#he even chased after their tour bus‚ haha

[cherylblossom]

Bonus:

[alreadyblondenow]

Because, I love you

Jaehyun x reader // FLUFF, SMUT, angst? rich kids! au Summary: You’re back and you’re completely a different person. From being rich and spoiled, now you see yourself as someone cheap. Even so, Jaehyun chase you as he tries to win you back even though you’ve been pushing him away over and over again.  Word Count: 4k Warnings: Mentions of poverty, ‘poor’, swearing, unprotected sex, mentions of alcohol, mentions of bullying, inferiority complex Note:  -inspired by my current situation. So I hope no one steals this. haha -I’m not mocking the poor -see end for few notes. 

After two years, you’re finally back in town and the word spreads fast. The moment you step down from the train until you arrive at your best friend Aisha’s birthday party you feel every pair of eyes look at you. Everyone is completely shocked and dying to talk to you but they can’t. Because in their eyes, you’re still rich daddy’s favorite daughter. In their eyes, you’re still the same girl who left before you could even graduate high school.

You left without saying anything to your neighbours, friends or even your boyfriend, Jaehyun. The only one who knew about your situation is Aisha, and she swore she will never reveal the true reason why you left.

As you walk to the party, Aisha gave you a big hug giving you a glass of your favorite alcoholic beverage. “You’re back for good, right?” she asked trying to fight the loud music. “Yes! I’ll start school on Monday” you answer as one of her visitor took her away from you.

Everyone looks familiar but you don’t dare talk them. Not because you think they’re losers, but you feel small in this party. It feels like you don’t belong here. You made your way to the familiar pool side where you and Aisha used to hang out. There you enjoy the silence and the sound of the bubbles from the pool.

“You left, me without saying goodbye and now that you’re back I don’t get a simple ‘hi’”

Jaehyun sat beside you with all his bravery with a drink on his hand. Still handsome as the last day you spend with him. Out of all the people you left in this town, you feel sorry for Jaehyun. He didn’t deserve to be left alone just like that. You’ve been together for four amazing years and you were crazy in love with each other. For sure he got hurt when you left, and maybe he got mad? To be honest you want him to get mad to you, that way it’s easier to fully let go.

“Hi. I’m sorry about that” you try to ignore him and leave but he grabs your arm. “You left me without a word. Aren’t we going to talk about it?”

“No. Stay away from me, people might get the wrong idea” you said, stern and hard.

He brushed his hair using his fingers and pressed his lower and upper lip together. “Fuck until now you make me so frustrated” he scoffed, “Let’s get back together” he blurted out without even thinking.

“What makes you think I want you now?” Jaehyun is really impossible to reason with, he has this ‘I want it, I got it’ attitude that you hate but you’re not letting him win this time.

“Nothing. But I’m certain I still love you. And trying to win you back would be worth it”

“I’m not the same person, Jaehyun” you try to walk away but he accidentally pushed you straight to the pool. Next thing you know you’re both soaked and he offered you a ride home because clearly it’s his fault and you can’t ride the bus with wet clothes.

He was about to drive you to your house. Your old house, the biggest house for the richest family in town. “I don’t live there anymore. I live in a small apartment now” it’s embarrassing but you didn’t have a choice but to tell him the truth.

The drive was quiet, just the way you like it. “Sorry about your car seat, It’s drenched” he gave you his jacket before you get out of the car. “It’s okay, we’ve done a lot of other filthy things here” you rolled your eyes and left him.

He was happy you’re back. He never let himself forget everything about you and now that you’re back he will try to bring back what was taken away from the two of you. That’s how much he loves you.

Now that you live alone, adaptation is important. This town knew you as the rich and spoiled daughter who knows nothing but to shop and go to the coolest parties. Little did they know those two years definitely changed you as a person. Who knew even poverty would look good in you. Kidding aside, now you know how to wash and iron your own clothes, wash dishes, clean the house, cook your own meal. Everything that involves surviving alone.

Today is your first day in college and you’re looking forward to it mainly because of one reason. It’s the start to build a new life. But you saw Jaehyun waiting for you outside your apartment and your day is ruined already.

“Were not doing this Jae” you said as you show him how completely annoyed you were.

“Come on, I’ll take you to school” he offered with a big smile, showing off his dimples.

“We don’t go to the same college, idiot”

“I know, I just want to spend time with you. Please get in the car or I’ll scream how much I love you” you can’t believe he threatened you and you can’t believe you got in his car. You told him what happened last night is a mistake, and you were never planning to be friends with him just because you’re back. But of course he just shrugged it off and gave you a grande coffee from Starbucks.

It’s sweet how Jaehyun still remembers old habits, but it’s not you anymore. As he drive you to your school, you can’t stop being embarrassed again because it’s a public university but of course you don’t tell him that. “Thanks for dropping me off, uhm please stop this. Whatever you’re planning it’s-“ he cut you off, “I’ll pick you up at 5” he said with a mocking smile that makes your blood boil.

First day is first day. Classes from 7am to 5pm, new friends, a list of expensive books to buy, a quick tour around the university, and annoying Jaehyun waiting for you. “You’re unbelievable Jaehyun” you said a little angrier than ever, “Ugh- I need to go to the public library. Go home!” you don’t know what’s gotten into his head but he continues to pry. “I’ll study with you” he said as he runs off behind you, following you until you’re both sited at the library.

Focused and busy, you can’t believe he’s actually studying with you. You found of that he pursued engineering, and he’s already in his Junior year and actually doing really good. Deep down you’re proud of him.

As you continue studying in advance for a few subjects, you can’t figure out Math and it’s giving you a headache already. Jaehyun noticed that you’re kind of stuck to what you’re solving. So he offered help, he left a note in front of you that say’s, ‘I can help you with that’ You mouthed the word, ‘how’ and he made his own way to teach how to solve the problem, which actually really helped you.

‘Thank you’ you forced a smile. He winked back. Fucking Jung Jaehyun.

After studying, he drove you home and the ride was still quiet like the last time. He was incredibly a big help today, and you wanted to be nice just so you can return the favor. “I don’t have a choice but to be nice to you today. Do you want to eat something before you leave?”

He let out a small laugh, something that made you think he’s thinking about something dirty. And it’s clear as the night sky that he was thinking about eating you. “Forget I asked, you may leave and never come back again” you got out of his car and he quickly did the same thing, apologising over and over again as he follow you to your apartment.

The moment you invite him in, he was surprised to see your place to be so small. There’s no other room other than the bathroom, the kitchen is small, and there’s no furnitures. He knew better than to judge and ask about what happened to you. Instead, he made himself comfortable while you prepare the ramen in your kitchen. He’s not used to seeing you like this but he thinks you’re still amazing. You used to buy him expensive food when you were still rich and spoiled, but now you make cheap ramen for him.

You caught him smile as you place two bowls on the table, “Why are you smiling?” you brought him back to reality and shake his head, “oh nothing. I was just thinking about taking you for a long shopping tomorrow after school” that’s not you anymore, you down a glass of water and took a deep breath.

“The truth is Jaehyun, I’m broke. I left two years ago because my dad’s business crashed and burned. The bank took everything from us, the house, the cars, mom’s jewelries, everything. We needed to start a new life somewhere no one knows us because my parents can’t handle the humiliation and embarrassment. I have to take care of them both because they don’t know shit” and your story went on and on as he listens attentively on how you needed to be responsible for your parents, you told him how you learned doing house chores and being independent which made him fall in love with you even more.

“I know why you’re here Jaehyun. I don’t need your help-“

“I’m here for the reason, because I love you. Now eat your ramen before it gets cold” surprisingly he reached for your forehead and kissed it.

You won’t admit but the following days were bearable because of Jaehyun. He let’s you be your independent self as he takes care of you in his own ways. Spending time with you at the library made him study even harder and ace all of his big exams. When you were in high school studying with Jaehyun would end up having sex with him but now, studying is studying and he loved how he sees you accomplish all your school works just in time before the library closes.

The changes in his life with you in it is visible, and he loves it. Secretly he learned how to clean the dishes at home so he can offer to clean the dishes the next time you invite him in and eat ramen. Jaehyun loves spending time with you whenever and however but his favorite thing to do with you is going to the market. Picking fresh fruits and vegetables, buying fish and meat. It’s all fascinating for him which amuses you.

“Hey, I’m just wondering if you could go to this party I’m throwing this Saturday”

Going to the party means seeing a lot of people you already forgot about, of course you don’t want to. But you didn’t want to disappoint Jaehyun, “I can drop by” is the only answer you can think of. “That’s fine with me, as long as I get to see you that night” he said as he continues to drive.

That night you wished you didn’t say yes to Jaehyun. You don’t know how the rumors spread but everyone knew about the reason why you left. You can hear people making fun of you, telling you it’s probably karma because you were such a bitch back in the day. All you can do is cry at the bathroom and pray that Jaehyun won’t see you like this.

“Hey, I’ve been looking all over for you” Jaehyun found you as soon as you got out from the bathroom, faking a smile as someone bumped you on purpose and spill their drink on your shirt.

“Hey asshole you did that on purpose!” he shouts, clearly Jaehyun was not having a great time from his own party. “Everybody get out! All you do is gossip tonight you fucking ungrateful people, out!” seeing Jaehyun like this scared you, he never gets mad in front of you. When the house is already clear, he apologised to you for giving you a hard time tonight.

“I didn’t know they’ll gossip like hell tonight-“

“It’s not your fault Jae, it’s my dad’s fault” you sigh and sat on his couch, “Maybe they’re right, it’s karma. You know how I used to bully the students at school whenever I see someone bring packed lunch. I was a bitch, Jae”

He told you that y/n was long gone, “You’re like a completely different person now” he pulled you close to him as he tell you stories about him trying to wash his own clothes yesterday. The thought of it made you laugh like crazy, your voice echoes around his big house. He comforted you and made you laugh the whole evening, and you remember why you fell in love with Jaehyun in the first place.

On his birthday, it was a weekend and you had the whole day to celebrate. Nothing too fancy for this year, all he wanted to do is be with you. Spend the day like how a normal couple would spend Valentines day. Even though it’s clear to him that you’re not yet back together.

“I don’t have enough money saved up to buy you something you would actually like, so you can ask me to do anything today. I’m the gift” you present yourself playfully to him which made him laugh like loud, his ears are turning red.

“You know you’re the one that I want, be with me again” of course he’ll say that, and he’s serious.

“Don’t ruin your day you know my answer. Ask about something else” you said with a frown.

“Okay sorry you’re right. But I’m not changing what I said. Be with me today, pretend that we’re together again”

He held out his hand, waiting for you to grab it like how you used to do back when you were still together. Granting his wish you intertwine your fingers with his and you swear you felt something in your stomach. Butterflies, excitement, happiness.  

The day went on beautifully which was nothing as you expected. You held hands around the park, swinging it like little kids while giggling and talking about anything that comes out from your mouths. Kissing your hand whenever he feels like doing it, and you can’t complain about it because it’s part of the deal. “What? Be thankful it’s not your lips” he winked and kissed your hand again.

While watching movies, his arms are wrapped around you as you shiver because of the cold movie house. Kissing your forehead whenever it’s near his lips. And to end the celebration properly and avoid the crowded dine-in restaurants, you ate takeout in his car while you watch the city lights. He was holding your hand right after you both eat your meals and continue telling stories and laughing the whole time.

You wanted to admit to yourself that you fell in love with Jaehyun for the second time in your life. But given your life situation, you still have nothing to offer to him.

“Why did you leave without saying goodbye?” he asked as if he just heard your thoughts. While waiting for your answer, his eyes were looking straight to you, head resting on his seat, hands still intertwined.

“We have big dreams that time. I mean studying in New York. Together? I can’t have those dreams with you while I’m… poor”

“What about now? Still not convinced we can be together even if you’re ‘poor’” he kissed your hand again, “I don’t know if I can let go when the clock strikes 12” the atmosphere suddenly became serious.

“Then don’t”

He’s sure as hell shocked by what you said. He lean forward and you did the same thing, and he kissed you. Sweet and slowly at first but no one is stopping so the both of you got carried away. The kiss became wet and hungrier, you noticed he was pulling you to sit on his lap but you didn’t want to. So you stopped the kiss and catch your breath. Letting go of his hand and put it on your forehead as you massage it, pretending you had a headache.

“Did you just kissed me because you feel sorry for me? Or is it because you feel same way?” He asked politely.

“I never stopped loving you, Jaehyun” you keep your hand relaxed on your lap. “I’m sorry if I ruined your day last minute-“

“What? No you didn’t” he reached for your face so you could look him in the eye, “I only have five minutes left. Kiss me again? Please?”

And you did. This time it was wet, but not because of spit but because of your tears. You continue kissing him until 12:01, hands wrapped around his head as you ruffle his soft hair. “I don’t want to rush you or force you. And I know were still not together again even though we shared that kiss. But at least now I have hope. Take all the time that you want. Just don’t leave me again. Or else I’ll find you this time.” He kissed your hand too many times before kissing your whole face, peck after peck.  

Finally letting Jaehyun in your life again without boundaries, the following days were sweeter. He still studies with you at the library without distracting you but this time you two make out like crazy in his car at the library’s parking lot before he takes you home.

He still have dinner with you whenever you invite him in but this time he can finally hug you from behind and watch you cook from your shoulder. You even taught him how to cook and turns out he’s a fast learner. “Not bad Jung Jaehyun “

And because you taught him how to cook, he cooked for you in his big kitchen at home. You helped a bit but he did most of the work. “This is delicious” you praised his Spaghetti aglio e olio, ate almost half of the pan which made him happy because you loved his cooking. After dinner, you both clean up the kitchen washing everything on the sink, cleaning the table and finally snuggled up on his big couch with a glass of red wine.

“I think I deserve a good kiss” he said as he pretends to be tired. The next thing you know you’re making out on their couch before he drives you home. Which was sweet, he reach in for a kiss whenever the stop light goes red and continues to drive when it turns green.

“I didn’t want to feed your pride but, I hate going home after spending a great time with you” his smile was from ear to ear but you see tears and you started to panic.

“Did I say something wrong?” he shook his head and cupped your face with both hands and kissed you sincerely.

“I love you so fucking much” he barely said it clearly because of his sobbing, his tears are falling down on his face.

“I don’t get it Jaehyun why are you crying?”

