The Ultimate Checklist for a Day at the Swimming Pool

Hello guys :)

Now that summer is right around the corner, going to the swimming pool sounds like a great idea to me! But imagine you're sitting by the poolside, enjoying the sun, and then suddenly you realize that you've left your sunscreen at home..! Well, to prevent you from that, here's my checklist for you guys on what to take to the swimming pool!

You will probably need:

☐ Swimwear

☐ Entrance card, student ID
☐ Swimming goggles
☐ Toys, waterproof camera, swimfins, ...
☐ Shades
☐ Bathing shoes
☐ Hair ties
☐ A waterproof case for your phone (+ phone)
☐ Coins for the locker
☐ A beach towel to sit on
☐ A sun umbrella
☐ A bottle of water
☐ Snacks
☐ Sunscreen
☐ Bug repellent spray
☐ A first aid kit including waterproof bandaids and something to stop insect bites from itching
☐ Towels
☐ A waterproof bag to put the wet swimwear into
☐ Underwear for changing
☐ A hair brush or comb
☐ Shower gel & shampoo

So, now that you've packed up all the essentials, go and enjoy your day at the pool!

PS.: Don't forget to take off any jewellery before getting into the water!

Silent Nightingale - Prologue

Her last note resonated. Thunderous applause raised all around her. She smiled and took a bow. She waved and smiled, took yet another bow.
After a while, the applause faded, slowly, and she turned away, still smiling. She had been standing right here on this stage so many times, singing in front of all those people. Being somewhat famous as a singer was her dream come true. 
It was raining outside when her parents drove home with her. These long concert nights made her really exhausted, in a good way, but tired. She usually fell asleep in the car on the way home, and so she did right after they left the lights of the town behind them. 
A terrible noise woke her up, followed by an enormous impact on her chest from the seatbelt. Something hit the back of her head, knocking her into unconsciousness. 

She opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times before she realised that she was staring at a clean white ceiling. Her head was aching and she contorted her face as she turned to the side to see the rest of the room. Something felt odd. 
She looked around. Hospital. There was an empty bed beside hers, a pale yellow blanket neatly folded on top of it.
She looked down on herself. IV drip. Oh how she hated those. It instantly started itching when she saw it. Right foot bandaged. Oh, wait, plastered. She draped the blanket to the side to see if it was just her foot or also her leg. Something about it felt odd.
She must have broken her leg. Car accident, right.
Her chest felt weird. Breathing felt weird. She carefully laid a hand onto her chest and pressed her fingers down lightly to feel along the row of ribs. Seemed to be okay, nothing broken here. Probably just a bunch of bruises. And those nasty little stickers and cables that connected her to the ECG. Her eyes followed the cables. How strange, she had always associated those with an annoying beeping sound, but this one was completely mute. It was -- odd. No... No. No! Her breathing became heavier. Her pulse increased. This couldn't.. it just..!
In horror, she realised that she hasn't heard a thing since she awoke. She didn't hear the shifting of her head on the pillow, didn't hear the IV drip streadily, couldn't hear the annoying sound of the ECG, she didn't even hear her own breathing or heartbeat. 
Disbelieving and shocked he tapped her ear with her fingers. Nothing. She opened her mouth to say something, right as the door opened and a young woman in white stepped in, a professional smile on her face. The doctor's mouth moved, but the girl didn't hear a thing. She guessed that the woman might have greeted her with a "good morning" or something like that. She didn't know what time it was. 
She just stared at the lady. She didn't dare saying a word. She wouldn't be able to take that she can't hear herself. Her own voice. She just stared at the woman, until she turned at the girl, tilting her head slightly as to ask something. She tried to read the doctor's lips. "Is something wrong?" Or something like that, she supposed.
She stared at her and pointed at her ear. She tried to speak, but wasn't brave enough to make a sound. She only moved her lips to say "I can't hear you."
Suddenly, when the dizzy cloud faded from Ariadne's head, another thought shot into her mind and her eyes widened in fear as she gushed: "Are my parents okay?"
The words sent vibrations through her bones, but she couldn't hear the slightest tone. Ariadne stared at the doctor's lips, her eyes pleading.

Happy New Year 2019!

