BEDA #30 - BEDA, see you in August

So, here we are, at the end of another BEDA. I never failed and I feel good about that, it almost replaces what I should have felt during NaNoWriMo. Almost. But nevertheless, I loved blogging every day (even though my head was very far away from wanting to blog during the last few days) and I loved reading your blogs as well (even though I'm a bit behind, I'll catch up this weekend, I promise!).

These last two days were amazing. My birthday, I skipped school today, I stayed home all day playing with my iPod Touch, I went out with my friends... It was wonderful, it was almost like two birthdays.

Unfortunately I didn't get to actually meet that many people during BEDA since almost everyone's doing it in August with Maureen, and I'll try my best to blog with all the rest of you as well, but I'll most certainly be in Italy during that time... Even though I'll catch up. I love writing and it was definitely much easier to have previously thought themes every day, thanks to Nicola and her BEDA buddies for that!

And now... May. Tests, presentations, three exams, (a week with my friends on the beach), applying for Uni. Oh, boy... it's going to be a very, very, very tough month, and I feel like jumping way back to yesterday evening when I was extremely happy or just skip to the part where I get on the plane to Italy. At least these last few days gave me a chance to take my mind off school for a bit, I'm glad my Mom let me skip classes today.

Until August :)

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #29 - Things I Love Thursday: The Birthday Version

And there you have it. I'm eighteen. I'm an adult. I can vote, I can drive, I can buy cigarettes (not that I care about that), I can go to jail (I'd rather smoke than go to jail). I can't believe I've lived for eighteen years, I can't believe that I can sign papers and documents for myself now, I can't believe that in a few short months I'll be in University. This is a milestone I'll never feel again.

It couldn't have been more perfect. I started the day off with amazing presents (an iPod Touch, a pair of RayBan sunglasses...), I heard my friends wish me happy birthday over our school's radio and then when it was my turn to be on the radio, my co-host wished me happy birthday on air as well.

My friends all wished me happy birthday during the day and gave me hugs and kisses and it was so wonderful.

I thought I was going to have a normal family dinner, my Mom said I couldn't have friends over today. I organized a dinner party with my friends for tomorrow (which is still on) and everything was set. Some of my family members came, and while I was talking to them I turn my back and there they were. Ten of my most dearest friends. I didn't cry because I was in shock, otherwise I definitely would have cried. Presents, friends, family, laughs, smiles, hugs, tears. Old friends, best friends and new friends. That's all I wanted for my eighteenth. It was the best birthday ever.

I would have loved to film something with Dida (she was here too!) but she had to leave early, but I'm meeting her tomorrow as well! She can't come to my dinner party because it's at the same time as her dinner party, but since it's close by we're going to meet up.

I just... I'm out of words. I'm tired, but thankfully my Mom's going to let me skip school tomorrow. She's the best. Oh! and about the Canon? The "birthday present" I found? Yeah, it wasn't a birthday present. But my Dad got it anyway and now I can use it in public! So that's wonderful, nevertheless.

My heart's all covered in love right now. :')

Until tomorrow!

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #28 - Favorites

Favorite male singer: John Mayer

Favorite female singer: Joss Stone (sorry, but Amy Winehouse's in there too)

Favorite actor: Emile Hirsch (first one on my mind)

Favorite actress: Jennifer Aniston or Audrey Tautou

Favorite book: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Favorite movie: Slumdog Millionaire

Favorite magazine: TeenVogue

Favorite instrument: Saxophone

Favorite drink: Tea

Favorite food: Pasta with anything

Favorite city: Paris

Favorite animal: Elephant

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite Beatle: Paul McCartney

Favorite car: Mini Cooper/VW Beetle

Favorite item of clothing: Dresses

Favorite makeup item: Eyeliner

Favorite gelato flavor: Coconut

Favorite fruit: Strawberry

Favorite vegetable: Peas

Favorite TV Show: Friends

Until tomorrow!

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #27 - Addictions

Music. Internet. Shopping. Chanel. Tumblr. Twitter. Facebook. Food. Chocolate. Washing my hair every day. Lady Gaga. Miley Cyrus. John Mayer. Croissants. Paris. New York. Writing. Teen Vogue. Starbucks Caffé Latte. Red and blue. Dresses. Milk. TV shows. Music concerts and festivals. Apple software/hardware. Strawberries. Summer. Books. Peace&Love sign. Crepes. RayBan sunglasses. Greek yogurt. Smoothies/Milkshakes. Plaid. Laughing. Hugs. Sleeping. Kisses. Mobile phone. Dreaming. Eyeliner. Mascara. Concealer. Cinema/Movies. Traveling. Flip-flops. Dogs. Rings. Mary-Kate and Ashley. Jensen Ackles. Photography. Etc.

