Book Haul

Long time no see. I hope you all are having a great day and that you forgive me for not posting for about 3 months now. I just haven't been feeling inspired lately, but I'll be doing an update post soon. But I think this is the first post of many to come. Because I've been going back and reading my previous posts, speacially those from the beginning of 2015, and I know that I was so happy at the time with this blog and that I was feeling so inspired to write and take pictures...that I want to feel like that again.

So for my first "come back" post, I thought on doing just a simple haul for you guys. Hope you all enjoy!

1-  Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

So, I got this book as a birthday present from one of my best friends. But funny story... My birthday was on July 18th and she only gave the book to me in the beginning of this year, cause she just totally forgot where she'd put it. Despite all that, I loved the gift of course, hadn't read it yet, cause I'm reading the Book Thief (that is the next book on this haul).

2-  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I've been eyeing this book for a while now. And after the movie came up and all the great movie and book reviews came along, I knew that I needed to read it. So I went to a local second hand bookstore to sell some of my old books, and of course buy some too. So I found a whole shelf of  The Book Thief books, with all of this different editions and covers. And so I picked the one that appealed to me most, and that was the movie cover.

3- An Adundance of Katherines by John Green

Well, I never thought that I would be so into John Green's books, but I have to say I'm obsessed. I didn't think that I would own the 4 major books that he wrote, I just had received some as birthday presents or bought them kind of accidently when I just need some light but fun read. 

I got this book at the same second hand bookstore as I got the previous book. And when I saw that it was the only one there, I knew that I had to get it. The white cover makes me just so happy. This is probably one of the most simple and pretty covers I have in my shelf.

So, I hope you all enjoyed the post and be sure that I'll be back,

thank you for reading,

Ana 

My Summer Favorites

Hi guys! I hope you're having a great day. So it's been a while since my last post, i'm sorry. I just wasn't motivated to write, so I was just resting and planning for this year. And I have quite some news about my first job experience and what I'm gonna be doing for my gap year, but that's for a later post. This post is just going to be about some of the things that I'm loving for the summer, so I hope you enjoy.

1. AURORA

Last month I discoverd this amazing singer. She is the most unique person ever and her music makes you feel. Such meaningful lyrics and such calm and beautiful voice. I recommend everyone who likes more indie type of music. And here are 2 of my favorite songs from her, they are just fantastic.

2. Paper Towns

This was my first book of the year and I loved it. I'll do a review on it, so I'm not gonna get to in depth about what I thought about the book, but I'll say that is 100% better than the movie. 

3. Sophie's World

This is the book I'm currently reading and I already love it. It teaches you everything about philosophy and has a very interesting mystery throughout the book. I really recommend if you want to learn philosophy in a much entertaining way so that you can really absorve all the knowledge.

4. Wallet

It was time. I needed a new wallet. So I found this one at a local store. It wasn't expensive at all and I really like the vintage/antique style of it. It became my summer favorite because I hate carrying bags in the hot months, so I wear it as a clutch too.

5. Planner/Agenda

New year, new planner. I got very addicted to my last planner, carrying it with me everywhere and writing every important idea and date. But this year I decided to get cutter and smaller one, so that it fits my small purses. I love the intricate design that it has and the pages have beautiful chevron edges.

6. Earrings

I've been in love with big dangling earrings this summer, probably because of my curly hair. And about that, I'll be doing a update on my curly hair / transition, but I'll say it looks a lot better than a year ago. Back to the earrings...I got them at a local store when I was at the beach. They are very lightweight and the color is just amazing.

6. Tv Show

I have a new favorite tv show and it is How I Met Your Mother. It is just the best comedy show I've ever watched. I always loved friends but this show just is way better, in my opinion. I'm in season 7 already and sad that it's gonna end in like two seasons. I'll talk about more in a later post, but for now I'll just say that I LOVE IT. If there's any one reading this and loves the show, please comment down bellow.

Thanks for reading this post. Hope you're having a nice day,

see you soon,

Ana

The Bilingual TAG

It's finally summer break guys! And this means that there is going to be a lot more posts on my blog, so be prepared. Well, I was thinking this week about what would be the best come back post to write for my blog and then I realized that a TAG would be perfect. Because I love answering questions and it's a very easy post to do. 

