Summer can come

My balcony is summer-ready. I've been waiting for the moment in which we could have breakfast in our balcony in the sunniest morning, and those days have come.

 

Update: My roomie (Miri) and I decided to spice things up in the balcony, so now it looks like this.

What do you think, was it better before or after?

Leave a comment with your opinion, we'd very much like to know :)

xx

Changing room odyssey

Who doesn't love a good shopping day? I can be in shopping mode for weeks, until I find what sits perfectly and doesn't cost me a fortune. Here's the Andy Shopping Trick: I actually "go shopping" almost everyday, go to the stores and start looking around. The thing is, I sort of memorize the collections so I know what's out there and how much it is, and eventually get the best price for the items I'm currently looking for.

Step #1
Try things on, even the ones you wouldn't probably wear, but like the idea of. My heuristic is, when in doubt, grab two of the same color and try them on. You never know what you'll fall in love with

Mango outlet

Step #2
Make sure it fits. Numbers will always be numbers, so don't pay attention if it's a size 00 or a size 4. Praise your curves. Work what's best for your body type, and let go of unflattering clothes.

H&M

Step #3
Wait. Yes, I don't have patience either but I always wait for the sales to kick in and get the dress I tried on several weeks (or months) ago. If you see that your number is running low, grab it as soon as you can.

Pull & Bear

By the way, Sales are soon starting, so keep an eye on the shops! Happy shopping!

On frustration and patience

This week was one of the worst I've had in this academic year. It was filled with all kinds of emotions, from extreme happiness and joy, to being super confident before a test, to breaking down in the middle of it, and even diagnosing myself with a psychological disorder (I'm actually scheduling an appointment with a psychologist, talk about safe measures.)

Over the weekend, as you may have read I was studying hard and steady. I was understanding everything. Hell, I was correcting others' mistakes. I was the math guru among my class, pointing out errors in their calculations and keeping my friends on the right track.

Monday was filled with joy, with lots of studying and a happy call. I think it was one of the days in which I've felt really commited to studying. And then tuesday came. The test. The test! I started out perfect, until I stumbled across a cero. A cero is highly unlikely in our type of calculations. I asked my professor if I should consider that cero and then he told me everything was wrong. Everything. Not one single thing. My world was crushed to pieces. I broke down. I was overwhelmed by nervosity and I couldn't do anything else. At the end he gave me one step of the answer so that I could go, but it was all lost. I panicked and I couldn't do anything else.

I got a three out of fifteen. Never in my life I've gotten a three, especially in a subject that I know I can ace. I was not sad, I was angry. I can do this, I know this by heart, I've even solved exercises in my dreams! I was so frustated because I ruined my perfect marks, which would allow me to relax about the finals. Depression kicked in for two days, until we discussed the test and solved it in class. I was right all along. All my answers were right and my professor crossed them as wrong. That step he gave me, it was wrong. So I had a "Folgefehler", a consequencial error because of that wrong answer.

I eventually sat down with my professor and showed him how he wronged my assignment. He recognized the mistake and allowed me to redo that part of the test. I might not forgive him for giving me two days of extreme depression, but at least I'll be able to really show I ace Analysis.

The moral of this story is, trust your gut. If you know you can do it, trust your answers and your intuition, they won't fail you. And most importantly, don't let your emotions overwhelm you like they did to me. Sometimes one has to have a bit of patience and everything will turn on its right track.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy memorial day!
xx
Andy

A happy call

Something very odd and very funny happened today while I was in the VW Bibliothek studying for my Analysis test. See, I've been taking this test more than serious and I've been breaking my neck in the most absurd ways trying to really understand this in order to get the best grade possible and relax in the upcoming finals (which are ten times worse than these).

So, the story! A guy from my current mobile company called in to offer me a contract because I've been such a good client over this year and a half (yay Andy!) I politely declined, stating that I do not want a 2-year contract because I don't want to have any debts in Germany if I decide to return to Colombia (this is me being super precaucious, I might take it later on) I told him exactly this and what happened next surprised me.

He asked me where I was from, since I told him my reasons not to make a contract, I told him my story of how I came to Germany, and he was all too fascinated by my german and he told me he was from Kenia and his country was very much different from Germany and we found some common grounds between both our homelands. And so on, we talked about the weather in Germany and in our countries, the cultural differences, the music, the people. All of this in the middle of a do-you-want-a-contract conversation. It was such a fun break from studying.

It made my day. It made me realize there's time for fun and games. So don't take everyday too seriously, just serious enough.

