Bye March, hello April!

March is seriously over. It was not anything like spring, I did not feel like spring was coming most of the time, but hey- this is still Scotland. In my previous monthly summary post I shared this to do list for March and I can proudly say I checked almost all of the items! Most of the time this month I felt like a caveman, just getting up every morning and sitting at my desk ALL.DAY. Exhausting and boring.



go to a hot yoga class

I did have it planned, but then something came up. However, there is a yoga studio on my street (!!), so I have like no excuses.

write my effing dissertation (THIS IS NOT A DRILL JOYCE!)

I mean it is not finished, but I have a full draft and I cannot wait to be over and done with it.

go crazy for St. Patrick's Day because I finished my dissertation draft (see above ><)

I didn't even have my draft finished back then haha, but St. Patrick's Day cannot be ignored, no no.

slowly get rid of things I don't need (our move out date is end of May, help!)

Does it count that I booked a flight home in May and that I will bring back a full suitcase of just useless stuff? I am hoarder, I admit it. I love keeping things because I think that one day, I will need them. Sometimes that has been true, most of the time probably not. Haha

finally go to all the art galleries in Edinburgh

Okay it was definitely not all of them, but I went to the one I really wanted to go to for ages!

Alright April, what have you got in mind? I cannot believe it is actually here- we survived winter more or less (although I am scared of our electricity bill), the semester is pretty much over, I have time on my hands... what??! My friend who's been wanting to come for ages, is finally coming over for a visit- SO EXCITED!!!! I can't wait to show her Edinburgh and be a tourist again as well for a bit...so yes, April should be good!

take touristy pictures of Edinburgh

SUBMIT THAT DISSERTATION!

celebrate like there is no tomorrow

finish my last assignments - and Uni- with a BANG

go to a hot yoga class (for realz)

Plitvice Lakes- travel inspiration

As I have written before, my friend and I are going to spend a week on a yacht, sailing around Croatia. The route starts in Split, goes via Hvar, Vis, Dubrovnik and returns to Split after a week. There are little stops in between and day tours are available for some locations. This sounds all amazing to me, but what I really wanted to do in Croatia was visit the Plitvice Lakes National Park. It is not too far away from the coast, so a trip to the park is definitely on the itinerary. I still can't look at the pictures and not think that this seems like a fairy tale land. I know these pictures are a bit (?) photoshopped, that in reality the colours are probably not that strong and so on. BUT STILL!!!!

I am so excited for July!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Harry Potter Guide to Scotland

My Harry Potter obsession experiences several highs over these past years: When I was in New York for the premiere of the last film, I thought Emma Watson waved at me and I awkwardly waved back (I stood in a crowd and obviously she was waving at everyone in a nice gesture- ugh), then visiting the exhibition that was touring in New York that summer.. and I bought the super expensive Marauders Map..haha. And then of course when Julia and I finally visited the HP studios near London.. aw man, all moments I will never forget.
However, living in Edinburgh and seeing JK Rowling's inspiration for this story every single day is a treat that is one of a kind.  There are many stories about where she wrote (Elephant House) and where she apparently hangs out now (the cafe on top of Harvey Nichols), but visiting the places that are used in the film is incredibly cool. So here is a mixture of things: Places she apparently visited, real places used in the films and places she got her inspiration from.

This loch is used as the 'Hogwarts lake' several times. It felt super familiar when we were there, so funny!

This picture might not be the best one, but this spot with the waterfall has been used as the back drop in the Goblet of Fire, when Harry is battling the dragon.

 

Aawww I think we all know this one. The actual train does not run all year round- it only starts around May.

The Elephant House is not part of the actual movies but rumor has it that JK Rowling was writing part of the books here, in that cafe. The view you get of the castle is actually really nice, so who knows?

Close to the Elephant House is Greyfriars Kirkyard. I love it because its just a proper old graveyard and the tombstones are quite scary. A lot of the names from the series appear here, Riddle, McGongall and Potter... Worth a visit despite all of this! Next to it is George Heriot's School, which is an incredible building and apparently an inspiration for Hogwarts.

