Update: I'm Moving To Los Angeles

No, the title of this post was not just a ploy to get your attention. You know the massive news I have been hinting about in my posts and Tweets since December that I promised I'd tell you all about soon? Now, you've got to understand that I have quite literally been buzzing to write this post since I found out in the middle of December, but I wanted to find out exactly where I was going, and until I was sure I had my visa before I made it public. I'm moving Los Angeles. I will be leaving at the begining of September and living there for a whole year and attending classes at UCLA (slight side note, a few weeks ago Refinery 29's feature got me very excited about UCLA street style). A couple of months on from finding out and I'm still bouncing off of the walls. I really wanted to shout it from the rooftops when I wrote the first half of this story in a guest post for awesome Californian blogging site Volcomunity under the guise of a post on why you should never give up on your dreams; I was worried I'd given it away then that people would realise that that was my big secret and put two and two together, but no one did!

(Aside from photos I have listed as mine I took on my last trip to California, and those I have credited to other bloggers, all photo inspiration comes from the Foam x Planet Blue editorial from the Foam Magazine swimwear issue!)

I have wanted to live and study in America since I was 13 years old, and while things did not quite turn out the way I wanted them to for one reason or another and I ended up moving to London to study, a trip in April of last year when I visited San Francisco changed everything. 

I took this photo just by the viewing platform of the Golden Gate Bridge. I took it as a reminder of the promise I made to myself during the long hours of gazing out of the bus window working my way south down from the ski resort in Lake Tahoe. When I'd had this pipe dream as a kid, I'd held it in my heart without ever actually seeing America for myself and spending any time there. I think this is why I ended up dismissing it, and I let others persuade me that maybe it was not such a great idea after all. However, on that road trip I realised how much of a mistake letting go of my dream had been, and how badly I still wanted it. 

A few nights after getting back to England, after I'd slept off the jet lag I sat up in my bed one night with my laptop and the prospectus for my London university, which by that time I knew that unless I royally screwed up my exams I would be going to and looked up their study abroad programme. I knew that it was possible for students to spend their second year studying abroad, because I know that Amy has just got back from her year in Australia, and I remember reading over her application for her, but I had absolutely no idea which institutions my probable uni was paired with, so I had absolutely no idea where it might be possible for me to go. 

Now, I like to believe that everything happens for a reason, and I'd been so disappointed by what universities I had got into, what I found out during that late night research session made me realise why I was likely to end up in London. My university was partnered with the University of California, the state I had just come from. There was a chance of me going back. 

Over the next few months it really surprised me that I really missed California, even after spending such little time there. I put so much time and effort (and panic) into my application in November, and over the next month or so I managed to persuade myself that there was absolutely no way that I'd get into the programme, and I think I must have sat there for five whole minutes shaking when I got the news that I'd done it, I'd been accepted and I was going to California. 

So, there you have it. This is the big change I have been hinting about since January when I've been talking about how everything was going to be changing for me in 2012! I hope you'll all continue to stay with me and read all about my adventures when I cross the Atlantic and take up residence on the Golden Coast!
Keeping me going over the last few months, as well as working on my Californication board on Pinterest, I have been indulging in some of my favourite Califonia based lifestyle blogs... 

1. Sincerely, Jules - Jules is beautiful, has incredible style and lives in Los Angeles. My favorite of her posts she entitles 'Insta-Jules' - I'm going to try and get an iPhone in LA, and she is going to be the first person I follow on Instagram!
2. Cheyenne Meets Chanel - If I had to pick my favourite Californian blog out of the bunch, that has really kept me going with outfit inspiration while I compile my new wardrobe, insights of great places I could take my outfit photos, and general Los Angeles happiness I'd have to choose Shea Marie's incredible blog - I don't know what I'd do if she stopped posting, and I really hope to run into her in LA one day!
3. Fashion Toast - So Rumi's blog may be one of the biggest fashion blogs in the world, but I don't love it for her clothes. I love it gives such an amazing aesthetic insight into Los Angeles with her and her boyfriend Colin's dreamy photography.
4. Galetea - Model and Photographer Francessca's blog gives a true LA insight with her photography, which really paints a picture of life in the city, not just all the highly glossed stuff you see on television (though, that really does not stop me devouring episodes of 90120 and Californication anyway!)
5. NJ in LA - I adore Natalie's blog because it is a fashion and food blog, just like mine! Her food features have made me make the worlds longest list of places I want to eat in Los Angeles (as well as all over California), and her many photo diaries from her trips out into the desert make me want to get a drivers permit (I'm already starting to speak like an American) and go on a road trip!
6. Late Afternoon - Liz's outfit photos are simply breathtaking. I'd love the blog even if it were not in the California category, but her outfits really inspire me for my new warmer weather wardrobe. Her outfit for the first day of Coachella (which I am totally going to hit up next year) has to have been my favourite look from the whole festival. 

Words do not describe how happy and I excited I am about my impending move at the end of August, and I just want to thank all my wonderful readers for their support over the last three and a half years - here is to the future!