"We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun."

When I die and my life flashes before my eyes, I think the only things I'll see will be books and tv shows and movies. And probably this exact end of the couch.

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I know this might be just the exhaustion and the cold and the winter-which-is-bad (winter-which-is-good has reindeers and lights and fluffy Charlie Brown snow) and the hypoglycemic crash after the sugar high but: I cannot wait for the Christmas vacation to be here so I can do like a brain burrowing parasite and tunnel my way to the middle of my marshmallow soft duvet and take shelter there until February, only coming out for air or to change the show I am watching.

Yes, normal people's expectations and dreams are skyscrapers, mine are the tiny pebbles that inhabit the bottom of the Mariana Trench. But I heard it's nice down there, all quiet and most importantly a perfect place to sleep. Because I am sure that if I hear the words congenital heart malformation again I will act all PTSD and jump behind the first piece of furniture I see and curl up in a ball.

(For a person who doesn't get it, I sure do talk about sleep a lot, don't I? That would be sad if... no, wait, yeah, it's sad).

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The Boy and I spent some time in the kitchen this week, either for cooking scrumptious, complex meals that we could pair up with a nice bottle of wine and a re-watch of The Boondock Saints (how completely amazing, silly with a hint of berserk and deranged is this movie? I love the Boondock Saints and you can roll your eyes at me but I can't help loving perfect movies with the perfect hint of gratuitous violence.) or lazying it out and eating cereal out of the box.

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You know what works well when you're just a tiny bit hungover? Improvised photoshoot!

Wore this to my darlings Roxu's birthday party which was a great night of dancing and drinking and of food runs at 4am and saving pigeons. That last part if not a euphemism.

What's the point of having a long, flow-y skirt if you don't get to swish around in it?

The cardigan I bought just because it had sparkly pockets. I guess this is the reason why I am not allowed to have a credit card.

Wearing: Zara skirt, Mango tee and necklace, Kotton cardigan, Musette boots.

The purple hair I mentioned. I feel like the teenager me is proud right now. (Well, proud as she can be when she's not sulking in a corner listening to Linkin Park because no one gets me, god!)

These are the earrings I won in the MySelvagedLife and Pansy Lane giveaway. They are ridiculously gorgeous and I thoroughly recommend visiting both sites :) Thank you so very much again for making my jewelry box a happier place.

(Deep down, my mother regrets buying me this skirt as gift for St. Nick's.)

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Speaking of hair, I was so pleased to be invited to test out a new hair care line from Newtone. I got a mail from the lovely Alina asking me if I wanted to try the new line of hair care - shampoo, conditioner, special lotion and vitamins - designed to help nourish and regenerate the hair. All the products contain special ingredients to help with any dry scalp problems or hair loss and make hair a little bit happier.

And the good part? They smell divine ;)

Hand written note. I am a sucker for hand written notes. Want me to do something? Just send me a card and I will be clinging to you like a leech to a warm body part :))

So I tried them out and really enjoyed it. Because I am the perfect example of a faker than fake red-head, my hair has suffered profoundly after two years of dyeing and my scalp is usually very dry and I am scared one day I will wake up with no hair because my hair follicles will just get up and leave instead of suffering through one more bleaching at the salon (my hair is very outspoken, you see.) so these weeks of treatment did it good.

The treatment really did wonders to my scalp, no more dandruff and dryness from the second washing. Though I will be honest with you, I have spent this time mostly inside the house, in my PJs with my hair in a tight bun and forgetting to comb it for days on end so I'm not sure about the hair loss (glamorous med student up in here!!) but I think I did notice less hair on the brush when I did have to leave the house and do my Rapunzel moves :))

The only thing it did not solve were my hair ends, which are usually dry as a mummy at the British Museum. But I do not think it was not for the lack of trying or from a bad product, but because my hair ends are the ones that have suffered the most bleaching and dyeing and are naturally either brittle most days or soft-ish in a good day. I am sure the treatment would be ace for people who don't put their hair through a blow-torching ever 4 weeks :) But I have to admit, my hair did feel a bit more smoother and shinier after a few washes so I do give it a thumbs up for breathing a bit of life in my fake fiery mane.

