8 Saving Techniques

Now I am a college student on a limited income, so I have to try and make my dollar stretch.

1. Try and make a budget- Write down what you spend everyday in a notebook or in an excel spreadsheet. You will see over time where your money is going and where to cut down.

2. Pay attention into what pits you are throwing your money into- I realized that I was going out to eat way to often and buying a lot of coffee. Slowly I began to make my own coffee and making my own food at home. 

3. Use only cash!- Credit cards for emergencies but use cash, because once it's gone it is gone. 

4. Save your change- Have a jar that you put your small change in everyday. If you follow number 3 then you will always have change left over, just put that in that jar and count it when you decide too.

5. Pay-as-you-go phones- Last year my contract was up and I was  in the market for a new phone. After shopping around and doing my budget. I realized I could afford an iPhone, but I didn't want to pay for it. So I decided to get a go-phone and I pay 35 bucks a month for unlimited text, data and (I think) 150 mins. Now it isn't ideal and I sometimes wish I had a new smartphone, but I realized that it is a want and not a necessity. 

6. Necessity vs Want- I remember a conversation I had with my father when I was a freshman, I told him that I 'needed' this purse. He corrected me and told me that I 'wanted' that purse, I can survive without it and I did. With that being said you must evaluate the necessities and wants in your life.

7. Put a portion of your weekly income away into savings.

8. Set goals for yourself.

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Ireland: Aran Islands Part 2

My friend and I decided to head for the black fort on Inis Mor. We had asked a store owner and received the most confusing directions ever. Despite having been in Ireland for 6 weeks there were still some things I found confusing. Instead of streets, he gave directions in markers. For example: instead of telling us to keep going straight until we hit the turquoise house, he told us to make all these turns, but in reality it just were markers. Fortunately we figured that part out after the first mistake. That's one thing to keep in mind when visiting the area is realize the context in which they give directions. Very important, this must be part of what people call 'culture shock'.

The town off into the distance

Our cow friends, they were extremely friendly and liked to be petted. They must be used to passerbys because they ran up to us. When we began walking away they stood there and watched us walk away.

Rocks!

Rocks that are shaped like an arch!

More Rocks!

Fields of rocks!

Our friend coming to greet us on our way back to town

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Tailgating/ Game ootd

Edit: I have noticed that many of my viewers are not American. So let me explain what it is, it is big (especially in the southern region of the U.S). It is essentially a party before the football (American) game. A group of friends, colleagues, family or whoever, they all meet up before the game and have an outdoor barbecue. There is food being cooked, drinks are being drunk and people are getting drunk. Everyone is wearing the team's colours. The reason it's called tailgating I believe is because usually everything is being held out of a pickup truck. About an hour or so before the game everything gets packed up and then everyone walks to the stadium for the game. It is an extremely fun event, I love it. 

What I wore:

Pearl Earrings- my mother's  They're mine now.

Dress- Artsy Abode

Boots- American Eagle

Necklace- Etsy

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How to know you're a College senior

*Disclaimer* This is based on my own personal realizations and some that I have heard in passing.

1. You realize that you have to be a responsible adult now, you may have pushed your graduation date because you're not ready to pay for everything. Now you have to find a real job! A waitress is no longer good enough for you college grad. Better find a desk job.

2. Everyone and their mother is asking you 'What are you going to do after you graduate?' The proper answer is not cry yourself to sleep every night, even though that's what you're going to be doing.

3. On top of your course load you make plans to study for the GRE because why fool yourself, as if you're going to find an adult job right after graduation. Might as well go back to school.

Stay in school kiddos

4. You start thinking of all things you haven't done in your college years and try to get them done before you graduate.

5. You make sure all of your classes are in the afternoon and no classes on Friday. Thirsty Thursdays anyone?

6. Friends? Best Friends? You stopped seeing them regularly sometime between sophomore and junior year because all of you are so busy that you make time to see each other every few weeks. After days of trying to eat lunch with friends, you deal with eating by yourself.

Table for 1, please.

7. You can pick the freshmeat (freshman) out of a lineup. Put that campus map away and don't ask me - who has headphones and sunglasses- for directions. There is an app for that.