“Hearing that makes me so fucking happy. It means you wont push me away ever again.”

you suddenly remember the time you push him away. You hugged him and saw the time, 3am. “I think you should stay. I cant let you drive at such a late hour. Come on I’ll make you coffee” you kiss him on the lips one last time, “stop crying.” You finished the day with bodies tangled on your cheap floor mattress as you talked and talked until you both fall asleep.

Time passed by so fast, you can’t believe it’s been two years already since you went back. Your relationship with Jaehyun has been the same, peaceful, happy and simple. Jaehyun is in his senior year and he became busier than ever. Guess what? Being a graduating student didn’t stopped him from seeing you. He sleeps more in your small apartment than his big house, “I can sleep better when you’re beside me” he said as he falls asleep beside you while you still study for a big test.

With no labels or whatsoever, Jaehyun couldn’t care less about it. As long as he could be with you and kiss you, you’re his girl. Labels or not.

“I have a big question to ask” he said while he’s driving. “I need to bring you as my date on this family gathering this weekend. I know you hate parties-“

“Yes. I’ll go with you” you said with a sly smile. Deep down you’re hesitating of course. Jaehyun’s family became the richest family after your father’s business crashed. Truth be told, you forgot how to be elegant. Now you’re just cheap.

As the most awaited weekend took place, you’re thankful Jaehyun bought you a nice dress fit for the party. Parties like this is full of business matters, yes it’s a party but everything they talk about in the four corners of this room is plain business. You know because your family used to throw tons of parties like this back in the day.

Hearing the continuous playing of piano made you remember how Jaehyun played nonstop at the piano you used to own… how you missed everything. Suddenly you don’t feel well. You wanted to get out of this place.

You tap Jaehyun’s shoulder as you excuse him from a visitor, “I think I should go home. I’ll take a cab, don’t worry about me” you kissed him on the cheek.

“Y/n your’e scaring me whats wrong?” he whispers, completely worried. You told him the problem and he told you he’s sorry, “It’s my fault. I’ll take you home”

A week passed and you told Jaehyun you need to bury yourself on thick books and you need to study for three big tests. Which does not exist. You just want to get away from him. But the space made you realise your new found love for Jaehyun. It’s not that you depend your happiness to Jaehyun, he just makes you look forward to living a simple life. Imagine having a delicious wine and perfect cheese on the side. Jaehyun is the cheese that made everything even more better.  

After having a 7-5 class, you found Jaehyun waiting for you at the school’s parking lot. Gloomy and not his normal cheery self.

“Are we back to square one?” he blurted out before you can even greet him. “Because I don’t mind doing it again” he said a little too aggressive.

You panic, you thought he’s mad “no no were not. Im sorry. The dinner was too much. I just needed to forget it. Im sorry, I missed you” he hugged you tight back.

“I thought I lost you again” you shook your head. “Take me somewhere today I’m on school break for two weeks”

And just like that, you two were back to being your cheery self again. He took you to his house, cooked dinner for you and enjoyed his home theater with you. You watched a tear jerker romantic movie and he was whispering ‘i love yous’ whenever the lead actor do something sweet in the movie. You do the same but not as bold as he is. You never actually said those three words to him properly, but you do love him unconditionally.

“Your room is still the same.” You’re fresh from the shower wearing a black shirt from Jaehyun with just your panties. Roaming around his room as you dry your hair using a towel. You saw a picture of you that he took, just beside his LP player and vinyl collections. His room is always this cozy, you remember doing your homework here when you were in high school and having sex whenever you want, because no one dares to disturb you two in his room.

And speaking of sex, you suddenly remember the last time you had sex with Jaehyun. That was a week before you leave. It happened in this room, he didn’t know but you were completely heartbroken that time.

“Hey stop snooping around and come to bed with me” he said as he pat his bed, telling you to lay beside him. You jumped right in and went on top of him. “What if I never went back?” he hugged you and switched positions, now you’re beneath him. “But you’re here.” you feel his lips on your exposed neck, “in my bed” you kissed him on the mouth as you both sit up and remove your shirts. He skilfully unclasps your bra and threw it somewhere, pulling down your panties and throwing it to the floor.

As he was busy getting you naked, you take your time admiring his perfect body. Pushing him down on the mattress and getting on top of him again “Remember when I do this?” you tease as you kiss him on his abs, “and this” down to his lower abdomen, removing his boxer briefs slowly as you keep on kissing him all the way to his hard cock. You threw away his boxer briefs just like he did with your underwear.

Brushing his soft hair as you kiss him softly, Jaehyun is slowly making his way in between your legs. “Be gentle okay?” you whisper before he plays with your folds, gently playing with your cunt while looking at you. Slightly rolling your hips, Jaehyun’s fingers feels nice inside. All you can do is moan and grab his shoulders.

Wet enough for his cock, he slowly lined his cock on you cunt. Pushing in slowly, feeling your tight walls that he missed so much. “I love you Jung Jaehyun” you whisper before he move. Happy that you finally said it clearly. He thrust in slowly just how you like it, kissing your mouth as you moan on every thrust he gives. Gasping whenever he gives you a sharp one.  

“Don’t leave me again” he whispers as he continue you to fuck you on a steady pace.  

“I wont” you whimper and reach for him to keep him close to you as he thrust. “I’ll make you happy everyday” no doubt about that, you nod completely out of words as he bring you to the edge.

“Jaehyun right there” you moan as you spread your legs wider.

“Right here, hmm? Feels good?” he grabbed your waist with both hands and kept going with a faster pace. You nod weakly, mouth open and eyebrows furrow as you let go. Whispering sweet nothings to you while still hitting your good spot.

You shiver and curl beneath him as he chase his own orgasm and cum inside you. Cum dripping from your cunt, he slowly pull out and replaced in with his finger. Kissing you softly, while you still spread your legs for him and let him finger you as you both ride your high.

He kept you warm and calm after cleaning you, kissing you on your temple just a little too long but quick enough to ask for more.

“As much as I miss having sex with you, I think we should sleep already. I know you, you will ask for round two in ten minutes after you stretch your body- Look you’re doing it now” he shook his head playfully with a smile.

“Jaehyunie” you pout as you stretch and whine. “No” he playfully refuse. “We’ll have round two tomorrow” you nod as you accept defeat and snuggle beside him. Eyes closed and really comfortable he suddenly whispers, “I love you, y/n” you don’t say it back but he knows you love him too.

Jaehyun’s graduation finally came and you couldn’t be more proud. His parents flew from America and you finally meet them, again. “We knew it. We always knew you’re the right one for our Jaehyun” his mom told you, as you help her around the kitchen. The dinner was just Jaehyun, his parents and you.

“I have everyone that I love in this table, the people who helped me graduate and made me a better person. Cheers!” he kissed you in front of his parents, for the first time. “And you, thank you for giving me a second chance” he clinks your glass, took a sip on his wine, and kissed you again.

Soon, Jaehyun bought himself a decent apartment and asked you to move in with him. From there on, you sleep and wake up beside Jaehyun. No need to pick you up from your apartment, or watch you study at the library. Jaehyun is your home now.

[red-sector-rivendell]

media reccs? 👀 since apparently you are a man of good taste?

Wow thank you 😏 I have a masterlist of movies that have changed me I often recommend to people, I'll just copy and paste here with quick synopses lol, it's kinda long. I'm not super great at writing synopses tho so bear with me

Dead Poets Society (1989)

One of my favorite movies of all time and a total classic. It's about a group of boys at a strict boarding school who are inspired by their new English teacher (played by Robin Williams) to think for themselves and chase their dreams. This movie literally changed my life lol

Quadrophenia (1979)

This movie is based off of the story behind the concept album by The Who of the same name. It follow the life of a young man named Jimmy who is in a gang called the Mods. Theres this huge gang war between them and the Rockers (I think that's their name, it's been a while since i watched it) and Jimmy questions his beliefs about coming-of-age and his values in life throughout the film

Cabaret (1972)

Based off of the Broadway musical of the same name, this movie is about a British man who moves to Germany during the beginning of the rise of Nazis. He meets a woman who basically turns his world upside down, and it follows their love affair and sexuality and anti-semitism, and it's hilarious and heart wrenching and a beautiful movie

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

This is a super trippy romance film. Basically in the universe of this movie, theres a technology that is developed that can delete memories of an entire person from your mind while you are in a dream-like state, and the main character of this movie (played by Jim Carrey) decides to undergo the procedure after a bad breakup. Its soooo good I highly recommend this movie

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

This is an animated film about a man named Bill who is going through brain cancer. Its told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator essentially communicating everything Bill sees, hears, and experiences. This is the movie that got me into film and it is still a complete masterpiece and one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen

The Dirties (2013)

Loved this one a lot back in high school, it's been a while since I watched it. This is a film made in Canada about a high schooler named Matt Johnson and his friend Owen who decide to make a short film for their class about them killing the gang at their school that bullies them, and things take a dark turn. It's a hilarious movie and hits pretty close to home for me in a lot of ways haha

Logan's Run (1976)

Great movie, pretty cheesy though so be warned. This is based off a book with the same name, and it takes place in the future where most of humanity is wiped out except for a small society that lives under a domed structure. No one is allowed to leave the dome, and to control overpopulation, no one is allowed to live past the age of 30. It's really bizarre but I love this movie

Donnie Darko (2001)

Pretty sure this was Jake Gyllenhaal's first big hit when he was super young (I think he was like 19 in this movie but I'm not sure) basically about this kid, Donnie Darko, who is somewhat schizophrenic and has a habit of sleepwalking. After one particular incident he has a near-death experience and starts seeing a man in a bunny costume everywhere who makes him do weird stuff. Another pretty trippy movie with a crazy ending

American Psycho (2000)

Honestly I'm sure a few on this list you've probably seen (most likely this one included) but I didnt wanna leave any out because they're all so good. If you haven't seen this, it's about a Wall Street executive named Patrick Bateman who is a materialistic phony by day and a serial killer by night. I tried to read the book but the inner dialogue was really hard to get through lmao. Awesome movie though huge recommend.

Clockwork Orange (1971)

Yet another trippy one. And fuck it's been a long time since I've seen it so I might get some stuff wrong here. But it's basically about this serial rapist guy who hangs out with this group of goons and they all like to go beat up homeless people and shit, but the main character gets captured and has to go through reformation therapy to make him a better person. It's an extremely bizarre movie but soooo good and kind of hilarious lol

Creep (2014)

Of course this is on my list haha. If you haven't seen it yet, it's a horror movie about this freelance film guy who answers an ad on craigslist to help a man with cancer film a movie for his unborn son. And shit gets weird real fast. One of my favorite horror movies ever, I wouldnt say it's super scary but it's fun as fuck

Hereditary (2018)

If I'm being honest, I don't like a lot of big movies made in super recent years and especially not horror movies (mostly because they're all cheap cash grabs with no substance) but this one is an exception for me. Hereditary is fucking masterful in my opinion, legitimately creepy as hell and well-produced and well written. To put the plot as vaguely as possible without spoiling anything, it's about a family (mostly the mother) who go through some crazy fucked up shit. That's literally all I can say without giving anything away. Super good flick, big recommend

Gattaca (1997)

This list isn't in any particular order, and I love all these movies to death, but if I had to rank them this would probably be on the lower end. It's not a bad movie, it's still great but it's just not as life-changing as the other ones lmao. This takes place in the future where genetic modifications have progressed to a point where you can modify your unborn child's DNA to have the perfect baby. This has led to, essentially racial bias against those who never had that procedure when they were born. The main character was not one of these "special" children, but he wants an extremely prestigious job which requires that of the employee. Through the film, he is trying to fake his identity and fool the company into thinking he is one of these perfect people. Still a great film

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Johnny Depp, man, he is something else. I LOVE this movie. Based off a true story and a book written by the man who lived it, Hunter S. Thompson, this follows the adventure of the writer and his attorney as they go on a drugged-out, psychedelic romp through Las Vegas with the original intention being to cover a story on a motorcycle race, but things go off the rails as they both terrorize the entire city in a way. Just a fun ride the whole way, a great movie

The Truman Show (1998)

God I'm realizing this list is long as fuck. Don't watch all of these movies, it might take you a lifetime lmao. Anyway, this is a classic Jim Carrey movie and another one you've probably seen. But again, if you haven't, this movie is about a man whose entire life has been fabricated and shot for television without him knowing. Super great, super moving, fantastic film 10 outta 10 I gotta wrap this shit up

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

A lesser known Keanu Reeves movie, but fuck I wish more people have seen this. This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it's based off a book which is just as amazing. This movie takes place in the near future, where facial recognition technology has progressed wayyy too far, and drugs have gotten to the point of no return. The plot follows a detective who is undercover in a junkie house trying to figure out who is the top of the drug dealing totem pole, but ends up wrapped in the junkie lifestyle a little too deeply. Seriously, I recommend this movie to everyone who asks, it's so damn good

Fight Club (1999)

Another popular one. If you havent seen it, it's based off a book by Chuck Palahniuk following the story of a man (the main character actually doesnt have a name lol) who meets a guy named Tyler Durden who changes his entire perspective on how the world works. They start an underground boxing club together to help themselves and other men blow off steam and get away from the capitalist consumer-centric lifestyle they are forced into. Big twist at the end, great movie five stars on yelp

Harold and Maude (1971)

This is a weird one. Gotta say. It's about a guy in his 20s who meets an old woman at a funeral and falls in love with her. Sounds pretty ok at face value but theres a lot of really strange subplots and a huuuuge twist at the end (one of the subplots being the guy compulsively fakes his suicide to get his mother's attention) big recommend

Polyester (1981)

This one I cant even explain u just have to watch it its fucking bizarre

Fargo (1996)

Ok lightning round on the synopses, this movie is about a man who wants to commit fraud by hiring guys to kidnap his wife so her father can pay them ransom and instead the husband gets the money but everything goes wrong it's really good

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Another modern movie I actually like, last time I watched this I was on shrooms and it was crazy but it's about this hotel right on the border of california and (Nevada I think?) And all these weird people are staying at it and there are twists at every turn and chris hemsworth is a cult leader in it its great

Memento (2000)

GREAT MOVIE GOD PLEASE WATCH THIS ONE it's about a man who develops short term memory loss after witnessing the rape and murder of his wife AND WHEN I SAY THERE ARE TWISTS LIKE EVERY TEN MINUTES I MEAN IT. The film is chronologically backwards, in that the first scene takes place at the end of the story and works back from there in increments of like 5 minutes. Basically each scene is a segment of time that this guy remembers before his memory loss kicks in and he forgets and FUCK it's so good please god watch it

Almost Famous (2000)

This is another one that would probably be low on my ranking but still a great and fun movie, it's about this kid that wants to write articles about rock stars for the rolling stone (based off a true story btw) and he ends up running away to go ride on a tour bus with some band and gets into all types of shenanigans and its great and sad

Parasite (2019)

Another modern movie I love, fuck this is getting too long lmao. Poor family wants to make money and they hatch a scheme to pretend to be bougie and work for this rich family but shit gets weird and everything goes wrong and it's so good (also literally the only film ever that made me speechless afterwards)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pretty much lives up to the hype, I totally forgot the plot but it's pretty damn good I remember that lmao

The Warriors (1979)

Fun movie, theres a bunch of teen gangs in New York and the leader of all of em is like "hey we should rally all the gangs together and fuck up the cops so we can rule this city" but then he gets shot by someone in the crowd and the gang The Warriors gets blamed so the whole movie is them running from all the other gangs so they can get back to home base and it's just an all around fun time movie

12 Monkeys (1995)

THIS MOVJE IS CRAZY it takes place in the future where a virus has almost completely wiped humans off the face of the earth so these scientists send this guy back in time to figure out where it came from so they can stop it from ever happening but obviously everything goes wrong and yadda yadda yadda it's amazing

Waking Life (2001)

Gonna preface this by saying this film is definitely not for entertainment, it's kind of an arthouse-type flick. It's the type of movie you have to think really really hard about to watch. The basic plot is the main character is stuck inside his own lucid dream, and is walking around listening to all these characters in his dream talk to him about, idk like the meaning of life and consciousness and shit. It's really good if you're in the mood for that type of thing.

