New Releases in the music world

Every time I have turned on the radio last week everybody was talking about the new mega releases artist have, so I thought, what better do than write about it and talk about some of them.

1. Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion

How could I start this list without putting the queen herself first? After what felt like years the queen of pop has released a new song, finally for all the little monsters taste.

So far I’ve only listened to it once this afternoon when I drove home from grocery shopping and I have to say, although it’s a bit different to her last album, you clearly can hear the Lady Gaga edge to it.

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2. Green Day – Revolution Radio

After what felt like centuries Green Day are finally back with a new song (gosh, punk/rock fans are blessed, with the new Blink 182 album, Good Charlotte Album and now this) which is the first ssingle off of the same titeled album which will be out on the 7th October. So far I haven’t heard it, I know how dare I, but as everything Green Day does it can only be amazing and a right treat for every Green Day fan or people who enjoy this kind of music.

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3. Kings of Leon – Waste a Moment

Once again, Kings of Leon must have put out music years ago. Surly everybody remembers iconic songs like ‘Sex On Fire’ or ‘Use Somebody’. I don’t think I’m exhilarating when I’m saying that surely everybody must be exciting to hear new stuff by them playing on the radio.

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4. Mac Miller ft. Ariana Grande– My Favourite Part

Do I even have to say anything about this song? Every song Ariana Grande is on is a smasher and I’m sure this song isn’t different. This girl could touch poop and it would turn into gold. With this incredible voice this isn’t any wonder, isn’t it?

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5. Post Malone ft. Justin Bieber – Deja Vu

Every Belieber hold on to your seats. If you are like me and not quite over JB’s last hits ‘Cold Water’ and ‘Let Me Love You’ you must be very strong now. Here he is with a new feature. As we all know since his little break and he came out with his album ‘Purpose’ full of hits, he’s doing incredibly well. Can’t really be a bad song with him on it at the moment, can it?

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6. One Republic – Future Looks Good

After ‘Kids’ and ‘Wherever I Go’ ‘Future Looks Good’ is One Republic’s new smashing hit off of their upcoming album ‘Oh My My’ (which is coming out on the 7th October by the way). Since the last two songs were super successful all around the world, there is basically no way this song won’t be a hit either. With a front man named Ryan Tedder there is nothing different to expect, really.

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7. Sia – The Greatest

Don’t think I have forgotten Sia, nono, I haven’t. How could I forget her? As I read online Sia fans are on the edge of their seat from excitement since she released her new single. But could you expect something different from her? I’m sure ‘The Greatest’ will be as successful as her other songs in the past. Hair like this must produce great songs.

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8. Melanie C – Anymore

Spice Girls fans be prepared, Mel C herself released a new song. I guess I’m not the only one who will listening to this song with a following celebratory Spice Girl dance party, right?

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9. James Arthur – Say You Won’t Let Go

You remember James Arthur? The absolute talent who won the British X-factor back in 2012 and had his massive break-through with his incredible single ‘Impossible’. He is back with a new song. I personally couldn’t be more exciting because I think he has an incredible voice plus is an amazing artist and I could listen to him even sing about poop and I would buy it.

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10. Busted – Coming Home

Every Busted song is amazing and takes me right back to when I was little/ an early teen, so when I read that they’re bringing out a new song I couldn’t wait to hear it. Definitely check them out if you haven’t yet.

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Of course they have been more releases this week, but I thought 10 would be enough for today. If you want us write more about music like this let us know and we’re sure to do so because we’re all great music lovers with similar but yet different music tastes.

Lots of love,

Jenny xxx.

Lilis #GuyBoss of the month – Jack and Finn Harries

Happy Sunday Sunday everyone!
This week it is time for my #GuyBoss of the month. This month I don’t really have only one, but technically two, as I chose *insert drum roll here*: JACK AND FINN HARRIES or Jackson and Finnigan Harries, which are their full names.
You may know Jack as a YouTuber from his channel Jacksgap, that he created out of fun during his gap year. You may also know Jack from some acting he did when he was younger. Well, obviously you then know Finn as he is Jacks twin, duh! Kind of obvious but I mean there might be a few out there who just don’t know any of them. Finn never actually made his own channel, instead, he does more of the behind the scenes work.