All in all, it's a very good product and would wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone out there who wants to take care of their hair better than I do. It's nourishing and I think perfect for your hair if it wants to survive the cold weather.

Check out their site here and enjoy: Laboratoarele Newtone.

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To quote my mother: "If your hair didn't looks like a transvestite dancer's before, it sure looks like it belongs on stage now." And yes, I am taking that as a compliment because my mother always means well. Mostly(ish).

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Song of the Day: Trent Reznor feat. Karen O - Immigrant Song

"I want to drive you through the night, down the hills."

Those awful mornings when you have to wake up really, really, ridiculously early to study but you end up shoving your phone under the bed and sleeping until half the city is already halfway through their to-do list while you are a groggy, comatose mess. Well, at least coffee tastes great regardless of the hour.

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Pediatrics has been kicking my ass, that's all the news on this side of the blogosphere. The kids are adorable and it sometimes takes all I have to not pick one of them up and run away yelling "Mine mine mine mine!" (I'm looking at you, cute ginger kid from a few weeks ago, oh my god your tiny little nose and your cute freckles still make me melt in a pile of goo!) but I suddenly understand why my mother, with 30 years of medicine under her belt, still cringes when she hears the word pediatrics.

But I feel okay about that, because even though I still can't hear anything when listening to their lungs - except for the waaaaaahhhh when they're freaked out from the stethoscope - and even though I am constantly nursing a cold because they always sneeze right in my face, I still love it. I think this is what Stockholm Syndrome is all about :))

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Got to drop by the Absolutely Fabulous Fair and managed to not see any of the clothes but spend all the time giggling with Alice about our love for Supernatural. We even caught poor Anaivilo between our fangirling but she proved not just sweet but incredibly stoic and put up with us bravely ;))

Anaivilo's great shoes and tights combo that caught my eye.

Meet Andreea for the first time and ooh-ed and aahh-ed over her purchases. Alice managed to garner my respect again because, unlike my mental hangups when it comes to it, she can wear rings like it's n one's business.

Got to meet Costin M. for the first time and also saw the fabulous The Hearabouts girls and Laura, who all looked amazing - as always. Check out all their blog posts for more photos; trust me they're all worthy of your undivided attention!

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A week spent in the house studying of course lead to other things. I read one glorious book (The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - I recommend it!), cleaned my room almost every damn day and found pencils and books I though lost in the cave that I call my room, watched half a season of Firefly and cried when I remembered that's the only season (might have been sleep deprived by then, blah.) and enjoyed food like a medical student can only enjoy when she's sleepless and procrastinating.

Add to this a steady diet of spinach tagliatelle, fresh parmesan cheese and delicious Belgian chocolate my mother got as a gift from some friends who visited this November and you've got... well, to be honest a girl who thanks the lord she got blessed with good genes (thanks mom!).

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Okay, so take a bunch of medical students bored out of their wits, add a couple of hours before a class where they learned more than they ever needed to know about schizophrenia (a.n.: dear mother nature, thank you for blessing me with a normal brain chemistry, I owe you one.) and then you just need to tell them they can visit the Antipa Natural History Museum for free and our collective IQ suddenly drops by exactly 43.7%. True story.

Giant giraffe. How could we not play with it? How, I ask you!

Wearing: Mango dress, H&M shirt, Accessorize tights, Musette boots.

It was also the last sunny day of the year. I think that fact will excuse our behavior, don't you agree?

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As the weather cooled, I've moved from actually spending time outside to dedicating my winter to a permanent vegetative state. That includes getting snug as a bug in a rug with a good book or my Kindle, watching a lot of movies (Drive! The Boondock Saints! Crazy Stupid Love! The Incredibles! Tron!) or ridiculously bad-but-so-good tv shows (The Walking Dead, how I missed your discussing self!).

