(This was written last Saturday and I never got chance to finish it. I didn't want to just leave it unpublished so here it is...)
Today's post is fuelled mainly by the lingering happiness following an evening spent with Jess yesterday.
It was the sort of evening that did not need to be captured in photographs and Facebook updates - it wasn't earth-movingly brilliant, nor was it the sort of evening that anybody would be jealous of. But that's the point.
It's easy to look at (literally, taking the Facebook example a little further) what everybody else is doing and feel disillusioned. They're all out, having a great time, and you're at home, in your pyjamas, wondering what happened to 'being young'. It's easy to feel like you need more from your life.
What I realised yesterday, while driving alone in the dark having dropped Jess of at home, was that the 'more' factor in life doesn't need to come from something so big, but rather from something so ordinary. Like sitting on my bed and talking for hours, or flicking through holiday photos again.
People seem to make a big deal out of being eighteen here in the UK - it's like because 18 is the legal age for drinking alcohol, everybody feels the urge to go out and get drunk every single weekend. And for what? A hangover and fuzzy memories of being in a dingy club in your local town (any local folks will probably be thinking of one place in particular while reading this)? Thanks, but I'll pass.
I'm happy with the sitting in and doing nothing with a friend feeling that comes from doing just that. There's something equally as exciting about being able to do that. There's so much good in the fact that you don't need any other ingredients adding to the delicate mixture that is your friendship.
[Unless that other ingredient is a Josh Groban CD, which is always welcome, and especially when driving through a sleepy village in the dark]
But you know that pure, unaffected, untouched feeling of happiness? I found it yesterday. The sort of happiness that has you driving alone with a welcome, but very missed, smile upon your face that speaks of your day and the experiences you've had. And I think it was mainly because of Jess.
Love you, JOA.
Besos ♥
Rachel
Bonjour folks :) I'm back today with a little review of the MindSnacks French app for the iPhone (or iPod Touch). MindSnacks as a company were recommended to me by Natalie, a student I exchanged a few emails with a while back, but when I first downloaded the 'free' app (more on that later), I wasn't overly keen.
It cannot be denied that the loading screen is ridiculously cute - the little 'bean' character appears on all of the language apps in seemingly traditional dress (my favourite is the Spanish bean). As a loading screen goes, this is by far my favourite - so many language apps are stuffed full of advertisements or the loading screens don't work properly. I'm pleased to report that this one, thankfully, works.
The next screen you'll see is this screen (I think, it's a while since mine was new). To begin with, you only have one or two games, but you can unlock more as your language skills progress and improve. Basically, the more words learnt, the more games unlocked.
I love the fact that this app actually uses games. So many apps claim to use games when, in actual fact, they're just not, so it's great that MindSnacks have created genuine mini games to help you learn the vocab. In fact, speaking of the vocab... The review screen allows you to, well, review the vocab. Oddly, it took me a while to find this. I'd perhaps have preferred this screen to come before the games screen, but it's no big deal. Here, you can also see how far you have progressed with each word, if the purple bar reaches the star, it goes yellow and you've learned the word (in terms of the game app, of course).
Finally, Mystery Crate is a game where you have to tap the 'crates' with incorrect spellings written on them. I suppose this one also helps with spelling and writing skills, as well as recognition skills as this game also speeds up with more words the further into it you get.
In terms of actually learning the words, I think Word Birds is my favourite. My main language strength is writing, so I think I'm used to learning in this way a lot. Plus, here you actually have to think about what you're learning rather than just recognising the correct word.
The game also provides you with an overview of your progress so far, a list of completed and/or outstanding challenges that the app itself will set you throughout your learning, and a community screen that contains features such as ''More MindSnacks Apps''. I love the fact that this is contained within one screen/tab on the app - again, over-promotion of other products is all too common with apps, and when its function is educational it really annoys me.
The app is initially free to download (I told you I'd get back to this...), however only comes with a numbers level. If you want more levels, you can download them from within the app for £2.99. I was initially very reluctant to pay this, and the fact that the app only gave me numbers to begin with did put me off. I just thought that out of all of the categories, there were many that were much more interesting than numbers. However, I decided to give the app a proper try and I'm glad to say that I've really been enjoying using it. If I have a spare moment, I have found myself opening it up and playing a game - to me, that speaks volumes about how good it is, not just as a language app but also as an app that can be lightly enjoyed.
