BLOGMAS - A Letter to Autumn

Dear Autumn,

You've come and gone again this year and you're still my favourite season.
I want to apologize to you, first of all, if I was too busy to live you as fully as I wanted. Sometimes my mind seems to become so foggy that I only see my to-do list and not the beautiful colours of the leaves.

Thank you, Autumn. Thank you for making the trees so beautiful that, whenever I'm in the car with my parents or my friend Rita, I point at them and say "Look at the beautiful trees!". Thank you for the man who sells chestnuts at the door of the Hospital, the smoke and the smell completing the beautiful setting of the red and orange trees.

Thank you for the beautiful pink, orange, red sunsets. Thank you for making them so beautiful that I have to stop whatever I'm doing to look at them. And, if that makes me a crazy person, I'm so glad that I'm crazy enough to look closely at beautiful things.

Thank you for warm drinks, shared with friends at coffee shop tables, along with deep conversations. Thank you for those friends and those conversations that fill my soul.

Thank you for Halloween, that weekend when I was feeling anxious beyond measure, but getting to celebrate Halloween, my sister's birthday and Ana's birthday took my mind off things and made me feel sane enough to make it through the rest of the semester.

Thank you for the beginning of the Christmas season. For the lights in the street, for the beautiful Christmas tree I made with my family, for the Christmas shopping that I'm proud to have completed before today, the day you leave.

Thank you for amazing movies, beautiful books, trips to the library, study afternoons, acoustic music, walks with a camera in my hand.

Thank you, Autumn. See you next year!

BLOGMAS - November Throwback

Hey lovely folks!
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I've decided to blog as much as I can in this lovely month of December.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (cue Michael Bublé song in the background) and that makes me feel so very happy, despite the proximity of exams!

To begin with, I'm going to do a small throwback to the month of November, which seemed like a really long month because so much has happened!

November was a month of sunset-watching. I am that person who looks at the sky in awe of the lovely colours and, this past month, I watched really beautiful sunsets + the lovely supermoon, staring at me as I walked home.

It was a month of new friendships and of strengthening ties with people around me. I gained a really close friend in November and I'm really thankful for that. I also reunited with old friends, got to know updates on their lifes and to reminisce about our past, which was lovely! Overall, I'm so glad I have such amazing friendships in my life and I'm thankful that I'm someone who loves people, as it brings me so much joy.

I watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them with friends and I loved it so much, I'm dying to watch it again. I love how JK Rowling didn't try to make it the new Harry Potter, but created a whole new universe with clever references to the HP one. Newt Scamander is now one of my favourite characters of all time, I love how sweet and caring he is! And I loved the fantastic beasts 😍

I struggled with anxiety and watched my friends go through it too, but I'm learning how to cope with it and how to practice self-care so that I'll feel better, and I try to help my friends do the same.

I worked a lot for college, but I'm so happy that I'm studying to do what I love. I went to a Medical Students Conference and it helped reminding me why I get through months of studying, writing projects and doing exams.

I also spent time with my family and Nico the cat. There's nothing like the comfort of my own home, and I'm thankful that I have somewhere I can feel so warm and cosy.

Good food + good friends make a great life!

lots of love,

Mariana

the girl who loved autumn.

As you may have noticed in this blog, autumn (fall) is my favourite season.

Everything changes in autumn: a new school year starts, friendships are rekindled, new exciting adventures begin; all of this under beautiful pink sunsets or by the candlelight, wearing a comfy sweater and drinking tea.

To me, it is a season filled with excitement of what's to come. New parties, new friends, new challenges, but also the same old Halloween movies, scones recipes, old sweaters.

lots of love,

Mariana

stuff I'm thankful for: October

I've always found that listing the good things that have happened in a period of time helps me put my life in perspective: do the good things outnumber the bad ones? If not, what can I do to improve my life right now? That's why this idea came up: from now on, at the end of each month, I will write a list of the good things that have happened, so that I can reflect upon them and feel more thankful.

October has come and gone so fast! I can't believe it's November already: it seems like Christmas will be here any minute! Not that I'm complaining, because it's my favourite holiday. :)

From all the things that have happened this past month, I am especially thankful for:

• Getting to know my new classmates better - 12-hour-long school days become more bearable when you are surrounded by funny people!
• Hanging out with my best friends from uni. One of them had never seen the Harry Potter movies before (shame!!!) so, every now and then, we go to her house to show her these masterpieces. We also end up having good food, deep, meaningful talks and a great time overall.

