Travel and Food

Two of the main loves in my life. Today I woke up to a video about how meat consumerism, is the main source of pollution to the earth. It reduced me to tears within a mere 2 minutes of watching it. I've never considered the effect that the meat industry has on our world and the environment. But its huge. For this reason, I am going to make a difference in my eating habits. For the most part, I will stop eating meat. and I will stop buying meats which aren't from sustainable sources entirely. So any cheap meats from supermarkets, Eggs which aren't 100 percent free range, Fish that isn't caught fresh and locally; I will be cutting this out of my diet. 

Being a student on a budget, not only will this cut down the cost of my food shop. As meat is so expensive (even the cheap stuff), I will also become healthier, and I'll be one extra person, helping to restore this beautiful world we live in. I'm seeing more and more people around me become Vegetarian and Vegan, and for a long time, I didn't understand why. But actually, if it carries on the way it has been, there will be a change sooner than we think. It's my generation, who is responsible for restoring our earth. 

My love for travel, photography, culture and wildlife, goes hand in hand with me wanting to make this change. The video I was watching probably only touched me, the way it did, because I love this planet so much. It's such a beautiful world, it's a living thing in itself, it's our home, and we are abusing it. Of course, there are many ways we are abusing it, and I can put my hands up, to a lot of them. However, I'm going to start making changes to my lifestyle. 

You may not see the changes first hand. But in years to come, they will be visible, depending on which way it goes. If people ignore the need for change, future generations will never get to see the natural beauty which has been given to us on a plate. Think about your lifestyle, and make a change. 

On a more positive note, but also linking in with the above. I am doing a lot of traveling this year. It's my biggest motivator in life, and the biggest love of my life. I'm going to Holland next week, with my dad! Then a couple weeks after that, I'm off to Dublin with my Mum and sister which I can't wait for! I've missed my family so much being at Uni. I do see them often, but it wasn't until I moved 300 miles away from home that I realised, actually how much they do for me. Especially my Mum! She's sacrificed so much for my sister and I. She is truly an incredible woman, and I tell her that every day. 

I'm also going to Costa Brava for a little cheapy holiday with Steph and Polly, which I'm super excited about. Followed by a long weekend away to Bologna with my Dad. AND Finally, I'm heading back over to Alcazar De San Juan in Spain, to visit my friend Maria. After two years of not seeing each other, last night I spontaneously bought tickets to go and visit her and her family. SO EXCITED. 

So they are all the places I have booked so far. Theres a lot more to come. A few more summer holidays, perhaps a hot holiday with my family in October, and then Skiing in December??? We'll see. I never forget how lucky I am to get to do all of these incredible things. I've been very fortunate in my life to have traveled the amount I have. But without travel, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

Okay, I have a Tutorial to get to now! So peace out and have a wonderful day x

P.s enjoy a picture of my breakfast: 

Stay Positive

Since my last post I've been really focusing hard on staying positive and keeping a clear mind. I've definitely still got a long way to go but I am slowly getting there. It's only really when I let myself think deeply that I get down, but I'm keeping busy with fitness classes, uni work and spending time with my friends here in Falmouth. 

I've got an exciting week ahead of me. Wednesday I'm going surfing which I'm really looking forward to. Thursday I'm visiting the eden project and spending the night there in aid of a homeless charity. The Eden Project is such a beautiful place as it is and at the moment they've got an ice rink and lots more going on in the evening during the sleep out. On Friday and Saturday I have my two favourite fitness classes which are 'Spinning' and 'Swiss Ball'. Both of which are extremely intense but are the two key ingredients to a huge change in my body and I am enjoying them both immensely. 

I went to pilates for the first time last week and I'm not sure if I see the point in it yet, but after only one session I don't think I've yet given it a chance. It seemed extremely easy but perhaps it's a slow and gradual change to the core rather than the more intense core workouts I do with the Swiss Ball class. I think I might give it another go and also try Yoga with the surf team when they have a class. 

The flat and I are determined to win this years christmas hamper for the best Christmas decorations. We've spent hours making paper chains, snowflakes, snow men and origami stars to put all over the flat. We're going to buy a christmas tree tinsel and some fake snow for the windows so that basically means we're going to win! Our flat Christmas meal is going to be on the 25th of November because that seems the most logical as we go home a week later. We also have the Snow Ball coming up which is one of the biggest events of the year for Falmouth University. Theres a santos grotto and real Reindeer... EXCITING.

