GAP YEAR POST: NOVEMBER - AN UPDATE

Hey everyone!

As you might have noticed I haven't been very active on here lately. There have been a few things going on last month and also I didn't feel like writing a gap year update every week would be very interesting since I don't do a lot of exciting things on a weekly basis. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to write a gap year post once a month.

Last month I went to London for a few days with my mom to check out some universities there. There are some universities that I can apply to without having to show a portfolio of artworks to get into the film course and that is something that does not exist in the Netherlands. I'm really happy about having the possibility to apply to these courses since that means I will be almost certain that I'll get to start studying next year.

It was my first time ever in London and also in England, and I was so excited since this country and city somehow have always appealed to me. Therefore I was kind of scared that it would all be very different and possibly worse than I thought it would be, but this was absolutely not the case. I had the best few days in London and I think I fell in love with the city a little. All the typical pubs, bars and restaurants were so lovely and being there really made me feel like I was in Britain. Also, the people in London where so polite, welcoming and willing to help, something that really caught my attention since I therefore do think the people in England are more hospitable than in the Netherlands.

So after all my impression of London was great and I think studying there would be an unique and unforgettable experience. I'm still working on a portfolio but I'm afraid I won't have enough work to show to get into an arts school, neither in the Netherlands or in London. However, I'll keep trying and  I will apply to those courses as well as to the ones I won't need a portfolio for. Things are really confusing at the moment since I have absolutely no idea where I'll be studying next year and how to make the right decision on choosing courses and universities. Also, moving on my own to another country seems both terrifying and super exciting at the same time. It is just so hard to make up my mind about it all. But I'll just keep going and take it step by step, and we'll see at which uni I'll eventually be accepted and will start my course.

The rest of November wasn't very exciting for me, I saw some friends, which was really great since I could catch up on everything they had experienced as students the past weeks. It was just so nice to see everyone again.

Hopefully, December will be better than the past few months have been. Since I'm home all the time I'm very focused on achieving things and improving myself. I try to do something useful every day but that is kind of freaking me out because when I feel like I haven't done anything useful on a certain day that day turns into a disaster in my head.

At least December started off as a good one for me. I FINALLY passed my practical driving test, which means I can soon pick up my license and then I'll be able to drive on my own. I'm so happy about this since it took me quite some time to pass and I'm now finally done with that. I don't know if I believe in destiny but this somehow seems to make things come together for a bit. It's like I'm getting closer and closer to starting my 'adult life' in the best way possible.

That's it for now, I'll probably soon write another post about a film or something fashion related, so stay tuned!

Love,

Leyla

A Film Review: Pretty In Pink

Hi!

So today, I thought it was time for something different than the usual gap year posts.
I've mentioned that I was thinking about writing film reviews in earlier posts and today, the moment is finally here. I'm pretty excited to write these since I feel like I can now write about something a bit more concrete.

Beforehand I do have to admit that I'm not a film expert (I wish!), and these reviews will mostly be about my own opinion about the films in general. I wish I had more knowledge on films to be critical but hopefully that will come sometime soon.

So for now, here it is; my first ever film review: Pretty In Pink

This film had been on my list for quite some time and every once in a while I would check Netflix to see whether it was in their collection or not. After being disappointed several times, I was browsing my Netflix dashboard once again to suddenly see it was there. Finally, no hard decisions on what to watch that night; I instantly pressed play.

Pretty In Pink is a movie from the eighties written by John Hughes, who I think is one of the most iconic filmmakers of that decade, especially considering films about life as a teenager. He is responsible for several movies from the eighties that are about teenage life and I think he managed to do a great job on that. Like in his iconic movie the Breakfast Club, which is one of my favourites.
He perfectly shows the differences between teenagers and the way they act and think, especially the differences between high school stereotypes seem to play a big part in his work.

