On being 23 and "potentially" employed...

As you can see from my last post, the latter 1/3rd of 2016 really wasn't doing much for me. At the time of writing (late November 2016) I was still over a month away from being offered the job which I hope to take up in a few weeks' time. Just under a fortnight to be precise! I can't really talk about the details, and it's not 100% yet (until I pick up a visa, book some flights, and pass a compulsory training course...) but I'd say I'm about 95% certain that this really is happening!

Springtime, time for new life, and fresh opportunities. 

I'm extremely excited. And anxious. Maybe in equal measures? I've started having the classic anxious dreams about being chased and being lost in the dark etc., so that must mean something. Either way, change is coming.

I've been trying to make the most of the past couple of months by studying (bits of Mandarin, Hindi and Burmese), reading (a lot) and continuing my water colour paintings! I feel like I'm moving forwards now, although finding temporary work at home has proven really frustrating, despite signing with an agency I've only been given 2 days of work in about 3 months. I've almost completely stopped tutoring for now, as I prepare to go away again.

I'm pretty pleased with this photo! Having flowers around really brightens my mood, and reminds me of the power of patience - you can't force a flower to bloom at your convenience, and if it is not looked after, it will never bear fruit. 

I can't wait for a new adventure, with new routines, people and places. These past few months I've felt quite "stuck" at points, as if I'd stopped growing as a person, and couldn't find much to really be engaged with, as I wasn't really getting on that well with work, yet I was still waiting, and overcoming one obstacle after another to try and land this next job!

Anyway, onto my last point; there's a new blog. On Wordpress again (I know, I know, this was just another shameless plug after all, but Blogger just hasn't kept pace with Wordpress in terms of design features and online community). This new blog won't focus on any particular trip abroad (as has usually been the case) but will be a platform for all of my thoughts on Travel, Education and Personal Development in general. That way, every time I go somewhere else, it won't mean having to do all of the set-up and customising all over again! Plus I might actually gain some more regular followers!

I have to admit, another reason that I'm deliberately starting up a wide-ranging blog is so that I can keep at it whatever happens in the next couple of weeks. I've realised slightly too late that I've really missed blogging as an antidote to uncertain times, and I'm now too busy to launch myself into one time-limited project!

Without further ado -->  New blog link!

China; 7 days until departure

Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai campus, summer 2014

Whilst I still have a few final details to sort out before the middle of next week (picking up anti-malarials, printing my plane ticket, writing a packing list, getting the name of the place where I'll be staying in Chinese characters etc...) I'm excited to launch my China travel blog, Chinese Whispers, with a theme that I've been dying to try out on Wordpress. See the work-in-progress here;

https://nikitainchinablog.wordpress.com/

I'll be updating this blog for the next couple of months, with all of my antics and adventures in The Middle Kingdom (the literal translation of "China" in Mandarin Chinese). I don't know which I'm more hyped about; moving to China for half a year or setting up a new blog to document it all! Can't wait to see how the mosaic-style home page fills with photos and posts in the near future! 

Not all those who wander are lost;

I'm leaving. I leave home in around 3 days time, and I'll be leaving this blog for about 2 months (e.g., the duration of my first term). That might seem weird, but I'm really going to be cutting down the amount of time I spend on the internet when I'm at university, firstly, because I won't have time, (work, new friends(?), societies, clubs, volunterring(!), and learning to live away from home!) and secondly because this blog reminds me of being at home and anticipating university, even as far back as my post-GCSE summer. Now I'm actually going to the university I always wanted to, I want to really live my life there, rather than through this blog.

However - this is not goodbye! I will be updating at the end of every term, which, to be fair, is still every 8 weeks, after all, I can't see myself completely giving up something that's given my such a great creative outlet these past 2 years. This blog has been a bit of fun to me, I've updated it fairly regularly with pictures I've made and photos I've taken. I don't talk about politics, or even my opinions on things in particular, I do talk about my life, but I'd like to think that I haven't given away too much information about myself!

I've loved having somewhere to post anything, especially random thoughts and pictures which probably don't make sense, which act as tiny vignettes (Google it) of the past 2 and 1/4 years! I apologise at how boring some of the posts must be for other people to read, but to me they act as a straight line from the recent past to where I am today, and for that I'm happy, proud even. For once.

Next week I'll begin again, as I did once upon a time with this blog, except instead of the virtual world, with it's limitless possibilities and millions of people, it'll be the real me that steps out afresh, into pastures new, and a world in which the surroundings, people and daily timetable are different. Perhaps then, as far as "limitless possibilites" are concerned, my new university life will not be so different from the internet. Perhaps. For that reason then, or that freedom should I say, I'm not afraid, in fact, I'm excited!

“Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”
― Carl Bard

Don't wait for me. I'll be back soon.

3000 views!

I am genuinely excited by the fact that I've now had over 3000 page views on this blog, which is pretty incredible considering that 99% of it is made up of random thoughts (usually abstract and with some kind of motivational overtone) that I would have expected to only make sense to me.

Saying that, I have no gurarantee that anyone actually viewing this blog actually knows/cares/ understands what I'm talking about. They might just like looking at pictures or something...


Speaking of which! It's been ages since I did any image editing on GIMP, so guess what I did last week? Yep, you're looking at it, and I know it's kind of "Valentine's-Day" themed, but love can last the whole year, right? The layers aren't quite as well-blended as I would have liked, but overall I'm quite happy with it, but that's mainly because of the quality of the original images, I think.

I haven't done a crazy amount this week (like every week) but it's still been pretty good, so I'm happy :) oh, and last weekend I went to a city I'd never been to before, and it was sunny, and the whole town turned out to be massive and had loads of different sections to it, so I had fun just exploring - it made me want summer now :( I miss just being able to roam around "foreign"/ new places, for hours, without a timetable and with the weather being nice...

100th post! Here's to 100 more!

So at times life can seem difficult, stressful and downright depressing....but it can also be rewarding to those who are willing to put themselves out there.

Yeah, there will be set backs, there will be the bad times, the sad times and all the rest of it, but really what you have to do is look at everything long-term, but at the same time, live for that day - crazy isn't it?

Basically what I'm trying to say is that looking back on the last 100 posts of this blog has really made me think, whatever did or did not happen I've achieved a lot and I have things to show for it. This gives me a lot of hope in what promises to be a very work-intensive 6 months up ahead, but one day I'll look back on all of this work, and I'll be proud.

But I'll never forget where I started from.

On a less philosophical note, I have another university offer and I am really excited about this one, as in I could actually end up going there and living there for 3 years of my life! I still have 2 more places to wait on, but having things like this - university offers I mean - it really gives me something to work towards, to be happy about, and ultimately it makes sure that I don't lose focus, I'm so close now I can't break down over school work again...so instead I've planned the next week to include a combination of evenings out, fun with friends, a firework display and some happy time on Polyvore - here's to the next week!

Half term!

I love making word clouds, you know, among other things that I love at the moment including Polyvore and sleeping (yes this is a subtle hint to visit my polyvore page). I think they're a good, visual way to put into words what I'm thinking at the moment.

The image with the main word being "universities" is what's going on in my mind at the moment (PS, I got another university offer this week! Soo happy!) The one where the dominant word is "London" is actually a representation of all of the words on the blog (!), or at least on this page, and finally the word cloud with the black background is simply given the self-explanatory title of "History".

One Year On

It's been officially a year since my first blog post! How quickly time passes, I genuinely can't believe it, so much has happened and so much has yet to happen - here's to another year, it's been hard at times but great.

In the last week I've visited Oxford and looked around Worcester college, a year after I was taken on the school on an open day to Wadham - had a fantastic time. The course I want to do looks great there - as does everything! Although I know it's unlikely that I would get in it's nice to know there are places as nice as this in case I do! :3

"Bland and unoriginal" according to a Yahoo! article, "you are better off being single" - I'm talking about Valentine's Day, and I know I'm early, but I'm guessing Sunday night/ Monday I will be too busy revising to care much about what all of the other happy couples/ sad singles (or, as the Yahoo! survey suggests, happy singletons and bored couples) are doing on February the 14th.

In alternate news - 60th Blog post! So happy that I've been able to keep this up, and hope to continue for many more! :)

3rd Sunday of Advent, and only 5 days until I finish school/work for Christmas! I haven't got an advent calendar so my blog keeps track of the weeks for me!

I'm in a winter-but-not-quite-Christmas mood, and so made an image based on stars/lights and a very nice looking tree :) it looks even nicer now it's been lit up!

Only a week to go! I keep looking around for inspiration for some Christmas images...

GCSEs are over, and it's one of my summer resolutions to start an art blog, no matter what the outcome!

Will now begin to demonstrate the main purpose of this blog, art, by uploading various pieces I have created, for all the world to see :D

The programme I used is a website called Polyvore, which is free to sign up, and I found easy to use - all of my work I have posted was made using this site - it's great;

I'll start with oldest work May 2010, this piece is part of a set I made for my GCSE Art Exam brief, based around the theme of "Work, Rest and Play"