My first Thanksgiving experience

When I first arrived to these new city back in December, determined to make friends in my Masters class, I never thought I’d end up celebrating Thanksgiving, for a number of reasons.

First of all, I didn’t think there would be any Americans in my class. In fact, there are three. Which is great (foreign people, come at me!). Secondly, I wasn’t that sure we’d be friends (my experience had taught me otherwise). And last but not least, I never really saw the point of this certain celebration. I thought it was just another normal day that people chose to stuff themselves with home-made cooking. How wrong was I.

Turns out that the actual ‘I’m grateful for this and that’ part is waaaay more important than the turkey. Even the cooking process is more important than that. We got to our friend’s house and started cooking, all together. I went to the living with one of the girls to prepare the table, and one of the Americans came to us, all happy and emotional, to say “this means a lot to us, it’s so beautiful to see us all in the kitchen, talking and cooking all together”, which really touched me.

After the turkey was (finally) place on the table, next to the rest of food we’d prepared, they three told us it was time to gather around and say why we were grateful for. At first, none of us wanted to do it (expressing our feelings to people we’ve known for two months? Yeah, sure). But they told us that was the tradition, so we actually HAD to do it. And we did.

Never judge a book by its cover, they say. Thanksgiving seems to be all about the food, the drinking, the stuffing, the turkey. But really, it’s all about friends, family, friends that become family in your home away from home. Last Thursday I was grateful for a lot of things. Today, I’m grateful for friends who keep showing me things are never what they seem.

There’s always a moments pause after the bread is broken, the meal is shared, and the toasts are given that lends itself to looking around a house full of family and reflecting.

Cultivating gratitude is a wquick and delicious way to change your life. I’m so thankful for my loved ones, who make this existence an adventure, my opportunities to pursue my passions and live life fully, for all the hard times that taught me how to truly feel joy, and for every time people have surprised me with their incredible goodness.

There is so much magic here…

Sophia Bush

blr community

I’m sure many of you have heard of Tumblr before. If you haven’t, you’re probably not on your teenage years/twenties. Long story short, it is another type of social media. You can post, like and reblog pretty much everything.

I’ve always used my Tumblr account just to reblog pictures and share the music I listen to, so I was quite surprised when, at the beginning of this academic year, I stumbled upon an entry from a studyblr.  ‘What the hell do they share?’, I wondered. When I clicked on the profile (sorry, can’t remember who it was!), I was expecting to find lots and lots of pictures of books, notes and pens. And yes, I did find that. But I found even more.

I found lots of advice on how to study better, and a huge (and I mean, HUGE) amount of positive messages, thoughts, quotes and sticky notes. I found out that I wasn’t the only one making lists every day so I don’t forget what I have to do (whether it’s school related or not). I discovered a Chrome extension called Momentum, which is like the best thing ever. You can write your to-do list and cross whatever you’ve already done (and it’ll congratulate you if you’ve completed the list!),and it even shows you an inspiring quote each day. I also found lots of pictures of tea and coffee (what can I say, I’m a sucker for a little bit of caffeine!).

Sure, all those pictures look pretty, neat, clean, and nothing like my desk when I’m studying. And that made me wonder, ‘how do they do that?’. And I immediately answered myself. They just look pretty for the picture. After that, everything is a mess. Lots of papers and books on the desk. Unorganized colourful pens, stress and negative thoughts fill the room. But nobody wants to see that, and nobody should. It’s all about the results. You get ready, you clean your room, drink your tea, eat your toast, and you get to your work. No matter how messy it gets, the important thing is to complete at least half of the tasks you set yourself when you woke up. Because that is all the studyblr community is about. So guys, please keep taking pictures of your tidy rooms so the rest of us keep feeling inspired by them.

 

this is what my Momentum looked like after I completed my to-do list today 🙂

I see humans, but not humanity

Today I wake up with all social media full of images of the Eiffer Tower, texts wishing all the best to Paris, thoughts and prayers being said all around the world. How could it not, though. What happened is horrendous, and as we say in Spanish when something awful happens, “it doesn’t even have a name.”

But of course it does. It has lots of names. Terrorism. Hate. And most of all, disrespect. Disrespect for your own life. Disrespect towards other people’s lives. Why on Earth would a person want to kill another one. That is something I’ll never get my head around.

However, it isn’t the first time this happens, and I’m not talking about Charlie Hebdo. I’m talking here about the hundreds, thousands of people who suffer from this kind of pain everyday. People who don’t live in the “first world”. People raising their children at war, people fleeing from their countries, from home. And most of the time we don’t even care. We should think about this. We are all people, we all do deserve a life. A good one. A long one.

The Guardian is updating live on the attacks. El País is doing so for Spanish speakers.

May this be over soon.

A weekend away…

… keeps the doctor away?

If it were for the amount of food I ate in 3 days, it certainly wouldn’t.

Cheap and good, what else could you ask for?

I won’t ramble on how good that breakfast in the picture was (and so were the rest of the meals I had), you would need to be there. Maybe it was because it was already 11 a.m. and I hadn’t eaten anything since the previous night, but whatever. That 35 minute walk was well worth it.

However, if it were for the amount of laughs you can have during a weekend away, I’m pretty sure THAT can keep the doctor away. They say laughing is good for our health, right? Well, I say, so is travelling.

I’ve always been one of those people who are always thinking about their next destination. Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than comfortable to stay in my comfort zone, inside my bubble; but then again, I love it out there too! I’ve always been passionate about other cultures, languages, countries, people… I guess that especific interest is what made me study Translation, but let’s not talk about that or this entry will take paragraphs and paragraphs. I have a friend who thinks I’m a nomad (I think I had already metioned it), and I’m alright with that. Travelling gives me some kind of energy that nothing else gives me. Have you heard of those energy drinks and those detox juices? I have never tried neither of them, but I guess travelling is my energy drink (or my detox juice, if you’re one of those).

Now, put your friends and a place you’ve always wanted to visit in the same box. Mix it up a little and get on the next plane, train, bus, car (or maybe even a camel!) and just get the hell out of your bubble. Live a new, different life even just for a couple of days. I’m telling you, it’s worth it. You’ll come back home full of energy and you’ll feel like you’re capable of anything. You’ll come back with new ideas for that essay that was killing you the previous week; you’ll come back wanting to find and try new places in your town/city; you’ll come back wanting more than what you had before you went on that little holiday. More than what you were. Some trips change you for a couple of weeks, some mark you for a bunch of months, or even years. But what I’ve discovered is that the simple act of travelling changes you for life.

It’s like a can of energy drink that never empties.