A day in Düsseldorf

For the weekend I went back home and made a plan for Saturday with my boyfriend. We met in Dusseldorf, the capital of North-Rhine-Westphalia and had a really great day. It was time that we saw each other again!

The day went by so fast, it’s hard to believe that it was just yesterday. We first wanted to go to the famous Königsallee, a street with loads of luxury brand stores, which we later did too, there were so many people playing and catching Pokemon, oh man! But before that we discovered an Asia store and picked some sushi and some sweet rice cakes, which were too sweet for me.

We then took a walk through the Hofgarten, it’s said that it’s the german Central Park because it’s really big too, but I can’t say that, I haven’t been in NYC yet! Anyways, it was really nice and we picked a little place on the grass and had a little picknick. We were also joined by many wild ducks who walk around all the place but luckily, they weren’t interested in our food, so we had our peace.

Our last plan for the day was to go to the Rhine river. We walked through the old city and it could be as well called the food city, cause really, there was one restaurant or cafe after the other and it went on like that for streets and streets, it was incredible! We found an ice cream shop and oh my god! Not only were the scoops GIANT but they were SOOO delicious!!! I’m still not over it. I had raspberry sorbet and strawberry basil sorbet and wow! It was so delicious! I swear it changed my life! My boyfriend had sour cherry sorbet and a classic vanilla and it was also so great! I am so sad to tell you that we don’t remember the name of the shop but it was something with Eis Manufaktur. There’s a Herrtotti Eis Manufaktur, but we are sure that that wasn’t the one, and we are so bummed that we can’t remember it!

 

We then sat by the river, finished our ice cream and enjoyed our time together. And then, at the train station, our paths separated again. And that was my day trip to Dusseldorf!

Have you ever eaten ice cream that changed your life? I know for sure that that’s one of the best I’ve ever had!

I hope you’re having a great day!

Darja

 

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First 36 hours at my new home

As I’ve already said, I was about to move to another place because of college and yesterday was the day it happened! I must say that my dorm is really not in the best place, as I need to walk 15 minutes to get to a bus station where only one bus drives PER HOUR, but it still is a nice place and the other people here are friendly too, so I can be really pleased with my new home.

The city or better said small town, if not even a village is really pretty and darling and cosy. That’s probably why everyone is riding by bike and the busses don’t seem to drive one extra round. And I’m really not used to that. There have been THREE busses within TWENTY steps from my previous home which all came EVERY TEN OR 20 MINUTES. So that’s that! But here I will need a bike, the sooner the better and it would be really nice to ride through the pretty places in my area and I’m really excited about that.

Let’s talk about the night/ evening for a bit, because that’s a really annoying part here. MOSQUITOES. MOSQUITOES EVERYWHERE!!! I don’t know how many I’ve already killed in the past 36 hours, but it was a lot! And I can’t sleep knowing there are these little monsters flying around, making terrible noises and wanting my blood. So I stay awake, turn on the light, wait for them to show up so I can slam them between my hands, but nope. It’s like they’ve never even existed. And as soon as I go back to sleep and make myself cosy, they fly around my face again. What should I do?

What I like the most about this place are the people though. My dorm mates are all so different and unique and it’s like every culture and type of person comes together, here. Of course I won’t be super tight friends with all of them, but for my first day here, I feel really welcome and am surrounded by really nice people, who share the same thing as you: they’ve just moved to another place, another city and are completely on their own. So maybe that’s why it’s so family like over here, we need people who feel like our family.

Oh, and I’ve started to cook for myself. Well the only thing I cooked, was spaghetti, twice cause it’s fast, delicious and I didn’t feel like spending too much time on something because I was really tired. Before college starts officially in like two weeks, there are these classes you can take to refresh your math skills and today was the first day. At first it was alright but then it quickly turned horrible and I felt dead. Considering I hadn’t had maths for about five months, the reaction is quite normal. It’s not even 10 pm as I’m writing this but I am so tired and really need to get some rest. Thankfully tomorrow is Friday!! And for the weekend I will be going back home to my mom and see her and that’s my week!