8. Your daily outfit for campus is comfortable. You probably stopped dressing up freshman year. Today's ootd? Just rolled out of bed.

9. You apply for graduation and start thinking on how to design your cap. I'm not going to tell you what it is! It's a surprise :).

10. You've used the same backpack for years and now it's falling apart but you don't want to buy a new one because you're about to graduate.

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Aran Islands, Ireland - Part 1

    My very last destination of travel before returning to the U.S was to the Aran Islands. I met with a friend of mine from site and we met in Dublin to take the bus out to Galway so we could take the ferry the next day. We had some misfortunes that day because our bus ended up breaking down and we had to wait 45 mins for another bus to pick us up and take us to Galway. So we were 45 minute behind schedule and we ended up making another stop along the way in a town for about 20 mins. In total we were over an hour off schedule and we would not have been able to make the ferry that day, so we held it off and just waled around Galway a bit.
    Galway is a nice seaside town but honestly I dislike it very much, not really at any fault to the town but the fact that every time we visited something went wrong.

The ferry to the Aran Islands leaves from Galway which is why we were there. We bought our tickets for 26Euros and met the bus at 9am. The company is named Aran Island Ferries (straight and to the point, I like it.) We visited the island Inis Mór because that best fit our schedule and it is the biggest of the 3 islands. These islands are known for their wool which they make into sweaters, hats, gloves etc etc. I have a scarf and a sweater that I bought in Dublin that originates from these islands.

We got to the islands and it is lovely, a small town with a population of 800, it is known for their pride of everything Irish, they even speak it there. We had gone into a pub for lunch and we heard the customers speaking to the bartender in Irish. It was awesome to hear the language spoken.

For people wondering where to leave your luggage, you can leave it on the island and pay one of the shopkeepers 1 euro and they'll take care of it.

The town in the faroff distance when walking to the Black Fort.

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10 Tips for College Freshman

I will be making a video about this but I wanted to write it down first. Now this semester I have a class where the majority are freshman and I see them making some mistakes that I have learned not to make over the years. So these are my tips that I have learned from my undergraduate years.

1: Ratemyprofessors.com- It's a great resource when you're a freshman or sophomore and still have multiple sections and professors to choose from for a single class. Also helps you figure out what the class will be like.

2. Slugbooks.com - This site compares prices of textbooks. Personally I like half.ebay.com and I always buy my textbooks from them. Now because of ratemyprofessor I can look up if the professor uses the book so I can buy the book ahead of time for the cheapest price possible. Now you can watch the savings come rolling in!

Now when your dorm AC isn't working you can use your money to fan yourself!

3. Go to office hours- professors don't care about you if they don't know you, it is the simple truth. Also if your plan is to go to some sort of postgraduate school you will need some recommendation letters. Those professors who know you as a person and not just a grade are most likely to write you some awesome recommendation letters.

4. Use a planner- learn to use it for time management, you will need to use those skills when you're a Junior or Senior.

Even comes with stickers!

5. Stop wearing your high school sweaters, shirts. Everyone will know you're a freshman and you're in a new chapter of your life; you won't need to live in the past.

6. Join a club, organization or go greek- Universities are huge and it's easier to make friends in organizations because most people wear headphones and sunglasses when walking around campus or on the bus. Also this helps find future roommates, I have heard too many horror stories of kids having to resort to Craigslist or a roommate match up.

Nobody messes with my clique.

7. Learn to cook and eat somewhat healthy- Freshman 15/30/50 exists.

An example of not what to eat on the daily.

8. Do not be that one kid who gets overly drunk at parties- Learn your limits and don't go past them.

9. Break out of your shell- Try new things, even I did Army ROTC for sometime.


Last but not least

10. GO TO CLASS- All this money  is being shelled out for your education. Don't be that one kid who had no idea there was an exam. You'll need all those A's to keep your GPA up when you're in 3000 or 4000 courses. Also don't take all of your elective classes your freshman and sophomore years, you'll need those to make the course load easier when you're in your core classes.

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London Part 4: Tower of London Parte Deux

That is the extent of my knowledge of French. Well not entirely true I could find the nearest restroom and such if need be, and that would be the extent of my French. Luckily I speak Spanish, so I could get by okay in a French speaking area.

