Granada!

Outside our Spanish school :) Which painfully, decided to situate itself right on top of a hill which we had to hike up every morning :<

Wikipedia photo cred*

Granada was amazing! I was there for 5 days from October 10th til the 15th. It was a little tough, we had about 3 hours of lessons a day (not quite the holiday we were expecting as you can see;) ) It was a total of 15 hours of lessons but it was all really enjoyable. They all really fun and helped us a lot. Plus I learned to roll my r's! :D For the first 14 years of life I could not roll a single r to save my life but now I occasionally can :D My mum does it really really well *-* I'm so jealous! If only it was hereditary!

We went to visit Alhambra, the jewel of Granada, and some say of the whole of Spain. It is an Islamic  palace complex built in the Nasrid dynasty (:o I said that before checking on wikipedia! xD Sorry random~). It was constructed during the mid 10th century in Andalus. It's really beautifully crafted, and it makes me think of the lengths people will go for their faith :3 It reminded me a bit of Istanbul really. I wore gold-tinted sunglasses and so it felt as if I was in Indiana Jones or something exploring the left ruins of a temple xD The name 'Alhambra' means 'La roja' in Spanish or the red castle in English :) The picture on the above right shows the Court of the Lions and the photo on the above left is one detail of the arabesques (both photo creds go to Wikipedia, no copyright infringement intended).

The sky in Granada is really beautiful!

I feel that if I try to describe the whole trip it'll never end xD It was a wonderful trip and now we're all planning gifts to give to the Spanish teachers who came, took us and organised this whole amazing trip :) We also visited Córdoba a small town near Granada in Southern Spain. The city is influenced by 3 main cultures, the Romans, the Muslims and the Jewish. I'll post the things which we bought during our shopping time on my next blog post :) Oh and did you know that pomegranates are from Granada? The town was actually named after the fruit! So if you translate Granada directly, it just means pomegranates! I've gotten into the habit of calling them in pomegranadas in England now... But it's like instead of Birmingham and Manchester, we'd have Scones and Earl Grey Tea as cities! Pienso que, mi español ha mejorado! Hasta la vista chicos!

Song of the day:
Skyfall by Adele
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HKoqNJtMTQ
At first when I heard this I was like 'whaaa?' but it's one of those songs which you love the more you play it :D

Back!

x.x I've literally only just come back from Granada a couple of days ago, and with catching up on all schoolwork and unpacking it's been a nightmare! But I made a promise to post today, and I always do my best to keep them. Granada was brilliant, I'll hopefully be able to do a whole synopsis of it later in the week. It was a great trip, but there were definitely some problems which I will mention later on in my next post. But I just say this video, about a girl who was telling her 'If you really knew me story.' And I really felt for her :( it was so moving especially when she was re-read the taunts. You have to and see it, my heart goes out to this girl <3 She's so brave to make this video and so are all the other hundreds of girls who have done the same (link below).

It really makes my problems seem positively miniscule, melodramatic and pointless in comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLolyWnST3w&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Oh and someone lovingly posted 'Are you just posting this to get views? Anas are freaks' Unfortunately these comments cannot help but in response, no I am not posting any of these to get views. I was posting when I had zero views and I'm still posting no matter how many I get. Sure it's nice to see that some people actually might read or listen to what I have to say. I must admit, I get excited when I see weekly regular hits from Germany, America, Russia, China and all over the world. But even if I didn't, I'd still be posting. My regular posts on Saturday help create a routine for me where there sometimes isn't one, and maybe one or two people out there find a regular timetable helpful instead of my previously erratic one where I'd do 3 in a row and then leave a year in between. Blogging's a nice way to vent, everyone does it for different reasons, but mine aren't to get more views.

Song of the day:
Comptine d'un autre été: l'après midi- Yann Tiersen (again I know, sorry!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZJDNSp1QJA
So amazing! I love this song and I can't wait to learn to play it <3 The animation is really sweet as well.

Promise a better post in the next few days! <3

A little help in your recovery

This may perhaps be the last post I do on my recovery; so that maybe perhaps, it can be put behind :) I do not mind talking about it again in the future (this will most likely include any relapses I experience), but are there any other topics anyone would like me to discuss? It can be anything..from reviews to just general journal entries, DIY to drawings; feel free to leave a comment in the down below! I have a youtube channel as well: http://www.youtube.com/user/ThisPiggyHasWings

But moving on, here is a speech that I recently found. It was by the LIMU founder and CEO. (Here's an interesting fact: Limu is the Hawaiian word for algae! ;)) But I felt the need to share this with you all, no matter what situation you might be in, or if just need a little pick-me-up towards the end of your day:

Life is tough, that's a given.

When you stand up, you're gonna be shoved back down.

When you're down, you're gonna be stepped on.

My advice to you doesn't come with a lot of bells and whistles. It's no secret, you'll fall down, you stumble, you get pushed, you land square on your face. And every time that happens, you get back on your feet. 

You get up just as fast as you can, no matter how many times you need to do it.

Remember this, success has been and continues to be defined as getting up one more time than you've been knocked down.

If experience has taught me anything, it's that nothing is free and living ain't easy. 

Life is hard, real hard, incredibly hard. You fail more often than you win, nobody is handing you anything.

It's up to you to puff up your chest, stretch your neck and overcome all that is difficult, the nasty, the mean, the unfair.

You want more than what you've now, PROVE IT!

You want beat the very best out there that is, prove it.

Get out there and earn it.

-Gary Raser


I absolutely love this speech! I've changed it a little to suit these circumstances but this is still incredibly inspiring and motivational, I try and remember this speech during gymnastics but it can be used in all sorts of situations.

I hate seeing anyone going through this, but I know there's hundreds of thousands of people going through this right now. Some may be on the edge of becoming what I was, some already well in the clasp of anorexia, and to be honest, this sounds corny but it's really true; if I could stop one person from becoming this or make a current anorexic at least rethink what they're doing, then I'll feel like I've achieved a massive goal. But really, the harsh truth is, no one who has seriously experienced anorexia says starving is good/beneficial. If you do want to find someone who does, I'm afraid the only place you'll  find them is at their graves.

Song of the day:

One more by Superchick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBqYvPZWHAs

To tie in with the theme of the speech :) This is one probably the best songs to workout to in my opinion! You. Can. Do. It.

P.S. I won't be able to do a blog post next week, I'll be in Granada on a Spanish school trip! See you again on 20/10/12