TED Talk Tuesday

Today's talk is on psychiatry, a topic I'm currently very interested about and of which I'm learning a lot. The human mind is one of mankind's wonder, and we can never know for sure what's going on in someone's head for we cannot put ourselves in their body and experience it; instead, we remark behaviour and deeds that can be the consequences of this or that disorder. This talk is specially insightful because it lets us see how biased psychologist can address patients and how we're all indeed a bit crazy.

Have a great week!

Travelbug Germany

I'm deep in love with Germany, and I want to explore every corner, every little "Dorf" there is and climb every mountain there is to climb. It has so many beautiful landscapes, and each one is different and has its own charm. Personally I like small towns with a lot of green, real quite and picturesque. Have I told you that I'm head over heals for Heidelberg? Everytime I visit my family in the south I always take a day to go to Heidelberg and enjoy its charm.

<source: thomas zimmer>

Sylt

I'm dying to go to this island, located in the north sea. I've only heard that it's extremely beautiful. You can go across the island with the bike in no time. And due to its remoteness,Quiet, cozy, sea: perfect!

<source: weheartit>

Tübingen

Now this one is the most picturesque city I've ever seen (in pictures!). As much as I love the north, I must say that the south of Germany always catches my heart. The cities have such beautiful accents with nature, it makes me want to pack my things and move!

<source: roberto pavic>

Dresden

Well this one is not so far from Berlin, and I must say it's been on my list since the day I put foot on Germany. It's architecture is fascinating, I can't help but ooh and aah at each picture I see from Dresden. It's definitely on my short-term-goal list!

Do you have any german travelbug? 

Sundays

Sundays are the best day of he week. Nothing beats a colombian breakfast: arepas and scrambled eggs. The rest of the day was dedicated to my most dreaded (and feared) test. Analysis.

Have a lovely week! xx

Wishlist

I've always struggled with saving money. When I was a kid, I'd always spent money on sweets and food, and I could never save money for the things that I really wanted, like this bag or that mp3. Soon enough I learned not to "eat all my money up" and to save it for things that will last me at least a year. Coming to Germany and separating myself from my parents taught me the value of money, for I often had to decide what I'm buying, how much I'm paying for that, how much I still have left for this month, and so on. Luckily I'm not struggling with my finances, specially now in the University: german university tuitions are next to nothing and the quality of education is excellent. Along with the rests of my monthly allowance, I've been working on and off as a babysitter and I've been saving up! Something I never thought I could do.

Then the question arises. Why am I saving up? What's the purpose of this money? Some things come straight into my mind...

Quality clothes

If suddenly I lost my reason, I'd go straight to Ku'Damm and buy my life away in quality clothes: all types of dresses, shoes, shirts... I'd go mad! Actually, I consider shopping my therapy: everytime I feel down, I grab my wallet, comfortable shoes and I head straight to the shops. Sometimes I find nothing, sometimes I find treasures, but most of all I relax and enjoy walking in and out of stores.

LoVe

Louis Vuitton is the synonym of effortles elegance. This Speedy 30 is the one bag I always have in mind, and I'm determined to own one when the time comes. Of course, the time is not now (I think).

GoPro Hero 3+ Black edition

Nothing makes me more happy than to take pictures and make memories. I love flipping through my pictures and remembering. My Nikon D5100 is a bit heavy, but a GoPro would be the ideal camera to take with yourself on a trip and specially on extreme situations, like...

Skiing in the Alps

I've been in Germany for two winters and I haven't even iceskated! As a summerborn, I never though of snow, never did any snowsports, didn't even think about the mountains! Life was the beach and sun. Now I find myself wanting to go on Skiing vacations so bad! (of course, with the GoPro.)

P.S. Check Carly's 1 Year Savings Schedule

What do you spend your saved money on?

F.I.N.A.L.S.

Its's Friday and I actually survived this finals week! Of course I did break out in the middle of Analysis class while doing an assignment that the teacher classified as "too easy", but at least the first part is over.

For those of you who don't know what I'm doing in the TU Berlin, it's called the Studienkolleg, a preparatory course (1 year) for foreign students whose high school diploma doesn't exactly fulfill the german Abitur, and want to get into german Universities. We do some sort of mix between Abitur and 1. Semester of the course we're taking. In my case, I'm doing the Technical course in which I have to learn first semester of mechanics, but high school chemistry. So it's kind of in between. Additionally we have german classes to be able to have better writing skills and understand texts in high-german. 

