Getting back into the groove of school is hard after you’ve been off for 6 weeks, so this week I’m bringing you my five of the things I’ve done this week to ease back into a school routine!
1. Get back on a decent sleep schedule
This was the hardest for me, I’m a night owl and could easily be up all night and then sleep all day, but since now I have all 9am classes I took the two days before classes started to get myself back into the habit of sleeping at night and getting up in the morning.
2. Drink water
This might sound weird, its not like you’re sick and ned fluids but I always find that I get dehydrated during the day at school, and then this is turn makes me very very sleepy. So pack some water bottles and stay hydrated!
3. Eat Snacks
This is on the same lines as the water, I also forget to eat a lot when I’m busy with classes so I always make sure to pack snacks so even if I don’t have time for lunch I still have something to keep me going.
4. Write lists
Its hard to remember everything you need to do, or the whole laundry list of books and supplies you need to get. So currently I have three lists, a to-do list, a list of books to buy and a list of art supplies I need. I also find that waiting until the weekend after the first week, once you have had all your classes once is the best time to buy books and supplies, its easiest to just make a list and get them all at once instead of getting stuff each day and then trying to remember what you already bought and such.
5. Be early
The first week I always make sure I am early, this gives you time to make sure you know where your class is being held, and that you know how to get there, and it also gives you some time to grab breakfast!
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I hope everyone survived their holidays, and that Santa (if you celebrate Christmas) was good to you! He was sure good to me, but perhaps a holiday recap later, right now its time for my Friday Fives! Oh and you can participate too! Feel free to talk about five of your own favorite whatever of the week on your own blogs or in the comments!
Top 5 Movies
1. Almost Famous
Sex, drugs and rock n roll! The story is set in the early 70’s, about a boy named William who wants to be a rock journalist. On his first assignment for Cream magazine William meets the ragtag band, Still Water as well as the group of “bandaids” lead by the infamous Penny Lane. William goes on to be asked to write an article for Rolling Stone Magazine and travels around with Still Water. The movie, in my opinion is a classic coming of age story, remember, in the words of Penny “Never take it seriously, you never get hurt. Never get hurt, you can always have fun. And if you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit all your friends.”
2. Lost In Translation
Sophia Coppola’s breath taking and heart breaking beautiful film starting Bill Murrary and Scarlett Johansson. Bob (Bill Murrary) is a declining movie start with a failing marriage and an overwhelming sense of emptiness in life. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is a newly wed whose husband neglects her. While staying at the same hotel in Tokyo, the two somehow meet and form a bond. The movie does a brilliant job of putting you right their with them, you feel the same loneliness, joys and failures.
3. The Life Aquatic (& The Darjeeling Limited…and well anything by Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson is my absolute favorite director. He hasn’t made a film that I didn’t love, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums are all among my favorites, but his two most recent films, The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited in my opinion are the best yet. They are fantastical, the music, colors, actors and settings are always spot on and I would imagine thats a pretty big accomplishment for a director. The Life Aquatic focuses on Steve Zissou, a once revered nature documentary star and his hunt for the jaguar shark that ate his partner Esteban. Along the way we meet Ned, Steve’s “son” (it never becomes fully clear whether he truly is his son or not), see the falling out with his wife, the kidnapping of the bond stooge and so much more. To top is off the entire movie is set to a soundtrack of David Bowie songs redone with acoustic guitar in Portuguese…and it is beautiful. The Darjeeling Limited centers around a family of dysfunctional brothers on a train journey through India, where they slowly reconnect, find themselves, their mother and finally are able to let go of the death of their father. However naturally they manage to get themselves into a trouble, illegal prescriptions, poisonous snakes, all help to get their journey off course and unplugged.
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
This movie is absolutely heart breaking at times, about a couple who erases each other from their memories, only to later meet up again and fall in love again and then find out that they had already knew each other. Clementine is such a crazy free spirit and a really identifiable character for me that it made it hard not to fall in love with this complicated and twisted movie. By the end you will be rooting for Joel and Clem, hoping that it finally works out for them.
5. Empire Records
The well known cult classic from the mid-nineties. About the employees of Empire Records and the shenanigans they get into while trying to save their store from being closed. They are like the quintessential cast of off-beat characters, all ridden with personal problems and their own quirks. Which really just helps to make you love them all the more.
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Every week I am going to post a list of my top 5 of a particular things (i.e. books, movies, ect.). This week I bring to you my…
Top 5 Books
1. Breakfast at Tiffanys:
Technically a short story or “novella” by Truman Capote, a story about the charming Holly Golightly. I adore the character, as well as Audrey Hepburn’s adaptation of her in the motion picture. She is a charecter that I am able to easily relate to, her flighty tendencies and not wanting anything to own her, not even her cat, and “the mean reds”. The character as well as the overall mood Capote gives to the novella have just always stuck with me, thusly earning the book my #1 spot.
2. The Sun Also Rises
Considered Hemmingway’s best novel aside from “A Farewell to Arms”, the story tells of a group of expats living in France (and traveling through Spain), in the 1920’s. Hemmingway vividly paints the scene, of several expats of the Lost Generation, and their desires and anxieties…as well as their inability to truly change themselves or their situations, by the end of the novel none of the characters have drastically changed. The feeling of truly understanding of why this era was called the Lost Generation comes out so vividly in this classic.
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
A modern novel, that will surely become a classic. The story takes place in the early 90’s, in a typical suburb and we receive the story in a series of letters to an unnamed friend, from Charlie, the main character. I often hate “young adult” novels, but this novel, while perfectly capturing so many aspects of adolescence, manages to transcend that category, it takes place fairy recently but still manages to be relatable to those long past their adolescent years. Everyone can relate to Charlie’s downfalls and moments where he feels “infinite”.
4. Running With Scissors
A memoir of author, Augusten Borroughs, childhood life (consequently he has written several other novels and I also highly recommend ”Dry” which is another memoir that fits in after this one). The memoir details Augustens bizarre childhood, starting at age 12, when Augusten is sent to live with his mother’s psychiatrist. Eventually Augusten is able to break out of the insane family and start a new life in New York. The memoir is hilarious, disturbing and at times almost heart breaking, its very hard to not become invested in the characters and love Augusten by the end.
5. Catcher in the Rye
One of the most controversial yet revered novels of the 20th century. J.D. Salinger’s character, Holden Caulfield, has become one of the biggest icons for teenage defiance and rebellion. The novel is written in the first person and details Holden’s experiences wandering NYC after his expulsion from school. Although referred to in the very first chapter, it does not become fully clear until the end that we are reading Holden’s writing of these events from a mental institution where he has been placed. We eventually get to see Holden realize that there is no way to preserve childhood innocence, that everyone must grow up and make mistakes in life. This novel has become a classic and is now included in the English curriculum for most high schools, it has become an integral part of classic literature and is a must read for anyone who has not yet read it.
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