Going On a Weekend Trip + This Week's Song

It is another holiday here in Brazil. I know what you're thinking, "Another holiday??". Yes, here in Brazil we have lots, but this year we were lucky enough of having these holidays in weekdays. So my family and I are going to visit relatives in my father's birthtown, it is a 5 hour roadtrip and I don't know how I will handle the car sickness. 

We are leaving tomorrow after lunch and we are going to stay there untill Sunday. I didn't wanted to leave without writing a post. For sure I will post pictures when I come back, if there are any.

Well, I'm kind of excited to go on this trip. I just really like being close to my family and sing in the car, admire the view while listening to music and just get comfy and read a book or magazine. But I have to be sincere, I used to hate going to this town ( Actually I'm still not a huge fan of it), I go mainly to please my parents and see them happy. But I imediatly feel happy when I see that they are as well.

I promise that I will finish " The Diary Of a Young Girl" and I will review it. I was just so busy with school projects and tests, that I couldn't finish reading it;

I have a favorite song this week, is "Cigarette Daydreams" by Cage The Elephants. Such an awesome song and band. A friend of mine introduced to me and I really enjoyed listening, it's on repeat on my Spotify. I really recommend checking it out.

Hope you all are having a great week,

Ana

Adult Ballet | My Experience

  Picture Link

I never thought I was going to go back or even like ballet at all again, but I was wrong as you can see. I've never felt so happy doing a sport in my life, I feel so complete. I always felt that something was missing, but I never thought it was ballet. 

I only do it twice a week, I wanted to do more classes, but for that to happend I have to improve my skills and then I can start doing classes 4 times a week. The moment I get into class and put on my ballet shoes everything feels light, I forget all problems and I just dance. It is a wonderful feeling, like everything and anything is possible.

I love ballet clothing, they are so cute and feminine, and I think they have an important role on my feelings in class. Of course they make me feel very free because of their comfort, but  they do have a special capacity of busting my comfidence, and that makes a total difference in my ballet experience and in my life.

Sometimes I think about how it would have been if I had never stopped dancing when a kid. Would I be a professional ballerina? Dance in coopetitions or be in a famous dance academy? And I realized that back then I didn't have the same passion for ballet as I have now, and it would just become a duty and I wouldn't have enjoyed as much. Now I know that my break from ballet happend for a reason, that is for me to realize how much I like it and then go back to it for the right reasons.

The class I take is great and the teacher is very professional and nice. She's french, I think that kind of influenced the way she teaches class. The students are really nice, and it is very awesome to meet new people that aren't the same age and share the same passion as you. In my class there are people of all ages ( older then 15 actually), body types, techniques and skills. That's why adult ballet is so different from the others, it's because os the freedom it gives to be yourself. It is not as strict as "normal" ballet, like you don't have to have the perfect bun and you don't have to wear uniform.

I can't recommend enough to everyone to tryout a class, if you don't like classic dance, there are so many different types of dance to choose from, like Lyrical, Hip Hop, Jazz and probably many others.

Hope you all are having a great weekend and that you enjoyed this post. I would love to know if this post helped you in any way,

Ana

Tumblr Artist Questions

Picture Link

When I found these questions on Tumblr I freaked out, they are just so creative. I knew in the minute I saw it, I totaly had to make a post about it and let more people know about these amazing and original questions. I really don't know exactly who invented this, but I found a link to a tumblr blog that may be the source of the post, if it's not I am sorry. 

Source of the questions

Ok. Let's start with the questions, shall we?

Questions:

Picasso: Do you remember your first word? What was it?

Van Gogh: Would you rather become famous after death or famous in life but forgotten after death?

Da Vinci: Do you have many talents or one thing you're really good at?

Monet: What do your parents want you to do for a living?

Dali: Do you have strange dreams?

Warhol: Have you ever had surgery? What for?

Magritte: Would you rather fall in love once and have it last forever (while wondering if there was something better) or have many relationships (but never settle)?

Titan: If someone could give you a title, what would it be?

Kahlo: Do you want to have children? Why or why not?

Renoir: What has influenced you most in regards of your character?

Rousseau: What is your main philosophy in life?

Klimt: If you have any; are you very close to your siblings?

Matisse: Does observing other people influence your style?

