A decadent fantasy

I did this photoshoot designed for Milk magazine http://www.milkmagazine.net/ in my first year of uni, the idea is that it is a little girls decadent fantasy. The set took ages to create and I didn't want to take it down after! Thankyou to my models Tallulah and Daisy (and their mother Sam) and photographer Ella Parkes.

What's this for?

Hi, I'm Anna. Nice to meet you.I am sat in the middle of the British channel next to four elderly white haired gentlemen drinking whisky and tea and talking about whisky and tea.

I've just thought, it's time, it's time I had one of these 'blogs' so here goes...

A little intro - I'm a student (if you hadn't already guessed) and I'd like to be a children's wear designer. I love traveling more than most other things and so this blog will (I hope...) tell you about my travels and my stories and experiences in the world of fashion. One other secret love of mine that not so many people know about... I love old jazz, especially on grey days on the tube, there is nothing that beats having Nina Simone - 'Feeling Good' on full blast in my giant oversized, over priced, baby blue headphones walking past grumpy 'cod' faced people walking/running to work.

A couple of other things, I love clothes, making, wearing, looking at. I'm half Danish, I'm 21 and couldn't look more scandinavian if I tried (I'm considering dying my hair red for a bit) I'd like to move to Paris next year to do an internship, my french is limited, I like to think I am better than I really am so am about to start evening classes.

Oh and I like colour... lots of it... there's never enough colour and music... I have to go now as my internet time is running out and we are approaching the coast! ...bye...be back soon with something more interesting and less all about me! x

Love Tim

I love Tim Walker's photography...a little too much. Here are some pics from his recent exhibition 'I love pictures'

http://www.timwalkerphotography.com/

Adios from Peru

This summer I spent 2 months living in Cusco, Peru.

Here is the last email I sent home...

Hola for the last time!

Time has come for the last email... I'll be glad to stop spending hours writing these things!

I spent my last week going to my favourite markets, buying souvenirs, spending my days in Mantay and cramming in all the things I had been planning on doing since I got there.

In the few days that I had been in the Jungle the kids had changed so much, when I turned up Rosano (a little boy who was learning how to walk) ran up to me! well toddled excitedly, he has some new shoes which actually fit him rather than being twice the size of his feet! I also got to feed them what was obviously their first time with raisins. I could tell because of their shocked/concerned/confused faces as they felt it with their tongue and attempt to bite it with their one or two teeth - was pretty funny to watch! All the toddlers now have their teeth brushed after eating which is pretty funny because the little ones really like the taste of the the toothpaste so as hard as I try to get them to 'ESCUPEY' 'spit' they swallow it and beam up at me gleefully! I also had my first live water fountain..after finishing what I thought to be a pretty perfect nappy I let go of it for 2 seconds to grab a plastic outer liner and what happens the little dude pees up all over me, his new nappy and his baby friend to his left.....ahhhh lovely......start again! A little boy who used to have a clef lip, is clef lip no longer, I couldn't ever pronounce his name so used to call him clef lip so now its 'Clef lip no longer'. Don't worry non of them can speak english I wouldn't call a kid that here! But anyway back to the point, he has had an operation and is now all sewn up! 

Carlitos now doesn't have to wear a nappy and is being potty trained (always a bit wary of when he sits on my knee now!) Sandy (the nurse) now reads to the kids most days with the books I bought with Granny's money. What I didn't realise is that the mothers can't read so when they come in to breast feed they usually pop over to try and read a line or watch Sandy read. Learnt a new feeding trick for when the babies clamp their mouths shut and shake their head really fast so food usually ends up everywhere...to put the spoon in and twist till they swallow! (sounds a bit harsh but they need to eat all their food and Sandy forces it down them as they cry if not). Sergio (Raquel's husband who runs the leather goods section) got a book from out of the library for me which is all the Peruvian fashions from the mountains to the coast etc.

On thursday I decided to go to learn how to weave. My instructions are to go to Chincehero and find a lady called Roxana Cusicuna. OK can't be too hard...First a taxi to the Chincehero collection point - basically a place where they wait for a full taxi of people and then share the cost because it's about 40 mins away. Me and 4 Peruvians squeeze in - I bet it looked hilarious because they were dressed really traditionally so I had the giggles the whole way there. People start getting out on the way to sell their corn, pick up their 3 fish etc. I have no idea where to get out just that I am meeting a woman called Roxana to teach me how to weave. Taxi driver drops me off on the middle of a road with a few houses and corner shops. Find a police man and ask him....he says this way so I walk with him and he asks various people on the way each one sending him in a different direction - oh dear! Eventually he finds a relative of Roxana who points us in a direction but says its a long way. Police man sends me on my way and I walk for about half an hour along this street in the middle of no where passing the odd cow or pig. Ask everyone I walk past for Roxana, some don't know, some say keep walking. An hour late after the arranged time I reach a woman standing outside a house with some wool in her hands, as I am about to ask again for Roxana, she says 'Anna?' YES I found her!!! Go into her house and sit in the garden where she teaches me to weave. At first I just sit and watch her - so complicated! - She learnt from her Grandma and could weave when she was 6. Her husband works in the jungle going to tribes and villages showing them how to grow crops etc. She teaches weaving and has a son who is 10.

