BOOK REVIEW! NO. 4: ELEANOR & PARK BY RAINBOW ROWELL

So, reliable sources (meaning one of my best friends) assured me that they liked the totally unstructured and chaotic version of this segment more than the nicely sorted and tidy version so here we go again.

I bought Eleanor & Park in a Waterstones in London. I didn't really want to because I had entered that bookshop wanting to get a specific book and when they didn't have it I was annoyed and sort of defiant. But my friend (who was on the London trip with me) wanted to get a book and hers was part of a "buy one, get one half price" deal and she told me to just go and have a look at the shelf.

I immediately liked this book. Not only because there's a quote by John Green (who happens to be my role model in all things but perhaps hairstyle) on the front. Also because the cover art is really cute and quirky and the description sounded pretty neat. Also, an author whose name is Rainbow Rowell can only be great, right?

Eleanor & Park is a terribly sweet story. On her first day of school, Eleanor is faced with a crowd of well-adapted white people from the suburbs. Between them, she stands out like a peacock among, let's say chickens. She sits next to Park on the busride. Park has mastered the art of invisibility, never talks to her and reads comicbooks on the bus.

One day, he notices her reading his comics. Instead of talking to her, he just flips the pages more slowly. When they don't finish a book on the ride home, Eleanor is afraid he'll read it at home and she will never know the end. The next morning, he opens his comic exactly where they left of the afternoon before.

This is the beginning of possibly the nicest love story I ever read. With normal love stories, I think they're cute and romantic. With Eleanor & Park I not only want this to happen to me but I know that something similar is not even that unrealistic. I could totally be that girl reading other peoples' books over their shoulder.

But it's not only a love story. It's also about coming of age, finding out what you want, dealing with all sorts of quite horrible problems. It made me cry. Also I thought I had not understood the ending but my friend confirmed that it was rather open for interpretation.

I love this book because it might be one of the most honest books out there, and also it kind of touched a soft spot in me I didn't know I had before. Everybody (well, almost) in this book is so incredibly human. They're the sort of characters you somehow know when you've read the book, like they've sort of always been there. I honestly don't know how to describe it, but Eleanor & Park is going on the same shelf as John Green, that's for sure. It sort of reminded me of... living, I guess. I remembered why I love life so much. Which is not to say that this novel isn't depressing as hell, because it is.

I can't really say much about style in this case because I kind of rushed through it and didn't really pay attention that much but I know that there were a couple of beautiful phrases in there and it obviously was good enough for me to read it without thinking twice. But I just bloody loved this book.

Which is all I can give you on this, I'm afraid. I loved it. I also hate it but mostly I love it. Probably. So, yeah.

Love,
Jojo

BOOK REVIEW! NO. 3: THE GRAVEYARD BOOK BY NEIL GAIMAN

Okay, guys, let's do this with a bit less chaos than the last two ones.

INFO: "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman, published 2008, with illustrations by Dave McKean. The book was a #1 New York Times bestseller and won several awards. It says ages 10 and up on the back cover but I'm seventeen and loved it and I'll probably give it to my Dad to read because he'll enjoy it. So, whatever.

SUMMARY: When his parents and older sister are killed by a mysterious man, a baby boy is adopted by two ghosts living in the graveyard opposite his house. They name him Nobody Owens and raise him as their son - together with the other graveyard inhabitants and Bod's guardian Silas. The Graveyard Book is the story of how Bod grows up and learns more and more about both the living and the dead world.

EXECUTION: Have any of you read Rudyard Kipling's "Stories From The Jungle Book"? Unlike the Disney film (which I also love), the book is more of a collection of short stories, a series of Mowgli's adventures in the jungle (and a few other stories) that sort of follow him growing up and having a family on his own. While reading The Graveyard Book I thought that it was very similar to Kipling's work, and Gaiman says in the acknowledgements that Kipling was a huge inspiration in the process of writing The Graveyard Book. With all the similarities, it's still sort of different but not any less beautiful and exciting. Along the course of the book you learn more and more about the world of the dead and the supernatural (like ghouls and witches and some sort of werewolves) but you also watch Bod learn about the world of the living and about how he came to the graveyard and why. The book is completely coherent and the system works really well.

STYLE: Neil Gaiman writes beautifully. For those who don't know, he wrote the Doctor Who episodes "The Doctor's Wife" (S06 E04) and "Nightmare in Silver" (S07 E12), both of which were among the best episodes in the last three seasons. In The Graveyard Book he somehow manages to combine a certain "adult" poetry in his writing and Bod's (very authentic) childish perspective on life which changes ever so gently as he grows up. There were more than a few sentences or paragraphs that made me think "Wow. If I could write like that...". He's simply brilliant. And he has a way of playing with certain words or phrases that just makes me admire him. You can feel when reading how much this story meant to the author, and in my opinion, that's definitely a good thing.

