Sometimes the Internet can be an amazing thing

As you may know, I am au pairing in Germany at the moment. I have been here a week, and so far I am really enjoying it. My host family are great and I am in a lovely area. The only problem is that I haven't met any other au pairs, or anyone else my own age. Until today that is.

I posted in an au pair Facebook group to see if there were any other au pairs nearby, and found a girl who is in a town about 40 minutes a way. Meeting up with people who you have met on the internet is one of those things that parents and teachers always tell you not to do. I ignored these warnings, and we made plans to meet at the main train station of the city that I am in.

There was a slightly awkward 'are you the person I am supposed to be meeting?' moment at the beginning, but after that it was a really day. Unfortunately the weather was not great, but we still had a good time wandering around the shops, sitting in Starbucks and chatting. We also managed to get a little bit lost on the tram, but when there are two of you, getting lost can be pretty amusing.

Freya x

End of exams

I had my last exam yesterday! I am so glad that exams are over and I no longer have to spend all of my time stuck inside revising. I finally have time to catch up on all of the unwatched YouTube videos in my subscription feed, and to blog, and finish all the half written posts in my drafts. 

Since all of my friends have finished exams as well we had a little celebration yesterday - for the end of exams and my birthday, since I will be in Germany on my actual birthday. 

We spent the afternoon at the beach, and luckily the weather decided to cooperate for once. I live at the beach, but the beach by my house is stony so we decided to go to the sandy beach which is about a 15 minute drive. It is usually packed, but since most people were in school etc it was really nice and quiet. We had a lovely afternoon lying in the sun and chatting, and the sea was actually quite warm. 

After we were done at the beach, we drove back to my house to have some dinner and watch a movie. It was a really nice way to celebrate.

Tonight I had another celebration with my family, for both my birthday and my mum's birthday. All of my aunt's and uncles and cousins came, and it was really nice to see them all. I also tried haloumi for the first time (I didn't even know what it was before today), and it is definitely my new favourite thing! 

I have had a pretty great start to my summer holidays so far! Tomorrow won't be nearly as much fun though - it will be spent packing, since I leave for Germany on Monday morning (a bit last minute I know...). 

Freya x 

The Liebster Award

So first of all sorry for being away for such a long time again! But anyway I am super excited because I have been nominated for the Liebster Award by Beatriz from Bea Boon!

So here are the rules:
1. Link the blogger that nominated you
2. Answer the 11 questions they have written for you
3. Give 11 random facts about yourself
4. Nominate other bloggers with under 200 followers who you think deserve the award
5. Post 11 questions for your nominees

So here are my answers to the questions I was given:

1.If you could switch lives with a celebrity, which celebrity would you switch with?
This is so difficult! I think maybe Emma Watson.

2. Would you rather skin a cat or a dog?
I can't say that I have ever really thought about this before... Am I allowed to say neither?

3. Life Goal?
Totally Cliché, but to be happy.
I don't really have a career goal at the moment, but I know that I definitely want to have kids when I grow up, and I want to travel as much as I possibly can.

4. Biggest Mistake?
I can't really think of any massively terrible mistakes that I have made. Of course I have made mistakes, but I can't think of anything that bad right now.

5. Best thing you've ever done?
I've done quite a few pretty awesome things in my not-very-long-life so far. I'd have to say that the best thing was probably going to Africa for three weeks last summer.

6. Pro or Anti farting?
Definitely Anti farting. If you grew up with three brother's you would be too.

7. If you can change one thing about yourself what would it be? (can't be aesthetic)
I am really shy and quiet, so I think that I would change that.

8. Would you rather be 4ft tall or 7ft tall?
4ft. Can you imagine how hard it would be to find clothes if you were 7 feet tall? If you were 4ft at least you could fit into clothes in the kids section. Also you would never have to worry about not having enough leg room. You wouldn't be tall enough to go on roller coasters though, so that would be annoying, but I'd still say I would prefer to be 4ft than 7ft.

9. What would you tell your 21 year old self if you could?
I would remind myself not to settle for a boring job that I don't really want, to experience as many different things as I can, and to take every opportunity that comes my way. And I guess just to make sure that I really live rather than just existing (I don't know if that makes sense).

10. Favourite book?
Looking for Alaska by John Green. I love that book sooo much, and I am sure I have probably already mentioned that multiple times on this blog.

11 facts about me:

1. I am going to be an au pair in Germany for 5 weeks this summer
2. I will be studying Psychology at University next year (providing I do well enough in my exams)
3. My favourite film at the moment is Pitch Perfect
4. I have a dog. He loves to steal food, especially chocolate - many an Easter egg have been lost to the dog.
5. I have a job as a waitress
6. I drive a Fiat 500
7. My current favourite TV shows are Revenge (although the series actually just finished here) and How I Met Your Mother
8. I will be 18 this month
9. No one would ever believe that I am almost 18 by looking at me - everyone at work always tells me that I look about 15
10. I recently got pinterest, and now I am addicted!

My nominees:

Sarah from A Glimpse of Blue
Sheridan from Sheridankate

And here are my questions for you:

1. If you could be any character from a book, who would you be, and why?
2. What is your favourite meal?
3. What would you do if you won the lottery?
4. Where is your favourite place?
5. If you could travel to any country, where would you go?
6. What is your favourite thing about summer?
7. Why did you start blogging?
8. What was your favourite film as a kid?
9. Do you prefer the city or the countryside?
10. How would your perfect weekend go?
11. What is your favourite personality trait?