And of course Sunday brunch with The Boy :)

I was freezing here. But I had also a) drank a Mimosa at 11am and b) found out Mimosas are alcoholic so I was past the point of giving a tiny rat's ass :))

Wearing: Mango coat, Kotton dress, Musette boots, Zara bag, Alice & Sara headband, vintage bracelet.

(Got purple highlight. Cause that's how I roll. Will hopefully be able to show them off some more next time. If I don't turn into a giant sloth as soon as December knocks - or, more likely, bludgeons down my door in party hat demanding all my body heat and mental capabilities.)

Drool worthy American pancakes. And Mimosas. With alcohol. Before noon. My liver will one day sneakily leave my body while I'm having a food coma nap, I can just feel it.

♥

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Song of the Day: Kavinsky feat. Lovefoxx - Nightcall

"Kill your heroes and fly, fly, baby don't cry."

How to enjoy a day of baking: buy all the ingredients, pop open a bottle of wine, find a good movie that you've already seen a couple of times so you won't feel like you're missing something (my choice was Iron Man, because you can never get too much of Robert Downey Jr.) and then keep your fingers crossed that you don't burn down the kitchen or drop the batch of brownies all over the floor and yourself and get 2nd degree burns (...not that that has ever happened to me, nope, never, I am a good baker, I swear! Ahem).

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I have gone through the plague and survived, hear me roar with health!

Okay, might be a bit of a drama queen here, it was not exactly the plague (that is soooo 14th century), it was more like a tiny cold virus but the idea still stands: I kicked its ass and came out victorious with nothing more than the destruction of an entire community of handkerchiefs and probably a renal insufficiency because of the abnormal amounts of paracetamol I've been ingesting. But booyah!

It was a long week that I spent becoming one with the couch, where I acquired a nice shade of pasty white (think asylum white, with a touch of eggshell) and ate my weight in Cheerios. Also watched serious amounts E.R. and spent each episode yelling differential diagnostics at the laptop screen. I don't have issues, I'm just a really nerdy med student.

Also, this week I finally found the perfect subject for my doctorate. I am very excited if by excited you mean hyperventilating with happiness and scared out of my wits. Yay?!

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Because I've been having a very close relationship with The Boy's couch, I've also been taking advantage of his things. Those things being wi-fi and his Old Spice. Really, I'm not the one to fall head over heels for products because of their comical and amazing ads, but I adore the smell of this deodorant. Also, he's on a horse :))

Made brownies again, two days in a row, mostly because on the first day I managed to drop the steaming hot batch of brownie batter on myself. I blame my lack of coordination and the wet floor but now that my burns are healed I can laugh about it. It might have also been because of the glass of wine I was savoring while cooking but how can I say no to such a cute wine bottle stopper?

The awkward moment of the week: when we realized that the only thing we had in the fridge, besides beer and mustard, was a giant ostrich egg. That made for some fun, albeit starving, times.

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The day I started walking with the living again. The night before these photos were taken I was plagued by the last remains of a fever and high on drugs so I decided to watch Star Trek and, because I forgot J.J. Abrams is a vicious sadistic little twerp, I of course started crying within the first 10 minutes and petting the laptop screen while whispering "You tragic, beautiful human being!"

(I then decided it was all too sad so I changed to movie to The Hurt Locker. Of course, you can imagine how well that went. Not my brightest moment.)

Halloween has passed and I could, yet again, not be bothered to do anything so I took the opportunity to wear my American Psycho t-shirt and act like it was because I was feeling the All Hallow's Eve spirit.

Wearing: H&M trench, no brand tee & scarf, Mango jeans, Nine West boots.

I do love me some crazy Patrick Bateman.

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Okay, so I did actually do something for Halloween. I ate delicious Cheerios and watched the best Halloween movie of all times: Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Now, if you're next thought is "Hey, I saw the Glee special episode!" I say Cease and Desist!, leave this page right now and immediately go and watch this fantastic, cheeky, fabulous cult classic movie and never, ever mention the Glee special in front of me ever again. No, really, if you do, I will have to use the dark side of the Force on you.

