For a long time, whenever I was asked where I would like to travel to, Hawaii was the answer. It had been on the top of my list forever and I hardly know anyone who’s been there. It’s just so far away from Germany and pretty expensive to get there. Luckily, I spent 12 months in San Francisco and the West Coast is not so far away from the Hawaiian Islands. After finishing my work as an au pair, I went on a travel month across the US and Hawaii was one of my destinations. I went with two of my friends and we were really excited. Unfortunately, the problem with being super excited for something is that you can end up very disappointed. I had the highest expectations for Hawaii and well, it wasn’t exactly fulfilling for me. My mom said that I’m spoiled after living in San Francisco and traveling to a lot of beautiful places within the US, and maybe she’s right. Don’t get me wrong, Hawaii is beautiful but it was just not as perfect as I thought it would be. The rain was crazy, we couldn’t really find proper beaches and a couple of other things that didn’t turn out as expected did kill my mood here and there. For now I’m cured but maybe I’ll travel back one day and try a different island.
Here are some pictures I took with my reflex camera, my GoPro and two pics were taken with my friend’s camera. And don’t hate on me for saying Hawaii isn’t the most incredible place on earth. My standards are just too high with everything in life.
2016 is finally here and like many people, I always tend to have high hopes for a new year. I know that if you want to make a change, you can just start anytime you feel like it, but the start of a new year helps to give you a little extra push. I admit that 2015 wasn’t the worst year ever. I experienced some great things that I am very thankful for, especially all the travelling I was able to do. I swam with dolphins, I ziplined over Hawaiian waterfalls, and I lived in the beautiful city of San Francisco.
Unfortunately, every year also brings new problems and setbacks that I had and still have to deal with. I lost my drive, my motivation, my personal plans and vision for my future. It’s a little hard to explain because I don’t really understand it, myself. All I know is that I will work on everything in 2016 and hopefully find my way in life. I want to be healthier again, which so far isn’t working really well, considering the fact that I’m eating chocolate brownies, but Friday is just not a good day to start. Let’s start Monday. I want to try to motivate myself more to actually leave my bed and house, since I pretty much went into hiding for the last two months. And most importantly, I want to find a real job. Just thinking about it scares the hell out of me but there is no way around it. It sucks to be a grown-up.
I’m someone who get’s bored pretty quickly and finding something that ideally, I want to do for the rest of my life, gives me headaches. I can’t do a normal 24/7 job because it would drive me insane. I do have a couple of ideas of what I want to do this year and with my life in general, I just have to get started. Only I have the power to make 2016 the best year of my life and I have to remind myself of this, everyday. Nothing will be handed to me on a silver platter, nobody will drag me out of bed and nobody can fulfill my dreams for me.
No matter what situation you are in, you have to learn to motivate ourselves. Nobody can live our lives for us. I definitely know that it’s not easy and it will probably take a while, but don’t ever give up before even trying. Make a list with things you love and want to do. Write a letter to yourself wich tells you how incredibly awesome you are. Don’t drown in sorrows and if you have a bad day, cry, scream, or eat junk food and then get back on track. Surround yourself with positive people who support and understand you and let go of toxic relationships. Nobody should tell you what to do but yourself. Try to make every moment of 2016 count and always live your life exactly the way you want to. Set some goals, get yourself organized and just start to live. And no matter what you do, don’t ever let the haters get to you.
I want to live my dreams. I want to dance. I want to be happy. Iwant to smile. I want to be open for new things. I want to date. I want to dance in the rain. I want to stop overthinking everything. I want to be happy with myself. I want to write. I want to create new memories with my wonderful friends. I want to be healthy and lose weight. I want to party. I want to live in a city. I want to travel as much as possible. I want to be me. I want to be positive. I want to celebrate myself. I want to reach my goals. I want to challenge myself.
I hope that this new year will be fabulous for all of us and that we all reach our goals.
Be harder. Be better. Be faster. Be stronger. And always be your own superhero.
What happens when you leave me alone with my bff and some alcohol late at night? She makes me sign up for Tinder. So many people have told me about the app but I always refused to jump on the dating train. I never felt the urge to try online dating and I’m pretty sure that 95% of tinder users are looking for hookups and not for relationships, anyway. I think, I’m looking for neither. Furthermore, I’ve read so many crazy stories online and shook my head at screenshots plenty of times. I never thought that I would end up having this on my phone.