Freya x

Awkward Car Problems

So first of all, yes, I am still here, and I am very sorry for abandoning this blog for the past few weeks. I am sending you all virtual chocolate to get you to forgive me. Ok, now we are all friends again lets get on with the post.

Today I had to fill my car up at the petrol station for the first time! I know, not really a big deal, but I was actually pretty nervous. I dropped my brothers off at their school, and went to the petrol station nearby. I managed to fill up the car without spilling petrol all over my shoes, putting the wrong fuel in my car, or blowing anything up. I then went to pay and the man in the petrol station was like "Did you know that your tyre is flat?". So I looked over at my car sitting by the pump, and the front tyre was indeed flat. And by flat I don't just mean a little bit soft, I mean completely flat.   

I had somehow managed a 40 minute drive with a completely flat tyre, and I had not even noticed. It's a miracle we made it there safely. 

Fortunately they had one of the air pump things at this petrol station, and so I drove over there. Considering I was by myself and had no idea how to use the thing, I was pretty worried. I rang my dad to ask what the tyre pressure was, put it in, unscrewed the tyre cap and put the hose onto the tyre. It all seemed to be going fine. 

There was just one small problem - the tyre pressure was not actually going up. I started to panic - this must mean that my tyre has a huge puncture. I decided that I would have to drive to school (I mean I made it this far already), and then put the tyre on at lunch. I have no idea how to change a  tyre. One of the advantages of being a rather small 17 year old girl though is that I could just play the "I'm just a weak little girl, I need a strong man to help me", and get one of the boys to do it for me! (Although that is rather sexist and extremely unfeminist of me)

Another advantage of being a 17 year old girl - the man at the petrol station came out to see if I had managed to pump the tyre up. He saw that I hadn't, and decided to fill it up for me. There was a bit of an awkward being-hit-on-by-this-random-employee moment, but he was pumping up my tyre for me, so I decided to go with it. Anyway, turned out I had forgotten to push the button for the air! Nice one!

Eventually I got to school, I was late, but I made it. And fortunately my tyre stayed up all day, so I didn't even have to attempt to manipulate any boys into changing it for me!

Freya x

April Favourites

We are coming to the end of another month, and so of course that it means it is time for another favourites post.

1). The Frozen Soundtrack  - I bought this off of Amazon the other day, and I have been listening to it a lot when I am in my car. Today for example, I gave my friend a lift home, and we spent most of the journey blasting this CD with the windows down.

2). Vitamin Water - I have always loved vitamin water, but this month I have been extra obsessed. It tastes good, has barely any calories, and it contains vitamins - what's not to love?

3). Ugly Betty - If you have never heard of ugly Betty it is a TV show centred around a girl (Betty) who works at a fashion magazine. There is obviously a lot more to it than that, but I just thought I would just give you a very brief explanation of what it is. Anyway, it has just been added to Netflix, so I have been watching it quite a lot. When it was on TV I only ever watched random episodes, so now I am going to watch it the whole way through from the beginning. 

4). Stuck in Love - Again something which I found on Netflix, but this time a movie. I didn't really expect to like it much, but I actually loved it, so I would definitely recommend watching it. 

Freya x

P.s. Sorry for not posting much lately, I have been so busy with school and work and revising for my upcoming exams.

How to fool people into thinking you are an amazing cook

The other day my cousin and my little brother were being really really loud, so I decided that to quieten them down I would do some baking with them. We decided to make cupcakes, and my cousin was really impressed b the fact that I know how to make cupcakes off by heart. So I thought that I would share with you guys a cupcake recipe that is really easy to remember so that you too can make people think that you are a brilliant cook who doesn't even need a recipe book.

Ingredients:
3 Eggs (This varies depending on how many cupcakes you want to make and the size of your eggs)
Self raising flour
Caster Sugar
Butter
Weigh the eggs and then use the same weight of all of the other ingredients: (e.g. if your eggs weigh 8oz use 8oz of flour etc.)
And a Teaspoon of vanilla extract

Method:
First cream the butter and sugar, and then add in all of the other ingredients and whisk until mixed in.
Put into cupcake cases and bake at 180⁰C for 10 - 15 minutes. The cakes should spring back when you touch them, and a skewer should come out clean.

Leave them to cool, and then you can have fun icing and decorating them! We chose to decorate ours with vanilla butter-cream icing (which we coloured green, yellow and pink) topped with mini marshmallows, mini eggs and chocolate chips. Yum!

Freya x

Some Exciting News

So guess what guys!? I Passed my Driving Test today! It was actually the second time I took my test, because the first time I just got super nervous and made a stupid mistake which meant I got a major fault. I don't know if it is the same in other countries but basically here if you get a 'serious' or major fault then you fail, but you can get up to 15 minor faults and still pass. This time I only got 3 minors, so I was really pleased!

My family have all been raving about this new Hot Chocolate place that opened up in a nearby town and I haven't had a chance to try it yet, so to celebrate I drove there with my brother and my cousin. It was so good! The hot chocolates are home made using real chocolate, and you can choose which chocolate you want. I chose white chocolate, and it was delicious! My brother and cousin both chose 60% (I think) dark chocolate, and theirs were really nice too, although I prefer sweeter chocolate. As well as being delicious the Hot Chocolates were also really big - they come in bowls(!) - and they were topped with loads of delicious foamy stuff (do you know the stuff that I mean?). We also got a big marshmallow each to go with our drinks.

Sorry for the bad picture quality, but there is my Hot Chocolate

Ok so now onto the other exciting thing that has happened recently. I am going to become an Au Pair! It will only be for 6 weeks over the summer, but I think it will still be a great experience, and I can't wait!

Freya x