Hail the sunny days

Share some thoughts for all the pretty people 
Bless the gods and all the wealthy fellas 
See how they run, see how they try to give their best for all our beauty 
They wear dignity like the falling angels,
Proper shoes and the velvet trousers 
We were tramps and whores who gathered around 
Let's shed a tear for those who's crying oh no 

And there ain't no shame 
Everybody's waiting for a sunny day 
Everybody gets their shot of being someone 
So use your sunny day 

This is  my favorite November track of all time. It's by the Swedish band called "Mando Diao". There's another story behind this, because it has helped me battling the dull, white grey days (not only in November) many times. Combine this with a hot soy chai latte or a simple green tea and I am in a good mood :)

At the moment my head is stuck in an apparent endless summary of cognitive psychology 2, the subject I have to take a MC-exam including open questions in two days. Plus, tomorrow I have a short exam at 8.45 im the morning. And another exam next Friday. Exams all around.
Probably should have saved myself some trouble and do things the other way round - but last year I was so keen on writing my BA thesis already and now all that's left for me is ti pass the rest of MC exams I have left to get my degree - next Spring, if all goes well.

On a more positive note: I'm going to Sweden for Christmas and New Year's Eve this year! J and I already have our flight tickets, we only have to agree on our travel route. I would love to spend NYE in Stockholm again, but we also want to spend some time Uppsala and Malmö and Copenhagen. I am so looking forward to meet J's family again, including his sister, her boyfriend and their newborn daughter. Definitely have to refresh my Swedish vocabulary before we go. "En kopp kaffee tack."

What I am currently obsessing about:
- baking chocolate chip cookies
- The Mindy Project (the current season)
- Taylor Swift
- the LINE mobile app
- sitting in front of the light box (without it, I'd fall asleep at 4 in the afternoon ... I mean, it gets dark by  5 *sigh*)

What do you enjoy in these cold November days? Let me know in the comments down below :)

1989 Ask Anything Meme

The 1989 inspired "Ask Anything" meme.

• Welcome to New York: If you could live any city, where would it be and why?
  
  I would love to live in Melbourne or London for a while. I love the easy going and sunny side-up feeling in Melbourne, but I also am obsessed with London's art galleries, music and food culture.

• Blank Space: What's something that everyone thinks is true about you but is actually false?
  Everyone thinks I am from Germany when they hear me talking German, but I am actually from Austria. I don't have an accent in my german, so I basically speak a standard version and that's misleading to a lot of people.

• Style: What's one item in your closet that makes you feel unstoppable?
  My favorite high heels. Which is a contradiction to itself, because I am a boots&sneakers kind of person. I usually wear them for special occasions like a night out or a concert in the city. The funny thing is that I almost didn't find them when I was shopping. I was surprised that they were real leather shoes and they were from an Italian brand, which I think isn't sold in Austria anymore. I think I will wear those shoes until they fall apart, literally. Then I might think about repairing them. That's how much I like them.

Denissa Levou on we heart it

• Out of the Woods: What's one thing you're afraid of?
  Heights. I have been to a crag with my boyfriend last year and at the end of the whole parcour you had to do a "flying fox", which means that you are basically only hanging on a rope with a security rope attached to your climbing harness. Did I scream? You bet!

• All You Had To Do Was Stay: Whose someone you wish was still in your life?
  The Swedish musician boys from Borlänge I met over the years when I was assisting in tour organization stuff. You can't keep in touch with them and it doesn't mean anything, but I miss them a lot sometimes.

• Shake It Off: What's something you've had to shake off?
  The thought of not being perfect in my studies. I had to learn that it's okay to get average grades and that it's not the end of the world if you have to repeat an exam. I put way too much pressure on myself when I was younger.

• I Wish You Would: What's something you'd like to happen right now?
  Going to a nice brunch with my friends. Or, in a bigger way, finding a job which actually has something to do with my studies.

• Bad Blood: Have you ever had someone stab you in the back?
  Not in an obvious way. Rather "a stab in the back behind my back". A close friend of mine was talking bad about me to other people and I got to know it through somebody else. Classic high school drama.

• Wildest Dreams: What would you like to be remembered for?
  My nature. My writing. My ability to listen and talk to people, even if they are at their worst.

• How You Get the Girl: What's your favorite pick up line?
  I don't give a damn about pick up lines. I think they are only a made up gimmick for filling movie scenes with something audible. There's nothing better than I nice "Hello, how are you? Can I buy you a drink?"

• This Love: What's something you got back that you never thought you would?
  I don't have an answer to this one, unfortunately. I usually lend things to other people and then I never see them again (the things, not the people).

• I Know Places: Where's one place you always feel safe?
  At the sea. In the arms of my favorite person. In the bathtub.

• Clean: What's an important lesson you learned in life and how did you learn it?
  Girls are brought up way too sheltered. We get told to shut up, to obey the rules, to listen to other people and to not voice our own opinion or follow our own path. That's nonsense. You have to stop doubting yourself. You have to listen to your inner voice. You have to follow your own interests. You have to stand up for yourself and put forward your opinion, even if it might be an unpopular one.
  This is all old-wise speech or something, but I learned this in the long run. Besides, one thing I also remember: life is not only a collection of good times. The bad times belong to it. Without them, you wouldn't notice the good ones as good.

