Sunday 29 August 2010

Broek, Furrë, Wǔfan

Sorry for the slight blogging absence. I've been busy doing pretty much nothing for almost a week (yes, that is my excuse...) As you'll be aware if you read my last post, I got my GCSE results last Tuesday and I'm beyond proud of my 8A*s and 5As. I was really shocked at some of them, but overall ridiculously proud of myself. I got an A* in Spanish meaning that I can definitely study it in college, which I was really nervous about because I was convinced I hadn't got a B or above. Anyway, I can study it at college, I enrolled last Wednesday and I begin full time this coming Thursday (2nd September). Exciting times.

As you may (or may not) also remember, I have finally made a productive start on my summer project. To recap on what it actually is:
1. I have randomly listed 5 words in a random language for each day;
2. Each day I will learn 5 words of one language;
3. This will continue until all the words in my project folder have been learnt.
There isn't much of a point to this, but I have maintained for a long time now that learning new languages is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for being older and making your own way in the world. I'm not going to fully explain why I think that, that should be another post all to itself. I will give you just one reason though. The word 'No' translates to 'Ne' in at least 11 languages. The world 'Yes' translates to 'Ja' in 12 lanuguages, 'Ya' in a further 2, and 'Da' in 9. You see, if you can say No as Ne in 1 country, you can say it in a further 10... Languages are much easier than people tend to believe when you actually think about them.

So, here are 3 days' worth of words for you to be learning. I'll try to upload them in groups of 3, every 3 days, however starting college on Thursday might put a halt to this plan. However, I'll make sure to keep uploading them.

Day 1: Afrikaans
Botter - Butter
Broek - Trousers
Hous - House
Hond - Dog
Geel - Yellow

Day 2: Albanian
Bukë - Bread
Furrë - Bakery
Pikant - Spicy
Embeltorrë - Sweet shop/Confectioners
Policia - Police

Day 3: Mandarin Chinese
Ching - Please
Jintian - Today
Bushi - No
Wǔfān - Lunch
Shuǐ - Water

I must confess to not knowing which 3 are next up, I can only remember (they're in alphabetical order, so you could probably guess) that Croatian is next. I may select 10 words for this as I'm pretty sure I'll have learnt the 5 I selected considering that I chose them before I went to Croatia...so I'll probably have learnt them by now without realising.

I also have 4 crafty/baking posts lined up that I hope to get written up in the next two weeks or so. I've got so many ideas for posts in my head right now and not enough time to write them. The plan is to review a crafts product I bought last weekend, write up my recipe for cupcakes, write up my method for creating your own notebook right from scratch and finally a jewellery making themed post. These posts are also providing me with a great excuse to experiment with my dad's SLR camera once more.

At the moment, I feel like my blog is a bit like doing admin, which isn't very pleasing and I hope it's not lacking in enjoyment to read. I'm sure I'll be back to blogging as I did when I first started out once I start college and ''teenage issues'' start filling my mind once more. Oh, the joys! I'm also amazed that this blog seems to gain visitors each day regardless of whether I've posted that day or not. Hello to all new readers :) Please feel free to leave comments on any post, I always enjoy reading your views :)

Besos

Rachel


Tuesday 24 August 2010

12 Years

Today was the culmination of 12 years of schooling and, while I could do a long post on my thoughts and feelings about today, I won't. I'll save that for once enrolment is over with tomorrow and I've had time to let my results sink in.

Firstly, I'm SO proud of my friends for their results. I have such intelligent friends and they're all amazing in their own little ways, and they all deserve their achievements so, so much. Secondly, I'm going out with them in about 45 minutes so I don't even have the time to do a lengthy post until much later tonight.

So, I'm going to go and get ready and I'll leave you with my (amazing) results:
English Language - A*
English Literature - A*
Maths - A
Science A - A
Additional Applied Science - A
Core ICT - Double Distinction (worth 2 GCSEs)
Spanish - A*
Food Tech - A*
Business Studies - Double Distinction* (worth 2 GCSEs)
Applied ICT - Double A* (worth 2 GCSEs)

Besos
Rachel


Monday 23 August 2010

Give us a break!

