Hello Everyone and Welcome Back to Spring in Segovia!
It’s finally Spring Break!!! I hope you all have plans and will enjoy your well-deserved holiday after midterms. If you read last week’s article (click the link if you didn’t) you would know that recently I undertook a self care challenge to help myself destress and rejuvenate for the holidays! Yesterday was the last day of my challenge and I can truly say that I enjoyed the experience. Here’s the lowdown of what exactly happened this week and why you should try this challenge too!
Day 1 – Cook/Order a Special Meal
The other day I went to the big Carrefour to stock up on Italian products, so I was very happy to use my creativity to combine them and recreate the recipes I’ve seen on the internet! So this is the result! I really felt like a chef!
Day 2 – Take a Hot Bath/Shower
One thing I am very grateful for, is making me discover warm baths again. Since then, it has become a ritual for me to just chill in my bathtub with an incredible amount of foam and just relax watching a tv show or reading a book. I know it sounds like something that people only do in tv shows but I swear it’s true!
Day 3 – Take a Walk in Nature
When I think about moving to Madrid next year I always think about how much I will miss having so much nature around me as we have here in Sego. And even though some people say that after the first 3 months of first year there’s nothing more to see here I believe this is not true! In fact, whenever I exercise I discover new paths and little roads that lead to beautiful hidden panoramas. Go explore Sego as much as you can while you’re still here!
Day 4 – Reconnect with Friends
I have to admit I am a very bad texter, and therefore I get further from my friends that are far away quite quickly. Especially, I haven’t talked with the friends I met during my exchange in Australia in a while! So I used the occasion this challenge offered me to contact some of them again and know what’s going on in their lives! It was so nice to know their updates and how much their life (and mine also) has changed since we met 3 years ago. I will surely plan a trip back to Australia as soon as borders will be open again.
Day 5 – Unplug From Social Media
I don’t really consider myself addicted to social media, but today I disconnected the notifications from all of them (except whatsapp, otherwise my mom would have probably flown here in 2 hours to kill me because I haven’t replied to her in 2 minutes time). And it honestly really helped me not checking Instagram and a lot! Lately I feel like everyone has been more connected than ever and this is surely not a positive thing, so I’ll try to keep my Instagram notifications off for as long as I can.
Day 6 – Sweat It Out
Ok, here I must be honest, this day happened to be the first sunny and warm day after a while, so, no matter how much I wanted to go and exercise around Segovia, I guess the drinks in plaza were stronger than my will!
So I was kind of forced to wear a nice skirt, go to the plaza and enjoy the sun for the whole afternoon, what a pain! Please take a moment of silence to think about my sacrifice.
Day 7 – Pamper Yourself
Since I moved to Segovia I have always been going to the same beautician that always remember me all the treatments she offers (face cleaning, manicure and pedicure and whatever else you can think of), and I always replied to her that I would have tried sooner or later but never actually found the time. This week I finally tried and it was amazing! Also, additionally to the treatments I got around 2 hours of free spanish class as the estheticians only speak spanish! I highly recommend you to try!
If you want to try them too here’s her information, I highly recommend it for everything beauty related (especially laser treatments!).
Monica Marazuela Esteticista
https://www.monicamarazuela.es/
+34 921 43 87 08
Av. Vía Roma, 38, 40003 Segovia
Day 8 – Dance It Out
I am not really a huge dancer, especially because when I moved here I realised how embarrassing my dancing skills are compared to South American and Spanish people. But it is still fun to enjoy a night with friends having a couple of drinks and then dancing all together, so that’s what we did. Also, I’ve been asking my South American friends to teach me how to dance, so I am happy to say that I am slowly improving!
Day 9 – Declutter
This is actually what I needed the most! Everyone who knows me well is aware of the fact that I am EXTREMELY messy! And the closer exams get, the more excuses I make to avoid tidying up my room. Because of this, I won’t put a picture of how my room was before I organised it because you would get scared. I started by picking up all the clothes that were distributed around the room and dividing them into a pile of things to wash, one to iron and one to just fold back. Then I started ironing what needed to be and I made my bed (I get THIS lazy!). I was so proud of myself that I asked my roommates to come and see my amazing work! Now I feel so much better, let’s just see how many days it will last (probably one).
Day 10 – Try Something New
Everyone right now is saying that since the pandemic started it is very complicated to try new things and that there’s a lack of possibilities. Although, I believe this is not completely true; you might not be able to experience all the clubs in Spain, but with a bit of imagination and creativity you can still find plenty of new things to do! For example, the other day talking with my roommate I discovered she found a way to get on the roof of our house and enjoy the sunset having a wonderful view of Segovia! So, yesterday, even though I’m SUPER scared of heights, I went. It took me around 30 minutes to get up there, and we nearly missed the sunset because of me, but I made it! Once I was there, the view was breathtaking! We brought a speaker and two beers and just enjoyed the moment until the sky became dark and we had to go back. This was definitely the best day of the challenge!
I hope you guys enjoyed this challenge because I certainly did! I really think that it is worth trying out as by the end of the week I felt very accomplished and relaxed. I really like pushing myself to do these challenges as I probably wouldn’t have such a healthy lifestyle in my everyday life! Also, I believe it is really important to give ourselves more self care time in these stressful times.
If you decide to try this challenge out for yourself (which I really hope you do) Don’t forget to share your experience with us @ieustork! And don’t forget to let me know if there’s any challenge you would like me to try!