Kandinsky: How far would you travel in order to study your favorite subject?

Chagall: What 'style' or 'clique' do people typically associate you with?

O'Keeffe: What is your favorite flower?

Rockwell: Did you know from a young age what you wanted to do with your life?

Pollock: How do you define 'art'?

Donatello: Do you feel like you're stuck in someone's shadow?

Botticelli: What would you say your 'trademark' is? In either appearances or personality.

Dürer: Do you take a lot of selfies?

El Greco: Have you ever wished that you could grow a mustache?

Answers:

Picasso: It was probably a very basic and general word, like "mommy". But I do remember my first full sentence, it was "I can do it by myself". A very independent baby as you can see.

Van Gogh: Hard one. I'd probably choose being famous after death, because then people would admire and understand me as a real person (doesn't make a lot of sense, but in my mind does) and not just as a famous person if you get what I am saying. If I were famous and was forgotten after death, that probably means that the thing that I was known for and that I thought had importance, most likely wasn't that important at all. Kind of harsh I know.

Da Vinci: I really wish I had like a main talent, but I was always that kid that liked to do many different things growing up. I would probably say many talents, but I'll have to improve them one day so they can become actually talents, because now they are just things I can do.

Monet: My parents never were strict enough at the point to sugest or make me choose a carrer in life that I did not want, they just want me to be happy.

Dali: All dreams are strange I think, it is hard to have a normal dream, one that is actually close to reality (in my opinion). 

Warhol: Never.

Magritte: Oh gosh, this one is hard. Probably have many relationships, it sounds kind of wrong, but the thought of wondering if there was something better is horrible. It means that you don't really fully love the person you are with.

Titan: I don't know what title is suppose to mean, but I going to give it a try and say "The  organization freak". 

Kahlo: Yes one day, when I am old enough, like in my 30s. I think there is such joy in children, they are so cute and pure.

Renoir: I think the way my parents raised me, but when I was 12 my personality and character changed a little bit. I dicovered that I really enjoyed history and reading and that made me questions a lot of things, probably the one thing  that influenced me the most.

Rousseau: Life is too short, so make the most of it.

Klimt: I have a little brother. I think we are pretty close, we don't have much things to bound about, because of our difference of age, but I really like reading to him and giving advice or just talking about random things actually.

Matisse: Not observing, but if you have a daily interaction with a person, I think some of their personality reflects on you as well as yours reflects on them. But not a lot of my friends like Van Gogh, history, books, balet and other stuff that I am really passionate about.

Kandinsky: Anywhere and everywhere.

Chagall: None at all actually, I hang out with people with different personalities. I really don't think that people should be categorized as a certain style or that they should belong and have interactions with just one group of people.

O'Keefe: Tulips and Sunflowers.

Rockwell: No, I still don't know 100% actually.

Pollock: A beautiful way to show what you are feeling.

Donatello: No, never felt that way.

Boticelli: I am pretty common, I don't have a very different and specific characteristic. At school I'm kind of known for being the "american girl", but that's not at all a trademark. 

Dürer: No, I don't really like selfies.

El Greco: No, I don't think so.

Hope you all enjoyed this post and feel free to answer these questions, specially if you are an art lover like myself. Have a great weekend,


Ana

A Gloomy Sunday At The Beach

In the afternoon we went to the beach just to look how things are going over there. It was a chilly day, winter is almost here, and we could see how the beach was suddenly so different from when in the summer. The ocean was not the same as in December, the waves were a lot closer than usual, but still was a great half rainy day.

I always get carsick, it is terrible, specially when I try to read. I was lucky to have brought my Van Gogh book, so I could admire the pictures without getting too sick. When we got there, my parents and I, we just went to see the ocean and talk for a while. The flowers are dying, but they're still pink, so I had to take some pictures of them.

Percy Jackson Lightning Thief was on Tv this evening, I love the books, but that movie just makes me cringe of how bad it is. I just wish that the movie was at least similar to the books.

Hope you all had a nice weekend,

Ana

Just Another Saturday

It is Saturday again, gosh the week goes by so fast, don't you think? Well, this is going to be a long weekend for me, because I am not going to have school on Monday and neither on Tuesday, so I'm probably going to write more, I hope so, this weekend instead of just writing two posts. 