So, we get our GCSE results tomorrow and already the media hounds are out in full force and trying to undermine whatever achievements we may have. I won't bore you with the details, but apparently, GCSEs are SO easy that getting an A or A* means nothing this year.

Yeah, right.

I know how hard I've worked over the past two years, I know how much effort it takes to even get up to an A or A* standard, let alone actually getting the grade in the exam. I know that whatever my grades are tomorrow, I've worked hard for them and nobody can take that away from me. But here's where it really annoys me: nothing my generation do is good enough. We walk down the street...we're going to mug somebody. We go in a shop...we're going to steal something. We have fun with our friends...we're too loud. We watch TV...we're too lazy. We get A and A* grades...we're not good enough.

Seriously?!

I've always been on the ''good side'' for pretty much my whole life, and I don't plan on swapping sides anytime soon (or ever, really), but I'm beginning to understand why some people give up. No matter how hard we try or how well we do, we're never good enough. The way I see it is that if you haven't recently sat a GCSE paper, you have no right to make negative comments on the way they are. Unless journalists have been in a maths exam and sat the paper, how would they know how hard it really is? They wouldn't, would they? Unless they've been in a Spanish oral exam, they wouldn't know how tough learning the language is, would they? You get the picture, right?

I don't understand why the media can't just give my generation a break. There are people around my age doing amazing things for the better of many people, there are people around my age who spend their lives studying and taking in everything they could learn, yet they're still not good enough. It's stupid.

Tomorrow is judgement day for us, and we all have the right to be nervous, excited, indifferent etc. We can handle it however we like and be as proud as we want of our results. They might not mean anything to these critics, but they mean a lot to us...and that's what matters really.

Good luck to everybody receiving results too tomorrow. I hope you achieve everything you want and more :)

Besos
Rachel


Thursday 19 August 2010

Don't Label Me

So, I started a post last night and Blogger, being SO kind, decided not to save it for me. Gee, thanks. Anyway, I rambled for a while about going shopping for ''college clothes'' then I was about to launch into something deep and meaningful. Well actually, I kinda lost my way with the post I started so it's no great loss.

My cousin got her AS results today which reminded me in too many ways that GCSE results day is next Tuesday...and is pretty much the culmination of my entire school life. Scary. On the outside, I'm not too fussed by it. Inside, I'm not too fussed either. But there are also a few little niggly points that are slowly starting to get into my system and work their way into the part of my brain that makes me worry.

Spanish is my absolute favourite subject (and on paper, one of my best), but my speaking exam didn't go too well considering my teacher had the wrong questions, started panicking and asking me loads of questions ABOUT my questions then told me at the end she'd have to ''send a message explaining the situation'' to the exam board. Yeah, great, really filled me with confidence. So I'm kinda worried that because I went into the listening and reading exams a bit scared of failing because of that, I didn't do as well as if I'd had confidence in myself and the grade I was already on. I also want to do Spanish at college but I have to get at least a B, and I'm not sure I have. If I can't do it at college, I will be devastated so I'm just praying that I'll have done enough.

Other than that, I know my grade in some subjects because the exams were in January or they were purely coursework based. I'm a little worried about maths because I could never actually explain how much I used to struggle with it and how hard I've worked to just get to being capable of achieving a C. Considering that, I still think it's pretty mental that my teacher (and form tutor) pushed me to get an A and I did in my mock. I don't think I have on the real exam but as long as I pass, it's pretty much a miracle.

The only thing that's really bothering me about results day is the amount of pressure on me. I put pressure on myself, there's pressure from certain family members, and there's pressure from subject teachers. As well as that, there's pressure from my peers. I've just had to deal with a girl in my year telling me she ''knows I'll get all A*s'' which I already know I haven't. I don't understand where the ''clever'' label I've been stuck with came from, but it irritates the hell out of me sometimes...because if I don't do as well as I hoped to - it's not just my own feeling about it that I have to contend with. I get tons of unwanted opinions and comments from people in my classes or who also sat the exam and, well, it just winds me up...a lot.

