Introducing My Baby Sister

This is my sister Izabella (we all call her Izzy which suits her oh-so-well). She is three years younger than me but a bit taller than I am and still growing (STOP GROWING!). In the earlier years we'd play games together like normal kids but we argued alot and the older I got the more she started bugging me (younger sisters..) We weren't super close back in the day but more recently in the past couple of years we've gotten alot closer, which my friends have commented on, and I think with Izzy being 16 and my 19 we are both in that age-range where we can both be mature with each other, confide in each other and connect alot more because she'll be going through everything I went through at age 16. She still bugs me and although we are completely different in some aspects of our personalities, I do love her and I tell her alot more personal things than I used to a couple years ago. We are currently having to share my room (including sharing MY double bed) because we have 2 international students and 1 of them is borrowing her room till June/July. I dont really like sharing my room, but, what ya gonna do? .. I appreciate the sister bonding none-the-less. But anyway, here she is, my crazy, beautiful, sometimes irritating, caring, baby sister Izzy. (and just as an end note cause there is no recent photo: I currently have dark hair and she is now blonde haha)

My Professional Photoshoot

A few months ago I got the chance to do a professional photoshoot with a photography company in my home city and to say it was a really fun experience would be an understatement. I really love taking my own photos and I would love to become a professional photographer someday, especially in the fashion industry, but I have also always loved being infront of the camera just as much as I have behind it. I'm not an overly confident person and don't always put myself out there and just do things, but put me in front of a camera and any shyness flies out the window. Doing this photoshoot was amazing. I did my own makeup, picked my own clothes etc, and even though the photographer said she'd help me with posing, I just sorta started doing my own thing and she instantly realised that I needed no help and knew what I was doing (not to sound vain or anything haha). I had never done anything like this. I've taken posed photos with my friends at sleepovers, in my yard with my sister and in photography class at school, but that was all mainly goofing off. This felt seriously legit and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was in my element. I felt like a professional and honestly, I wouldn't mind at all if I was doing this professionally. It is definitely something I would love to get into. I had a great time and the photos turned out to be really amazing (if I do say so myself). Here's a few of my favourites that I thought I'd share.

Cities in the World I wish to visit

In no particular order at all

1. New York
2. Barcelona
3. Paris
4. London
5. San Francisco
6. Edinburgh
7. Montreal
8. Crete
9. Prague
10. Washington DC
11. Rio de Janeiro
12. Beijing
13. Budapest
14. Milan
15. Buenos Aires
16. Munich
17. Moscow
18. Hong Kong
19. Chicago
20. Berlin
21. Singapore
22. Tokyo
23. Rome
24. Venice
25. Vienna
26. Nice
27. Istanbul
28. Cairo
29. Vancouver
30. Sydney
31. Bangkok
32. Mexico City
33. Athens
34. Florence
35. Amalfi Coast
36. Kuala Lumpur
37. Shanghai
38. Amsterdam
39. Dublin
40. Madrid
41. Mikonos
42. St. Petersburg
43. Cancun
44. Oahu
45. Brussels
46. New Orleans
47. Bali
48. Jakarta
49. Orlando
50. Macau
51. Las Vegas
52. Dubai
53. Taipei
54. Minsk
55. Zurich

2014.. a new year

It's a new year which means, new goals, new memories, new experiences/adventures and new people. I feel like this year is going to be a really good year and I am really gonna make the most of every opportunity that comes my way. I'm going to try and come out of my comfort zone and say yes to more things that I normally wouldn't. I can be shy and nervous at times and sometimes find it hard to try new things. Also last year I began to develope serious anxiety and over the course of the last few months I started having panic attacks which never used to happen to me before, but I am not going to let anxiety stop me from doing things I like to do and things I wanna try. This year I start Uni, which is gonna be a really big step for my life. It's pretty much the beginning of the rest of my life and I am really excited to begin that journey and make the most of all opportunities while at Uni. This year, I wanna get more into my photography and hopefully make alot more posts on my blog. So far Im really only doing these posts for myself, but maybe this year I'll have more people reading my posts. fingers crossed. I also wanna begin to save my money better so that I can travel to all the places I want to visit. Also spend alot more of my spare time doing things with friends such as, lunch dates, coffee dates, window shopping and even just chilling out at home. I hope to meet alot of new people this year and make new friends. I hope mine and my boyfriends relationship continues to grow even stronger than it has these past 4 years. I hope that I, personally, continue to grow more as a person. I hope to do well at Uni and also find a new part time job, maybe even an internship. All in all, I really hope this year is a great one and I think it will be. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let 2014 begin!

Germany

On my holiday in Europe, in between each destination I was staying in Germany with my girl Lara and her family. Lara lives in the country-side where there are cornfields and windmills, cows, horses and a few little village/towns all within short distances of each other. The little town/village where she calls home is Xanten. Here in Xanten is where Lara attends school (yeah shes still in school) and because she was at school during my time in Germany, Xanten was also where I attended school for a few days over a couple weeks. Yes, thats right.. While I was on holiday I attended school.. I didnt attend school because i love school, in fact i didnt like school at all and am glad that Im done with highschool back home here in New Zealand. I went to school in Germany because I was really interested in seeing Laras school and what schools are like in other countries, so I thought 'Why Not?', plus it meant more time with my girl.

I made new friends in school, and before you start to think 'wait wouldnt classes be in German?', the answer is yes and no. yes because normally classes would be in German, but whenever I went to school with Lara, I'd go to classes with another one of her friends and a whole bunch of european exchange students who had all their classes taught in English. The students were also 15-16 years old and Im now 19, so I found classes pretty easy (except maths) and yeah, I actually did work, but I enjoyed it, and when I eventually came back home to NZ, I felt kinda sad to be leaving Germany, the new friends I'd made and even the school itself.