Jack started out like every other Youtuber, posting Vlogs or challenges, just talking about his life and in some videos Finn would appear and they’d open fanmail together or do other goofy things.
However, over the years the content on Jacksgap has changed dramatically and in my opinion it also got 100 times better.
After not posting videos for quite some time they came back with a documentary on their experience participating in a Rickshaw run in India. Videos about climate change, documentaries about people with quite peculiar jobs or backgrounds and their shed sessions followed.
What is most striking about these videos is the quality and the content. It is not some of the meaningless content you can often find on Youtube (I consider my videos meaningless content as well, although I try to bring messages across, I know that for example my hauls aren’t of high educational value). They do their own research, they film and edit with a team that is close to them and of course they also get sponsored by Skype, as an example but I mean how else are you gonna afford traveling around the world to film your videos, that at the same time have such important messages.
What I admire about them as well is, that they went to University. Jack only for a year, in Bristol but still! Finn went to Leeds to study there for a year and is now at University in New York. Showing that pursuing an education at Uni can be fun and important is just lovely and I think more Youtubers should be concerned about this topic just like they are. Of course they have other focuses but it just makes education more appealing and that is such an important message to bring across to young children.
Back to their Videos: What mainly makes them a #GuyBoss is, that they weren’t afraid to change their content. Yes, maybe they were hesitant about what people would think but they had a message and they managed to bring it across. Their videos deal with such important issues, it’s inspiring. I can just hope they change young peoples opinions about our world, in a positive way. Furthermore, their editing skills are truly mesmerizing. I sometimes wish more Youtubers would put quality before quantity. I am not bothered by the fact that they don’t post a video every week or sometimes not even every six months but when they post one, I do know I can look forward to some great content that is interesting, eye opening and has an awesome message. That is what makes them my #GuysBoss of the month.
All in all, I just hope that Jack and Finn continue their amazing journey on becoming, what I think you can consider, incredible directors and film makers. They inspire all of us to think outside the box and consider important issues in this world to be more relevant than we may perceive them. We tend to think about ourselves way too much, without seeing the big picture and I think Jack and Finn do a wonderful job of objective and still highly interesting content that shows us the big picture.

If you have not checked them out yet, where have you been? Go and watch their videos NOW! That’s an order.
Loads of love,
Lili xx

Twitter: @castway_minds
Instagram: @castwayminds

Featured image taken from the jacksgap website: http://jacksgap.com

Do My Fashion Choices Make Me A Bad Feminist?

Sláinte me loves!

I officially settled in in Ireland and I know this means “cheers” but this is beside the point. This week we had our feminism theme week, which had me very excited. I thought about all the different topics I could write about and to be fair the girls already got you covered with super interesting insights on their opinions about feminism in media, stereotypes against feminism or what it’s like being a feminist.

Now as you know, I am a Make Up and Fashion addict and I like to express myself through my clothes but I also strongly identify as a feminist. I believe in equality and that everyone has the right to live their life in whatever way they choose to, as long as it is not degrading or hurting anyone. At the same time, I enjoy dressing, what some people might consider, sexy or let’s just say I like tight dresses and heels.

Over the past couple of years I’ve grown from an awkward teenage girl into a kind of more confident but still pretty awkward 20-year-old and the older I got the more I identified as being a feminist but I also got more and more into fashion and make up. It just happens that people ,therefore, don’t take me seriously anymore, as a feminist and as a confident woman that has the right to be treated just the same as any man.

Does it make me a bad feminist if I enjoy wearing dresses and skirts?

To me, this is very similar to the whole rape culture topic and I loathe having to talk about it over and over again. But you know what? Why don’t I show you dresses that might be more appropriate for someone who identifies as a feminist, after all, this is a really tricky topic. You want to be seen as a serious woman and that of course depends immensely on your outer appearance as society has taught us.

    

Maybe dress number one or two from Boohoo.com would be more suitable or the little black dress from tophsop? What makes them so incredibly feministic you may ask…well..nothing of course. My fashion choices do not determine if I identify as a feminist or not I also do not share the opinion that I am setting a bad example for others or that I am reducing my role as a woman to a sex object or a dumb doll. If you didn’t know already, I feel comfortable, I dress for myself

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and if that is not a feminist thing to do, I don’t know what is.
It is this concept that people have in their minds of women in dresses or skirts, who cannot be taken seriously because after all, little girls like dresses, princesses wear dresses. Why on earth can’t I feel like a princess and at the same time believe in feminism, why can’t I stand up for equal rights in that dress. If I’m standing up for my rights then I want to look the part, so I will for sure rock that bodycon dress that accentuates my curves and that I feel comfortable in. It is then society, that has to change their way of perceiving feminists and women. Same goes for Make Up:

Am I less of a feminist if I enjoy wearing Make Up?