Now that the new year is approaching, isn't it about time to reflect on this past year and make some new resolutions for the year yet to come?
Let me think about my resolutions for this year. 
Learning for the Abitur exams did work out very well. I passed with excellent grades, so I'd say I've completely stuck to this resolution.
I've tried to be nicer and more understanding, especially towards my parents, but it didn't quite go as well as I hoped it would. Just a few days ago I got really angry about someone's behaviour for example. I'd say there's still room for improvement here.
I haven't been able to spend much more time with my friends. I've had my first birthday party after years this year though (the last one was when I turned 10) and I've invited my friends from school. It was weird how our lives had already changed so drastically just a few months after we graduated and it was really nice talking to them all again.
I think I've spent a fair amount of time on sewing and crafting this year, although I probably should have spent a lot more time on that. I've made my first bralette this year, some interesting shopping bags (which I'm planning to make another bunch of soon), ... I bought a knitting machine, did some fun stuff with it (but I haven't really had the time and patience to continue for a while now). I think this year was somewhat crafty. My plan for 2019 is to craft a bit more during the phases at college, because I haven't really had any diversion.
I've done a lot more sports. I've done sit ups, push ups and crunches, starting with ten of each, increasing to a hundred a day over several weeks and continued to do a hundred of them until the end of June. After that, I confessed that it didn't have any positive impact on my weight or the way I felt and I stopped doing that because I hated it and it had made me feel anxious all day. I continued walking as many of my daily routes as I could though, for example to school or the grocery store. So that should be fine.
I've eaten slowly most of the time. This results in eating less and as soon as you've eaten less for a few weeks, it's okay for your body to demand less food. At least that's the theory. I lost about 7kg within the four months that I spent at college, but I gained three back immediately after returning home. I'm still having a hard time trying to eat less, it's really nasty that I'm always hungry..!

Summing it up, I think Ihve handled the resolutions for 2018 quite well. So let's see what I want to change in 2019!

I'll try to panick less because of exams. I can't go on like that for two and a half years until I'm finally done with all the exams forever.
I should try to think more positively about my future. Things will turn out to be good eventually. I've been thinking about starting a different course of studies, but that would mean that my first year at college would be wasted.
As I already said, I'll try to take my time to craft a bit more during college phases. Maybe it'll help manage my panic as well.
And of course I'll try to lose some weight, as always :D

So, that's my list of resolutions for 2019. I'm wishing you all a happy, healthy new year!

My Year 2018 in Review

2018 has been an incredibly eventful year to me. I've made important decisions, laughed and cried. Thinking about the beginning of 2018, it doesn't feel like this was only a year ago. 

When the New Year 2018 started, I was studying for the Abitur exams. I panicked a few days later because I didn't know how on earth I would be able to remember all of this within a few weeks.

By the end of January, we went back to school normally after the Abitur exams and had to wait for the results until the end of February. 

In March, I had my oral Abitur exam. After that, there were no more lessons at school, but we've had to prepare for prom and all that. 

I was notified in March that I couldn't take the job at the Bureau of Finances which I had applied for last year. They had some technical issues and weren't able to hire anyone for this job beginning in 2018 and they gave me the alternatives of either waiting till 2019 or studying tax law instead. 

It was a hard decision. On the one hand, I wanted to study exactly that; it's an IT course and I'm into programming and mathematics a lot. On the other hand, I didn't want to waste a whole year. 

I decided to study tax law because I thought that it wouldn't be too different from what I wanted to do and I'd also get to stay at my parents' place, plus I wouldn't lose a year. It's still 2018 and I already regret this decision, but I can't change anything about it anymore. If I applied again now, the next possible start would be 2020 and by then, I'll be almost done with studying tax law. 

At the end of March, I've had the job interview for studying tax law at the Bureau of Finances. They called me the same day, telling me that they were impressed and I got the job. 

After that, I've had three months off between graduating from school and starting to work at the beginning of July.

I had bought a knitting machine, sewn some presents for my family for Christmas, relaxed a bit.

And then it was July and I started working at the Bureau of Finances, along with nine other trainees. It wasn't quite the way I expected it to be, but we didn't know anything yet, so any kind of expectations were predetermined to be wrong. The first week felt like an eternity with all the new things we didn't understand anything about.

In August, we started having lessons at college in a town pretty far away, which meant for me that I had to rent a room and live there on my own during the week, only coming home on the weekends. I've only recently returned home from college after four months, only to go back to work the next day. I haven't had a single day off within the last six months. 

I've come to loathe college. Just like everyone else seems to. It isn't much different from school actually though. In fact, I'd say the only difference is that the teachers don't want us to call them teachers and we're handed out the whole syllabus at the beginning of the course of studies. Of course the subjects aren't the same and most of the people at college say that it's a lot more matter, but that doesn't really seem to bother me since I don't really think it's that much harder than school.

