How Did I Acquire These Books? Part 1

A while back, I shared some of my bookish confessions with y'all and I shared a picture of my bookshelf (or rather, a part of my bookshelf. Taking a picture of my entire bookshelf was too hard). I kind of stared at it for ten minutes yesterday for no reason at all. And as I was staring, I was thinking about all the various ways I acquired these books and this post was born. So here are some stories behind how I got these books. They're not very interesting stories but I hope you don't mind!

When I was eight, my school held a book fair. There were posters plastered all over the walls and every single time I walked by them, my eyes would automatically stop at the book, Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist. I just thought it was the cutest, most magnificent cover ever and so I went home and basically told my dad that he had to give me money for this book. Fortunately, I have the greatest dad on the planet. He obliged and the very day the book fair opened, I bought the book!

After I had finished the book, I realized that I made the mistake of reading the second book first. Errrr. But I kind of just shrugged it off, saying 'there's no point in reading the first now that I've read the second'. And this is where things get a bit crazy. A couple weeks later, my grandmother who loves sending me books sent me The Tale of Emily Windsnap which was the first book in the Emily Windsnap series. That was like, totally beyond what my third-grade mind could comprehend so I sat and screamed for ten minutes.

I still don't think I've finished the series. It took me a while to make it to the third book and then after that, they didn't interest me any more. I still remember how much I loved this series when I was younger though. Honestly, if you were to ask me my favourite childhood authors, Liz Kessler would probably slip from my mind but really, she deserves a spot on my list for helping me discover my wonderful imagination!

When I was six, I saw a movie that would forever change my life: High School Musical. No, seriously, that movie was my LIFE. I think I've watched it about seventeen to nineteen times since then. And every single time was as magical as the first. I think everyone around me evenutally caught on how absolutely obsessed I was because as Christmas came, so did two High School Musical books. They were the only things I read for like, a year until I begged my mum to get me this one too. Which I still haven't finished.

But I hope that doesn't give you the impression that I'm no longer a Wildcat. Because I am, I just no longer feel the need to cry into my books, wondering when I will get my own Troy (but seriously, we all know I'm talking about Zac).


I think two books is pretty good for the beginning right? I planned on having four books in this post but seeing as how much I talk about on each book, it's better to keep the numbers small. So 'How Did I Acquire These Books?' will now be a series that you can probably find pretty regularly here now that it's summer. And don't forget to share stories of how you acquired YOUR books!

The Red Concert

Something big happened yesterday, guys. I went to my first concert and saw one of my favourite artists in concert! It was such an amazing experience and I'm so grateful I was able to go. Taylor put on a wonderful show, not stopping for two straight hours! The vocals were great and all the artistic touches really made the concert memorable. And we had THREE opening acts!

The first opening act was Joel Crouse, whom I had never heard before but is superbly good. (Yesterday was his birthday so happy birthday, Joel!) I arrived a bit later and missed his first few performances but luckily, caught his amazing rendition of Someone Like You.

Then came Austin Mahone who was the second opening act. Well, all I can say is that I'm certainly no Mahomie. His dancing skills were quite impressive though!

And then there was Ed. Amazing Ed who came out and rocked the audience with his song, Give Me Love. He did a brilliant cover of Feeling Good which gave me chills and a great performance of You Need Me, I Don't Need You, Lego House, and The A Team. This is a picture I took from my seat way up in the back. This was actually one of my better pictures.

Once Ed had finished his tiny performance, there was a super long break and it took us well into the third half hour of the concert. But finally Taylor came out with her song, State of Grace (which is like one of my favourites.)

Here was the set list for her performance:

1. State of Grace

2. Holy Ground

3. Red

4. You Belong With Me

5. The Lucky One

6. Mean

7. Stay Stay Stay/Ho Hey

8. 22

9. Tim McGraw

10. Everything Has Changed

11. Begin Again

12. Sparks Fly

13. I Knew You Were Trouble

14. All Too Well

15. Love Story

16. Treacherous

17. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

In between her costume changes, there were amazing acts put on by her dancers and musicians. I clearly remember a zooming redhead violinist, jamming on stage before IKYWT and ballet dancers climbing out of a chest before Love Story. There were also flying drummers and some cool fireworks! 

In short, the performance was amazing! Everything was magnificent (including her vocals) and it was so much fun. Taylor is a wonderful performer and if you get the opportunity to see her, I highly suggest you take it! :)

3 Ways Blogging Can Benefit You

In the past few years, blogging has been on the rise. With millions of people being able to access the Internet in just a click, sharing your thoughts and your life through social media sites has been very popular. Sites like Twitter and Tumblr allow you to express yourself – something some people may not be able to do in their day to day life. This has become so big that nearly everyone that has Internet access is a participant in at least one social media site – be it Facebook or Pinterest or Twitter. A 2011-2012 report released by the World Economic Forum states that 82% of the world population that has Internet access is a participant in at least one social media or social network site. A large percentage of that are people who have either a blog or a microblog such as a Blogger-hosted website, or Twitter, and even more people read blogs.


