Happiness

Hi everyone!

Lately, we’ve been thinking about how lucky we are. We have loving families, enough money, friends and basically anything we could wish for. And still, we find ourselves being unhappy and discontent with our lives quite often. So we decided to write a list with different things we want to do in order to become happier.

Focus on our blog

We think that for us it is really important to have something to do in your free time that is still kind of productive. That way you can do something that you love without feeling like you’ve achieved nothing. We decided to just put lots of effort into our blog, but essentially this could be anything that you enjoy doing.

Fake it until we make it

This one pretty much explains itself, but what we mean specifically is that, for example, we try to smile while walking somewhere because we feel like that always changes our mood for the better. We also want to do lots of exciting things and not just stay inside in front of our computers the whole time.

Always have something to get excited about

Last week we went to a Troye Sivan concert. It was something we were both really excited about and had been looking forward to it for months. For these past months it was always something we could think about to lift our moods. However, after the concert we noticed that we got quite sad and disappointed that it was over. We therefore decided that we always want to have something to look forward to, and already plan a new thing before the first one is over, in order to avoid that “now it’s over”-feeling.

Make an effort and choose to be happy

For this one I put a reminder in my phone that tells me every morning to try to be happy. We just want to make sure that we choose happiness over anything else and always make an effort to see the positive aspects in all things.

Be okay with being sad every once in a while

Just because we want to try to be happier does not mean that we can’t be sad ever, just as Meredith once said “Not everyone can be happy all the time. That’s not mental health – that’s crap”.  We completely agree with her there and think that it’s really important to acknowledge that everyone is sad every once in a while and that this is totally okay.

Talk about our feelings

We think that in order to be happy, you have to talk about what’s going on inside you and not bottle it up. Whether it’s things that annoy us that could be changed easily or any worries that we might have: talking usually makes it better. In German we have a saying called “Geteiltes Leid ist halbes Leid” which translates to “Shared suffering is half the suffering”, which I always found to be true.

Be kind to ourselves

The next really big thing that we have on our list is being kind to ourselves. As so many people have said before us, if you said any of the things you tell yourself every day to any of your friend, you’d lose all of them veeeery quickly. This means we really have to stop putting ourselves down over stupid things, like saying something dumb accidentally, or not working out for a day. We’re trying our best and that is more than enough.

Do things that make us happy even if we’re bad at it

For example, I (Caroline) really like singing and drawing and in general doing kind of creative things. Unfortunately, I’m just really not good at any of them, which often stops me from doing them. And we think that this has to stop. Just because we don’t excel at something doesn’t mean we can’t do it just to have fun. 

Yes, this is a crochet apple in case you were wondering…

Be healthy

In order to feel good mentally, you also have to feel good physically. So we think that we should try to eat relatively healthy, work out and drink lots of water. But what’s really important about this point is that we in no way want to pressurize ourselves about being healthy. If we really want that doughnut, then we want to be able to eat it without feeling guilty. This point is about just being aware of our health and trying to make good choices and in no way about being perfect.

Don’t put pressure on ourselves

This kind of relates to some other points above, like being kind to ourselves, but this is more specifically about not putting pressure on ourselves. Whether it is about always getting perfect grades, or always being liked by everyone, or anything else, it’s important to be aware that it’s okay to be imperfect. It’s fine. It happens. We can’t let ourselves be brought down because we have insanely high expectations of ourselves.

Be ok with who we are

I (Helena) have often tried to be like others. This might be a person I know in real life or some celebrity. I googled stuff like “how to be like Cara Delevingne” or “how to dress like Taylor Swift” and I realized that this won’t help me feel better about myself. As Gloria Gaynor says: I am who I am. I don’t need to change to feel better about myself or to please others (especially not to please others), but I need to accept myself the way I am. We both struggle with self-confidence from time to time, but I think we are on the right track to change that.

 

If you enjoyed this post, please like, comment and follow our blog!

Take care,

Caroline and Helena

Our Bucket List

Hi everyone!

A few months ago we randomly decided to write a bucket list with activities to do together. Some things are very simple, like number twelve, others much bigger, as number one. At first we wanted to achieve all of those things within a year, but since Caroline will move to England and Helena will stay in Switzerland we decided to give up our time limit. We are really excited to go on all these big and small adventures together! In order to have a little memory of every point, we decide to take a Polaroid picture every time we did something from the list.

We have already started doing some of the things and it is really nice going through all the Polaroids we have taken. It might seem a little unnecessary to take Polaroid pictures, when normal pictures taken with a camera or phone, do the same job and are cheaper, but the photos taken with Polaroid cameras just seem more special than ordinary ones. Obviously it is not necessary to take pictures of all the activities, but we thought it was a nice little thing to add and later on have a look at. We will now stop rambling and show you our bucket list and maybe it will inspire you to write your own.