That is all for now, Ciao x

Reflection

I'm currently sat in the library and it's half past 8pm. I plan on staying here until late so what's a little time out to write a post hey!

Today I'm feeling especially down about things. One certain thing in particular. It's starting to really sink in that I've truly lost someone who gave me the best summer of my life. In fact the best time of my life. I've never been so happy and content in someone's presence. He was an incredible person to spend my summer with and it's truly heartbreaking that we no longer talk.

I understand that this is something extremely personal but it's hard to keep it in sometimes and I'm not really comfortable discussing things verbally even with the closest of people. I'm not going to go into the gory details of it all because it's not necessary. I just need to write down that I am hurting a lot at the moment, but I'm trying everything I can to see the positive in things.

In fact there's lots of positives. I'm at University doing a degree which is just mad; I never thought I'd get into a university! I live with amazing people who make a cold, rainy day like today seem okay and never fail to put a smile on my face. I have a wonderful family who are so supportive and have helped me get to where I am so much. I have lots of exciting travels coming up such as Costa brava with two of the girls I live with in June, Amsterdam in July! Next week I'm doing a sleep out for charity in aid of the Homeless which I'm really looking forward to. I'm currently applying to study in Holland next year for a semester... yeah I know, WOW!!!

So I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and there is 9 time out of 10 a smile on my face. But today and this evening especially I've let myself dwell just to let it out, because it's healthy to do that. I've spent time bottling things up before and it only damages you more. But now it's out, I can put my smile back on my face.

I'm going to go back and enjoy my essay planning and pages upon pages of reading to do on really really exciting theories of Animation. If you can sense the sarcasm, well done.

Stay positive.

Halloween

Halloween this year I decided to dress up as a Black Cat. I know right, so original! My flatmates and I put so much effort into decorating the flat and dressing up. We bought sweets, carved pumpkins, made cupcakes and made a fishbowl of sex on the beach with ice cube eyeballs floating in it! First ever Halloween party hosted in our flat and it was a huge success!

Going 'Home'

Today I’m traveling back to Ipswich where my Dad also lives and that’s where I’ll be staying for a couple of nights. I’m extremely excited to see my brother and see how much he’s grown. I’ll also get the chance to see a few of the girls who didn’t go to university this year which will be lovely! I’m also going to pop to my mums to grab a few bits to take back to Uni with me and see my Cats. 

I got the train at quarter to 8 this morning and I’m currently sat in the worst seat possible where the window is just behind me or just in front and directly next to me I have the split between the two windows so not the best view but it’s warm and I’m relatively comfortable. I’ll be on this train until about half past 12 where I’ll tube to London Liverpool street and get home for about 3pm. So it’s a lengthy journey but one where I have the time to write blog posts, catch up on some reading and relax for a change. 

Last week before I started my reading week, I definitely needed a break. However I definitely feel ready to go back to Uni now and get on with Lectures and classes etc. Being out of a routine/lots of change bring out my anxiety so much and I can really start to feel this constant cloud of discomfort. I feel like once I’m with my brother I will become a lot more at ease though so thats a bonus of a little break from routine! 

A lot has changed in an extremely little time since my summer ended. I’m still coming to terms with some of the changes but I know in time things will get easier and I’ll be at ease with everything. I’m trying really hard to stay positive and focus on the good and change the things that don't make me happy. It’s a gradual process but it’s a start. A few things that keep me motivated and pumped about life: 

• My Family  
• Improving my skills across my Animation classes 
• Looking at Erasmus courses in Holland 
• Looking at possible universities to do a masters 
• Traveling 
• Surfing 
• My Flatmates 
• Looking for a cool house for my second year with my favourite people 
• My Girls from back at home 
• Cheese 
• Exercise 
• Hugs 
• A good view 
• Smiles

There’s a few things just to list a few. But there’s so much that keeps me motivated and reminds me to be grateful of my life and how fortunate I am especially compared to other people all around the world.  

Here’s a little challenge. Just for one day, make it your aim to smile at as many people as possible. 9 times out of 10 you’ll get a smile back and speaking for myself, I get the best feeling when someone smiles back and it’s likely they feel good too. There’s not enough random acts of kindness in this world today and I find just flashing a quick smile to someone passing by extremely refreshing. 

