Glittery sandals and I'm melting

Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well!

ahhh the glitter (also just imagine what they look like in the sunlight
- it's like having a mini disco ball on my feet hahah)

I guess it's safe to say that summer has finally arrived. And I'm melting, so I'm giving myself a bit of a break from the sun to type a short summery post. 

Whilst I love shopping and trying out new styles, I do tend to stick with the same colors that I love - i.e. whites and blacks, cream, navy, stripes and pastels. Anything too bright just doesn't really find its way into my wardrobe. Looking for sandals was going to go along the same lines; I wanted to find a nice pair that would go with everything and was pretty, but not too exciting. And then boohoo happened.

As soon as I saw these sandals on the website, I was drawn to them (most likely due to the sparkliness of them even online) and although they are very out there and not exactly what I had expected, I just had to order them. At the time, I didn't have the biggest expectations, just because sandals rarely fit me (thanks, narrow feet), so I was surprised when they finally arrived and turned out to fit perfectly. They are also quite soft which again, I didn't expect from the look of them and are definitely, as with most boohoo things, very good value for money! 

I've fallen in love with them. They are something I never thought I would wear and that's what makes them so awesome and cool to me. I know that they probably aren't up everyone's street, but I love how happy and special I feel when I put them on. That's why I love clothes and shoes and shopping: finding something, however small it might be, that makes you feel confident and happy. 

Also, they do actually go with pretty much any outfit and make everything you wear so much more interesting, glittery and summery!

Have you bought anything recently that makes you feel special when wearing it? Let me know in the comments! 

Have a lovely time in the sun (if it's shining where you live!) and stay hydrated xx

Home alone

Hey everyone! I hope you are doing well :)

This lonely squirrel was the only somewhat fitting picture
I could find - GUESS WHERE IT WAS TAKEN

A lot of people dislike being home alone. I'm definitely not one of them - as long as it's during the day and not for too long, I actually quite enjoy being by myself as opposed to constantly being surrounded by others. 

Yet, when I'm home alone, I tend to do certain things that I would NEVER do otherwise. Here are two of them: 

(N.B. By the end of this post, feel free to find me #relatable or strange. Or a bit of both)

1) Dancing

As soon as I say 'bye' to parents/friends/the postman, I immediately seem to lose the ability to walk normally and instead proceed to skip or jump around the house and do a twirl when loading the dishwasher. Walking past a mirror without trying out 'cool' dance moves becomes unthinkable, so does waiting for the microwave to beep without pretending to be a K-pop dancer or, at the very least, a ballerina. 

What even is the gym compared to being home alone, seriously.

2) Singing

In Year 6, I was in the school choir and absolutely loved everything about it - from rehearsals to performances. In Year 9, the teacher who organized the choir left, and instead, a new 'musical group' was created, by students for students. A girl in my class was one of the proud founders and when she announced the new group in front of everyone, she made it clear that this was not just your 'usual choir', but that there would be 'proper auditions….you actually have to be able to sing, you know.'

Well, that was that, then.

(N.B. the musical group didn't last for very long as it turned out to be so picky when deciding who to include, that it ended up being more of a musical trio.)

When I'm home alone, I'm not auditioning to become part of a musical group. Therefore, I sing. A lot. In fact, I seem to turn anything I do into a song - there is a 'going up the stairs' rap, a 'brushing my teeth' melody, a breakfast making song (opera style), and, most importantly, a mash-up of all the songs currently stuck in my head. I sing 'good morning' to the kitchen, 'we are the champions' to the toaster when it has toasted my bread and 'ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive' to the laptop when it's on 1% charge. 

Am I the only one who does this? What (somewhat strange) things do you do when you're home alone? Please let me know in the comments xx

A little life update...

Hey everyone! I hope you are doing well :) 

...and yet another Regents Park picture - what else? ;)

Today I wanted to update you a little bit.

I've never blogged about this, but I actually grew up in Germany and then moved to England to do my A-levels and go to uni. The reason why I never really mentioned it is that I created this blog in order to create my bubble as a London university student. I wanted to share my experiences, my thoughts because I like writing and rambling and also because it would be a great thing to look back on one day. Also, I wanted to share as little as possible about me when I started doing this (hence no pictures whatsoever) and also because I highly doubted that I would keep this blog alive for longer than a few months hahah. 

