Caminaría en la infinidad

Before I get started on what I really have to say, that title has nothing to do with anything I'm writing about. I just like the song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHgBcthsblY) and couldn't think of a title.

Now...

It's fair to say that lately, I've been distancing myself from a lot of thing - from my friends, from my family, from anything online, from my college work a little too. Why? I honestly couldn't tell you. I suppose when you're going through something difficult, things like that tend to happen, though. Thinking about it, I was sick of explaining the same stories to everybody every time I saw them, I was tired of feeling like I had a duty to keep everybody updated on every single aspect of my life at the time. Especially when they can't do anything to help you with the things that are causing you trouble. 

So, this week I've slowly been building back up to shortening that distance a little. I've been almost living in the language lab to get back up to speed with all the college work I missed without being able to access a computer at home. I also went and sat with the usual crowd in G block for a while today. And I've realised one vital thing: distance can be a good thing.


Why? People get agitated and bored of the same people and the same conversations every day of their lives. You then start misreading their body language, the looks they give you, the words they choose, as all being that they're unhappy with you. But when there's a bit of distance between you every now and then, you actually find you have things to talk about - it's not just dragging yourself over the same point again and again until there's nothing left to say. And certainly for me, creating a bit of distance between me and my friends has helped. I still know what's going on with people, but I haven't found myself completely wrapped up in what they're all doing, because I'm not really ever there to witness anything. And equally, I'm getting my work done and coming home with nothing to do. I'm not saying there's no downside, but it can work to your advantage. 


Even more equally, the fact that my laptop decided that functioning was no longer its favourite task has worked to my advantage. The distance that was placed between me and social networking has meant that again, I haven't found myself wrapped up in what everybody else is doing. I haven't had a moment recently where I've caught myself ranting about pointless Facebook statuses or what A said to B. Don't get me wrong, I've also spent a large amount of time making virtual pizzas on an iPhone app I have, but it's not like I've spent even more time telling people about it (until now, but this doesn't count). 


So yes, today's lesson has been that distance can work, and it can work well too. I'm slowly sorting out my headspace and everything else on top of that, but I'm not sure I could be doing that if everything was just as intense as it was before...


Besos ♥
Rachel

 

Hello, stranger

To those of you who didn't totally give up on me - do you remember me mentioning laptop problems? Well, here we are a month later and with a new laptop. Yeah, that one ended well. It's been an odd month, I've kind of had nothing to do, but I'm SO behind on college work now due to not having access to PowerPoint (I have a vendetta against that program, it makes me so angry...) - awesome.

Anyway, I'm back. Properly. Unless, of course, this new laptop decides that just completely ceasing to work is its best option, in which case you will find me hitting my head against a brick wall with considerable force. Moving on...

I'm exhausted and have nothing particularly interesting to say tonight, it's been an odd sort of day where I've spent most of it in the language lab finishing my EP presentation on the Hebrew alphabet...only for the teacher to be ill. Please tell me my life isn't the only one that has a habit of just being annoying? Here are a few pictures of what I've been up to recently...

In the holidays, my parents, my brother and I went to Edinburgh - also known as the city full of roadworks...everywhere. We only went for two nights, so we only really had one full day as two days were spent sitting in the back of my dad's car. The highlights were finding an international newsagents (Spanish magazines = entire week made), seeing a member of college staff in the queue for Edinburgh Castle and being able to sleep, slightly, during the second night. Oh, and the GIANT Starbucks I had, that was also good. 

Last Thursday and Friday, we held our first proper Amnesty Group campaign of the year. This is the only 'group' shot we got, which doesn't contain at least half of the group. We got about 160 signatures that will be sent off as part of the campaign for the human rights of the Roma people throughout Europe. From left to right in the picture, there is Jade, myself, Emma, Kim and Matthew. 

On Saturday I went to the lovely Sophie's awesome Bonfire Night party. Here's a pic of the hostess and I ;-) The party started with 7ish teenagers lining up and forming a human converyor belt to pass massive rocks across her garden, we nearly set her neighbour's tree on fire and a fire engine drove past her house at one point too. But other than the near fire, as Sophie would say, les bon temps.

Finally, Jess drew this drawing of college life while we were in the lab yesterday (she was supposed to be doing English Lit, I was typing out the Hebrew alphabet, fun stuff...). It gave us plenty of amusement, anyway. Her updated version is more amusing - probably means nothing if you don't go to our college, though.