Until tomorrow!

Tomorrow's theme: Favorites

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #26 - Quotations

"Life has its ups and downs but I love it anyway."

"Simple things is what my heart beats for."

"Paris is always a good idea."

"I was born in the arms of imaginary friends."

"Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring, and half of my heart is the part of a man who's never truly loved anything."

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game."
"The more crap you go through, the more you kind of want to be alone."
"The future is the past with the lights off."
"Being happy isn't having everything in your life perfect, maybe it's about stringing together all the little things and make those count for more than the bad stuff."
"To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish."
"Don't survive. Live."
"Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise."
"I never think that people die. They just go to department stores."


And a million more.

Until tomorrow!

Tomorrow's theme: Addictions

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #25 - Weekly Wrap-Up

It was an interesting week.

I finally went to the cupcakes place and I'm no longer a cupcake virgin. But honestly, it tasted like a regular Portuguese muffin with buttery frosting to me and it was disappointing. Maybe in the US they taste differently? Anyway, I took some pictures of them and I love them so much!

I went out to a karaoke bar last night. This group of friends of a friend of mine came but I don't really get along with them, thus I was sighing and moaning the whole night. I don't know if I'm that anti-social girl who preferes being on the Internet talking to people she met on a daily picture-taking website (friends, nonetheless, amazing ones) and watching Hannah Montana: The Movie, but I do feel like one nowadays. Actually, I've always felt like one. I love being home, I prefer being home than going out or just going to a quiet dinner with my best friends. I like being comfortable and I love talking, and when people don't like to do the same I feel stuck. Maybe it's because no one breaks the ice and everyone keeps their thoughts to themselves and stick with their cliques? I don't know. I've always made friends so easily and suddenly when I can't seem to do that, I freeze. I'm just feeling a bit... alone, lately. I can't really explain it. I need a time out from everything and everyone. Almost everything, almost everyone.

It was so nice to be by myself after a night surrounded by people. Just spread out in the sun, listening to music, doing my thing. I honestly prefer it that way. So so be it, I'm the weird, anti-social, Internet nerd who can't socialize. At least that makes me happy.

Until tomorrow!

Tomorrow's theme: Quotations

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #24 - Favorite Childhood Books

I used to be that girl who carried a book with her everywhere, the kind of girl who read anywhere when she felt like it, the girl who prefered reading rather than playing outside in the playground with the other kids, the kind of girl who read under her sheets when she should have been asleep (and I still am). I've always loved reading. I have three main favorite books/book series:

1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I fell in love with them and I thank my third grade teacher for introducing me to this marvelous and magical series. I still wish I find Narnia whenever I open my wardrobe.

2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. And any Roald Dahl book, but especially that one and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and Matilda. I will never forget those books, not ever. They are so important to me and they were the first real books I read and devoured in hours.

3. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. I was... nine years old when I first read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Needless to say, it changed my life. It made me believe in magic again like Narnia once had and it lead to discovering the awesome Nerdfighter community.

I also treasured Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, Charles Dickens' books and a few Portuguese series. And The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares, but I don't think that counts as a childhood favorite. I think I might read all these again soon. Isn't reading fantastic? :)

Until tomorrow!

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #23 - Weather Stories

Off the top of my head, I only have one good weather story which you can read here in detail.

Long story short, last December I was meant to travel to Amsterdam by plane but the whole of Europe was being attacked by snow. We had to stop in Paris which wasn't so bad at all, we caught the TGV to Rotterdam and from there we drove four hours in the snow when it should have only taken us two hours to get to my grandma's house. It took me 24 hours to get from Lisbon to Holland.

Sorry, I don't really feel like blogging these last few days.

Tomorrow's theme: Favorite Childhood Books

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #22 - Things I Love Thursday

I kind of found my birthday present. It's amazing.

I don't have much else to add.

Tomorrow's theme: Weather Stories

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #21 - Guilty Pleasures

Chocolate. Chocolate mousse, chocolate bars, white chocolate, milk chocolate, hagelslag (I'm so glad I'm dutch), chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream...

McDonald's. The oily, soggy food, the delicious sauces, the french fries... I'd eat it every single week if it didn't help my enemy Cellulite.

Pancakes/Crepes. I cannot even begin to express my love for these babies.

Starbucks. It's so damn good. Thank you, Starbucks God, for bringing all your glory to my country. I would enjoy a Latte every day if they weren't so far away, though.