At the beginning of September, I've met a friend of mine who I lost touch with over the last few years. We've had so much to tell each other about what happened since we last met and afterwards we texted each other daily. It felt as if we had never been apart, we were just as close as we used to be.

Then we met once more last week and it all changed again. We haven't talked much anymore after that and I really miss it. it was supposed to be a fun day we would spend together, but it wasn't for some reason.

Now, finally, in December (after a whole bunch of exams last week), I'm back home. It doesn't feel like Christmas is approaching though. I was working 8 hours a day this week, meaning that I'd leave the house at 5:45 in the morning and only came back home at 5 in the evening. I didn't feel like I could do anything much at home because I didn't have any time at home. And this is what my life will look like for half a century from now. But I will get used to the rhythm and find the energy to do things at home again.

I wish I hadn't taken the decision to study tax law and instead had waited until next year to study what I actually wanted to. On the other hand, if I had decided to wait, I wouldn't know anything more now than I've known six months ago. I think I've grown a lot more mature within half a year and I wouldn't want to miss that.

My year 2018 was incredibly eventful. I've graduated from school, taken tough decisions, met up with an old friend, lost touch again and taken my first steps into work life.

I'm wishing you all the best for 2019. Have a merry Christmas and happy New Year!

News about the Advent Calendar 2018

Hello everyone!

So, I announced last year that I would probably be making another Advent Calendar this year. Sadly, I will not be able to finish it in time as I have an unexpectedly high amount of work to do for college at the moment and for the past few months. I'm sorry to say that, but this year's Advent Calendar will most likely not take place.

I hope you guys understand.

Easy Last Minute Candy Corn Halloween Bag

Hello everyone!

As Halloween is right around the corner,  I was looking for a cute yet practical trick or treat bag. In stores around here, you can consider yourself lucky though if you find any halloween bags at all, but those just seem way too small most of the time. So I decided to make one myself. Literally decided to do so two hours ago, and here it is, along with a little tutorial on how you can make one yourself!

You will need:

* Fleece fabric in white, orange and yellow

* a sewing machine

How it's done:

Cut one strip from each fabric. Make the strips twice as long as you want the bag to be wide and about a third of the height you want your bag to be. I eyeballed it out by folding the fabrics in half. My strips were about 1 meter by 20 cm (40 by 8 inches). 

Lay the yellow and the orange strip together good side to good side and sew along one of the long corners. Lay the white strip onto the orange one good side to good side and sew the long side of the white strip to the orange strip. 

Fold the long side of your now combined three strips in half good side to good side and sew the side closed from yellow to orange to white. Sew the bottom (white) closed.

Pinch the corner at the bottom of the bag so that the bottom seam meets the side seam and sew across so that you can cut off a little triangle (I've sewn about five cm (about two inches) into the bottom seam). Do the same on the other side (pretend there was a seam at the side). 

Turn your bag right side out and fold over about two cm of the yellow top edge to the inside. Sew it in place all around the top (it looks a lot neater than leaving the raw edge to show).

Cut two strips from each color to make the handles. My strips were about 60 by 3 cm (24 by 1.5 inches). 

Stack a yellow, white and orange strip and sew them together at the top with a few stitches so they won't unravel. Braid them. Once you're at the bottom of the strips, stack the ends and again sew them together so they won't unravel.

Repeat for the second handle.

Pin the handles in place where you want them to be and sew them on carefully (they're pretty bulky so go very slowly). I've placed the seam onto the seam that I made for the top edge.

Cut away the excess where the thin strips were sewn together so that it'll look a bit neater. 

And that's it! 

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and got inspired to make a cute and easy Halloween trick or treat bag (with lots of space for the treats..!). Have a nice day and happy Halloween!

Minimalist Learning

As many of the people in my environment know, I have specialised on learning as much as I can in as few time as possible. That means while others revise frequently in order not to lose the connection to topics that have been dealt with a while ago, I prefer to start learning about a week ahead of the exams. Well, okay, let me be honest: I should start a week ahead, but I usually end up having only a few days left when I realise just how close the exams really are. So, let me explain to you how I try to get as many facts into my head as possible during just a few days.
Warning: this is not going to work for everyone. People are unique and the way they learn things best is as unique as they are themselves. These are just my tips that I can give you from my own experience.

Before we start: Do NOT make a tutorial while you should be learning. Yeah, I'm basically doing exactly that right now. Anyway, let's get started!

