Please would the person making the mess tidy it up next time?

You know when you get a spare half hour or so and think ''oh, I'll go and sort that thing out''? I had that moment this morning. 

Oh, I wasn't expecting that...

If you can't tell, that is my desk. My perfectly tidy, cute little desk. The cleaners clearly did a great job over the summer. There were things there that didn't even belong to us, so that was interesting. Even worse, the cleaners left the bin on my desk. Who does that?! Bins go on the floor for a reason, not on a surface used for working on. My OCD side had a field day with the mess in there. Eliza and I basically just threw everything in the corner and on the floor and then I made my desk look...normal...again and left. 

Ahhh, much better ;) Although, if any of the Geography staff start leaving stuff on there, words will be had. The one thing I cannot stand is when people mess up my stuff. Grrr. Anyway, once we'd got over the horror of how messy it was, it was all quite amusing. But, with the Geography staff in there now too, it's very claustrophobic. The office is smaller than you'd imagine a small spare room to be, so it's going to be interesting. Oh, and one of the staff decided he needed to store the following in the office...

Very odd/intriguing. The member of staff these random tubs belong to also happens to be my EP teacher. Fun times...

When I wasn't tidying throwing things on the floor, I was in lessons. I'm actually quite happy with my new timetable. I get Wednesday and Thursday afternoons off :) I had Spanish P2 today and our new class is already miles better than last year's - we all got along well today and it was just nice for once :) I also had English Language, and I don't really know anyone in there, so Chloe from Spanish came and sat with me. It's nice getting to know new people.

It's only the first week, but I can already see myself living in the language lab for the year, which is totally fine with me. I was in there alone with my teacher this afternoon working on some translations and it was good to be able to get help when necessary. 


Oh, and my new tutor is actually a different teacher now, but it's all good because he's the one who sorted out all the rubbish before Christmas and, when I told him he was my tutor, he sort of went ''waaaaaaaaay'' and seemed rather...happy? He's a languages teacher though, so the personal statement writing may be a bit smoother than anticipated. 


Positivity challenge: Going rather well thus far, managed to get through the office situation without any problems, there's only one thing bothering me and it's been ongoing for about a year really. Maybe it's one of those things I can't do anything about? Hmm...


Besos ♥ 
Rachel

Back to College

If I've already posted under this title, and Blogger suggests I have, I apologise. It's about as accurate as it gets right now, though.

I found out my classes and timetable today - Wednesday and Thursday afternoons off. Not bad :-) I also have seven frees with Fern, also not bad. 

I realllly wasn't looking forward to going back to college. I actually felt physically sick at the thought of having a tutor I didn't know, knowing nobody in my classes etc. Last year's timetable was a) awful and b) depressing - I didn't know anybody in my form or Media class, I knew two people in Psychology, two people in Spanish and two people in English. This year I have friends in my classes :O Except English, but I'm not too bothered, there are two people I know from school and Stevan from Poland, so I'll just tag along somewhere. I can tease Stevan about his hats again...

It's nice to feel positive about college again, you know, after a year of hating the place. My one main goal for this year is to remain positive. I plan on using my TYSICs to remind me of this goal, I know I'll lose the will to even try many times, so I'll need reminders, haha.

However, I KNOW the bus will be awful tomorrow morning, so I'm going to need that positivity first thing tomorrow. Fun stuff.

Oh, and my EP teacher is also one of the two teachers I now have to share an office with. Yay...

Besos ♥ 
Rachel

One With Purity

I clearly need to find something to occupy my free time with, because this evening has mainly been spent researching my name. My mum and I somehow ended up discussing yesterday evening what my name looks like in Hebrew. Yeah, we live very sheltered lives...

Anyway, I've always known two things about my name:
1) It is a Hebrew/biblical name
2) It means 'ewe' (female sheep)
I've always jokingly told people that obviously with a name that means that, I was always going to be a little bit odd. 

According to Wikipedia, my name can also mean ''one with purity'', which is a much nicer meaning. My middle name, Elizabeth, means ''God's promise'' or ''God is my oath''. I find it a little odd how my parents have given me names with such strong religious connotations when nobody in my immediate family would consider themselves very religious. Even my surname has religious connotations, something that I have only just realised (no, this won't make sense unless a) I know you or b) you follow me on Twitter). 

I quite like my name in the Hebrew alphabet. It's simple and easy to remember.