Okay I'm finally done, you probably didnt expect this but I've been meaning to put my movie recommendations on this blog anyway haha. I deleted some just cause it was getting wayyyy too long. If u want a shorter list I can just give u like a top 5 in DMs but there u go have at it, every movie on that list is a banger I swear

[notsoguiltykpop]

The Tenth Floor pt3

Min Yoongi had gone through 34 secretaries in the past 24 months, and each one of them left in tears. This fact alone should have warned you against taking the job, but the pay was too good to pass up. Surely you could put up with a billionaires temper-tantrums, right?

Reader x Yoongi

Genre: Fluff, humor, probably some angst

Warnings: Strong language at times, maybe some slight smut eventually

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

“So how’s it going with your new, crazy boss?” Jessica asked though your phone, and you rolled your eyes despite the fact that she couldn’t see you. “Has he interrogated you about what your ‘intentions’ are for working there yet?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t so bad. A little weird, though. They ran a background check on me before I was hired, so I don’t know what he was so worried about.” 

“I told you he was paranoid.” Jessica said, and she was right; she had warned you. Repeatedly. “While I was there, they caught this one guy selling plans to rival companies.” You heard her shiver. “I thought Min was actually going to kill him.” 

You were waiting for the bus as you talked to her. You had taken Kim Taehyungs business card out of your wallet, examining it for what felt like the hundredth time. Jessica’s voice seemed to fade away as you got lost in your own thoughts. There was something about the taxi driver that you couldn’t quite put your finger on, something that made him different...

“Are you listening to me?” Jessica said suspiciously. You realized that you hadn’t been, and winced.

“Not exactly?” You said with an apologetic laugh. 

“I said, don’t trust Jeon Jungkook.”

“Who’s that?” Your bus arrived, and you were only half-listening as you found a seat. You kept your voice down as you went, but several people gave you a pointed look as you went. 

“I just told you who he is! You’re impossible.” 

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry... But I have to go, okay? I’ll call you during my lunch break.” The elderly women you sat next to was glaring daggers at you, her knitting needles clicking ominously. “I really need to get my car fixed...” You thought to yourself as you tried to give her a small smile.

“No, I’m serious--” 

You hung up before she could say anything else, however. You purposefully hadn’t told your friend that you were applying for the job until after you were hired, and had tried to tune everything negative she had to say about the place out ever since. You wanted to enter your new job with a positive outlook, without any pre-judgement of anyone else who worked there. You were fairly sure Jessica had tried to warn you about this Jungkook person last week, but you couldn’t remember what she had said about him. 

“You aren’t taking this seriously.” She had complained the night before your first day on the job. “I’m telling you, quit now. Save yourself the time and effort.” 

But you needed a job--and this one even payed well. Sure, maybe the boss was a little insane, but how bad could it be? It seemed worth it to at least give it a try.

“No heels this morning, I see.” Jimin stepped into the elevator with you, smirking at your black ballet-style flats. You didn’t have time to go out and buy a new pair of shoes after the heel on yours broke the previous night, so you slip-stitched the hem of your dress pants so they wouldn’t drag on the floor and hoped they looked decent. You thought that perhaps no one would notice, but you should have known better. “I see you’ve already given up on personal appearance, which means you’ll probably quit within the day.” 

“Don’t you have something better to do than judge me by my shoes?” You asked calmly. You wondered why Jessica hadn’t warned you about Jimin, he was much more of an annoyance than this Jungkook guy who you had never even met. 

“Not at the moment, no.” Jimin smiled innocently at you. You knew that he was probably just being rude because he wanted you to quit, but that didn’t help much. 

“I need this job.” You told yourself, biting your tongue before you said something you would regret. “And to have any hope of keeping it, I need to stay civil. I can’t make enemies in the first week.”

You bid Jimin a good morning before dropping your purse at your desk. Today was a new day, and you were determined not to let Jimin get you down this early in the morning.

There was a young man standing directly in front of the coffee pot when you walked over to it (this time, you’d have Yoongi’s coffee in hand when he wanted it). 

His hair was perfectly parted to one side, and his tie loosened somewhat. His sleeves were rolled up partially, just enough to show off his toned arms when he crossed them.

“Hello.” He said with a smile. He didn’t look like he belonged working in a biomedical engineering company, so much as in a magazine, or a fashion runway.

“Hi?” You hadn’t intended it as a question, and shook yourself. 

“You’re the new girl, right?” He tilted his head to one side as he studied you, his smile growing. 

“I suppose so.” You agreed. The way his eyes were following you reminded you of how wolves watched their pray. You pulled a mug that said “#1 BOSS” out of the cupboard and turned back to the pot of coffee--that the man was still standing in front of. “Could I get over there, please?” You asked politely. 

“No.” He was still smiling, and it was getting more strange by the moment. “You’re kind of cute.” 

“Uh, thanks. But I really do need you to move.” You made a shooing motion, and he grudgingly stepped aside, just enough for you to get the coffee without fully stepping out of your personal space. 

“I just got back from a business trip, so I wasn’t here yesterday... Did anyone give you a tour?”  

You shook your head, looking up at him. “Not really, but I’ve been finding my way around alright.”

He nodded slowly. “Well, if you’d like, I could show you around...” He leaned closer, and you took a step back. “There are lots of rooms that no one uses, we could...” He reached out as though to brush his hand across your cheek, but you caught his wrist. 

“No thanks.” You said flatly. 

“Jeon Jungkook, what the hell are you doing?” You looked over the man’s shoulder to see Seokjin, a file in hand. 

“So this is Jungkook.” You thought. That explained a lot. 

Seokjin hit Jungkook with the paper in his hand, before turning to you. “I apologize on his behalf.” 

You let go of Jungkook’s wrist after a moment, and he held it close, rubbing it with his other hand. “You have a death grip.” He complained before facing Seokjin. “We were just getting to know each other.” He smiled, and Seokjin hit him with the file again. 

“Maybe if you’d stop seducing all of Yoongi’s secretariats, they’d stick around a bit longer!” 

Jungkook rolled his eyes. “Don’t blame me when we both know it’s Yoongi’s shitty personality that chases people off.” 

“And the fact that you never call people back.” Seokjin grumbled. “Now go away. Don’t you have actual business to attend to, Dr. Jeon?” 

Jungkook made a gagging sound. “I’ve been working all week, and you want me to do more?” He began sauntering away none the less, however. 

“He’s a doctor?” You said incredulously once you were fairly sure he was out of earshot. 

“A good one, too.” Seokjin shook his head. “But also a total playboy-asshole.”

You knocked on the door once, twice, and a third time before you got an answer.

“What?” Came the gruff reply, and you put on your best smile before opening the door. You had Yoongi’s coffee (no sugar, just cream) in hand, ready to make the best impression you could this early in the morning.

Maybe yesterday had just been a bad day for Min Yoongi, and he would be more pleasant today. You highly doubted this, but it was a nice thought.

“Good morning, sir.” You said cheerily, which earned you a scowl from your boss.

“Are you saying that your morning has been good so far, or are you assuming that mine has?” There was something about the way he said it that made you suspect that it was another one of his strange tests. You thought carefully before responding.

“More of a hope that your day has gone pleasantly so far.” You said slowly. “Coffee?” 

Yoongi nodded, and you brought it over to him carefully. “You’re late.” He said, glancing at his watch. You wanted to tell him that you weren’t late, you were early, you just got a little held up by the strange doctor who wouldn’t let you past him to the coffee pot. There was no way you could think of to say this without it sounding like an excuse, however, so you nodded.

“Sorry sir. It won’t happen again.” 

Yoongi looked satisfied enough with this answer, took a sip of coffee. He made a face at it, but kept any negative comments to himself for the time being. “What does my schedule looks like for today?”

“You have an appointment at two with Mr. Ahn Minhyuk, and...” You began listing off all of his schedule--you had memorized it the previous night. Yoongi looked surprised as you spoke, his eyebrows raised in curiosity. 

“You sure are a try-hard, aren’t you?” 

It wasn’t the response you were hoping for, but it was better than yelling, you supposed. “I’ll take that as a compliment, sir.”

A/N Not as much with Yoongi this time, but I promise he’ll be in it a lot more from now on! Thanks for reading! I really appreciate all of you taking the time out of your day to read my odd, disorganized ramblings. Do you think Reader should have given Dr. Jeon a chance? Do you think he really is a good doctor? Is Jimin a pain in the butt who needs to back off? Haha, as always, let me know your thoughts and feelings! <3 <3 <3

[mademoiselleenjolras]

A bit more about On Your Feet

Okay, I've had a decent amount of time to recover from this show, and to think about it, so I figured I'd share a bit more about this wonderful performance that Does Not Get Enough Love™

The preshow announcement was absolutely adorable can I just say? I reblogged it a while back and y'all should give it a listen

This show was so high energy from the get go you KNEW you were going to be on your feet (haha) by then end of it

Gloria and Emilio Estefan are actual goals their love story and the way they care about each other is apparent from the opening scene and all the way through

The show stayed really true to their music- only one word in one song is changed, which can’t be said for a lot of jukebox musicals like this

The guy who plays Emilio is Super Hot and I fell in love from the back of the theater

Christie Prades, who was the Gloria cover during part of the Broadway run, makes an incredible Gloria Estefan

Gloria’s grandmother plays a major role and she is absolutely Hilarious

Gloria’s mother also plays a very important role, as she nearly became a professional singer herself. There’s an incredibly moving scene of her performing during what she finds out mid-set will be her last night in Cuba 

The vocal ranges of both Gloria’s mother and grandmother are considerably lower than the typical range of a female character. Both tend more toward a tenor range in their biggest songs and it’s honestly really great to see that

Speaking of great things to see the DANCING was great it drew really heavily from Cuban styles and from more than just the salsa and I loved seeing it so much

Emilio has so many great lines in this show I don’t even know where to start

During an Act I scene where Gloria and Emilio are trying to get one of their label execs to help them ‘crossover’ into the English-speaking market, he shoots them down and tells them to keep playing in Spanish and basically insinuates that they aren’t “American enough”

Emilio: *up in this guy’s space, points to his own face*

“Look very closely at my face... THIS is what an American looks like!”

And you can bet that in Downtown Miami

That line brought the fuckING HOUSE DOWN

A solid 40 seconds-a minute of applause and its no hyperbole

Eventually the exec became one of their biggest supporters which I like to think means he learned how not to be a jerk and how to be accepting and supportive of other people’s cultures and I feel like a lot of people who see it should take that lesson to heart

The references to Miami clubs and night life in Miami were just great

Gloria’s grandmother traded Cuban pastries to one of the most important club owners in Miami to get him to play their music and it was set up to look like a drug deal and I hope its a true story because that was HILARIOUS

The kids in the cast were FABULOUS omg

During the Act I closer the ensemble came offstage to dance with the audience on the floor level (sadly, I was up in the third tier, but ya’ll can bet my rhythm-less self was dancing in my seat anyhow). I didn’t know this was part of the show, which surprised me because of all the hype that Great Comet got for expanding upon the same thing. I would love to know if this happens in more shows out there

Her grandmother also came out of the audience during one of Gloria’s ‘concerts’ now that I think about it

And of course during the standard jukebox-musical-mix of all her songs at the very end of the show they got the audience dancing as well

A flashback scene shows Emilio having to leave his mother and grandfather behind in Cuba in order to leave the country and I don’t cry at musicals but I swear it was hard right there and my mascara suffered. These stories are always so moving to me.

The portrayal of Gloria’s relationship with her own mother is so powerful and their story is so important

“You’re 19, you know 19 things. I’m 48. I know 48 things.”

Another musical that officially lets the male lead cry onstage because he is emotionally terrified lord please let this trend continue thanks

They used Famous and I was Not expecting it, especially where it came in during the show

The scene where Gloria performs at the AMA after being in a horrible bus accident is gorgeous

There’s more but this is already really long so I’ll continue on to the curtain call before ya’ll get bored If anyone wants to hear me rant more message me please

Let me just say that I Did Not Realize that I was attending the show on opening night. It had already been playing for a few days and I didn’t even know that tours had previews but I guess they do???

But we all stood up to applaud for the bows, as people are wont to do, and when things calmed down, a couple of people start going up on stage, and my mind could not wrap around it

I honestly thought they were inviting the audience up on stage for some weird finale thing

But then people start going “Oh my god that’s her” “Holy crap that’s really her”

And my jaw just DROPPED and I looked to my friend to the left of me who isn’t from Florida and who didn’t quite get it right then and all I could say was “HOLY SHIT”

Because there were Gloria and Emilio Estefan there on stage

As well as most of the original Broadway cast and the creative team

The Estefans both gave speeches- Emilio’s far shorter because Gloria kept saying how grateful she was that the show made it this far and how wonderful all of the people involved were and she went on a tangent about how talented her grandson was and it was just the sweetest thing because you could tell how happy she was to bring this story back to life and to Miami

I called my mom to tell her about it and she hung up on me when I told her lol

Okay I know I’m rambling at this point

I just... as a Floridian, as someone who has grown up seeing Cuban culture all around and hearing the Miami Sound Machine, I love how this show worked hard to embody the story of the Estefans, which can be translated to so many immigrant families here

Though I am not an immigrant myself I could see that it hit so close to home for so many people around me and that was so beautiful to see

It truly was beautiful and a wonderful show

And yes, it fell into a few of the pitfalls that usually chase shows built around an existing catalog of songs, mostly in the areas of transitions and plot in this case

But overall it was wonderful and I will be damned if it gets forgotten like so many other shows that came out in the same year

On Your Feet is an incredibly moving and relevant show about family and the story of two immigrants who made their own dreams come true and it truly embodies the Miami vibe

Check it out. Give it a listen. And get On Your Feet.