1 take....2 drop.....6 take etc....passing the threads through her hands and then sliding the dradle across to hold, sliding the wood down, swapping colours! It took me 2 hours to do a piece 8cm long! But have now got the hang of it! They use different things to die the wool - an insect found inside the cactus, a yellow plant (the one from the jungle which makes your tongue go numb!), orchids and a type of grass.

At the end she pulls out everything she has made...'if you would like to buy' All very expensive but I now know how hard it is to make so I get a few things with the Chincehero weaving pattern on in exchange for a small fortune! Then pile back into a sharing taxi with 9 others! Such a squeeze - my face was against a native woman buried into her long plaits which I now know are not just hair but also wool!

My last day at Mantay was really sad, Roy came too so he could take some photo's for me and translate a bye message. All the little boys gave me a sloppy beso on my cheek, although I don't think they really knew what was going on! I gave Sandy a hug and she thanked me for all her hard work. Raquel and Sergio ask me to sign a book which I write a message in spanish and they promise to write every 3 months with updates on the children and how they are doing. They give me a little purse as a present from the the 'chicas' and say their thankyous. So sad to leave, I leave as the sun is setting , past the kids playing, a group of moms playing football, the market closing up, women carrying their stalls home etc. To celebrate that night with the 3 boys we went out for Argentinian steak and Sangria.

Spend the weekend going out in the evenings, going out for lunch and to markets and 2 hours before my flight just thought I'd have time to squeeze in a bungee jump!

Hadn't slept all weekend and was beginning to get a horrible hangover - perfect time for a bungee jump! Really sunny, music blasting, I sign the 'It's not our fault if you die' form and even have to give a finger print! Then get told there is a 2 hour wait which I tell them I can't do because my flights in 2 hours so they squeeze me in which means I'm next! arghhh! No time to even think about it, boys lie on the grass with the camera ready as my ankles get strapped up. Have to lie on the floor on a mattress as the guy straps my ankles up so tight it hurts (but I was quite glad!) and then I get in a cage with the peruvian guy and get winched up to the top. The cage is suspended on 4 wires which go into the valley, its about 130m in the sky I think. As we go up he checks my harness and tells me how to jump and keeps a video camera on my face but I'm not really sure what to say. It's the 3rd highest in the world, however if you include the altitude its the highest - but thats cheating! Ok enough babble its now time to jump....don't look down, I shuffle closer to the edge to feel the edge with my toes but still not looking down, clamp my toes over the end and he counts UNOS, DOS, TRES, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I do an attempt of a swan dive off the top, at first its scary as you feel like your falling flat to the earth and then it feels like your flying so start to enjoy it. I thought you'd bounce up and down but you don't you bounce up down, side, spin, twist, upside down, etc. made me feel pretty sick! After a couple of minutes of bouncing they catch you and lie you on the mattress again to take off your harness - SO DIZZY!

Quickly back to the house, 15 mins to get my things together before I need to get a taxi to the airport! Say a teary goodbye to the boys and then cry all the way to the airport. Can't explain how sad it was to be leaving Cusco. It took me 3 horrible flights and 3 days to get home....horrendousness!!! and to add to it all I had whiplash all the way back and still have it now!

I am now back...feels very strange to have running water with no parasites swimming around in with also the option of hot or cold and what speed you would like, duvets, soft toilet roll which can actually go into the toilet not in a smelly bin on the side, and not be surrounded by boys all the time being generally gross.

Can't wait to see you all, I feel like I have cheated on Alfie with Spike...he keeps smelling me and sitting on my feet warily, he's still a bit unsure of wether to forgive me or not!

Hope you've enjoyed the emails, I wanted to try and paint the picture for you!

Now where are you all?!

Adios! and lots of Beso's...

Anna

x x x

A letter from fiji home...

From: "Anna Teisen" <annateisen@hotmail.co.uk>

Subject: Village trip!

>Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:20:01 +0000

Bula!

After a long bouncy trip sitting in the back of the lorry with lots of fijians finally arrived at Nakavika village, my family I’m staying with meet me and take me to my house. All the houses are made out of corrugated iron and are built on wooden stilts, i had the biggest house in the village, but that still would be tiny compared to our concrete statues in england! 