"רחל"

The word in Hebrew starts at the end of the name, so it reads 'lhr'. It misses out the a, c and e, no idea why. Perhaps it's how it's pronounced? The letters are, in order from left to right:
Lamed - ל
Het - ח
Resh -  ר

Could I be anymore of a geek? As a linguist (OK, so not really, but it sounds cool so we'll go with it), I'm actually fascinated. I don't have any foreign ancestry (that I, or anybody in my family, know of), so I actually love the fact that my name can be written in another alphabet and everything. 

I also find names in general fascinating. I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but my mum's name (Susan) means ''lily''. Lily is my grandma's name (her mum). Me and my brother both have names that end in 'el', although I'm pretty sure this was just coincidence because when I've asked my parents how we ended up being named, I was told ''we just liked them''. 

I think as far as randomess in blog posts goes, this is pretty random. I just thought it was interesting, haha :)

Besos ♥ 
Rachel 

Keep your eyes wide open

Isn't it easy to miss things? The past few weeks have been so intense it's been difficult to think straight, let alone see the things I think I was maybe supposed to see.

Of course, it's natural to think negatively when in a situation that is negative. Or should I say, it's natural to not think positively in a negative situation? Either way, there's the same difference. 

Somehow, and I have no idea how, I ended up listening to this song last night... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP346UnjC_w

The lyric ''keep your eyes wide open'' caught me. If your eyes are closed to the world, you miss out on so much. This is how I have been thinking, and how I should be thinking...


"They won't talk to us"
"This is an opportunity to focus my efforts on other relationships"

"I now have two less days to edit the magazine, sort out the office and get my personal statement sorted"
"I get to spend an afternoon with Eliza, and possibly Fern, without the worry of college"

"They still haven't found us office space, how are we supposed to help people and do peer counselling without a room to do it in?"
"This is teaching us patience and giving us more time to organise how we want to proceed with our plans"

"You're not coming anymore so it will be rubbish"
"Everybody else that I love will still be there"

"Everything is falling apart"
"I'm being given a chance to learn and grow as a person"

Bizarrely, the concept of opening your eyes to the small things in life was introduced to me by the comedian Adam Hills in his Characterful and Joymonger DVD. He talks about wanting to teach his Godson certain things, and the whole DVD is a cleverly masked commentary on how sometimes, it's better to just laugh at something than get wound up about it. 

I really need to start being that person - the one that's standing there laughing while everybody else is angry. Life's too short to hang around being annoyed for no real reason. Wouldn't it be lovely just just not be bothered? To just go with it?

I feel almost as if the past few weeks have been preparing me to go back to college (which is now Wednesday instead of Monday) - I can't even put into words how sad, angry and upset I felt all the way through year 12, but I know that I don't want year 13 to be the same. 

This is our last year together as we are. My group of friends has been largely unaffected by leaving school and starting college - minus 3 people, we're all exactly the same, and we actually have more people around us now than we did in school. Why haven't I been thankful for that? Losing 3 people from our 'Lunch Bunch' has ultimately meant that weak friendships we had with others are now stronger. I still don't even know how one of our friends stumbled into the middle of our little group, but we all welcomed her with open arms and it's like she's been there all along. We have somewhere to go, we have people who care about us, and we have our memories - why haven't I focused my attention on that? 

I hated college all year, but there are so many things I wish I'd opened my eyes to sooner. If I hadn't gone to college, I'd never have met Poppy, and we'd never have stood at the front of a church laughing at the Vice Principal's inability to take pictures. I'd never have met Sophie, and we'd never have gone to Linguastars and had the best two days of the whole college year. I'd never have gone to Poland and not only experienced one of the most surreal things I can think of, but I'd also never have grown closer to Jade, got to know Jess or remembered who I really am.

It's time to refocus and keep remembering who I really am. We have one year left to just be until it gets really hard. Let's make the most of it.

"And now, with the lights turned down and your eyes half open, I know you don't see me. When I'm standing out, if you just turn around and keep your eyes wide open, I know you might feel me here."

          

La Noche

It's 00:29am as I begin writing this. I should be in bed, asleep, but I'm not. Seeing Eliza, Jess and Sophie all in one day has sent my brain into overdrive. I'm not used to seeing...people. I'm having to stop myself tweeting everything that pops into my head so I thought I'd retreat over here to ramble a bit.

I learnt an important lesson yesterday - it's OK to be mad at someone, as long as you don't let it overcome you. For a brief time yesterday, I was really mad at somebody (who will probably read this, to be honest) for disappointing me, but today I'm not mad anymore. As Chuck said on Pushing Daisies (well, I'm paraphrasing), sometimes you need to hate somebody before you can like them again. Only with me, it wasn't hate, it was just ''annoyed with''. 