Pretty In Pink was the second John Hughes film that I watched and just like in more of his films, one of the main parts is played by actress Molly Ringwald. In this movie she plays teenager Andie Walsh, who is living alone with her unemployed dad in one of the bad neighborhoods of her town. Her friend Duckie has a secret crush on her. At school Molly, Duckie and their other friends are considered the unpopular kids and are frequent targets of bullies: the rich kids. Although Molly therefore actually dislikes all the rich people in her school, a relationship between her and ''richie" Blane develops. This causes trouble; not only do both Molly's and Blane's friends disagree with their relationship, seeing each other is hard for them as well and they both question their relationship because they have a different "social status". However, when Blane asks Molly to prom, which she had always refused to go to, she is overjoyed. But there is trouble in paradise when Blane doesn't show up on one of their dates and Molly loses all faith in their relationship. Suddenly, prom seems even worse to Molly than it did before. Meanwhile, Duckie has realised that Molly is not interested in dating him and he is so mad at her for dating Blane instead, that he avoids her and ignores her as a friend. Without Duckie and Blane, Molly seems helpless, but now she has changed her opinion on going to prom she
won't give that up so easily.

What I really love about this movie, as well as The Breakfast Club and many other movies from some years ago, is the kind of 'retro feel' that it has. Not only is the whole setting of course in 80's style, there is just something about the sound and the cinematography that really gives the movie this kind of blurry, vague feeling. Not that the quality is notably blurry or anything like that, but I don't really know how I can describe it ohterwise. I guess that it's just the difference in filmmaking techniques and equipment in comparison to films that are made nowadays. I actually really love this somehow, maybe because it looks a bit more casual than the films of today, and also kind of old-fahsioned.

I also liked the characters in the film a lot, especially Duckie. Although he's an unpopular kid, I think he is the best dressed character of the whole school. I just loved his style and how funny he is. Just like Duckie, I think Molly had a really fancy style as well, and although Duckie is actually having a crush on her, I do think that they are the best friends. The way that they dress shows that they kind of make a team, and the way they get along with each other as friends is just so nice to see. I also liked the whole stereotype thing that is going on in the film. You can clearly see the difference between the popular and the unpopular kids, not only in the way they are dressed but also in their behavior. This is something that John Hughes is well known for and I totally understand that.

Furthermore, the storyline was quite classic with the unpopular girl dating the popular guy, and then the struggles they have and the fact that their friends totally disagree with their relationship and get in the way of it. Then, it all goes wrong and the relationship seems to be over. What happens at the end of the movie I won't tell, you should just go see for yourself. Another thing that you should definitely keep in mind is all the music used in the movie. I got some great new tunes to add to my Spotify after watching. I just loved the songs used in the film, especially the one called Copocabana (what? you'll know it when you hear it ;)

After all, I absolutely enjoyed watching Pretty In Pink. Although I don't think the storyline was that exciting, I just loved the characters, feel and music in the film and it is therefore definitely worth watching.

Hopefully, you enjoyed reading this first film review and I can say I will soon write another one.

Love,

Leyla

Gap Year Weeks 4 & 5: an update: I need change

Hi dear readers!

I'm so sorry for skipping the Gap Year Post of last week, I just really wasn't feeling it and I thought I didn't have anything interesting to share with you.
However, then I realised that the fact that I was feeling down and felt like I had nothing to share was actually what I should be writing about on here. I knew that when I decided to drop out of uni this would eventually happen to me. I mean, being stuck at home day in day out isn't exactly something that can make you happy, at least, I don't think so.

Although I haven't been bored for one single day (well done, me), I have been thinking. a lot. way too much actually. Because I don't have a lot to do I do have a lot time to think, and I really worried way too much about my future. This gap year is like a clean slate to me and I took it hoping that I would get the chance to develop myself more, considering knowledge about all kinds of things (inlcuding myself), skills I want to learn and experiences I want to gain. Being home and doing things I like surely adds up to that, but I found myself thinking instead of doing most of the time. This is such a mind-killer I guess, because it can easily get you into a downward spiral of dark thoughts and worries. That is something that I've realised now, and I now also know that if I do want to get the best out of this year and do everything I can to pursue my goals, I will need to stand up from my chair and start doing something. That is definitely what I'm aiming for right now, and that includes this blog. I really enjoy writing and I want to try my best to make my post more interesting to read, and also to add better pictures to them. I hope you will stick with me as I sort all of this out, and that I soon will be able to write about all kinds of adventures on here.