[xdaughterofthereaperx]

Injuries Pt. 2 (Chris Motionless)

Here it is:) Gif not mine.  Part 1

     The boys walked off of the stage after their performance, laughing and patting each other on the back. So far, this show had been the craziest one of the entire tour. Adrenaline still pounded through Chris’ blood as he walked over to his tour manager to grab a towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

     “Great shows guys! That was awesome. You have an interview in a few hours, but until then you’re free to do whatever you want.” Their tour manager said, handing each member a towel and water bottle. “Just be sure you’re all back at the bus before then.”

     They all nodded their heads and turned to hand their equipment to the techs. Once they had finished putting their instruments away, they walked down the stairs at the back of the stage.

     “I don’t know about all of you, but I’m going to go back to the bus and change. I wreak.” Vinny pulled his shirt away from his body and scrunched up his nose once he got a whiff of himself. The rest of the guys nodded in agreement and began to walk in the direction of their tour bus.

     “Actually I’m going to head over to the table and see if the girls need any help,” Chris pointed towards their merch table where he could see a huge crowd gathering.

     The rest of the guys looked at each other with smirks, trying to hold in their laughter. “And by see if they need help, you mean see if (Y/N) needs help… with anything.” Ryan winked at Chris which caused all of the guys to start laughing.

     “Haha. Funny,” Chris rolled his eyes at his friends. “You guys know how busy it gets at the table. Plus, I saw the crew unloading huge boxes from the trailer, and the girls probably need help unpacking all of them.”

     “Well let’s go then,” Ricky turned to walk towards their merch table with the rest of the guys following.

     “Wait… what?” Chris looked at Ricky with wide eyes. “I thought you were going back to the bus.”

     “Well we wouldn’t want our girls to be overwhelmed, would we? So we’re going to go help them out.” Ricky turned back to look at Chris, who had a dumbfounded look on his face. “Relax. We aren’t going to try to steal away your girl… Maybe.” The guys burst into fits of laughter, and continued to make their way to the table.

     Chris stared after his friends in shock. They wouldn’t really try anything with (Y/N). Would they? Shaking himself from his shock, Chris began to follow his friends to the table, grumbling something about putting bleach in shampoo bottles.

     When they got to the table, the band was met with the many cheers of their fans. This immediately brightened Chris’ mood, but what really put a smile on his face was when he caught sight of (Y/N), selling merch and taking pictures with some fans. He started to make his way over to say hi, but before he could reach her, Ricky, Vinny, and Ryan tackled her in a hug.

     “Hey guys,” the smaller girl laughed, hugging her three friends back, “What’s up?”

     “Oh you know. Playing shows, Meeting fans. Hugging pretty girls,” Vinny squeezed (Y/N) tighter, and smirked at Chris over her shoulder.

     “Shut up,” (Y/N) pushed the guys off of her and smiled up at them. When the guys feigned hurt looks for being pushed away, she laughed and said, “You know I love all of you, but you all need a shower.” They all laughed and made kissy faces at her before turning to hug Jessie, who had been watching Chris’ less-than pleased expression, and talking to Ghost.

     When she saw the boys walking towards her she said, “Oh hell no. I’m with (Y/N). You guys stink.” The three guys ignored her and started to chase her around the tent.

     With Vinny, Ricky, and Ryan chasing Jessie, Chris walked up behind (Y/N) and leaned forward to talk into her ear. “Hey.”

     (Y/N) spun around to look at Chris, “Hey.”

     “Do I have to take a shower before I hug you?”

     “Hmm… for you I guess I can make an exception.”

     Laughing, Chris stepped towards (Y/N), wrapping his arms around the smaller girl’s waist, while she wrapped her arms around his neck. They stayed like that for a few seconds before awkwardly pulling away from each other.

     Chris rubbed the back of his neck before offering to help (Y/N) with the growing line of people, which she agreed to. While they walked back to the line, they didn’t notice the five pairs of eyes watching their little moment.

     “We have to do something. This is getting ridiculous.” Jessie gestured towards Chris and (Y/N).

     “I know. They just need to get together already. Or at least go on a date.” Ryan took a bracelet from on of the merch boxes and started tossing it around. He threw it at Vinny, who wasn’t paying attention, which caused the drummer to stumble into a huge stack of boxes that had been haphazardly piled into the tent, and almost knocked them over.

     “Careful dude. If you make those boxes fall, it could really hurt someone.” Once the pile had stopped swaying, Ghost walked over to Vinny to move him away from the tower of merch and equipment boxes.

     “Maybe if one of them landed on their heads, it’d knock some sense into them.” Ryan nodded his head towards Chris and (Y/N), who had just finished taking a picture together for a fan.

     “ Are you nuts? If one of those things landed on (Y/N), it’d crush her. And I don’t know about you guys, but I prefer my friends to be, oh I don’t know, breathing,” Ricky inched away from the unstable pile, eyeing it wearily.

     “Guys, forget about the stupid boxes. There’s a more important matter to deal with. It’s obvious that those two are crazy about each other, but they’re too oblivious to even realize it.” Jessie rubbed her temples in exasperation “I think that it’s about time that they had a little outside help.” She looked up at the, hopefully, soon to be couple, and grinned.

     “I know that look. That’s your meddling look. What are you thinking?” Ghost turned to look at Jessie curiously.

     She looked over at Chris and (Y/N) to make sure that they weren’t paying attention, and motioned for the guys to form a circle. “We all know that Chris is really protective right?” Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, remembering all of the times that Chris had intervened when a guy was making (Y/N) uncomfortable. “But he also gets jealous pretty easily.” when the boys looked at her in confusion, she said, “oh come on guys. You can’t honestly tell me that you haven’t noticed that every time one of you hugs (Y/N), he practically rips you apart with his eyes.”

     They all turned to look at (Y/N), who happened to be hugging a fan, with Chris standing off to the side. At first glance his expression was blank, but the guys could see the fire that was burning in his eyes.

     “Ok. Point taken. So what’s your plan?” Ricky, and the rest of the guys, leaned closer to hear Jessie.

     “We play a little game of jealousy my friends.” The wide grin that Jessie had on her face made all of the guys extremely nervous.

     “Are you trying to get us killed?” Vinny looked at her with wide eyes.

     “Don’t be so dramatic. I’m not saying that you have to go make out with her. The object of the game is to get him jealous, not murderous. Just, you know, flirt a little. It shouldn’t really take all that long to get a reaction out of Chris. Piece of cake.”

     “With Chris, jealous and murderous might as well be the same thing,” Ricky mumbled, and after receiving a glare from Jessie he said, “I mean I guess. Whatever helps right?”

     “I call using the ‘Are you from Tennessee’ line.” Vinny raised his hands to call dibs on the cheesy pickup line.

     “What? No way dude. that’s my line. Use another one,” Ryan pushed Vinny’s hand down and the two began to argue about who’s pickup line it was.

     (Y/N) was walking towards the stack of boxes to get more shirts out when she saw Ryan grab Vinny in a headlock. Suddenly, Vinny pushed Ryan off of him and into the pile of boxes that (Y/N) was standing in front of. She watched with wide eyes as multiple, heavy boxes came falling directly on top of her, and she collapsed under the weight with a scream of pain, and surprise.

     She heard various voices scream, “(Y/N)!” before her head collided with the ground, and everything went black.

Finally! Part two. I’m so so sorry that this took so long. School has seriously been kicking my butt, and I barely have time to sleep, let alone write. So to make up for it, I tried to make this part a little longer than the last. ANYWAYS, as always, constructive criticism is always welcome:) I honestly have no idea when the next part will be up, but hopefully it’ll be soon. Thank you for reading.~Salem

@adidabach

[hiwoshianqi]

Shanghai Trip 11th Sep 17 - 15 Sep 17

Time flies, it’s been so long since my Shanghai trip !! ●︿● This trip is definitely one of those trips I will hold dear to my heart because of the things that happened to Shenanigans. 

First off, the night before the flight, Claudia and Jiayi came to my place to overnight cus my parents were sending us to the airport. We ended up ordering Macdelivery at like 1am+ cus we were hungry lols.. After that at around 2+ 3am, they both freaking fell asleep wtf. Then there’s me, playing league until it was time to get ready to leave. Sankiew to Rtye and Daniel for keeping me company (/^▽^)/  Yes I ton the whole night LOL it was a 5 hour flight anyway so.. 

7/7 Shenanigans 

spot us !! and bless my bangs wth retarded. 

babes (idk why the picture turned out to be so blurry)

damn embarrassing to do this at the friggin airport LOL but tp pride HAHAHAH.

Luckily we boarded SQ and not some budget airline cus throughout the plane ride I was just sleeping and sleeping and sleeping HAHAH. I woke up to eat the provided lunch then went back to sleep again wtf. 

OH YA, we rented the wifi router from Changi airport and idky ours was useless wth. Ok not really in a sense we still could send whatsapp, telegram messages but we weren’t able to open snapchat and instagram etc. Throughout the trip we were just using our free 2GB data, which everyone used up by the 5th day.........

DAY 1 SHANGHAI

It was raining when we landed and it continued to rain until the evening so it was reallyyyyyy cold. 

Visited some atas stores around the shopping area which i forgot the street name but highlight of day1 !! >>> We went to Charles & Keith HQ Shanghai to walk around the office and sat in for a talk (which i didnt really understand cus the speaker was chinese). But later Charles came to talk to us in person !! He’s a really nice guy who’s very down to earth & friendly  (*^｡^*)

Had a solid 1/10 halal dinner which was the absolute worst meal ever in Shanghai tbh (,,꒪꒫꒪,,) Most of it was just the dish + 10 ladles of salt to the point where it just wasnt edible after a while cus ITS DAMN SALTY!!!1!11!!! Because of that I kept spamming water which turned out to be one of the biggest regret of the day......... After dinner, we left for our hotel to check in but then our bus decided to loop around the hotel 5 F R E A K I N G times cus it couldn’t enter the hotel for god knows what reason. We ended up stopping by the road side and had to walk to our hotel with our luggage gdi my bladder was #@%&!@  ヾ(｀◇´)ﾉ彡 Day 1: SOLID 3/10 

DAY 2 SHANGHAI

We went to Hongkou Plaza at like 10am but I remembered waking up super early omo. Anyway at first we were toured around the mall to like understand the layout and stuff about it which was really meh.. (the trip was more so for retail students but we are studying tourism so.. cant relate) After that we had an hour to shop yeay ٩(^ᴗ^)۶

Again, not related but we went Lenovo !! It was really interesting to see them test the laptops cus they say each button can be pressed like 20,000 times and they legit had machines to press buttons for 20,00 times HAHAHA.

Day 2 weather was gr888 it was sunny and windy

bb (´∩｡• ᵕ •｡∩`) ♡

After that we went to a supermarket called HEMA which I only remembered on the ceilings of the supermarket there were like railings (??) Apparently you shop online then they pack and deliver your order to your doorstep so yeh.

lastly we went to this very aesthetically pleasing place called Xin Tian Di. A lot of places to take v instagram-able pictures !! 

literally my current dp 

At night it was just drinking night LOL, had girls talk and a running around 4th level adventure with Claud cus we werent suppose to be at places we were at. First time i was so scared and panicky wth skkrt skkrt

DAY 3 SHANGHAI

Another bombass weather day, we visited 2 universities, 1 kinda artsy and another electronics kind. Schools in Shanghai are so huge wth, there were a lot of open spaces.

This was inside one of the game design room I think super cute!! 

sorry I very suaku first time see chinese keyboard HAHA i was so amazed

Ended off by visiting Huangbu river (??) 

The sunset was really beautiful !! 

tp pride post again HAHAH. It took so long just to take photos bc people there really don’t give a shit and will just walk right in front of you ahahah but oh well. 

Finally had our girls night out ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡ We ate  Häagen-Dazs, then tried to find H&M which took us about 20 minutes. Even though it was only like a 5 minutes walk from our hotel wth, no one knew the way HAHA. Afterwards, we tried taking a cab but then the uncle was REALLY RUDE. Like he freaking chased us out and called us shabi rofl okden, but all is well!! we found H&M on our own, bought what we wanted and stumbled across this really cute bubbletea shop & a really really nice lady !! They were having a 1 for 1 and the lady was superrr friendly, she recommended us the more popular drinks and told us how to properly drink it. She was just really nice la, this is why you should not let one negative person affect your entire day wew my night was made keke ♡〜٩(^▿^)۶〜♡

the drink itself was really good !!!  This night, 7/7 finally sat down and just talked things out among us, cleared and sorted our misunderstandings. I’m really glad we didnt drag things on even further, we bonded and got a lot closer as a clique. We shared our life problems, saw each other cry and voiced out our kept in feelings. It’s actually my first time sorting shit out with a clique so maturely, instead of just playing the cold war game.  They say its hard to find true friends in Poly but i think this noisy bunch will stay together for a long long time ヾ(＾-＾)ノ

DAY 4 SHANGHAI

Meeting time was 8am, Claud and I woke up at 7.58am NO FREAKING JOKE. We managed to rush and reach downstairs by like 8.15am but the group haven’t even gathered yet lol.. First stop was Shanghai Institution of Visual Arts (SIVA) 

It was mostly fashion design and again another huge campus tour 

and finally the highlight

of the entire trip

D I S N E Y L A N D ! ! ! 

we bought the headbands (⌯⌅⌄⌅)

Vlogged a lot at disneyland so I’ll just upload the vlogs for memory sake HAHAH. Shanghai disneyland is a lot bigger than HK’s but the amount of poeple is freaking insane omfg.

We went on like 7 (?) rides in total and there were 2 rides I couldnt join cus of mi weak heart and Eli accompanied me for 1 of them (lowkey bcs he’s a pussy) and we went through a maze.