On a more positive note: congratulations to everybody who got their results today and were pleased with them :)

Besos
Rachel


Friday 13 August 2010

Smile, and change the world

Today was an overall good day. I woke up this morning, heard the letterbox then went downstairs to find a letter from World Challenge containing something Margaret (starting to wonder how she got employed in the first place to be honest...) told us we wouldn't get - a certificate! I've received quite a few certificates in my time, but it has to be one of my biggest achievements so far for sure. I was very much pleasantly surprised by it and it reminded me how much I am capable of achieving.

This afternoon, I went into town with four of my friends (Eliza, Zoe, Danny and Aiden) and we ''cheered up Wakefield'' by sticking post-it notes with encouraging, generally lovely or funny messages around the town centre. I'll post some pics on here once I upload them to my laptop. The idea was taken from two girls who are regular readers/commenters/participants on comedian Mark Watson's blog who did the same in their own home town with the view of ''changing the world''.

Now, I know that by doing the same, we certainly didn't change the world, but I like to think that we made a difference to perhaps just one person and that's what counts. Whilst I was walking home, I passed a woman who I've never met before who very cheerily said "hello, love" and although she was saying hello while we passed eachother, it absolutely made my day and made me realise something important.

It's the small things that are going to change the world.

We can make huge gestures and be ridiculously proud of ourselves and want those on the receiving end to praise us for it for a long, long time - but it's not worth it when we can make them (and ourselves) feel ten times happier by just doing something small and unexpected.

So here is my plea to you. Next time you're walking around your town, village etc, why not go out of your way to just be pleasant to somebody? It's something that is increasingly lacking in today's society and I think it needs to begin reappearing. You know, next time that teenage girl scowls at you in a clothes shop, give her a genuine smile. Next time that old woman looks at you like you're going to do something she won't like, give her a smile and say hello.

As single human beings, we're never going to change the world, but we can change somebody's world...

Besos
Rachel


Wednesday 11 August 2010

Hi, my name is Rachel...

...and I have never been one for expressing my likes and dislikes very much. I've always been uncomfortable with people knowing the sort of music I listen to or the TV shows I watch, I guess that comes from being the age I am and the experiences I've previously had with 'friends' of mine finding it hilarious to mock me for weeks on end for it - when there's no need. Anyway, I'm digressing, the point I'm trying to make is that I've never been particularly forward in expressing what I like, dislike, enjoy, hate, whatever...

Recently, I've found myself sharing those things more.
I blogged yesterday about a project idea I had - to make a collage within my handprint. I never said I'd share the results of it on here once it had been made but I did think it, and, because I'm efficient like that, that's exactly what I'm about to do.


The pink thing in the background is my new psychology folder, I thought it looked a little better than the sofa. You may recognise some of the things I included in my handprint, you may not. I was particularly pleased with the way I managed to get the pictures within the fingers to fit and still look good even with bits of the picture missing. The adorable bunny near my thumb is the family rabbit, Dusty. You may also be able to make out the blog header underneath her, I thought that seen as I was writing about it on here, I should include it and I'm glad I did. I included the Spanish and Croatian flags despite the fact that I'm neither Spanish, nor Croatian. The Spanish flag is because once I started studying the language about two years ago, it was honestly like I found a part of myself that I didn't realise existed. The Croatian flag is (pretty obviously, I'd imagine) because of my time in Croatia and the fact that I've kind of fallen in love with the country (and its people). You may also be able to make out the ESC 2010 logo, Josh Groban's Awake album cover and the picture of Jack Johnson - these represent music and the fact that I am a strong believer that lyrics are often the best form of therapy I could have. I'll let you work out what the other things I included are, and even speculate about why I included them :)

I'm not sure where my handprint will go now, I may make a few more with other things that make me...me and stick them up together. I must say though, I'm pretty impressed with how well it turned out. My artistic/creative skills have definitely improved over this summer :)

So, what would go in your handprint?

Besos
Rachel

Testing, testing...Hello sparkly new blog!

OK, so I know it's 00:33am here in the UK and God-knows what time everywhere else, but, I have some exciting news for you and, if you're reading this - you'll have probably already figured out what it is...

The Details in the Fabric has once again been re-designed!