1. Travel trough Ireland
2. Get accepted into uni
3. Go camping
4. Do Christmas crafts
5. Make a video for our blog
6. Go to an art gallery
7. Do a Colour Run
8. Demonstrate for something we care about
9. Go geocaching
10. Send a letter to  a stranger
11. Volunteer
12. Dance barefoot in the rain
13. Make flower crowns
14. Send a message in a bottle
15. Go to a Troye Sivan concert
16. Paint Easter eggs
17. Just board random trains for a day and explore whatever city we end up in
18. Bake something fancy
19. Visit a Christmas market
20. Go to a haunted house
21. Carve pumpkins
22. Hand in our final paper
23. Go hiking in winter
24. Make a fire
25. Have a summer picnic
26. Have an English afternoon tea with scones
27. Pass our Matura
28. Have a Grey’s Anatomy party
29. Spend a whole day doing artsy stuff
30. See a play
31. Cut our hair

Thanks for reading and please comment the things that are on your bucket list! We might feel inspired to add things to ours :).

Take care,

Caroline and Helena

Spring favourites

Hi everyone!

It’s spring (complete with snow here in Switzerland…)! That means it’s time for another one of our favourites.

Sixties/Seventies

Lately, I (Caroline) have been obsessed with most things sixties/seventies. I read a lot about the political movements during the Vietnam War period and I think it was amazing how many people were involved in the fight against the horrible war. The music that was written during that time still inspires me to fight in what I believe in. Two of my favourites are I-feel-like-I’m-fixing-to-die-rag by Country Joe and the Fish and An Open Letter to Dad by Marceline.
I also love the seventies hairstyles as well as some of the fashion staples such as the a-line skirts and flowery designs.

Source

Polaroid Camera

We both bought a Polaroid camera at the beginning of last summer. Taking pictures of memorable moments and beautiful landscapes has been really nice and then seeing it on your wall in your room is wonderful. I, Helena, usually take them when I am travelling. So I haven’t taken many photos yet, but I think that this also makes them more special. I love looking at them and remembering the lovely moments.
We also wrote a bucket list, about which we will also write a post, and want to take a Polaroid photo every time we do something on it.

Blue Neighborhood by Troye Sivan

If you haven’t listened to this album, go and do so right now! We both absolutely love this album and Troye’s music in general. His music is really nice alternative pop and the lyrics make you want to cry because they are so sad and beautiful. Our favourites are TALK ME DOWN, FOOLS and HEAVEN (it was really hard to choose our top 3!). He also has YouTube videos explaining why he wrote some of the songs and they are so beautiful, and so sad and so amazing. We are also so excited to go see him in a week!

Source

Daniel Wellington Watch

I, Helena, got this watch for my birthday a couple of months ago and I have been loving it since then. I wanted a simple and elegant watch and loved the design of Daniel Wellington. I chose the rose gold version with the black leather wristband, basically because goes with all of my clothing (because I own nearly only black, blue and grey clothes).

I, Caroline, got one for Christmas last year. I chose a gold version with an alternative face style and a brown leather band. I love that they have that kind of preppy vibe, without being uncool. I think they are great accessories that just make every outfit look a bit better.

Netflix

We weren’t sure whether to include this in our list, because the relationship we have with Netflix is one that we’d describe as love/hate. We obviously love relaxing while watching any movie or TV series that we like with just one click. It’s really good value for money. What we don’t like is how much easier it makes for us to procrastinate for hours. But after all, the procrastinating is our fault, not Netflix’s, so it ended up making our favourites list!

Source

Messy Half Up-do

Since we cut our hair short, this has been the easiest method to keep it out of our faces. Just take the upper parts of hair back and fix it with a hair tie on top of your head. We usually leave it in a “ponytail” but you can also make a bun for example.
This hairstyle is great because it is easy, doesn’t take much time to do and keeps your hair out of your face, which is great for school, uni or work.

Braided Hair Band

Whenever I want to look a bit more put-together, but still have my hair out of my face, I opt for a braided hair band. It’s easy and quick, but still looks really special. I just take the front part of my hair (basically may would-be fringe if I had one), put the rest in a ponytail, and start French- or Dutch-braiding the hair. I finish in a normal braid and put it underneath my other hair with a bobby pin, so that the pin and the end of the braid is hidden. It then looks as if you have a hair band made out of your own braided hair.

Boyfriend/Girlfriend Jeans

Something we’ve been loving so, so much this spring is boyfriend/girlfriend jeans (it’s finally warm enough to wear ripped jeans again! Yay). They’re big and comfy and easy to style. It might be a bit unflattering at times, but it feels like wearing pjs to school while still looking cool and edgy, and that just trumps all other arguments.

Left: H&M, right: Zara

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please like, comment and follow our blog!

Take care,

Helena & Caroline xx

How to Survive Being Ill – 6 Tips

Autumn has started! both getting really excited But this also means we get ill more easily. And being ill is the worst! But we tried to come up with six tips to make the whole recovering process such a little less.