Super unlucky it rained half way through the day fml. Plus it was really windy, but we decided to go on this ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_eoyjGS6fc which made all of us screamed like pussies.

The most disappointing thing was that there was NO FREAKING FIREWORKS BY THE CASTLE!!!

It was so beautiful (●♡∀♡))ヾ☆*。 I was so freaking upset fml but it was a good day!! Had our girls night, did masks and talked hehe.

DAY 5 SHANGHAI

Went to some furniture expo and we didn’t do much except take photos and walked around like it was IKEA LOL. 

(we didnt smoke ok part of aesthetics)

Soon after, we had to leave for the airport where Eli got me a panda plushie HAHAH he got a plushie for everyone except Ash and Car bcs they had to share a giant Judy Hoops plushie they named Cash. 

OKAY ITS END OF MY DAMN LONG OVERDUE POST. thank you Shenanigans for this amazing and memorable trip, xiao lou loves y’all (⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡

Update: I’m!! finally!! done!! editing!! the!! vlog!! 

Everything was filmed on my iphone and edited with iMovie which explains the nooby-ness 

[quill-ink-parchment]

Day 11: Bath

I realised I’d never written much about Bath, and truth be told most of the details have long faded, so I thought I’d better get that down before anything else slips my mind.

I got to Bath on a train and I think this was the one I had trouble on - I had to switch trains at a station - to one that was on the opposite platform, but I misheard and I ran alllll the way to another platform only to find out that I was actually supposed to head just opposite, so I had to run allll the way back again. Geez, what a waste of time and breath.

When I finally reached Bath, I exited the station, and then slowly walked my way towards town. I don’t think I’d bought the bus pass for this one. I remember walking down this alley, and then coming across a small sweet shop selling fudge. Went in shameless for a free sample, and then found myself in the very busy square. I remember standing there wonderingly, recalling how I was there almost four years ago, and how much I loved the bustling activity and wishing I had more time there (we’d covered Windsor that morning, and did the Roman Baths in the early afternoon, and still had to rush off to Stonehenge before heading back to London). It was pretty surreal being back again. I then walked to this pie shop which was apparently really famous? I got some apple sort of pie with meat and then started my walk towards the Prior Park Landscaping Garden, which had the bridge that made me want to visit Bath to begin with.

The walk was longer than I’d expected. I had to walk by a residential area and finished the pie long before I’d gotten out of that housing estate. And then I had to plod up a steep slope - which meant perspiring and panting and generally glaring with envy at people who were tripping down carelessly. When I got to the top, I realised with a start that I had to pay to get in. Who knew?! I thought it was like a public park. But no, they needed funds to restore the park to its former glory. And I’d climbed too high to stinge over 7 quid, so there’s that. I handed over the money and asked for an extra map to keep, and got in.

The park was very very charming. A family entered the park right after I did, several adults with some children. I was hoping they’d move fast but as with most families with children, they were slow. So I set off quickly, not wanting to waste too much time, and when I came to a house which was meant for visitors that had a creaky door, I stepped in (like, literally stepped in, without moving far from the door), and then ducked back out into the welcome sunshine within 10 seconds.

I made my way through a path and came to the top, where there was a lovely breathtaking gorgeous view of the city below, and behind me was a posh-looking building which turned out to be the Prior Park College. I spent way too much time taking pictures of the view and taking selfies, because I’m just super unphotogenic that way. I did feel abashed and stopped when a couple of oldies showed up, having walked up the slope from below, and sat on a nearby bench.

And then I continued down the path, only to double back to see the ruins of some temple (which was nothing much). Then I headed onwards, dropping my selfie-stick in the dirt to my dismay. I came across a reconstructed lodge of sorts and explored a little, and thank goodness it was a day with strong sunlight because if not, being all alone in such a heavily wooded area could have been a little scary.

Anyway, I went on to the next viewpoint and snapped many a lovely shot. Then headed downhill, and at the bottom of the hill and park was the quaint bridge that I saw in the Google pic that moved my heart and made me decide that going to Bath was more important than returning to the Harry Potter Warner Brothers studios. It was just as charming in real life, and I also took many shots.

I also saw the ruins of an ice house, and basically there were many signs in the park stating that they were hoping to reconstruct all these old buildings some day (because after the original owner who built it up so nicely and invited loads of folks over for parties had passed on, the place had fallen into disrepair). And then I walked one round around the lake, past this really disgusting place with a heck lot of flies, and past a dispense with some kind of feed for the swans I think, which some woman had bought and was feeding the swans, and then I snapped still more pictures of the bridge again. I went on the bridge, and saw evidence that people in the 1800s loved stating that they were at a certain place as much as the modern person graffities “so and so was here”.

Anyway, then I headed out of the park but passed by this small shop, and so I bought a tiny hedgehog soft toy cos it was cute! I made some small talk with the elderly shop owner cos I was terribly thirsty and was gulping down some water, and then he took out a massive bottle to show me that he too was hydrating himself well, haha.

I walked out of the park and I remember an old man also left about the same time as me. I reached the town centre much more quickly, passing by some really nice private houses.

Then I ate at the number one cheap eatery in Bath, which wasn’t even English food HAHA. It was called Chai Walla and it sold Indian street food. I got some sort of a spicy chicken in a wrap, and while eating it I wandered into the nearby Tesco’s (or was it Sainsbury’s or even Waitrose?) and then proceeded to sit at a bench near the square. But then I realised I was wasting valuable time just sitting at a random spot when I could have been exploring more, so I walked to Pulteney Bridge, where I took a leisurely stroll around the water and sat at one of the benches under the trees, just at peace with the world.

And then I wasted quite a lot of time dithering over what to do next. I went to Sally Lunn’s shop and museum, and I went to the museum below (which was really just a woman at a counter with a small fridge full of jars of spreads, and boxes and boxes of the Lunn buns, plus a set-up of an old-time bakery and some leaflets to explain the history of this place. It was interesting. I bought a bun and a spread which was probably some kind of a cocoa butter spread, thinking I could share it with Stephers the next morning (which I did, on Cambridge day).

After Sally Lunn’s shop, I headed to the Fudge factory, where I watched them make fudge from scratch on the marble slab. The fudge was being done by a female staff who apparently got the job just a mere 7 days ago, and her superiors were super chill about her doing everything on her own. I ate many many free sample and they all made my throat hurt, so I didn’t get them haha.

Then I went to the Bath souvenir shop and got a book on the Roman baths, as well as a coin set again (this time for my brother). And then I kept wondering whether I should head to the Royal Crescent or go to the Roman baths. I’d set off for the Royal Crescent when I finally changed my mind and paid to go into the baths for the second time.

The second time was as good as the first time - and I say that because I can’t remember anything about the first time. I’d had an audio guide previously, too, but somehow I’d clean forgot anything I’d learnt. I joined the guided tour as well at 4pm sharp, if I recall correctly, and the guide was rather informative. After the tour, I stayed behind and listened to practically all the audio guide numbers, and also took selfies with the people working there dressed as Romans from the past. I also tried the sulphuric water from the running tap which they’d installed, and it was warm and smelly.

I didn’t get to see everything, but they chased me out at the closing time. Then I rannnnn all the way to the Circus, where i snapped pictures of the trees in the middle of the roundabout, and ran still some more to the Royal Crescent, which was somehow a lot less impressive than I’d remembered (I’d first passed by it 4 years ago on a tour bus). There was a field in front of the Crescent and there were many people chilling there, lucky folks. As for me, once I’d snapped a selfie at the Crescent (if anything, just to prove that I did go there again), I sprinted back to the station, praying that I wouldn’t miss the train. I remember reaching there with plenty of time and wanting to get a Starbucks which was on the same level as the platform - so weird, right? I mean, who sets up a cafe in a place limiting itself to a certain type of customers (in this case, customers who are waiting for the train) - and I queued, but then I think I saw the barrista sneeze and I felt grossed out, so I just gave up and waited for the train.

After reaching London, I decided to walk to Goldmine because it was the last time I could have that (somehow less delicious than I’d remembered) duck rice before leaving. I reached it, and I do believe that I was reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time when I was eating my rice.

And then I took a selfie with a red telephone box while on my way to Bayswater station, and I went back to Steph’s place!

[wingedflowerarbiter-blog]

GuiLin 桂林

July 14-16, 2017

The Guilin trip began after scrambling to finish our Friday exams, listening to a presentation for the next weekends trip and a crazy bus ride to the airport.

The bus we took to the airport is close, convenient and the cherry on top is that its only 20 RMB  (about 4 USD). But our way to the airport was insane! About half way there it started down pouring outside and hailing! The hail was the size of quarters and I was sure we were not only going to miss our flight but was also convinced that the windows would shatter. After all the craziness we made it, and with plenty of time to spare! The storm delayed our flight a few hours. To pass the time we played “Heads Up” (another version of charades) and as a result provided entertainment for the other passengers patiently awaiting their flight.

Finally in the city and at our hostel we wandered up and down the streets until we found amazing anything and everything on a stick, the best boba tea in the world and ate in a small alley filled with locals playing games and celebrating... despite the fact it was around midnight.

Saturday morning, we scrambled out of bed and walked to the river to greet the rising sun. Locals were fishing, swimming in the river and out on early morning strolls. The picture doesn't do justice to the sunrise or the mountains that glowed off in the distance, but all in all it was breathtaking.

Snagging a bit more sleep and a quick breakfast, we loaded up the bus that would take us to a place to ride down the river. Mountains surrounded us on either side as we slowly made our way downstream.

After one of the most gratifying hours I had yet experienced in China, it was time to be shuttled back to the bus.

Next stop: water buffalo and cormorants. The really cool thing about cormorants is that they can be trained to fish! So even today in China people use the birds to fish for them!

Last but not least: the minority village! This minority group is known for its darker skin, rice wine, music, marriage customs and dancing. Our tour guide explained to us that in this minority group, unlike most chinese cultural norms, darker skin is prized. A woman with the darkest skin, longest hair and best dancer would be called the “Black Pearl” and would be considered the most beautiful. We enjoyed watching the traditional style dances from a boat on the river, and the “Black Pearl” waved at us, but if you ask me... she didn't look any darker than anyone else I had seen in China. 

Once off the boat we all gifted a tiny vial of white rice wine, as those who drink the wine are supposed to live to be 100! 

One of the most interesting customs of this minority group is that the women will make colorful woven balls: when they are of marrying age, the women will gather to watch the young men perform a ritual dance. If the man can dance well it means he will make a suitable husband. The woman will find a man she likes and throw him the ball that she has crafted, if he catches it he is agreeing to a trial year of “dating”. For a full year the man will not only do field work but also all the cooking and cleaning while the woman relaxes, at the end of the year if they would like to stay together they will get married!

Since it was a tourist place, we were soon swept up into a dance with the locals where we held hands and spun in circles, afterwards a woman on the balcony threw woven balls for the best dancers to catch!

Despite having already done so much, our day was hardly over. Our second hostel and the city we stayed in, was nestled into the mountains with a beautiful view of the river and horizon. Resting for only an hour or so: to enjoy the sunrise, we headed into the bustling city below to find dinner and a taxi. Because next up on our things to do was the Guilin light show!

The light show was designed by the same man who put on the show for the Beijing Olympics! It was beautiful and calming... which is probably why half of our group fell asleep haha! We saw boats paddled in sync across the water, mountains light up and beautiful dances, songs and various performances!

Despite our exhaustion: Alex, Melody and I weren’t quite done exploring! We wandered the now jammed packed streets of the city, ate tofu served up by a vendor and enjoyed all the bustle. Some of the highlights definitely include having fishies nibble at our toes and meeting the Chinese version of Jack Black! 

We had our feet in the fish tanks for 20 minutes and we were laughing/screaming and wiggling for the whole time! I still crack up, just thinking about it. Its just so strange! You can feel the fish swarm your feet, it tickles and is terrifying all at the same time! After our foot spa with the fish, we heard reggae music pouring out of a bar across the street! The musicians were so good! There was lots of hair whipping, head bopping and foot stomping as they rocked the stage! It was all in Chinese but reminded me of music I would hear blasting out of a car back in the states!

And that. Finally. Is the end of Saturday, but then... theres still Sunday.

Time to tackle our last day in Guilin! We dragged ourselves out of bed, knowing that the sunrise would be worth it, and it definitely didn't disappoint.

The final plan for our trip was to rent bikes and bike throughout a 10 mile loop. On the way we saw rock climbing, hot air balloons, helicopter rides and of course beautiful views. We stopped for lunch at a hole in the wall restaurant to eat beer fish (a food this area is known for).

On the way back we went hiked to a giant natural arch that looked over the valley, but to get there we had to tackle a path with endless stairs and cope with a humidity so intense that I was convinced I was going to melt. But we made it, enjoyed the view then rushed back down to the valley floor to peddle ourselves as fast as we could back to the bike rental place.

^ had to sneak a picture of Alex on our way out because he refused to let us take pictures of him haha

Cutting it close, we made it back just in time to grab a hasty shower, throw our bags on our backs and chase down a taxi to the airport!

The trips we take keep getting better and better and surprising me in new ways, I can’t wait to see what lies ahead! The only downside was: the day after was Monday, which coincidentally also happened to be our final for semester one. So on the plane home there was plenty of stressed out studying to go around! Oops

[cchantellemarie-blog]

Goals.

In two days from now, I’m going to be 28 years old. I am still not sure how I feel about that. I feel like your late twenties turn into a giant game of “Who the fuck am I, and what the fuck am I doing?” I hear around 30 is when you start to really know who you are, and boy, am I ready for that to happen.

What I do know, is that I’m blown away at how fast time is going. The fastest it has ever gone. I blinked and almost 11 months has gone by since I’ve left Illinois. I had all of these dreams, and goals, about what I wanted for my life in Oregon. Safe to say, it is nothing and everything I wanted it to be.

Here’s a timeline of my Pacific Northwest experience so far.

June 26th, I have left my little ‘ol town of Plan in Illinois.

June 27th, I made it to Yellowstone. i have only one negative thing to say about my trip to Yellowstone... That I wish I could have spent more time there. I stayed 2 nights at a campground in Yellowstone National Park.

I drove in the first day; down from Montana. I made a point to stop around Gallatin National Forest. Montana... oh Montana. The most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. If they didn’t get an unacceptable amount of snow there, I would consider residing there.

I made it to Yellowstone by sunset that day. It was everything I dreamed it would be.