• Lifelong friends who know your heart, and who never leave even though most people do.
• A boyfriend who, despite having lots of tests and stuff to study, always makes time to be with me. I've been learning that, in a relationship, it's not enough to have affection for the person. You have to keep choosing them, in order to love them better. Even if that means that most of your dates are study dates.
• Analog photography. I've been experimenting with it  and I'm loving the results! I love capturing candid moments and beautiful landscapes, even if the price of it requires me to be more selective.
• Festive occasions - in this case, Halloween. It's only a recent tradition in my country, but I still decorated my house for it, and I loved giving candy to the kids who went trick or treating in my neighbourhood! I think it's great that these kids are leaving their TVs and computers to get to know their neighbours better.

• The beautiful sunsets of Autumn. I've been sharing lots of pictures on Instagram of the breathtaking sunsets I get to see.
• Stepping on crunchy leaves!!

• My new rain boots. I can jump on puddles of water with them. Yaaaay!

Well, that's all, folks - let's see what November brings!

lots of love,

Mariana

lovely sunday.

Yesterday, I had such a lovely day. It was a perfect Autumn day which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, so I decided to share it with you all, so that you can share some of my joy.

I woke up to an amazing breakfast, with many different types of bread and freshly brewed coffee. My sister's best friend had slept over, so it was kind of a special occasion. The whole family ate at the table and it was lovely.

Then, it was time for church. I was wearing a skirt, which always makes me feel happier. We even met a new seminary student who is doing an internship at our church! It was really nice to worship and sing, as always. 

Lunch - turkey with pineapple - was delicious, and since it was sunny, we could eat outside. Our friend the fat cat passed by as usual, the birds were singing and it was a great meal. It tasted great especially because we were really hungry!

After lunch, my boyfriend came over, so that we could study together. (Yes, we were completely focused!) My parents made us coffee and we sat, opened our computers (which look the same but in different colours) and studied the afternoon away! Since we're both med students (at different colleges though), we can help each other.

At around five, I decided to bake scones. (I think I may be a British woman in a parallel universe). My boyfriend and I made the scones, my sister and her friend set the table and made tea. We all sat around the table again, ate and chatted happily over tea cups. My aunt and my little cousin came over, and they got to eat scones as well!

Then, we went back to study for a bit, until my guy and my sister's friend had to go home. It was lovely to have them over, because it felt like we were all a huge family.

Finally, my parents, my sister and I had raviolis for dinner (yum yum!) and binge-watched ER until it was time to go to bed.

It was a perfect ending to a perfect day!

love,

Mariana

#8 favourite season

Hello lovelies! A whole week of September has flown by, leading me closer to the beginning of the school year and all the excitement and anxiety that follow. With it, I've been writing for the Blog-tember Challenge for a whole week! More than I thought I could keep up with. Yay for me! It's been so much fun!

Today's prompt is: Tell us about your favorite season. Why is it your favorite and what does it say about you?

As you can probably guess from the picture above, my favourite season is autumn! This picture was taken last year with my old phone's camera, near my university. The colours of the leaves were so beautiful that I didn't mind looking like a fool, taking pictures with my old Nokia in the middle of the street!

Here are some of the reasons why I love Autumn so much:

the colours. In my city, there are lots of trees everywhere, and when fall begins, the leaves acquire beautiful colours of red, yellow and brown. It's magical to just walk around the streets of Porto and marvel at their beauty during autumn.

the clothes. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to think about knee socks, woolen sweaters, my brown boots, autumn dresses, plaid shirts, warm scarves... I love seeing myself in those outfits, when you can wear comfy clothes without the "freezing to death" feeling of winter.

the feeling of imminent change. Autumn comes with the beginning of a new school year, and new beginnings make me feel excited. There's so much uncertainty, but I can only hope and work towards a great year. I end up feeling more inspired during fall.

the food. With the colder days, come the cups of tea (I'm a massive tea drinker), the scones, the mug cakes... all the sweet treats I indulge in to keep myself motivated, haha. I love going to coffee shops with my love, eating delicious cakes and drinking tea or coffee.

the proximity to Christmas. Christmas is my absolutely favourite time of the year! I love singing Christmas songs, decorating the Christmas tree, buying gifts for my loved ones... and all this Christmas-related stuff starts on autumn, so there's one more reason for me to love it.

These are just some of the reasons. I think that Autumn is the season that resonates with me the most, as a self-proclaimed outgoing introvert, because I get to meet lots of people and to find a new reality every year, but I can always go home, sit on the couch with a blanket on my legs and a cup of tea on my hand and read lots and lots of books. It's a season of change, but also a season of comfortable things; the weather is unpredictable, and so am I. It's also that time in the year when I can actually say:

I feel SO excited for Autumn as I write this. I can't wait to get out of my house and be able to step on the crunchy leaves! 

What's your favourite season, and why?

Lots of love,

Mariana