In addition to French, the app is also available in German, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, English (presumably American, as the US flag appears behind it), and SAT Vocab. If your desired language is currently unavailable, you can also 'cast your vote' for which subject should be built next (http://www.mindsnacks.com/vote/). Apparently, Japanese is currently being built. I'd be very interested to try the Russian (161 votes to go) app, I've never found an app that works for me with languages that don't have Latin alphabets.
Anyway, I think I've rambled enough. In short: great concept, variety of learning techniques within the games, although the paying/downloading system is a little annoying, you can see that the money is spent developing a well thought out application.
What do you think to the MindSnacks apps? Have you ever tried them? Leave a comment below :)
Merci beaucoup for reading! :)
I put off writing this for a while. And by a while, I mean a few months. And by a few months, I mean since November time.
It's difficult to talk and write about moving on, especially when you never chose to do so. Yesterday, I wrote about the 'hostility of G block'. G block is the building in which my friends and I have based ourselves during the college day for a good year and a half now. We started off on the floor next to the automatic doors in B block, an idea that was cut drastically short one day for reasons that are still unknown to me.
So we moved to G. It was our comfort zone. It became the place we hid in, the place we cried in when things were too much, the place we laughed in, and the place we did nothing in. It was familiar and it was nice.
And then year thirteen arrived, bringing a bucket load of fresh pressures and expectations that, for those of us applying to university, we had to meet and exceed. Some people rise to that challenge, some do not. That's OK, it's down to personal preference and I am certainly not saying that some are right, while some are wrong. But, when people are making conflicting decisions and acting differently, conflict starts to appear. At first, it's slow and almost lazy in formation. It establishes itself in snide comments and pointless arguments. But, like anything bad, if left untouched, untreated or unnoticed, it gets worse.
Because, you see, much like with a family, a partner, or anybody else you spend most of your life around, you start to notice all of the irritating little details that you could really do without the presence of in your life. Somebody's too 'attention-seeking', another person 'needs to watch what they say', other people 'feel like they can't speak anymore', and others 'have no consideration for the fact that we were here first'. And I'm going to admit something...
I can't deal with it anymore. So I'm moving on.
I still love my friends. Of course I do. But I've reached that point where the atmosphere on a lunchtime or a breaktime is too damaging to me for it to be worth spending large amounts of time in G block anymore.
Everybody seems to have split off into little sub-groups, and I seem to have drifted away from all of them. I'm kind of OK with this, though. I spend most of my free time in the language lab now, and I've found that I work better and my grades have improved just by being in there more. This does, however, come with the downside that I rarely see my friends anymore. It's true that there are the lab folks - namely Sophie, Billie, Wallis, Liz, Jess, Cory, etc etc - and they are all awesome people in their own rights. Some (Sophie and Jess), I have known for longer than others (Billie, Wallis, Liz, Cory), but our lab chats and our general shared interests mean that there is something to focus on. Jess and I: N, S, Starbucks Tuesdays, Josh and Josh, Poland, etc etc. Sophie and I: People who DD (cringe!), favourite woman, the face-eaters, etc etc.
Yet, with the G block friends, I've found that only a few of the friendships tend to keep afloat. Fern and I share car journeys on a daily basis, Eliza and Sarah usually join us on the way home. I see Katie quite a lot as we share a few free periods together, and I see Will more than most people (which is odd, because we never knew each other before this college year).
I can't lie, it's hard to strike the balance between two groups. It's hard to view it objectively, in terms of my grades and general emotional wellbeing, rather than subjectively. It's easy to let the guilt about 'not being present enough anymore' consume me. I wonder if it's my own fault that I don't belong there anymore. I wonder if my involvement in Amnesty, SOS, college magazine, etc etc, has stopped my friendships from growing. But, then, these things have all helped new friendships to grow.