Today I went to the mall with my mom and brother, I wore denim on denim. It is one of my favorite trends, just so simple and casual, and for the top I wore a grey turtleneck. And then, after, my dad and I went out to visit some museums with his motocrycle, but the museums were all closed, kind of strange. It wasn't a very productive saturday, but tomorrow I am going to the beach, so be ready for some pictures when I come back.

I have a song for this weekend, it is "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran. Everyone has probably heard this song, but it is a very calm song and perfect for saturdays.

Favorite Movies | April

1. The Children's Hour

I love watching old movies, specially black and whites ones. This movie was my first favorite of the month because it stars Audrey Hepburn, and I love her movies so much. But there was one thing that intrigued me the most, the show of the subject homosexuality in the 1960s. I have never seen an old movie show such a controversial topic that it was at the time in a feature film, but I was very happy it did. But in the other hand it made me feel pretty sad seeing that almost 70 years later, society doesn't fully accept the topic. Although it is an old movie, it is very current and contemporary. I highly recommend watching this movie.

      2. Unbreakble Kimmy Schmidt

I am in love with this show, it is just hilarious. I recommended it to all my friends and relatives already, and I am ashamed to say that I finished the first season in 2 days, I know I am addicted. You can find this show on Netflix, in fact it is a show created by it. 

This show has such a unique plot, I've never seen nothing like this before, and the main character is so funny, I just loved it so much. 

      3. Little Birds

I discovered this movie on Netflix, at first I didn't give it much attention, but then I saw the movie poster and I thought it was really pretty and I watched it. It is not a bad or horrible movie, I liked it, it was just different. It has a independent movie feel, I don't know if it is, but it looks like one. I really recommend checking it out if you are in the mood for drama or just want to watch something new.

     4. The Audrey Hepburn Story

This movie is a nice way of learning about Audrey Hepburn's life, what she been through, how she became an actress and other adventures she had. Jennifer Love Hewiit played Audrey and I think she made a marvelous job on representing Hepburn's personality on screen. There was so much I didn't know about Audrey and the struggles she had been through, it made me admire her a lot more as an actress and as a person.

     5.  Girl, Interrupted

This movie is so great, a classic I think. The beauty of it is that it can be interpreted in so many different ways in which makes the movie different for everybody. I just really enjoyed it, it is a little  bit crazy I have to say, but really intriguing.


   6. The Impossible

I finish watching this movie yesterday, but I had to include it in my movie favorites. It is such an emotional movie, I cried in a lot of the scenes. This movie is about the 2004 tsunami that happend at Thailand, and it focuses on a family. The most fenomenal part of all of this is that it is a true story, I not about the tsunami part (because that definitely happend), I'm talking about the family's story. They been through all of that tragedy and survived, it is a beautiful story and makes you reevaluate life. I highly recommend it.




Hope you guys are having a great weekend, and thank you so much for 100 followers on Bloglovin.


Ana 

"I don't know anything with certainly, but seeing the stars makes me dream" - Vincent Van Gogh

Today was a great day ( 7 p.m in Brazil right now), I have already told you guys a million times how much I love Saturdays, but I have to say it again, Saturdays are the best day of the week. Today I went out with my dad and we went to a book fair that my city is going to have for a week. I love going to this book fair, I go to it every single year and never get bored, every year they have something different, like a band playing or a play, it is just so fun.

I found this Van Gogh book, I was so happy because I was looking for this edition for months now. This book is part of a 25 book series about artists and their work, but I could never find the Van Gogh one and I had the luck of finding it today and I only paid 10 bucks for it. Such a great deal!

I got to spend time with my dad today, because we both are so busy during the week that we don't have time even to talk. One thing we both like to do is go out with his motorcycle, he is a huge fan of Harley Davidson since he was a kid and he just got one for himself, and I kind of learned to love bikes too specially HD. I love feeling the wind on my face and it blowing my hair, it just feels like you are flying, like you are free.

Well that was my day, hope you guys had a great Saturday too.

Ana

Liebster Award

As you can read from the title, today I am going to respond to the Liebster Award and I was nominated by Nabila from the blog Nabila's Blog The Journey of My Life. This tag is a great way to dicover new blogs, and it was created specially for blogs that have less than 200 followers. 