MESSAGE: This is a coming-of-age story. It's about Bod growing up and finding out who he is and who he wants to be. He finds his courage and makes some mistakes and he's afraid and everything. This story shows how difficult it is to grow up and make your own decisions but it's also about parents. It's about loving someone and having to let that someone go, and not wanting to let them go but deep down knowing it has to be. When I finished reading, I had this sort of feeling that you want to cry but can't because it's so sweet and strange and beautiful.

ALSO: Neil Gaiman won the Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. His acceptance speech is printed in the end of the book, and in addition to being sort of funny and smart and beautiful it also inspired me like crazy. This speech made me want to follow my dream and tell stories and make things up and make people happy with my stories. It also sort of taught me about why I love the books I love so much, and both the speech and the actual story stayed with me after I closed the book. I think I will read The Graveyard Book many, many times in the future.

CONCLUSION: This is not a book for pure entertainment. This is one of those books that you read when you feel lonely, or sad, or when you need someone to talk to and there's nobody there. It's a soulbook like chocolate is soulfood. This is a book for children and teens and adults. It's wonderful.

BREAKFAST

This is part one of a series of posts about food. Don't ask me why. I just think I have stuff to  say.

So when you read or hear about eating healthy and living well and stuff you will inevitably hear about the importance of breakfast. The most important meal of the day, energy for the day, skipping breakfast will kill you, all that. Now, I'm not a nutritionist or any sort of authority on this topic, but like everyone on the Internet, I have opinions.

I didn't have breakfast today. I returned from a vacation at two o'clock in the morning and slept until eleven. Because I wasn't hungry then, I waited until two pm and had lunch. And I feel fine. The thing is, no matter how important it is to start the day by filling up with energy, eating when you're not really hungry or even forcing yourself to eat really can't be healthy.

During schooltime I get up pretty early, and I just eat something sweet and probably very bad for me because that early in the day I can't even think about nutritious, healthy food and the shock of being woken up by my alarm clock requires therapy. But because of by now eleven years of school routine I know that I will be hungry again in time for the breaks, and I take proper, healthy food with me as a sort of second breakfast (I could now make a Lord of the Rings joke but I won't because I can't think of a good one). The point is, I know what I need to function on a regular day and I do that. So far, it's working really well for me.

But on irregular days - like on vacation, that routine is not only disrupted, but torn apart and burned. Sometimes you spend the vacation in a cabin or otherwise are responsible for your own food, in which case you can do whatever you want, which for my family usually means that we eat what we always have for breakfast. But, in our case most of the time, it might happen that you go out for food in the morning.

Generally, I like the idea of other people making my food in a way that is much better than I ever could. But with breakfast, that's different and depends a lot on the situation.

Take an American diner. A really nice, old fashioned, good one. I can enjoy pancakes and/or waffles for three days tops. Afterwards I miss my home routine so much I can barely look at a pancake without crying. But that's different for everyone, my father could survive on full American breakfast for eternity.

The worst "going out for breakfast" experience I had was in a coffee house in Vienna, where you could have a "normal" breakfast with cheese and jam and rolls and stuff, but it was so expensive that I felt guilty for eating and at the same time guilty for not eating, which means that I a) by far didn't eat enough to last till lunch and b) really didn't enjoy it.

Generally, ordering specific breakfast dishes doesn't work for me, and a lot of other people, because you are rather limited in choice and combination depending on what the restaurant decided to serve. If you want scrambled eggs but no bacon and a waffle and fresh fruit, ordering can feel more like puzzle work than anything else, and also it can turn out pretty expensive.

My favourite way of breakfast away from home is a buffet where you can just load your plate with whatever you like for a fixed price. I found that the best breakfast buffets can be found in business motels or hotels with conference facilities. Seriously. Warm dishes like eggs, bacon or sausages, different kinds of cheese, fresh fruit, yoghurt drinks or smoothies you don't have to pay extra for, and, my absolute favourite, miniature chocolate croissants. I've also been to a place where you could make your own pancakes.

I like breakfast buffets that much because they give you complete freedom on what to eat and how much. If you order eggs and bacon at a diner you might get too much egg and not enough bacon or the other way round or it might be too much altogether. At a buffet, you can not only choose the amount but also the combination. If you like bacon on your pancake, you can eat it and nobody will care. (Which doesn't mean that I like bacon on pancakes, but it's a good example.)

So, that's my (very chaotic) thoughts. There's not really a moral to this. Except for maybe eat what you want but that's my usual approach to food if you had to put it into one senctence. But, kids, that's a different story.

Until next time!

Love,
Jojo

SCIENCE

Hello, my friends.

Let's talk about something different today.

You might have gathered from this blog that I'm more of an artsy person. I feel at home on the "soft" side of the science spectrum. This spectrum is basically maths on the hard side with only a very limited, precisely defined number of correct answers and for example literature on the soft side with a very broad, undefined variety of possibilities.

Fun fact: At school, sciences are usually my worst subjects. Seriously. You don't want to get me started on my chemistry lessons. So while I always valued science when other people did it, researching stuff and curing illnesses and so on, I never thought I could actually, really care for it myself.