Quickly got introduced to all the family (who cant speak english v well) and then just as quickly forgot all their names! my fijian mother had one tooth and I’m supposed to call her 'lay' which means mum, and dad is 'now' there are 

about 60/70 houses and about 300/400 people,who all seem to be related, so you can imagine how big the families are (i think there was about 25 people staying in my house!!) they don’t have clocks or anything so they tell their time by the chickens in the morning and when it gets dark they eat (its 

dark at 6 o'clock) the first few days it rained so much constant rain and walking around in bare feet wasn’t nice (not allowed to wear shoes) thick mud up to my knees all the time! i wasn't allowed to wear my own clothes, all the girls have to wear a sulu which is basically a sarong, and a T-shirt. 

First things first we have to have a kava ceremony with the 

chief!! now the chief is not a huge strapping fit fijian who will protect the village dressed in war paint and a grass skirt, he is a very old man, and he cant stand up, he wears a dressing gown with a hood up and sits on the floor with a table over his legs and cant move, he stayed like that for 

the entire week! we had to sit around and listen to lots of prays and chanting in fijian to 'accept us into the village' for dinner we all sit on the floor with a long mat running down the middle with the food on, you eat with your hands and the food is very very different, but still edible! 

The family would sit and watch me eat and force me to eat as much as possible and then they would share the left overs between them all after...also they gave me pretty much the only bed in the house which was lay and nows and they all slept on the floor! 

So as u can imagine, it was a bit like being the queen! they were very very religious, so lots of grace etc etc and didn’t like the fact that when they asked lindsay what religion she was she said she was an atheist! so i said i was a christian and they loved me until i got asked to say a pray for the family and couldn’t think of one (my plan foiled!) 

My fijian sister tends to look after me the most, she comes with me everywhere, wether its to the toilet, to get changed, 

anything! she was about 24 with 3 kids and spoke the most english, her name was Dianamaria. so quite literally i had to hand myself over to the family and was now not in control of what i was doing or wearing or even going to the loo was up to them! in the day we would have our breakfast again on the 

floor and go to teach in the schools, this time we had to wear traditional dress which i loved! it was a big colourful dress with a sulu underneath! very bright and meant i didn’t have to make my clothes smell of the village (they seemed to smell of,lots of BO, bad breath, dampness, mud, and generally animals, oh and white spirit) 

I taught the kindergarden the first day which were brats and just climbed all over me and because we had to drink kava all night before i was so tried!! Kava is basically a plant that they grow and then dry out (looks like mushrooms) and then grind and mix with water and you have to drink it out of half a coconut, it tastes like a cross between, tea, coffee, anaceed and mud, but makes you very very sleepy, its banned in england!!! but we couldn't really tell them that. when you drink it you have a server and u, the server says bula anna, and you say bula whoever and then you clap your hands once, the server then sits in front of u with their back to u and claps 3 times whilst u drink your kava and then u both say 

‘mathee!’ with means empty! and it gets a bit tedious after the first night! 

Took lots of photos, the kids love cameras and all do peace signs and love looking back at the picture on the digital camera! the next day i taught in primary school, the letter O, so drew lots of octopuses, ostriches, oranges etc on the board and sang lots of songs! i also taught some of the older 

ones (about 8 years old) about digestion, i was quite impressed with what i could remember, again did lots of drawing on the board and made them draw it in their books, we had to take the classes ourselves so when it got to 

maths lessons we really confused them!!! trying to teach ratio to kids who can’t speak english is a bit of challenge especially when you don’t know what they already know and don’t know! but by the time we left the village we had though-roughly confused them all!

In the afternoons we coached netball to the girls, and then to all the moms of the village! i played in their team one day and didn’t realise how unfit i was, there’s no pitch or anything, just two goals on very muddy grass so its very hard to tell them when they were offside etc! but they were quite good, they have a match next week against the other village so we prepared them for it!

Other things i did when i was there, witnessed them killing a pig (was horrible and the screaming almost made me a vegetarian again!) luckily we didn’t eat pork when we were there at all! we went and swam in a river, cut firewood and carried it back on my back in a rucksack made out of palm 

tree leaves and trips of the bark for string! someone saw a rat above my bed, so for the whole week i heard scratching and sniffing above my head...not very nice!

I’m so glad to be back in civilization with phones, 

internet, showers and cleanness!! it was an amazing experience but I don’t think I would do it again in a hurry...maybe in a few years. When i left my lay came to me crying with a woven mat she had made out of palm trees for me as a souvenir, its ace, its quite big to carry around for the next 3 weeks though!

This morning we are off on our travels around the islands! so a very long bus journey awaits me followed by a very long ferry ride, in england that would be fine but remember the buses and ferries are a lot different here!

Thankyou for your emails i really enjoy reading them makes me feel less like I’m on the other side of the world!

>lots of love, moce (‘bye’ pronounced mothay)

>Anna x x x x x