First of all, I personally find it quite helpful to use a binder for my learning purposes. I'm currently studying tax law and we have to be prepared to know everything we ever did at this course of studies for all of the exams in the future. That is why I think it is incredibly important to stay organised from the very beginning. So I have a binder for my summaries and I will divide it for each subject and keep adding my future summaries to it so that I will have everything in one place. Bonus tip: take photos of the summaries so you can learn anytime on the go as well.

Speaking about summaries, summarising what I have to learn is an essential step for me and it does make up most of my learning in the end. I need to get an overview of how much it is that I really have to learn and by going through my notes and thinking about what is important and what isn't, I already revise everything. That is why I actually prefer to do this close to the actual exam instead of frequently doing a little at a time. Well, procrastination probably tells me to do so anyway. 

So, now that you grabbed a binder and you've summarised your subject, what's next? Try to use as many senses as possible while learning! Don't only read it in your mind; get creative! When I find myself learning early enough, I sometimes draw a little picture besides some facts that I just can't seem to remember which has something to do with the words. Like some puns in drawn form. That way, when I try to remember these facts, I'll think about that picture and this will take me to the actual facts that I wanted to remember. Sarcastic comments are frequently found in my summaries as well. Those summaries are for you, no one will judge.
If you're short on time, make a voice record while reading it out. You can listen to it later while doing other stuff. 
If you happen to have the exam of last year, now is the time to check if you can answer all of the questions and if you can't, you'll know what you have to take a look at again. If you aren't as short on time, take your summaries, try to solve a problem without looking at it, check with your summaries and jot down what you've forgotten about. Repeat with a different problem until there are no points left.
Buy a scented candle that has a somewhat unique or unusual smell and put it on your desk while learning (don't light it though, just smell on it while reading through your summary). Each subject should have a different candle. It works like the well-known chewing gum method, except that it is usually not forbidden to place an unlit candle on the desk at school as long as there are no words written on it or something. The human memory largely developed from what was used for identifying scents in the past, so connecting memories with scents happens a lot. We can use that to our advantage! Just make sure your candle scent doesn't bring back other memories.

I hope some of these tips were helpful. If you aren't as prone to procrastination as I am, please do not start that..! It's always better to keep repeating so that the contents of your subjects get into your long term memory - my method is just trying to make the best out of my bad habit to only think about tests when they are imminent. 

The Absurdly Weird Concept of Home at College

As many of you know, I've started going to college this week. And like many others, I had to rent a room there because I simply live too far away to drive back home each day. So what I do is living here for the week and going back to my parents' place on the weekends.

That's what pretty much everyone at my college does, except for the lucky few who live closer to this town. 

During my first four days at college so far, I've had quite a significant number of times when I talked about where I'm currently living to my friends back at home. Not only did I tell them what I like and what bothers me, but I also just sometimes have to let others know that I'm available again. And those were the times when I texted something like "Okay, I'm 'home' now. What's up?"

You see what I did there? I always put that "home" in quotation marks. 

Today, I've asked a few other people at college about their opinion on the concept of home away from home. 

One girl from a higher year said that she thinks that there is no such thing as a definite home while she is at college. She has been here for about a year now in total and during that time she made a lot of friends here as well who make her feel more at home here.

Someone else said that it's pretty weird. He doesn't live with his parents anymore and he said that it had taken him a while to accept that his new home isn't in the same town as where he had grown up. And now he went to yet another town to stay during the week because of college. He said that he honestly can't imagine calling this place home at any point since he'll only be spending his time here for three years and then he's back at home again, maybe forever.

After hearing these answers, I began to wonder what home means to me. Is it really just my parents' house? Is it my family and friends that turn it into home? Or is it here now? Can I call a place home when I know that I won't stay here for longer than three years? These are so many unanswered questions! I don't feel at home here yet. I'm loving in a room of someone else's house and share the kitchen and bathroom with the actual owner who I don't really know yet. I don't really know anyone here yet. Well, except for the girl sitting next to me in class. I have to buy and make my own food now and I haven't really found anything worth doing in my free time here. But maybe this will change within the next few weeks. 

The reason why I'm writing all this is that I think the concept of "home" isn't bound to a place. I'd say it's rather bound to the people. It also really depends on your point of view whether you want to call the town you live in for college your home or not. But I personally think it's okay to find home in several completely different places at the same time. It may just get a little confusing for the friends in your hometown if they don't know which home you mean right now.

Excited and Terrified - How I feel about going to College

For many people, going to college marks the first big step into adulthood. Most have to move away from home into the dorms or an own apartment and have to get by without their parents for a longer period of time. 

