On Selfies

 

Selfie after Magnum ice treat

So I was feeling kind of down today. More like very depressed. I did what I usually refreign from doing: Stuffing myself with chocolate cookies and sweetened coffee from the vending machine. But it didn´t help me one bit. Instead I felt worse. After work I stepped outside. I noticed the delightful breeze and the trees swaying in the sunshine. "Maybe it isn`t so bad after all.." I started taking photos, of myself, my sourroundings. And it made me feel so much better. This in turn left me feeling embarassed - was I really that shallow and superficial? 

I have been reading various opinions & articles on this, my favourite by far being 

this one by Dr John Grohol .



He states another psychologist named Shelly Turkle. She writes:
" These days, when people are alone, or feel a moment of boredom, they tend to reach for a device. In a movie theater, at a stop sign, at the checkout line at a supermarket and, yes, at a memorial service, reaching for a device becomes so natural that we start to forget that there is a reason, a good reason, to sit still with our thoughts: It does honor to what we are thinking about. It does honor to ourselves. "


I could relate to this statement somewhat, but I think it depends wether you have problems fitting in or 
if you are perfectly fine living in this fast-paced world of ours. Admittedly I have a problem with adapting, so my nostalgic moments are plenty. 
Everybody needs to find their own truths.

I myself will take care in the future to have better insight and stop and think for a moment. After all - the Selfie cannot cure my depression, it can only make me feel good for a moment.

Sweetheart will bargain

listening to "Audience of One" by Cold War Kids

Feeling totally hyped for shopping!!!  

ASOS miniskirt in rosé

Although I have to watch my money, because I still have to send half of my stuff back home and need money for the train ticket - Yes, I will be returning to Germany next month!

Am secretly scheming to get my sister to come. I know being a grafic designer is demanding, but come ON!

I want to do her something good after all, it is beautiful here. 

My latest addiction is the Kimono Dress at ASOS - God, how I am craving for it!!! I feel like a drug addict, because I haven't got my credit card with me, which incidentally means Bye Bye to online shopping for now. It is Killing me! 

Now I know what the main character in Sophie Kinsella's novels feels like. Resquiat in Pace, shopaholic self. 

Have in fact another addiction that is actually doing me good - the App & website of 

Duolingo 

Should you be using this cool tool, go ahead and add me, I'd love to be able to learn with others ♥  

This is my link >>   https://www.duolingo.com/Yumebi 

I strongly recommend it for learning the basics of languages. If you are a lazy bum like me and would rather do other things than learning dry grammar and words - this does the trick! It has a game-like level system and you loose hearts when you make mistakes, but when you advance a level - OOOoooh, it feels so good!

It is so addictive I made it to Level 9 in two days! Now I cannot wait to try the other languages too.

... Will actually continue my french lessons now - Au Revoir!   

  

Broken into two

listening to: Sky full of stars - Coldplay

Sweet Sarah <3

Sarah left for Quebec yesterday...Booohoo!

I feel really lonely, it was so much fun having her around. No matter if it was when getting lost, calling the GPS names, laughing at strange french habits, hearing her say "Tabernacle!" in that typical accent, talking about sex and relationships, getting all hyped up about nature and its divine beauty, singing Coldplay at the top of our lungs...

I'll just have to assure myself this isn't forever and I can visit her - which I definately will be doing!!! I have always wanted to visit Canada, and if it's Quebec - why not? Now that I can speak french quite well, there shouldnt be any problem. Am actually proud of myself for coming this far - I will just keep moving forward at my pace, but admit to myself that I have actually achieved things and try to feel good about it. What a revelation! I should just do that. This is why I love writing, you can ultimately find out things about your self.. ^^

Well, before she had to leave we went all out. First we visited the Chateau d'Angers. Although I had already been there, I could show her around and this time there was a tour taking place by the apocalyptic tapestries so I got to learn something new. Next we went looking for a vinyard and winecave. Although we had to come back in the afternoon it was certainly worth it and I bought a bottle of Rose de Loire and some Moelleux white wine, which tastes a lot like mead and has this cool and sweet honey flavour. 

at the vinyard - they mix slate with the earth here



wine cellar with oak casks

It was fantastic. And our guide, an elderly french woman, was very patient and took the time to explain that it takes only the sugar in the grapes to ferment and make the wine what it is. Well, she admittedly had a laughing fit after Sarah asked her if there was an entirely chemical reaction to it. Was it that funny? I mean, I know how beer, whiskey and cider is made, but wine?
At least she assured me that living in Bavaria makes it entirely ok to prefer unsweetened drinks, Sarah apparently adores those. I would rather have an ale, a Guiness or a dry cider, something bitter and not overly sweet. Cultural differences are only insignificant if you are friends...Goodbye Sarah!

♪ Cause you're a sky, you're a sky full of stars - I'm gonna give you my heart! ♪

Summertime Madness

I am sorry to say the Quebecoise Sarah Sophie will be leaving this hemisphere soon. 

And we were having so much fun too! I myself will be returning to Munich the 4th of July, so this traineeship

is slowly coming to an end. Sarah had rented a car for going to visit Paris, which did not work out - there appears to be a strike with public transportation inside the city - Merde!

So we thought we'd make the most of it. We went to visit the Parc de Letang in Angers.

After 10 minutes of dithering, we decided to turn that frigging GPS off. So annoying - what do you have a GPS for when it isnt even able to find the adress you are looking for??

After some driving around we asked an (admittedly very hot looking) older guy on a bike. He flashed us a George Clooney like grin and pointed towards some trees just a stonesthrow away were you could barely make out an entrance. "C'est juste la bas!" 

Amazingly we had once more managed to reach our destination by chance or sheer luck or even an inborn GPS?

