When I should be revising..

Hello

I'm Cielo, as I guess you can see. I am 19, just finishing my first year of University, and browsing YWS is quite possibly the best form of procrastination from medieval revision in the world right now.

Pleased to meet you all
-Cielo-

Hey Cielo!

Welcome to YWS! We, as you can tell from the title, are a young writers website dedicated to helping young writers grow and become better and shtuff. I wish I knew what revision was, probably a 'NOTAMERICAN' thing.

Coupla questions:

1.Who's your favorite author?

2. What's revision?

3. Do you watch Skins (That's awfully stereotypical of me. I doubt every British person watches Skins but apparently 31% of Britains watch iCarly. Random fact. Yeeeah.)?

4. Do you like white chocolate?

5. Do you watch iCarly?

6. What's your opinion on the great Dr. Pepper vs. Cherry Coke debate?

7. What types of things do you like to write?

8. Where does your username come from?

9. Have you ever heard of Charlieissocoollike?

10. When did you start writing?

If you have any questions or just want to talk, PM me.

~jas

Hi jasminebells (pretty name)


Haha revision is I think what people call 'studying' in America? I'm doing my final exams for the year at the moment. It's great fun BUT, they finish on Friday and then I am absolutely free for three months and finally free to get back into writing which is really very exciting.

In response to your (very good) questions...

1) I am probably one of the least descisive people ever. I literally change my mind about favourites every ten minutes or so depending on my mood. Same goes for favourite colour, drink, food, music and basically any other kind of favourite ever haha. So i guess I'll just list a few who I do absolutely love:
Margaret Atwood - she is fantastic, have you read anything by her? If not then I highly recommend 'Oryx and Crake' and it's sequel 'The Year of the Flood'. Such interesting books and written so well.
Jonathan Safran Foer - 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' and 'Everything is Illuminated'. LOVE those books.
And then not necessarily authors but a few of my favourite books I think would have to be 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf, 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy, 'The Great Gatsby' by Fitzgerald and 'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Hmm and I think my guilty pleasure with books would have to be Harry Potter and Jacqueline Wilson For my inner 10 year old.

You were probably looking for a much less long winded answer than that.. I tend to get a bit carried away

2.(revision- I hope I have answered?)

3. Haha I did used to watch Skins yes the English one. I stopped when the new season came out though because I didn't like it Watched all of the first four though.

4.I do like white chocolate although I can't eat quite as much of it as other kinds. OH, but my recent discovery is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Oh my goodness, how I have lived my life without them I do not know.

5. My younger sisters both watch iCarly so I do watch it when I'm home with them. And The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and Hannah Montana and The Wizards of Waverly Place I am quite the Disney Channel expert, if I do say so myself.

6. Definitely, definitely, definitely Dr. Pepper.

7. I like to write all kinds of things. I think my biggest problem is not finishing anything though, Im hoping this site will help me with that. I think I have finished only about 3 short prose pieces in the last 6 years or so. I'm also terrified of showing people my writing which is something I hope this site will help me get over.
I prefer to write fiction most of the time, short stories and sometimes poetry. I think I am better at the former. The other thing I like to do is write about travelling. I might start a blog about it on here, actually. I hope to one day get a job for Rough Guides or Lonely Plant or some other kind of travel magazine. I absolutely LOVE to travel, more than anything

8. My username is the spanish word for 'sky'. I thought it sounded really lovely It's pronounced 'See - e - lo', I think. I am half Venezuelan so I really, really want to properly learn Spanish. Hopefully I'll be able to find a reasonably priced class soon.

9. Charlieissocoollike... rings a bell.. I may have heard something along those line but I have no clue what it is I also may not have heard of it and just think I have haha

10. And finally, I have been writing for pretty much as long as I can remember. I used to write stories for my mum when I was very little. I find writing quite theraputic so I'm always doing it in some form. Even when I'm not really writing anything I just ramble in my commonplace book. Usually in the evenings with a lovely cup of tea and something on the TV in the background

I really didn't mean for this reply to go on for so long haha. I apologise (this is what I mean with my rambling I can go on forever!)
Do you like to travel? Or have you been to many places? Whereabouts are you from in America? (I find the US really fascinating. There's an american guy living above me this year on a year abroad from his college and I love listening to him talk about it. I went to Washington and Baltimore once and I have been to Florida. One day I am determined to properly road trip around the whole country, though!)

I'd love to read some of your work too, where can I find it?

Lovely to meet you!
-Cielo-

You should come to California! That's where I am, actually. I'm in a really good place too... I'm an hour and a half away from San Francisco, the mountains, the redwood forests, and wine country. So, I'm in a really central place. It's awesome! And beautiful. There are tons of farms around where I live and strawberry season just started, so for my birthday we'll be eating fresh strawberries and such. It's going to be awesome.

So THAT'S what revision was! I was wondering about that. We call it "cramming" in America. XD In any case, you can be assured that I am definitely procrastinating for studying my finals! YWS is definitely good for that.

What in particular are you studying in your medieval studies? And, for that class (whatever it's about) do you get to go on field trips to some of those medieval places that you learn about? England has some pretty cool old buildings! That would be awesome if you could go.

Also! You like to travel... do you also have a photography interest as well?

Hi cielo!

Ack! God of Small Things! I really enjoyed that one.
Also; yay for traveling! I LOVE to go around and explore places. Europe's on my big 'go-around' list. Someday when I can stack up on the moolah, I shall.
Well, for me revision is actually revision. In the sense that you're going through what you've already studied. Maybe that's an Indian thing. lol!