Of course everyone has worries about this new phase of life, but there are probably just as many hopes as there are fears. So in order to demonstrate just how normal it is to feel like this, I'll be telling you about my hopes and fears one week before I'll be heading to college. 

First of all, I'm feeling extremely overwhelmed. I've been talking to quite a bunch of people who are attending this exact college lately and they all said that it's a lot of work and pretty hard. Well, except for a few who said that they really liked going there since it's the best opportunity to make friends! Looking at the books we had to buy, it seems like it won't be managable to ever get a broader knowledge about this subject matter and this really scares me. 

On the other side, I'm so excited to get to know new people. I think there's no better chance of making friends than when you are studying the same subject voluntarily. I mean, that indicates that you do have similar interests, doesn't it?

My college is a bit special; other colleges have more than one course to offer and (at least in Germany) you're widely left alone with digging into the matter. At my college, we'll be organised into classrooms and the lecturers will teach almost like at school. Questions will be asked and answered, tasks will be given and there will be homework. This makes everything a bit less new to us, but there are so many horrible stories about this place that we're actually all scared of how it will actually be in the end. 

I'm really afraid of living on my own, only seeing my parents on the weekends. I mean, what am I supposed to do when something goes wrong and my parents can't help me? Of course, I'm old enough to solve problems myself, but there probably are some problems that I have never had before and don't know how to deal with. 

Living away from my parents for the first time can also be an opportunity though. I will make a lot of new experiences and I won't have to listen to them complaining about my messy desk anymore.

I'm scared that I might not make friends with anyone in college. Like, how am I supposed to survive the stressful phases without anyone to get my thoughts away from the textbooks every once in a while? 

Looking at it a bit more realistic, I'll probably find a bunch of nice people to spend my time with. I mean, among 250 newbies, I'm pretty sure at least a few will like me just the way I am. 

The one thing that most terrifies me about going to college is the tests. I was so glad when school was over and I had three months off. In Germany, the longest holiday we ever get at school is six weeks, so three months were like kind of an eternal phase of freedom to me. Well, at least until it ended three weeks ago when I had to start working. I'm so worried about the tests because I'll have to sit there in front of my desk for hours every day after classes and learn everything we've done so far. I remember doing this for the Abitur exams and I think these were the most horrible weeks of my life so far. And the people going to this college keep telling us that the Abitur was fun compared to this. 

But I'm confident that I will make it. Maybe it's exactly what I've always wanted since I was quite bored at school usually. Maybe studying this will be kind of fun. At least I keep reminding myself of the fact that so many people have made it through this course before me. 

The key is to keep believing that you will make it. Believe it with all your heart any it will be true. Don't let others get you down and stay excited about the years ahead of you!

Quick Crafts #4: Smart Mousepad

Working on a laptop can be a pain if you don't have a separate mouse to work with. But sometimes, you just won't have a table available to put your mouse on. Operating the mouse on your lap won't really work either, you might drop it or it just doesn't respond that well.
So what else can you do? Well, there usually is a bit of space on your laptop right beside the touchpad. You could use that space for your mouse if it's a small one. And as we all don't want to scratch our laptops, why don't you simply make a little mousepad to fit that space? So, here's my newest invention.

You will need:

* Fabric (preferably non-fraying, like fleece or craft foam)
* Hot glue
* Pressing iron
* Baking paper

How it's done:

Cut your fabric to size so it fits into that corner of your laptop. You can use an old mousepad as well or craft foam. If so, you won't have to make it non-slip as it already is. Round off the edges and shake it well so all the leftover fuzz will fall off (and not into your laptop).
To stop it from slipping, there are several methods to do this. You can either fuse your fabric to craft foam or an anti-slip mat and cut it to size, but this might add more height to your mousepad. I didn't want the pad to be thicker because I want to leave it on that edge when storing my laptop away.
The method I used isn't particularly safe for children, but it's quick, easy and most people probably have it handy like I did.
Grab your hot glue gun and make dots of glue on the bottom side of your mousepad. I made lots of little rows of dots all over the pad. Then, take your pressing iron, heat it up and spread baking paper over the glue dots. Press it until you can see the molten dots through the paper. Let everything cool down a bit and take the baking paper off. Let it cool a few more minutes and you're good to go.

Depending on the speed settings of your mouse, that very little space can be more than enough to get your cursor all the way from one side to the other and all across the screen. It's pretty much the best solution if you don't have a table. And that is one reason why laptops were invented, right?