 

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To be honest, I do struggle with this question as well as the clothing question. The beauty industry makes money off womens insecurities, kind of, and that does not really sound too feministic. On the other hand I strongly believe in the concept of us being stronger when we have the chance to truly be ourselves and discover all facettes of our being. It makes us better humans and to me personally make up plays a big part in this. It gives me the chance to make myself feel beautiful not for anyone else but for me. That is very feministic indeed and therefore I doubt anyone could ever say that just because I like to dress up and put on some fierce looking lipstick, I am less confident and cannot be a feminist.

 

My point is: Society and men like to make girls, that identify as feminists, believe they now have to give away all their clothes for charity, curse every make up tutorial ever created or let their eyebrows turn into a wild rainforest. In my opinion you should not feel like this. What matters are your believes and that you stand up for them and if you like to do that in jeans, chucks and a charity shirt, in a tennis skirt, polo shirt and boat shoes or in heels and a cocktail dress should not matter to anyone. Therefore, we as feminists also have to make sure to let people know that wearing Make Up does not determine the level of how much we are involved in feminism. We should feel free to experiment and we should always feel confident, especially as feminists.

Have you encountered any situations in which your clothes or your Make Up were used to make a point against you being a feminist? Let me know by tweeting us or messaging us on instagram, of course you can also leave a comment.

Lili xx

Twitter: @castaway_minds

Instagram: @castawayminds

 

Stereotypes against feminism

As you all may be aware we are talking about Feminism this week and I wanted to address an issue that is a major problem surrounding feminism: Stereotypes. For some reason people have a very distinct image of feminism and what feminists are like so let’s have a look at those stereotypes.
Feminists hate men:

Ehm yeah obviously, because we all love a god generalisation and that’s why we certainly believe that every man on this world is evil and oppressive. Like seriously? Feminism isn’t about hating men or the idea of men, it is about equal rights for both genders. It has nothing to do with hating one gender or preferring one gender over the other, it has to do with wanting females and males to have the same opportunities and rights. And just because you think it’s unjust that men are more likely to be paid more and you state the obvious that it is not okay, it doesn’t mean you hate men, you just hate the social construct of gender roles.

Feminists are lesbians:

This goes kind of along with the first stereotype, because I mean if we all hate men, we need to be lesbian, right? I mean that’s the only logical conclusion. This is one thing that I really don’t understand but that basically underlines the stupidity of this world. Like apparently if you stand up for yourself and others, if you are being loud and vocal about injustice within our society, that makes a statement about your sexuality? Like how are these two things even related? I am sorry but I really don’t get it. So once and for all: No, feminist does not equal lesbian, because our believe of what society should be like does not determine our sexuality in any way.

Feminists are all ugly:

Another one that makes me want to pull my own hair out. Your outer appearance has nothing to do with your believes, same as your sexuality has nothing to do with it. We are not all bitter because we can’t get a husband, we simply want to be seen as an equal human being and not just for our body parts. And I mean if you say feminists are all ugly, you, just as an example, just called Emma Watson ugly, so what is wrong with you?

Feminists hate families:

Again seriously? Why should feminists hate families? Being opposed to the general assumption that women should stop working and their only purpose is to stay home and keep the house clean and look after the children is a valid point. But just because people don’t like the idea that women are expected to stay home when they have a child and to give up their passions in order to keep a clean house for her husband, doesn’t mean that you hate families. Our society has progressed and luckily there are now plenty of opportunities for women to have children and work, yes it is still hard hence why we still need to fight for equal treatment. But we do have a lot more options. Also there are nowadays so many different types of families that you can’t even generalise this (I mean generalising is stupid anyways).

Feminists hate stay-at-home-moms:

Well this is related to the previous one and no, you don’t hate stay at home moms. Why should you. This is a simple point to answer to because feminism is about equality and getting to do what you want, every person should have a choice. So if a woman chooses to stay at home, that’s her right, it’s what she chooses, it’s her life.

Feminists are all angry and aggressive:

To be fair the only time I get angry is when people show me these kind of stereotypes. When it comes to everything else I’d like to think that there are always reasonable arguments for feminism to bring across your point. Also people get angry because it can be frustrating having to say the same thing over and over again because you are not being taken seriously, but no we are not all angry and throw darts at pictures of men we hate, we don’t hold secret voodoo rituals and again we are not sitting in a corner being bitter about no one loving us.

