New Years Resolutions: Three Months In

I know there is still a couple days left in March, but I thought, since it is almost three months into 2014, it would be a good time to take stock of my New Year's resolutions and see how I am doing. So, for 2014, my new years resolutions were:

1. Lose weight

Yeah, I've gained like two pounds, so that one isn't going so well, something to focus on going forward, as well as...

2. Run regularly

Nope. Though I do keep meaning to. Its going to be easier now that I've cut my hair, so my ability to go for a run is less dependent upon whether or not my hair will be able to dry after my post-run shower in enough time for me to style it for whatever else is going on. I really need to focus on actually running, even though I am busy and it is kind of difficult. My friend Maya is moving just up the block from me, and she's been meaning to start running to, so hopefully we can start running together and motivating each other to actually run. But, for now, a mini-goal: run tomorrow!

3. Up my eyebrow game

Check! Obviously this is an ongoing process, but I've been experimenting with different shapes as well as filling them in with a couple of different pencils (best pencil so far: a £1 one from Primark - who knew?). Also might go and get them done at the Benefit brow bar before London Book Fair, because both Melissa and Maya swear by it and it might be nice to get them professionally shaped for that event.

4. Read 50 books

Well on my way! While I haven't read much these last couple of weeks, since the start of 2014 I have read 14 books (Fingersmith by Sarah Waters; Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn; Catching Fire and Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins; Looking for Alaska by John Green; Breed by Chase Novak; City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, and City of Fallen Angels, all by Cassandra Claire; Divergent and Insurgent, by Veronica Roth; Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levathan; Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman).

5. Practice French more (use Duolingo every day!)

Also going very well! I have used Duolingo (and thus practiced) French for every 67 days of 2014 that have passed so far! French club has also been meeting (nearly) every week, and Alix, who is the fluent French-speaker of the group, has told me that she has noticed me getting better since we started meeting - while I knew I was getting better, its really great to have a native speaker tell you that! 

6. Graduate and get a real life job (maybe even get a flat without roommates…)

Ongoing, obviously, but hopefully also on track! I've just applied for a job down in London today, so thats all very real-life-y! 

French Club

French Club is still going strong - besides one day the other weekend when 90% of the group had skipped town, we've been meeting once a week for over two months now. I have used my French language app 47 days in a row now. While my progress has slowed down somewhat now that I've hit things that I have never learned before in my previous attempts to learn the language, I'm still chugging away at it (and occasionally sending Alix incredulous messages questioning the validity of the entire language). Last Sunday we decided to meet at The Elephant House instead of our usual location of Waterstones, because we hadn't been there for a while, but we decided we probably wouldn't be doing that again, because The Elephant House is so popular, we felt really pressured to leave and give up our table, while at Waterstones we will sit for two hours no problem. After that we headed downtown as Alix and Melissa both wanted to try and find some nicer clothes for interviews, and I wanted some more button up shirts (I currently own three, one white one that has a grease stain on the chest, one plaid one with a rip in the armpit, and another plaid one that doesn't fit well... so I could really use some more). Unfortunately, I didn't manage to find any that really tickled my fancy, but I did get my very first pair of leggings, and Alix managed to get a super cute pair of heels from Office (Leanne was working... it was hilarious to see her standing behind the counters, which are designed for normal height people to stand behind, with her shoulders just peeking out). After that, we headed back up the mound, stopping at a drugstore where I finally managed to find the kind of floss I need for my permanent retainer (I may have bought three boxes... they were on sale too). Then we went to Subway for dinner, the only one in the city that actually has plain yellow mustard and thus my favourite one, before going next door to Frisky for bubble tea :) 

Awesome Sunday with the gurls :)

Cookies!

Tuesdays are a bit of a mid-week lull for me this semester, coming after the busyness of Monday afternoons and before the hectic chaos of Wednesdays. While I spent a large portion of my day reading, I also made some cookies for my group tomorrow, as they have all been working hard, and have done an exceptional amount of work in a short period of time (plus, y'know, I just like making cookies for people). About half of the cookies came out a bit too dark, thanks to the fact that I am still getting used to this oven (the recipe has a new penciled-in note on the back indicating the perfect cook time and shelf height for this oven, so future batches will come out better, hopefully).