My favorite male TV characters

1. Phil Dunphy

Now Modern Family is one of my favorite shows, but mostly because they have a pretty cool variety of men. Phil is my favorite, because he is the most amazing blend of feminist, funny, caring, and never embarrassed of anything. Even though he comes pretty close to the sitcom stereotype of the 'fool dad', his character is not nearly as shallow. Phil seems completely oblivious to homosexuality as something other people object to. When he realises that other people perceive him as gay, he just sighs, shrugs and proceeds with his life. Phil’s blissful unawareness of these events is so heart warming. A male character who is confident about his own masculinity is rare on television! I mean, compare this to  Adam on  Rules of Engagement. He is constantly shown in stereotypical gay ways, laughed at for his cheerleader and a-capella group background and never taken seriously by the other characters. Even though Adam is engaged to a woman in the show, his heterosexuality is questioned for most of the series. It is always used to ridicule him. One more reason to love Modern Family- their treatment and portrayal of different kinds of masculinity is something I really enjoy watching.

 2. Marshall Erickson

It's really difficult not to like Marshall- I mean, look at him. He's the perfect combination of smart, funny, sporty, lazy, passionate and super cool. Who doesn't envy his and Lilly's relationship in HIMYM? I sure do. His loyalty and understanding of her is adorable, his crazy phases are more than forgivable and he just seems to have his priorities straight. While Ted is just all over the place and always reminded me of Ross from Friends (not in a good way), Marshall was the relatable one. Okay, he might be super superstitious and believes in the Loch Ness monster, but I think that is completely acceptable, haha. And my favorite part about him is that he and Lilly do hilarious partner costumes for Halloween.

3. Jesse Pinkman

Breaking Bad is interesting in so far that there is no likeable character. Everyone has serious flaws, to the extent where you cannot believe you are still watching these horrible people. Jesse is the character that got me through this series. Most of the time, he was breaking my heart because he never seems to get a real shot at happiness. All you want for him is to finally find that right person, to change and get out of this dump...you just want to take care of him! It's just so painful watch his emotional rollercoaster. And one a side note, Aaron Paul's beauty does not hurt, that's for sure.

A little help for cool friends (Kickstarter)

Just a little project I want to share with you.

This is a Kickstarter project started by some of my friends' friends, and I helped shooting this little video. I love their T-shirt designs and I really hope their Kickstarter project is successful!
Click here to see their project page: http://kck.st/1x9lqyn or their FB page here.

A new design +more stuff!

I know this blog has been really quiet, but I have had plenty of ideas for it and never did anything about it. This wonderful weekend without any dissertation poop finally let me focus on this space and so here we go, a slightly different design.

I have added something I wanted to do for AGES: The pages underneath the header. Especially for like travel related things, you can now go on "my adventures" and find ways to look at my posts relating to Camp America, Texas or whatever you want to find.

Then there is also the regular search bar in the sidebar on the right, underneath the archive. Search results will display like this, which I really like:

If you want to find posts with a certain label, look at the bottom of the right sidebar, this is where you can find the labels I used most often. I use labels for each post, and I like to go a bit crazy with them, so I have a ridiculous amount of tags, so you can even find posts where I have used a list. Um yes. I like searchability!

Also, at the end of every post (not if you are reading my blog 'normally', only if you read a specific post- so click on the title of it if you want to!), it will now suggest similar posts you might like. Yay!

I have had an about me page for longer, but it was always a bit hidden. You had to click on my profile picture- that still works, but it is also accessible through the top links underneath the header. And for new readers, this will be even easier.


Now I hope this will make life a tiny bit easier on this blog.
Let me know what you think! (or if something's not working!)

The beauty of the Lake District

I think I have mentioned before that I work as a tour guide and sometimes accompany bus tours in to either the Highlands or to the Lake District. As much as I love the beautiful raw nature of the Highlands, the Lake District is not close behind.The three hour drive down from Edinburgh to Windermere is stunning and I am lucky that I sit next to the driver and have the freedom to just stare out the window through the massive front window. Never mind if going in winter or spring or fall, the landscape never fails to take my breath away and really all I wanna do is get out of the bus and run around in the fields. I was lucky enough to grow up with a lot of fields around my house, but the part of Germany I'm from is reaaaally flat. So the Lake District is massively fascinating to me with all these hills and rivers and stone walls and cute sheep... so proper English and so painfully beautiful. And just because I can't take great pictures on these bus tours, I have found some nice ones on Flickr that are pretty much exactly what I am talking about.