Sleep

We all know that sleep is a very important part of recovering from being ill. It really helps to get back on your feet. So when you are ill, use the time to recover from your sleep deprivation. You will probably also feel better after a couple of hours of sleep. And also don’t stress too mich about work you still have to do. There is no point in forcing your body to keep going on when you are poorly and really too weak to do anything. The quality of your work will suffer and in the long run it is better to just take a break, get healthy and then work again with full force.

Get comfy

Stay in bed, put on comfy clothing, fuzzy socks and a big jumper, add loads of blankets and pillows and take a warm hot-water bottle. Since it is the best to stay in bed and sleep you can also make the healing process as comfy as possible by adding all of those things. And keep the warmth in your bed.

Tea

It is finally autumn and this means blankets and tea. Whenever I (Helena) am ill, I love to drink tea and add a lot honey since it helps with a sore throat (I finally have an excuse to add way too much honey ;)!). I (Caroline) drink tea all the time anyway, but obviously also when I am ill. I think this might be placebo effect, but for me tea definitely makes everything better, even headaches and stuffy noses.

Netflix and food

When you are not sleeping, you can watch movies on Netflix, watch YouTube videos and eat. I personally prefer rather healthy food or fruit rather than junk food when I am ill, but it is up to you what you want to eat. My grandmother used to serve me oranges with lots of sugar when I was ill as a child and I still love to eat this. Oranges also contain a lot of vitamins, which help rebuilding your immune system. I (Caroline) am usually not very hungry when I am ill. And not eating that much might be fine for the first one or two days, but then your body needs the nutrition to get better. My favourite “ill-food” is soup. I love to eat alphabet soup because it really reminds me of when I was little and it just tastes really good. I also really like tomato soup. The good thing about soup is that you can make it a salty or mild as you want and I really like that.

Complain about everything

One of the perks of being ill is definitely complaining! We both love complaining (obviously just about silly stuff and for fun, we know how fortunate we are), so being ill is the perfect excuse. You can tell your friends how much your head hurts, how bored you are, how lame that TV show was you watched this morning because you had nothing better to do and so on and so on… And they pretty much have to feel sorry for you because you’re ill and all.

Quality time 

When we are ill, we both like having people around. Not only does this make being confined to your bed a bit less boring, but given they do not have too much to do, it gives you the possibility to catch up with them and just have some time together. Also when you’re ill (but not feeling too horrible) you can use all that extra time to write emails to long forgotten friends or call your best friend from primary school that you have not seen for ages. Also, you can totally get away with ordering people around when you’re ill.

Hope you get better soon!

We hope you enjoyed this post! Leave a comment and a like if you did.

xx

Helena and Caroline

Our Travel Essentials

As you might know from our travelling post, we both really like to travel and have visited several places so far. And normally we travel three or four times per year by plane. So we would like to show you what we think are essentials to have in your carry-on luggage.

Phone
A phone is just always a good thing to have. What if the plane crashes and you have to call someone to tell them you love them? Also, you can play stupid apps, listen to music or prepare texts and emails on it. It is just a good thing to make time pass.

Laptop/iPad
We both always take our laptops and/or iPad on the plane. We like to use all this spare time to work for school or blog a little. Also, we find watching films on the laptop way more convenient that on the phone and they often have a better quality than the movies on the plane.

Charger
Especially for long flights this is a must. Most airplanes nowadays have at least USB-outlets to charge either iPad or phones.

Socks and scarfs
We often get cold on flights, especially when you have been on the plane for a long time, have not eaten a lot or only strange food and your circulation just crashes. So we like to take warm socks and huge scarfs that can be used as blankets on the plane. And they make you feel way more comfortable and cosy.

Book/eReader
One of the best ways to make time pass faster on the plane is to read a good book (often we take our eReaders because it is handier for travelling). We always carry a book with us since we both love to read. To see our favourite books, check out our post about books.

Pencil and paper
I (Caroline) really like to draw (not that I’m any good at it, but that’s not the point), so I always take paper and a pencil on long flights. Sometimes when I am too tired to read and all the films bore me, listening to music and drawing is a great way to spend time. Also real paper is great for quick to-do-lists etc.

Appropriate clothing to change into when you arrive at your destination
When we travel somewhere, where the temperature is completely different from Switzerland we like to bring some appropriate clothing that we can change into when we arrive at our destination. This can be a jumper and scarf or shorts and a T-shirt. For example, when I (Caroline) go to Florida in December I usually pack some shorts in my carry on luggage. Because in Florida it is just 30 degrees warmer than here in Switzerland.

 

Sleeping mask
On long flights it is so nice if you can sleep. You won’t be too tired at the arrival and time passes so fast. To be sure that I (Helena) can sleep, I usually take a sleeping mask with me. Just in case the person next to me wants to read or needs light and it disturbs me. I really like this one because it is cute and not one of those terrible sleeping masks from the airplanes that start to smell really quickly. With this one you also get a cooling gel in a plastic thing that can be put in the sleeping mask. This gel feels really cooling on your eyes and helps against swollen eyes and under eyes.

