Every Classic Hollywood Actress

   Collecting photos of them to cover my college notebook. I love covering notebooks with a theme. Never done a vintage one, though. Time has come for that.

   Classes start on Monday and I'm pretty excited! We don't have proper classes in the first week. First week is "get to know everything" week. Then classes officially start.

Now I'll have to cook for myself. I see disaster coming.

   I've been terribly busy putting everything in order in my new tiny apartment. There's so much to do when you start a place of your own! Tiny details of things that you had in your house and no longer have. Yesterday I stayed there with my mom because the fridge and stove would arrive. All we had was the microwave, so we bought frozen meals for lunch. We went out to buy some stuff in the morning and arrived at lunchtime, starving. Wasn't it so disappointing when we were going to turn on the microwave and the plug wouldn't fit? We had to walk a good bit more to find a way to adapt it. Just great.
 
   Well, it's all good now, at least. Now my place looks like a home. There are a few more things I have to take, but basically it is ready. I'm so proud! Now I have a place to call my own (well, kind of. It's rented, which means I can't put nails on the wall, which sucks. But, I can let my things in the bathroom, and I can't do that at home!).

   Think I will be fine there.

I did it!

   I'm going to college!

   Friday was a very happy day for me. I was so anxious, I woke up at 6 a.m. to see if the results were out (they publish a list on internet) and continued checking every half hour. And yes, I made it!

    And made it very well. My course, which has not an exact equivalent in the english speaking countries - it studies the language (here, Portuguese), basically, its roots and grammar and literature, and a second language (you choose between english, spanish, french, german, italian, greek, latin and some colleges offer also chinese, japanese and arabic) and its literature.

    So, I was in ninth place in my course! Ninth! I am so proud!

    My course is not very valued here, despite its interesting proposal, because mainly what you can do with its diploma is teaching. And no one wants to be a teacher anymore, except crazy people like me. I want to teach at the university, because the salary is very good, but I would also like to teach younger people and make them like reading (reading is seen here as an EXTREMELY boring activity and people simply don't do that. Ever. They just spend their lives without reading a single book. That's sad). Maybe even do some research on reasons why children feel so discouraged to read here and how to reverse this picture.

   Well, let's start by the beginning now. I already found a place to live, a nice little place, on a very safe building close enough to downtown so I can walk there when needed and far enough so noise doesn't disturb me. There are little food shops close and a bus that goes straight to the campus. I can't wait to slowly and cheaply go decorating it, filling it with my personality. It will be a nice challenge.

   Oh, and when I arrived home I had a little surprise waiting. My Vintage Hairstyles book was waiting for me! I'll do a review as soon as I finish it, but I can tell it is simply marvelous! I am astonished with the simplicity Lauren puts into the steps. She's a genius.

    I am very pleased with my life now, indeed I am.

Camila's Culinary Adventures

   So, I never learned how to cook. My mother did try to teach me, but I'm not a good learner from watching, I learn better doing, and she never let me just take over the kitchen. So over the years all I learned how to cook was instant noodles (which I looooove, but you can't live from it).

   These last days I'm trying to cook some stuff. If I get to go to college this year (results come out tomorrow!) I'll have to cook for myself and I'm looking forward to this as great opportunity for me to try doing this my way.

   I've been mostly cooking pasta, because I love it and it's easy. Pretty good results until now. First time I tried to do white sauce I burned everything so I had to throw it away, but second attempt was very successful and very delicious. My seedless and skinless tomato sauce didn't cook much, but was delicious as well. And just yesterday I did some alioli with Jonas and it was very good too. I've been lucky so far.

   But the best thing we did was an omelette. At first things didn't go very well - I'm very clumsy and always find a way to more explode the eggs better than break them. Then it started to go right. We chopped ham in very small pieces and put it in the egg, mixed everything and threw it in the frying pan. Then I remembered there were some potato leftover from dinner (the omelette was a 2 a.m. snack. Hey, it's my vacation) so I chopped it very small as well and put it evenly on top and let it cook. When it was almost done we flipped it over (with the help of a plate. We're not so ninja), waited a bit and put it in the plate.

   Here's our masterpiece:

   Seems pretty yummy, huh? And it was. Just perfect.

   Other nice culinary good I discovered the other day was the cutest koala shaped biscuits filled with chocolate. Jonas and I went to this japanese store here where they sell sushi and other things from Japan and he took them for me to try.

   They are made in Thailand and are SO delicious! You just can't stop eating it. It's a pity it comes so few in the package. It comes about 10. 10 is not enough for my candy satisfaction!

   Aren't they the cutest thing?

   In time, I hope I'll be cooking more elaborate stuff. Who knows one day I am good enough to post some recipes here? That should be interesting.

What I Don't Like About New Year

   I haven't been very enthusiastic about the whole New Year thing for a few years now.

   To most people, it means a lot. It's like a start. A new chance to do what you weren't able to the last year. You set new goals, and it all seems so hopeful. You will make it. It's a new year, a new chance to make it right.

   Well, I just can't see that. When I was a bit younger, it hit me that it was just, you know... the passing of another day. Just like any other day in my life. Any other ordinary day.