Don't get me wrong, I loved the old layout. However, when my friend pointed out to me earlier this evening that it didn't show up properly on his computer and he therefore couldn't read my posts without having to highlight the text - I decided it was time for drastic action. Apologies to anybody who has experienced problems with this - I genuinely had no idea. However, hopefully the new, simple layout will be much less hassle. Over the next few days I intend to tweak the finer details of the re-design but I'm pretty pleased with it as it is right now.

Besos
Rachel

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Handprint

One of the things I think I'll always remember about high school is one time in Art when our teacher was absent for the lesson and we got to pick what we did. Let me get one thing straight right now, because I don't want to mislead you, I HATED Art with a passion. I really, really detested the subject. I disliked my teacher in the lessons, but she was really nice to me outside of lessons (weird, right?) and I felt really restricted by the topics we covered. I've never been any good at what they call 'art' in school, but I never felt like I was given a chance to even try and be good at it...

Until this one lesson, when we got to pick what we did, drew, painted etc. It took me ages to decide what I wanted to do, but when I had the idea I was ridiculously proud of myself. I was going to draw around my handprint, and then fill it w
ith pictures that symbolised me. You know, because your handprint is like your identity, and so are the things that make you...you. I'm still quite proud of myself for thinking of that, and I still have the picture I produced - it's stuck in the front of my leavers' scrapbook.

But, since that joyous hour in art class back in year nine, I like to think that my artistic abilites have grown considerably, even if only in small ways. I'm still working on my summer languages project (I even have a special project folder, I'm SO excited to share it with you all soon! :P) but I'm now undertaking another very short project - and I'm stupidly proud that it came from my brain - especially considering how lacking in intelligent or productive thoughts I am this evening.

Basically, I'm going to make a collage. No big deal, I do it on a weekly basis now pretty much, they all go inside my summer project folder. But this collage will be different, because once it's finished - guess what it's going to be shaped like? Yep, you got it, my handprint. I'm going to fill it full of pictures of musicians I like, lyrics I love, TV shows I watch and other small things that make me...me. I'd love it if some of you gave it a go and posted pics of yours on your own blog or on Twitter. Or even if you drew a handprint or even just made a collage and left it at that. Basically, I'd love to get to know some of my readers. Because, according to the tracker on here, there are way more of you than I ever anticipated there being from a wide range of countries - and I'd genuinely love to know a little about you guys :) If you plan on giving it a go, please let me know via comments so I can find out how your projects turn out :)

Besos
Rachel


Sleepy...

I did have something lined up to post today (only in my head though) - but I've suffered a 9 hour 'shift' at my dad's office with just him and my grandad for company...and I've completely forgotten whatever it was that I wanted to post about. Great. So, welcome to today's makeshift blog post...

I've been trying not to spend much time at all sitting and just thinking about stuff this summer - it's something that I'm incredibly good at but, unfortunately, it isn't good for me. As the summer slowly draws to a close I can feel myself letting stupid thoughts creep into my head slightly more than usual, and I kind of don't mind that but at the same time, I kind of do. I know there's no point in forcing myself to not think about anything but I also know that it's equally as pointless thinking about things for no reason.

I also feel like I'm making more of an effort with certain friendships I have. These people have been people that I've liked and respected for a long time but have never been close to, but I think I've got closer to them over the summer and I like that fact...a lot. I know that college is definitely going to change all of that, but at the moment it's not a big deal to me because for the first time in a long, long while...I feel confident about my friendships and I have friends that I trust. That sounds like I've never really had friends. I have, but I tend to invest a lot of time, effort and emotion into one person who lets me down eventually. And this is a cycle that repeats itself more than I'd like it to - a lot more.

Part of it comes from my own inability to confront people. My friends, family, teachers etc always say that I need to stick up for myself a bit more but I just hate the idea of having an argument with somebody. There never seems to be an appropriate moment for it and I imagine all of the bad things that could come from it and it just puts me off talking about things with people. I've also never had much experience of talking to a friend about a problem between us and it being resolved. I've tried and tried to figure out why this is and I really don't have an explanation - that fact winds me up a hell of a lot. Sometimes I think that maybe it's because I've always been one of the oldest in my year at school, form group etc, and therefore I've always experienced things before my friends have - with some of them, almost a year before them - and when you're our age, a year is like a decade.