Then I became a nerd. As in, recognised I had been one for all my life. Because that realisation had me spend my time more around nerd-related things, which ultimately got me in touch with more sciencey stuff as well. And it turns out, there's so much more to physics than they teach you at school.

I could, right now, by heart, tell you the name of all six kinds of quarks, when they were discovered, and what they do. And I sure as hell didn't learn that in school. Things like that song that you randomly find on the Internet are so easy to access and so fun to use.

The Internet taught me that science, be it biology, chemistry or physics, can be incredibly interesting and even beautiful. Have you seen some of those pictures of galaxies? THAT is perfection. There are people out there who will talk for four minutes on a YouTube video and have you marvel at the extreme serendipity that is your existence. Seriously. It's awesome.

But even with all that, I never would have thought that I could be interested in taxidermy. Of all things, I am glued to my computer screen watching a twenty-something young woman with a pink flower in her blond ponytail cut up, skin and dissect a dead wolf. You have no idea how terribly fascinating (yet kind of gross) that is.

I'm talking about Emily Graslie, former art student who discovered her true passion by sort of accidentally walking into her university's zoological museum. She did a lot of volunteer work there and, after being featured in one of Hank Green's (www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers) videos, she was able to start her own YouTube show called The Brain Scoop where she shows her work in the collection or talks about related subjects like domestication.

While I'm not exactly planning on pursuing a career in taxidermy, I find Emily's videos extremely interesting. She has a very bubbly personality and was very comfortable in front of the camera from the first moment. Besides showing her viewers how a wolf looks from the inside, she also has first-hand experience on how the US government (and I'm pretty sure they aren't the only ones) cuts more and more money from the science and education budget, pretty much dooming small collections like the ones Emily presented.

So I guess what I want to say is, I care about science even though I'm not a science person, and I think not enough people do. So spread the word. Or something.

Love,
Jojo

DANCING

From a very young age

I was longing to dance

Ballett my mother forbade

And in first grade I knew nothing else

I did martial arts instead

And, in truth, no regrets

All during childhood I was jumping around

Trying to copy 

The beautiful moves

I had seen dancers perform

To no surprise, I failed

Miserably, and I sometimes stopped trying

I do HipHop now, and enjoy it

But it brings sweat, not beauty

The hours of ballroom dancing

Have passed beyond count

And yet still I lack

That timeless elegance

I have always dreamed of

THE BEAUTY OF A MOMENT

I just sat outside for ten minutes.
There's a row of houses behind our back garden, and exactly behind ours, there's an empty property with nothing but grass and a stack of firewood on it. Behind that, there's fields, an old oak tree and the forest in the distance.
The sun sets exactly there.
My brother and I ordered pizza tonight and I ate in front of the TV rewatching an old episode of Doctor Who. While I brought my dirty dishes into the kitchen, I noticed the sunshine outside. I tidied up the living room and decided to go outside.
The sun stood pretty low already, just so reaching the patio. It had been cloudy all day so the sunlight looked incredibly bright and golden on the lawn and the flowers. The wind was rustling the leaves and the countless birds living in our garden were singing their evening songs. It was comfortably warm with a hint of chill.
I sat on the sunbed and closed my eyes. There was autumn in the air, easy to feel. The way the light hit the leaves made them look golden.
When I look outside my window now, I can see the tree moving in the wind, the leaves still coloured by the setting sun. It's not late enough for the sky to be pink yet but it's definitely changing colour.
Those ten minutes I sat out there in the garden were perfect. It was one of those moments you can't describe. I wanted to photograph it but how could you capture the sound of the wind and the late summer air kissing your skin on a photograph?
While sitting outside I thought about how moments can be perfect and then the telephone rings or you remember you didn't turn off the TV yet and reality comes rushing back in. It's sort of depressing but perfect moments are too, well, perfect to ignore them. In a perfect moment, you feel at ease. Comfortable. Safe.
I've experienced a few of those moments before.
Sitting under a sunshade by the pool in a hotel on Gran Canaria with my family reading The Lord of the Rings.
On top of a ferris wheel with my two best friends in the whole world taking pictures.
Those are the moments that make you want to be the best person you can possibly be, do the best you possibly can, make the most out of your life. Those are the moments that feel slightly unreal but at the same time you feel so incredibly alive.
Those are the moments that make you recognise how beautiful life can be.

VIENNA

Hello!

I'm on school holiday at the moment (and have been for three weeks) and because my family can't go on a big holiday together like we usually do my mum and I have been on two short trips with my grandparents, first on my mum's side last week to Vienna, then with my father's mother this week to Hamburg. I'll do posts on both trips but the Hamburg pictures aren't on the computer yet so that'll have to wait a bit...

In short: Vienna is a beautiful city. We stayed in a very small hotel downtown so we could reach basically everything by foot, which was kind of nice. Even the main shopping street with all the more or less expensive boutiques and tourist shops is beautiful because all the houses have matching, historic facades. The guide in the synagogue we visited actually told us that all new-built houses had to be made to match the rest of the city!

Anyway, picture time!

The ferris wheel in the Prater. This thing is about a hundred years old and it still works!