Stay happy and thankful. Peace. 

Life Update

Good evening, it's been a while.

I decided today's post would be on how I'm finding things a month in. I'm currently on my first reading week which is essentially a week to catchup on things and read papers and essays etc. I'm pretty much up to date with all of my work so I thought i'd have a little bit of a weekend off.

So, how am I finding Uni life a month in? Well, after a month it's definitely different from the first two weeks of freshers. Which is understandable but when people say first year is a breeze and it's all party, yes I suppose it can be if you want to scrape passing your modules to get into 2nd year, but I'm for once in my life taking all aspects of my education extremely seriously. So yes I still socialise but I spend almost all of my free time reading, completing questionnaires, drawing, and playing around with the digital animation software. My course is an extremely full on course considering not many people have much experience in the field before degree level therefore there's lots to learn and most of it is at an extremely basic level but is still relatively difficult.

I knew that Animations had a lot of work go into them but since studying further into how much time and effort actually goes into these films and television series, and even television adverts, i've come to realise it's a lot more than I can really explain and you can only really believe it when you're doing it yourself Just to put things into perspective for those who don't know, Pixar completely rewrote their animation system for the first time in 25 years during the making of the film 'Brave' The production of the film started in 2008 and was released in June 2012 which means it took almost 4 years to make the film. On top of that, Merida's hair took almost three years to get the final look. So yeah, it's a lot of work! 

Moving on from the work side of things. I've become a lot more settled in my little flat with my Falmouth Family and we all get on ridiculously well. We've got lots planned over the next year and I'm very excited to spend my spring in the beautiful Falmouth with them all! Currently the weather isn't brilliant but the autumnal colours of autumn make up for the lack of sun on my walk to campus each day. 

There's not a lot I can fault about my new life in Cornwall. But to name a few, I'm way too far away from my little brother so I'm missing a lot of his growth and development... and cuddles of course.  A very important person in my life and I have grown apart due to moving away from each other which is extremely heartbreaking but it's just one of those things. Oh, and there way too many hills in Cornwall so I'm constantly pacing my way up stairs to get to where I need to be!!! 

Overall, moving all the way to Cornwall is one of the best things I've ever done. I've met some amazing people and there's so much more to experience and so many more places to explore. 

Student life so far...

Since my last post I have been to a few more events, cooked a few more meals, made a few more friends and I've officially started my timetable. Its all going incredibly well. Where to begin?

1. Freshers Events
What better way to begin this post than to talk about the most important part of going to University... PARTIES! I'm kidding of course. But its definitely something that most enjoy incredibly, including myself. I believe in my previous post I mentioned that I had attended the Pirate party event, since then I have been to the FestiFal event which was a huge bar crawl which was a great laugh and good to get out and explore the nightlife in Falmouth town. I have been to the Freshers Ball which was on campus, and again, a very good event fuelled by cocktails, shots, dancing and good company.
Rating for freshers: 10/10

 FestiFal

 Freshers Ball

2. Food
Currently I have very little to say about food in terms of a routine or what sort of diet I'm going for because at the moment it's all over the place. However I'm not eating crap, I've been cooking good meals with protein, carb and veg (and probably cheese) I will probably write another post focusing closer on food once I've figured out what my 'go to' meals are! For now though, here's a photo of the cheesy chips I ordered yesterday when I went to the beach...

3. Talking of the beach...
Yesterday Steph, James, Harrison and I visited Porthtowan beach which is seriously one of the most gorgeous beaches I've ever been on. It wasn't the greatest weather but it was dry and there wasn't too much wind so it was perfect for James and Harrison to have a surf and for Steph and I to sit in the sand chatting away to each other. Once the boys had finished there surf we all went for a walk up one of the cliffs and found a really cool pool which stays full even when the tide goes back out because there were walls blocking the water from draining! I'm looking forward to visiting this beach during the spring and summer so I can get in the water and especially that pool!

 

Today I had my first Lecture of the year and although it was extremely full on and a lot to take in, I really enjoyed it and know if I work hard it'll all start to make sense along the way. I'm not sure what I'll write my next post on but I've got a few more ideas so stay tuned for a new post over the next few days depending on how busy I am with Uni work! Goodnight x