I suppose my sudden thoughts on it stem from the fact that I'm thinking of college as being a new start and I don't want my bad habits to follow me there and affect any decision I might make. Everybody I know who has already gone to college has made tons of new friends and they're still friends with them now - so while I know that I won't make ''tons of new friends'' because I'm not like that, I hope that I will make some. I'm not saying that my current friends aren't good enough, because they absolutely 100% are, but I just want to experience new things and meet new people - as well as keeping some of the 'old' ones in my life. It can't be that hard, can it?

OK, so I might regret saying that by the time college has started and I'm knee deep in essays, essays and more essays, but for some reason I feel quite optimistic about life at the moment and I don't care how naive that may sound. At the end of the day, I'm only going to be this carefree once and I might as well make the most of it while I still can - and I haven't got long left in comparison to if I'd said that when I was about 3 years old... That doesn't necessarily (or at all, really) mean that you'll be able to find me drunk in a bus shelter every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night... but it does mean living and enjoying life.

I enjoyed school, I enjoyed it a lot. I met people who inspired me and found things that I love to do. But, and this is a big issue for me, I kind of feel like I've missed out on being ''a typical teen'' and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's not necessarily a good thing either. I've pretty much spent the past two years solidly revising, working, writing essays, doing homework, memorising stuff, typing stuff, organising stuff etc etc and while I have to admit that there is something very fulfilling about being busy most of the time, it does suck the fun out of life quite a lot.

So, there you have it - makeshift blog. The 'theme' of this was possibly the one I came up with and then stupidly forgot, possibly not. Hope it wasn't too boring/self-indulgent. Anyway, I have emails to sort through, a booklet full of college homework to find and a phone to charge up. Have a good evening.

Besos
Rachel


Friday 6 August 2010

Counting Down

Gosh, it feels like FOREVER since I last blogged on here. I've been posting small, meaningless things to my Tumblr page but I've missed doing a long post on here.

I've been in Weymouth for a week, which has been kind of boring but awoke adventurous parts of me that had been hiding since Croatia. I could have actually posted from a pub/bar on the campsite there, but I was a tad uncomfortable with the idea of writing a blog in a public place - it's supposed to be private (despite the fact that it's all posted online. Hmm...)

Recently, I realised that I've spent the vast majority of this year counting down for things. January - counting down for official exams. After that - counting down for leavers' day on May 19th. June - counting down for prom. July - counting down for Croatia. Now? Counting down for GCSE Results Day on August 24th (the sheer thought kinda makes me feel sick), Enrollment Day at college on the 25th, first day of college on September 1st, my birthday on the 18th then finally Mark Watson live in Halifax in December. However much I have disliked parts of this year and wished it to be over, I can't help but deny the fact that it's been an incredible year so far.

Don't get me wrong, too many parts of this year have been horrible. The first few months were just hideous and I don't think I've ever felt so depressed, then right before Croatia my auntie got ill (but recovered thankfully), and while we were away in Weymouth one of the family guinea pigs died. I can't help but wonder whether I'd have been able to make sense of these things without having been a World Challenger. I still have the perspective I blogged about once I came back, only I have found that I still search for answers to everything. Maybe that's just who I am, though, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

As you've probably already figured out, 99.9% of the stories I tell at the moment are linked to Croatia. I feel like I should apologise for this because it must get pretty boring for those that have never been or have no interest in travelling. However, I think I can probably be forgiven for telling lots of Croatia stories - because when something life changing happens, you don't just forget about it, do you? If people didn't just tell stories of their passions, their interests, their experiences, then this world would be incredibly dull - don't you think? For our English GCSE, our year studied Of Mice and Men and one quote always sticks in my memory and appears whenever I think about being boring and telling stories over and over again:
"And then her words tumbled out in a passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away..."
I kind of identify with that, but only on here...not in face-to-face conversations. Sometimes I get so into what I'm typing to you guys that I just type it and it's like there's not enough time to get it written because I feel so strongly about it - and that's kind of what I feel about Croatia.

So, in a very long winded way, what I'm trying to say is that I know I talk about it a lot, but I hope there's a point to what I say. I'm still looking for topic ideas for my blog posts so please let me know if there's anything you think I should cover (:

Besos
Rachel