I'm back at college on Monday (did I mention I hate that place?) and thoroughly dreading it. I wrote my article on 'How to Survive NCP' this evening, it was almost as false as the letter I wrote on our unexpected CoPE day to ''sell college to the potential new Y12s''. I actually said ''don't give up...you can do it'' - if somebody has to say that about a college, it's not good...

I also spent about an hour and a half just driving about today. When I pass my test, I can already see myself just driving around for no real reason, just because it feels like I'm actually going somewhere. Well, technically I am, but y'know...

And now I really should go to bed, so buenas noches :)

Besos ♥ 
Rachel   
 

Summer Favourites

So, I've been a bit of a naughty blogger this summer and seriously lacked in enthusiasm to post anything on here. I've gone from 27 posts in July to 8 (9 if we include this one) in August. I can hear the internet yelling ''shame on you!"... Anyway, I'm back to college on Monday and summer will, in my head, officially be over. Booo :( I thought I'd compile a 'summer favourites' post to give you a glimpse of why I've not been posting :)

Television If I told you that my entire summer has been spent watching Not Going Out repeats, I wouldn't really be lying. Equally, I wouldn't be lying if I substituted Not Going Out for Pushing Daisies. I pretty much never watch TV during ''the academic year'' so summer has very much been spent lazing around and watching TV. When we were in France, my brother and I spent every single evening watching the DVDs in the picture :)

Personalising Somewhere, once, I saw that someone had created a 'washing line' of cards, photos etc, and hung it in what I think was their kitchen. I'm not even sure why, but I decided I wanted to do the same in my bedroom. From left to right: The CHS World Challenge Team 2010; Fern and I at prom; Croatian countryside; Rachel 1 and Rachel 2 at Magna (v. old); My handprint; Sarah, Beth M, Fern and I on prom night; two thank you cards from extended family; a Valentines card from Talor (my Psychology friend). The pegs are a mix of craft pegs and pegs I bought in Poland ''because they looked pretty'' :)

Jewellery I've been incredibly good about buying jewellery this year and barely bought anything, with the exceptions of the three (technically four...) rings pictured and a bracelet in Poland that matched Jade's. The first three rings you can see are all from Bijou Brigitte, which is a German brand that has recently opened a store in Wakefield, and the fourth is from Asda. The necklaces pictured were all made by me, and if you scroll back a bit you'll find tutorials and other posts about making jewellery yourself.

Nails The only thing I can justify wasting money on is nail polish, and that's because I know I'll use it. From left to right: Beauty UK Frozen Kingdom; Boots 17 Chaperone; Boots 17 Baked Cherry; Accessorize Khaki Folly; Models Own Utopia; George at Asda Deceit; George at Asda Indigo Dazzle; George at Asda Troll; George at Asda Starry Eyed. The George range has absolutely been my favourite - only £1.75 and the polishes seem to last for quite a long time considering how cheap they are. The bottles are a little small but for the price it's reasonable. My most recent purchase was the Beauty UK Frozen Kingdom one, which I LOVE, and despite the name, it really isn't wintery.


Being a Geek The two notebooks pictured were customised to say 'Notebook' and 'Thoughts' in lots of different languages. Geeky? Yes. My drawer isn't usually that messy, by the way. I've also been teaching myself Swedish, hence the whiteboard...which actually is completely out of date now as that was the first lesson I gave myself and I know everything on there now. A post on that will be coming soon, language geeks :-)

Beauty While I can justify spending money on nail polish, I really can't when it comes to make up. I don't know why, I just can't. This summer I've mainly been wearing the lighter shades of the eyeshadow, the Rimmel Flash Eyeliner or the brown eyeliner, and a lipstick that's not actually pictured (yay for good photography). The lipstick pictured is actually a replacement for one that I bought twice, which broke both times I purchased one. The one pictured, Beauty UK's In the Buff, replaced Collection 2000's Crystal Gloss Coral Crystal - the colour is fairly different, but it's does its job and, most importantly, doesn't literally fall apart when being used. 

Hola Magazine This really shouldn't count as a 'summer' favourite, as I only purchased it recently. However, I have discovered that WH Smiths sells copies of Hola magazine in some of its branches. So far, I've spotted it in Barnsley (random, I know) and York. Obviously, I've purchased both times :) This one I bought in York and I was pretty impressed with myself for actually knowing of one of the celebrities it did an article on (Paulina Rubio). Stress free Spanish revision is the best ;) I've had the other issue I purchased for well over a year, so it was nice to find something up to date, haha.