Anyway, here were the two of us getting tipsy and she told me about a friend of hers who uses the app and how much fun it is to just swipe and swipe and swipe. She pretty much forced me to get the app, but I admit that it didn’t take too long to convince me. Out of all my friends, I would have thought that she would actually tell me I was stupid, if I would have brought up the idea to get involved with Tinder. Well, maybe that’s what happens when people are in a relationship for I don’t know how many years – they get a little curious and crazy.
What annoyed me right from the start though is the fact that you can only sign up with Facebook. They want to have access to all kinds of information and I’m not big fan of that. I mean, I know that the app does this to prevent people from faking their profiles and they want to find similarities between you and random strangers, but seriously, these are just random strangers. My interests or friends are really not their damn business and they definitely can still fake their profile. My bff’s friend found out right that day that a guy she was texting with was 19 instead of 25 and his name was made up, as well. So, do I trust the app? No! Did I sign up after all? Of course! We installed the app and had a blast swiping the night away. Discussing the guys on there showed us once again that our tastes in men are super different. It also showed that I am super picky, super complicated and super single for a reason. The best thing about Tinder? We quickly found people that we know in real life and it totally cracked us up. I’m sorry, but I really had to swipe left on them. I also saw some people who I am sure of being in relationships. This just showed me once more why I am single.
I also find it annoying that you don’t get a proper introduction to how everything works and I have to say that touch screens are pretty dangerous when using an app like this. It took us, two girls with a Master’s degree, quite a while to figure it all out. Before we reached that point, I screamed at my friend a couple of times for accidentally swiping the wrong way or at myself after realizing that I have used the app completely wrong, as well. Of course I knew that it had to do with the direction in which you swipe, but since there were also buttons like a ♥, anx and a ★, I thought I have to press those. And in the heat of the moment, when you swipe too fast on someone you find attractive, you try to get him back and forget that by swiping right, you actually like someone else.
I know, it sounds pretty complicated, so I did some research and here is what I learned. If you swipe left, you dismiss the person presented to you. If you swipe right, you give someone a like. I thought that the person can see that you liked him and then has the opportunity to match with you or dismiss you. WRONG! You only match with someone if two people like each other irrespective of each other’s choice. This would be great to know when you start using the app because I freaked out over liking people who I definitely didn’t want to like and I thought that they could see it. That moment my bff accidentally liked someone we actually knew, I wanted to die and I deleted the app, as fast as possible, to hopefully make it go away. Well, now I know more. If you want someone to know that you’re really into him though, you can give him a SUPERLIKE by pressing the star. My phone does this without me even doing anything and now, I’ve reached the app’s limit of giving out superlikes. How annoying. What if I find my prince charming and can’t match with him immediately? Thank you, super sensitive technology.
Also, I wish I could see who I liked, but you’re only reminded if you end up having a match. Oh well, I only found maybe five guys on there that I would consider communicating with, anyway. Actually, I do have a match but it’s just sitting there without anything happening. Like I’m gonna chat up some guy – no way. This started off as a joke, after all. I am just so off dating men and everything else involved that I overthink the whole thing in like 5 seconds and am over it. I might consider texting back if a hottie makes a move, though.
So, I admit that four days later, I still have the app installed on my phone and I’m already a little addicted. Unfortunately, after too much swiping, the selection decreases a lot which is such a bummer. I’m actually curious to see what happens on weekends. I assume that there is much more traffic on the app. I want to see more and swipe more, although I’m actually surprised that I haven’t seen enough, yet. Some pictures people upload are just hilarious. I’m sure the same goes for girls, but I can’t see their profiles so I can’t judge them. I guess some people just don’t get that the first impression counts but then again, every person in the world has different taste.
