Thursday, November 17

Being an au pair in Exeter

... which is also the title of my facebook album.

I have so much to tell but there is just not enough space to say it all! I've seen so much, I've learned so much ...














2 weeks to go :)





Wednesday, October 5

Shopping nightmare a.k.a. the never-ending story about a coat.

The allusion to Nikolai Gogol's "The overcoat" is merely coincidental. :P
You know, when you go somewhere and pack lightly, because you want to do some shopping there? That's what I did when I came to England. I decided to leave my jacket at home, I'll buy one here anyway.

YEAH RIGHT.

I have a weird body. From the waist down: Size not so small. From the waist up: Size tiny. I can buy t-shirts quite easily. I have trained myself to find trousers that fit me, but coats! I think I have been buying a proper winter coat for the last three years! No luck.
So, here's my story:
1) Went to Primark, find a lovely jacket, listened to my friend's advice to check other things and when I came back there it was gone.


2) Went to a hundred other stores, tried on a thousand different jackets, all too big.


A week later:
3) Bought an emergency coat (too big) to avoid freezing.



4) Went to Next to try on some children sizes. It turned out they only have sizes 1-12 in stock. I'm 23 but I think I might need a 14.


5) Went to BHS, found a coat for girls that fit me in the shoulders. Wanna know the size? 11 years! And guess what, the sleeves were a bit too short.


( 6) Almost gone crazy)


7) Went to New look and abracadabra, found a coat in size six that actually fits! I couldn't believe my eyes! And I also got a students' discount, yay. 34 pounds for a coat, not bad.


8) Enjoyed the rest of the day in the company of my new German friend, with a smile on my face and a lovely Cornish pasty in my hands! :)


Life is good. :)




Monday, October 3

TEN FACTS I’VE LEARNT ABOUT ENGLAND


1) It's not cheap.

2) They drink a lot of tea. (d’ooh) Cornish cream tea below. :)



 
3) They have washing machines in their kitchens!


4) English guys are hot. English guys with a proper English accent. H O T!


5) You can have trouble finding non-ready food. In most cases you just have to put it in the oven/microwave and ignore it for a while. I like fresh food. 

6) Students’ parties are CRAAAAZYYY! Yes, they are. The reason might just be the beginning of the year, freshers week and everything. I really sympathise with the lads who had to clean that flat the morning after. :P


7) People are very nice and helpful! I got a little lost in the city centre. (I know, how is that possible, right?) Someone obviously noticed my confusion and he asked me If I needed any help. Awww! I do, thanks!
J ... which would never happen in Slovenia ...


8) I don't know about 8, 9 and 10, but I like it here. :)










Sunday, October 2

Homesickness



Do you get homesick when you go away from home? I don’t if I know I’ll be home soon, but this time is a little bit different.

It's my fifth day in Exeter, UK, and from time to time I'm still working hard to resist tears coming from my eyes. There’s nothing I could do, I'm a crier. Nothing helps. J

Exeter is a very nice city and the weather has been great for the last few days. Cold in the morning, warm in the afternoon. Perfect for catching a cold (which I did) but oh well. I'll survive. City centre is great for shopping, all women love that. I've met some moms at school, where I take the kids to, the people are all very nice and helpful and I’ve met some new friends which is also perfect! I can't wait for that party tonight with our mixed nationality group made of Erasmus students, au pairs and others that found themselves living in Exeter. J
It’s the time when I come to my bedroom that is problematic. Or when I have nothing to do and no one is at home to care. Or when I make dinner and one of the kids says it’s horrible, then my tears are just waiting to burst out and I want to cry like a baby. Moooommmy! Come and get me!

Since everything else is great I think I’ll get over my tearing syndrome successfully, too. J




Friday, September 23

Packing frenzy

Two more days until Exeteeeeeeer!

Packing for two months ...


... where to begin? :)


Friday, September 16

EXAAAMS ARE OOOVEEEER!

Finally!
It felt like neverending exam story, aargh! But this is not a whining post, this is a bragging post. I'll just post 3 photos of my exams to do list.

February 21


June 7:



September 16:


I'm quite happy with my crossing-things-off job! ;)




Thursday, September 8

A list of things I hate.