This weekend it's all about studying and relaxing for my Analysis test, the one I'm dead nervous about. I had full marks on the last test (yay Andy!) and I don't want to lower my grade with this examn so that I can relax in my Feststellungsprüfung, the big big exam that will determine my future.

This is how my days look like

Now tips on Finals Week

Get enoughh sleep

If I sleep less than eight hours a night, I can't function properly in the day. I need my blinds completely shut, my sleep mask and enough sleep to be able to concentrate in class.

Focus

One day before my german test, I decided to edit my brother's 30 page travel log in terms of gramatic. I was done in four hours or so, but every minute I have is precious study time! Currently I'm not ready any book or doing any of my little projects because I want to concentrate in my tests. Although I haven't stopped watching Game of Thrones. GoT is out of the question.

Eat well

Your most important meal should be your breakfast. I usually eat cereal with jogurt and chopped fruits (strawberry is the fruit of the season), a cup of black coffee and a small glass of orange juice. Jogurt really fills with stomach so that I can make it until 11:00 and the coffee + OJ give me the energy I need. I usually take my time having breakfast, eating slow and chewing well, that's about 20 minutes. In the mean time I check e-mails and instagrams and chat with my roomie.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! xx

Obsessed: shift dresses

Summer's slowly peaking these days and all I can think of are dresses. Long, short, monochrome, pattern, you name it. All I want to do is wear dresses, drink lemonade and go roadtripping somewhere in Europe. But then reality hits me and I reluctantly crawl back to my desk and open all my Uni books. Well, for the sake of procrastinating (I have an organic chemistry test tomorrow), I'll leave some of my summer inspiration, you'll notice I'm blue-obsessed!

Have a nice week!

TED Talk Tuesday: Single stories

We live in a world ruled by the media, in which we should learn to discern between facts and fallacies. And if there is something I've learned throughout the years is that there is no whole truth. There is no black and white, there are infinite colors in endless shades that make up the beautiful world we live in. Don't feed your brain with a single color, for you are missing the most natural nuance of life: it's diversity. This talk made me think about how I always do read stories of white, blue-eyed characters that eat apples and speak foreign languages. As much as I love the reading books from all around the world, I've lost my literary connection to my own land. And I must not forget. I will not forget. Will you?

 

Deo's and health

I just ran out of my current deodorant and I was just looking for my emergency deo's when I came across two of them: one with Aluminium Chlorohydrate and the other one without it. That situation right there got me to stop and think about the consequences of something so little as to put deodorant with or without Aluminium.

I made a quick search in Google Scholar (which leads you to scientific publications and patents, the real deal, but you can't read more than the abstract else you have to pay) and the first two articles I found where all about how antiperspirant and aluminium-based deo's lead to breast cancer and heart problems.

I'm definitely sticking to my 100% natural Deo, and I recommend all girls to consider changing to an aluminium free deo, to prevent any kind of risk of suffering from breast cancer.

An aller deutschen Leserinnen. Ich benutze ein Alu freies Deo, welches in DM gefunden werden kann. Es hat einen angenehmer Duft, aber hat ein bisschen Alkohol, was nicht ratsam ist für die die Alkohol empfindlich sind.

 

TED Talk Tuesday

A friend recently posted this TED Talk on her Facebook wall and it blew my mind away. It got me thinking for days what I'm doing with my life, how efficiently I'm using my time, my energy, the internet, and I found myself drawing a set of goals and actually giving myself that push to make my dreams happen. Whatever your situation is, if you follow your dreams, you're bound to reach them-- and more.

Bodies

I want to share with you a text- a work of art -my friend S wrote last night about bodies shapes and the modern view on it that has so many teenage girls rotting inside. I found myself touched by her words, by her style, and inspired to share it with you. All I'd ever have to say, she already has. Share it with your friends, it's worth the read.

--

I am almost 20 and I still don’t know why I was constantly being told to lose weight when I was a kid. I wasn’t obese. I was slightly overweight. So, wh(at)y?

Was it for health concerns? I played tennis 2/6 and as soon as summer came I threw swimming to the mix, not to mention running on Saturdays after the matches. I ate healthy, despite my relationship to sweets. I never was slim though. I had people call me fat when I was in my top performance.

Was it to impress and be liked by boys? Boys love a slim body, because that’s what they’re being told to like. My mother never wanted me to impress boys, she never cared about the men in my life, but she knew symmetry, beauty and fitting in was power. I think you can find beauty where you want to, but it’s not her fault that she saw beauty in a fat-free body, that would fit in any design.