How was your week? Have you ever lived in a dorm before? What were your experiences? Comment down below!

I hope you have a great day!

Darja

 

Thoughts – Keeping or tossing things away

I’m about to move out to a new city and that means that I need to pack my things and decide what I want to take with me and what will stay behind. And while it wasn’t that hard to figure out what I’m taking, like many of my clothes, toiletries, college things, food etc., I kept thinking about all the stuff that was left behind. What will happen to it?

And so it began. I didn’t want my mom going through my personal stuff where I had saved things up from many many years, including my early teen years, oh god no! So I went through them myself and what I found was really interesting, really embarrassing and also really unnecessary. I guess I used to be a gatherer – I kept everything! I found many many old pictures that were really painful to watch (don’t mind me being embarrassed by my old self), many notes and loose diary entries that were really confusing and I don’t even know what was going on back then, but also really funny ones: I’ve made a huge list of things to film because me and my friend wanted to start a YouTube channel! Thank god we didn’t! Who wanted to see two girls, dancing and singing and embarrassing themselves anyways!? (probably a lot, but let’s not lose track here!)

Anyways, there were a lot of school related stuff that I didn’t need anymore and maany little things, like stones that I’ve collected cause I thought they were pretty but now they don’t look that great anymore and other small, unnecessary things like that so I thought why not throw them away? And while it was easy with some things; with others, I had troubles of throwing them away. All the school material that I’ve kept to learn for my final exams, all the months and years that I’ve put my energy into, I couldn’t just throw it all away. Or the recipes for face masks or some brochures that I’ve picked up from different cities or museums. I’ve had a connection to all of them, if it was a sentimental memory or not.

Then it just hit me. I couldn’t keep all of that. It was just too much and I hadn’t used or looked at any of these things in months, if not even years! So why the hell would I keep them just so they would take up so much space!? And so I began, sorting my stuff out, by things that I will keep (yes, there were some few things, that I’ve really needed), things that I can’t get rid off because they have a lot of meaning to me (like those YouTube ideas, I think they’re really funny, as well as letters and cards that I’ve received etc) and then things that will get thrown away. The last pile was obviously the biggest, and the hardest to decide, but it had to be done. All the school stuff was probably the hardest, because once again, I’ve put so much time into all of the topics and subjects and it is real knowledge, but I thought to myself: it’s great that all of this happened, but it’s the past, I can look it up on the internet and be fine with it. And like that, I’ve reduced myself of a lot of stress and garbage and saved myself a lot of space!

But the story continues, what is with the pile of things that have meaning to me? Well, since it wasn’t that big, I could put all of the cards and notes and what not to my files, where other sentimental things have been waiting for them and now I am really glad that I did this because I feel so much lighter and more relaxed and organised. I’ve come to realize that holding on to things that you really don’t need is so unhealthy, it just feels so wrong and even though you aren’t aware of this feeling the whole time that you keep holding on to material, after you decide to clean up, you really feel the difference.
For my future, I want to make sure that I don’t get in to the same habit of throwing everything in one place and let it pile up over the years, but rather be able to keep myself organized, because I sure do like that feeling!

I’m sure you’ve been in the same place as I have and you had to decide whether or not you keep all the things in your shelf/ wardrobe. How have you dealt with that and are you a more organize person or do you need chaos to be organized? I’m excited to know!

I hope you’re feeling alright!

Darja

 

Why you should journal when you’re feeling down

Everybody has his/her own way coping with stress and bad days. My way is to write everything down in my journal and feeling so much better and relieved afterwards.
So I’m about to discuss with you all the different reasons why journaling is so helpful and why you should do it too!

Helps with gnawing/ tormenting thoughts:  The most important thing is here to get these thoughts out. If you don’t, they keep torturing you and you’ll feel worse the longer you hold on to them. So grabbing your journal and writing all your thoughts, emotions and feelings down is a good way to start.

Great alternative for people/ a therapist. Now, I’m not saying that journaling substitutes a therapist, that really is not the case here. But, if you’re struggling with opening up to people or talking with them about how you feel, a journal is always there to help you cope with your problems without feeling judged or guilty or anything else.