• Tag four people who you would like to answer this meme as well.I don't know if any of you want to do this, but I'm trying to tag ...
  Jennie from www.sailorjennie.com
  Lauren from http://www.thefigsheart.com/
  Carbar from http://www.hellocarbar.com/
  & Melissa from http://www.melrosaavenue.com/
  

Welcome to November & a rambling kind of day

Let's turn this around, shall we? After pondering a thousand and one ideas about social media and blogging, I returned to some basic thoughts: I love writing. I love the little things. I want to continue blogging, but on a more personal level. This time, I try to blog on a more regular basis. I want to turn this blog into a more "life" than "style" direction.

Vienna Augarten park on a grey Sunday afternoon

my terribly bad self-cut pony is already starting to annoy me. nonetheless, I'm still good at making over-excited
coffeine induced faces

What's going on here in grey, cold Vienna? Well, there's the midterm exams coming up at the end of November. I'm almost done with my bachelors degree in Psychology. 'Almost' meaning here that I have already done my bachelor thesis, but I have to pass a few more MC exams. Not a fan of that, to be honest. Especially not, when you have to study +500 pages and in the end it is more a thing of luck than knowledge if you pass.

Actually, I do enjoy the idea behind the European bologna agreement and the ability to study a bachelors degree anywhere in Europe & making all degrees more comparable and therefore easier to move around and work within Europe -- BUT in Austria, it lead to a lot of wrong decisions in turning big diploma based courses into "shorter" bachelor degrees. It turned into the direction of "get as many students through the degree or push them out of the system" way. You can feel that "outcome" pressure during exams and seminars. Unfortunately, there is basically little to none money available for more professors or extra courses. Most of them work as "external" professors, which means working a lot for very little money. It's a sign that University education and education in general don't mean a thing in Austria's politics and society.

Yes, it is nice to study at a University where you do not have to pay any fees at all for your degree. No, it is not the best situation when it comes to research or interest to study a subject in depth. You rather to that on your own than within the education system.

night of november 1st. foggy and cold. can you hear the trees talking?

In my case, I am planning to finish my bachelors degree in Spring next year (if all exams are done by then, fingers crossed). Afterwards I want to find a place for a master's degree abroad. I want to study again in the English language and honestly, after living seven years continuously in Vienna, I really need a change of place. There are a few places which come to my mind. My boyfriend is Swedish, so Sweden is definitely up there in my "study place wishlist" - as well as Denmark, Scotland, England and the Netherlands.

Besides the whole study thing, I am doing a drawing course at an adult education center. Drawing is a kind of meditational act for me. When you start to draw something, you start to get lost in looking at the details and everything around you turns blurry and nonexistent. Add to that, I try to learn Auto CAD for an online course in interior design I'm taking. Learning a new program is fun, the only thing which is bugging me here are the differences of the versions on the different computer systems. I usually work on a mac computer, but I also use a notebook with windows ... nerd problems, ugh! ;)

At the moment, there is also a "Christmas abroad" plan going on between my boyfriend and I. We've spent the last two years at my parents' place. We were thinking about going to Sweden again for this year's Christmas and visit a few friends along the way. We are both very indecisive and it will probably end in a last minute trip, but I will keep you updated :) Winter in Sweden is extremely cold and dark, but the people are so warm and welcoming. We'll see!

(P.S.: The last time I was so obsessed with a pop album was Britney's Blackout. 1989 got me out of the blue. Taylor Swift made a really fun, brilliant pop record. I've never considered her music to be of any interest to me, but hell yeah, you can count me as a fan of hers now. It's adding glitter and color to those grey November days! My favorite tracks at the moment are Out of the Woods, All You Had To Do Was Stay, Style, Blank Space and Wonderland. Damn catchy!)

My Blogging Bowels

I am sorry for my lack of posting, but I am stuck in blogging bowels.
Or in other words: I have lost direction.
I am no news editor, I am no beauty or fashion junkie, I am not interested in digging through superficial topics, I am no graphic designer, I am no mummy blogger - so what is there left for me? Is the blog form itself wrong for me?
Maybe it is.

Lately, I have been more consumed by my upcoming exams and future worries and at the same time there is this big longing to just be offline. To disconnect from the daily "fake social mass media". The way I have been blogging before was not what my heart was in for. It was just blogging for the sake of saying "I am blogging" - and that's no fun, believe me. Hence, the lack of posting.

Also, I find that the blogging community has changed. I was part of livejournal in the 2000's, I was part of forums and even blogspot around 2011/12. But lately, all signs seem to go into the wrong direction. "How to make my blog profitable", "How to make money with blogging" are some of the most searched how to's in google. Did blogging itself turn to the dark side - or vice versa - did companies and pr agencies destroy the openness of the blogging community? I don't know.
All I know is that I don't want to be part of an "it crowd" for sake of "being something" better. I am not better than anyone else, I don't love my mirror face than the average person and I certainly don't give a penny about my coolness. I am nerdy, I am average and I love connecting with real people.

In conclusion, maybe blogging is just not for me. Or I just have not found the right drawer, the right place, the right topic to blog about. Or I am just stuck in a washing machine full of ideas and somebody turned the spin cycle on.

This blog might turn into something different from tomorrow onwards. I want to break free from all the stupid blogging guides and how to's and start over. Or decide to step away.

I will let you know.

// Isa