Small bag for everything
We both always have a small pouch in our bags and love it because just everything that is small is in there, so we don’t lose them in our bags. All the liquid items are put in a transparent pouch (as it is not allowed otherwise) and we put the rest into our normal small bags. In there are several important things:

Some beauty stuff
I (Helena) know that you should not wear makeup during flights. But I am too lazy to take it off and put it on again, so I just let it on. In the transparent small bag I just take concealer and a mascara. Another important thing is deodorant. I often don’t feel very fresh on the plane and like to apply some deodorant to feel better (we forgot it on the photo).

Antibacterial gel
I (Caroline) always carry an antibacterial gel with me. I often want to clean my hands. And when there is no bathroom, near this is great. On planes I often feel a bit gross so I like to disinfect my hands even more than normally and the antibacterial gel makes me feel cleaner and fresher. This one also needs to be in the transparent one.

Lip balm/ Hand lotion
The air on planes is so dry and our lips and hands get easily chapped and dry so I (Helena) always have a lip balm and hand lotion in my bag, especially when travelling. In winter it’s even worse and I panic if I can’t find my lip balm and hand lotion anymore.
I (Caroline) am not very fond of lip balms, I prefer Bepanthen Salve (see the winter favourites post), because I think that lip balms don’t help and I am convinced that Bepanthen Salve always helps. We like to put this in transparent bag too, because we don’t know as it is counted as a liquid.

Chewing gum
We both often have problems with the quick change of air pressure during take-off and landing. And chewing gum always helps. It is also not pleasant to not brush your teeth for up to 14 hours. I (Helena) also get a strange feeling in my mouth on airplanes so I just need chewing gums on planes (in fact I always have some in my bag).

Headphones (if possible with airplane adapter)
There are often headphones on planes, but they are not comfortable and the sound quality is not that good. So we like to take our personal headphones and if possible some that have an airplane adapter since you can also use them to watch movies. We carry them in this small pouch because they always tangle and we hate that…

Hairbands and a brush
We both always lose our hairbands and like to have some in our bags when travelling. An dee also always have a brush in our bags.

Tissues
I (Helena) always have a running nose in winter so tissues are a must. I am always scared to lose them so I will have some in my bag, suitcases and even in my jacket pockets. I hate the feeling of a running nose and not having tissues is not very pleasant.

Wallet and passport
Of course you will need your wallet with your passport. Without them travelling will be difficult… In your wallet, you will need money (often in a different currency too) as well as a credit card and your boarding pass. Those are the most important things, but depending on your situation you might need a train card, gift cards or other stuff like that. Another very important item is your passport. We think it is quite clear why you will need this.

 

Food
Most of us don’t like airplane food so some cereal bars are a must. They give you some energy and are delicious. To know which ones we like check out our winter favourites.

 

Clothing

I (Caroline) like to wear comfortable clothes on planes especially on long-haul flights. Usually I go for a warm hoodie, leggings and trainers. Since this is warm enough (it is often quite chilly on planes) and still more appropriate than wearing joggers. I (Helena) don’t like to wear leggings in public so I often take them in my bag and as soon as I get on the plane, I will go to the bathroom and change into joggers. I don’t like wearing them outside planes in public places so I will again change into my normal clothes just before arriving at the destination.

We hope you enjoyed reading this post and maybe we could show you an essential you hadn’t thought of before :).

 

Winter Favourites

Winter Favourites

Winter is nearly over (well not in Switzerland…) and this means that it’s time for winter favourites. We wrote about the favourite fashion, food, beauty and lifestyle items we loved this winter and hope you enjoy it!

 

Naked Palette by Urban Decay

In October Urban Decay finally came to stores in Switzerland. So obviously we immediately went to Zürich to get a Naked Palette. And we absolutely love it! The colours are well pigmented and diversified. There are several basic nude tones but also kind of statement colours, for example half-baked. Most of them are glittery/shiny, but there are also two colours that aren’t (naked and buck). We think that just one palette basically covers most of your eye shadow needs. You can create so many different looks with it. The palette comes with a really nice brush. One side is for applying the eye shadow, the other side for blending it in.

The only thing we don’t really like is the packaging. We don’t think it is particularly well designed.

Here are some looks we really like to wear. Some are more casual and others are tending to a smoky eye so more for a night out.

The first one is a pink, brown rather casual look. We like to wear for an everyday look and with a nude lip. To create it, we used the colour virgin in the inner corner and on the inner half of the lid. Then we took toasted (one of our faves) and used it on the outer and middle part of the lid. To finish it up we used hustle in the crease to create some more definition. Make sure to blend the colours nicely, because we don’t want harsh lines.