Before we start I just want to thank Nabila for nominating me, and make sure you check out her lovely blog. 

Ok. Let's first start with the rules of this tag, shall we?

1. Thank & link the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the nominator’s 11 questions.
3. Nominate 11 small blogs who have less than 200 followers. You should believe that they deserve this award, and include their links in your post.
4. Create 11 new questions for your nominees to answer. Notify these nominees via social media/blogs.

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Here are the questions that Nabila gave me and my answers:

1. What is you current favorite song?   

I am already going to start kind of with a cheat, because I couldn't the choose between two songs. This week I discovered two new songs and let me tell you, I am loving them. The first one is Rules by Nat and Alex Wolff, you know the boys from The Naked Brothers Band? Trust me I was suprised too. But well check the song and the band out, they are awesome I promise you. 

And the second song is  C.O.P.S Came by Em Harriss, I don't know much about the singer because the song was suggested by spotify, but it is such an awesome song, I really recommend it.

     2. Best compliment  you have ever received?

This is a tricky question to answer without sounding superficial, but I do have a compliment that I received by my creative writing teacher that made my day. It wasn't the best compliment in the whole entire world, but it was a nice compliment and I really appreciated. He just said that my writing style was really great and that my essay was very interesting to read.

    3. Ugly and live forever OR pretty and die in a year?

I'm a true believer that there is no such thing as ugly, I think every person is beautiful and it is not society's duty to determine who is pretty or who isn't. You become pretty in the moment you love and accept yourself the way you are. My answer would be than to be "ugly" and live forever, because living forever sounds awesome, imagine living in all generations and compare the world now and then.

   4. What question you hate answering?

This one is easy I think, probably negative questions about my transition to natural hair. People always ask " Your hair was so great straight, why would you go back to curly?" or  "Your hair is so frizzy, why don't you just straighten or relax your hair again?". I don't mind answering about my curly hair, but comments and questions that have a negative tone I won't be so willing to answer.

  

 5. What cheers you up?

A cup of coffee and a piece of cake on Saturday mornings. I know, very specific, but it is 100% the truth. I love waking up early on Saturdays and having breakfast with my family,

6. If you could only have one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Breakfast obviously. I love everything about breakfast.

7.  What age you wish you could be?

Sometimes I wished I was older or I wished that I could go back to when I was 10 or 12, but life is life and well we get older every year, natural. I think I wouldn't never truly wish that I could be older or younger. 

8. The scariest thing you have ever experience?

I don't know how to answer this question, cause I don't remember experiencing something really scary, or half scary or just scarry at all. Well looking at the bright side, that is good right? 

9. What do you do for fun?

Well my fun probably is not everyone's type of fun. I like to go to the movies and bookstores, I read, watch netflix, blog, write, do ballet, bake, watch old movies, go out with friends and there is probably more but i can't remember.

10. Are you an introvert or extrovert?

I like to think of myself as both, but sometimes the introvert inside speaks louder, I like to stay home sometimes by myself with my own thoughts, I really don't enjoy going out partying or going somewhere that is really crowded. I belive that people become extrovert when they talk about things that they really are passionate about, like when I talk about books.

11. What are some of your favorite websites?

Netflix, Bloglovin, Tumblr, Youtube, Barnes&Noble and College Board.

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Well that's all the questions I had to answer, and now it is my time to give the questions and nominate the blogs. Ok, the blogs I nominate are these lovely ones:

• Fi's Little Blog
• Muddy Boots Parallax
• Unauthorized Behavior
• Arts&Graces
• StarInGirl
• Sincerely, Dj
• Golden Afternoon
• Gemlivia 
• The Day In The Life Of...
• Cal On The Move

And here are the questions:

1. Favorite childhood Tv show or cartoon?
2. What's the last book you read?
3. What's your dream job?
4. Where is the last place you traveled to?
5. Why did you start blogging?
6. Do you have a fashion inspiration? If yes, who?
7. What language do you wish you could speak?
8. What is your biggest pet peeve?
9. What's your favorite season?And why?
10. Going to a fancy party and being underdressed OR going to a very casual party and being overdressed?
11. If you could go back in time would you change anything?