Anyway, Sarah and I agreed to meet at the entrance in half an hour. As I had just eaten my yummy meal of

fresh salmon and cherry tomatoe pasta in lemon-vinegar sauce

I didnt feel up to going for a jog. I just roamed around the parc, walked up some stairways, took a detour through some trees and I have to say - That place was magnificently designed! You could just about discover anything round the bend! I found a miniature waterfall, a big chunk of an old stone wall, a pool and even a herd of mountain goats behind a fence. (who regarded me warily as I took some photos of the cute kids going "Awww".

Have now looked at pictures of baby goats...The cuteness of it, Aaargh! 

...is it tap dancing?

These are some scenes I discovered:

Environ-mental pendants

I found this really cute site >> ♥ TITIMADAM ♥

They sell brooches, pendants and earrings - all with really cute animal motives.

Im thinking of getting a personalised one, I would really like a bee.

Bees are just creatures that I can identify with, they are hardworking and small, and can achieve the most when working together.

But the whale made of walnut wood is cute too ^^

On friendly Canadians & getting on

listening to  "Get it on" by T-Rex



walking towards some church in Angers - a little tipsy and about to get lost

A new trainee has arrived - Sarah Sophie from Canada! God, I adore her. She is just so straightforward and active and a very honest person. You cannot help but love her to bits. We immediately hit it off, although she is very different from me. Actually, she reminds me a bit of my Mum, because she has the same habit of blurting out exactly what she is thinking or about to do at the moment.

You cannot help but admire that she works as a paysagiste (landscape gardener), a job were there are few women, because it is so physically demanding. You have to be a tough cookie and I think she is just that ♡

We used up the first weekend after meeting just doing a lot of walking and jogging (pant pant) and looking at the city. We got ourselves a Heineken each (which does not taste nearly as good as bavarian beer or Guiness, sad but true) and talked and talked...About differences in culture, the things we like about our home countries and so on. And then we went discovering again. After the second beer we were a bit tipsy, so we were just strollling along, laughing our heads off. Getting hungry, we saw a pizza deliverer on a roller! We called out : PIZZA!!! WAIT, WE WANT SOME!!! But roller-guy just waved coolly and sped off.

Then we actually chased him for a while; giggling and panting. So we got lost, which made us laugh even more. And just when I thought I couldn't go on, we turned a street and found our bycicles, just waiting for us! HURRAY FOR INBUILT GPS!!!

cute tiny Perrier bottle - I am definately keeping those

caught in the act - of descending stairs!

I vaguely remember singing some stupid song along the lines of "I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handlebars " on repeat. Oh dear, Sarah...☺



Inspiration : floral blouses

listening to Chris Cornell - Long Gone



have been having a look around. Today is a friday and nearly all of my french collegues were wearing these breezy floral blouses, which look so refreshing and feminine if you combine them right, with uni pants and skirts.

I found it pretty hard to find any that I could imagine looking good on myself, though.

By now I have mastered the art of knowing what will make me look good and which colours dont suit me at all. Yes! I came across Sheinside.com while perusing the web and thought - why not? These are my picks:

Love the interesting clash of textures ✩

the mix of seethrough and lace is superb!

admittedly very girly - but you can always dress it down



the sleeves are not too long and the flowers not too overbearing

Congéconce continued

We didn't only look at chateaus and the sea and go shopping in the city center - which were all things I wanted to do - we also took a tour of the renown Cointreau factory as a request by the boyfriend.

As we only ever used GrandMarnier and Cointreau for parfaits and cakes, I was pretty curious. And it certainly turned out to be interesting. I know now that Cointrau is a Triple Sec, how it is distilled and theat they buy the bottles at a local artisan. And that Dita van Teese is the spokesperson and model
and before it was the Pierrot character.

They are apparently the most copied alcoholic beverage on the planet - as was showcased in a long glass cabin - there must have been hundreds of bottles! Good thing they managed to have the design of the bottle copyrighted.

And the nice perk at the end was that you got to sip on some delicious Cointreau cocktails - I'm definately trying some of these recepies at home <3


 

Distillery - of course in orange

Yummy lemon juice & cointreau cocktail

Fairy Godmother-like

>> Fairy Clothes at *Etsuna Otsuka*

Holy M, are they gorgeous!!!

Congécance!

(Getting creative - a mix of the words vacance & congé I thought up - both mean holiday)

 

Boy, have I been active lately!!! Didn't even find the time to write anything - the evenings I would just slump into my pillow and drift off to dreamland. 

The reason for that was mainly because mon homme came to visit me for a whole week and I was in bliss. We did so many things, like visiting

 >> Batz sur Mer , which was beautiful and calm, with lots of old houses along the cliffs and lots of old people taking a walk or jogging along the coast. 

Retirement here we come!!! ☺

Near~ Far~ Whereeever you....oops, getting a bit corny here

and I just had to stop for some "Moules en frites" because my friends kept telling me how good they were...God, it was delicious! But just too much, how can one girl eat a whole pot of mussels by herself?

Saltcrusted fat crispy chips and boiled nutty mussels with ample parsley...hmm

We also went to Chateau Brissac, which had a beautfiul park and is still inhabitated by its owners today.
It is also apparently the highest castle in the Loire Valley. I was very proud of myself, because I understood most of what the pretty guide was saying ❤ The ancestors were all very different characters, one room was stacked with a hundred antlers, because one of the Marquises of Brissac had been a fervent huntress. I loved hearing about the Marquise Jeanne Say, she enjoyed singing and entertaining people so much, she even built her own theatre. Wish I had that money...

❤ Chateau Brissac ❤

My boyfriend was being rather shy, because he can't speak french at all, but I thought it was cute and I liked playing his own personal guide.