But before you think that all I did in Germany was attend school, of course I did other things..
I did sight-seeing in the little village of Xanten, taking photos of the cute brick/cottage-like buildings, I also went bike-riding, which is a huge thing in Germany, and I found it really difficult because I havnt ridden a bike in years and so when I first got on a bike in Germany I was so scared of crashing into others, getting hit by cars, not being able to stop etc etc. but in the end I got the hang of it.

I also went to my first nightclub in Germany and it was so much fun! Loud music, Dancing and Friends. I had so much fun dancing with Lara and 3 of my new friends at PM (thats the name of the club) and even if I did get a little 'over-excited', it was one of the best nights of my trip, even if we did get home at 4am and we needed to be awake the next day at 6am.
Of course theres so much more to Germany than what Ive just mentioned, but I think for now I'll just let the few pictures at the top show you how cute and hsitoric Germany is. And Im off for now..
Bye Bye

Paris, France

SURPRISE!! I say that literally. My girl Lara and her family surprised me by taking me to a mysterious/secret destination for a day, that turned out to be Paris, France and I couldnt have been more surprised, shocked, excited and overjoyed at being in one of the places I had always wanted to visit since I first watched the MK&A movie 'Passport to Paris' when I was younger. The day started by waking up and having breakfast at 6am, in Germany. At 7am we then traveled 3 hours to Paris by car. After that we parked the car and took a train to the centre of Paris and continued the rest of the day on foot, admiring this beautiful city.

When I first saw the Notre Dame I literally stopped mid-walk just to admire the beauty of the Cathedral, and that was just the outside. I got to go in! Inside, Outside, the Notre Dame is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever had the pleasure to see. Next we walked the streets, did a little bit of clothing and souvenir shopping (how could I not?!), saw a few street performances and continued to admire everything. We came to the Louvre, which has always been a dream to visit, unfortunately, we didnt get to go in because our time was limited, but I got a photo of the outside and even some rather silly and embarrasing photos with me and lara trying to "touch" the tip of the pyramid (a photo would be a better description of what I mean but alas, there are no flattering photos that I wish to share haha). The day was beautiful and we walked through this massive, I guess its a park?, with gardens, trees, giant ponds an deck chairs everywhere which you can take and sit on anywhere in the large vacinity and just read, admire the amazing views, take photos, whatever takes your fancy. From here we began to see the Eiffel Tower from a distance..

We thought having an early dinner at about 4pm was a good idea since we'd basically skipped lunch altogether, somehow though, we ended up in an area where we could not find a decently priced restaurant to eat, until we came across an Italian restaurant where we all agreed was a good place to eat. Yes.. I went to Paris and ate Italian food, not exactly what you'd normally do but to make up for it, I bought a box full of Macarons!! After dinner we continued to head towards the Eiffel Tower and when I say that I jumped up and down and started giggling and going hysterical with excitement, I am not exaggerating. I felt like a little kid at Christmas. Lara and I were the only ones to buy a ticket and go up the eiffel tower and after waiting in line for a while, by the time we got up, the sky was dark and the whole of Paris was alight, and to say it was one of the most amazing views ever would be understatement.

Unfortunately, my visit to this beautiful city was short lived - 12 hours long approximately, but I saw alot, experienced a bit of Paris, felt like a Parisian girl in my new H&M outfit I'd bought only 2 days before, went up the Eiffel Tower (girly, excited screaming) and had a whole lot of fun. I also managed to take quite alot of photos in such a short time, which was a major plus for me. And even though the time was short, it was definitely one of the best days in my life and I cant wait to go back again, hopefully for longer next time :)

St Wolfgang, Austria

 

 While I was staying with Julia and her family in Vienna, they took me a little road trip to a cute little village called St Wolfgang. We stayed here for 2 nights, over the weekend, in the cutest little (well i say little but it had more floors than you'd first think) hotel which you can see in the fifth picture (with the red car in front). Julia and I got a to share our own room on the 4th floor and it was alot fancier than I'd have imagined, it even included a huge flatscreen TV, (not that I'd be able to understand anything on TV as it was all in german). 

We only spent one full day in St Wolfgang and for most of that day we went hiking.. I dont hike and I also am not used to living out in the mountains so I wasnt exactly prepared for this little trip. I had no raincoat (which was well needed) just a warm trench coat from H&M, i had a scarf (thank god!) and a beanie, but I didnt have any form of footware suitable for hiking.. I ended up wearing canvas shoes, luckily Julia only had canvas shoes. Obviously neither of us are very bright. Despite the fact that I wasnt really prepared or like hiking that much, it was an enjoyable walk which wasnt that long and did end with an amazing view of the village and huge lake. After our hike we settled down in the mountains restaurant where I ordered soup because I wasnt at all that hungry. Once we got back to our hotel, we all thought it was a good idea to just relax until dinner.

Dinner was YUMMY! Julia and I ordered the exact same thing, which ended up being the hugest plate of food I've ever seen but somehow I managed to eat, not only all of my food, but half of Julias food as well. At one point, while stuffing my mouth with forkfuls of her potatos, I even said to her 'please stop me' which cause Julia to laugh so hard she choked on her drink and ended up having a laughing/choking/coughing fit in the restaurant and everyone was staring at our table. good times. After dinner, Julia, Julias Dad and myself headed to another, more expensive, hotel's bar where Julias Dad bought us 'End of the day Drinks' and for 2 and a half hours we ate pretzels, salted peanuts, had a couple drinks each and played P&As (if you dont know what that is, its a card game). It was a great day/night all in all. 

On our final morning we roamed around the little village taking a few pictures of the adorable buildings and I did a bit of souvenir/gift shopping for back home. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in St Wolfgang, even though Im not much of one for cold, it was great to visit somewhere new and different.