One major reason why people drift towards blogging is that they have no limits as to what they can talk about. They can talk about books, or food, or even movies. Along with the freedom to blog about absolutely everything they want, there are also many benefits to blogging. Firstly, you can improve your writing skills. By constantly updating your blog, you can hone your skills which will benefit you when writing reports or essays. Secondly, your creativity will increase. When blogging, you want to make sure your material is fresh to gain readers. Having to come up with new ideas all the time that will set you apart from everyone else, your creativity will increase. Finally, you will get to meet new people. Through comments, or new readers, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll find new people to chat with about your passions.


One of the major benefits of blogging is that it can help with your writing. Even though blogging is a very casual form of writing, you still need to be in possession of basic writing skills to get your point across. You need to learn how to write with proper sentence structure, proper grammar, and sentences that get straight to the point. Learning this and putting it into effect can help you when making presentations or writing reports. If you’re an aspiring author, then blogging will help you get into the practice of writing on a regular schedule. Most bloggers schedule their posts in the same way an author might schedule how many words they write each day. Getting into the habit of writing regularly is a good way to make sure you get your word count for each day. As you write more and more, you’re getting more practice. Just like with everything else you do, the more practice you get, the better you become.


Blogging also helps to increase your creativity. When you are a blogger, you constantly have to think of new material to feed your readers. The more you practice thinking outside of the box and thinking outside of what you have done already, the more creative you will become. In the blogging community, it is guaranteed that someone else will have the same idea or theme as you. In order to set yourself apart, you have to think of a unique way to distinguish yourself from the rest and often, the best way to do that is with a good blog layout and design. Though some bloggers may choose to get a graphic designer to make a blog design for them, some may choose to do it entirely on their own. Either way, a lot of creativity and experimenting has to be exerted on the blogger’s part. Without any guidance, a graphic designer can’t do the job either. Becoming more creative is very beneficial to your brain’s well-being. Without constantly exercising your mental abilities, your brain wills lowly deteriorate. By exerting your creativity while blogging, you are also exercising your brain and making it more stimulated and fit.


With so many blogs out there nowadays, it’s very likely you’ll meet someone new as you blog. Anyone can comment on anything, and if you give your readers the option to do so, they can even contact you. It’s one of the major reasons why businesses opt for a blog. It is great publicity as anyone with Internet access can easily find your blog. It’s not impossible for people blogging for their own leisure to meet new people either – in fact, it’s the opposite. There is sure to be dozens of other blogs out in the Internet that have the same theme as you do. With some commenting and communicating, you may just find your new best friend!


Blogging certainly is a great way to share your passions, but as you can see, there are many other benefits to blogging. You can improve your writing skills by writing more frequently on your blog, while also boosting your creativity and meeting new people and gaining publicity. Believe it or not, there are dozens of other benefits to blogging and all you need to do to discover them is to start a blog!

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Okay, so let me just explain myself here. Recently I had to write an essay for school since, well, we're studying essays. Since I'm so dedicated to my blogging, I decided to my essay on how blogging benefits you. This is my final copy. Now, I'm not expecting feedback or anything. I posted this because I thought it might spark a fun discussion. How has blogging benefited you? For me, I think the best way in which blogging has helped me is with my writing. I have improved SO MUCH. Seriously, just flip back to my older review and compare it to some of my more recent ones. Oh my gosh, I CRINGE. Thankfully, I'm way better now. Improved writing would certainly help in the many years of writing reports and assignments I still have left.

Iceland 2013: Part 2

* To check out Part 1, click this link
**All pictures below include captions. Please note that not all pictures were taken by me. To differentiate between mine and ones taken off of Google, I have concocted a handy dandy system. Captions that are italicized are ones from Google, and captions that are not are mine and mine only. Enjoy!

Picking up from where I left off last time, I had an exhausting second day in Iceland, but it was so much fun! The third day was just as amazing and exhausting. Here's what we did:

Iceland has a great and expansive tourist industry. Everything is very tourist friendly, and there are so many great tours to choose from. I remember my trip to the tour desk and just gaping at the massive amounts of pamphlets there were. Tours are something most tourists do at least once on their trip to Iceland. Though it's always a bit inconvenient to be stuck with a tour group, given how big and empty some parts of Iceland can be, it's a good option to go with a tour. For the third day, we took the Golden Circle tour which stops at three famed sites.