Because Rocky Horror is the kind of musical that would take Glee behind the school and kick it's cute little pig-tailed head in, using just one perfectly manicured pinky finger. While wearing heels. And with its eyes closed.

Rocky Horror is the cheesiest, kitschiest thing you shall ever see. It has enough glitter to choke a blue whale, enough gay to make Elton John blush and it tip-toes the line between cheap and fantastic like it's the show runner in a drag queen race. It's a like a sugary, vulgar bon-bon with a sparkly soft center.

Just superb 70s awesomeness at its best!

The movie stars Tim Curry who proves that mother nature is not fair because he rocks the high heels and garters better than most women, Susan Sarandon when she was a young fresh thing ready to be debauched and a guy in a pair of really skimpy gold shorts. That's really all you need to know for now, trust me :))

I'd tell you the plot but it's too ridiculous to even write down so I'll just say this: get the movie, get some popcorn and a sparkly top hat and get ready to sing Sweet Transvestite for the next week.

Collages made by me. Photos from Tumblr and WeHeartIt.

It's a memorable ride, witty and all raw, cutting (totally not straight) humor. It's a campy delight and I do hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. Just remember to take it with an open mind and not be too jealous of how perfect Tim Curry's legs look in those thigh highs ;)

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Song of the Day: Awolnation - Kill Your Heroes

"Something has gone away and we won’t get it back."

The time of the year when one should hunt for fruit in the modern jungles we call supermarkets and bake, bake, bake perfect scrumptious pies made to be eaten while watching silly, mindless comedies. And because I'm me, of course I am sick to the bone and coughing out a lung and, by the looks of it, even a pancreas, and doing exactly the opposite of yummy pies and tv. You better be running Murphy, cause I'm out to get you as soon as I can breathe through both nostrils!

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Fifth year of medical school, you sure took the whole "get them while they're fresh!" thing really personally, didn't you? Because really, I like a little bit of foreplay with my exams, thankyouverymuch.

It's not nice to sneak up on kids like that, because while you might presume that student brains are fresh and crisp and, most importantly, empty after a summer vacation, here's what you're missing: they are in fact filled with so much unnecessary mundane facts and sensations (like sleeping in on Sundays after a night of dancing on bars, and the entire discography of the newest band we heard in that club that one time with the glitter disco ball y'know?, and how to get the perfect french manicure at 2 am, and oh my god can Thor's hair get even more ridiculous) and so, we have no room for any more stuff. Like really big medical words. Or really, new big words in general.

So yes, I did feel like I've been taken from the soft, warm crib of mindlessness and dumped in the bucket of ice water of knowledge and it makes my brain feel like it's been hit with a sledgehammer. (And this might be the cough medicine talking. Don't quote me on that.)

But yes, two weeks of school and BAM! exam time. One moment I was busy fangirling over comic book movies of awesome and the next moment I was trying to remember all the physical signs of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

But this brings us to the two most important things that have been occupying my atrophied brain these past couple of weeks:

a) Pediatric Neurology. Oh man, I was so freaked out on my first day. Because adults are okay, you can't break their bones by poking too hard and you can't drop them mostly because you never have to lift them in the first place which is a relief. So yeah, I was scared out of my wits the first time it was just me and a baby in a room, in an odd staring contest with me clutching the file like it was lifeline and him making happy gurgling noises.

But after two weeks I can say this has been my favorite rotation ever. Neurology is fascinating even if overwhelming, there are so many interesting things to know and I cannot believe I was actually completely thrilled by testing reflexes. And the kids. The kids! Teacup humans - like humans, except miniature! But with so much strength in their little bodies and souls to power the world that I am now completely and utterly in love with this specialty.

b) You didn't expect a post without me being a geek, did you? So, here we go: how cool is the new Avengers trailer? I've been waiting for this movie ever since I were a kid! I think my reaction was something along the lines of keyboard smashing and giggling like I inhaled laughing gas the first time I watched it. And then I watched it again. And again.

