Love is Something to be Celebrated

I would like to raise my hand and say that "I, Kristelle am a sucker for love. I love, love."

Now if you  can think along those same lines as me, then that make me smile. I think love is important and it should be celebrated and acknowledged. One of my favourite times of the year (apart from my birthday which fyi, is in 5 days!) is my anniversary. I like to think as a couple, my boyfriend and I do 'celebrate' the fact we love each other (I use the term celebrate loosely here) quite often. To me that can be anything from sending a cheesy 'I love you so much' text, or going on a date or even just posting a picture of the two of us (I will be honest I post the pictures- my boyfriend isn't a fan of social media because "it's stupid". 

But above all, an anniversary is my favourite thing. When we were younger we would say "happy X months" but never actually do anything to celebrate. Probably because we were <16 years old and probably because even though we said it, saying Happy X Months still sounds stupid to us. If you love the cerebrate months, go for it! Like I said, I'm a sucker for love. 

We celebrate the years. At such a young age (I'm 19 in a few days and he is 18), it's been a struggle to be together as long as we have. Of course there's been bumps along the road (all couples have them) but what makes you strong is your ability to overcome them. Which is why I'm proud to say I have been in a relationship with the most loving, caring boy for the last 4 years. He knows my McDonalds order, but knows I prefer Oporto. He knows that I cry at everything, whether I'm happy/sad/angry. He knows everything about me and I know everything about him. He's my bestfriend and according to him I'm his 'best mate' too. 

We didn't buy presents in the traditional sense this year, we are buying a gift to each other that is still TBA. An anniversary to us is an excuse to dress up nicely and go out to an expensive restaurant and splurge- which is exactly what we do. This year, we went to Ribs and Rumps because, well I love steak and he loves ribs!

Couldn't get a picture of the food because it looked
to good to wait to eat

All in all, our anniversary is just a nice thing to celebrate together and spend time with each other. It's hard for us to make time for each other sometimes, he works full time 8am-4:30pm and nearly always works overtime a few hours, and I go to uni Monday-Wednesday, work 3 nights a week in one job and weekends in another job. Life is crazy busy and we never seem to be free at the same time, which is why when we do get a few hours together here or there and spend Saturday nights together, it's always special.

If you read this cheesy post about me loving my boyfriend, I applaud you and you probably deserve a big piece of chocolate cake. I figured it was about time he got an appreciation post on my blog and this was the perfect excuse for it. 

Conception Day

Hey everyone!

So, university is a fun place. I use the term 'fun' pretty loosely because well essentially university is a place full of learning, never ending homework and assignments and you're meant to study 10 hours a week minimum per subject at home. But, once you get over all that, you get to see the benefits and fun parts of uni. There's the partying, the extra long weekends, the cool people who you find so much in common with. Basically just the adventures you can have (I know there is so much more, but unless you're at uni currently, you probably won't even know what I'm talking about).

One of the greatest days in the uni calendar for myself (and thousands of others) is called 'Conception Day' *pause here for the confusion as to why thousands of people are happily celebrating a day with this name*. Let me start by saying- no it's not a day for everyone to conceive. It has something to do (from what I know) with the birthday of the founder of our uni being at a hard time of the year to celebrate, so instead we celebrate his 'conception' (genius right?).

Essentially Conception Day is a music festival, hosted at my uni with plenty of cool bands, different music stages for different artists/ DJ's (ya know, normal festival stuff). Asides from the music there's cool stuff like jumping castles, photo booths and of course drinking copious amounts of alcohol and hanging out with all the rad people uni has to offer. 

 It's a long day, pre-drinking before noon, making the most of Conception Day from about 12-7pm (and their cheap drinks) before taking the party over to The Ranch. In my case, the party continued first at a few peoples houses on campus before making our way over to The Ranch.

It was such a great day, listened to some great music, saw plenty of people I knew and just got to chill out for a day and enjoy myself. I must say though, it was extremely awkward walking into my uni semi-drunk to start with, but once the atmosphere hits, you're over it immediately. 

 Wanna shoutout to my beautiful friend Katie (above) for her amazing hospitality and lovely motherly skills (spaghetti is always good). 

I'm also glad I got to enjoy the day with my favourite uni pals and that my boyfriend travelled the annoying hour and a half train ride to uni to come and party with us at The Ranch afterwards, even though we were all dead tired.

It was seriously the best day, and I recommend anyone at Mac or who know friends there to go!