Tomorrow is open evening and Jess, Sophie, Cory and I are all going out for food seen as we have most of the afternoon free and don't have to be back at college until 6pm. Open evenings are significantly better than average college days...


Will be back soon with proper posts again, I've missed writing :-(


Besos ♥
Rachel

The Next Generation

If you read here relatively often, you'll know that I run the Amnesty International Student Group at my college. Well, we launched properly on Wednesday 5th October, and oh my gosh, I am SO excited by the new group!

We are yet to take a group picture, so here's a screenshot of the minutes from that meeting. I also already know the new people by their names, which is greatly helpful :-)

This week we spent the whole meeting brainstorming ideas for the Roma campaign in November, and everybody was SO enthusiastic. We've decided on a travelling circus theme and we're setting our plans in action. I'm so, so excited by it all. I loved how much the new group got into planning it all - we've got a proper theme and so many ideas, the main task will be choosing which ones we can't do. Did I mention that I was excited?...

We also got a display up in the LRC, and when we take it down next week, the butterflies and kites will go in our display cabinet in the common room. We have plenty to get done on Wednesday 3rd November - we'll be turning the common room into a circus, and changing the cabinet around. It's a good job I can drive myself home now ;-)

Overall, so far, I absolutely LOVE the new group. I've been nicknamed 'Big Rachel' and 'Raquel', though, because we now have another Rachel ('Little Rachel'). I actually can't wait to get things moving properly :-)

Besos ♥
Rachel

Svenska - Making it work

You may recall a while ago me mentioning email correspondance with a student called Natalie about language software, programs etc. Well, I told her in an email that I'd ''soon be doing a post about learning Swedish''. I then started college again, and then my laptop broke on me. So AGES later, here we are. Tonight's post is fuelled by RIX FM and boredom. Du ar valkommen.

OK. So, here's my approach to teaching myself Swedish. Firstly, I should begin by admitting that I haven't done anything on it since August, except listen to RIX FM which, if nothing else, contributes to listening skills a little. Half term is approaching, though, and I WILL pick it back up again.

Step one to self-teaching Swedish, for me, was to establish how I wanted to be taught the language. Software, textbooks, apps? Well, none of them. Not on their own, anyway. The only way I've ever successfully learnt another language has been through the conventional school-taught method. So that's what I'm doing - pens, paper, worksheets, dates and objectives.

With this in mind, I went out and bought myself a folder - blue, to match the Swedish flag. I also used letter stickers to spell out Swedish words all over the front, but they don't show up well in the picture. In here, I place my work at the front, and any additional sheets I have in the back. When I finally start building it all up properly, I'll probably purchase some file dividers and organise it a little like my Spanish folder (which may be a post in itself, actually).

Another big thing for me is that the date, lesson title, any other titles and all instructions are all written in the language I'm studying - so in this case, in Swedish. I make a point of always writing the date in Swedish - this means that, hopefully, I won't need to spend much time learning days or months - the more you use them, the more naturally they come to you. Plus, it's always useful to know the date. I may actually start writing out the numbers too, just so I memorise those quicker as well.

This is typically how I set out the page. If it's a totally new subject, the ordforrad (vocabulary) goes under the title, followed by 3 or 4 activites on the vocab given.

When writing out the vocab, I always write the Swedish in blue, and the English in black. As with the folder colour, the blue helps to associate the word with the language, plus it creates a visual difference between the two languages. I don't do this throughout the whole lesson, but it's not uncommon for it to spread into the activities I set myself.

This is typically the sort of activity I would set myself to begin with. Again, all of the instructions are written in Swedish (and English, until I have the translation covered and memorised), and I also make the language I'm translating from/to clear by either writing SV till EN (short for Svenska till Engelska) or EN till SV (Engelska till Svenska). I mark all of the work simply by referring back to the vocab.

I also think it is really important to take note of the resources used during the lesson, so I always write a lesson reference box on the bottom of the paper once the lesson is over. This includes software, websites, translators, apps, phrasebooks, dictionaries etc. I typically use the BYKI Deluxe Swedish software I have, and each lesson is centered around one vocabulary list from there. In the example to the right, I was using the first vocabulary list on Meeting and Greeting - there are usually a few on the same subject, so they make up several lessons. I occasionally add to the vocabulary by looking up other words or phrases that aren't listed, but I think tie in with what I'm learning that day.

A few other pictures of the resources I use etc...