All feminists believe in the same thing

Sorry again, feminism isn’t that simple. Like a lot of issues it has been going on for quite a while and as in everything that is becoming a huge thing there are different groups within feminism that believe in different things. I looked into my notes from my one semester of sociology to find the scientific terms for the four main groups again (who knew keeping them would actually make sense at some point). So the four main groups that are being analysed are liberal, socialist, cultural and racial feminism. All very different, but that doesn’t matter because all people supporting this are feminists!

All feminists are women:

Yes that makes perfect sense. Because as I said before feminism is simply about women’s rights and  has absolutely nothing to do with equality at all. All sarcasm aside: Feminism is about getting equality, so that everyone can do whatever they want. Just look at the teaching and caring jobs, you get more women because it somehow has become a female job. I have a male friend who got told by his father to study engineering instead of becming a kindergarten teacher because it was more acceptable. And feminism is tackling about this too. And just look at all the men supporting HE for SHE. They are all feminists and they are male. Some celebrity examples are Douglas Booth, Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Kiefer Sunderland and so many more who have stepped up to demonstrate their support for gender equality.

So basically what I am trying to say is that feminism is not what many people who criticise it think it is. It is about empowering, equality and a society where no person has to face the stereotypes of his or her gender! There is no typical feminist and there is no right way to be a feminist. There is only being you and you believing that you have the same rights as everyone else. What is an important thing to say is that there are no excuse to not be a feminist because even if you leave all your believes aside of what is right and wrong, if we have an empowered youth that is not constraint by social constructs we have the best potential to create a world that is better and fairer than it is now.

Also if you want to read about feminism in a fictional context, go check out Holly Bourne’s book series called the Spinster Club. I absolutely loved it and I am currently sturggling to walk around and not shout “That is sexist!” at People.
Check out Holly Bourne!

Let us know which stereotype annoys you most about stereotypes against feminism and if you have read Holly Bourne’s book at @castaway_minds on Twitter.

 

Feminism in advertisment

This week we have one of our theme weeks again. This time our topic we have chosen to write about is feminism.

Since I’m a student of media I thought it would be only suitable if I write about feminism in advertisement.

Let me talk about stereotypes or gender-roles.

In advertisement typical associations with the gender a commonly portrayed as a part to sell the product to the viewers. So females are typically shown in ads for household products whilst using them, as well as men are shown in ads for cars or DIY’s ads. But if you look in the everyday lives of people men have to clean their apartment as well as women do and women have to DIY themselves as well, plus if you haven’t heard already women also purchase and drive cars.

But stereotypes are also used to portray women not only as housewives but also in a sexual manner. “Sex sells” as it is called, is/was an important aspect in the development of ads. This basically means what it says, sex sells products or moreover stereotypes and sexiness sells products. However since social media rose and became a huge part in our everyday lives the concept of “Sex sells” isn’t working that great any more. Due to campaigns against portraying women this way as well as anti-bodyshaming or also called “lookism” in social media, ads which use this method aren’t as successful as they used to be. Therefore some brands already understand this change and worked against this by giving their brand a new slogan and try to connect it with a new image. A good example for this is “Dove”.

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In 2004 the brand re-launched their products with a new slogan ‘real beauty’. Since this launch Dove is known for their campaigns for the natural beauty of women and that every women should feel beautiful in their own skin regardless of their appearance. In 2013 their campaign for ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ was the most shared video in this year.

So you can see that some brands really try to get rid of “Sex sells” and understood early enough that the concept from the 1960s isn’t contemporary any more.

Luckily politicians have also realized this in the last time. London’s new mayor Sadiq Khan banned an advert by the brand “Protein World” around London because of it’s sexism illustration of a women in a bikini on billboards. His arguments were that it gives young women the wrong idea how they have to look like and that women shouldn’t risk their health by trying to look the same way as the commonly photoshopped model on the billboard.

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Sadly this isn’t as common as you think it is. Barely any politician stand behind feminism in adverts as they should do in order to make a change. As well as, sadly the majority of companies still use the bodies of models or celebrities to sell their products. Although using celebrities in ads aren’t as successful either any more. A survey by “collective bias” showed that only 3 percent would buy products averted by celebrities.

So as you can see the whole system of how you should advertise products have changed since social media has such a big impact on our lives. This change is good because finally companies have to understand that “Sex sells” aren’t working any more and we consumers shouldn’t be pressured to feel like we have to look a certain way or have to behave a certain way.