 

Another combination we like, that is more for a night out, tends to the golden, green colours. This is nearly a smoky eve and we would wear it rather in the evening or to a special event. You can make it more casual by wearing a nude lip or put on a nice dark lipstick (for example dark red) to “dress it up” a bit. At first we used half-baked on the inner part of the lid and smog on the middle and outer lid. In the crease and just under the bottom lashes we used darkhorse, which is a beautiful sparkly khaki colour.

 

The next look is very casual and I (Helena) like to wear it to school since it gives a bit of definition and still looks very natural. We again used virgin in the inner corner (it is just a perfect inner-corner-colour!) and then used naked all over the lid. In the crease we put some bronzer but you can also use buck for this. This look is the only one that is majorly matte and that’s why we think it is great for an everyday look.

 

The last eye shadow combination is quite special since you can create a completely different look by using a different amount of the colours. When you use a lot of them it is a great grey smoky eye with a touch of blue. And if you don’t want to use too much product and apply it very lightly it can be worn at daytime without problems. We first used gunmetal, a nice sparkly blue/grey colour over the whole lid and then applied creep in the crease. And again it is very important to blend the eye shadows really well (in every look of course).

 

 

 

Golden Nail Polish

Apart from the dark red nail polish we also really liked wearing golden shimmery nail polish this winter. It is easy to apply because you can’t really see if it is not applied equally and there is nothing more annoying than spending hours on your nail polish and then it is not perfect. It is also amazing for Christmas season because it quite festive and glittery. And we think that this colour is just something different that is not worn all the time.

 

Dry Shampoo

We both discovered dry shampoo last autumn and love it. It is perfect for days where you don’t want to wash your hair and it just does not look that fresh anymore (but it should not be replacing washing it). We often also use it to add some volume to our hair. Just look that you rub it with your fingers or a towel after applying it. Otherwise it can leave some white stains in your hair.

 

Blue Eyeliner by Mac

Sometimes we just want to add something special to our makeup look and have little fun experimenting with strong colours. That way we discovered the Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner by MAC in the colour Industrial. The colour is very pigmented and adds a nice pop of colour to your eyes. We think it looks good to both brown and blue eyes (not sure about green eyes).
Since it has quite a creamy texture you can also use it as eye shadow by blending it with your fingers. That way you don’t need to buy an eye shadow in the same colour and you can invest in good-quality eyeliner.

 

Bepanthen Salve

If you need something that literally helps no matter what you did, then you need Bepanthen Salve. It helps chapped lips, dry spots and irritated skin. Also it works wonders on scrapes on knees, back or elbows. I (Caroline) do trampoline gymnastics so that happens quite a lot. And I always have one in my bag then I go to training.

 

MacBook

Caroline has been using a MacBook for years now, but this winter Helena finally decided to buy one too. And we both love it! Mac OSX is easy and intuitive. The MacBooks are also really fast, the design is well-structured and simple. And everything just looks so nice!

Also the programmes that come with it are very good. IPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand are very easy and good to work with. We also really love iWork instead of Microsoft Office. There might not be quite as many features, but designing a beautiful and well-structured paper or presentation is so easy.

Another plus is the easy connection to all your other Apple devices. All documents started on my iPad immediately appear on my MacBook and the other way round.

 

Frozen and Venice Jumper

In the cold months warm jumpers or sweatshirts are obviously a must. We really like our big grey Universita’ Venezia sweatshirts that we both got when we travelled to Venice together. It reminds us of the nice time we spent in there and the jumpers are so soft and also really warm. Another jumper I (Caroline) really like is my Frozen jumper. I am obsessed with frozen (and so overly excited for Frozen 2) that I just adore everything that is even remotely close to Elsa, Anna and Olaf.

 

Black Skater Skirt by Zara

As we might have mentioned before we love skater skirts, so obviously we love this black skater skirt too. It is made out of rather think material – so it’s perfect of the colder seasons. It has a slightly different shape than regular ones though. Unfortunately it is quite unflattering but since Helena is quite slim it is fine. It doesn’t look very good on Caroline though, so we would not recommend it if you are a bit curvy. The inside is a beige colour, which we think adds a special touch to the skirt. With thick tights it is warm enough to wear in winter and a nice alternative to the normal black jeans we usually wear.

 

Fuzzy or Knitted Socks

On the same note warm socks are amazing when it is so cold outside. We like fuzzy or knitted socks. Fuzzy socks are just so soft and feel amazing on your feet.

And whenever I (Caroline) wear knitted socks I think it is really nice to think about the person that thought of you and made you a pair of lovely warm socks.