Lots of Love,

Leyla

Gap Year Week 3: Fair & Food

Hey guys!

This post is about last week, the third week of my gap year. Again, I can't believe it is only three weeks ago since I quit university. On one hand, time has gone really fast, but on the other, really slow since I feel like I've been at home for months (actually, that's almost true if you would forget about the three weeks I spent at school between my actual summer holidays and the gap year ;). 

Last week wasn't a very special week. I honestly don't even remember most of the things I did because they probably weren't that special. I do want to share with you that I'm still reading Les Misérables and that I'm also still enjoying it. I'm trying hard to finish it as soon as possible so that I can write a review for you guys. 

Another thing that I want to do a review about soon is films. I watched the 80's film Pretty In Pink last week. I absolutely love all kinds of old films and this one had been on my list for quite some time. It was fun to watch and my love for films makes me want to write reviews about them on here, so hopefully that will be happening soon.

One slightly bigger thing I did last week for which I actually had to get out of the house, was going to a funfair just across the German border, which I live very close to. They have this yearly fair over there which is the biggest one I've ever been to. They have loads of amusement attractions and even a rollercoaster. One thing that is even a bigger part of the fair than the attractions, is the food. I swear there was more food over there than other attractions, which I honestly loved. All the food-stands looked so pretty and the whole atmosphere was just lovely, it reminded me of a Christmas fair, a thing that is also quite big in Germany. Me and my friend had way too much food over there, but I think I could afford eating so much since I had just been riding my bike to his house, which took me more than an hour.

Just to give you an impression of how delicious all the food was, here are some pictures. The first one is a fried 'potato spiral' dipped in herbs, this was sooo good! But I especially loved the churros on the right picture. I had been looking forward to eating them on Saturday during the entire week because they were so good the last time I had them at the same funfair.

On Sunday, I went to see two of my other friends, and again, there was food. We made pizza together and it was absolutely delicious. I hadn't had pizza in months and so this was so good. I avoid consuming lactose since I have a hard time digesting it but I found cheese without lactose and so I was able to eat a pizza again. Since I hadn't eaten it in such a long time it was the most delicious pizza ever. We got the dough at the supermarket, then put whatever we liked on it and put in in the oven. It was super easy to make and like I already wrote; so.good. Afterwards, we watched a movie and we had some soy ice cream, which was actually pretty tasty.

I don't have a lot more interesting things to tell you about last week, so I won't make this post any longer than this. Hopefully you like my blogs so far. I feel like my posts aren't that exciting yet but I'll hopefully write some reviews and maybe some fashion stuff soon!

Hoping everyone has a good week so far!

Xx Leyla

Gap Year Week 2: Letters & The Cold

Hi there!

I can't believe it's only the third week of my gap year as I'm writing this. I feel like I quit college months ago and that I have been home much longer than two weeks. Although I don't feel bored yet because there are many things I still want to do, I find myself getting sad over the cold weather and the fact that I live in a boring, small village with nothing to do. The idea to just step on a plane and leave for a sunny destination comes up in my mind every once in a while. However, I haven't planned any kind of trip yet. There are still a lot of things I can do from home and I also don't feel like I can afford to travel right now. So, I just try to keep myself busy and entertained.