In our society it’s cool for women to be sporty without the thought of wanting to look like Gigi Hadid, more because we enjoy our sport and want to pursuit it with a passion, no matter if I get a broader shoulder or back. It’s cool for women to like science or wanting a career rather than settle down at the age of 25 and get married and children. It’s cool for women to look the way they want to, don’t wear make-up and wear the cloths they like. It’s cool for women to like cars. It’s cool for women to be able to build an IKEA cupboard and repair the leaking sink.

Sadly advertisement still sent us the wrong impressions on all of these things and all the other things in life as well that we are not supposed to do because of stereo types hold, which also holds us back from doing them. But luckily there are also brands such as Dove who do understand that this is all a big old pile of rubbish and women are just as good as men, can do the same things as men and women aren’t just objects.

This brands and advertisements are the future and I can say that I’m more than happy that this change is finally coming.

Women have been portrayed in a sexual manner and in a stereotype since basically adverts were a thing. Finally women fought back and thanks to social media had a voice. Bodyshaming, sex sells, stereotypes are history, so only all companies have to understand that and change their point of view as well and adjust their ads completely.

Lots of love and don’t take any ads too seriously,

Jenny aka a student of media who also studies a bit of advertisment

 

 

 

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Favourite birthday cakes

As you guys might or might not know I love all things baking, so for today’s post I thought about why not share my favourite recipes for various over the top cakes you could do for someone’s birthday. To be honest though, these are only a few of my favourite and also only ones I could find online. If you want me to post more of these and also recipes that you can’t find (or at least I can’t) on the internet, let me know and I will do so in the future! 🙂

The classic birthday cake

Confetti cake

Ultimate birthday cake

Vanilla birthday cake

Ultimate sprinkle birthday cake

Classic Victoria sponge cake

Chocolate

Chocolate cake

Epic chocolate cake

Chocolate Truffle Cake

Best ever chocolate cake

One bowl chocolate cake

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

Fruit cakes

Fresh strawberry cake

Spiced clementine ricotta cake

Lemon curd sponge cake

Banoffe cake

Lemon layer cake

Summer Panettone cake

Themed cakes

Rainbow cake

White velvet cake

Checkerboard cake

Minecraft cake

Oreo Blackout Cake

Matcha Cake

 

 

 

 

Jenny’s #GirlBoss of the month – August ’16

So far we always have written about inspiring women, who have worked incredible hard for something or even someone who wants to make the society a better place. Today I’m going to introduce you to a person I simply just like and wanted to write about.

My #GirlbBss of the month is Perrie Edwards.

Some of you might know her because she’s a member of the x-factor casting band ‘Little Mix’ and because they had international success with song like ‘Black magic’, ‘Hair’ or a kinda more old school one ‘Wings’. But some of you might also know her from her former relationship and engagement with Zayn Malik. I’m not going to talk about that though because despite her romance with him, Perrie is an independent women herself whom inspire for how she portrays herself in the public eye.

First of all I have to make one thing clear: Perrie is damn good looking. Therefore there is no surprise that she is also my girl crush. She is just beautiful to look at, isn’t she?

Besides she’s not only gorgeous from the outside she is also incredible funny. Have you ever had the scenario that you lied in bed and couldn’t fall asleep so you went into the big dark hole of the internet? Certainly everyone has and if you say no you most definitely are lying! So back to the point, I certainly have been in this dark hole a lot of times and every time I, somehow, always end up on YouTube and also stuck there for hours. One of my favourite things to do then is go and watch ‘Funny moments’ videos, either from Little Mix or Perrie herself. God damn is she hilarious! The noises she can make with her voice is unbelievable. If you don’t trust me go and have a look yourself. I always find her very uplifting when I have a down day. Just turn on one of these videos and trust me sooner as you can think you will laugh at the funny things she does.

When watching these videos, her Snapchat story, Instagram videos, Interviews or whatnot I always admire that she seems incredible confident and she is the way she is and embraces it. She’s like who she is, who she wants to be and it appears as if she doesn’t cares what other people think about her.