I know that you can always be wrong, but some profiles are just so obvious to what’s going on and some things I just don’t understand. I mean, at least upload a pretty picture. It doesn’t have to be some professional model photo, but those annoying “show-off-your-phone-in-the-mirror-selfies,” are just super terrible. People on Tinder, people on Facebook and people on Instagram, WHYYYYY???? How is that a nice profile picture? Please someone explain it to me because I will never get it. Maybe I can deal with fashion bloggers showing off their outfit of the day, but other than that, it’s not cute. Sorry, not sorry. Also those car posers, dog and children presenters and guys who have other girls in the picture? Just no! I also love the tactic of having a friend in the picture who is hotter than you, or showing a really good-looking first one that doesn’t look at all like the other four photos that follow. Fakers and tinderellas everywhere. I know, this term is usually used for girls who use Tinder a lot, which once again shows discrimination par excellence. I will use the term for both female and male users, since both have the right to swipe, to date, to hook up as often as they want. And it’s a funny word.
I honestly wish I would have done a YouTube video with my best friend, while we went through Tinder profiles and laughed our butts off. People would probably think that I am the most superficial and annoying bitch in the world, which is true, but it was so hilarious. I’m still not 100% sure what to think of the app and what I am actually doing with it, but for know I think it’s funny so I’m keeping it. I have nothing to lose, after all. I’m just going to see where it takes me and if there is any progress, I will keep you informed.
It’s that wonderful time of year again and I especially love the Christmas music that creates a festive atmosphere. Usually, I start really early with listening to it and I certainly don’t mind hearing “Last Christmas” or everything by Mariah Carey on the radio 24/7. There are so many beautiful songs that celebrate Christmas and for every one of them, you find a great variety of artists that have recorded them. In case you still need a playlist, here are some of my favorites. In general, I recommend classical music but there are also a lot of other musicians that have given us Christmas music. I should go and put it on right now, since I’m not really in the mood yet, but I’m sure my playlist will help.
1. Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You 2. Eartha Kitt – Santa Baby 3. Wham! – Last Christmas 4. John Denver – Christmas for Cowboys 5. Boys II Men – Silent Night 6. Bing Crosby – White Christmas 7. Martina McBride – What Child is This 8. Frank Sinatra – Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! 9. Paul Potts – Ave Maria 10. Céline Dion – The Christmas Song 11. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas 12. Disney Princesses – The Twelve Days of Christmas 13. Justin Bieber – Mistletoe 14. Michael Bublé – It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas 15. Backstreet Boys – Christmas Time 16. Cindy Lauper – December Child 17. Sarah Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson – Winter Song 18. Tchaikovsky – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy 19. José Feliciano – Feliz Navidad 20. Dean Martin – Winter Wonderland 21. Tony Bennett – I Love the Winter Weather 22. Barry Manilow – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer 23. Mariah Carey – Oh Holy Night 24. Sarah Connor – Christmas in My Heart 25. Michael Bolton – Santa Clause is Coming to Town 26. Pentatonix – Little Drummer Boy 27. Sam Smith – Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas 28. Ariana Grande – Santa Tell Me 29. Destiny’s Child – 8 Days of Christmas 30. Bobby Helms – Jingle Bell Rock
I’m back in the blogging world and I’m really happy about it. It’s been a few months, since I last posted something and I really missed it. I definitely want to get back to writing on a daily basis and I want to organize my blogging-schedule better than I did before.
The last few months have been crazy and I can’t believe that the year is coming to an end. I’ve finished my 12 months as an au pair, I’ve been on a crazy travel month across the US and now, I’m back home with my family and friends which is nice, but it’s not as perfect as everyone expects it to be for me. To be honest, I’m currently not sure what I want to do with my life, but a new year is right around the corner and I’m sure it will all be fine.
Even though I didn’t really send out any posts during the last few months, I did work on my blog. I’ve deleted a lot of old posts because they were just too different from what I actually want to blog about. In the beginning, you just write about whatever comes to mind and I definitely want to focus more on specific topics. Furthermore, I renamed and reduced my categories to make everything a little more clear. I also edited some of my remaining posts by adding new pictures to photography posts and new creative input to some of my favorite articles. Feel free to browse and check it out.
I hope that 2016 will be a better blogging year for me and a better and successful year in general. I would also love to find new interesting blogs and engage more on social media. Please send me your links. And of course, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
I hope you all have a great week and an awesome Christmas with your loved ones. You will hear more from me soon.
The Undateable Girl's Diary 