Sleeping in. It feels so gooooooooooood. It's awesome when you suddenly wake up at 7AM on a Saturday and realize that you still have hours to sleep, it truly tastes better once that happens. And when you do wake up for good, that 12PM stretching can do no wrong.

I can't think of anything else.

Until tomorrow!

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #20 - Dreams

Dreams. Where do I start? In general, I want to be happy, successful and have people to share all that with. I'm already a very happy person, I get along with (mostly) everyone I meet and since I'm in high school I've learned to put all the drama aside and start over, see new faces and be in a new place and I couldn't be happier as to how it turned out.

1. I want a career in fashion journalism or in post-production. The latter is something I really love to do, but I'm afraid it's only a hobby and can't mix it up with what may be my future job. I would love to be involved in cinema, but I'm honestly too afraid. You have to be so talented and lucky. I've decided to treat it as a sort of second job or plan B. Sometimes I start thinking and I feel like I don't want to go into fashion journalism. Or journalism at all. I haven't quite figured that out yet. Sometimes I want to be a hippie, learn how to play guitar and live on a constant road trip.

2. I want to travel, travel, travel my heart out. I want to visit as many countries as possible and have an external drive filled with photographs. I won't bore you with traveling anymore, seeing as this post really sums it up.

3. I want to find love. But I don't think it's time for that now. At least I don't want to. All my life I've seen myself being or imagining myself with someone by my side, but somehow I've been developing a fear of commitment. I'm very complicated around cupid's territory. I don't even know if I want a family. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

4. I want things. Call me materialistic, I'll agree with you. I want a nice house, nice IKEA furniture, nice clothes, books, movies, CDs, etc.

5. I want to live and work in New York, Paris and/or London. That would be a huge fulfillment in my life.

But damn, I'm about to turn eighteen, there's plenty of time to change my mind on all this and have different dreams. Life's a climb. But the view's great. Yes, that is a Hannah Montana: The Movie quote, so what? It's true. <3

Unrealistic dreams: I want to marry John Mayer, I want to be Miley Cyrus' friend, I want to be editor-in-chief of Vogue, I want to be a Hollywood actress, I want to be on America's Next Top Model, I want to cook with Jamie Oliver, I want to go to Hogwarts and to Narnia and many, many, many more things.

Until tomorrow!

Tomorrow's theme: Guilty Pleasures

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #19 - Time Wasters

There are a lot of things that waste my time. I always wonder how much time I would save and what I could actually do with all those saved up minutes and hours. Some examples:

The Internet. The biggest time waster of my life. I was almost going to say that school was the biggest time waster of my life but, yes, school is important and it's not wasting my time one hundred percent. I think I do some cool stuff on the Internet. I learn a lot about anything at all, I meet a lot of people and have lots of friends whom I love, I'm part of an amazing community of people who just want to have fun and decrease World Suck while we're at it. But, yes, as much as I hate to admit it, it does take up a lot of my time. I mean Facebook *cough*Farmville*cough*, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube... I could be reading while I'm seeding fake crops, I could be taking pictures outside instead of looking at them on the Internet, I could be talking to real people instead of texting something with 140 characters.

School. It is a time waster, okay? Think about it. We learn so much stuff that we're not going to need in the long-term, we have to put up with ridiculous school systems spread across different countries and endure the sacrilege that is piling yourself in books so you can get into an even more demanding establishment. I could be traveling, meeting said Internet friends, learning interesting things... but no. Of course not.

Sleeping. Don't get me wrong, I love to sleep, it's one of my favorite things to do. I love sleeping in and waking up at about 12PM, it's wonderful even though most of your day has already gone by. But the thing is, most people spend seven to twelve hours sleeping. What's the point? You could catch up on your work, finish your book, be available all the time, shop at any hour you want and actually live longer. At least that's the impression you would have, right? Imagine summing up all the hours you've slept in your life. Now that's a time waster.

Until tomorrow!

Tomorrow's theme: Dreams

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #18 - Weekly Wrap-Up

One week of school is over, seven to go. Seven weeks. Did I mention how much I want to be on vacation?

Nothing special happened, as always. Monotony drives me insane. I bought the tickets for the Michael Bublé concert and I was baffled when I saw the prices. I thought it was going to be around €30 standing up which are the tickets I usually buy, but noooo. They were between €37 and €122, what?! Oh well, I had to buy the €47 ones, I can't miss that concert.