And this Tag is about being bilingual, as you probably assumed by the title, something that I'm very interested about. I'm thinking of doing another post talking about some pros and cons of being bilingual in the near future too. So here it is...I hope you enjoy this post.

1. What languages do you speak? 

Portuguese and English.

2. Would you say you are fluent in both?

 Yes I am. Although I don't believe that a person can be 100% fluent in a language, there's a lot to learn and a lot that one doesn't know, so It is actually always a learning process.

3. Did you grow up speaking both languages?

 Yes I did. My parents and family are brazilians, so that's how I learnt portugue. But I was born and lived in the U.S for 7 years and did english courses when I came to Brazil, so that's how I learnt and maintained my English.

4. Which language do you prefer and why?

Well, as I know both languages on the same level, I don't think I can choose one. But I really like speaking in english a lot more, probably because I can express myself better. There are words in english that don't have a translation to portuguese and that's a shame. And reading books, watching movies and listening to music in english is so much better too.

5. Which language do you speak in mostly?

 Portuguese, because of my family and friends.

6. What's your favorite word in your second language?

I don't consider either portuguese or english as my second language, they were both raised up together so there's no difference. But as this is a english blog I'll tell you guys my favorite word in portuguese. Well, actually there isn't a word that I like totaly love, or any that I can remember right now that I really like, so I'm just going to say/write first one that is on my mind. CACHECOL. 

7. What's the translation of that word in your first language? 

The word means scarf in portuguese.

8. When do you most often use your second language? 

I use portuguese everyday and everywhere as I live in Brazil, for now. And for english,  I use it everyday as well, in writing, reading, watching Tv, talking to my parents, and I too participate in an english speaking club that is once a week. I try to practice english as much as possible.

9. Do you prefer watching movies dubbed in your first or second language?

 I hate dubbed movies. The original languages are way better, even if I don't understand them. I prefer subtitles for languages that I don't know, but if it's english or portugue I prefer just the plain movie of course.

10. Literally translate your favourite expression/phrase from your second language into your first.

Again, as this is an english blog I'm going to pick a portuguese phrase. "O pessoal do sul fala cantando". This is a phrase that people form the north and other regions, that isn't the south of Brazil, say about the people from the south. And literally translating this is "The people from the south speak singing". That doesn't make sense, because we are literally translating it, but it actually means that the way people from the south speak sounds like they're singing, because they talk very fast. I'm from the south by the way.

11. Do you code-switch? (Switch from one language to another in the middle of or after a sentence)

 All the time. My friends actually get really confused by it, but my parents are already pretty used to.

12. Did being bilingual make school harder or easier for you?

 Both. In the begining it was hard, because I didn't know portuguese very well, so I had to learn it and I had a very strong american accent, so people thought I was really weird. But as the years passed by my portuguese got better and better, and of course I maintained and improved my english, so it was a lot easier when I was like in middle and high school. Because I always got an A in my foreign language class, that was obviously english. Kind of cheating, but it helped a lot in school.

13. What advice would you give someone who wants to become bilingual?

 Practice every day! Reading books, watching movies, writing, listening to music, and communicating with people in the language of your choice. I'm sure if you dedicate a lot of time to it, you will get there.

14. How does being bilingual benefit you nowadays?

 Well I'm going to graduate high school next week and I decided to take a gap year next year. And I already got a job. In my opinion having a fluent second language made a total difference in my resume and helped me to get this job. So I would say that it helps in getting better jobs.

15. Do you have more friends that speak your first or second language? 

I have more friends that speak portuguese, as I live here in Brazil. But I have some american friends and some that are willing to speak english with me too. So I always have someone to practice with.

16. What language would you take up next?

I have decided that next year I'll finally start french, but I have an interest in italian too.

I hope you all enjoyed this post and that you are having a great week.

Thank you so much, 

Ana

October Movie Favorites Review

Hi everyone! Long time no see. Well, there's probably no excuse for being a month absenced and not posting, so I'm just going to start my post, because this is my favorite one to do. And if you guys clicked here, you probably know which one it is already.