Perrie is not only funny, she also is very down to earth, or she is an incredible good actress as well and portrays herself very well as down to earth. On event in particular is always in my mind then. When Zayn broke up with Perrie, she obviously had a hard time. Unlike other celebrities she didn’t just smile it away, she was upfront about it and said that she’s going through a hard time. There are even videos of her, where she performs a song with her band and started crying because she was reminded of her former relationship. Which girl or even boy can not not relate to this? Love songs are the death when you’re going though a break-up. I can’t even stand listing to them (which makes listening to music in general very hard), I can’t even imagine how it must feel to sing these then and try to put in as many emotions as possible to make it authentic. I pull my imaginary head to Perrie for showing the emotions and handling them the way she did. She seemed like a normal girl who just had a hard time, handling a break up. What more normal thing do you want from a role-model?

Other celebrities hold everything in and try to pull off to be a strong person but in my opinion Perrie was the strong person there because she embraced her feelings and said to the world: hey look at me, I have a pretty shitty time at the moment because I trusted a damn-ass guy who I thought I would marry someday but it turned out that he isn’t the prince charming I have been waiting for. So yeah, I don’t feel my best and I have to go through a lot at the moment, but you know what that’s life, so my fans can know about this part of my life as well.

That’s really brave if you ask me because everybody is going to judge you for it. For trying and play the victim or making your personal life public but hey, that’s life. No life is always perfect and as we imagined it, sometimes there are bumpy roads as well which you have to pass too. Why hiding it and be a part of the imaginary perfect, glamorous Hollywood world, when in reality all these other people in this industry face the same problems as anybody else.

Sure, not everybody might be on the same page as me there and might think that she should grow a pair of balls and man-up, but I don’t think so. She just showed that in order to get a perfect life you have to go through the hard times as well and life isn’t as portrait in the media or ‘Cosmopolitan’ or ‘People’. And eventually it will get better and you forget about the heartache you had and you can only ask yourself why you have been dating a dumb-ass like that. That’s a normal life every teenager goes through and I admire Perrie for being so strong and showing us her weak side at this moment. And look at her, she’s super successful in what she does so there must be a reason why she is so.

I hope you all have an awesome (rest-) sunday and an awesome week. Speak to you again tomorrow.

Lots of love,

Jenny

 

 

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Quote of the Week 22/08/16- 28/08/16

“Whatever you are physically” he said, “male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy- all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. Whatever the color, the shape, the design of the shade that conceals it, the flame inside the lamp remains the same. You are the flame”

 

-Clockwork Angel by  Cassandra Clare

 

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Scottish Stereotypes

As my summer break, which felt like an eternity, is almost over I am slowly allowing myself to get excited about going back to Scotland again. Slowly allowing myself to get excited basically stands for telling everyone who wants to hear it, and probably a lot of people who don’t, about how excited I am and how much I’ve missed it all while shoving my phone in their face with pictures of Scotland showing them how beautiful it is. But oh well.. Anyways I wanted to share a bit of my excitement here today too, just you know because.
When I meet up with friends and family here back in Germany some of the most frequently asked questions that I get asked include various stereotypes associated with Scottish people and as someone who has lived there for about two years now I think I can answer some questions as to whether they are true or not, so here it goes.

Ginger Hair 

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As my hair colour is what you apparently call ‘Strawberry Blonde’ (Fancy for my hair isn’t quite blonde but neither is it fully ginger) I get asked quite a lot whether I even stand out or if I just mingle along in all the gingerness found in Scotland. But no, it’s not like the Weasley’s moved to Scotland and spread  all their gingerness across the country. To be fair, I have seen a lot more ginger people than I have here in Germany, but it is still very few people. According to a friend of mine another typical Scottish thing is to have really dark hair, fair skin and light eyes and I have to say I have seen people with that combination a lot as well, but then again it’s just another stereotype.

Haggis 

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I have been asked about this a lot too. Especially because people know that I am not a big meat eater and struggle with everything that involves any type of organ, but if done properly Haggis can actually be quite nice. But again it is not a thing that you have everyday for tea. It usually is reserved for special occasions, like I had it at our Sports Ball, or when your friend works part time for a food company and brings home leftovers (she also brought home vegetarian haggis which was awesome and we were all ready to cry when we ran out).