I only really had one whole day, June 28th, to see all of Yellowstone. I’m telling you right now, It’s possible, but it was definitely a tease. i will be returning, and staying for at least 5-7 days. I also won’t be bringing my dog. He wasn’t allowed in the park due to wildlife dangers. He was allowed to be in the car, and on the main roadways, parking lots, and pullouts. But not on any of the trails. I did get to see the beauty of it though, in all it’s majestic glory.

On june 29th, I made my way to Seattle. I stayed for 2 nights, and made the whole trip about Joey. We went to pet, and vegan, friendly restaurants, 3 different dog parks, and walked all around. He loved it.

From Seattle I drop down into portland on July 1st, and then straight to my farm in Silverton. I worked my ass off here. I participated in a program called WWOOF, which is a work trade program. I worked on someone’s farm for 20 hours a week, and I got to stay there for free, and they fed me. It was definitely the easiest way to get my foot in the door, but allowing time to have time to check out the area, look for a job and somewhere to live, all without breaking the bank. I stayed in a yurt, which was surprisingly comfortable.

It was a big learning experience for me, and I loved all of it. Every drop of sweat, every bee sting, every lonely second... all of it. I got to learn a lot about Organic Farming, stay for free in beautiful countryside of Oregon, and meet a couple really cool girls.

July 14-17 was my first experience with String Summit, or Strummit as they say. I will be going back. It felt like home and I loved it. <3

Less than a month passes, and it was time for me to move on to the next adventure. Eugene, OR. I moved July 23rd.

Chase called me to tell me I was hired August 15th. My first official day of working at Chase was August 24th. And by August 31 I was moved into a new and improved living situation.

I had new roommates, and a new job that I loved, and life was great! I even climbed my first “mountain” Spencer’s Butte. <3

November 14th, My best friend moved here! <3

It got really cold here in Eugene. Colder than I thought it was going to get. Granted, the coldest it got was like 23 degrees which is nothing compared to the brutal negative 20 with the wind chill in Illinois. It had 2 days of crazy weather. The first “crazy” day was freezing rain. Everything, and I mean everything, had a 1/2 inch covering of ice.

The 2nd day of “crazy” winter weather in Eugene, was a snow day. They closed down most of the town, and school was called off, because we got 3-4 inches of snow. haha Even the locals said it was an abnormally cold and brutal winter. That gives me hope.

Everything seems like it’s going alright. There was some turbulance. My bike got stolen. My car died, so i had to junk it. I got $100 for it. I left my nice expensive cell phone on the bus... I just couldn’t catch a break. At the end of January, my house owner tells me they will be selling the house, and we have a couple months to look for a new place. This gave me the perfect opportunity to do what I came here to do. Be independent and live off on my own. That’s right, I moved into my very own, spacious studio apartment close to downtown. I signed the lease March 8th.

Things became a little stagnant after that. I was feeling pretty lonely. I was told this would happen around the 6 month hump. We were going on month 9; Month 6 with no car.. and riding the bus. So what else do you do when your so overwhelmed with finances and life stress?! That’s right, I took out a personal loan for $3000 to buy a piece of shit car that is in the shop right now as I write this blog. I bought it on 4/20. This craigslist ad is the only picture I have of it, because Since then, exactly a month ago, I have had it less than the amount of time it’s been in the hands of a mechanic.

In good news... My branch manager is so wonderful, because she finds me the hours, even though I’m only scheduled as a part timer. She has helped me in so many ways. I really do love my team, even if I have been feeling like I’m getting sucked in to climbing a corporate ladder, working for the enemy. But I like it and it gives me good benefits, decent pay, and volunteer work. On April 30th, I walked a 5k for Veterans with a volunteer program called Carry the Load.

Something even more exciting was that my mom and grandma came to visit me on May 6th. My mom had emailed me an itinerary. She meant business. So may 6th, when their plan arrived at 12, they would drive down from portland to Eugene. We would explore Eugene a bit, and I would show them around.

May 7th we left for Portland. We spent all day downtown, walking around, and seeing the city. I finally got to experience the Saturday Market.

May 8th, we went on a cruise around Mt. Hood, and visited the Gorge, Multnomah Falls, The Bridge of the Gods, and the majestic Mt. Hood herself. I actually got to walk around in the Hotel that the shining was based off of, and shot at.

May 9th and 10th, we spent in Seattle. We did every tourist attraction there is to do. My mom really hooked it up with the city perks. An underground tour, Harbor tour, Ride the ducks, Chihuly Museum, Space needle, the market where they throw the big fish... It was so wonderful. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to experience all that I did here.  

Our adventure continues on May 10th. We drove as far as we could up Mt. Rainier. there was 14 feet of snow towards the top still so the roads would be closed off for another month or 2. Still so beautiful.

Then on our drive back on May 11th we cruised the entire west coast from Aberdeen to Florence. It was jaw dropping. Absolutely mesmerizing. I love it. I can’t wait to go back to these places and really take my time enjoying them.

Mom left the following day on May 12th. The trip was great. I loved seeing a familiar loving face and hugging my loved ones. When you live close to them, It’s something that is taken for granted. I miss them so much, so it was heart warming to visit with them. Especially because mothers day was that following sunday, May 14th, was mother’s day. What a perfect way to celebrate it.

Now, it is May 20th, and the only thing that is changed is my mechanic. I have gone to 4 different mechanics since I bought the car. Hopefully this one is the winner. I am due for some good fortune. <3

It really is crazy how much time has flown by, and all of the things that I’ve actually accomplished, and done, and experienced. I am truly proud of myself for once in my life. I am still sober, Still smoke free (even though I had a minor slip up for a month or two.), vegan and down 40 lbs.

I can’t wait to see what else can happen in a year. I know that I have big plans for my life, I just don’t know how I’m going at attain them yet.

Until next time. <3

[jjvinnicombe]

Things that have happened

First of all I have left Kilimatinde! As I write this I am sitting on a bus to Arusha in the North. Not that the last 6 weeks has been hard work but now begins the holiday part of my trip; 9 days of safari and Zanzibar with Ro and then 5 days in Uganda seeing all my friends on a whistle-stop tour! In the last few weeks a fair few notable things have happened so I'll just flesh a few of them out here... One morning Ollie and I went in to do the paediatric ward round and found Mwaja (one of the Clinical Officers in the middle of a medicine degree) ready to do some minor surgery on a poor ten year old girl. Basically she'd managed to get a bit of wood buried in her leg and it needed to come out. Anyway, Mwaja being the top lad that he is got Ollie and I involved. I got a pair of sterile gloves and Ollie was in charge of shining the torch and dousing the wound with saline. Mwaja topped her leg up the brim with local anaesthetic and then I had a poke around inside with the forceps. However after a good poke I couldn't find any wood in there so Mwaja had a go. He found a couple of bits about the length of a match and four times as thick and when he drew them out the poor girl was hating it. But it wasn't over, Mwaja said that she could feel something right at the back of the leg too (the wound was next to the shin) and he thought he could feel something else with the forceps (but we couldn't see it). So he's probing away, manages to grab something fairly wide about 3 cm inside and starts to pull. Now this girl is fully crying and her mum comes over to, at first, comfort her, but then restrain her as Mwaja starts to pull harder. He's pulling and pulling and the girl is screaming now. I say "Mwaja, are you sure you're not pulling bone?". "Yes, the X-ray showed no fracture" he says as he pulls harder. And then suddenly, and this is no joke, a piece of wood about 1.5cm wide and 10cm long is being held in midair by Mwaja's forceps (I will upload a photo). Ollie looked like he was going to be sick and actually turned away and my forehead was covered in sweat. This little girls leg wasn't even 10cm in diameter, the piece of wood had travelled obliquely or it would have punched out the other side. Anyway Mwaja cleaned the wound out with saline and gauze, we packed it with iodine soaked gauze and that was that. (Well I say that was that, but we had to clean that wound and pack it with gauze everyday and fair enough she hated it everytime)  Something sad happened. Earlier that week Ollie and I were doing the paediatric ward round and then we heard a sound which triggers a running-to-have-a-look reflex in all humans but 1000x more in healthcare professionals. It was the sound of stridor - the sound you get when you are trying to inhale but your throat is too closed up to get a proper breath in. We rounded the corner and it was two kids, one baby and one two year old. In the UK this would be a proper emergency - at least 5 doctors would be working on each. These kids just had Ollie and I and a copy of the Oxford Clinical Handbook on Tropical Medicine. Top causes of stridor: something is pressing on the trachea (like a tumour) but unlikely in children; something is stuck in the trachea (like a piece of food) which is very likely in children but not two separate children at the same time; or a serious infection has caused the tissue around the trachea to swell up and close off the airway. This had been going on for a week, they hadn't swallowed anything, it had to be an infection. A mixed blessing because at least it was something we could do something about, but we had no way of working out which infection it was.  So we examined them as best we could but even this is fraught with difficulties because if you upset the child and they start crying then that can completely occlude the airway and that's death basically. In between coughing and gasping for air the two year old wasn't too bad, he was sitting up and eating rice and his vital signs weren't terrible. But the baby wasn't good at all, didn't have much of a stridor but that's a bad thing because it means they aren't able to take decent breaths anymore. Also the mum said they hadn't been able to breastfeed in a couple of days. We still didn't know and would have no way of finding out the cause. We had no ability to do bacterial cultures and some causes of this presentation are viral anyway. So we started broad spectrum IV antibiotics, gave them steroids to try and reduce the swelling in their throats and help them to breathe. Because the little one was so dehydrated they got fluids too. We came in the next morning and the baby had died overnight. And now two more children from the same household had arrived with the same condition. Their arrival was at least a little bit helpful because with them the underlying disease was easier to identify. Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, loud inspiratory stridor. It was whooping cough. So we checked over the new kids and got all three of them started on erythromycin - there is no cure for whooping cough but that is the best we've got. There is a vaccine for whooping cough, it's the P in DTP (Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis) and they have it out here too - I've been making babies cry with it for weeks now. But unfortunately this family live deep in the Rift Valley and hadn't managed to immunise their children. (As I left this morning all remaining children were alive and improving) Okay I'll end on something a bit, well alot lighter, but forgive me if it's just too an awkward juxtaposition to the above stuff. The boys from Leicester left me last week so I've been hanging out with the Germans girls every couple of days since then. On Saturday we went to find the centre of Tanzania! Sounds like it would be an epic journey from the 1800's but actually it was just ten minutes drive down the road. But it was more than that haha. Because the point that marks it is a stone marker on top of a massive rock on top of a hill covered in forest. So it ended up being another waterfall style trek; fighting our way through trees and undergrowth, scrambling up huge boulders and finding out own way. At one stage we lost sight of the marker for ages and so scrambled up another huge boulder to look for it and have lunch. This boulder had a full thickness crack along one side and what should we find living down there but hundreds of bats! Bats again I know, I'm obsessed with bats, but it was really cool seeing them in the daytime and so many of them! Anyway we saw where we had to go and with another half an hour of trying a couple of routes we finally made our way to the rock with the marker on top! Unfortunately there was no actual way to climb that huge rock, just to sheer and smooth. And so in the end we had to settle with being next to the centre of Tanzania (I mean it's pretty convenient the centre of Tanzania is on top of a rock and not say just in someone's mud hut, so who's to say we weren't on the centre).  Also Monday 1st May was a bank holiday here too. So to celebrate yet another day off I went to the village party at the local secondary school. Normally these events are incredibly dull. There is always a special guest, there is always the same formality of a dozen long speeches and lunch is always served really late when you're bored and starving. Luckily Monday was an exception, there was a special guest sure and lunch was late but the speeches were few and short in length and the morning was very interesting! It basically ended up being some sort of bizarre adult sports day with workers from the hospital versus the school staff versus the villagers. My first event was downing a beer which, as anyone who has seen me try, is something I cannot do. I was 5th out of five for that one. I also jumped on the hospital team for tug of war, finally an event I've been winning since Year Four. We lost that one too. Other notable events I didn't join in with were: chasing a chicken (felt bad for the kuku but the video is hilarious) and a race where you run the length of a football pitch, thread a needle and run back again (love the imagination with that one). I also had a laugh when the special guest arrived, they were just a representative from the local district authority. The workers wrote signs in swahili - "Welcome to Kilimatinde", "You are very welcome", etc. And then at the end - "When will employers stand up for workers rights?" Haha! Preach it brother! I'm planning to write another blog post called "Realities" but if you can't face another quite frankly fairly depressing entry then someone let me know.

[sistercampbell]

Woche 29 (Jan. 16- Jan. 23) The Wilderness Needs To Be Explored!

Hello loved ones, This last week was beyond crazy busy and also beyond crazy cold! It has been in the low 20′s and lower this last week! When we went to church yesterday, the weather app said it was about 8°F in the morning. It’s also been windy and wet on top of that BUT that didn’t stop us! (okay, only kinda..because I’m a little sick right now from the cold).

Tuesday we had an appointment with a potential who ended up turning into an investigator.  The Ellwangen area Elders helped joint-teach with us since we were meeting in the church building and the lesson went really well! He told us how he’s been in Germany for 9 months and has been trying to find God's true church and when he finds it he'll join!

We taught the Restoration to him which he took really well. I’m telling you, as we were talking to him, he sounded like he was a [church] member already! Then we gave him a Book of Mormon to read. He said was excited to read it and to come to church on Sunday!  I almost forgot, Tuesday morning we stopped by the store where this guy walks past me and says "Hello Sister!" I asked if I knew him and he said "you’re a missionary right? From Salt Lake City? You guys have that prophet named Joseph Smith?"  I told him yes, he was the prophet who restored the gospel and the guy was like "Yes i know! I’ve talked to missionaries before! Oh yeah well you should come over for dinner sometime and tell me more! **Here’s my number!" Wait wut? Yeah that was a shocker! Goes to show that we are VERY recognizable as missionaries and should always keep that in mind.

**Worldwide Missionary rules are set in place to protect the safety of missionaries. Missionaries live by the rules outlined in the Missionary Handbook “Preach My Gospel” and from additional safety guidelines outlined by their geographical head mission office (Mission President, mission staff etc...).  Sister missionaries are never to go into the home of a single male. Elder (male) missionaries are not allowed to teach in the home of a single female.  If needed they are advised to teach single people in a public place or with other Missionaries.

Then way way later that night, we went streeting and spoke to a Polish guy. He said he didn’t understand German well, but he had a whole conversation with us. We told him we had a book in Polish (Book of Mormon) if he wanted and we could talk more about God. He asked how much it cost, we said free, then he said oh I want one for each of my roommates then, so Czech, Spanish, and Turkish!  We weren’t going to say no to that! haha! We will see how this all plays out but we are excited to give them the Books of mormon.

