Winter Uniform

Kaixo lovely readers!

I hope your first (or second? third?) week of classes went well! Mine was a whirlwind with teaching, classes and getting back on track, but I am happy to report that I have felt rejuvenated after Christmas and that I am very excited about the classes that I'm taking and the classes that I'm teaching. I am taking two translation courses (yay certification!) and a course with my advisor on L2 phonology, which is my thang. I'm teaching a course on the sounds of Spanish (23 students, 3 hours a week, scary but exciting! And they seem not to be confused!) and BASQUE! At first I thought I would have 4 students but it turns out I'll have 7! All the effort sending e-mails to promote it paid off!

Today I wanted to make a brief post of something that has happened to me that I had never noticed here before (maybe I wasn't paying attention, but it's strange because it's fashion related). A revelation. It happened today when I walked to the ARC, the kick-ass gym (one of two!) we have at UIUC. I stopped for a minute at the entrance to get my student card out of my wallet, when I looked up, and I saw all the girls in front of me (ALL OF THEM), wearing the same thing. A long black parka, an infinity scarf, winter boots, a head wrap and a Longchamp bag. OK did I miss the memo? At first I thought, is this a sorority girl thing? (Not trying to disrespect sorority women here by generalizing, believe me, if there were sororities in Spain I'd have joined one in a heartbeat and I would've been the president because #power) But when ALL girls are wearing that, that cannot be possible. UIUC has a large Greek population but I don't think it reaches 30%...

Basically, everyone was wearing a winter uniform. THE winter uniform. And I don't blame them, who wouldn't bundle up in this cold (it's bad but not as bad as the 2013-2014 end of the world #neverforget) in those cozy garments?

Clockwise from left: Parka: The North Face // Le Pliage Large Tote: Longchamp // Head wrap: BLOM // Infinity Scarf: J. Crew Factory // Boots: Sorel

I gotta admit I do have an infinity scarf, and an almost identical tote to that Longchamp. But seriously, that view of all the girls in front of me wearing the same things struck me. Oh life.

Now, how about you? Is this your winter uniform? What is your winter uniform, if you have any?

Love,

- Ane