Child of the Ocean

I am thoroughly annoyed that I feel like I can't find 30 minutes to blog anymore. My life has gotten so crazy busy that when I have that spare 30 minutes to myself, the last thing I've felt like doing is going back onto my laptop (because I've normally just finished doing homework) so I take a nap instead or call my boyfriend. Blogging isn't the first thing on my mind, but it's been sitting there eating away at me I need to blog again because I actually enjoy it. 

I'm in Week 6 this semester at uni and it is so close to mid-semester break (after week 7) but it still feels forever away. Even worse than that, once it is mid-semester break, it's going to fly by and those two weeks will feel like nothing. 

I got a new job as well (seasonal job so it will be for the summer and on weekends leading up to and after summer) and well I'm pretty excited for it to start. I need a change. I need something fun that I will look forward to going to work again.

I've had plenty of fun little adventures with my friends since I've last posted but I want to dedicate this post in particular to my crazy fun friend Jess. We met at uni this year (well technically she approached me at the train station) and we hung out at uni, then started hanging out outside of uni too. I feel as though she is my mini-me and we are the same in so so many ways, meaning we always have fun together. 

We've been to her favourite place (Newtown) and my all-time favourite place (Narrabeen). From eating Gelato that was so rich it almost made us sick, to swimming in the middle of Winter at the beach, to trying to light a bonfire while it's wet and semi-raining- we've done it all.

Cutest cafe in Narrabeen

The Food was ridiculously good (and cheap) 

Fires don't work when it's raining (learnt the
hard way)

We spend a good 30 minutes taking photos of ourselves
and the beach

Essentially Narrabeen is my favourite place because:

1. It's the beach
2. The drive is fun and it doesn't even take too long when you have a dance party in your car
3. It's actually on my way to uni (hello Summer and good weather, bye uni)
4. It's peaceful and serene
5. It isn't Manly beach or Bondi beach (aka. the only beaches everyone seems to know and go to)
6. It's my little piece of happiness in this crazy world

Jess introduced me to her loves of Newtown and I found my own (bookstores anyone?). I can't wait to go back.

T2 samples in Newtown

I'm still full of regrets from not
trying my luck and buying a book here

Gelato and Gelato Shake. Some kind of
Nutella/coffee flavour if I remember
correctly. So good, yet so sickly

Some of the most beautiful coloured roses I have ever seen. You can tell I am a
flower child can't you?

If you're still reading my blog after all this time, thank you and I will be back soon!

Enjoy all my pictures, I feel they tell the stories more than my words could this time. 

Late Night Thoughts

Happiness is the easy emotion. It's simple. No one questions why you're happy. You're happy? That's fantastic! I love seeing you smile. Happiness looks good on you. I'm happy you're happy. 

Questions start when you're not happy. What's wrong? Are you sad? Are you angry? Why aren't you happy? What's wrong with your life? You have this... you have that... why aren't you greatful... there's no reason to be sad... People out there have it so much worse than you... You're not allowed to be sad... People out there are dying and you're crying for no reason... Stop being selfish... You're fine...

People are allowed to be sad. Comparing someone's pain to others pain, in no way lessons said persons pain. Oh you broke your arm? Well it doesn't hurt that bad because that person over there broke BOTH arms. Life and physical pain doesn't work like that, so why should emotional pain? Better yet, emotional and physical pain can not be compared on the same scale of "which is worse".

You want to be sad? Go for it. Be sad. Sadness is a complicated emotion that people always seem to have to answer to. Next time you're sad and don't want to tell anyone why (whether it be because you don't exactly know why or you just don't feel like sharing) then be sad and let your emotions out. It's okay and unless you want it to be people's business, it isn't. 

I'm sad right now and as much as it hurts and sucks, it's okay to feel things. We're human. We have bad days and good days and get sad over small things and and over big things. 

You know why? Because that's life. 

University Life Lessons

So for those of you who don't know me or are unaware, I am currently a first year university student at the lovely Macquarie University here in Australia. I have completed my first semester and last week I have just started back for my second semester. I am studying a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing and I am pretty confident in saying that I enjoy what I do. I thought I would make this blog post to share some of my first hand experience, advice, fears, things I have learnt and other random facts about university life that I have learnt from my time at uni so far. 