Wednesday was when we explored the wilderness. AND IT WAS COLD TOO! We covered about 50 miles with walking, busses, trains and a members car between the five dorfs (villages) we visited! 

Some highlights from that day were -

We had to ride a school bus full of kids to get to the next village and got a lot of weird looks...

One elderly lady said no interest at the door, then chased after us 5 min. later and invited us in because she felt bad we were outside in the cold. Long story short we were able to teach the Restoration, she took a Book of Mormon and in exchange gave us this HUGE DENSE loaf of bread as a thank you!

Five houses later, same village, another lady said no interest and was about to shut the door when she suddenly invited us in for tea. We got to know each other and she told us she had seen American Elders like us walking around on the same street.

Unfortunately we had to catch our train so time was short but she said if we were ever in that village again and were cold we could always come by for some tea!

We then ended our wilderness adventure at a members house (who lives forever out there btw) who served us basically Hawaiian Haystacks, but she made the chicken gravy with apples, bananas and pineapple?! We were just grateful for warm food and loving company after such a crazy, cold day! 

Picture above- Enjoying cheddar and onion Ruffles potato chips all the way from Utah! (below) Waiting at the train station.

On Thursday, we had two member appointments, but the last one was fun. So this family also lives out there but not so wilderness like. We had döners for dinner and actually helped the wife write her talk for church a little bit.  When it was time to go she then took us to the train station. It turned out we had missed the train by a minute, the next one came in an hour, so 9:17pm, and the wife forgot her phone at home (she was at the store).

We were out in the cold for a good 30 min. before she came back and took us on a little tour of her little village while we defrosted!. So the holiday Faschings is happening right now until the end of February. I’m not quite sure what it is but it looks like it’s Germany’s version of Halloween with a ton of traditions involved. She showed us this huge fountain in the middle in the city used for one of these traditions. Two guys are suppose to jump into this fountain four times, (in winter and outside) and if they complete it then they can kiss all the women they want on the cheek?! 

Friday- We had another lesson with the family friends my dad referred over.  We had already taught the parents once before but not with the daughter and her family. We had a nice time about what we do as missionaries and all that we can or can’t do. Suddenly the wife said she had been reading in the Book of Mormon we gave her! She was confused about some parts so we then spent the rest of the time explaining the Book of Mormon and answered their questions.

The husband is one to ask those super science like questions like he asked where the Book of Mormon stories took place with the ice age and Columbus. Also, how the people got to America if the world has shifted over the years.  We explained about how Nephi built a boat and they arrived to the America’s 600 yrs. before Christ, but that he would understand more if he read.

The wife said she would just have to keep reading to see understand it all! (we also told her praying helps as well ha) also the wife remembered the story of Joseph Smith from what she had read and the husband understood that was where the Book of Mormon came from! It was really cool to see the light of understanding go off in their heads as we explained everything!

Sunday was probably my favorite day (it’s always my fav. but this one was special)! 

We have this less-active (a church member who no longer attends services regularly) who always meets with the missionaries but has really struggled with coming to Church.  She hadn’t come in a super super long time yet, she has extremely strong faith and a testimony.  Sis. Church and I had decided just to love her and to not push her to come. Now, I need to explain that this less-active member is so, so, so, special to me and has a special place in my heart. I’ve desired nothing but for her to feel the love Heavenly Father has for her, especially when she comes to church and takes the sacrament. We haven’t been able to meet with her or see her in over a month, but yesterday out of nowhere SHE CAME TO CHURCH! When I came around the corner and saw her standing there with her daughter in the foyer, I immediately ran and hugged her. I was trying so hard not to cry guys...I can only imagine how Heavenly Father felt in that moment as well! Indescribable joy! To top off the sunday, we were able to bring an investigator with us to the church and a potential investigator that Sis. Church contacted on the bus. I LOVE SUNDAYS.

Random Pictures:

On Sunday we taught the Relief Society lesson from the talk "If ye had known me" by Elder Bednar. I encourage you all to read it. It is amazing and one of my favorites. One of my favorite parts from the talk comes from the section "serving him".-"We come to know the Savior as we do our best to go where He wants us to go, as we strive to say what He wants us to say, and as we become what He wants us to become. As we submissively acknowledge our total dependence upon Him, He enlarges our capacity to serve ever more effectively. Gradually, our desires align more completely with His desires, and His purposes become our purposes, such that we would “not ask that which is contrary to [His] will....We grow to love those whom we serve. And because serving others is serving God, we grow to love Him and our brothers and sisters more deeply. Such love is a manifestation of the spiritual gift of charity, even the pure love of Christ."

As I’ve been on my mission, I’ve understood this more and more, especially the underlined part, when it comes to this work. I truly understood and saw what Elder Bednar meant as I was hugging this less-active member and rejoicing that she had decided not only to come to church, but to come closer to her Heavenly Father and Savior. I absolutely love my Heavenly Father and all that he has given me in my life. Especially, these experiences and blessings on my mission that have tested, tried and strengthened me. That have shown me that I am making a difference as a missionary, that the Savior is touching these people through me. Als,o I know we make a difference in the lives of the people we meet and teach! Always love them, always serve them and never give up on them, just like how the Savior and Heavenly father don’t give up on you. 

Have a great week guys!

- Sister Campbell

  http://alpinegermanspeakingmission.blogspot.com/

Bread bigger than my head & the satisfaction of finishing those Ruffles chips!

[jessflewitt]

NOOSA -31st Jan- 15th Feb

NOOSA 30th-15th February

Can’t even explain how much we loved this place - definitely our favourite beach bum places on the east coast so far! We saw the most stunning coastline , wild dolphins- wild koala , canoed the Everglades and Fraser island was definitely a highlight of our lives, life memories and friends made there for sure. Noosa is a bit less hippie than Byron ( more up our street) and just beautiful everywhere. Apparently it’s where a lot of ozzies travel for a summer holiday. We didn’t want to leave…

When we arrived we had about 3 days to chill out before our first tour. It was baking hot so we spend most of time beach buming and trying to find water to swim in to cool down. The main beach was just stunning - we were playing in the waves on the first day and Oli shouted ‘Jess watch out!’ Then a wave tumbled over our heads before I got chance to hear what he said so I was freaking out thinking it was a shark or something! Turns out a swarm of blue bottle jelly fish had floated in - managed to get out without being stung but called it a day after that. Ended up going to Noosa spit - noosa is lined with beautiful houses along rivers ( boats parked outside like Miami) and they each have a little beach opposite where you can swim. Spent an afternoon there lounging in the water - we were sat still for too long though and both got bitten by fish!

Locals in noosa are just awesome and friendly- no different to anywhere else. We had just come off the beach and were chilling in the van having a coffee and a local came up to us giving us some shit about the crack in the window screen! English mindsets we first thought he was trying to sell us a screen or something but turns out he was just being friendly - introduced us to his daughter and we ended up chatting for about 40 minutes.

We visited the famous ’ Eumundi Market’ the next day - it was way better than we expected and we completely blew the travel budget… Oppsie. It was absolutely huge! We had to park so far away and walk in because there was just hundred of cars. Tried tapioca for the first time - great for me as I’m now GF. Grown in Brazil. Ol got a sexy new rucksack :)

Next day we did the coastal noosa national park walk and it was just stunning!

The gagaju bush camp took the next three days. 3 days canoeing the Everglades- awesome. We met the group and our leader at the supermarkets and brought all the food and drink ect we’d need , a couple of German lads we’d met the night before in a camp site were on the same trip so that was cool- drove in convoy to the camp - got shown around the hilariously shocking accommodation - (we were last dibs too because we were chatting too much - they were like handmade bamboo bunk beds with a bit of mesh hanging down you were supposed to sleep on - no mattress or anything - and Olis bit of mesh was ripped so he’d basically we sleeping on the floor haha - we ended up sleeping in the van). Did a small hike that night and saw about 10 kangaroos - two were mummies with baby Roos in their pouches was amazing too see. They let us watch standing quite close - and then the ( we assume daddy) got a bit wary and stood up towering over us on his tail so we backed off after that! Had a swim in the river when we got back and Had a fun night playing drinking games and getting to know our team for the next day.

We were up and ready to go canoeing at 7am - canoes were Canadian style with the single sided oar - and had three people in each. We were given a barrel to put our lunch and bits in - awesome day! Luckily the current was on our side so it wasn’t too difficult. The day before they had been fighting the current for the whole 16k and they looked absolutely jaded! There was some lads that were just hanging out their arses and Henry was still smashed singing the whole way so it was hilarious. We stopped off at this rope swing into the river- all the lads were doing it ( it was actually quite high and scary when you got up the ladder) I was all confident until I got up there but too late to turn back at that stage with everyone watching so just went for it! Only girl to do it though 💪. We carried on up the river to this little beach where we had lunch which was cool and then made it back for about 4pm. I learned how to steer ( the posh way by dragging the oar in the water ) by copying the Canadian guy Joe on the way back - life skillsss.

Got accidentally drunk that night on goon for the first time with this awesome German girl Kim. Never again. The next morning was a struggle but we made it out again- ( about 10 people didn’t!) shorter trip up the Everglades the opposite way. We were fighting the current day two so was much harder - half way we left the canoes on the sand and went swimming in a water hole for about an hour until we were all shaking we got got so cold!

We left that day and headed back to Noosa- found a cute little campsite close to the beach and had another few days buming round Noosa. We did the national park walk again (once wasn’t enough) and we were lucky enough to see our first wild koala and a whole pod of dolphins playing in the surf! Amazing. We got the long baords out and went all around the coast too which was cool.

Fraser Island filled our next few days and it was just UNREAL. We got a free nights stay in noomads hostel the night before and the night after the trip … So we went there on the 8th for our first briefing. Got shown lots of boring videos about how to drive safely on sand. There was about 100 girls and 4 lads so that worried us a bit - didn’t want to be stuck in a car full of girls. So we went to the bar that night will full intentions of making a bline for all the lads - that didn’t happen and we ended up spending the night talking to this Irish couple that weren't even going on our tour 🙈but just before we went to bed we bumped into nick! Got on like a house on fire & instantly decided to team up:) next morning ( our 5 year anniversary what a way to spend it !) we got the two hour bus to rainbow beach where we picked the jeeps. Met Bailey ( Canadian girl) who was ace - then two more people , Olivia ( German but South American parents and spoke Spanish) and Andreas ( from Chile). We all just clicked - spent three days tearing around the beaches with all the windows down singing our hearts out. Ace! All the stop offs were just dreamy - lake McKenzie the water is so clear you can drink it - so we did , sand is so fine you can brush you teeth with so we did, exfoliated our skin- played volley ball , made a human pyramid in the sand, Eli Creek - was like a natural lazy river and the water was ice cold ( the boys have about an hour footage of trying to feed the fish with horse flies they caught 🙈) the champagne pools were awesome- were really rough , we got hit by a wave that dragged most of us across the coral into the next pool - Lucy and I have the scars to prove it! And a fish took a chunk out of Lucys bum which was hilarious! Indian head was a small cliff we climbed up for the view - saw a stingray from the top which was cool . Saw a ship wreck and on the last day we stopped off at lake wabi which was actually my favourite of the whole lot - we hiked through the sand dunes ( which was a killer for me who was dying off a goon hangover again!) and then there was this awesome lake in the middle of the dunes - absolutely stunning. You can see turtles there so we spent a while looking for them but didn’t see any, they have the fish that eat your dead skin so we all sat in a line with the fish eating our dead skin, then our guide said he would give $50 to anyone who could catch a catfish with their bare hands so we had a go! Obviously failed but we fed them flies haha.

We named are car Toni-( before we found out the name of our guide which was Tony lol!) he made our trip he was just fantastic. Really got involved with us , full of awesome stories and knew everything there was to know about Fraser- he caught a sea snake - told us all about it and released it - even drank with us at night and chased a dingo down the beach ( such a good Australian) he catches sharks in his spare time- once caught a tiger shark - took him 16 hours - he was harnessed to his truck and he made beans on toast twice durning the time- awesome!

We were all fighting for the drivers seat but split it fairly- it was just amazing bombing along next to the sea- our hostel was pretty basic but there was a pool we could use in our down time which was cool. Would recommend it to anybody- best trip ever. We came close with a few girls from the uk in a different car too- Lucy, little and Emma.

(We attempted to GoPro video the entire canoe Everglades tour and it was ok but the videos were too short to clip- so we did it again for Fraser - literally had about 60 videos and some of them are class! So really excited to made a Fraser video whenever we get a rainy day) Slept the entire way back to Noosa and the hostel put on an after party- free pizza and drinks which was cool of them. Some pretty dire games that we got involved in accidentally that might have been funny if we were 18 ha but we didn’t care we were still so hyped from the trip.

Next day we we returned to our baby Hayley and drove up the coast to Rainbow Beach ( Again) probably would have been better to drive up and meet the guys there but then we might not have met the gang and had such a good car so hey) rainbow beach is another beach with 4x4's racing down it - it’s like a beach highway - so cool. And Its surrounded by this awesome cliff face that is actually all different colours. Walked the length of it had a coffee then drove up north again until it got dark - parked up in this really creepy campsite with only one other car ( met this German girl who was a complete drag but had dinner with her) then next day headed to Hervey Bay - this is usually a whale watching town but it’s not the season for it so there wasn’t a huge amount to sea. It’s a marine national park so you can see manatees and sea turtles and everything if your there at the right time. We walked the pier and met a fisherman who told us a spot to sea two huge sea turtles ( which we did- was cool) and then that night we had the most amazing experience. Paid $12 each to watch baby turtles hatch and run into the sea for the first time. Mon Repos is a turtle breeding beach that is patrolled every night by Rangers. As the turtles are so endangered they have a special tagging system for the ones that are high priority and the ones that return so they can track numbers - there was videos and presentations about the guy behind the whole conversation programme and it was pretty amazing listening to all the work they have done over the years. When turtles hatch they join the south east Australian current ( finding nemo lol) and they go all the way to South America - eating things like plankton and jelly fish - they are more protected from predators in the current. They don’t return until they are about 16 years old and then they stay put as they are big enough to not be a prey target form bigger fish and sharks. They only go on land to lay - and they return to the same beach they were born on ( they know where to go because when they run from the nest to the sea for the first time they made a magnetic imprint that they remember ( amazing) and they can lay up to 500 eggs at one time. The estimate is that only 1 in a 1000 make it back to the same beach! So when you see a big one it’s pretty amazing. When the female lays she does so at night and goes straight back to the sea and has nothing more to do with them- so the conservation team patrol - and when the eggs are laid they build a cage around it to stop foxes and birds of prey taking the eggs - when the baby turtles climb up through the sand they take 10 ( out of about 70 usually) if it’s us a priority mother ( so endangered or local or retuning mother ) weigh and tag the babies - and then release them. The rest in the nest are realised straight away.