The first site we visited was the geyser park. Most of the geysers are dormant and just bubble from time to time, but there is one geyser standing in the center of the park that actually does spray water into the air. It's quite active, exploding every four to six minutes.

An overview of the geyser park. The water here is 80-100 degrees Celsius, so be sure not to stick your hand in the geysers!

Closeup of a geyser. 

I didn't even know the geyser was going to burst. Totally didn't expect the picture to be so good. I just quickly whipped out my camera and pressed the button. Hmm. What say you?

Then, afterwards, I headed to the souvenir shop/restaurant to get some food and guess what I saw? Some crazy Icelandic souvenirs. Ahem. Souvenir, actually. The rest was all woollen sweaters and such.

Heck yeah, a can of fresh mountain air. Isn't that something?

Once we had finished browsing around Geyser Park, we headed off to the waterfall, Gullfoss. It is so damn huge. Seriously. But wait, the place it's located is even huger. The path leading to as close to the waterfall as you can get is so steep and loooong.

Damn, and we're not even finished the path.

The entirety of Gullfoss.

And then, we headed for our next stop. Before I move on though, can I just share one photo? I just adore this. I don't know why...I think I'm developing an obsession with large machines.

I love this so much.

This is somewhat of an irrelevant photo but I just couldn't help taking it. I think this is the greatest way to raise awareness for men's cancer, and so cute!

Our bus is looking fiiiine.

Okay, well then afterwards, we headed to the national park in Iceland, which is also a UNESCO site. Want to know why? I'll tell you: the Þingvellir is the only place in the world you can actually see the tectonic plates. Both the North American and the Eurasian are visible. Unfortunately, I had no idea what a tectonic plate would look like so I only have the picture of the North American.

The rough, jagged rock is most likely the tectonic plate.

The other cool thing about the park is the giant pond/lake. It's a gorgeous blue and also very shimmery, due to the coins thrown in there. Legend has it, if you see your coin fall all the way down, your wish will come true. I did see my coin fall down...the second time. Does that count? Otherwise, that's twenty cents down the drain.

I can just imagine a mermaid living here. It's so shimmery.

Since it's a tour, we were on a tight schedule and could only stay a couple of minutes. Thank goodness, because if we were late, we wouldn't have been able to embark on the hunt for the Northern Lights. The tour started at 7 and lasted all the way to 3 in the morning. There's really no set timeline, it's just whenever the lights show up - given that they do. If they don't, no need to worry, you get a second tour free! Valid until two years after your first tour. 

We chased the lights for a long time. At first, we stayed at a cute little restaurant but then we quickly found out that that wasn't such a prime spot to stay so we zoomed to a park. Nope, that didn't work either so the guides decided to drive us home. However, there was some broadcast that the lights were in fact on, soooo, we drove further west to another park. And? We saw them! They were absolutely gorgeous, and it's such a shame I couldn't take a picture. My camera isn't that great. 

This is the closest to what we saw. Sometimes, you can see other colors.

One important thing I learned (besides the fact that you should NEVER use flash to take a photo of the lights) is that they always appear more vibrant in pictures. It's something to do with how long our eyes collect data. We observe things in milliseconds, but in order to get the full impact of the lights, you need to view them in seconds. Unfortunately, our eyes do not have settings we can manipulate so we have to count on the camera to take the pretty pictures. 

Once the show was over, the guides drove us back to our hotel. The next day, and our final day, was spent sleeping in and relaxing before the flight back home. Fast forward a few days, and here I am: typing this out.

I highly enjoyed my short trip to Iceland, and I honestly think it's a great destination for everyone. Seriously. This is absolutely one of the most gorgeous places ever, and you'll adore it. :)

Before I leave you though, there's just one more thing I'd like to share. Something to keep in mind when you do visit Iceland. ;)

Yup, don't eff with Iceland!

Iceland 2013: Part 1

*All pictures below include captions. Please note that not all pictures were taken by me. To differentiate between mine and ones taken off of Google, I have concocted a handy dandy system. Captions that are italicized are ones from Google, and captions that are not are mine and mine only. Enjoy!

So, I'm back from Iceland! Wow is all I can say. Seriously, one of the best trips I've ever taken - even though I was there for such a short period of time. The people were all so nice and friendly. There were tons of horses, lot of fish, lot of lamb meat, and A LOT of lava and volcanoes. It was absolutely fantastic and I highly suggest a trip here at least once in your lifetime.

The first day spent in Iceland was very relaxed and thank goodness for that, since we had just gotten off of a five hour flight! We checked into our hotel, the gorgeous Hilton Reykjavik Nordica, and once we got settled down with our stuff, we headed for our complimentary breakfast-upon-arrival at the Vox restaurant.

