Seaside.

Today I spend my day in Cleethorpes near the seaside with my hostsister and her boyfriend. Honestly it was one of the nicest days out and the sun was out and it was warm (at least warmer than what it used to be in the past few months) and it just made me happy. It was the first day in this year on which I didn't have to wear my winter coat because of freezing temperatures and as mentioned in the sentence before it was warm weather (yey). Since I'm more a summer person I love days which are not rainy and cold and sad and boring and freezing. Anyway, enough about the weather. 

I bought the jacket that I'm wearing at a vintage market in Sheffield and I honestly love it. It's waaay to big for me but I don't care because it's comfy af and it has pocket on the sides and I just love it because I can put my hands in and I can pust stuff in and it's just cool. I don't like jackets without pockets just because I seriously have no idea where to put my hands or what to do with my them.

My hostsister took the pictures after we had Fish and Chips at the beach of Cleethorpes and before we had a Nutella crepe - yes I had a day full of great and unhealthy food and I loved it although I have to admit I felt a little sick afterwards. The day out was a spontaneous idea and it was great to be out for a few hours instead of sitting in the house all day and I have to say I love the seaside anyway because I just never had the chance to get in a car and walk along the beach after a 45 minute drive. And although everyone says the beach and the sea in Cleethorpes are not nice at all I don't care it's the sea and it's nice. 

I have one more week of school and then I'm off school because of the upcoming easter holidays and I'm so excited for it because my parents are coming to the UK to visit me and we are going to do a little trip through the country.

Have a nice start in the week!

Lots of Love,

Lea

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About School.

This is my personal opinion and someone else might see it completely different.

All my life I heard people around me saying "The Austrian education system isn't good at all, in fact it's shit." I heard teachers sides, I heard parents sides and above all I heard students sides. But no matter which side that statement came from it never went any further than "It's shit" 

People never continued with "because...". That way I grew up with the opinion that our education system isn't good without knowing why. I mean how should I have know, no one ever told me and I never had a comparison. As I got a little bit older and decided to study abroad for a year the topic of studying and education systems got really big again as getting part of a completely different system isn't something you do every day. I started to actually compare ways the different school systems work and I saw that there indeed is another way of studying. Now that I have actually experienced and lived an alternative to the Austrian education system I want to share my opinion about both of the system with you.

In Austria children start school at the age of six with four years of primary school and after that students start visiting lower school for four years continued with four years of upper school or one year of upper school and then starting to learn a job. The Austrian system offers many different types of schools and the options a broad.

In the UK the students enter primary school at the age of 5 until they are 11 years old continued with secondary school from 11 to 16 where students complete their GSCE's. After that visiting school is optional but for students who want to visit University it is necessary to stay in further education and visit sixth form to study their A-Level's (which I'm doing at the minute).

You can't judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree. Sadly this is how the system in Austria works. Although students have the option to visit a school that focuses on a special area - like art in my chase - they still don't finish their general education until they finish school. A student might be the best painter in the world or an amazing sportsman or sportswoman yet if they are unable to be excellent in science or german or maths they have "failed" and no one sees their actual talent because it's "not academic". However it is a good thing to achieve lots of detailed general education because even as an freelance artist or a professional musician maths or general geographic knowledge for example isn't a disadvantage. 

On the other hand the British school system doesn't give students the option of choosing different types of school, there is the same school type for every student. Yet the education focuses a lot more one the students as individuals by letting the students choose their subjects. While they have to take certain subjects in terms of general education before entering sixth form when studying A-Level's students are free to choose any subject they like. Studying only 3-5 subjects sounds like nothing for someone being involved in Austrian Education studying up to 16 subjects but the subjects in England are studied in a lot more detail. Students pick subjects regarding to what they want to study at university which means the students are supposed to be interested in their subjects. Furthermore especially sixth form leads students towards independence and independent studying.

Austrian working society and society in general almost demands the "Reifeprüfung" or "Matura" (end of school exams; equal to A-Levels) from people although it is only really needed when wanting to attend university nevertheless society judges you if you haven't completed these exams which in my opinion is wrong because someone that achieved education from the real working world by learning a job can be equally as good but the talent stays hidden because of the blindness of society and the fact that people on judge what is written on a piece of paper.

Moreover Austria offer students to visit a school depending on their academic level which leads to judgements by society because someone who attended a "lower level school" isn't seen as academic as some else who visited a school with a higher level which in my opinion causes false prejudices that shouldn't exist at all. With students all attending the same type of school in the UK there is no judgement in certain academic levels of individuals and they are not classed as "stupid" or "intelligent" because of the type of school they attend.

I personally prefer the English system to the Austrian one because I like to work on my own without needing my teachers approval after every word I put on paper, in other words I'm someone who likes to work independently and I also enjoy with how less pressure (at least on me) the system works in the UK. There are some things that I still don't reeeally get about school here like school uniforms or detention but that is because I haven't grown up experiencing that I guess.