Quite a lot is changing now. The main thing is that my degree is taking me to Cologne, Germany, to study there from October onwards. This is very exciting and sad at the same time. I've only ever been to Cologne twice in my life because it's far away from where my family lives. Most importantly though, London has become a massive part of my life and I love it to bits. I love the buzz surrounding it, the people, the streets, the whole atmosphere. I will miss it (in fact I already do since moving back now that my term has ended). A lot. 

I'm also excited though. Especially the last two years have been a bit of a whirlwind, in many ways and whilst I'm usually afraid of change, I also somewhat love it and can't wait for what Cologne will have in store for me. 

Basically, I will no longer be a proper London university student. I currently have 7 followers and you cannot believe how proud it makes me that people care to read and even comment on what I have to say. I hope that you will still want to stick around and join me on my journey :) 

Also, expect loads of London related posts of me over the summer. I still have tons of pictures and thoughts that I would love to share with you! 

Have a nice day xx

Trip to the LONDON ZOO

Hey everyone! I hope you are all well :) 

My exams have officially finished and after initially falling into the hole of 'what on earth do I do' (does anyone else get this?? It's a deep, weird place) I'm enjoying the free time I all of a sudden have. 

One of the first things I did after finishing was to go to the London Zoo. Somewhat surprisingly, I actually really enjoyed it. I've never been a massive zoo person - when I was little, I would (without fail) fall asleep as soon as my parents pushed my buggy through the entrance and later, I would only go to the zoo on school trips (which wasn't exactly the best experience - imagine having to fill in endless forms and quizzes about the precise place of any given animal's origin, nature of terrain and its food preferences....yes, it did pretty much ruin any enjoyment one could have had of the trip). 

So whilst I was excited, my expectations weren't exactly the highest, but once I got there I absolutely loved it. Here are my top three personal highlights:

This adorable donkey:

He was SUPER friendly

This giraffe:

apparently giraffes have black tongues

THE PENGUINS:

I didn't realize how fast penguins are underwater! 

(the lion, the aquarium and the llamas were also amazing, but sadly my phone ran out of space so I couldn't take any pictures)

Also, the zoo's location in Regents Park is absolutely beautiful. My friends and I took the tube to Camden and then walked, which was great as it meant experiencing the craziness that is Camden and the beauty that is the canal and Regents Park. It only took about 15 minutes, so I would definitely recommend that route if you are thinking about going :)

The only thing that I would criticize is that we got super hungry halfway through and apart from a restaurant (which we didn't go into because we wanted to stay outside in the sun and walk around) and ice cream stalls there wasn't any other food you could just grab and eat - or at least we didn't manage to find any.

Have you ever been to the London Zoo (or any other zoo)? I would love to read your thoughts and experiences in the comments! xx

Thoughts on growing up

Hey everyone!

I hope you are doing well. I've seen this sign all over London recently and wanted to share a few thoughts with you :)

When I was little - about six or seven maybe - I REALLY wanted to be an adult. I thought that it was the best thing ever: not being told when to go to bed, eating as much chocolate as possible and buying ALL the toys without my mum reminding me that my birthday or Christmas wasn't for another 3 months.
I wouldn't exactly describe myself as a "proper" adult yet, in that I don't have to support a family or get an actual full time job, but as a uni student I'm probably only a few steps away. And yes, no one is telling me to go to bed (apart from myself because I know that I will be knackered the next day) and I could theoretically buy all the toys six year old me wanted (if I also had all the money mini me thought every adult would automatically have). And whilst I enjoy being fairly independent, a lot of responsibility comes with it: bank appointments, living away from home, all of which sometimes makes me wish I could be the six year old version of myself who thought that her biggest problem was that spelling test.

I think that especially after leaving school, whether you are at university, doing an apprenticeship or something completely different, everyone is trying to find their place in the world, what type of person to become and what kind of career would suit them best. With all the deadlines and serious business career talks going on it's SO easy to feel lost in the whirlwind that is growing up.

The other day, I chatted to someone at uni and somehow we ended up talking about what we wanted to do in the future. He told me that he had accepted that he would end up doing a job that he wouldn't enjoy but would pay him well, and that this was okay for him as this was "just what it means to be an actual adult". 

This really shocked me and I honestly didn't know how to respond. I still have that idea in my head, stemming from when I was little, that I will one day have a job that will pay the bills AND be enjoyable and I had not once second guessed that. Maybe it will turn out to be unrealistic, and maybe he will be right and having to "accept" doing a job will be the inevitable consequence of me growing up, but I don't KNOW that this will be the case. Life goes its own way, so it might well be - but I still cannot understand that someone would, at this very early stage, already accept something he knows he won't enjoy.