33 days left to John Mayer's concert, ahhh! I'm going crazy. I think about it every day and whenever I do I have a tingly feeling inside me. I feel excited but I also feel really, really sad. I know I'll be thinking that eventually it'll be over and I won't know when I'll get to see him again. I know it's ridiculous to be thinking this way a month before the concert, but... his music is so important to me, he's so important to me. I wish I could meet him, sigh. That's kind of happening whenever I think of the Miley concert, but not so much. Kind of.

I think school takes up so much of my time. I could be doing so many exciting things and instead I'm sitting down in a classroom (not) listening to a woman blabbing about things that don't really interest me. Why does it have to be that way? Why can't I just buy a rusty van, pick up all my friends and leave? I wish things were that easy.

Until tomorrow!

Tomorrow's theme: Time Wasters

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #17 - Books/What you're reading

I love reading. Books can really be one of your best friends. I've always read a lot since I was a little girl but I never quite understood where I got it from until last Christmas (if you wish to read more on that, click here). I remember we had a space reserved for reading in my English school called DEAR: Drop Everything And Read. I miss that. Although I've always loved reading, the Internet takes up most of my time now and I only read about ten books a year which is a real shame. I try to change that, I do, but so far this year I've only read... oh my God, only one. And I didn't even start reading it this year. I'm a fail. And I will change that.

Yes, I've finally finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger yesterday, and after that I immediately watched the movie. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed with the latter. It's not really about how much the movie was missing in comparison with the book and all the characters and moments that were skipped, but rather the lack of passion that I was hoping for. I thought the Rachel McAdams-Eric Bana couple would be really good but I didn't feel it.

Now I'm reading About A Boy by Nick Hornby, I have to read it for my English class. So far, so good! I've never watched the movie, though. I'm looking forward to it, I love Hugh Grant and I can't believe the little boy is Tony from Skins! I'm simultaneously reading Love Letters of Great Women (I read Love Letters of Great Men last year), one letter a night. Hopefully I'll finish those two soon and move on to... maybe The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I can't wait to get Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and finally read it!

I've read some amazing books, but also some not-so-amazing books. Twilight, for instance. I became obsessed with it after reading the first one, I have to admit. But then after reading the whole series I kind of laid back and started thinking that it was a disgrace and so disrespectful towards young teenage girls. I love Harry Potter, Gossip Girl, the Confessions of a Shopaholic series, Maureen Johnson's books (have to read the rest of them), Nicholas Sparks' books... yeah. I really think I should open my horizons when it comes to the genre of books I read.

Until tomorrow!

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.

BEDA #16 - Collections

Ironically enough, I made a video about collections last Saturday for TSR, so you can check that out in the video above. So yeah, Starbucks mugs, euro coins, Paris stuff, shopping bags, concert tickets, Mary-Kate and Ashley stuff. Oh, I forgot to add that I also collect Teen Vogue magazines. Well, I've been buying them every month for about two years, can that be considered a collection?

I really feel like getting out of here. I'm so fed up with school. I didn't go where I thought I was going today. Whatever. I feel like watching Mean Girls or a MKA movie.

Until tomorrow!

Tomorrow's theme: Books/What you're reading

Bisou, bisou *

BEDA #15 - Things I Love Thursday

Even though Spring Break is over and I'm back at school, this week hasn't been so bad. It hasn't been that bad to wake up early (surprisingly) and I'm expecting it to be a very good day tomorrow.

1. Finding out Michael Bublé's coming to Portugal in November. I can't believe how lucky I've been so far during 2010, concert wise. This year I've already had the pleasure to see Joss Stone live and I'm also going to see John Mayer, Miley Cyrus, U2 and, now, Michael Bublé. All of them are among my favorite artists of all time. I can die happily at the end of the year. (I might go to the Norah Jones concert, but I can't make it to Diana Krall's, meh.)
2. Fire alarm practices. Yesterday I was flipping through a magazine in History class when, suddenly, the fire alarm goes off. Needless to say it was just a test. I calmly grabbed my stuff (like I would do in case there actually was a fire) and we all left the room. It was pretty exciting nevertheless.
3. The constant sun/rain-rain/sun situation. I like having a little of both throughout a whole day.
4. Watching John Green say "hi" to The Squirrel Rebellion. Priceless.
5. Finally receiving Teen Vogue's April issue with Miley. Obsessive fan girl? YES.
6. Glee has returned! Although I didn't quite enjoy this latest episode, but I can't wait for the Lady Gaga-themed one!

How was your week so far? :)

Until tomorrow!

Tomorrow's theme: Collections

Bisou, bisou *

* Photograph found here.