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The Truth About Establishing Routine

This is about to be a really honest post. I have been in Wales for a while now, and the truth is that I have not established proper routines yet. I tend to come home, spend way too much time relaxing, then give up sleep to finish my lesson plans. I have been living in a permanent state of exhaustion. I sleep in way too late on Saturdays and then I start feeling bad. I don’t have enough organisation for proper meal planning, so my eating habits haven’t been great. Soon, I will have to start planning ten hours of lessons a week. At the moment, those are taking me at least two hours to complete. I can’t sustain this way of living. I need to change. To give you some context to this realisation, the people over at  Elysium Health  recently highlighted some of my tips on how to make your day just a little bit healthier. Once the graphic was published, I procrastinated. Then I procrastinated some more. Today, I finally took a good look at the infographic. I was floored by how relevant it

Barry Island, Big Pit, and Caldicot Castle

Well, due to no Internet, I have not been posting at all. Nothing about moving here has been easy. I’ve been thinking about blogging over the past couple Internet-less weeks, and I realized this year will be so fun to share with all of you. I don’t think a lot is going to change, but there will certainly be more travel posts! Today, for example, I’ll share some little trips I’ve been on with my roommates and the Canteach crew. Barry Island   After we got the house sorted out, the team (aka #thegroupoffive) decided to head out on a little day trip. The nice man from the train station had suggested going to Barry Island. It was a beautiful day, so we thought it was perfect. So did everyone else. The beach was absolutely packed with people. We took a walk out to the cliffs and took a gazillion pictures. We have all become each other’s official photographers. It’s adorable. We stopped for some fish and chips (obviously) before heading to the little theme park by

Monthly Favourites - August 2017

Here’s a real question for all you folks: what happened to August? How is it almost September? I really struggled to come up with my favourites this month because I can barely remember what actually happened. With some careful sleuthing of the pictures on my camera and Instagram, I have figured out what I did. Here are my August favourites: 1.        Haven’s Creamery   If you don’t follow me on Instagram ( @daniellaelyse ), you won’t know about my obsession with this ice cream place from back home. I cannot tell you enough about it. It is amazing for so many reasons (locally sourced being one of them), but the reason I love it is because I can actually eat there with my allergy. I spoke to the owner on the phone before my first visit and then went two more times since. The owner actually knows me by name at this point. I am so disappointed that I discovered it two weeks before I left. However, I will be sure to visit when I go home for Christmas (even if there is four feet o

Cardiff Updates

Shall I start this off with the good news? I HAVE A HOUSE! Before I get into that, I am going to start from the beginning. The entire journey here has been quite up and down.  It started in the most heartbreaking way that put a damper on the entire beginning of the trip. I met up with Ericka and Abigail in the airport, and it was all good from there. The flights themselves were alright. I caught up with Kennedy and Erin in London and we decided to take the train to Cardiff. TRAVEL TIP: Do NOT take the train with two massive suitcases. People will judge you for it. And it’s rather difficult. Brilliant thing that happened #1: I made a friend at the train station. He’s one of the guys that blows a whistle at the train driver to tell him to go. We missed our first train, and I asked him what to take next. We got to talking, and it turns out he has been to Canada quite a few times. He gave us water bottles and upgraded us to first class! We did not belong there, and it was wonderf

Monthly Favourites - July 2017

So this is a little late. I've had my monthly favourites list written on my white board forever. I'm also extremely passionate about a few of these products. July was all about working. I didn't do all that much other than work. That comes with its own set of problems which are solved by a couple of these products! 1. Vida Plus Bathing Suit from AdoreMe  First of all, if you have boobs and you have not been measured, get them measured. It will change your life. Once I got measured, I started shopping at  AdoreMe . It's a great online bra/lingerie/pj/bathing suit company. I always find the most amazing deals. I'm a VIP, so they send me a showroom every month. This showed up on it. This  bathing suit  is adorable. I have never been more excited to receive something in the mail. The shape is really flattering on me (sorry I didn't get any pictures of it on me). The straps at the back are cute, and it really is my favourite thing this month. 2. Overnight Oat

Monthly Favourites - June 2017

Someone forgot to tell me it was the end of the month, so I was unprepared for this monthly post. June has flown by. I feel like I just got back from England!  So much has happened this month, and I can thank work for that. The good thing is, I’ve done so much that I had so many ideas for what to share this month! Pluuuuus, stay tuned for my big announcement at the end. I’ve been hinting for so long, and here it is! 1.        Graduation I did it! I graduated on June 13 th ! It feels so weird to have a degree and think back on the past four years. The most surreal part was actually seeing that piece of paper with my name on it. I worked so hard, and I nailed it! It’s sad to think that I will not be returning to King’s in the fall. It has been the most amazing home with the most amazing community. I don’t think I’m ever going to find a community like that again. 2.        Sephora Cream Lip Stain I am obsessed with this stuff. I love a good lip, but I’m also super

Pinterest Challenge - June 2017

End of May/beginning of June was busy. I was on the go all the time, so I needed some easy things. I love breakfast, but I also really like the idea of “grab and go.” I have a couple really great breakfast idea and some smoothies because the weather is getting hot! 1.        Blueberry Muffin Smoothie In an effort to make something yummy as well as healthy when a friend came over, I made this smoothie from Iowa Girl Eats . It was so fantastic. I was slightly thrown off by the lemon zest, but that is what made this smoothie actually taste like a blueberry muffin. Again, this is purely delicious. 2.        Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie I definitely put way too many strawberries in this, but it was not detrimental to the recipe in any way. Happy Money Saver suggests this recipe as a freeze ahead smoothie with the oats (kind of like overnight oats), but I opted out of that for convenience’s sake. It still worked, and it was creamy and yummy. I don’t think it was anyt

The Brontë Parsonage

Well, we’ve reached the final installment of my England travel series. At this point, I don’t even know what I will be writing about next week. I saved the best for last. I have wanted to go on this trip ever since I took a seminar course on the Brontës. I lucked out because an English friend of mine happened to be in England at the same time as me. We decided to meet up and do this trip together! Haworth is where the Brontës lived for most of their life. Haworth itself is picture-esque, and we grew more and more excited as we approached the parsonage.  An incredible amount of care is taken to make sure the parsonage is replicated as close to what it was when the Brontës actually lived there. They have everything down to the wallpaper. It is amazing. There were a few extremely nerdy parts of this walk through. For example, this blurry picture is their table where an E is carved in the surface. E as in Emily Brontë. As in, Emily Brontë carved this. AH! A reall

Conisbrough Castle and York

I am shmooshing (I made that word up) two trips together since one was small and one lacked pictures. We went to Conisbrough Castle on the way to York, and it was wonderful. York is, of course, my favourite place in the entire world. I can’t wait to share it with you! Conisbrough Castle One of my things on my list was to see a castle. I mean, how could you not? I love castles so much. If anyone remembers my Instagram from when I was away, you’ll remember that I kept joking about building my own. I love it. Conisbrough Castle is not a fully constructed castle anymore. It is in ruins, but it is just as beautiful. It’s on a hill, so the views from the single tower are stunning. The whole experience of the castle is done so well. They had videos that explained the different rooms in the tower. The interpretation boards had cartoons that are great for kids (and people who don’t really have an interest in the history of the castle). There are also so many nooks