The recipe I used came to me from my mum's friend and our former next door neighbour from when we lived in Whitecourt, Tania Doepker. Her and mum used to exchange plates of cookies back and forth the way neighbours sometimes do (y'know, oh she gave me cookies on a plate, I have to return the plate, but I can't return it empty, so I will make her cookies... and thus a never ending cookie spiral is born). Not that Logan and I ever complained. 

I made these cookies quite a few times last year, both for my knitting group and for my coworkers, and no matter what, everyone loves them. However, if you are looking for a "healthy" cookies, these are NOT the way to go.

We lack mixing bowls in my flat. 

Mars Bar Cookies

1 c. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 c. flour
1/3 c. cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
3-4 Mars bars

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix flour, coca, and baking soda. Combine both mixes. Chill until firm. Place 1 tbsp. dough on palm and form a cup. Place bar inside and surround with cookie dough (I cut regular sized mars bars into about 6-8 pieces).

Bake at 350 for 12 min (or, if you are in the UK, about 177 degrees).

I had to run down to the grocery store for the Mars bars and cocoa powder... I definitely went through the self checkout. Last time I made these cookies, I told the cashier I was making cookies when she gave me a judgemental look, and she didn't believe me... but the machines don't judge, so self-checkout it was :P

The best ones are packed up for me to take to my group tomorrow, while the... crunchier... ones will be shared with my roommates :)

They're so *photogenic*

In other news, French is crazy...

(To my great relief, Alix assures me that "c'est quoi?", which is what I learned to say for "what is it?" is more common and is totally acceptable).

... and I am cute.

Hope y'all are having nice Wednesdays :) Enjoy the middle of your week!

en français maintenant!

One of my new years resolutions was to finally and definitively learn French. I had downloaded Duolingo in September, but had only used it one or two times. Duolingo is a language learning app which was voted Apple's App of the Year, and Google Play's Best of the Best. It really is quite an excellent app. It goes through level by level, learning things such as food, animals, adjectives, possessives, plurals, etc. There are bars below each completed level which shows its strength in your memory, and the app encourages you to go back and practice weak skills (the strength bars fade over time). However, it is also very good at working previous vocab and skills into the new lessons as you unlock them, and also incorporates new lessons into the 'weak skills levels' when you go back and do them. Within the levels themselves, you will read the french and translate it into english, translate the french into english by choosing from a list of words, and vice versa, translate from french to english without a list, and vice versa. You also will have french read to you and have to translate it, and be required to speak french into the microphone to check your pronunciation.

While I am obviously doing French, Duolingo also does Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese. It is a really good app, and I recommend it to anyone trying to learn a language. I use it for about ten minuets every day, which I've been doing consistently for about ten days now, and it is really exciting how much vocab is both coming back to me and how much I am remembering.

I was planning on asking some of my French friends if they would mind being speaking buddies with me, but my other friend Rachel beat me to it, and a group of us formed a French Club (called Omelette du Fromage). We have had two meetings on Wed night (though that will have to change, as Rachel and I are in doing our live project from 9-5, which is exhausting) in a cafe, and while the only persons to show up thus far have been myself, Rachel, Melissa, and Alix (with Alix thus bearing all the burden of the only native French speaker, and only real competent French speaker, though Rachel is much better than me, having lived in Paris for a year) it is really fun, and though I can't really keep up with Rachel, much less Alix, it is fun and helpful to hear it spoken. Plus we meet in a cafe and have coffee and cake so that's always a good time ;)

Look at that dapper little owl (I got enough points from levels to buy him that outfit - there's fun rewards like that for getting more levels).

I don't know if its just the vocab that I've done so far or what, but the sentences they have me working with have been quite morbid at times (at other times, they have me saying je suis un douphin).

Learning the verb seul (alone) was especially depressing (in response to me complaining that it kept telling me everything was alone, and questioning why the ant was alone, Alix responded "TOUT LE MONDE EST SEUL ET TRISTE" - EVERYONE IS SAD AND ALONE. Cheers Alix).