 

Black Bag by Forever 21

While I (Caroline) was in Florida over Christmas I obviously spent some time shopping also because there are so many shops we don’t have in Switzerland. A shop I always like to visit is Forever 21. After carrying my old, half-broken Longchamp to school with me every day for ages I had been looking for a new bag for about half a year. But I just never found the right one. I did not want to spend 400$ on a bag that everyone else had anyway (Michael Kors) and could not find nice cheap bags either. So I had basically given up the hope of ever finding a new bag when I spotted this black bag in Forever 21. I love the two different kinds of leather and the gold details. The bag has some smaller pockets inside and a zipper on the outside. Also it was a bargain! It just was around 20$, so I will not have to feel bad if it breaks or I want a new bag soon (although I highly doubt that – the bag is perfect!). I think the dark colour is perfect for the colder time of the year (which lasts to about June here in Switzerland). Also it is very practical since you can wear it on your shoulder, which is really important for a school bag because of all the books we need to carry around.

Jewellery stand

I finally found a nice way to store my most worn jewellery :). It is this white ceramic tree with owls and you can hang up all your chains, long earrings, bracelets and rings and on the bottom part is some space to store your small earrings. I think this looks really cute and I like to put my silver jewellery on the right side and the golden one on the left, because I think it looks nice.

 

Bloglovin’

I (Helena) recently watched one of ViviannaDoesMakeup’s videos where she mentioned “Bloglovin’”. It is basically like the subscription box on YouTube but for blogs. You can subscribe to blogs and see all their newest posts. I really like this system. This way you don’t need to check up on every blog to see if they uploaded something new and only need to check one website. We also applied there recently so you can follow us on it to see all of our blog posts if you want to (you can find the link to our bloglovin’ as well as all our social media in the ‘About us’ section).

 

Farmer Bars

On the food side we loved cereal bars this winter, especially the Farmer ones. We always get hungry during school so I (Helena) always carry about three Farmer bars, which are cereal bars covered in chocolate and soft and chewy and basically amazing, with me. I (Caroline) think they are not healthy enough (Helena does not care at all), so I prefer nakd bars, which just consist of dry fruit, nuts and soy crunchies. So they are vegan (obviously dairy free) and gluten free. They are high in protein and therefore also a great snack pre and post workout (Helena does not do sports so she does not need that and she does not care).

 

 

Thank you so much for reading, we really hope you enjoyed! If you did, please like, comment and follow our blog! Hope to see you next week!

 

School Organization

I (Helena) am quite an organised student, as well as person. I like to know where all of my stuff is and to be sure that I have everything I need with me. Each subject has a folder, where really just that subject belongs.
All tests and exams are marked in my agenda with a red marker, holidays with a green one and other events and appointments in blue. I can really recommend that technique because it helps to quickly get an overview of the upcoming things. I write every grade I get down so that I always know my current average and I am always on top of things.

On my desk everything has a fixed place, which always stays the same. That way I can clean up quickly and can focus better on my work. My pencil case is always organised and contains the same pens and pencils every day (there are some exceptions). This might sound kind of weird, but knowing that everything is organised just keeps me calm and lets me focus on the things that are more important and not whether I packed a pencil or not. I attach all my to-dos and important notes on my white board so I am sure I will see it and this way it is not on my table.

To-do lists have really helped me staying productive. I note everything I need to do that day or evening and won’t spend too much time on the internet watching YouTube videos and reading blogs.

I (Caroline) on the other hand am not very organised (I am not really unorganized either I am just kind of in the middle). I usually bring all the things I need, but sometimes I forget them. On one hand it kind of stresses me out not knowing whether I packed the right things or not, but on the other hand, I am so out of it that no matter how organised I was I probably could not remember which books I packed and which I didn’t. I write down the test dates in my agenda and that’s basically it. I don’t have a colour scheme, I don’t write down any homework (which I don’t really do anyway and neither does Helena, because homework does not matter as much as it used to anymore) or grades. Every other thing I need to remember like doctor’s appointments or birthdays I keep on my phone. I do not have a lot of time because I do a lot of sports, but I feel like you only need to be as organised as you need to be to not miss tests or important appointments. So I think just what I do is enough.

I can however recommend an app for school organization. It is called iStudiezPro. You can write down courses, exams, assignments and a lot more. It is intuitive and easy to understand. The syncing between iPad, iPhone and MacBook works perfectly. It is not free but it is not very expensive either and I think it is worth the money.

 

 

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How we study

I (Helena) used to study much more when I was younger. But my grades haven’t really gotten worse (in fact they even got better) so I just let it as it is. If I don’t like a subject I usually wait until two days or even the day before the exam. Then I start to stress out and when I am stressed out I usually learn quite well. In these circumstances, it is also possible for me to sit down for three hours and just learn, simply because I know it is important and that I won’t have time anymore. I realised that this technique works for me (that does not mean that it works for everyone). In most subjects I just go through the things we should learn, try to understand them and then write a summary the way it is comprehensible and clear for me.