It's okay for one of your main goals at the start of your university life to be "I want to make friends"-

Hell this was all I wanted when I started university. I was fresh out of the worst years of my life aka high school and I had left (well the same way I had started and lived through most of high school) with basically no friends. Uni was a fresh start and a way to show myself as the new person I am (more mature and just an all round nicer, happier person) and make new friends.

But on the same note, it's totally okay not to have friends everywhere you turn and not to become friends with everyone you speak to- 

This one was a big thing for me to come to terms with. Though all I wanted was to make new friends that I could hang out with on weekends and have coffee with at uni, I have made very few of these "proper" friends. I have one amazing friend that I see all the time outside of uni and a handful that I am happy to hang out with at uni when we are there together and make good conversation. However I've learnt that it's okay not to have friends in every single class you take and know everyone around you (considering my degree is massive and there are literally thousands upon thousands of us it would be a bit odd if I did know everyone). Also not everyone you speak to is going to be a good friend to you or be suitable to be your friend. You need to get to know people and figure out if you're compatible and remember that not everyone may be as nice as you are.  

You're still going to be figuring yourself out- 

Although you may believe you've enrolled in a university course and you're a legal adult (most of us are 18 when we enter uni) that we should have our lives sorted and know who we are and know this is what we want to do. Wrong. From my experiences university is the whole process of getting to completely understand who you are as a person and figure out where you want your life to take you. Sure, the whole time isn't for figuring out what you want to study (otherwise you'd never get anywhere) but it is for figuring out what you want to do after you study and the person that you want to be!

University classes and expectations are literally nothing like what you experience at high school- 

Ahh the joys of being thrown into the unknown. And not the shallow kiddies pool (because we are not children anymore in education that we are being forced to have *sigh*) but thrown with full force in the deepest part of the Ocean with the sharks (well so to speak anyway). There is no "easing" into the subjects or hand holding when you don't know what to do. You want to know how to do something (now depending on your tutors and lecturers help may vary) you have to go out of your way and schedule time to ask questions or send emails that may not always give detailed responses. Then when you get the answer you can still have no idea what you're doing. Hands up to anyone who can relate to this? Because I know this is exactly how I have felt starting each subject even this semester. 

It's okay to fail a class-

This one hits hard. At the start of university I was so convinced I would could not fail anything because "it's a lot of money" and it's a "waste of time to do it if I fail" and that "I wouldn't get anywhere in life if I fail a class" (okay the last one is a tad dramatic, but in all honesty it is how you can feel). But let me tell you something now from personal experience, it's okay to fail a class. Life does go on. The sun will still come out everyday and you will be okay. Of course it is a horrible feeling when you get your results after studying like crazy (or not so crazy for some classes in my case- which may I point out is why I failed) and you look down the list and see that big fat F. It's not a good feeling, but you didn't take away nothing from failing that class did you? You will still have learnt course material (more than you may think) and most importantly you've learnt where you went wrong and what you have to do better next time to ensure success.

*Side note- if you fail a class twice, life will still go on and you will still be okay. You just may need to identify the areas that you go wrong and get that extra help to pass the class*

Ignoring your friends/family/relationship and only focusing on University is a horrible idea-

Well, I know many of us can be culprits to this. There's a lot that can affect us ignoring people around us that we care about (I know the main factors for me are stress and anxiety), but it's important to not get overwhelmed by the workload. Make time to have lunch with your friends and hang out with your family. Spend an hour studying and then take the rest of the night off to go see a movie with your boyfriend. You need to make time for the important people in your life just as much as you need to finish your assignments and study for that test. But I promise you, the world isn't going to end if you take a few hours off doing assignments or studying to catch up with your friends and have some social interaction. We all need that and it's one of my regrets during the first semester of uni because I felt like I had to stay home all the time instead of being social because I put myself under a lot of stress. I missed out on a lot of things and I'm happy now I can finally start making up that time with my beautiful friends that I drifted from at the start of the year. 

It is absolutely vital for you to have 'me time'-

I am a major culprit of not making any 'me time'. I was always so busy focusing on homework and assignments, spending time with my family, working and spending all of my free time with my boyfriend (I rarely saw my friends as mentioned above) that I didn't have any time to myself. And trust me, it takes a toll on you and people will notice. You are treating your mind with the education, but you need to remember to treat your body and your soul as well. Read a book, go for a walk, take a yoga class, fly a kite, jump in your car and drive somewhere you love by yourself while listening to your favourite music. Whatever it is just do something for you. You won't regret it, trust me.