   And all those things you hope to accomplish, the new year won't make them magically happen. It's all up to you. And you don't have to wait until the new year comes. You start the changes anytime you want. At the middle of August. Next week. When you have some time. This very moment.

   I never let the illusion of the new year get me anymore. Maybe I'm just being too rational - and a bore - but I think that sometimes the wait makes it too late. Too me, the new year - not the time in it, but the passing of the old to the new - will bring a few risks on the last number when I write the date in my diary, until I get used to it.

   So, well, I don't think anyone should change your new year's resolutions. But if you decide to change them, or add some, don't wait for 2013. Everyone should re-evaluate their lives every once in a while. More frequently that just in the end of each year.

   Good luck with your goals.

Dating a Nerd: Games

 
   Hello! In my opinion, nerds are the best guys. Not geeks, nerds. Those shy, a bit dorky guys. They are smart and more mature and  give more importance to personality than looks. And also, there aren't a bunch of stupid girls around them trying to get their attention all the time.

   But there's a thing about dating nerds that might annoy some women: games. They love it. They play it all the time. They talk about it. A lot.

   So what do you do? Desperately try to get him out of the computer? That is what most women do.

   But I think it's more effective, and also bonding, and surprising, if you try to understand that and go play. Actually, there is a lot of awesome games, specially if you like fantastic stuff (like Lord of the Rings) or being challenged.

   Thing is, you might just have a lot of fun. I do. Specially playing World of Warcraft, which became a favorite. I'm a proud Draenei (a kind of alien satyr) Frost Mage and Jonas, I and a friend of ours have a lot of  fun playing hours and hours of it, slaying dragons and giants and riding our gryphons and meeting nice people.

Even though you'll look scary, he'll still love you :P

    I've even made a friend in Philippines the other day. She and her boyfriend play too. We asked for her help in a raid and we started chatting and she was so nice!

    Your boyfriend will really appreciate your efforts. And be totally proud of his gamer girlfriend if you enjoy the thing. And if you don't, well, he will like very much the fact that you've tried instead of just assuming it is childish and stupid and complain about it all the time.

I could be your Zelda if you will be my Link

   And then probably he will understand your things better. Like that day when Jonas was watching me put on my makeup and said: "Well, this is actually kind of difficult. It's almost an art. I am even kind of afraid of kissing you now and messing it up". So you see? It's better when you try to understand the interest of each other for something, than just complain about it and let this part of the other be a complete stranger to you. That is very sad.

   So be his thing gaming, or astrophysics, or how cars work, or martial arts, or whatever, try to show interest and understand the beauty he sees in it. And he will also be more open to your clothes and makeup, or musicals of the 50s, or knitting, or passion for Jane Austen books. And you'll live happily ever after!

Charmanders are red, Squirtles are blue,

If you were a pokemon, I'd choose you.

   

(You just don't know how hard it is to find cute photographs of nerd couples)

Freedom at last! And Prom.

  Hey! High School is totally over for me! I'm happy beyond description, really. I was so tired of my classes! I felt like sleeping made no difference this last month, so tired I was.

   Well, it is over for life! I will never have to wear an uniform again!

   The big question is: will I pass my exams to college? I'm optimistic. Here in Brazil, we have a peculiar way of selection. For most of colleges, there is a new form, which is a national test. For some, usually the best colleges, there is a two-step selection: a test of multiple choice, and a dissertative test. Candidates come and do the first test, and await results. They select the best of those to do the second test, which definitively selects the ones that can go to college.

    The colleges I'm trying follow the second model and I already have the results of the first test of the one I want the most. And I passed! In 15th place! I am soooo happy about it!

   So, I'm feeling that next year I probably am going to college, yes.

   There is one last thing related to school I must attend: my prom.

   Pretty excited about it. I love getting all dressed up. I bought the dress months ago, when I traveled to Orlando in the U.S. with my family. Dresses in Brazil are not much more expensive than dresses in the U.S., but they are much uglier. Too open and modern to me.  My dress is a nice tone of blue-green, in a shiny fabric, kind of a mermaid model, with little silver stones in the heart-shaped bust, with lacing (like a corset) on the back. I wanted something to match silver because I want to wear the Evenstar my boyfriend gave me last Christmas.

   

   This is the Evenstar, the necklace Arwen gives Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. Isn't it just perfect?

   Well, as I love vintage, and my dress and even the necklace don't conflict with something 40-ish, I'm planning to do something vintage to my hair and makeup. My ideal was to wear gloves, but I seriously doubt my mother would let me. Let's see. I already have my brand new pair of shoes, which has kind of a retro feeling to it.

   About the hair, there's a youtube channel of a girl that teaches all kinds of vintage hairdos, she's really great. If you like to do all those vintage hairstyles, like me, but doesn't have much of an idea how, she is perfect for you. I've learned a lot from her videos. She can be found here.

   It's going to be a busy week, I have tons of things to study (and I'm quite slow and lazy at that), but I will survive and who knows maybe I show up again here before next week.

   Wish me luck.