This month, even though I was pretty occupied with school work and tests, I still had time to watch some movies. Although, this time I couldn't start any new tv shows, because I just didn't have the time and energy to do so. So these 5 movies were not all watched on Netflix, the first one I watched at school and than the rest of them were watched on Netflix. Than you all probably can find them and watch them pretty easy.

So let's start, shall we?

1. Dead Poets Society

"Carpe diem, seize the day, make your lives extraordinary".

This movie was so so inspiring. I felt like I just had to make a change in the world I don't know why. It made me think a lot about our school system, how we have to follow books and not learn to think by ourselves. And how we are so used to that, that if we step out of the line we are misunderstood and called crazy by those that always followed it. This movie just makes you think, you know?

Mr. Keating, the teacher that inspired all those students to stick up for themselves and follow their dreams, reminded me of some teachers I had in the past. They were just a few, probably only 3, but they affected my life in such a positive way that I will never forget them, never. And this movie made me realize how important is to have teachers like these and how the role of teachers in our society is just so significant for helping built character in people.

The last thing I want to do is to recommend this movie to everyone who wants to watch a very educative and inspiring movie, that has the power to change your point of view in the world. There is a quote that I remember from this  movie that is really beautiful and meaningfull, actually all quotes are, but this one is one of my favorite, and it is " No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas, can change the world".

2. The Age of Adeline

I saw this movie with my mom and we both loved it, specially her, she loves these types of romantic movies that is related to destiny. And the whole story is very interesting and creative, I never saw anything like it. The main reason I watched this movies was because of Blake Lively, I am a huge Gossip Girl fan.

My favorite thing about the movie, kind of shallow but very beautiful, was the fashion through ou the decades. They represented all the years with such perfection, that actually made we want to live in that time. And another thing that I loved was mother and daughter relationship. Altough the mom looked younger and the daughter older, that didn't bother them and alter the love they felt for each other. What I thought was beautiful.

I recommend this movie for everyone who loves a great destiny romance or if you have an interest for physics, because in my opinion physics plays a huge role through out the story.

3. Magic Beyond Words

I LOVED IT. This is a film all about J.K Rowling. If you are a Harry Potter fan you surely have to watch this. I learnt so much about J.K Rowling and how the HP books were created. J.K is just such an inspiring person, her entire life she chased her dream in becoming a writer and it wasn't easy, a lot of obstacles. But she made it and this is her story.

I recommend this movie of course to all HP fans out there and for all of those who need something inspiring to keep you going and chasing your dreams too!

4. Restless

This is not your usual boy meets girl type of cliche story. This is different. The boy is obssesed with death and funerals and the girl is going to die from cancer. And the main focus of the film is the character development of this boy who didn't feel nothing in behalf of stranger's deaths, to feel everything when someone he loves dies.

 I love how the couple was together, very unique.

I recommend this movie to everyone who loves a very unique indie movie, someone who likes to meet very bold charcters that have very "odd" personalities.

5. The Imitation Game

I thought this movie was amazing. I love films that are set in the WWII, actually I love all history movies in general. And this movie, let me tell you, I actually learnt so much with it. I never thought that the first computer was actually created in the 40s, and that it was at first a machine to decode secret german messages. Who knew?

This is just a very great movie to educate yourself on and if you are interested in the history of computer I surely recommend you to watch this. And even though the main point of this movie is the computer, there are actually lots of other situations that go on. The movie talks about homosexuality, feminism, comunism and how all of these controversial topics were treated in the 40s.

Thank you all for reading! And I'm sincerely sorry for not posting for weeks. I'm not going to promise a post a week, because I am pretty busy with finals and projects, because I'm going to graduate in less than a month, so I'm just not going to promise ok?. But you can be sure to see a lot from me in the summer, december probably.

I hope you all had a great week,

Ana

Confessions of a Shopaholic | Book Review

Hi everyone! I finally finished Confessions of a Shopaholic. I read it in a week, because my school didn't have classes for like 5 days, so I had lots of time to start and finish it. I bought this book for myself as a birthday present and I have been putting it aside for almost 3 months now. But I read it and I'm here to do a review on it for you all.