Was it to fit into those trendy clothes that were always a size smaller than I was? I guess so. But why? Why was looking good so important? Better ask yourself another question. Why was fitting in to the size that society liked and called beautiful so important? Why is/was fitting in so important?

Was it because a slimmer body always looks good? Why does a slimmer body always look better? People like you when you are average. Average: ‘all the people put together to create the average face’. A face you can take a look at and see so many people. You watch the face and it reminds you of so many people, it looks familiar to you, and therefore you like it. It takes a higher mind to like something foreign and unfamiliar. Then again, what’s familiar and unfamiliar is highly subjective. You can try to incorporate everything into yourself, so that everyone likes you.

So what’s up with bodies?

It doesn’t work the same way as with faces. Some think Bodies have a purpose, and the sole purpose of a body is to be able to preserve the DNA, and since everything is related, a beautiful body is a statement for good genes. The Hourglass though, means that you are more than capable of carrying and raising a child. The top down triangle means you are able to hunt and fight and secure food. I really don’t think that it boils down to this. Having an Hourglass doesn’t mean you are going to be a good genes preserver and if it does mean that, it means just that and nothing else more. But the hourglass is not what we are talking about. A slim body is now a glorified object, approved by society and if you want to fit in and be liked, well you know what to do.

Losing weight takes so much time. Sometimes I find myself working out and looking at the mirror non-stop to check the flatness of my belly. Down that rabbit hole I go sometimes. Then I stop eating, my diet becomes poor and I get obsessed with working out and eating as less as possible. Therefore I have to stop working out, because I automatically relate workout to loosing weight and I become obsessed. I check my priorities, and, my mental functioning is high up there. It needs food. So what is happening? Why are we linking movement and sports and playing to Weight loss? They are not related. Do it because it feels good, not because of the shallow and irrelevant goal that everyone seems to be chasing.

When I was applying at the Uni, I was constantly afraid that my weight could/ would affect my acceptance. I thought being fat was an indication for poor willpower as in no ability to accomplish what you set your mind to and what the society wants you to accomplish. Well, I never wanted to do that. I am not here to do what I am/will be told to do, if I don’t personally agree with it. I have not lost weight because I never understood why I was being told to lose weight, why did I have to lose weight? It was a constant battle for me, because of not knowing why.

I am one of those overweight girls that has accomplished everything I have consciously decided to accomplish. It is worthless for you to stigmatise me just because I am not deciding to fit in, just because I do not like the standards of the society and just because I do not like what you like. Therefore I have realised you do not have to like me, or my body, neither my mind and my ideas. People have different likes, but it takes an open mind to realise what you really like, without being influenced by interfering media. Anyhow, Anyway you will have to respect my ideas, my efforts and my successes, the negative feedbacks that I get from my work and all what comes to people that try. In all that, please don’t link my Work to my body. If I’m healthy all around, how much fat I have and how many seats my behinds occupy is not a Topic of discussion. Adaption, if it is going to go any further than this, is not in the body, is in the mind.

I want to take this chance and talk about the so called modern feminists that today’s PopCulture is producing. The Hypocrites that claim beauty is not everything, but on the other hand use nothing but beauty and image to make it in the industry. Don’t be fooled so easily. Maybe it is just the way that the industry works. Selling sex, objectifying females’ body( and lately, as a part of this modern ‘feminism’ males’ as well), transmitting little to no meaning and idea whatsoever and affecting audiences by pure marketing. The subconscious works in so many ways and levels, but that’s not the truth. It is being covered by flashing smiles and slim bodies. After all, it is what we want, or do we want it because we are being told to want it? I think trend comes from the people.

To recap:

Not so important fitting in. Beauty is not everything, being healthy and thinking is much more important. Let us not be bedazzled by lights and vain sensation. Let us not be impressed by marketing. Think. Live long and prosper. Sing your own song. Happy and Healthy teenage years!

Post Scriptum

I am mostly writing this as a letter to my teenage self. I would devastate my body and my mind for days in order to lose weight, not knowing why I was doing it. I have answered my question to myself, and by writing it I hope it can serve as an answer to other girls who may have the same question. Anyways it’s my point of view and I had to somehow let it out.

I guess I need to add more things, maybe soon.



—————I tend to forget my ideas—————grrr————but they come again soon————–till then———-I am satisfied—————–I can now go do my work—————————Period—————-Stop————————————–