My favourite is the way the French say ‘Hélène’.
5. According to my parents, the first thing I wanted to be when I grew up was “the one who makes adverts”. I don’t remember that myself. But I do remember wanting to be a nursery school teacher, a singer, an actor, a flight attendant, a tram driver, an artist, a florist, a fashion designer, a writer, a translator, a photographer, a jewellery designer etc. Right now I’m back to writer. And pretty certain about it.
6. I’m a bit of a control freak. E.g. I need to be the one who holds the remote.
7. In the end of May I’m moving out of the flat in Tartu that I’ve been living in since autumn 2008 and moving back into my room at my parents’ house. Whoa, that sounds so sad. It’s not permanent! In fact, on June 6 I’ll go to France and will stay there for four weeks learning French and getting to know loads of (hopefully) interesting people from around the world. Last summer I did that (read: had the time of my life) in Nice, this year it’s Chambéry. Can’t wait! But then in July I’ll return and spend the next three months in Tallinn. In October (or probably already in the end of September) I’ll go to England to study at the University of Warwick. Throwing the last two years of uni away. Back to square one. Swapping Economics and Business Administration for English Literature and Creative Writing. Not the most practical choice, I’ll admit. But swapping a world top 600 university for a world top 60 university on the other hand is not so bad, eh? Neither is following your dream and passion.
8. I’m not afraid of spiders or snakes or insects or rodents or heights or tight spaces.
9. But I’m afraid of embarrassing myself in public and of being judged. And clowns and mascots, a bit. But mostly I just hate them.
10. If plastic surgery was free, safe, painless, and you were guaranteed to get exactly what you want then I’d definitely give it a go. But as it’s not any of those things, I’m currently not interested.
11. I passed my driving test the first time.
12. I don’t watch scary movies. And I don’t get why anyone would want to be scared.
13. Confidence and certain arrogance turn me on.
14. Stupidity and ignorance turn me off.
15. I don’t like sports.
16. But I’m highly competitive, so I love a game of tennis (or almost any other ballgame) with my mates. Provided I win. Joking. Kind of.
17. I want to have a wedding. Not so sure about the marriage bit, to be honest. But a huge fancy wedding with the perfect flowers and food and music and the most beautiful white gown ever – yes, please!
18. I have a ton of pet peeves. It’s very easy to annoy me.
19. I don’t like pineapples, honey or olives.
20. My favourite number is 1. Why be anything less than number one?
21. I’m a sceptic. I believe in science. And myself. And that’s about it.

I haven’t written about myself in a while so I decided to give you an opportunity to (re-)acquaint yourselves with me. Here are some things about me that you probably didn’t know before. I need to have a plan of action at all times. And preferably a to-do list. That’s not to say that I don’t do anything spontaneous, but I never lose sight of the bigger picture. Example: I don’t yet know where tomorrow night takes me and that’s exciting, but I need to have a vision of where I am in a year. And in ten years. I look up everything I don’t know or fully understand on Wikipedia. Or Google image search. Or a dictionary. Usually Urban Dictionary. I love taking baths. With bath salts or bath milk or a bath tablet. But no bubbles, thanks. And when I’m in a jacuzzi and no one is around to see and judge, I turn the jets off. I think Extras is still one of the best things in the world. It’s just so clever and subtle and layered, a breath of fresh air in a world where most comedies seem to be aimed at people without a sense of humour or the ability to think. [Also, how ironic is it that in 2008 Kate Winslet finally won an Oscar. For a film about the Holocaust.]

My attitude towards sleeping is staying awake until my eyes start to seriously hurt and then sleeping as long as I possibly can. Unhealthy? Perhaps. But wasting my time lying in bed waiting for sleep is angering and the sound of the alarm clock is the worst possible thing to ever hear. No matter what the sound is. About five years ago I set mine to the theme of Sex and the City for a while and even now whenever I hear the music it sends chills down my spine and I have to fight the urge to TURN THE FUCKING THING OFF. I don’t drink coffee. Only the very rare latte or frappuchino. Often when I’m watching TV or a video on the computer I feel the overwhelming need to multitask. Even if it’s something as inane as playing Hearts. It’s like I’m becoming unable to focus on one thing at a time and it scares me a bit. I only drink fizzy drinks and eat crisps at parties and I feel the need to buy a bar of chocolate only when I’m really hungry and in a hurry, but I can’t resist a slice of cake. Or the following ones. Pictures from cityyandcolour.tumblr.com

Gretel Cream printed tights from bebaroque.co.uk For tan lines to look half as sexy in real life as Carolyn Murphy makes them seem in Tom Ford Eyewear Spring 2010 campaign. (Oh and by the way, I want to see more characters as fascinating as Tony Stonem on TV. I really miss him.) I can’t decide which one I want to do more with my mates right now: go out or stay in. Doesn’t matter really if the company’s right. I’d really want to be able to say that about myself. But I'm weak. This bag. Or a similar one. I just love the idea of it. I’m putting it on my list of DIY projects that need to be worked on at some point. Always. To take part in the Vogue Talent Contest for Young Writers. Well fine, what I want is to win it and get the prize money of £1,000 plus a month’s paid work experience at Vogue. But as it would marginally increase my chances to win, I should probably enter first. To have this ad blown up and put on my wall. I just really love it. Her life. Or wardrobe. Or just to be friends with her. This Burberry coat. And since I’m already shopping for friends, I’ll take Emma too. And why not her cute brother as well (on the left). This look. I especially like the belt. This look. It sounds really dangerous and hard to pull off without looking hideous, so I can’t wait to try it! Pretty much everything from the “Girls Allowed” editorial. Perhaps not worn all together though. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but clogs. They actually seem rather stylish to me now. As in “I kind of want them, no, I really want them, oh my God, I’ve got to have them!” It’s all Karl Lagerfeld’s fault.