Normally I write this summary two days before the exam and the other day I learn it by heart and ask by brother or sister to revise with me. I carry the summary always with me and if I have a bit of time, for example, in the bus, I read through it and this really helps me to learn it by heart. To learn vocabulary or definitions I use flash cards. I know that everyone learns them this way, but I never believed that they would help me to learn only discovered them half a year ago. If I have to learn whole pages of French or English vocabulary by heart, I don’t use this method. It takes way too long to write down every single word and its translation. But if there is a word I just can’t remember or definitions I need to know, this technique really helps me. Because, like the summary, you can just carry it in your bag and go through the flash cards whenever you have ten minutes.

 

 

What I (Caroline) always do before I start studying is making sure that I have all the worksheets needed and try to sort them. I take aways things that will not be part of the test and bring everything else in the right order. That really helps me to get an overview of what I have to study and how long it will take me. The rest majorly depends on the subject the test is in. For maths and physics I basically just quickly read through my notes and the book, either the day before or even the morning of the test. For all the other subjects, it depends whether I care or not. This sounds a bit strange, but for example we have a Economics & Law. I think Economics is kind of boring and I do not like it very much, so I do not write a summary I just read through the worksheets and my notes a couple of times, highlight the important passages and try to understand all of it.

However I am very interested in law and think it is very important and that leads me to wanting to do well on the test. So I write down summaries where I basically try to explain the most important facts. I usually do that one or two days before the exam and then carry the summary around with me everywhere. The good thing about that is that I can study on trains on my way to practice. Also what I love about summaries is that because I am trying to write it down short and concisely and that forces me to completely understand it. Mostly just writing the summary does the trick for me, but to be sure I read through it as often as I can.

I rarely use flash cards because I think they are a bit tedious and take ages to write, but if I am really desperate to do well, I will use them.

 

 

Amazing Things About School

Over the last posts it might seem as if we absolutely hated school. And of course, there are things that drive us crazy and things where we just do not want to go to school (especially these last weeks), but in the end, we are just so thankful to have the opportunity to go to school in Switzerland and get such an amazing education.

Swiss public schools are very well funded, which means we have access to amazing facilities. Our school has five sports halls with climbing walls and every sports or gymnastics equipment you could think of, a gym, a dancing room and outside facilities (multiple tennis courts, a soccer field, two basketball pitches, lots of athletics facilities, beach volleyball courts and a beach soccer court). We also have an amazing library with not only tons of different encyclopaedias, but also movies, CDs, novels and non-fiction books in different languages. There are lots of computers with an account for every student. Also the different subjects have amazing opportunities like student labs, tons of musical instruments and lots more. Many public schools are better equipped than lots of the private schools.

There is a huge range of different subjects you can choose to create your personal schedule. There are the subjects that everyone has plus the major subjects plus a supplementary subject. You can as well decide whether you want to be educated monolingual in German or bilingual in German and English. Our teachers give us the opportunities to participate in different competitions in lots of subjects and we are quite free and responsible for ourselves. All the pressure we were talking about in our previous posts does not come from our teachers. They are very encouraging and try to help us where they can. We are so grateful that we have the possibility to go to such an amazing school without even paying for it (besides taxes, but even they are very low where we live). The only thing that sometimes gets to us is the competition and the pressure, but all in all we are just thankful to be so lucky.

Being the New Student – School Week

Being the new student is hard. Since I have moved a couple of times, I have had to go to new schools where I did not know a single person multiple times.

I think that when you just come from another school that is very similar and not too far away, it is not too bad. I am always very nervous and anxious for the first week or so, but then it gets better very fast. What is really important (I think) is to be yourself. If you are a shy introverted person, do not pretend to be the life of every party. You will not be able to keep that facade up for a long time. It might work for a couple of weeks, but then it is too hard to pretend. I have previously done that, but always realized that it does not work very well. People will like you just the way you are. Maybe not everyone, but some people are enough.

Changing schools is a lot harder if you have moved to another country or change between public and private schools. You do not really speak the language, you do not know how the whole school system really works and if you go to a public school after going to a private school everyone thinks you are very rich and look at you as “the private school girl (or boy)” or the other way round. I feel like, the more different the schools are, the longer it takes until you are accepted into a class. So don’t worry if you do not have any friends after a week! It is going to get better. When I first moved to Switzerland, I went to a private school. Even though I did not have a lot of problems with the language (everyone spoke high German (the German you speak in Germany) or English, I had a lot of trouble finding new friends. It took more that a week until people even started talking to me. Whatever happens, do not change your personality and your ideals. For example I do not drink or smoke. At the school I went to however everyone was drinking and smoking. I did not agree with that so I still did not drink anything. This probably made finding friends even harder, but now I am very happy I stayed true to myself.

After half a year in private school, I decided to change to public school. I still had not found very close friends and I did not like that the curriculum was very easy. That change was probably even harder though. Everyone at public school speaks Swiss German which is quite different from normal German. I had difficulties understanding what they said and even now (after 2 years in public school) cannot speak it. Also everyone thought I was one of those dumb, rich girls that went to the private school I went to. The students there were nicer and more open, but for a very long time people still said things like “you have enough money anyway” and stuff like that. That really annoyed me, but it got better. If other students say things like that and they annoy you, just tell them. Kindly ask them to stop, because it hurts you. And after a long while the comments got less and less, and now I am quite happy at public school. So I know I do not really have a lot of advice I can give you, but just hang in there. It is going to get better.