One of the famous, beautiful Lippizzaner horses!

This is the Holocaust memorial. It depicts a library, each book symbolising the life of one of the Austrian victims.

See you soon!

Love, Jojo

BOOK REVIEW! NO.2: ME BEFORE YOU BY JOJO MOYES

My mum gave me this book. She said: "You might like this." So I read it.
Usually when people recommend books to me - especially my mum - I'm very careful. I know that I have a rather specific taste in books and very high expectiations. I've had a lot of books recommended or given to me that I didn't enjoy at all. Jojo Moyes's me before you was definitely different!
In the prologue, we meet Will Traynor, successful businessman, getting up early on a rainy London morning, kissing his beautiful girlfriend goodbye, running down the street to catch a bus. The last thing we know, he is hit by a motorcycle.
Two years later, Lousia Clark, living with her parents, grandfather, sister and nephew in a tiny house and being the almost sole support of all of these, loses her job in the café she has worked in for the last six years. When she starts jobhunting, at first nothing goes right. Then she is offered the job as a carer for a quadriplegic. Incredibly well paid, limited to six months. Mostly because she needs the money, she accepts.
Will Traynor suffered a severe spinal cord injury in that accident. He cannot use his legs at all and has very limited use of his arms. Before the accident he was successful in his job and an action man in his free time, skiing, bungee jumping, anything. Now he is just that poor disabled man. He's miserable. And he's incredibly rude to Louisa.
Now, we all kind of know that plot. The concept is very The Intouchables, that beautiful French film from a couple of years ago. Only different.
Louisa thinks her life is all right. She has a boyfriend, she has a job, she has a family.
Will thinks her life is boring. As soon as the two of them start properly talking, he tries to tempt her into doing new things, trying new activities. And Lou manages to get him out of his shell.
What I love about me before you is mostly the characters. There are a lot of people to meet, from the two main protagonists to Lou's sister Treena who Lou thinks is always better at everything, her parents, Will's parents, Will's Australian medical carer Nathan who pretends to be cheerful all the time and Lou's boyfriend Patrick who at some point turned into Running Man and only ever talks about body fat ratios and his running times. You kind of get to know all of them, and every single one of them is interesting. They all have good and bad sides and even when you're not reading you catch yourself thinking about them.
The storyline is also very well set out, logical and fluent and it sucks you right in. And, yes, I cried a bit.
The topic of this book is rather sensitive and I actually can't talk very much about it without majorly spoiling it but still. Will's situation makes you think - what would you do? How would you deal with this? It's rather depressing, actually, but that really doesn't stop you from enjoying the reading experience.
Also, me before you is terribly English. So that's nice, too.

Let me know what you think, and also if there's anything specific you would like me to do over the course of the next six-ish weeks while I'm on school break. Poems? Short story? More book reviews? Field trips?

Love,
Jojo

(And no, I did not write that book although I share the author's name. Whish that I had, though!)

UPDATE-ISH

'ello, my lovely friends.

There's quite a lot I'd like to talk about that couldn't really fill seperate posts but I want to tell you anyway. This is mostly rambling and might not have any kind of structure but off we go!

Let's start with my writing process. I've set myself a very clear goal concerning the novel I've been working on for the better part of a year, and I've written that goal in my calendar so at least I won't forget it. I've decided to have at least Draft Two finished by the Sunday before my eighteenth birthday next February. I deliberately chose the Sunday because it is about a week from my actual birthday, giving me some extra time in case I have any difficulties thrown in my face. It's a fairly big project and I still have an awful lot of planning to do.

(Just in case you're wondering what Draft Two is: Draft Zero is the one you don't let anybody read, Draft One is what you show your best friend and Draft Two is where things get serious.)

Last Monday I went to see a Poetry Slam with my German course. While it was definitely not as good as a lot of Spoken Word poetry that I've seen online, there were one or two texts I honestly enjoyed. The evening was generally fun, although much too long for a Monday night. But apart from extreme tiredness I've taken with me a new motivation to try writing some myself. I've tried a couple of times in the past to produce something worth performing but usually failed, and now I gathered some new inspiration and encouragement. I promise that if I ever manage a worthwhile piece I'll either post it here or even record it and show you.

There's only one and a half week of school left for this year and to be honest, there's not much going on. Next week alone I'm going to be on one excursion, participate in the oh-so-wonderful running for charity, help at the sports fest for the younger students and enjoy a wonderful day off while our teachers try out new teaching methods and, I don't know, play some team-building games. So no homework anymore!

Since we're graduating next year, the students from my grade are voting for a motto tomorrow. I am painfully aware that this has the potential to become an absolute desaster but I'm hoping for the best (meaning a motto I can live with without having to change schools). Fingers crossed, everybody!

So this was a rather short post about rather uninteresting things. But if you would like to read this type of post more often, I'll definitely think about it and try to improve them!