This is the final installment of my Tower of London posts. As I have said before it is a HUGE location and is best known for its bloody past and its ghosts (if you believe in that sort of thing). There is one thing I loved about the location is that they have actors who reenact scenes that give light into the ToL's past. There was one which was an argument between a constable and a coin-maker, from what I recall from memory they used speech that is best associated with Middle English but wasn't pure Middle English. I am sure this is to ensure that the public understands them. For my readers who are unaware of Middle English, the best example I can give is Shakespeare for the usage of thou and thy and the suffix -est for verbs. 

Moving on to the best part: the pictures!

The White Tower- I mentioned this in the last post. It was the most fortified portion of the castle and is where the King lived. It contains the Royal Armoury, which you can see the armour of past knights and Kings.

Armour of King Henry VIII. I think he was overcompensating for something. Hmmmm

Yes that's a dragon.

Some were imprisoned in this tower, those imprisoned made use of their time by carving into the stone walls. There was even a prisoner who wrote a book that was published in the 1600's. One was imprisoned because he was thought to be a sorcerer, he made use of his time by  carving a astronomical clock that can be seen below.

Hugh Draper of Bristol who was thought to be a sorcerer carved this clock into the wall of his cell.

A diagram that showed the Tower of London during the time of the Peasant's Revolt in 1381.

Another tower that held prisoners during the 16th-17th centuries but its original use was as a guards tower.

The carving within the Broad Arrow Tower that was by a Catholic priest.

The famous Bloody tower. This where the 'little princes' were murdered. I remember watching an episode on the Discovery Channel as a child that spoke of these 2 princes and how they had recovered their bones. This is the reason why it is called the Bloody Tower because they are believed to have been murdered in this tower by their uncle. It was also used for imprisonment of other folks.

 Well that concludes this portion of the Tower of London. I would love to go back and explore some more!

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Ghosts of Tower of London?

I was messaged by a friend who is a viewer who wanted to see my throne room pictures from the Tower of London. I decided to post them for your amusement, I had a lot more of these type of pictures of ToL but I deleted them without a  second thought. With that being said, if there are other kinds of pictures you want to see that you don't see on my posts. You may ask and I will see if I have them!

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The Southern preps guide to packing for 6 weeks of Ireland's summer

Now to let you guys know my personal style is more preppy but in a southern sense.  Southerners are known for being very colourful with their outfits. The best example I can think of is Lilly Pulitzer, most of my items from her are not clothing but accessories because I like Tommy and RL for clothing. This is what I packed and wish I packed for the trip. It was an archaeology field school so my clothing options were limited and I wore certain clothes for the site and others for outings. Perhaps I'll do a post on what to bring for an archaeology site. I had to bring the large suitcase so I could have clothes to where for different occasions when not on site but the non-site clothes I brought would have fit into a carry-on.

I also brought a backpack with me which I carried on the plane. I had 2 shirts, a weeks worth of undergarments, some basic toiletries, and pair of shorts. I did this just in case my luggage got lost and I still had some clothes with me to get by until I could get it back. I learned that part through a friend's experience whose luggage got lost when en route to Italy.

I had brought 4 pairs with me. The boots I wore for site and some of the hiking I did around. Since they were bulky I wore them on the plane and a pair of Sperry in my backpack's bottle pockets.

I brought 2 swimsuits because the condo had a pool and I was planning trips to places where I could go swimming in the Lakes/Oceans. For Glendalough, Fowey, Tintagel.

2 AE Artist jeans, Adidas shorts, Yoga pants, AE shorts. I also wore the Adidas and Yoga for sleeping.

4 Button-up shirts; they're classic and in style no matter where you are in the world

A sweater, I also brought a raincoat with me.

4 regular shirts that are for nice dinners and lounging around

All in all I chose clothes that I could mix and match and make different outfits with, so I chose the colours to be blue, white and pink. All of which I could mix together and jeans, yoga pants go with everything. Don't forget your sunglasses, I brought wayfarers and aviators with Lilly Pulitzer croakies. 

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