When the babes are doing their run to the sea they make sure no crabs or anything take them and make sure they all reach the sea! Some get tired and need a helping hand - we got to see a priority nest being released after they had been to the lab- your not allowed to use lights are anything they are guided to the sea by natural light . They were all so tired it was so cute and when they reached the sea it took them about 6 attempted each because the waves kept washing them in - then we stayed late ( most people went home ) and we got to see another nest running to the sea - these were not priority so there was tons of them and they had loads of energy and were running to the sea - amazing. And then the conservation team dig up the nests 24 hours after the turtles climb up to check that none have been left behind - because if one gets trapped for some reason they are not able to climb on their own so they die. So we watched a ranger dig up a nest and we rescued 2! So we released them into the sea - they also count how many eggs don’t develop and check what stage of development the eggs are at so they can monitor it. Amazing experience.

The next day we drove up to 1770 - there wasn’t too much going on but had had a small Fraser reunion and also bumped into some friends from the canoeing tour. We’d planned to go surfing the next day but the conditions weren't great- also found out we can’t go inland to do the national parks up here because you need a 4x4 - still have about 10 days to kill till Whitsundays so we’re going to try and find some casual work ( fruit picking or something ) for a week.

Day of the Everglades trip - we arranged some farm work - living with a family in cairns and learning how to run their farm for the first month-12 cows- few pigs - chickens - 2 dogs and the second month we’d be running it on our own while they went on holiday to Scotland- would get accommodation - food - live in the house and 2 months of our farming signed off so we could extend our visa) we weren’t going to be earning much money but thought it would be worth it to get a chunk of our farming signed off for a good experience. Found out today that we don’t think they can provide us with all the credentials we need for it to be legal - which we’re gutted about because we were really excited- still waiting to here but pretty sure it’s not going to happen. New plan is probably try to find a small farm and suck it up for 3 months- you can earn a ton of money and means we can extend our visas if we want to once we get to Melbourne- so that’s all ongoing - bit up in the air for now.

Currently just entered croc zone! So no swimming in rivers anymore. It’s dark so about to pull up to crash. It’s the 15th Feb …. Up to date woop!

[roarroads-blog]

Our first road trip

Our time in Auckland is coming to its end, in a week’s time we will take Kublai (we wanted to name our car after a character from Marco Polo, and— considering the size and age of the car—Kublai Khan was the obvious choice) for another road trip, this time moving down south. The idea is to reach Wellington on the 15th or 16th of February as we’re flying to Melbourne on the 17th early morning. Ah, Melbourne… the best city in the world according to Fabushka and numerous magazines. This is one of the cases when my favourite formula “low expectations = no disappointments” simply won’t work. I’m super excited to see the city, the expectations are set higher than ever.

So yes, we only have one week left of some sort of stability before we hit the road again: jobless and without a clear plan of what to do next after we are back from Australia. It doesn’t bother us, though. One of the things I really like about travelling long term is that you have enough time to improvise and make mistakes. Whereas when you only have ten days in a place you really have to make sure you spend your time wisely.  

Fortunately, we have already had a chance to test Kublai as well as ourselves. Over the holidays, we took an eight-day road trip to Northland: the warmest part of New Zealand, full of amazing beaches (the famous Ninety Mile Beach, for example), rainforests, enormous kauri trees, glowworm caves, and small towns populated primarily by Maori. Throughout the centuries, the Maori population has been concentrated in the North Island. And it’s in Northland where it can be noticed clearly. Northland is a very popular holiday destination for Aucklanders throughout the summer months and it gets especially busy during the Chrismas season. Now, we’ve heard several New Zealanders complaining about how crowded NZ is nowadays and how nice it used to be before; and while I totally see their point (I mean, from a European point of view, there were almost no people here some 100 years ago), I can only smile in response. Everything is relative, and NZ by no means is Iceland, but honestly it’s never too crowded here. However, to understand that one should probably try to sunbath in Liguria on a summer day first.

In those eight days, we drove all the way up north to Cape Reinga, the very end of NZ’s North Island, the point where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The place is incredibly beautiful as you can clearly see the line where the currents of the two oceans collide, and the colours are so bright. Maori believe that the cape itself is a giant platform from where the souls of the dead depart the mainland on their way to the afterlife. The spirits are believed to descend into the underworld by sliding down the roots of the famous pohutukawa tree into the water below. They then travel under the sea to the Three Kings Islands where they stop for a moment and offer their last farewell to the land before returning to their original homeland Hawaiki. It’s a beautiful myth and it gives Cape Reinga that special mystical vibe you always feel at various religious sites all around the world. We stayed in the area overnight, at Tapotupotu Bay campsite, which was very nice, located by a river flowing into the ocean; and when I went for a swim in the ocean there it felt so strange like I was swimming at the end of the world. The next morning we set off to test our new hiking shoes. We tried our best to follow the established coastal track but somehow managed to get ourselves lost and had to climb a steep rock covered with all sort of prickly plants.  

Some countries are just meant to be travelled by car, Iceland is a good example, for instance. And NZ without any doubts is one of those countries as well. Many of the beautiful places we’ve visited here are not accessible by public transport. And while you surely can reach the most famous sites and attractions on a tourist shuttle bus, it won’t allow you to experience NZ’s beauty to its fullest. I’ve always liked the idea of road trips when long distances and empty roads become a valuable part of the journey. And now, when we have a bed in our car, I start to like it even more. There are plenty of campsites in NZ and freedom camping is very popular as well (the areas where you can stay overnight for free, normally there are no showers or, in some cases, even toilets). The cheaper a campsite is the fewer commodities it will have, obviously. Sleeping in the car turned out to be surprisingly comfortable, especially when we managed to stay at the camping areas with hot showers. It didn’t happen too often, though. Most of the time it was either a freezing cold shower or no shower at all. Luckily for us, Mother Nature is always happy to provide alternatives; so sometimes we just went for a swim in the sea instead of a shower and once Fabushka washed himself in a river. It was super funny, he just sat in the river like it was a bath and started washing his body. Haha. By the end of the trip, my hair turned into a bird’s nest and the skin on my face got so dry that it hurt even to smile. But that’s all right, I can live with that.  

On the way to Cape Reinga, we stopped for a couple of days in the Bay of Islands, which was one of the trip’s highlights. The Bay of Islands is the most popular summer destination for Kiwis, there are several cute little towns in the area and the bay itself consists of over a hundred small subtropical islands, accessible only by boat. The place is also home to aliens (sorry, I mean dolphins), penguins, and other sea creatures. Sometimes even orcas, also known as killer whales, can be seen there. We celebrated the New Year by a campfire on a riverbank, listening to a group of very young guys playing the guitar and singing. Actually, it’s a funny story because we stayed at a campsite just up the road from the campfire place, but it seemed that the guys there were having much more fun than the people at our campsite. So just after 11 pm, we decided to go down the road and crash the party regardless the fact that technically we were not permitted to enter another camping area. The party was for the people who paid to stay at the camping only. Anyway, it did not stop us and we confidently joined the guys by the fire. After a while, I noticed that all of them (a group of 10-15 people) seemed to know each other and seemed to be quite young as well. And then it struck me that they could be a group of students on a school trip. I laughed so much imagining that we are just two creeps for them who appeared from nowhere and started speaking to them like it was totally fine. Haha. But it wasn’t true, I just like to entertain myself.

We almost left the Bay of Islands on the 1st of January, but luckily decided to stay and go for a sailing trip the following day. There are many options available and we haven’t tried them all, but I’m pretty sure we chose the best one. Gungha II! I’ve been on sailing boats a few times before, but this was the first time when we actually used the sails most of the time. The owner of the boat, Mike, is a very nice Canadian guy who is strictly against any form of unethical tourism, things like chasing dolphins on speedboats, etc. He does this job for six months a year and spends another six months sailing the open ocean. Over the years, he has already sailed to Fiji, Tonga, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Hawaii and even Mexico. We had such a good time on the boat, we sailed for a couple of hours before reaching a super beautiful private island where we anchored for quite a long time. Mike made sure that we had enough time to relax on the island, go snorkelling and kayaking. We even went for a hike around the island…barefoot. By the time we left the island, we were the only people there.  There are many tours in the Bay of Island that specifically target dolphins, sometimes it is even allowed to swim with them. Every day hundreds of tourists go on the speedboat tours to spend hours looking for dolphins and when/if they find them, the tourists quickly jump in the water. Like I said earlier, Mike didn’t seem to be particularly happy about this kind of tourism, so we were never promised to see any dolphins… but it happened! We saw so many of them jumping out of the water just in front of our boat, there were probably twenty of them. I even spotted a baby dolphin. And I have to admit they were cute aliens, those dolphins.

To conclude, we really enjoyed the road trip and I’m pleased there are still so many of them to come.

Sasha

[hopefulwandererx]

April 10th - Ireland Tour Day Two: Giant's Causeway and Derry.

Before hopping on the bus to head to our next location, many of us opted to wake up early and hike to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge. We revisited our steps from the previous night but continued further along the hilly oceanside until we reached this bridge. The Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge was first erected by salmon fisherman in 1755 (350 years ago!!) to connect the mainland and Carrick-a-Rede island. It’s 30m above sea level and opens to stunning views on the other side (supposedly). Unfortunately since we came so early it wasn’t open to tourists yet, but from what I could tell, it wouldn’t have been worth paying several euros to cross anyways.

Checking out the Rope Bridge.

Can’t resist more sheep photos. Especially with lambs.

After heading back to the hostel to grab our things and check out we were en-route to Giants Causeway, arguably one of Ireland’s most famous tourist attractions. If I were to do this again, I would highly recommend getting there for opening. By the time we arrived it was packed full of tourists, so it was a bit challenging to truly appreciate the scenery and get high quality photos. I also wouldn’t recommend the audio tour unless you’re there on an unusually not windy day - you can’t hear anything in your headphones while walking down. It is also a lot colder down by the water than you’d think, so make sure to dress warmly - which I did not. I ended up buying a cute knit toque from the gift shop. Giants Causeway is named for a legend, which I’ll summarize: 

Fionn McCool, Ireland’s most famous giant, is having some trouble with Scottish giant, Benandonner, who is threatening Ireland. Fionn, enraged by this throws chunks of the coast into the sea, which form a path for him to follow and fight with Benandonner. But because the Scottish giant is so big, Fionn quickly turns around being chased by him,only to be saved by his wife who disguised him as a baby. Benandonner sees this HUGE baby and decides that if that baby is that big, the father must be massive and retreats. 

The more scientific explanation for Giant’s Causeway is the aftermath of a volcanic burning and cooling.

Giants Causeway and LOTS of tourists.

Yay! Looks like I’m alone.

Once finished at Giants Causeway we stopped at Dunluce Castle, another Game of Thrones film location. I LOVE visiting castles of any size, age, or history, so this was a fun quick stop.

Dunluce Castle.

Me in front of Dunluce Castle feat. the new hat haha.

Our final destination for the day was Derry, or Londonderry as it’s fully known. I didn’t know a whole lot about Derry going in, but it ended up being one of my favourite stops of the tour. We had an incredible tour with Garvin - if you do a walking tour, make sure to go with him. (He also seems to be a bit of a celebrity around Derry, as he ran into many acquaintances throughout our tour.) So if you’re unfamiliar, one of the most famous events of the Troubles - Bloody Sunday (as immortalized in the U2 song of the same name) - occurred in Derry. Bloody Sunday. From the BBC History website:

About ten thousand people gathered in the Creggan area of Derry on the morning of Sunday 30 January 1972. After prolonged skirmishes between groups of local youths and the army at barricades set up to prevent the Civil Rights march reaching its intended destination (Guildhall Square in the heart of the city), paratroopers moved in to make arrests. During this operation, they opened fire on the crowd, killing thirteen and wounding 13 others.

The dead were all male, aged between seventeen and forty-one. Another man, aged fifty-nine, died some months later from injuries sustained on that day. The wounded included a fifteen-year-old boy and a woman.

...While the British Army maintained that its troops had responded after coming under fire, the people of the Bogside saw it as murder...Headed by Lord Saville, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry took 12 years and finally reported in 2010. It established the innocence of the victims and laid responsibility for what happened on the army.Prime Minister David Cameron called the killings "unjustified and unjustifiable". The families of the victims of Bloody Sunday felt that the inquiry's findings vindicated those who were killed, raising the question of prosecutions and compensation.

As Garvin explained to us the history of Bloody Sunday we were shocked to find out that he knew someone killed during the horrific event. Hearing that from a man around the same age as my dad really rung home that the Troubles are hardly behind in Ireland. Despite the sad tales throughout our tour, we also enjoyed lot of humour and anecdotes from Garvin, and experienced more ancient history of Derry, including that it’s the only completely walled city left in Ireland, and one of the best examples of a walled city in Europe. 

Some of the many murals in Derry.

You are now entering Free Derry.

One of Derry’s most famous female politicians.

Derry’s skyline.

Part of the wall surrounding the old part of the city.

Our crew with Garvin in the front. (Excuse my terrible bangs...)

We returned to our accommodation for the evening at the Travelodge, which is a great option if you’re on a budget. Definitely a step up from a hostel, but certainly not anything fancy. We went for dinner as a group to Bentley Bar. I don’t recall what I had, but if I’m being honest, most of my meals in Ireland were pretty unmemorable as vegetarianism doesn’t seem to be quite as popular there. After dinner, watching a local band play some covers, and few cheap cocktails on special, we headed to (what we thought was) a pub called Annie Grannies. Annie Grannies was bumpin’, given that it was a Sunday night! But apparently that’s when a lot of the Irish like to party. We took in some more live music and (several) more drinks before finding out that the upstairs of Annie Grannies was actually a nightclub, so a few of us headed up there for a bit of dancing before heading back to the hotel for the evening.

Tamika and I in our room before dinner.

1/3 of us at dinner.

Another bunch of us at the first pub.

I think this was on the way home? Signs of a good night!

To see the rest of my photos from Ireland, click on any of the above images, or view the whole album here.