Kilts 

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Well here we go. People ask me about this all the time, like do guys actually wear kilts, do they wear something underneath and so on and so forth. Honestly, yeah they still do wear kilts. I mean only to special and fancy occasions like weddings, graduation, ceilidhs (Scottish dancing events) or other formal events. It also looks better than I thought it would and somehow in a kilt a guy can even look attractive in a skirt. But there is one thing that I have say about kilts that I had no idea about before I went there. A kilt is not just a skirt that you put on. It involves a lot more than that and it takes quite a while. First of all there are also the kilt hose, which are eventually knee high socks. Then there are the shoes whose laces have to be tied around the leg. Also there are many accessories such as the sporran, which is the little bag worn on a chain or leather strap around your hips, a kilt pin to hold it all together and the sgin dubh which is a little knife that is worn at the top of the hose. So to put it all on takes a while.
Also while most boys have worn a kilt at some point in their lives they do not all own ones. Many of them rent them, however if they own one many of them pay attention to whether the tartan pattern fits into their family tree.

Bagpipes and throwing tree logs 

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These two stereotypes often come along with the whole kilt things and then you all picture someone in some valley somewhere playing the bagpipes maybe interrupting that to just do something proper Scottish and throwing a tree log.
While yes tree log throwing exists it is part of the highland games and I have not met anyone personally who has ever participated in anything like this.
Bagpipes however seem to be around like kilts. Used for special occasions or at touristy spots in the bigger cities. I have met a couple of people who actually do know how to play them but very few do.
It is nice though sometimes when it’s a nice sunny day (YES THOSE EXIST!) and you walk over your campus and can hear someone play the bagpipes in their room.

Bagpipes 🙂

Whiskey

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Well I think most people have heard of Scottish Whiskey and as it is famous around the world, many peope believe the Scottish people to basically be fueled by Whiskey and to drink it like water. I am sorry to disappoint but nope that is not true. Scottish people drink a lot and that is coming from a German person. Like I am still impressed by how much some of them drink. But then it is most of the time not whiskey but beer, cider or anything else. Especially for us at uni we are not as classy as to drink a nice whiskey as most of us either don’t like it or don’t have the money for it.

Thick Accent 

Now this is something else I get asked about quite frequently: How am I able to understand them. Well to be honest it’s not that bad. Sure there are some people where you have to listen very carefully but most of the time it is actually okay to understand. What I have learned is that it highly depends on where you are like people from Edinburgh do usually not have very thick accents while in some areas of Glasgow they could potentially be speaking another language. But it all also depends on how used to it you are. I made a friend very early on that has a very thick accent and speaks incredibly fast so after I got used to her accent nothing else seemed that bad.

In addition to the accent thought there are some words that are used quite frequently in their everyday lives that I had never heard of before moving there like wee. It is used for everything and it basically means little. There is also braw which means nice, aye is commonly used instead of yes, ken means know, you quite frequently go for a bevy (drink) and some sometimes need to leave to use a fag (cigarette). But all of these you can easily figure out.

Here’s a Scottish  guy talking with a Scottish Accent about Scottish Stereotypes:

Swear a lot 

A fucking hell yes to that. I have always took some pride in not swearing a lot. I never really felt the need to do so, but I am now proud to say that since living in Scotland my swearing vocabulary in English without even trying has grown extensively. It doesn’t really matter where you are but you learn to know how some people will show their affection (NO SARCASM, I MEAN IT) by lovingly calling you cunt, dick, or twat. How some people manage to make sentences where every second word is a swear word and you are thinking about having a swear jar in the sports hall to cut down the ‘for fucks sake’s on court.
However it is equally fascinating how quickly the actual swearing turns into a light version as soon as children are around. I think my favourite replacement word is still ‘sugar cubes’.

Hate the English

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Well this is a very common stereotype I want to finish this post with. And while there is often not a lot of appreciation for the English, especially the government (if I had been given a pound for everytime someone called David Cameron a cunt, in a not loving way, I’d be rich now), they do not necessarily hate them. What they have is an incredibly strong national pride which kind of rebels against the idea of being British and having to subordinate the needs of the Scottish pride underneath the British one.
One little piece of advice though is to never ever call someone who is Scottish English because no matter how not against the English they are it is an absolute no go to be said to be one.

 

Anyways I am super excited to get back to my ginger, kilt-wearing, haggis-eating, back pipe-playing, tree log -throwing, whiskey drinking Scottish people!

Love you lots,

Katie x

 

How not to fall into a back-to-school-blues

Hey you lovely person,

As school soon begins again or even has started for you already I thought I should write about some tips how you can avoid a post-holiday-blues or a back-to-school-blues. Okay maybe also because I only have less then 1 month left until I’m back at Uni myself and I need a pick-me-up to get not totally frustrated in how fast this time has flown by.

Tip 1: Your friends

Beside of be able to broaden your horizon, school is good for one more thing (or if you don’t like school like I did sometime, the only good thing): your friends.

