Welcome to 2014

We are now over a week into the new year, and we have been bombarded by the usual 'New Years resolutions' telling us we all suddenly need to loose a stone and stop drinking. Normally I just tell myself halfheartedly that I should probably get in shape and help myself to another chocolate, but this year is a pretty important year for me. In the summer I will graduate from university (as long as I finish this dissertation by next Friday, shh...), and then hopefully move to a new city to start the next step in my life. It doesn't really feel right to set resolutions I know I won't keep when I have no idea what the future holds. Instead here are my positive ideas to make sure I live this year to the full:

1. Be healthy. I am never going to be an exercise freak, its just not my thing. But maybe going to the pool more regularly is a good idea and I should stop making excuses. I already eat really healthily (tonight excluded because I ate a huge bowl of pasta), and I need to remember that and not feel guilty about treating myself.
2. Have fun. I am nearly 22, life is pretty awesome. Sometimes I get so bogged down in working hard and worrying about the future that I forget to live in the moment. 
3. Love myself. I was a terrible teenager for having zero confidence with the way I looked, but it gets old and there comes a stage in your life where you have to realise you are never going to become a swimwear model. I actually love the way I look and I think its time to look in the mirror and admit that in my own way I'm pretty beautiful. 
4. Embrace the opportunities. This is a big one this year, because I have no idea what is coming. I want to travel, I want to work really hard on the subject I love and I want to explore a new home, wherever that may be.

This year is going to be awesome.

Motivation

Today I have spent my entire day inside in my comfy leggings, chain drinking green tea, trying to write. I have reached the stage in my education where noone is standing over me telling me to work, and whilst I really enjoy the responsibility, it can be hard to stay on track when you are all cosy at home and twitter is but a click away. I got thinking today, how do I motivate myself?
Obviously there is the 'imagine when you graduate, it will be all worth it' approach, and in the long term this does help. But lets be honest, that seems a far away goal at the moment and an extra hour in bed is right now. And my bed is so comfy.

Basically me right now

Eating is great for my motivation (although it might partly be that the making of the food allows me to take a break). Right now I am baking brownies for me and my friend to eat tomorrow when we are trying to write.Basically, any form of healthy eating has pretty much gone out the window at the moment, and it is not going to end well (especially with Christmas round the corner...)

I also think that getting away from work is helpful. I have decided to keep at least one of my days degree free, meaning I can have a lie in, go for a walk, meander round the shops, whatever. At least I have that one day to chill out so I don't loose the will to live.

Friends are also important. I have three really good friends who are also all stressing out over their dissertations, and there is no greater therapy than all sitting together at lunch moaning about a graph that won't do what you want it to. Trust me.

So whilst I am enjoying slowly becoming a hermit, tomorrow I am going to go and sit in a computor room without the distraction of food, twitter and facebook, and write. Wish me luck.

A Catch up With Friends

This week has been a busy one for me, in the nicest possible way. I finally started working on my dissertation in the lab which was really exciting, and managed to get all the uni organisation stuff out of the way. But, I also had time to hang out with some of my lovely friends and have a proper catch up.

Me and a couple of friends decided to meet up for lunch at a cafe they have just discovered in Aberdeen, called Cup. If you live in Aberdeen I completely recommend it. The decor is insanely cute, the food is yummy and the loos are Alice in wonderland themed! We all had iced tea which came in glass teapots with ice underneath to pour the tea on when it had brewed. I had a goats cheese and roasted vegetable panini which was yummy, and came with a gorgeous salad full of fruit and a tiny cup of soup. And we managed to have a well deserved gossip as well!

It's Always Sunny in Freshers Week

This is what I was told when I first arrived at Aberdeen University, and this year is no different. On Saturday all of the new students arrived for a week of bonding and partying before they start their degrees, and the weather could not be better. Seriously, yesterday I went out in a crop top without a jumper. In Aberdeen. Insane. (I should point out that all the poor freshers are in for a shock when the weather changes and we are plunged into a cold rainy hell).

I decided to take advantage of the sun and so took a walk down to the beach. Here are some photos I took, because it was just so gorgeous.

I hope this weather sticks around for a bit longer, I need to soak up as much vitamin D as possible before I go into hibernation. 

University Life

I mentioned in my last blog that I had left home for the wilderness of Scotland, to return to university. I am now a fourth year student, which brings with it new challenges (Yes yes, I am freaking out about my dissertation already, please don't remind me), but also means that I have settled into university life. I know a lot of people are just starting university this year (including my brother. God I feel so old), so I thought I would share what I have learnt these past few years:

1.  You will get massively homesick. I still miss home loads, especially my family and my hilarious friends. I try to keep in contact with them as much as possible, and I try to make my uni home as homely as possible. My favourite thing about my room is my photo wall, full of pictures of all the people I love.

   

   I love photos and this wall just makes me smile. I have added to it over the years to include all of my family and friends from different parts of my life.

2. You will make friends. I was sure I was going to become a social outcast and nobody would like me, but everyone is thinking the same thing so you all kind of bond over mutual terrifidness.                        
3. Doing things that terrify you is a good idea (unless its like, walking somewhere dodgey alone at night. Don't do that.) I went to Madagascar for a month with a bunch of people I hadn't met before and it was the best thing I have ever done. University is such a good time to do something crazy like that, and you will remember it for the rest of your life even if your bank account hates you at the time. Do it.

   

   Me with a baobab tree in Madagascar

4. You probably shouldn't be allowed full responsibility of your life. The other day I realised I still didn't really know how to use washing powder and I have been washing my own clothes for THREE YEARS. (I am actually pretty certain that this feeling of not knowing how the hell to be an adult will always be there. I have realised now that everyone else is just winging it).

   

   Seriously, what are all the different draws for? I hate washing.

5. Going to university feels like the most daunting part of your life when you do it. Then you get to your last year and you realise that deciding what to do afterwards is about a million times worse.

Summer Memories

I have arrived back home in Aberdeen after a summer in Norfolk with my family. I had such a lovely relaxing summer, which already seems to be fading into a distant memory now that it is time to start university again. I thought I would share some lovely sunny pictures of some of the things I got up to while I was at home to try to keep the summer alive for just a little longer.

Framlingham Castle is a lovely place to visit with a picnic in the sun. 

I loved Somerlayton Hall, especially the maze.

Southwold is my favourite place to go in the sun. The town looks so pretty from the pier.

I am definitely sad that summer is over, especially after looking at those pictures. I have also left friends and family behind in Norfolk whose company I am already missing. But now I am in Aberdeen, and am excited to catch up with friends here that I haven't seen all summer. I am also really looking forward to pretty autumn leaves and crisp weather, and to the academic challenges ahead of me.