If you answer these questions please let me know, I would love to see your answers. Hope you all have a great weekend,

Ana

My Tumblr

I really enjoy tumblr, it is just such an interesting way to share beautiful pictures and really show your personality with a blog. Probably every human being in the world knows what tumblr is and this post is kind of useless, but I just wanted to share my tumblr, not for self promotion or anything like that, but just for fun. I am really liking how my tumblr is looking right now, very simple, light, polish and I love the mint color. I love reblogging art, like Monet and Van Gogh, movies like Clueless and Tv Shows like Friends and Gossip Girl, and of course Audrey Hepburn pictures.


My Tumblr ✿

Hope you are having a awesome weekend, and that you enjoyed this little and simple post. Feel free to follow me on Tumblr and comment your tumblr link down bellow,

Ana

How To Learn a New Language and Improve It | Tips + Apps

                                                   Picture by Kerri Lee Smith | Flickr






 I am not a professional in languages or anything like that, I'm just a teen girl who wants to share her own experiences with foreign languages. I don't remember telling my story in a post before, but if I did I'm just going tell it again. I moved to Brazil when I was just 7 years old, I didn't speak portuguese very well and I had a hard time learning it, actually until this day I get really confused in translating english to portuguese, it's like the words escape from my mind, but it is not a huge problem. I never considered portuguese my second language, I always told myself that both languages were my first language, because I learned them both at the same time and I have the same level of knowledge in both of them. 

 When I was 10 years old, my parents were afraid that I was going to forget english and they enrolld me in a english course, in fact I finished it last year and got my diploma. And this year I decided that I wanted to learn a new language, I thought a lot about which one I should choose and I chose French. I don't think it is a hard language to learn, because of it's similaraty to Portuguese, but of course it is challenging, because I never learned a totally new language before, like without having knowledge of the basics.

I decided today to share some tips on how to start learning a language and improving it, taking as a basis my experience on this topic. These are basic tips that I use and that can become part of your lifestyle and I am sure that it can improve your skills in short time.

1. Practice Everyday

A very simple tip, but very efficient. I study french and english everyday and I can asure you that it makes a big difference. Take a little time to review or learn some new vocab words and grammar everyday and you will master the language in no time. I set myself a goal of 10 vocab words every week, it is the perfect amount to learn, memorize and put it in to use.

2.  Read & Write

I can't tell you enough how reading helped me improve my english and portuguese. I prefer reading books in english by the way. If you are more advanced in your chosen language I say pick up a more complex book, with the classic and formal speaking of the language, that helps a lot on improving vocabulary. 

Writing is very important way to practice your grammar, creating this blog was for me a way to practice my english writing skills and not forgeting it. I really recommend having a journal or just writing essays to exercise your writing and improving it, it really helps.

3. Communicate & Listen

Speaking and listening to other people makes the process of learning a new language so much easier and fun, apart of improving your accent it can make you fluent a lot quicker. Two years ago when I was studying in the U.S, I noticed that my english was a lot better than when I didn't have interaction with others that spoke the language.

Watching movies and listening to music are all fun ways to improve a language. You can learn new words and pay attention to how the language is spoken and much more other benefits. For me what help a lot was youtube videos, I started watching them 4 years ago and it helped me so so much.

4. Travel

 A very efficient way to learn any language, I can asure you. You connect with people, put the language in practice and even learn about the culture of the country you are visiting. Of course if you want to train the language you are studying, you have to go to a language speaking country, like spanish, there is lots of different options like Spain, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru and many others.
There is even the option to study abroad and stay in family houses to learn and experiencie a life in another country.


5. Courses

If you need a little help in learning a language I would  recommend you to enroll in a course. It helps a lot if are not the type of person that likes to teach yourself. Look for a good quality and well known school, look for recommendations and for teachers experiencie, ask if any teachers were born or lived in a country that speaks the language, I think it is very important. A good course is the one which can offer language and culture.


6. Apps

So helpful, especially when there is no time or in a hurry. My favorite app is Duolinguo, it is just so fun to use and you can choose as many language as you want, in my app I have french and italian It is kind of a game, but you are learning with it.

Hope you enjoy this post and that you are having a great Easter Weekend.

Ana