I'm a bit irritated tonight and you don't easily irritate me. I've been working in a bar for a long time now so I have nerves made of steel! Let me share a special list with you - a list of things I HATE! And I'm not a hater. I believe in karma, I try to do good thinks ant think positively. :)

  • What bothers me THE MOST is when someone is trying to tell me how I think and how I feel. "Eat, you're hungry!" "It must be a very boring job." Come on! What do you know?! Speak for yourself, express YOUR feelings and thoughts, not mine, thanks.

  • The second thing I really don't like is when someone is telling you how you SHOULD feel, what you SHOULD believe and do. I'm especially sensitive about religion conversations, since I don'r have one. Why is that so hard to accept sometimes? Argh! Here's something for people like that: (copied from a fb status, of course :P)

Don't like gay marriages? Don't get one.
Don't like abortions? Don't get one.
Don't like pre-marital sex? Don't have it.
Don't like drugs? Don't do them.
Don't like porn? Don't watch it.
Don't like alcohol? Don't drink it.
Don't like your rights taken away? Don't take away someone else's.

  • And the last thing is a story about two people. Their names are "because-it's-the-right-thing-to-do" and "what-will-the-neighbours say". I'm allergic to that one. My answer is usually WHOOO CAAAREEEES? Why exactly should I eat lunch just because it's lunch time? Why should I turn the lights on when it's dark outside? Maybe I like darkness. Why should I wear black for the funerals? Why should I go to bed because it's time to go to bed? Why shouldn't I sing loudly and off-tune because the neighbours might hear? Who cares. I'm not one of those people who always try to be different from others, but please, my world is my world and I don't really care what others (people I don't care about) think about it.


Thanks for your time, I really feel better now. :P



Wednesday, July 27

Yaaaay!



Guess what I should be doing. Studying! And guess what I'm not doing! Yeah, the answer is the same. In the last couple of days I can't do anything else besides being excited.

What about?

In the end of September I'm going away for two months. I'm going to Exeter, UK, to be an Au pair to two lovely kids. Yaaaay! Babysitting is not my dream job, but I believe this is a great way to spend time in an English speaking environment. It is true that I'm a student of English, but my English is faaaaar from perfect.

Can't wait! :)


I've heard Exeter is a really nice place:



And babysitting shouldn't be too bad either.
I'm a childish person anyway. :)


Wednesday, June 22

Irony of racism

This is definitely my favourite author of this year's World Literature Written in English class. It's Wole Soyinka from Nigeria, the first African author to receive the Nobel prize. (1986)


I just LOVE how he uses irony in situations as difficult as being a black immigrant in London in 1960. I like & admire people that are good with words. :) Here's the poem:


TELEPHONE CONVERSATION

The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. “Madam,” I warned,
“I hate a wasted journey—I am African.”
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.

“HOW DARK?” . . . I had not misheard . . . “ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?” Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfoundment to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis—

“ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?” Revelation came.
“You mean—like plain or milk chocolate?”
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wavelength adjusted,
I chose. “West African sepia”—and as an afterthought,
“Down in my passport.” Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. “WHAT’S THAT?” conceding,
“DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.” “Like brunette.”

“THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?” “Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused—
Foolishly, madam—by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black—One moment madam!”—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—“Madam,” I pleaded, “wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself?”

(1960)




Thursday, June 16

What's poetry?


Studying for my American lit. and post-colonial lit. in English is sooooooo much easier and more relaxing than studying consonantism.

I like modern & modernist poetry much better than the old classics. I can't really say why, because I'm not a poetry person. The fact that I do like it is enough for me. :)


This is a selection of quotes about poetry I find interesting:
(from my notes)



"If it's a wild tune, it is a poem."

"[the poem] begins in delight and ends in wisdom."

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."

"Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting."
(Robert Frost)



"A poem is not the description of an experience, it is itself an experience."
(A. J. M. Smith)



"Poetry should resist the intelligence almost successfully."
(Wallace Stevens)


"A poem should not mean but BE."
(Archibald MacLeish)



"I speak here of poetry as the revelation or distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean - in order to cover their desperate wish for imagination without insight."
/.../
"For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. /.../ Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. /.../ Poetry is not only dream or vision, it is the skeleton architecture of our lives."
(Audre Lorde)




Tuesday, June 7

The Countdown revisited.



Do you remember my countdown? The neverending list of things I need to do before I start writing my thesis? Here it is again. It's been scribbled on a bit. Some exams are crossed off, I've managed to get rid of 7 items since January. Some have a date next to it and they belong to my BigSummerPlan!