Last week, it was really cold and cloudy outside, and the weather hasn't changed much over the days. I guess fall is really getting here right now. The leaves are still green but the weather itself is kind of depressing. I do love the colours of autumn and all the coziness that comes with it, but since I'm forced to be home all the time, there isn't really a feeling of being happy to come home in a warm house after a long day, because I don't have anywhere to be. On one hand, that is a great thing because I have all the time to do whatever I want, but over the past days I've realised being home all day, every day, is not a great thing. I think it's important to have places to go, things to do and to keep moving forward somehow. I still do try to keep going forward however, through doing a lot of reading, writing, playing my guitar etc. and I think that if I keep doing that, I might be really happy after this year because I'll learn so much of that. Yet, I need something to look forward to, I want to do something big this year because this is my chance; nothing really keeps me here. I think the coming days or weeks I will work on that, and think about what I really want to do this year. Also, I'll have to make a plan concerning my studies next year, because I definitely want to go back to college.

Last week wasn't a really special week. Like I wrote before, it was quite cold outside and I felt cold all the time because of that. I spent some time answering a letter from one of my penpals. It is just a really relaxing thing to write a long letter, then decorate it and I also love attaching cute things to my letter, because I know it is just great to get an envelope with loads of nice stuff in it. On Thursday, I went to a friend who is taking a gap year too. This was a great excuse to ride my bike since she lives about 10 kilometers away from me. I used to ride my bike to school every day when I was still in high school, and I really enjoyed the view around me and listening to music on my way back then. Although it was a long ride, I kind of miss it now. Me and my friend had a sleepover and watched a movie. Plus, we had a lot of food. This is another thing I'm kind of concerned about. Now I'm home so much and I don't really go to the gym or anything like that, I need to make sure I don't eat too much. This can be challenging, though, because I just LOVE food.

On Saturday evening, two of my cousins came over. It was so nice to catch up with them because I hadn't seen them in a long time and we had a great evening. Then Sunday came and I was afraid that I would really have a bad day like the Sunday before. Although every day can be seen like some sort of Sunday for me, I still don't really like the Sunday vibe because most of the time everyone is bored at home, especially now it's getting colder. However, I was happy because me and my mum went to Ikea. I needed a desk for my room and fortunately we found and good one. I also took some shelves to put on the wall because the walls in my room are kind of bleak and empty. We had dinner at Ikea as well and then we went home. It was a good way to finish the week.

This new week for me will be about editing some old holiday videos and reading. I got Les Misérables in a second hand shop and I just started reading it. I must say that although it is an old story, I really like it so far. I'm intending on reading a lot of classics this year and I think I might write a review on this one when I finish it.

Are you taking a gap year as well, or do you want to share your thoughts on this post? Feel free to leave a comment!

Love,

Leyla

Gap Year Week 1: Thrift Shopping & Sore Fingers

Hi! So I'm having this idea to do a 'gap year post' every week to tell you how I'm spending all the free time I have, because although there is a lot I want to do, you can probably imagine there are moments when I feel a little lost in all that free time. So in these posts I will write about the highlights of every week, which sort of bring structure into my life.

I'm trying to go out of the house everyday, sometimes to take a walk, to visit a friend or to join my family when they're going somewhere. Last week, I had some stuff to pick up at an acquaintance's house in a city halfway where I used to go to university. Also, my bike was still at the train station there so I had to take it back home too. This was an ideal excuse to get out of the house and get active for a bit. I took the train to the city and before taking my stuff and going back home I took a little walk along the riverside and enjoyed the view. After that, I went back to the train station and then had to struggle to take my bike in and out of the train, which was kind of awkward. I was pretty tired when I came home, but also happy I had my daily dose of exercise without having to go to the gym, which I honestly dislike.

On Tuesday, me and my mom went to a thrift shop nearby to take a look around and see if we couldfind some nice things to take home. I just love to go thrift shopping, whether it's for clothes or other stuff. It's just a really good feeling to walk around a thrift shop and then find something really nice and cheap. I walked around the store a little and suddenly I stumbled upon a really cute analog photo camera. I immediately fell in love with it, especially because it came in a beautiful leather 'case.' I'm still thinking about buying a DSLR camera, but this little one I couldn't resist taking home. Also, it was only about 7 euro's. Maybe that was because it might be broken, but they didn't test it at the store and I just couldn't resist. If it doesn't work, I'll use it as a decoration for my bedroom. 