Lots of love,
Jojo

BOOK REVIEW! NO.1: TEMERAIRE BY NAOMI NOVIK

Good morning, everybody!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently rereading Naomi Novik's Temeraire series ( the first book is called His Majesty's Dragons). I have read these books countless times. Well, maybe not countless, but certainly very often. Last summer I inhaled books 6 and 7 in, like, three days when I was in Alaska, and only last week I started again. Because of school and birthday parties and that sort of thing I'm much slower than I was on vacation but I'm not enjoying myself any less!

Let's start at the beginning.

Temeraire is a fantasy series. It is also surprisingly historically accurate. How does that work? Easy. The story is set around the time that Napoleon was conquering like, all of Europe (I know that's not entirely true, but I'm no historian and I have better things to do while reading than drawing a timeline). We follow British Royal Navy Captain William Laurence as he captures a French frigate carrying... a dragon egg. This is where the fantasy element comes in.

Dragons are nothing extraordinary in this alternative universe. They have served humanity for centuries. Together with their companions and captains, they form the Aerial Corps, which is the only aspect in Temeraire that does not follow history. The reader is witness of aerial battles and military manoeuvres that take place during, for example, the historic battle of Trafalgar. If you simply take away the dragons, all events in this series happened almost exactly in both the books and history, which serves as a nice bonus while reading.

The dragons in Temeraire are perfectly sentient beings, some of them more intelligent than their companions, with very different personalites. They are treated with fear, distrust and sometimes disrespect from the ignorant, but Corps members treat them as equals who happen to be thirty tonnes and capable of eating an elephant in one bite (depending on the dragon breed). Dragons serve in wars, accompanied by their Captain and crews, which can mean a lot of people depending on how big the dragon is.

Let's talk about contents.

Our main protagonist is Captain William Laurence, who, through a series of seemingly unfortunate events, is the one harnessing (and thereby sort of taming) and naming the hatchling from the egg on the French ship. This means that from now on, he is no longer a captain of the Royal Navy, but an aviator who works for the Aerial Corps. At first, he is extremely unhappy about it, as the aviators' lifestyle completely contradicts his own plans and ambitions. Soon, however, he develops a tight bond with the young dragon he named Temeraire (after a warship that actually existed - there's a painting of it in my English textbook).

Now, this bond is nothing unusual to those of us who are experienced in the genre of dragon fantasy. But that does not mean that it is any bit less heartwarming and beautiful to observe.

As Aerial Corps members, Laurence and Temeraire are rushed through their training so they can join the active troups as quickly as possible. At first, Laurence is met with resistence and rejection because he does not come from their own ranks, but as time passes he and Temeraire both slowly earn their comrades' respect.

So far, there are seven books in the series, and I really don't want to spoil anything for potentially interested readers, so I'll stop by saying that Laurence and Temeraire have a lot of adventures coming for them. Seriously. A lot.

Now, why do I like these books so much?

First of all, the concept is unusual and strange and exciting. Sometimes I come across pieces of military strategy that I don't entirely understand, but so far it hasn't stopped me from enjoying this rather unique reading experience. The story is wonderful and exciting and challenging enough that you don't feel as if you're just sort of swimming through the plot.

The characters the reader is introduced to are one and all very well planned out and incredibly interesting to watch. Although this is about military in the early nineteenth century, we are not confronted with an entirely male "cast", so to say. That is because the Longwings, a poison-spraying dragon breed forming the heart of Aerial Corps military strength, exclusively accepts women as their companions - so we are introduced to several almost badass women in high positions who plunge into battles just as enthusiastically as their male colleagues. This causes quite a bit of confusion and ideological crises along the course of the series which is really enjoyable to read!

Character composition and interaction offers a lot of wonderful friendships (and love affairs!) which warm my heart every single time whithout being cheesy.

Also, writing style. Even before I decided to be a writer myself, style was incredible important to me. No matter how interesting the story is, if the style annoys me I can't bring myself to finish a book. Temeraire is written in a very brief, precise kind of military-style due to the main protagonist's background but that in no way influences the emotional aspects. I admire Naomi Novik's writing skills even though I only read the books in the German translation!

Just read the books. Seriously. You probably won't regret it.

Love and kisses,

Jojo

(Sorry this is so long, I got a little carried away as I do when talking about books I love!)

SCHOOL'S OUT! WAIT WHAT?!

Greetings, my friends.

It's only three weeks to go until the summer holidays over here and all the exams are written. In fact, I had a little mini-party after my last test on Monday. It involved mostly sweatpants, chocolate buiscuits and lots of zoo documentaries on TV. You know, party hard.

I don't have to prepare for exams any more and also there's not that much stuff going on in school anymore so I'm basically already in relaxation mode. As a real treat, I started rereading one of my favourite book series - Naomi Novik's Temeraire - which is seven volumes up to now and I usually don't take the time to read that long a series all in a row (although I made an exception for A Song of Ice and Fire).

But that's not really what I wanted to talk about today. I want to talk about the problem, which is this:

Although there are no more tests or exams this schoolyear, we're still doing important stuff. We even start new topics. And everything we do now we will need right after the holidays. Because I am finishing school next spring, my next schoolyear is much shorter than a regular one, the first half being over right before Christmas when it's usually around early February.