So if any one needs some travel inspiration, here you go!

Dissertation brains and a tiny bit of freedom

So I came home from Uni earlier and actually realized that it's Friday. The distinction between weekday and weekend and fun and work is long gone for me, so it's rare that a Friday night feels like one. But today, oh glorious Friday, you truly are one.

It terrifies me that March is almost over, because I think these past two weeks I have been doing nothing but writing my dissertation. Like non-stop. Procrastinating did not mean YouTube, it meant creating the bibliography, playing around with fonts or doing my pretty cover sheet, but either way, it was all about the D-word. And now that I sent that first draft to my supervisor, I guess this is the first time I actually don't really have to think about it. At least for today.

I am of course lying a tiny bit, I also had some fun and did some other things.

That is why I am already on season 3 of Misfits and am helplessly in love with this one

An equally strong love of mine is this song, the intro song for the amazing new show called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt- if you haven't already, watch it RIGHT NOW on Netflix. I have binge watched it within 2 days and now gutted that I have to wait until the next season comes out. Ughr.

A Five Guys restaurant has opened near our Uni, and I have been dreaming about their burger ever since I had one in November in Birmingham (super excited to be near one really soon!) So on Wednesday, the day finally came. I am almost drooling while I am writing this, jesus. It was SO GOOD and now I want another one. Damn it.

via x

And then this one day, I think we were celebrating the Birmingham thing, we went to Vodka Rev and had some vodka boats. As you can see, this was super exciting.

Birmingham.

Birmingham.
A word that is synonymous for future, master, and scary things.

For over a year I had this one course on my mind- A Master program called Film Marketing and Distribution at Birmingham City University. Reading through the course description got me SO excited and I was annoyed that I couldn't start the course right away or at least I apply- I wanted this SO badly. It is a super new and unique course that is very practically oriented with loads of projects and working with real filmmakers. I went to visit the uni for an open day last November and it is quite similar to my uni now, very new and modern and I really liked what I was told- small groups, almost office like building because they want you to feel like this is the first year working rather than still studying. And wanna hear the COOLEST thing? A placement at Cannes Film Festival is part of the course. And here it is- I applied before Christmas, had my interview today via Skype- and I am in! I am actually so much more nervous now than before the interview, because even though I am happy, this is so real now!

AAAAAH!!!

How to survive the winter in Sotland

As I am writing this, it is snowing outside. SO I guess even though it is March, this post is still relevant. This post goes out to all the poor people who do not have double-glazed windows, an efficient heating system (or central heating for that matter) and are living in Scotland.

1. Lounging in the house with a cute tank top and tiny shorts is NOT HAPPENING. It looks cute when they do it in H&M catalogues, but you can do that when you have a lot of money to spend on electricity or live in Spain. Instead, wear everything you own- plus a hat and fingerless gloves so you can still type on your computer.

2. Hot drinks are a must. It can be a super fatty amazing hot chocolate, a sugary cafe latte or simply tea. Because you have to drink lots of this to stay warm, I recommend the latter. Or whatever.

3. Cheating is allowed, and I highly recommend electric blankets. All my friends are super snobby when it comes to this (because apparently I will burn to death in my sleep), but THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE MISSING! Also if you have the nice ones, the blanket automatically turns off after 3 hours or so. It will make your life worth living again, I promise. Or if you are broke, go for a hot water bottle. That's okay too.

4. Netflix. There is nothing to explain here really- but you have a massive library of films and series right there, in one spot- and you don't have to move all day. Other than to pee and make tea of course.


This pretty much explains my life at the moment. Staying at home, writing a dissertation, making tea, complaining about life, watching Netflix to procrastinate, make tea, writing some more and then going to bed. Ahhhh I am so ready for spring!