Party Planning Finally, the big one - party planning. My 18th birthday is on the 18th of September, and I'm having a party on the 10th to celebrate :) There are no prizes for guessing why the picture is related, but I'll be impressed if you can guess why (Fern, you know why, so you can't take part :P). My mum is a bit of a nightmare when planning something - I keep mentally comparing her to the nightmare mother of the bride situation you always see in films, haha. I'm VERY excited for my friend Rachel (yes, same name) to come up from Melton Mowbray on the train as we haven't seen each other in about 4 years. I'm also excited to see some of the extended family again because it's been a while. I'm also hoping that after a long first week back at college it'll be something nice to look forward to :)

So that's been my summer. I'm back to college on Monday (nooooooo) and dreading it. That place is seriously depressing. I'm also going to look into the ridiculous spacing problem going on with Blogger at the moment, because I know the paragraphs are all messed up and it's been winding me up for ages.

Besos ♥ 
Rachel 

Review - World Nomads Spanish Language Guide

Life seems to have stalled at the moment, so reviews and languages are definitely the way forward. Today, I'm reviewing World Nomads Spanish Language Guide - which is an app that I have on my iPod.

World Nomads is a company that, primarily, isn't a phrasebook/language software company. They are, primarily, a travel insurance company - their tag line being ''Keep Travelling Safely". So, bearing that in mind, my first question is 'how does this app help me to travel safely?'

Arguably, it is hard for an iPhone/iPod/phone app to keep you safe, especially when it is a phrasebook/language guide. The 'travel safety' and 'travel health' sections of the app are fairly thorough, especially in comparison to other apps of a similar nature. Admittedly, I do find those sections in the Spanish phrasebook by lastminute.com slightly more thorough - especially the health section. In this respect, they do stick to their motto of ''keep travelling safely'', although I hope they're not using this as their main hook.


Moving onto the other sections, unlike with some of their other language guides, every section has audio alongside the written text if you tap the little box the word is in. With some apps, I find it incredibly frustrating how audio is only available on some phrases - especially because a pronunciation section is incredibly rare with a phrasebook/language guide style app. 

The sections are as follows: basics, instructions, directions, transport, places to stay, travel safety, travel health, food and eating, numbers, times and dates, and flirting. There is also the option to upgrade to the Language Guide Plus.


The title 'Language Guide' is perhaps a little misleading - this app is absolutely a phrasebook. I assume the 'Language Guide' comes from the fact that you can opt to take a 'Language Lesson' in which you will hear an Australian pretend to be foreign (the Croatian one is incredibly cringeworthy) and another Australian receive a lesson in the language while in a random situation (Croatian was someone had hurt their leg).


As with all phrasebooks apps, this one is not going to match up to if you were to go out and purchase a whole phrasebook. Luckily, this version of the app is free. The Language Guide Plus version costs £1.49, which I have never downloaded because my level of Spanish is way above the level of the app. 


Because of my level of Spanish, there are a few things I question - firstly, the app translates 'Internet' to 'Internet/la web' and 'Email' to 'Email'. I have only ever heard Internet as Internet or la Red, and email as un correo electronico. I also don't understand why these are in the basics section - alongside 'yes', 'thank you' etc. Secondly, the app seems to like making use of different tenses and conjugations. For instance, it would be just as easy to say ''Hay habitaciones?", but the app says "Tienen habitaciones?". The travel safety section also has the translation for "Those drugs aren't mine!" - now, maybe it's just me, but if you've been caught with drugs in a foreign country, you're probably not going to be holding it together enough to get our your iPod/phone and look the phrase up... Finally, the flirting section only has two phrases in it, with a third box suggesting you upgrade to the plus version. I find this a little odd, because I can't imagine anyone reaching that part of the app and deciding they want to upgrade for more flirting phrases. There are more free apps (Lingopal lite, for example) that do this.


Overall, it's a pretty good app. I personally wouldn't buy the plus version for reasons already stated (level of Spanish), but the free version is worth a download. If you're downloading one of the less popular languages, audio will probably be missing - even the German app has audio missing...as does the French. 


Have you used any of the World Nomads Language Guides? If so, leave us a comment to let us know how you got on with them :)


Besos ♥ 
Rachel