Coffee will essentially save your life most days-

When you've had two hours sleep because you thought it was a good idea to go out all night when you had 2 assignments due the next day, that you then had to pull an all-nighter for (probably not the best idea)... Coffee will save you when you feel like death the next day

Buy second hand textbooks (when possible)-

Trust me on this one, you will save a small fortune. Most of the time the previous editions of the textbook for your classes will work just as well as the brand new edition and you are able to source them on the Internet or from flyers around your uni for a fraction of the price. If you're like me and doing a Commerce degree, you will know that on average a textbook costs around the $150 mark. As well as buying them second hand, once you've finished the course if you no longer need them, re-sell them to other students in need and you will have some extra cash handy to help purchase your next round of textbooks (or if you're like me it will be used for alcohol the night your exams finish to party and forget about everything you've just done).

So that is all I can think of right now that I have personally experienced or learnt. Of course there are other things I should have learnt like

1. Don't procrastinate
2. Listen to the recommended 10 hours per subject study time a week
3. Trying to park at uni and drive in peak hour traffic is the worst idea I'll ever have

well I'm sure you get the general idea. BUT I haven't managed to fully comprehend these things yet, so it would be a lie to put them as part of my advice and lessons learnt. 

Thank you for reading!

Time to Move Out

Hey everyone!

Well this little experience of living with my boyfriend has come to a close. I'll miss getting to wake up with him everyday and go to sleep every night, but there are many things that I will defiantly not miss, which is part of what makes up why I don't think young couples should live together in their own home (well as young as I am anyway- with exceptions of course, but for the most part no).

This weekend was honestly pretty crappy. Not because I did crappy things or was with crappy people but because I am so sick, it just ruined everything. And I haven't gotten over my sickness yet either which is making me sad for my upcoming week.

Saturday
I was finally so happy it was the weekend, but I still had to get up early (early mornings never end do they?) and drive into uni to sell a textbook (at least I made $80).  I didn't end up playing netball again  this week because I'm still sick with, well I don't really know how to classify my sickness apart from the fact my throat hurts so badly I can barely speak and that when I run or even walk fast my chest hurts. Kieran and I had lunch together at the shops and I bought spray tan (I'm over Winter, I'm over the cold and I am definitely so over being as pale white as I am). I tanned my legs when we got home to test it and then Kieran and I went our separate ways for the start of the evening.

Kieran went to the Greyhound track with some of his friends and I was going into the city with mine. I didn't have the best night because of how sick I was. I wasn't feeling too bad before I went out and I thought I would be fine but wooooooow I have never been so wrong about anything in my life. I felt worse because Kieran came and met me in the city because he was near, and being a boy he has to pay to get in places (I love that girls and students can get free/discounted entry, but felt horrible for him that he had to pay for things he wasn't going to enjoy). I also feel bad that I kinda stuffed a few people around because I was so sick and for this my beautiful friends I am sorry and I have learnt my lesson when you are sick, just stay home.

before heading into the city w/ Jess

awkward photo of Kieran and myself at Scary Canary (courtesy of Jess)

I was happy when we got Maccas on the way home but I was so disappointed when we were told there is no loose change menu after midnight. That literally shattered my poor little heart. All I wanted to eat was a small fries and big mac sauce (should cost $1.50) but nope no loose change menu *crying*. By the time we arrived at my house it was nearly 3am and I came to discover my mum had not left keys for me so I was locked out. Sooo we woke her up to get inside and even though I was so tired, I had no sleep (I can never sleep when I'm this sick). Kieran the lucky boy slept as soon as we got home until 11am.

Sunday
We had a late breakfast of toast, then went to the shops because there was honestly nothing better to do today. Neither of us were in the mood for a long trip and sadly there were no good movies out at the moment, so we just went out for lunch (really should stop doing this, need to eat food at home). I helped clean Kieran's house before his family got home (I hate cleaning and I am so sick of this) and then he took me home.

of course it was chicken snitzel and chips w/ gravy

I didn't join him at the BMX track in the afternoon because it was getting too cold and I wasn't in the mood to sit out there whilst sick. His family got back from their holiday tonight, so Kieran and I have gone our separate ways. I couldn't eat my favourite dinner of lasagne cooked by my mum because my throat hurt too much to eat, so I am currently in my room sulking writing this post.