Because you see, these are most of my favorite superheroes and they will all be on the screen at the same time! Thor who is the superhero equivalent of a football jock who's been hit in the head too many times and with an addiction to hair products, and Loki who just needs a hug (a.n.: I will be yelling this at the screen. Repeatedly.) and Hawkeye the man who shoots arrows for a living and is still cooler than you'll ever.

And of course, Tony Stark. Tony Stark is my favorite because he's like this obnoxious little shit who is actually filled with so many issues to sink the Titanic and has the self-worth of a slug which he hides under a facade of a huge ass ego and don't-give-a-damn-cause-I'm-a-genius eyerolls and he pushes my buttons the right way cause I love my heroes a tad bit broken. (I'm looking at you Batman.) (Also, I feel like Captain America and Iron Man should definitely be married.)

(And yes, I overanalyze things but that's because I care and have all the feelings, guys! I am sure Alice understands my excitement.)

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Besides my fangirling over both medical and comic book stuff, this post is a collage of what I've been up to since, well, my last post. Firstly, I was lucky to be invited by the sweet Alina Tanasa to the Il Passo launch of their new fall/winter shoe collection.

And let me tell you, it was a really great night of shoe eye candy. I almost walked out with a few pairs stashed in my bag if it weren't for the damn security systems. I jest, of course ;) I also got to spend some time with some charming bloggers.

Raluca and Sil from Bucharest Style, Gabriela, Denisa, Stella, Alina Ene and yours truly.

It was nice finally getting out of the house and surrounding myself with a drop of glitz and a pinch of glam. Yes, it's true I was dropping dead from sleep deprivation and I could not remember the exact date of the last time I washed my hair (Yes, I know, glamour is my middle name. Or is that lazybones?) but I knew that I could always distract from all these things by pointing to the fabulous shoes and yelling "Oh my god, look at that heel!" as I subtlety exited stage left.

If you like the shoes as much as I do, you can check them out on their spanking brand new website.

Photos via Stella's blog, Il Passo.

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The last outfit photos I took before the weather decided it was gonna take cool to a whole new level and bring out a miniature Ice Age on our city. They're a reminder that the sun once shone and I could still leave the house without three sweaters on.

I wore this on an outing with Alice, when we had coffee and talked about our undying love for anything and everything related to Supernatural. Apparently nothing brings two girls together better than a mutual appreciation of demon hunter brothers, Chevy Impalas and nerdy angels ;)

Wearing: Mango dress, Zara shoes & bag, fake wayfarers, Killah skull bracelet, Tissot watch.

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I also fell in love with butter again. Not very good for the waist or for the cholesterol, but really good for those nights when the wine is exquisite and the peaches are ready to be cut up, sugared up and snuggled in yummy dough.

Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker ♥

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Like I've mentioned, because the temperatures have gone from One Does Simply Fry in Mordor to Hello, Welcome to the Arctic, High-Five the Penguins for Us with the speed of the hadron collider, the weirdest thing has happened: I have fully accepted jeans into my life, even if rather cautiously.

As you probably have noted, I'm a skirts and dresses kind of girl and rarely venture away from them. But I have to admit, not only do they keep my butt warm when the winds are threatening to freeze the word, it is also nice to finally not have to sit down all lady like. Sometimes I need less Audrey and more Brando in my life.

New action figure added to The Boy's and my collection: Assassin's Creed's Ezio ♥

Repeat after me: comfy!

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And in case you ever though I am a mature kind of person who has her life perfectly together (I don't know where one would get that idea, even if it has occasionally happened, but so rare, like an eclipse or mysterious spotting of Dodo birds) I give you the one and only photo to sum up my time during the Pediatric rotation:

Future doctors! :))

And because we are the Pillars of Maturity™ we even actually gave the toys to the kids. After playing with them ourselves. But only for a little while. Like an hour. Ahem, look, a bunny!

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Song of the Day: Northern Lite - Super Black