Exam Review

Firstly I must apologise for my lack of posts lately. I have been writing exams and as much as I wish there was time for writing a blog post here or there, I didn’t have enough time to breathe so blogging wasn’t even an option however as of friday I am finished.

See in South Africa in your last year of school you finish off your high school career with Finals. A large, prolonged set of exams which decide the course of your future like an evil palm reader (I think a similar scenario happens in most countries) But the education system is not as cruel as I am making it out to be as they do realise that some days we have off days so we have portfolio made of tests and projects put together over the course of the year which make up some of out final mark and one of the requirements, something which is there to help prepare us for finals, is prelims. The preliminary examinations (everyone calls them prelims and im sure you can see why) are what we have just finished…

What did I think? Well I know I procrastinate so I decided that I would take every opportunity I could while I had the energy and determination to do so, so I spent the entire 4 week holiday we had prior to the exams stuck in my books. As you’ve read from my blog I did have some fun in between but I also studied and prepared more for these exams than I ever have before and honestly… I feel like I wasted my time.

Now this is me being slightly emotional as I received my marks back today and to be honest the studying probably will be helpful when it comes to finals but I also feel that some of our papers were unreasonable and so the hard studying didn’t help. I am aware that some teachers do make the papers harder to scare us into studying properly for the big ones but it doesn’t make logical sense that I would get lower marks than I have ever received before (in specific subjects) when I studied for far longer than simply the day before. I don’t see how this is a fair gage of my abilities.

Usually I can rely on my academics. I’m not good at sport, I can’t dance, I am not musically gifted but my academics… It’s my thing and yet today I didn’t feel like it was.

The mood of the matrics was a strange one. Everywhere I looked the grade 12 girls walked around with grins on their face and with a few pressing questions i discovered it wasn’t because they had received all the beautiful As that I hadn’t but like me their results had not been extraordinary but we had come to a stage where we couldn’t do anything about it and it was so bad you just couldn’t cry so the only thing to do was laugh. The best part was that we were all in it together. obviously there are always those annoyingly gifted children who don’t count because they never do wrong but the rest of us were in the same boat. There was no judgement. only the casual completion of who got the worst marks. Also it helps to have the moral support of everyone else doing badly to make one feel okay about ones own failures. I’d say the whole routine of getting prelims back was a good bonding moment for our grade as a whole.

Luckily for me I did have some good subjects. Areas like Maths or Art theory I know I can always rely on and they came through and I appreciated these and a few other surprises next to the really bad marks because it made me realise how precious they are. I was grateful and humbled by the As and the not quite As and the really horrific marks which we will never speak of again.

So to my parents: I am sorry that my report at the end of the week will not be the happy ending we were hoping for but rather an unfortunately misplaced set of marks that we can just hide among my past results and lets keep our fingers crossed that the next lot is a little better.

A casual outfit and a bad hair day

I am writing a short fashion blog today. Short because I am tired and fashion because at midday it has already been a long day and fashion always improves my mood.

This look was one I just threw on, literally, I didn’t feel like thinking too much and this is what came together. I love the jacket because it works so easily with basically everything it is a nice casual jacket but it is also thin so I can wear it in summer if it is a breezy day and it is perfect for hiding crusty t-shirts and popping out to the shops in or something along those lines.

On slow days leggings are my go to thing they are so comfortable and so easy to wear. They have a pattern on them so I can wear plain shirts and not worry.

The scarf! I love scarves almost as much as I love rings. I can’t even count how many scarves I have but this yellow one is probably the most worn. I love the colour and how it compliments my hair and basically any outfit I wear. It is big and long so I can tie it in various ways. At the moment I am very into this chunky style so I wear it most of the time.

Now the bag…  Yes I have to admit I fell for the semi-overused backpack trend but I do really like it so I am not sorry (sorry). This one belonged to my mom back in the day and now I use it if I get an opportunity. It is small and goes with basically everything (who knew a backpack could be so versatile)!

And then I must just say something about the head band. I love my short hair but sometimes I wake up and it is dirty and if I’m rushing out I can’t just put it in a bun and be done with it. Short hair is only a mission for me when it is dirty and this is where this cute little head band comes into play. It holds things in place (most of the time) and doesn’t make your head hurt like an alice band does. It is perfect for covering the mess untill you get a moment to deal with it.

 

The Tea Princess

This is one of the nicest smelling teas I have. I got it for my 18th and have been using it as a pick me up ever since. It is great to have when you need a fresh taste to make you feel better after a long day and the packaging is adorable

This tea is not decieving, it taste and smells just like almond. It is delicious but is quite rich so I dont drink it often.

This has a flavour which reminds me of perfume. It isn’t me favourite tea but it has a very calming effect when I drink it. I like to have it before bed.

This was sent to me from my cousin in Japan. It is made from cherry blossoms. It has a weird flavour which I cant drink to often but I do like it.

These teas are also from Japan. I rarely drink them because I have so little of them left. I save them for special occasions. They dont realy taste like chocolate or strawberry but it doesn’t matter because they taste amazing and the tea bag is made of silk which just makes my heart sing.

A friend of mine gave me these for christmas. They are quite bitter but honey goes very well with them. They taste fruity and happy and I always have friends stealing them from me.

This is another wonderful smelling tea and an interesting flavour. I also love the packaging on this one.

I don’t drink a lot of green tea because I find the flavour odd but the jasmine in this one complements the green tea perfectly and this is probably my favourite tea at the moment.

This flower tea is claming and I drink it when I cant sleep as it makes me peacefully sleepy.

This is a traditional Indian tea which my sister brought back for me. It reminds me of normal tea except it has a natural sweetness to it which makes it enjoyable.

This was also brought to me from India. It is similar in taste to the Nilgiri tea but the chocolate gives it another dimention. It really doestaste like chocolate.

My first tea that I likesd. It has acompanied me on many a morning to school and my friends say it smells like cake.

This tastes like the Lipton ice tea except it is more bitter but this may be because I don’t drink tea with milk or sugar but I am not sure.

This is a traditional South African tea and although it is from home I generally dont like it. But when I am sick if I have this with honey and lemon it works better than any other medicine.

When it comes down to being a tea or a coffee person I really couldn’t choose. I live on coffee. It starts my day and I really do love it. It is a necessity to my every day life. But coffee is coffee. Sure, you get different qualities and intensities and fine let’s say flavours but that is nothing compared to the multiple flavours of tea. For me tea is exciting, it is a treat in which you can play around with tastes. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I am a tea queen. I don’t know what the best temperature is for tea leaves, or how long you should leave a black tea bag in the water, gosh, I only just got a tea strainer. So I don’t think I am qualified to be queen of the this delicate beverage quite yet but I think I could do the whole princess vibe.

I never used to like tea as all I was exposed to was normal tea and rooibos but then by events I have long since forgotten I tried vanilla tea and this changed my world forever. I had discovered, for the first time, flavoured tea and I never turned back. Now my friends and family buy me tea for special events and I have teas from countries on the other side of the world in a collection of weird and wonderful flavours.

Most teens get champagne on their 18ths… I got tea