The process is healing. Once you start writing your thoughts down, your brain begins to process all the stress. I can’t stress it enough how important it is to get your thoughts out of your head!!! It doesn’t matter if it’s to a friend, a stranger, or somewhere on paper. Once they are out, you’ll feel better and like a weight has been put off your shoulders.

You can reflect on yourself and see the progress. If you have been journaling for a while now, then you might have already a collection of days/ periods of when you felt really down. But you should know, that they don’t last forever, everything is temporary and that you will feel better again soon. Reflecting on this time when you feel better, is a great way to clearly see, what it was that you had been struggling with and this way, you know how to overcome them the next time.

You can visualize your emotions. You can let it all out by scribbling anything down, pressing down with your pencil or sketching your feelings. This may sound childish, but trust me, it is effective! If you’ve ever written anything before when you were angry, you’d notice how your writing style changes. E.g. you’ll feel less angry if you let it all out, even if it’s on paper.

Well, this sounds great and all but this can’t be a long term solution, can it? – You may ask. And my answer is this: Yes and No. It really depends on your situation. In my experience, if I’ve had some issues with someone else, journaling wasn’t enough and I still kept thinking about it and losing sleep over it until I talked about it to the person. Until then, nothing could help. But, if something only is in your head or you are afraid of something in the future, dealing with something in your past, not knowing what to do, who you are,where you want to be. Then you can grab your journal and start writing. And really think about your problem, don’t shy away by any frightening thought, just go through it and you will see that it helps. At the end of the day, nobody knows you as much as you know yourself, so get to know yourself!

I am a great supporter of journaling and it has really helped me through hard times and got me out of the black hole.

Do you have any experiences with journaling and has it helped you in some type of way? I’d really like to know.

I hope you’re having a great day!

Darja

My first post – an Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Darja and this is my blog!

 

I’ve been thinking back and forth for a while now about getting started and today is the final day! And I thought it would be nice to give you an idea of what this blog will be about and who’s behind it.

So let’s start with me. I am a 20 year old student from Germany (Hallööchen), I moved here from Russia when I was eight and am about to move out of my family’s house to study Visual Computing and Design. I am a creative person and am being inspired by a lot of things. I enjoy all kinds of art – music, photography, paintings, poetry, films, you name it! I also love to explore the world, go on little adventures, whether in my town or far away, the magic is everywhere! So come on and join me on my life’s adventure!

What can be expected on this blog?

Now, I don’t have anything specific in mind and I think ‘lifestyle’ can pretty much sum it up, but prepare for:

• A Travel Journal! I love traveling, even if it’s just a day trip, I enjoy every little second of it and try to make most out of it. I will share with you my stories, experiences, lots of pictures, touristy stuff and might even inspire you to go on your next trip, are you as excited as I am, cause I am a lot!!
• Photography Projects. Like I said I really enjoy photography and I am always looking for cool places and have these big ideas that I’d like to carry out, so keep your eyes open, I might add some random photos to a blog post or even dedicate a whole post to a whole process of the idea, behind the shoot, before and after pictures and my own photography tips and tricks, like how I theme my Instagram!
• College & Adult life stories & tips. As I’m about to start a new life chapter, I want to take you with me and share with you my personal stories. The good and the bad. How I cope with moving out to a whole new city and being completely on my own, meeting new people, starting college and so much more.
• Food every once in a while. Now, I can’t really cook and am an every kitchen’s horror, but as I’m starting to live on my own, I’ve got to nurture my self, all by myself (that song really fits here). That will be really interesting. But as I know myself, I enjoy going out to eat as much as getting cooked for and I will happily share the evidence with you! 🙂

I think this gives a great overview of what is about to come here, I don’t guarantee on sticking to these subjects and not blogging about something completely random once in a while, I hope you won’t mind! ^^
How was your first post and what was it about? I would really like to know! And if you want to know anything else, go ahead and ask!

I hope you’re having a great day!

Darja