I turned in my final essays on Monday. Now, all that's left is dissertation. How did that happen? The past few weeks my essays have been constantly on my mind and the fact that I no longer have to worry about them is such a weight off my shoulders. Today, as a reward to myself, I went to the Alternative Fashion Show at Spitalfield's market. The AFS is for up and coming designers from, not just England, but other parts of Europe as well. It's free and open to the public and it was just so much fun to watch. The designs were very interesting. I took some pictures but they didn't turn out so great. Below is the only one that was sort of ok. After I got back from Spitalfield's I ate lunch in my room and relaxed until it was time for my evening event.

The Southbank Centre, last week and this week, has been playing host to the Alchemy Festival. There are lectures and performances everyday and during the weekend, instead of the regular Southbank market, there is stall after stall of delicious South Asian food. Tonight I went to hear Shazia Mirza, Ziauddin Sardar and Kamila Shamsie (!!!) discuss the floods that ravaged Pakistan in 2010 and where Pakistan is now. I mainly went to see Kamila Shamsie because her novel, Kartography, is one of my favorite books of all time but overall it was also a really interesting panel. All the speakers were extremely eloquent and engaging so luckily I wasn't bored for a minute. Afterwards I went up to Kamila to say hi and I told her how much I love her work. So happy I have met another one of my favorite authors!!!



In case you're wondering, the mass of color coming out of the center model's chest are hands, and the mass of color below that is made up of feet.