This week, I also finally found the time and motivation to start playing on my guitar again. I have been playing for about a year right now and I genuinely am in love with it. Every time I'm playing I just feel so relaxed. However, because of all the college-stress I hadn't played in a month and starting again was a little hard because of that. The skin of my fingers wasn't really tough anymore and so pressing down the strings was a little painful. I also just had to get used to playing again and pick up where I left off a month ago. Anyways, after some days of playing I felt my fingers toughen up again and things got better.

To finish off the week, I went to visit my friend after he came back from school. I went to the city of his college and we walked around the centre for a while, getting in and out of stores. Unfortunately I had to keep myself from buying anything because I don't have a job at the moment and therefore can't really afford to do a lot of shopping.

In the evening we went to a really nice restaurant to have dinner, which was great. It was really nice to see a friend since I'm alone most of the time because everyone is at school or work, and we had a lovely time. We took the bus home and during the traveling we talked a lot about music and art, which was really good to talk about since it interests us both. Then, on Friday evening I went to visit another friend, who just started college. She was back home and we cooked some dinner together and then watched a movie. We watched 'The Call' which is kind of a thriller with creepy 'horror-elements' in it and we sort of incited ourselves during watching, which made it even scarier but also really funny. Then, Sunday came and this was a really boring day, where I didn't do much at all so I won't bother you with that ;)

So, that was last week for me. I hope you had a great week too! 

Lots of love,

Leyla

P.S. I'm on Bloglovin' too, follow me here:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

First post: My gap year and why I took it

Hi there!

Since this is my very first post on here, I wanted to keep it simple and write a little about myself and what led me to creating this blog.

Last Wednesday was the third Wednesday I experienced in college. After passing my high school exams this year, I felt like studying something media related in college was the best thing for me to do. I dream of a career in the movies one day and part of the course I signed up for was about this. Because I didn't have an art portfolio studying film at an arts academy wasn't possible for me and since I didn't want to 'lose' time taking a gap year I decided to study somewhere else. At the beginning of this month, the moment was there: I started a study programme concerning media and entertainment management and although I was excited to go to college and move to a new place, things did not live up to my expectations.

From the beginning, I felt like I was not in the right place. During high school all I did was dream about the time I had passed my exams and I could finally move out of the small village I live in and discover the world. All I wanted was to live in a nice city and make new friends with the same interests as me. However, the city of the university I was attending did not appeal to me at all, I felt alone at uni and to make things worse the course was much more management related than I thought it would be. What seemed like the perfect study programme for me turned out to be something that felt completely wrong. The past few weeks were hard and I never found myself not in doubt whether I should already quit school and take a gap year. After about two and a half week, I realised I didn't want to spend the coming three years in a place I didn't want to be at and I saw the advantages of taking a gap year. I decided the best thing to do was to drop out of uni.

Now, I'm sitting here writing this and I feel much more relaxed than I have in weeks. This feels like the right thing to do. There are so many things I never had the time for during high school that I want to spend more time on. I want to write, make music and videos, read, gain knowledge about things that interest me, watch movies I never had the time to watch and take some time to get to know myself. A gap year feels like the right thing to do in order to work on that. I can now work on an arts portfolio as well so that I can try to get into an arts academy next year as well, which might be the best option for me after all. I also want to document this year and the time after it. I want to share my life and everything I come across while working towards my goal of working in the movies and living my dreams. That is why I decided to create this blog. To share my life with you, but also anything else I come across that I find worth sharing. I hope I'll have a lot of great things to share with you the coming time and that you'll like what I write about.

I guess that's it for now. Also, I promise my average post length won't be this long and that there will be better pictures ;)


Love,

Leyla