So let's start on saying how fantastic Sophie Kinsella is as a writer. Her writing style is just so smooth and makes reading so pleasant. I laughed a lot reading it. And the way her character interacts with us readers, makes the reading experience 100 times more enjoyable. 

Talking about Rebecca Bloomwood...she is just the funniest, craziest, clumsiest and most relatable character ever. I just love her. She is probably one of my favorite character of all time, because she is so unique. When I say relatable, I don't mean that I am a shopaholic and I can't help myself from shopping, I'm actually the complete opposite. What I meant was that she is just very easy going and  approchable. 

I will most certainly continue this series and probably read other books by Sophie Kinsella. I'm actually very anxious to buy the next book, but I have to read some of the ones I already have and I want to save the series to read during the summer months. This series just screams summer for me, I don't know why. Porbably because it is a light read.

I didn't want to mention the movie in this review, but that's nearly impossible, because I discovered this series through the movie. Well, after reading the book, I thought that the movie adaptation was pretty off. The places didn't match, some situations didn't happend the same or at all and there were lots of characters missing in the movie. I hear people say that the movie is a mixture of the first and second book, so I will have to read the following one to be sure of my opinion of the book to movie adaptation.

I still love the movie a lot, it is still one of my favorites. But I like to separate the movie from the book or it will make me go mad because of its inaccuracy. So I enjoy them as if they were two different things.

So to finish the review, I want to recommend the book and movie to everyone who is interested in reading and watching a very funny, quirky, light chick lit novel or movie. This is the book that you want to read when you are stressed out, want to relax and have a laugh.

I hope you all enjoyed this review and if you want to comment something about this book or it's movie, please leave it down bellow. I want to know what are your opinions, specially on the book to movie adaptation.

I hope you had a great day,

Ana

Movie Favorites Review | September

Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful day and that you don't mind my absence for about 2 weeks now. I'm very sorry, just been very tired of all the tests that I had for about a month. I thought that I needed a little time for myself, I hope you understand. 

But, I'm not here today to give excuses again, I'm here to write my favorite monthly post, that is the Movie Favorites Review. This post is indispensable for me, because I love sharing with people movies that I enjoyed, specially when it involves Netflix, and because it is a great way to keep track of the movies I have watched. So this month I watched quite a lot of things, but I only gadered 5 movies/Tv show to recommend you this month. Well, I was looking through them again and just two of them are actually from Netflix, I'm sorry, but all the others I watched them online so you could propably find them and watch them too.

So let's start, shall we?

1. Phoebe in Wonderland

In my opinion this movie was amazing, although it doesn't have that many stars on Netflix. But I thought it was so unique, that I can't imagine someone rating it low. Well, the movie is about a creative 9-year-old girl named Phoebe and she lives with a syndrome called tourette. Her parents actually don't know that she has this syndrome until the end of the movie and neither does she. The movie revolves around a school play of Alice in Wonderland and the struggles that Phobe faces because of her syndrome not yet discovered. 

The movie is great I'm telling you, trust me. It is very inspiring watching Elle Fanning acting such a difficult and complex character like Phoebe. And the character herself is inspirational. I never heard about Tourette before and this movie taught me a lot about it. Is beautiful. Just watch it.

2. Love, Rosie

Oh this movie, let me tell you, I cried at almost every scene...not even kidding. I just loved it. It reminded me a lot of the movie One Day, but this one has a happy ending. You probably already know about what the movie is about, because it is really popular...I think. But I'm still going to give you a short summary of what it is about. 

The movie is about the friendship of Rosie and Alex and how a simple situation or mistake can change the whole entire course of your life. But in the end, if is destiny, there is nothing that can stop something from happening.

 And this is all I am going to tell you about this movie, because I don't want to spoil you. If you enjoey the movie One Day you will love this one, no doubt. It is just so real.

3. The Virgin Suicides

What a mystery! I don't have a clue of what actually happend with the sisters. This is not a spoiler ok? The title of the movie is The Virgin Suicides, so you already have an idea of what it might happend through out the movie. 