Because the summer holidays are very late this year, we will have to write our first exams as early as three weeks after coming back to school. So all of us, not only our teachers, feel the pressure to get stuff done now so we don't have to rush through in September.

Now the problem is that we also want a break. We've all been working hard. The weather is crazy at the moment (floodings last week - students had to help dry out the school cellar and gym), most exams are graded and there's only two weeks of proper lessons left as the last week before the holidays usually contains all the extra stuff like running for charity and a kind of awards ceremony for students who did something special.

Seriously? I'm done. I just want a couple of weeks to relax, sleep in, and do all the stuff I don't have time for during school, like reading or learning Elvish like I've been planning to do for almost two years. Also I'm currently starting to really plan my novel-project, and I could really use some time off to work on that. Then there's university applications I'll have to think about, and possible gap year planning,

Even though I am generally a very relaxed person who isn't bothered by stress too much I appreciate and need breaks as much as the next person. So... could summer please come sooner?

Love and kisses,

Jojo

FIELD TRIP TIME! THE COLOGNE ZOO

Hello, my friends.

Last Saturday, I had the chance to visit the Cologne Zoo, something I had wanted to do for a long time now. I am a great fan of zoos in general (my mum took us to the closest zoo all the time when my brother and I were little) and there are a few that are kind of on my bucket list of zoological gardens.

Cologne Zoo was awesome. Their enclosures are very open and well-proportioned, with lots of hiding spots for the animals in case they don't want to be stared at all day. The park is layed out in a very visitor-friendly way, offering a roundcourse that brings you to all the animals in about one hour depending on how long you linger and signposts showing you the way everywhere you might want to go.

Zoos are visited especially by families, mothers with little kids being the great majority, probably because zoos are great to distract the little ones for a couple of hours. I remember that when I was a kid myself, I especially loved spending hours on the playground. The ones I saw in Cologne looked so great that I was seriously tempted to try them although I am a seventeen-year-old teenager and probably would have been hopelessly stuck on the constructions. I can also account for a great many beaming childrens' faces while I was there!

I took an awful lot of pictures, of course (about two hundred that is) but a lot of them were out of focus and some I will delete as soon as my friend saw them because I have WAY too many elephant photos. I'll put the nicest of them below, including comment!

One of three extremely smug-looking camels. They're currently shedding their winter-fur, so I decided to capture only this one's face.

Here you see the raccoon, engaging in his natural activity of looking both very cute and very sleepy.

I love cheetahs. I took about a dozen pictures of this one alone, but most of them were either out of focus or weirdly composed.

I don't know why I think tapirs are this interesting, but they certainly look cool!

I was so excited when I saw these two okapis! I'd only ever read about them or seen pictures in books, but I'd never seen a real one before!

These are honeybadgers. The most badass animals on earth. Even hyenas don't dare attack them. And they're just lying around cuddling.

Seriously! This is both adorable and disappointing.

I have no idea what this bird is called, but it's beautiful. Also, it was moving so fast it took me about a thousand attempts to get this shot.

Gotta love giraffes. My favourite animals. Period.

Here we have the extremely cute baby elephant Bindi right next to Europe's tallest male with a shoulder height of 3.18 metres.

This sea lion was kind of modelling for the visitors while also acting like a true comedian. 

I really wish I could have gotten more photos of big cats because they always fascinate the hell out of me and I find them incredibly inspiring. Unfortunately, every single one of them was either hiding in the last corner of their enclosure or lying behind very milky glass so I couldn't.

I spent an awful lot of time in the elephant house, which is very big and light and airy. I was a little surprised that they keep the bulls with the females, I'd never seen that before, especially because they currently have two little ones. They do have a seperated area, but the info signs say that the bulls get along so well with all the others and even the babies that they decided to keep the herd together.

I'm hoping to visit the Münster Zoo in about a month, they have a baby rhino at the moment! That is extremely special, because in the past one of the females killed two or three of her little ones by accident. It's a different mother this time, and the baby seems to have good survival chances!

That's it from me for now. I hope you have a good week!

Love,

Jojo

TIME

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu warten

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu atmen

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu denken

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu sprechen

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu sehen

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu fühlen

Manchmal fehlt die Zeit

Zu hören

Was dein Herz dir sagt

***

Sometimes there's no time

To wait

Sometimes there's no time

To breathe

Sometimes there's no time

To think

Sometimes there's no time

To speak

Sometimes there's no time

To see

Sometimes there's no time

To feel

Sometimes there's no time

To hear

What your heart tells you

What you (hopefully) just read was the original German and the translated English version of the latest entry to my Writing Journal. Fun fact: I wrote it late at night when I was actually trying to sleep, but then I panicked when I realised I still had to write something. But even though it's basically just me freaking out that it's so late, I think it's still kind of nice.