So, I'm muddling through at the moment. There is only one person who knows how I truly feel about all of this, and she knows how much I love her for sticking by me through all of this confusion. I don't really have a conclusion or a happy ending to this post, only that I know this is just the beginning. Of what? I don't know, but I'm sure I'm going to find out...
Besos ♥
Rachel
How is it already Sunday again? Seriously, how? This week has been nothing special and dragged on a lot. Highlights have definitely come at the end of the week...
I spent most of Friday in the lab catching up with Jess (sort of). Apparently, I'm the 'focus' of her and Natalie's joint art project, so she followed me around taking photos of me for a few hours. The photo to the left is one of the photos she took.
I also spent a lot of Friday, as I do every Friday, with the lab people. It's fair to say that they are quickly becoming some of my favourite people. It's nice to escape the hostility of G block (seriously, whenever I'm there everybody seems to just be hating everybody else [sorry, but that needed saying]) and spend time with like-minded people. Liz and I did our usual Friday music quiz and Beckie (Jess' cousin, ironically) joined in as she sometimes does. We also escaped to the LRC for English, which was an hour spent doing nothing worth mentioning for me.
Here's also a video of Miss Dusty experiencing a walk in the snow for the first time in her 2(ish) years of life. We were a little shocked, but she enjoyed it rather a lot.
The voices you can hear are mine and my mum's - she was very concerned about my cardigan getting all snowy.
That's pretty much it for this week. It's half term starting on the 10th so hopefully I'll have more time to write - I have a lot to say at the moment, my only problem is finding enough time to sit down and make the thoughts make sense.
Besos ♥
Rachel
So, it's been two weeks since my last blog post. I took a proper break from it for a while in the run up to my two exams this week but they're over now and I'm back and blogging :)
Other than revision, there are only two events worth mentioning this week...
Tuesday 24th January - Wakefield Mayor's Awards :)
One of my English teachers from last year, Jonathan, nominated me for this. I won a Community Silver award for the work I do with the Amnesty group, college magazine and the charity fundraising I've done in college. It was a lovely night and the stories of some of the 'Individual' award winners were so touching. It was so thoughtful of Jonathan to nominate me and did mean a lot. I plan on finding him this week to thank him. I also thought it was very appropriate that Wakefield's coat of arms (seen in the photo) was on display everywhere and the motto was ''persevere and prosper'' considering some of the stories we heard.
Saturday 28th January - Jess' 18th Party :)
It was my lovely friend Jess' 18th birthday on Thursday and she had a rather large house party ;) small gathering at her house last night to celebrate. Below are a few photos... But, firstly, a few highlights: Sophie deciding she needed to slide off the sofa and onto the floor; Matt wondering if he might have put his pizza into his pocket; the great language debate held by a bunch of languages students.
Besos ♥
Rachel
Happy Sunday :) I thought today I'd try something different and blog about my favourite mid-January things. I've also put together a collage of recent photos for something that I intend to make a recurring feature called 'Sunday Catch-Up'. I don't have much time to write during the week, so I thought that if I don't, I can do something regular on a Sunday to compensate for it.
So, here are my mid-January favourites...
Make-up products
1. The Body Shop Colourglide Lip Colour in shade 48, Soft Peony. I picked this up just after Christmas when I was looking for a nice pink lipstick that wasn't too bright but was still very obviously pink. I trailed around all of the stores that sell lipsticks in Wakefield and found nothing that I liked enough to warrant spending money on, then tried out The Body Shop at the last minute. I found many pink shades in here and took a liking to this one, shade 48/Soft Peony. It's not *too* bright and its staying power is quite good. I think it was £8.
2. Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Sin. This is my favourite shade in the Naked palette, and has gone straight in as my number one eyeshadow shade. The only shadow I own that I could potentially see becoming just as favourable is MAC Patina. I find that Sin is a good base for any colour-combination that I'm likely to use on an everyday basis. I got this single shadow for Christmas because I hit pan on it in the palette :(
3. The Body Shop Lip Balm in Pink Grapefruit. I owned this several years ago, and I also had the shower gel, but the lip balm lived in my school bag and I never seemed to use it. It ended up with things stuck in it and it just became unusable. I repurchased at the same time as buying the lipstick, and have been using it a lot during the day since. I absolutely adore the smell and it's not too greasy.