It might be hard to compare two completely different systems and after all I still think you need to experience school in each of the two countries to actually judge it but I hope I was able to give you a little (also if a n´bit superficial) glance into the advantages and disadvantages. If you are planning on doing an exchange year I definitely think the British school system supports your academic performance in general and for your life.

Lots of Love,

LeaLila

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it has been a while

I know it has been ages since my last post and I owe you a massive apology for that. But better later than never so here is a new post from me.

There wasn't a particular reason that I haven't been writing, I was just busy with school and traveling to nice places and well I guess at some point I need to use laziness as an excuse as well. I did have days I thought I ought to write about though like the day I was in the United Kingdom for 5 months which was the half of my exchange year and now it's already more than 6 months that I'm here and I don't even realise how fast the time goes past. Time can be a scary thing sometimes. I mean hitting the half way mark of my english experience was something I wouldn't have imagined to be that powerful. For a few days I wasn't sure if the words "wow already half way" or "still 5 months to go" were more appropriate but I realised that the speed of time, especially when something hasn't started to last forever, is a serious part of our lives and furthermore how important it is to enjoy every moment (I know that sounds like one of these "life is always amazing"- stupid-shit-sentences but in this case I think I might actually be right). After seeing the experience of an exchange student with my own eyes the sentence "Exchange isn't a year in a life, it's a life in a year." got a whole new meaning for me. It was just one of these extremely meaningful yet at the same time totally hollow and meaningless sayings that are nice to hear but at the end if the day they are forgotten. And I tell you what, I won't forget it ever again because you know what? It is insanely true.

As I mentioned above I have been busy traveling around and meeting friends on the weekends and this weekend I went to the close and lovely town York again. I have been there several times now, I love to be there and this weekend I met a friend of mine from Austria there before she came to stay over at my place (love my girls sleepovers a lot sometimes really). It was an amazing weekend and it was so great to see her again. And although I'm almost completely fluent in english by now (I even dream in that language) I have to say it was more than relaxing for my brain to talk in german for whole two days again. However it was hilarious how we both managed to mix it up with english all the time ("Wast eh ds is like daham but a bisl aundas is scho, ya know what I mean oder?" - for everyone who is able to read and understand austrian german). We also took loads of pictures and I finally have got something that comes close to an #ootd post again.
Well I actually wore the most comfy look I can think of. I swear I love these boyfriend-jeans they are my new love (I know it sounds sad doesn't it ahahaha) and I had a hat on my head which I really wanted to wear again since it has been laying in my room for months (made the look at least a little fashionable).

I wish you all a great start into your week and for me I hope I will start posting more often again.
Lots of Love,
LeaLila
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Pictures by Maria Pohn

London's my favorite.

London is a magical place and without any doubt one of my absolute favorite cities of all I have ever been to.

I love cities. Not at last because I'm from a small place, a town that I wouldn't neccessarily call boring but also not the most exciting place for an exciting life - I'm talking about my austrian home though. However sometimes I feel like I need to get out, go to cities or whatever and enjoy life a little more than I do anyway. Whenevere I leave for such a journey I also leave in my dreams of being independend, grown-up (which in this case I should rather call living on my own) and just live my life as me. Since I'm living in England I realised how much I'm looking forward to all that, to the big, real and probably hard life after school. I can't wait to finish school and leave to whereever I want to go. And from the view times I have been to London I got the impression it's a good place to start with 'going somewhere'.

The last four days before New Years Eve I spent in London and I fell in love with this place once more. We had a very (very!) touristic program but well what else would you do as a tourist in London. Beside the usual famous sights and all we went to the Harry Potter Studios outside London and it was definitely my favourite part of the trip because and who doesn't I love Harry Potter and after seeing that place I love it even more. Oh and butter beer is disgusting. But besides that it is an amazing place and if you are ever in London and even if you just like these films a little bit: Go there!
On of my favourite places in London is Covent Garden. I have to admit I have only been there twice but the street artists, the shops, the food, the atmosphere. It all just makes just like this place. I don't want to sound like the absolute London specialst because I'm definitely not one of those still I know I would like to get one (I feel like a little girl that dreams of her being a princess in her magical world of glitter and pink things hahaha).

So it's the second day of 2016 today and a few days ago a lot of people asked me the same stupid question: "What is your New Years Resolution?" Well to be honest the question itself isn't stupid but I don't believe in this new year - new me bullshit because if I want to be a better person I can be a better person in July or September or whenever but I don't have to or rather I don't want to wait until a certain date for it. And where is the point in people wanting to change with the first of january then don't do it, be the same person as they were before the clock striked midnight, continue as normal just that they can believe in changing again a year later, which again won't happend and the circle starts from the beginning. Anyway I wish you all a happy new year and a wonderful 2016. Make it a good one, full of experiences - good and bad ones - and changes and happiness and whatever you wish for.

Lots of Love and big New Years kisses,
LeaLila
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