I hope all of that made sense. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions :)


Kyssar,
Rachel

Recently...

...I've been wrestling with my laptop. Still. I'm now on the main computer, wrestling with the world's worst keyboard. I've had so many things to write about this week and nowhere to write them - I even picked my diary up again on Thursday. Yes, really.


Here's what I've been up to...

It was Aiden's 18th last night. I spent most of my time there sitting with Sophie (pictured) and laughing at the ridiculousness of the woopee cushion costume to our left. I also got to see Poppy again, which was awesome. I saw other people too, but they're not really worth mentioning. Ahem...


I was 'Spanish' and Sophie was 'French' (it was fancy dress) - my costume was ridiculously last minute, so I didn't really look Spanish at all. I also loaned Sophie the beret ;)


However, the main event of yesterday was not Aiden's party, being paid £100 by college for writing a letter for the prospectus OR having an awesome impromptu choir rehearsal.


No, the main event of yesterday was me passing my driving test :D First time trying, only 5 minors. Woo! :) And, dare I say, it was kind of easy. Waiting a year definitely paid off for me.


This week was odd. Tuesday was spent having coffee and a gossip with Jess while tidying the Amnesty office. There were other events, but that's pretty much all I remember of it. Every single time we talk, we always get into discussing how it's odd that we've become so close after Poland. We went to experience (as best as we could...) one of the most horrific things to have ever occurred, yet from it, a wonderful friendship has emerged. I love all of my friends, but I could never thank Jess enough for how much she's been there for me in the past few weeks. Jess, if you've come over here to read from Tumblr, thank you.


I'm pretty much just counting down to half term now. I'm going away to Edinburgh for the first three days of it (I think) - I'm desperate to get away from normality at the moment so it should be good. Except, of course, we're staying in a Holiday Inn hotel, and the last time I stayed in one of those the hotel made me quite ill. Oh...


I have a few post ideas - so may actually handwrite them then type them up when I can steal this ancient computer.


Besos ♥
Rachel

Commitment

My laptop has died on me, so I'm blogging from my iPhone - if you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, you'll understand why this post is called 'Commitment'. The keyboard on this thing...ouch.

So, I learnt a big lesson in patience last week. Laptop issues aside, of course, because although I am having to be patient with it, I dong have much free time anyway. My lesson in patience came at 4:50am on Wednesday 5th October. The rain was just pouring and pouring, it had been since Tuesday evening here at home. It had taken hours to get to sleep and the rain was so heavy that it woke me up. I read the news on my phone and found myself just lying, silently, in a state of what I can only describe as peace. It struck me that I could have just been annoyed about being woken up, however it was the first time in days that I had a moment to myself. The lesson? If you have patience, you will find what you're looking for.

Wednesday was also the official Amnesty Group launch for the year. I was a bit 'meh' beforehand, dreading the lack of new members I was sure would be true. I was wrong. There were 16 of us. How wonderful :)

This post has been terrible, I know. I just needed to write something. I hope to be back posting properly soon.

Besos <3
Rachel

Falling Behind

So, college is once again mental and I'm once again falling behind on blogging. Sound familiar?...


Here's what I've been up to recently:

It was Jade's birthday on Thursday, and she had a house party on Friday night to celebrate. I went with Eleanor...and we literally only knew each other there. A little awkward, but bearable. We ended up just abusing the karaoke all evening and Eleanor talked A LOT on the way home which, if you know Eleanor, is quite impressive. And yes, Jade was very drunk...


On Saturday I was in college all day helping at the open day. Cory and I spent most of the day conversing in Spanish and watching people in the car park. I also saw my GCSE Spanish teacher who I had once every two weeks. She told me that she's only just doing her AS Spanish qualification. Oh... I'm actually more qualified than she is. Awkward.


Considering it was incredibly dull being holed up in the language lab all day, we managed to enjoy ourselves... If only because E block managed to set fire to something and the whole of college had to be evacuated. I'm pretty sure that's the one thing they didn't want to happen, and ironically it's apparently the third time it's happened in two weeks. Unfortunately this time, we weren't in choir rehearsals so we couldn't amuse ourselves by continuing to rehearse on the field. Cory did terrify a few visitors by yelling ''HAY UN INCENDIO!" at them, though.


And today I'm just ploughing through a massive pile of Spanish work, because Ester seems to like setting us everything for the same day. Meh.


Besos ♥ 
Rachel