To me, THAT is the trap of becoming an adult. Not really the responsibilities, because they cannot be changed and we get to experience independence and all the nice things that come with it in return. The real trap is settling for something we don't enjoy. No matter how old we are, I don't think it can ever be wrong to keep that positive and hopeful attitude we had as children. 

I would love to know what your thoughts are on this. Let me know in the comments :)

Have a great day xx

Small things in life appreciation post & the good in exams

Hi everyone!! :)

and another Regents Park picture - also from last year

First of all, I would just like to say a big thank you for the positive feedback on my last blog post. I've never had that many comments before and it made me feel very happy. 

I also figured that my blog posts looked a bit boring without any pictures, so in the name of continued anonymity, today's post has another Regents Park picture! I took a lot last year, and not many (nice ones) this year, so I should definitely find some time and make my way to Regents Park again to take some more!

Today I had my second exam and I think it went okay. A lot of people are doing exams and it's so easy to feel down and negative about this time of the year. But here are a few things that exams have made me appreciate: 

1. Taking a break - as I had my exam in the afternoon, I decided to take the evening off. This essentially means watching youtube videos, listening to music, just being on the Internet (and now writing a blog post) and wow, it's the best thing ever. When I don't have exams, taking evenings off is something that I do most days, and I never appreciated it the way I do right now. That is something I would like to remember post-exams.

2. Friendly people - this morning I was feeling very nervous about this exam (having an exam in the afternoon doesn't help because I basically sat around doing nothing all morning waiting for this exam to happen). When I left my halls, I saw one of the maintenance men, had a very quick chat with him (VERY brief…like - 'you're alright?', 'yeah, you?'), and as he was standing near the door he opened it for me. These are the small things in life that just make you feel 100 times better and I think that I appreciated it so much more at that moment in time.

3. Food - so the thing about exams is that they can be quite long and you are not allowed to take any food with you. Partly, I think that's completely understandable: imagine the person next to you loudly devouring a burger - that wouldn't be very nice. But sometimes I wish we could at least take some chocolate in, just to help with concentration. Most of the time, I will get halfway through the exam when all of a sudden my stomach starts rumbling (I can't eat much when I'm nervous so breakfast is never big on exam days) and I would do ANYTHING - well almost - to have something sweet. Right now, I'm sitting on my bed with cake next to me and I'm appreciating it so much more than I've ever done before. 

Is there anything you appreciate more when you're doing exams? 

Let me know in the comments to make everyone feel a bit more positive about this time of the year xx

Things I want to do this summer

Regents Park last summer

Hello everyone!

The weather is FINALLY getting a bit warmer and this makes me very excited for a life after exams. This post is my version of Tanya Burr's latest blog post and I think it's such a nice idea to write down a list of things I want to do this summer, so thank you very much for the inspiration, Tanya! :) Here we go...

1. Go outside more
I've always preferred being inside. Even as a kid, I would stay inside reading with the sun shining through my window because a) it was the perfect temperature in my room and b) I wouldn't get blinded by the sun and c) no bugs would land on my page (or worse: my back! (once a bee decided to sunbathe on my back and when my friend told me, all I could do was nervously whisper 'get it off me, please' - it was terrifying). At the same time, I want to tan a bit because I'm naturally very pale, so this summer I definitely want to make more of an effort to go outside and enjoy the sunshine! 

2. Do some DIY
Today, I was browsing pinterest for a while (procrastination) and saw some really cute DIY projects that I would love to try. I'm also determined to paint my room, so that's definitely something I want to do this summer when I have time. It will be such a nice change from studying. 

3. Do some exercise
I probably say that for every single 'What I want to do' list I ever created - but it's true. I tried going running last summer but failed miserably, mainly because all sorts of dogs seemed to think I wanted to play and ran after me, which isn't the best thing if you are slightly scared of them like me. 

4. Eat ice cream
This is something I will definitely not fail to do. For me, no summer is complete without eating tons and tons of ice cream (chocolate, preferably) so that HAS to be on the list. 

5. Picnics
I would love to go on picnics with some friends. I think true picnic weather is extremely rare and I would love to make the most of the warm, dry summer days we are (hopefully) going to have. 

Those were the five things that I want to do this summer. Let me know what yours are xx