March Page

managed to grab a nice spot in my school’s library before i went for training!

11/100 // 08.17.2019

🎵 Kool Aid - KIRBY

A week until my SAT subject tests and my teachers gave 5 hours of homework 😩. Posted this completed bujo spread because having everything checked off after so long is soooo satisfying.

has anyone ever read the book, cecilia ahern’s the marble collector? 

p.s they are fake plants if you’re wondering

ig: etloie

If you’d ever decide to suddenly try doing a high intensity working out, let me give you a few words of advice. Do your stretches like a prayer. Because I didn’t. And now I’m in so. Much. Physical. PAIN. 

My weekend was fun regardless the screaming burn in my body. Luckily, my ever so cooperative arms and hands are always able to deliver. Here’s my page of the week!  🔥

This week, I tried to add in more color by using some colorful tape I found in our stationery box. I couldn’t use markers because I tried all sorts of it on this one, but it always bleeds through. Also, I’ll stop trying to use the neon yellow pen because it really has a bad contrast to white. You might be thinking, well, duh. But I really wanted the stars to be yellow! :c 

Anyway, I’ll probably be adding more doodles and stickers in eventually, but d e s p a c i t o . 🎶 s  l o w l y y yyy 

My goals are somewhat steadier now at this point. Main keys are exercise, cleaning, and learning! The main focus when I do my tasks for this week is to find a suitable pacing. So yes, adjustments~! 

That’s all for now, and I’m hoping for a great week ahead for ya’ll! 

so, you're taking a class and you hate it: how to make a bad class suck less

as i struggle through my spring quarter classes, i thought i may as well make a post about something currently relevant to me: taking classes that you don't like.

maybe you're taking a degree or distribution requirement; maybe you signed up for a class because it's exactly in your field of interest, but the professor is a really bad lecturer (not that this is personal experience or anything); maybe, you just...........don't enjoy your class for whatever reason.

so, you have two options: drop the class, or continue on.

since you're reading this post, i assume you can't drop the class for whatever reason—something from above, or maybe something else. i'm not going to judge you! but here's some things that, in my experience, have made bad classes, well, less bad (in no particular order).

one: find ways to make your time before and after the class in question as enjoyable as possible. likely this class drains your energy horribly—so doing something that makes you happy or calms you down before the class, and something to destress afterwards, you'll feel a bit better almost immediately. this can, in my experience, take me from hating an entire day of my week, to being frustrated but able to deal with it. examples of things i do, depending on my energy levels and time:

take a nap

read some of a book

draw

take a walk

write

two: schedule your week so you finish everything up until the day of the class (both for that class and your others) before the day of the class. for me, there's nothing more stressful than getting out of my second to last class, and realising i still have to do five types of homework before i can even think of relaxing or calming myself down about the class i'm dreading—assuming i even have any time to do so! this is a more long-term strategy, so if you can, you should start to do this as soon as possible. for me, this looks like making to do lists on my blog to keep myself accountable, or setting alarms to remind myself to do things (since i'm not very good at keeping a planner).

three: talking to your friends or family! the power of complaining before or after a really draining experience can be very cathartic. oftentimes, your friends or family will be very sympathetic to your frustrations. they can also help distract you if you need it!

four: somewhat similar to one—reward yourself for making it through the class! on wednesdays after my dreaded class, i buy myself a cookie and watch bad book reviews, because i am both food- and gossip-motivated.

five: keep on top of classwork. if nothing else, you have to make sure you don't fall behind in your least favourite class. it'll make everything feel fifty times worse. if you have a required presentation and a final project, start working on them or thinking about what/how you're going to do them as soon as you find out about them. get these done as soon as possible, or at least start working on them, so that when the due-date approaches you don't panic.

hopefully my experiences will help you!

How to practice speaking in a foreign language

Hi! I’m learning many languages, including French and Spanish, and I wanted to perhaps share some advice for practicing speaking, because it can be a very daunting task.

Listen! I know I sound like a broken record saying this, but input is everything. Listen to podcasts and watch TV shows and youtube videos. Listen as often as you can, and if you have a conversation coming up with a native speaker, then try and listen to your target language for half an hour or so before.

Shadow! This means listen to a recording of a native speaker, and repeat what they say after they say it. You could try using Easy Languages videos, as they usually have subtitles.

Keep on working on your vocabulary and grammar! For this, an extra tip would be to focus on your weak areas. For vocabulary, immerse, and look up words that you don’t understand, and maybe put it in a flashcard app if you think that it would be useful. Grammar-wise, just drill the rules into your head, and say correct sentences out loud. Try to understand them rather than just memorise them.

Make a native speaker friend! This is the best advice I can give. You can find a buddy on language discords, or apps like HelloTalk and Tandem. If you are a beginner to intermediate student, then just talk about whatever comes up. If you’re an upper intermediate or advanced student, then make an active choice to speak about difficult subjects like literature, music or politics. Make sure to look words up as you go!

Speak to yourself all the time! Narrate your actions, and try describing what is going on around you. You can also just talk about your thoughts and feelings about things.

Keep a notebook of words you don’t know when practicing, and look them up later! This is pretty self-explanatory. If you are speaking and forget the word for ‘toaster’, then write it down and look up the meaning later on.

Learn set phrases and fillers! This is very important if you are learning a language for an exam, because then you can find ways to use advanced phrases above your level. Try lifting them out of books, conversations, podcasts and TV shows, and put them in a flashcard app like Quizlet or Anki to memorise.

Avoid your native language! Using your native language as a crutch won’t serve you, as much as it will make things easier in the short term. Try to speak around words, using the words that you already know. You could say “a place where you do exercise” instead of “gym” if you forgot the word for it. Try doing stuff like that and eventually your speaking will become more fluid.

Be brave! People aren’t as judgmental as you might think, so put yourself out there!

Thank you for reading this post! I hope it was useful to you!

apple pals 🍎

"But you came over me like some holy rite

And although I was burning, you're the only light

Only if for a night "

Art journal spread inspired by Joan of Arc and Florence Welch 🥀✨

15/100 DAYS OF PRODUCTIVITY

• attended volleyball practice (it went well and even found an old friend of mine who has basketball classes there)

• took some time to bujo/journal

• worked on some biology notes (even though the test was last week!)

• did my biology homework

• did my english (C2) homework

Hey, a random piece of advice from your fellow interpreter with ADHD: if you really struggle with prioritizing information when taking notes in class, I recommend looking into the method of note-taking for simultaneous/consecutive interpreting. Here’s a book on it by Andrew Gilles that we were offered in university. There are more manuals online and more videos about the method.

If someone isn’t familiar with it, the purpose of SI note-taking is to break large blocks of information into easily memorized sentences that get attached to further informative pieces through personalized association. The method is to use the least space/symbols possible under least time spent to retain as much information as you can.

For example, instead of writing down that “it was raining yesterday but today the sun is shining”, an interpreter can put down something like “⏪☔(b)🔽🌞” and they will know what it means in given context.

Symbol language in interpretation is entirely personal and depends on the professional in question. Some concepts are given “recommended symbols” in different manuals, for example, arrows tend to imply direction within time continuum.

If you’d like to use it, you can start by trying to take notes of a certain lecture, book paragraph, or any piece of information through symbolic note-taking. From my experience, it does help to prioritize the “important” information aka “who-where-how-what-when-why” with the details being added on as necessary.

Hope someone finds it useful!