These are the people who make school bear and actually fun. When you’re on holiday, sure you have fun times with your family exploring new cities, countries and cultures (even if that means you’re just visiting a different part of your country, damn are these people different to the ones you’re around usually). But having your friends around talking about the newest cute classmate, the new annoying teacher who takes her/his job way too serious or why did Holly cut her hair and dye it this awful colour? In my experience your friends are the ones who make your school-life fun, entertaining, bearable and also memorable. And after like 2 months off you have plenty to talk about, because let’s face it because of different plans and timings you’re never able to see all of them or as often as you would like to. So there is some major talk to catch up to.

Tip 2: Try to see the good in every subject

If you’re like me and you hate maths, physics, chemistry or whatever subject with a passion, it is extremely hard to keep awake whilst the lessons, homework are an absolute nightmare and I’m not even starting on revising for class-tests or exams. But every subject has some positive side as well, or these wouldn’t be subjects chosen by the government you should learn about.

Math for example, most students hate it and to be fair I still have no clue of most of the things I actually should know about in my dreams, but it also has some positive expects. Like you need to know how to sum up things if you’re at the supermarket and you need to know if you have enough money with you, as the poor uni student you are. Or you definitely need to calculate the sum of two matrices together on a daily basis in order to survive your day. Also don’t forget how important it is for you to know what happens if you put vinegar and baking soda together, one day you need to prank your sibling or your room mate and knowing the proportion is very important. You will be glad that you actually listen to your teacher for once. See Caspar Lee, he actually makes money with doing pranks on his old room mate.

So even though it is an absolute nightmare and you much rather would spend your time daydreaming about your current celebrity crush, it has some reasons why all these stupid subjects are chosen by the government. Who knows one day you might be at ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ and you would only win the 1 Million question because you listened to your absolute boring teacher who also could be Albert Einstein judging by how you would guess his age. But hey at least he taught you something useful.

Tip 3: Soon there will be other holidays

School isn’t forever and sooner than you can think, you’re laying back in your bed all day, binge watching another series on Netfilx. School terms aren’t actually that long if you think of it.

Tip 4: Don’t leave everything till the last minute

If you’re like me and a major procrastinator you will leave ll your all your homework, projects, proposals and you have to stress about it all night whilst you try to finish it in time with a half decent outcome. Truth is, if you don’t leave everything to last minute, plan your work (and actually stick to your plan) school isn’t that stressful as you might think. After school there’s always a certain time which you should spent on doing things for school and if you would actually spent this time doing things for school and not play Sims or watch all PLL episodes from the beginning you actually should be able to get through the year without such stress and actually with quite decent marks. Also revising all the things you have done in school that day and re-reading the things from the day before will help you at the end of the year with your exams, because believe it or not but the human brain can only remember things if you revise everything again in the next day n the long-term.

But whom I am even kidding here, we all know that most pupil will binge-study and do everything at the last minute as usual and hope that it will turn out alright.

Tip 5: Don’t stress yourself too much

That’s what I always did. Each year I told myself: ‘Okay Jenny, this year you’re actually study for tests, you stick to your organization plan, write everything in exercise books and not on random pieces of paper which you’re actually losing in the end’. Well, as you might already guessed this lasted for liked 2 weeks and then everything was out the window. But truth is, deep down, I always knew that I could survive school with less stress and better marks if I would have actually done so. So don’t follow my paths and be as stupid as I was. Yeah sure, B’s and occasional A’s are good and you can get through with that to some Universities but hey, if you actually get you’re shit done and stick to your plans you can actually get A’s as a normal thing and then you can choose to which University you want to go or what job you would like to do and you aren’t limited because of your marks.

As I mentioned in Tip 4, if you do everything soon enough and you study every day you won’t even start stressing yourself about these things because your marks will improve and you don’t have to stress yourself too much that you have to do all nighters before your exams so you get good marks, so you actually have a slight chance to still be able to get into the college/ University you want to. And even though you get a bad mark, who cares?! Nobody is perfect and only because of one mark you don’t will end up living on the street with no perspective. A certain level of pushing yourself is good because then you can only develop the true potential of yourself, but don’t try to push yourself too much that you neglect your friends, family and your hobbies. These are there for a reason so your brain can rest and process all the information. In the end everything will turn out good. Look at me, even I was accepted at an University, so you will be too! 🙂

Lots of love,

Jenny

 

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