Experience
So I'm not exactly 'moving out' because we never actually lived together, but I have taken all my stuff home from his house and now life continues as normal. I'm glad to have my own space again and it's going to be nice not to sleep next to someone who is a 'bed hog' and talks in their sleep (only sometimes but lol sorry Kieran you do and it's annoying). Things I will not miss about living alone together at this age include:

• me doing all the cleaning and washing
• waking up early every morning because my boyfriend is noisy getting ready for work
• not having my own space
• and I'm sure there is other things but I feel this post is me complaining too much (I must be in a bad mood right now and for that readers I am sorry)

Thanks for reading and until next post,
♡ Stelle

Living Together: Work and Study = Exhaustion

Hey everyone!

Sorry I didn't really keep up with posting every other day about this little experience of living with my boyfriend. When I left off it was Monday morning (last thing I wrote about was the weekend) and ever since then I have been so busy and life has just gotten so full on. Not that many interesting things have happened over this week of living together, but let me just fill you in on what I/we have been up to since Monday.

Monday
My first day back at University. Early starts for both me and my boyfriend this day. I had work to do already when I got home, basically just getting myself organised for the classes next week. Mondays consist of Market Research lectures and tutorials and Consumer Behaviour lectures and tutorials. Thank goodness I didn't have tutorials this week because it would have just been too full on for me. Kieran worked really late so I had dinner at home with my family and then I went over his house when he got home (I think it was about 9pm). We watched TV for a bit together and then fell asleep.

Tuesday
Second day back at uni, but I didn't have to be there until about 2pm because I only had a lecture that day because none of my tutorials run the first week. Tuesday's at uni for me are dedicated to Accounting For Decision Making, aka the Accounting class that is required for all Commerce students to take but for all of us who don't care/don't want to be an accountant.

I got up early in the morning anyway though to help Kieran get ready for work, I packed his lunch and then said bye to him. When he left, I went back to sleep for an hour or so. I then did the washing up, cleaned up my make up in the bathroom after a shower and made the bed. I don't mind cleaning up after both of us, because I know he has hard and long days at work. I drove to uni today because I didn't have to be there for long and I went to my own house afterwards. Kieran didn't finish too late tonight, so we went grocery shopping together and he cooked dinner and I cleaned up. As he said "we are the perfect team". We then watched Fired Up! but like usual he fell asleep about 30 minutes into the movie.

Wednesday
Last day of Uni for the week for me. Had a 12pm lecture, but I was catching public transport today so I had to get up and ready the same time Kieran was leaving for work, otherwise I wouldn't get out of bed at all. Wednesday's at uni are dedicated to Microeconomics (sigh) but at least I have lots of friends in my classes (about time). After class, my friend Jess and I went to El Jannah on our way home (the greatest food ever) but the trains stuffed us around and we got home really late. I went to my house and got ready for work because I decided to pick up and extra shift. Work was boring and afterwards I went to Kieran's house and just went straight to bed. It was about 12:30am when I got home and he had been asleep since about 9pm but that's alright.

Thursday
I seriously thought it was the end of the week by now. I can feel how tired I'm gonna be after 3 days in a row at uni. Last semester I went Monday, Thursday and Friday so it was the end of the week when I finished. Now it feels like the week should be over by Wednesday. I had a job interview today for a second job at Wet n Wild Sydney (feels like a pretty cool job to me) and other than that I took some time to myself to do some things I hadn't really had time to do lately (watch some TV and take a nap). I woke up really not feeling well and by the end of the day I had a horrid migraine and sore throat. Kieran came to my house for dinner because my mum was cooking and then we went back to his house.

Friday 
Ahh, finally the end of the week. It's just after 1pm and I'm writing this post as I wait for this load of washing to finish before I can hang it out. I got an email today regarding the job interview I went for yesterday and I got the job! so that's pretty cool! So far today I have done some washing, caught up on the latest Teen Mom 2 episode and cleaned up (again) around Kieran's house before coming home (my house has wifi and his doesn't- which is the main reason I got out of bed to come here). My plan for the rest of the day is to finish off the washing, do my accounting homework and then tonight I have work. Not too sure if I'll go back to Kieran's, but I probably will.

Thanks for reading everyone, even though my life is thoroughly uninteresting right now, I thought I'd post because I said I would. And even though I have literally no plans for the weekend (other than selling a textbook and playing netball) I couldn't be more thankful that it's Saturday tomorrow.
Until next time!
♡ Stelle