I usually don't share poems with anybody except a few very close friends. Although "Time" is nothing too personal, it's still a rather big step to publish this on the Internet (even though I know that there's not that many people reading my blog). I'm hoping that I'll find the courage to publish more of my inspiration-based pieces in the future, it would mean I'd finally gathered up enough confidence to actually tell people what I do.

I'll see you around.

Love,
Jojo

A WRITER'S JOURNAL

Greetings, my friends.

If there is one thing I have too much of, it is journals. (Not books. One does not simply own too many books.) There are big ones, small ones, spiral notebooks, hardcovers, lined, blank, patterned, everything. Too. Many. I can't ever use all of them, but I recently found a purpose for one I bought simply because it is beautiful (it's Hobbit-themed with Thrain's map imprinted on the front,. Also, it was on sale).

I'd heard of Writer's Journals before but never really considered starting one myself simply because I was sure I would never keep up with it. Knowing me, that was a pretty realistic worry.

My friend Nele started an Art Journal sometime last year, which is basically the same but for artists. It is kind of like a diary but in creative form, meaning the owner transfers thoughts and emotions into artwork. Although that can be very personal, Nele was so lovely as to show me her work every now and again, and as always, I was extremely jealous of her skill and talent.

A Writer's Journal can work the same way, like a diary, but I thought that if I were to use mine like a diary I'd just end up writing down reports of my days and whine about my problems. So instead I decided to use it to practice skills and build up my confidence when it comes to writing.

So I wrote and signed a commitment, swearing I would work on my journal at least every Tuesday and Friday to avoid abandoning it - so far, that has worked very well, I even exceeded my goal. As of today, I wrote a sense-experience account of a walk through nature, a list of why I write like Shakespeare, a poem on why writing is hard, and several sort-of-short-stories based on creative prompts I found on the Internet.

And guess what - I'm proud of all of that. I like what I created. And that's a new feeling. I might even share a few of those pieces here on the blog, which is terrifying as I usually only publish FanFiction online. I can read through what I've written before and not cringe at clumsy sentences or bad choice of words.

My journal is helping me to gather the courage to create because I'm basically forcing myself to do it. I feel way more confident and also I pay more attention to the world around me, simply so I can find something new to write about. Inspiration comes more easily now.

I can only recommend starting a creative journal of some sort, be it for art or writing or photography or music (although you may have to change the physical journal to a metaphorical or virtual one). It certainly did not harm me at all and I am slowly building up creative confidence - at least, until I look at Nele's drawings again.

See you soon (hopefully)!

Jojo

FICTION ADDICTION

So, YouTuber danisnotonfire recently uploaded this wonderful video about what fictional characters and universes do to you.

Incidentally, Fiction Addiction is one of my Fields of Expertise.

The basic concept of Fiction Addiction is that if you consume too much material of a specific fandom too fast, this fandom and with it the fictional universe and its characters become part of your life up to the point that they might feel much more real to you than the actual real world.

No, honestly, I'm not kidding.

Now, a lot of people don't take this seriously, usually those people who have never experienced this kind of total self-sacrifice that is a fandom. To those people, I can only say I'm sorry for them. Really. I pity you.

Fictional characters can be very good friends. They don't just leave you without reason (unless they die. Which happens a lot in certain fandoms). They don't argue with you, they never turn their phone off and they don't mind you waking them up in the middle of the night. They are incredibly good listeners because they never interrupt you. If you know them really well, they will even answer your questions. Not without reason do we ask ourselves: What Would Captain Picard Do?

But, as with every addiction, there are unfortunate side effects.

Sometimes you are so absorbed in this fictional universe that you start mixing realities. Suddenly, you're incredibly annoyed that you cannot inherit the family house because even though you're older than your brother you're still just a girl and sons come before daughters when it comes to heritage. Suddenly you draw your pencil and try to inflict the Tickling Curse on that guy in your class that you can't stand. Suddenly you wonder why the photos on your wall don't move.

And then there's the "It's Over"-Effect.

This is what happens when your fandom is no longer updated. That means there's no new books anymore, the show was cancelled, you name it. Or maybe it's just over for now and you have to wait for, like, an eternity until your heroes return to the page/screen.

Do not underestimate the "It's Over"-Effect. It's devastating. It leaves a hole in your heart and in your world. You wonder what the purpose of life could be if you cannot continue watching Downton Abbey right now. Especially if it's over forever. I mean, honestly, what are you going to look forward to now?

I don't know how to cure that. I'm still busy trying to recover from multiple bouts of Potter Depression and I'm suffering from severe Doctor Who and Sherlock withdrawal (and that although the DW finale was only yesterday). So don't expect any real help.

But to lighten the burden there are a couple things you can do:

1. Rewatch. Reread. Reboot.
2. Watch or read interviews. Making ofs. Background material. Blogs.
3. Create art. Record songs. Write FanFiction.
4. Join a forum or even a Facebook group. Talk to people. Works like support group.
5. One word: tumblr.

Good luck. I'll see you around (unless I'm busy with a Doctor Who marathon. In that case, hush, don't interrupt).

Jojo

TAG-CHALLENGE-SOMETHING!

'Ello.