Peer Pressure – School Week

We believe that whenever you are in a group with a lot of peers, there will be pressure to fit in. We feel that the most pressure from your peer mostly applies in three areas: your appearance (your clothes, makeup, hair and weight), what you eat and your grades.

 

Appearance

We both find that your appearance should be your personal choice, and not influenced by other people. Everyone talking about how you look makes us really self-conscious and insecure. When I (Caroline) first started wearing proper makeup to school everyone asked me about it and kind of made fun of me. It was not really mean, but at that moment it really felt like it. It took a lot of courage to finally do what I wanted to do and wear makeup to school and I already felt a bit insecure. Then the teasing was too much and I really hated it. But in the end it was not the end of the world and I survived, but if you see someone wearing something new or trying a new look, that person might not be very confident so please do not make it a big deal. The same goes for hair and nails. My hair is really heavy, so even if I take the time in the morning to put it up into a nice ponytail or something like that, at least after the second or third lesson my head starts to hurt and I have to take it down. Then I get hot or it just annoys me, so I put it into a messy bun again. Obviously, then my hair is not perfect, but honestly, I do not care. But it really annoys me when then someone comes up to me and tells me that I have hair sticking out of my bun.

Another thing, people often judge you about, is your weight. I (Helena) have always been quite skinny and I can’t put on weight. That might sound like a dream to some people, but others thought that I had an eating disorder and since I was not very self-confident this didn’t help me. I think you should never make fun of people because of their weight and it does not matter if they are skinny or curvy! Most girls I know are not perfectly happy with their body and it is very difficult to lose or to put on weight. So just don’t make fun of it because I think this is a very personal thing and I (I don’t know how others feel about it) don’t want to talk about my body with other people. Because I started to accept it as it is and then other people don’t have to make me feel insecure again. I just don’t need people like this in my life.

 

Food

We think food is a very sensitive topic. In our opinion everyone should be able to eat what he or she wants. Maybe you want to eat healthy, maybe you don’t. And both are totally fine and should not be a topic of a general discussion. Friends should support you in every decision that you make (as long as it is ok for your body).

Two years ago, I (Caroline) did not feel like eating a lot. So every day at lunch I would just eat a couple of bites and leave the rest on my plate. And every single day my friends discussed how much, respectively how little I ate. I absolutely hated that. It made me feel weird for not wanting to eat and did not help me even the slightest bit. I do not think that they meant to do any harm; they were probably just concerned about me. But if you are worried about a friend, just ask them whether they are ok, don’t comment on their eating habits or try to force them to eat more (or less). I was not feeling great at that time and them picking on it made it worse. What you eat should be your decision until it is endangering your health, and even then you should try to speak to the person when they are not eating or ask a parent or teacher.

I (Helena) eat quite much and not very healthy food an am still very slim. People who did not know me very well automatically thought that I was so skinny because I didn’t eat much (comprehensible) but I assured them that I ate enough and a lot of fast food but they did not believe me. So some of them obliged me to eat at least one big spoon of nutella everyday and this just made me angry. I really think that what and how much you eat are your own decisions and not the business of others.

 

Grades

Since I (Caroline) have very good grades, I often get called a “genius” or “gifted” by classmates. I hate that so much. Nothing gives you the right to call someone a genius based on his or her grades (based on anything really). You would not call someone who does not do well a fool would you? I feel very pressured by this, because I feel like they’d realize that I am not actually that smart if I ever have a bad grade. Since I still feel so pressured by all of this I can’t really give any advice. Just try not to listen to it too much. Just work for yourselves and not for others.

Another time when I think people should just shut up (sorry) is when you talk about exams. After every single exam, I feel like I totally messed it up. Thinking about it rationally, I know that I probably haven’t, but I still feel that way. So everyone is talking about how well or badly they did and every time someone asked me how it went I used to just answer honestly and said that I think I did really rubbish. And every single time the answer was that I should just be quiet because I would have a six anyway. And every time that made me feel so much worse, because not only was I worried because I wanted to have a good grade, but also because everyone else seemed to be sure that I’d done well so I would also disappoint everyone else. I always get very scared before we get back a test. Whatever happens, it can never be good. If I want to make myself happy, I have to have a really good grade. But if I get that, then everyone tells me I am a genius again and I hate that. So if you tell other students how smart or dumb they are, please just stop because it might really affect that person.

I don’t really have very good advice for that, but my best advice is to just not make a big deal out of your grades. Just look at your exam and then put it in your bag before anyone really notices. So you’ll never be known as the idiot or the genius and there is a lot less pressure on you.