4. Nails Inc polishes in Madison Avenue (full) and Holland Park Road (mini). I also received these for Christmas and am in love with both shades. Madison Avenue is definitely my current favourite polish, with Holland Park Road taking second place. Madison Avenue is the perfect deep green, and Holland Park Road is what I would describe as 'alternative purple' - it's not fully purple, but purple with undertones of maroons and pinks. Both of these take two coats on my nails.
Randoms
1. Books. The first book I've been loving this month is Jon Richardson's 'It's Not Me, It's You!'. The book itself had me laughing hysterically (and several people can vouch for this) in public, but also contemplating life and love and everything in between. It's also made me even more excited to see him live in March (woo!). I've also been reading The Complete Winnie the Pooh. My mum bought me the latest film for Christmas and after watching, I dug out the book. Winnie the Pooh will never get old. Ever.
2. Jewellery. The necklace in the top-right corner is one of my favourite ever purchases. I bought it in the autumn at some point and it has become one of my everyday pieces. I love the different colours in it and how it changes colour in the light. The second necklace, the black butterfly, is another piece that has become one of my 'everyday wears'. Both necklaces came from Accessorize and I bought them at the same time. The butterfly actually has a proper butterfly print on the other side, but I wear mine backwards because I just like the black silhouette of the butterfly. I often pair up both necklaces too. The pink rose ring is handmade. I've been enjoying wearing it as a 'statement' piece recently. I bought the ring backs from Hobbycraft, and the rose itself came from Yum Yum Beads in Leeds.
3. Stationery. A bit of an odd one, but still, we'll go with it. I've been loving using my document holders from Artbox this month a lot. I have three with Rilakkuma designs on them. I bought the first one years ago when I visited the Covent Garden store with my family, and I'm currently using it to house all of my spare lined paper. The one pictured is my Spanish oral exam notes folder. The second picture is of my neon pink (my camera washed the colour out no matter which settings I used) heart stickers from Paperchase. The pack cost £1.99 (I believe, don't quote me on that though) and there are several sheets of the small stickers. I just thought they were quite cute and they seem to come in handy for random things - like sticking down an envelope that wouldn't close yesterday :) The third photo is of Sharpie highlighters. I'm mainly mentioning these because I've been without proper highlighters since starting college again in September and my one green highlighter was driving me insane. These have small tips, so if you're highlighting small text (like I do because my handwriting is very small) it's all nice and neat, unlike if using a highlighter with a thick tip. I use these everyday without fail.
And here is my Sunday catch-up...
1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14 & 15 Last night was my friend Katie's 18th party (Katie is the girl I'm with in #1). Pretty much everybody stayed right until the end and had a good time :) Highlights included 'the balloon game' (everybody's played that, right? Where you have to keep the balloon off the floor?) and watching Eliza completely fail at the Macarena.
2 We spent a bit of time checking over Miss Peanut yesterday afternoon after I thought she didn't look herself. My mum decided to make her stand on her feet (kind of).
3 Delivery of Artbox goodies. The I <3 Artbox badge was free.
8 While taking photos of Peanut, I couldn't help but get this shot of Miss Dusty, who was very intrigued as to what was going on and why she was not receiving much attention.
9 Nails Inc Electric Avenue. My party nails for last night.
10 Delivery of Mark Watson's 'Bullet Points'. VERY excited to read this when I finish Winnie the Pooh.
11 Speaking of Winnie the Pooh...
12 An odd drive to college with Fern. The sky was striped and just completely unique. I took this when we stopped at traffic lights and Fern, who was driving, thought I was insane.
Besos ♥
Rachel
They say that Disney's magic, right? Today's been a giving up kind of day.
Here is my new motto: "If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together.. there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. I'll always be with you."
As I sat and sobbed all the way through Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin last night, I thought about the past and all of its challenges, and the future and how those challenges never seem to go away. It (the film) taught me two lessons: 1) never stop believing in the magic of Pooh, 2) there's nothing wrong with regressing a little when you need somewhere to escape to, and the Hundred Acre Wood isn't a bad place...
Besos ♥
Rachel