So, a very good friend of mine from over here tagged me in a so-far-nameless blog tag like, ages ago (sorry!). The point is to state 11 facts about yourself, answer 11 questions, make up 11 questions and then tag 11 other bloggers. I'll leave out the last part because I don't know 11 other bloggers for the life of me. So yeah. Figure that out.

11 Facts About Me.

1. I talk to inanimate objects. Like books. Or my computer.

2. Both my desk and my comfy chair are more like... storage space. All the business happens on my bed.

3. If I don't like the first two chapters of a book, I don't finish it. Unless it's for school.

4. I reread good books multiple times.

5. I have about 300 books on my shelves but because I reread most of them so often, I often feel like I don't  own any books.

6. I like poetry. Weird thing, huh?

7. My brain is constantly working in several different realities, depending on what I'm currently reading/writing/watching.

8. I am terrible at drawing.

9. I used to have piano lessons but although I love to play piano I am just not good at it.

10. I don't like my knees. They are not aesthetically pleasing to me.

11. I am incredibly glad this is the last one because hell this was difficult.


11 Questions asked by Nele from nelephantastic.

1. If you could be a Disney princess, which one would you be?
I would like to be Mulan, but really, that's not gonna happen. I'd probably be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. 'Cos BOOKS!

2. What do you do when you're incredibly tired?

Sleep, I guess? Or drink cocoa. Lots of cocoa.

3. Which language would you like to speak fluently?

Hindi. Or Japanese. Or Sindarin (that's Elvish). Or Klingon. Sigh. So much to learn.

4. Which book/film would you never give away?

Of those that actually belong to me and not my parents, my signed (and partly dedicated!) copies of John Green's books. Or my beautiful edition of the Lord of the Rings. Or the Black Magician Trilogy. Or my entire collection.

5. What is your favourite season (as in, time of year)?

Autumn. See the post below.

6. Where would you like to travel someday?

Japan. And Greece. And India. And Rome. And Edinburgh. And Narnia.

7. What is your best childhood memory?

Watching The Jungle Book with my parents. I still almost cry when I watch that now because it's basically my childhood.

8. What is your favourite quote?

"My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations." ~ John Green, The Fault in our Stars

9. Who do you admire and why?

Oh, that's a tough one. I'm going to say Joanne K. Rowling because she brought magic into my world.

10. Crisps or chocolate?

Chocolate. Because it cures sadness and there are more chocolate varieties that I like than there are crisp varieties I like.

11. What annoying habit do you have?

Cracking my knuckles.

As I said, I won't tag anybody, so there's really no point in me figuring out questions to ask. There's another post coming up, though!

CREATIVELY CHALLENGED

Greetings, my friends.

I like to call myself a creative person. I think up a lot of stories, and rather frequently tell them to myself just so somebody gets to hear them. I like art. I like making things up out of thin air. I like to create. And I like to create for other people.

Unfortunately, I'm not very good at this kind of creating.

Let's say I imagine a picture. A girl with a long cloak and the hood up standing in a dark forest, holding up a lantern with one hand. In my head, the picture is wonderful, and I know exactly how it must be done to transfer this image onto a blank piece of paper. I sharpen a soft pencil, get paper from the printer and set to work. Two hours later, I will, for sure, rip the sheet into pieces and briefly consider breaking the pencil in half.

Let's say I think of a beautiful storyline that would perfectly fit into the novel I'm currently working on. I have all the characters I need, I have the setting and the dialogue, all I need to do is put that story into words. And I can't.

I am never satisfied with anything I do. And this goes beyond the natural artist's scepticism that tells every creator that his work could be just a little better. I am horribly frustrated whenever I try to create something worthwhile which has lead me to generally avoid having to create things.

A friend of mine keeps an appointment calendar that she hands her friends every week with a new theme to draw. If I can, I only write words in fancy colours because even my sheep (which are curly lines forming a circle with four little lines for legs and a crude head) look horribly out of place in that fancy calendar.

Although I actually love drawing and crafty things like sewing and knitting, my inability to execute any of these in a fashion that would allow me to be proud of the results mostly keeps me from doing any of them. I must have dozens of little, five inch pieces of knitting that don't follow any kind of pattern or serve any kind of purpose.

Maybe this frustration is partly due to the fact that as a creating mind, I have found myself creating minds as friends. Which is not to say that I blame my friends for my own failures.

But anybody who has ever had to sit next to a teenage Van Gogh in art class knows that feeling of incapability. And now imagine feeling that almost all the time.

My friends are painters, photographers, tailors, singers, actors, comedians, musicians, make-up artists, dancers, fashion-icons and writers. Add the fact that they are all incredibly beautiful and you get where my problem comes from.

I try not to let that get to me too much. But of course, the harder you push something away, the more force it has rushing back in. And now I finally got the soluttion Maybe I can change things, though.

I decided to create. Just create. No matter what. I'll doodle on notes. I'll draw in calendars. I'll write up stories. I'll simply create. No second thoughts. No regrets.

I hope I'll be happier with this. I hope somebody joins me.