Our hotel, the Hilton Nordica.

A suite at the Hilton. Loved the minimalistic décor! Plus, the splash of orange gives a nice, cozy feel!

The Vox restaurant at the Hilton!

Once we had finished breakfast, we went down to the famed Laugavegur street. It's a wonderful shopping street and there were so many cute stores and boutiques! I wouldn't have enough time to browse through all of them, which is such a shame.

Eeek, so cute! :)

There were some really nice souvenir shops so I got some stuff for my friends and family. Afterwards, we had pizza at a nice little shop near the beginning of Laugavegur. It was so good! (By the way, that's something Iceland has an abundance of - pizza/Italian restaurants. Also, Thai restaurants.)

For the night, we had booked a Northern Lights tour to go see the Northern Lights, but that got cancelled due to the overcast skies. Even though that sucked, I am so thankful for it because I promise you, as soon as I got into that bed at the hotel, I started snoring like a giant. 

The next day, we had a scheduled tour of a lot of stuff. Seriously, it was such a busy day and it's still amazing to me how we managed to get all THAT done. The tour guides came around to our hotel and collected us, then shoved us into a nice red Land Rover. The first place we drove to was (get ready now, it's a mouthful) Eyafjallajökull. Eyafjallajökull is a volcano under a glacier, which is where most of Iceland's volcanoes are located. Fun fact: Eyafjallajökull was the volcano that erupted in 2010, causing massive ash problems in Iceland and around Europe. We drove onto the glacier in our snazzy Land Rover and boy, was it a bumpy ride! We are extremely fortunate we didn't get stuck in the snow because seriously, there were some Jeeps that went under. 

I don't actually have a picture of a Jeep stuck in snow. Here's a picture of a Jeep. Enjoy.

And then we drove all the way to the top of the glacier and behold! The most wonderfully awkward glacier ever. (Then again, I don't know what the top of a glacier is supposed to look like.)

 The top of the glacier. Seriously, I didn't know there was a thing that stuck up at the top.

After we visited the glacier, we made the very bumpy road back down. It had started pouring no less than five seconds once we reached an actual road so when we stopped at Anna, the country hotel near the glacier, we were all soaking. No matter because Anna had a nice cozy restaurant held INDOORS where we had a nice lunch of two types of soup (tomato and traditional lamb soup) plus some yummy bread with great butter. 

The country hotel, Anna, where we had our yummy lunch.

After taking a short break at Anna, we drove in the rain to the Sólheimajökull where we had a scheduled glacier walk. It's really not as intense as it sounds. You just put on your hiking boots (and water resistant material, in our case) and your crampons (the ice cleats that attach to your boots) and your ice pick. Once you've done all that, then you start up the glacier and the tour guide takes you as far as time will allow. It was extremely fun and something much easier than it sounds. Even if you aren't in great shape (*cough* like me *cough*) you can still enjoy walking up the glacier. It's such a safe environment that you won't even notice how high up you are. And chances are, you'll also forget there's a possibility of falling into the glacier. :)

I know this isn't a great picture, but it was taken from the tour group we had the trip booked with!

It was so amazingly fun, and the lucky thing is that it stopped raining once we got onto the glacier. Thank goodness! Well, what can you say? It's Iceland! (To clear things up, it's a joke that the Icelanders have that if you don't like the current weather, all you need to do is wait five minutes.) The glacier was really big so we didn't get to the top but we did get up quite high. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to show you guys of my awesome feat. :(

Once we had finished our little hike, we zoomed off to a waterfall, which will remain nameless as we visited like, four waterfalls and I can't remember all their names. 

 Waterfall. Mmmmm.

We walked around this site for a while before we blasted off to the Black Lava Beach, Black Sand Beach which is only a few short minutes from this waterfall. The name says it all: there is indeed black sand at the beach. It's actually ash though that has accumulated over thousands and thousands of years. It was absolutely gorgeous. And don't take beach to mean tons of half naked people, sun bathing. No, it's simply:

1. A shore of sand or pebbles at the edge of the sea.

Well, except it's actually ASH, but close enough. (The definition was taken from the Oxford Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus: Third Edition.).

I love this. Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?

The contrast between my shoes and the ash. Oh my gosh, I think I've just been blinded.

We stayed for a while, and then drove to another waterfall. (Just you wait, more waterfalls in Part 2.)

Sorry, the picture is a bit crooked. I ain't too good at taking photos.

And then, we went back to our lovely hotel. We had planned to go on the Northern Lights tour that night, but we were all so absolutely exhausted. No worries, we still had two more days left in Iceland! Yay! 

PS. Stay tuned for Part 2!