I'm already tired of studying. The reason is mostly the subject I'm revising at the moment. I have to learn a lot of things by heart and I find that incredibly painful. I cant wait for the next two exams: American literature (short story, drama and modern poetry) and post-colonial literature in English (Africa, India, Australia, Caribbean). That should be a lot of fun. :)




The other thing is ... this is my last week of classes at this faculty / with my school mates *e*v*e*r*. And I still don't know whether I'm happy to finish or sad because it's over. Those four years went by so fast.


I wish they would have started as good as they are finishing. :)









Wednesday, June 1

Something I've learnt recently


Exercising becomes so much easier when you stop eating junk food. :P




Tuesday, May 24

Cravings

I'm trying to be careful about what I eat for a week now. It is not as much of a problem as I expected it to be. I feel much better now and I don't pass out every time I want to take the stairs. :P


I have a huge craving, though. I'd kill for a seafood pizza!

I checked online if I could eat some and found out that pizza has about 1400 calories, which is 200 more than I eat in a whole day! What have I been eating for the last few years?! I didn't even know! My friends say it's better not to know. :)

Now I mostly focus on vegetables. I try to avoid fat and carbs and get more proteins, which isn't that easy. I'm slowly running out options.

And another thing I hate about losing weight: Your first centimeters don't go off your waist or thighs, but off your breasts! :S






Tuesday, May 17

Exam time again.

I have just decided not to study any more tonight. My brain needs sleep to process everything I've learnt today.



This decision is so much better than the previous one, when I decided it was time to start studying. Yuck. :)






Calorie Count

Yesterday I came across this site: http://caloriecount.about.com. I don't think I should lose a lot of weight, BUT! Those 3-4 extra kilograms follow me way to much lately. I think I just want to be careful about what I eat.

I don't think people realize how much they eat if they don't keep track. When I started my food log yesterday I thought I didn't eat that much, but one coffee here, one snack there and that's how you collect those calories. :)

My goal is to stay under 1600 calories every day. And possibly to work out at least a bit. A little bit. :) Yesterday I got a B!




We'll see how that goes ... :)





Monday, May 16

No One


After years of horrible and embarrassing song choices we finally had a good song at this year's Eurovision Song Contest. A good song and a GREAT singer!




I just wanted to share. :)



Friday, May 6

Bébé(s)


Last night I watched a wonderful documentary about four babies from around the world. The title of the film - Bébé(s) - is very simple, as well as the film itself.

"This movie shows the development of four babies from birth to about one year old. They are from extreme different cultures - Namibia, Mongolia, Japan and the United States. /.../ The diversity among them was part of the narrative. Namibia appeared barely touched by technology; Tokyo utterly transformed its landscape. It was interesting that the Japanese parents sang the birthday song in English and that the simple yurt the Mongolians lived in had an accompanying satellite dish. It is also amazing that each baby's unique personality emerges so early in their lives."
(IMDb user review
)




I had quite a few laughs when watching how these cute little guys were dealing with their problems. My only thought at the end of the film was that we should ponder on ourselves, enormously expensive baby carriages, tons of Pampers and just about everything we complicate so much at.


Tuesday, May 3

BarCeloNa


I used my "spring break time" well and went on a road trip to Barcelona, Lloret de Mar, Monaco and Monte Carlo (with many many other students).


I liked Spain or Catalunya, to be more exact, for many reasons:

- The food: I love seafood and they have plenty.



- The marketplace was amazing:




- The language - I love it! There are Spanish and Catalan, which I like even better, since it is a mix between Italian, Spanish and French. At least for me it is. :)

- People - very good looking. :)
And mostly very friendly ... like our barmaid in Lloret de Mar:




Sun, perfect beaches, cocktails, always something going on ...
what else do you need?





Their style is also special ... all those guys: Picasso, Gaudí, Salvador Dalí ... must have been high half of their life. :)



The feeling I always get with these things is some kind of longing for metropolitan life.Where I come from we all know each other. That's not very hard if you live in a small country like Slovenia where there are basically no cities at all. Just a few towns and a gazillion of villages. I feel like I could hide well in a big open minded city (full of HOT guys) like Barcelona. ;) But you know how this goes, longing can only fulfil its purpose when you can't really get the thing you want. I could go and live somewhere else, but then I'd just yearn for going home again. :)