I'm very intrigued by it, that made me want to read the actual book. This movie is so different and enigmatic. I really enjoyed it. This is what I call a typical tumblr movie. Is one of those types that you always see gifs and quotes of it in tumblr, that's how I actually discovered it. I love tumblr movies haha... that is how I found out about Pulp Fiction too.

4. Narcos

Oh this was the highlight of the month. Gosh, this is one of the best Tv show that I ever seen. It is up there with Prison Break (that is my ultimate favorite tv show of all time), so you kind of can have an idea of how good it is. I really was surprised by the show, wasn't expecting much of it. But the story blew my mind, I never knew that all of that actually happend. And that, that was the beginning of the huge production of drugs and all the narcotrafic that stands till this day.

I really recommend if you like to learn a little bit more about history and how the drug world that we know now began in the 60s. Another thing that was very outstanding was the acting, it was just phenomenal. Wagner Moura, that is a brazilian actor, was awesome. He played the character of Pablo Escobar, who is probably the main character of this show. And the story is real guys.

You all have to watch it. I just want to warn you about the strong scenes that there are in the show, so just be aware of that when watching. If you don't feel comfortable watching those scenes you can always skip, like I did. And another thing, the tv show is like 80% in spanish. So if you don't have a knowledge in the language, you will have to read subtitles. I read almost all the show,but I kind of could get some of the parts because of it's similarity to portuguese, so it wasn't that hard. But the show is worth reading subtitles for, just saying.

5. Life Partners

I didn't watch this movie on netflix, but you can find it on the internet of course. I wanted to see this movie for a long time now, because it is with Leighton Meester. And I really enjoyed it actually, it is really funny. It is just a movie about friendship, but very inspiring too. It is a very light movie, so I recommend for a day that you want to chill. 

So I hope you all enjoyed this month's movie favorites post and that you are having a great day. And if you have any suggestions of movies or Tv shows, you can leave them down bellow,

Thank you all for reading,

Ana

What is ASMR? + My Favorite Channels

Picture Link CC

Hi everyone. I'm so sorry for not posting last weekend,I was very busy studying for some finals. But sadly the tests are continuing until the end of next week. But the good news is that is almost October and summer is closer and school will ending in just a few months, so there will be a lot of post in summer time. 

Well, but I'm not here to talk to you guys about school and tests. Is actually the complete opposite of all that... Is about relaxation. In the beginning of the year I discovered this new ( new for me of course, because many of you probably already heard about it) method of relaxation that is going on on youtube for quite a while now. It is called ASMR. 

ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, being a pleasure tingling sensation in the head, scalp and back that you get in response to visual, auditory and  tactile. Well, I used the help of Wikipedia for the meaning of this one, because I could not explain it myself. But I hope you got the meaning of it, if not I will explain and describe it really informally so that I can understand and you guys too. 

So there are plenty of ASMR videos on youtube and they are basicaly people tapping, whispering, scratching, brushing everything. Yeah, when I first saw a video myself, I thought that was crazy too. The first video I watched was a hair brushing video and it was AMAZING! I never felt so relax my whole entire life. Hair brushing is one of my favorite triggers.

There are a variety of different triggers that you can't even imagine, so you just have to watch some videos to find out what suits you the best. I recommend watching videos when you want to fall a sleep, it helps a lot. Or when you are very stressed out from a hectic day and just want to relax. One thing that asmr videos really help me is to concentrate, I love watching videos while I'm exercising or studying.

So now that you know a little bit more about ASMR you can check out some youtube channels so that you can start watching some videos. Here are my favorite ASMR Channels:

LauraLemurex ASMR

ASMR Angel

Olivia's Kissper ASMR

ASMR Massage Psychetruth

WhispersRed ASMR

I just want to end this post off by saying that I, by no means, am a professional on ASMR or anything like that. I just wrote this post just to let you guys know, if you don't already, about it. So if you want more information on ASMR, you can always research professional opinions and people on youtube that make video. 

And for the lovely picture, I used for this post, is by Annemiek Van Der Kuil. She is a photographer and she has some of her work on Flicker. If you want to check it out, the link is bellow the picture.

So I hope you all are having an amazing day and that you enjoyed this post.

Have a great week,

Ana