What's your medieval studies about? Medieval stuff always are fun to read!

See you around!
Cheers!
~Lava

This welcome mat entry intrigued me so. ^-^ Welcome to YWS, Cielo! I hope you enjoy yourself here.

Anyway. I read something you said about "revising" meaning "studying" in America. I live in Californa, and here we just call studying studying, lol. I don't know. Also, you said something about wanting to learn spanish. I think that's great. Mostly because I am Spanish/Mexican and really am dying to learn Italian and ASL(american sign language) before my own language. 0_o Everyone I have ever known always knows spanish, maybe that's why! You're from the Uk though, I wonder if you'd be able to break free from your accent to pronounce spanish authentically. I love English accents. ^-^ I'm trying to imagine what a brit might sound like speaking spanish. (I hope that doesn't sound offensive in any way!)

Hmm. . . oh yes, something else you wrote in response to Jas's lovely questions. You watch Skins? Or use to? They made an "American" version I think, on MTV here in the states. It was pretty raw and blunt and sexual. I stopped watching, lol. But not for any specific reason. I wonder what the London Skins is like though.

Dr. Pepper is the ruler of all soda beverages, thank you very much. And I don't think I can go a week without eating something Reese's.

I'd also like to ask what your take is on the word "mum" versus "mom" is. I think I heard around the site from someone who was from the UK who said they didn't understand why Americans say "mom" instead of mum. A bit funny I thought, but I was just wondering what your thought would be.

Anyway, I'm rambling! I hardly ramble in welcome posts very often, but you seemed like a cool newbie. Welcome again to YWS, and have fun roaming the site!

-Smylin

Hi everyone

Snoink (very cool name!), where you live sounds amazing! America really sounds absolutely beautiful, especially all the national parks and such. A friend of mine went on holiday there recently and I saw the pictures from it, I'm dying to go! As for the strawberries, I am so jealous! I am a huge fan of anything involving strawberries

The medieval module I'm doing is only a first-year module so it's very very broad in what it covers. We do bits of everything really, The Exeter Book Elegies, The Dream of the Rood, Beowulf, Judith, The Battle of Maldon, the Lais of Marie de France, Chaucer, Old English pageants. I find it all very interesting contextually, but struggling through reading the actual texts can be a drag.
There was a trip to York as part of the module which is a really amazing city if you're studying anything medieval. So is Chester, which was/is a walled Roman city. We didn't go to that one but it's quite close to where I'm from so I used to go a lot with my family. They are such interesting places.

And I do actually have a photography interest I actually really love film photography, I tend to buy a disposable camera on every holiday I go on as well as taking a digital. I think film photography somehow manages to capture more atmosphere than a crystal clear image. This being said, I don't really know very much about photography but it's something I'd love to know a bit more about, I'm thinking of joining the photography society next year Is it something you are very interested in?

Hello Lava!

So you live in India? That's amazing. My Stepdad is actually from India and I went over to Rajkot for my Uncles wedding (quite a few years ago now, how amazing are Indian weddings?? So colourful!) but it's somewhere I am definitely planning to go back to! A flatmate of mine spent three months there during a gap year and said it was pretty much one of the best places she's ever been! What's it like to live there? Actually, I'm not sure how I'm expecting you to answer such a broad question.. what's your favourite thing(s) about living there? - might be easier to answer.
And yes! That's exactly what revision is. Just going over everything you've learnt in preparation for an exam.

SmylinG (hello!!) do you say studying for when you are just generally studying and studying for an exam? The american in our block says it for both I think ('alright y'all, I'm jus' off to the library to study' - I love it!) he is without a doubt one of the coolest people I have ever met haha. He also has bongo drums! Which I find amazing, although slightly annoying as his room is above mine and they tend to reverberate through my ceiling.

Wow, American sign language, that sounds like it would be challenging but very rewarding. My mum actually speaks fluent Spanish, as does my Granny but since we moved to England and the rest of my Dad's side of the family stayed in Venezuela or South America it never got spoken, which is a shame. I have to say, I'm not hopeful for my pronunciation! When I was learning French in school I wasn't very good at it. I suppose it varies from person to person because both my Mum and my Granny's pronunciation sounds impeccable to me (not that I would really know the difference.. plus my Granny was a modern languages teacher so I guess she kind of had to be good at pronunciation)
I have to admit I like some English accents, although I'm not sure if some American's have kind of an idealised image of what English accents sound like.. in my personal opinion some parts of the country have awful ones! (although I wont name any, I don't want to offend anyone!)

Hmm, Skins. I have never watched the American version myself, but I have heard it's quite different to the English version. I'm not really sure how to explain the English one it's just very... English? I suppose kind of like the difference between the English and American versions of the Office, if that makes sense? Plus I do think there is a huge difference between the youth cultures of the UK and America, despite all the globalised branding etc. The English version can be quite shocking and explicit but not distastefully, I don't think. Not really sure if any of that made sense haha so I apologise. Oh, and the English version is actually not set in London it's set in Bristol (a lovely city) where is the American one set?

Mum vs. Mom.. It's just an issue of accent I would think? I think I am biased because I'm British so I like 'mum' but I also think its insanely cute when really little kids say 'mom' or 'mommy' and I do think that 'mummy' sounds a little snooty.. sometimes

I think this is why I find America so interesting, I mean, it's so similar to England yet so hugely different at the same time, I think it's really cool

Wow! Okay, very very long post haha - I'm sorry if it's confusing to read I was trying to reply to you all without making it too confusing, but it is so nice to meet all of you! I hope I answered all of your questions I'm sorry if I didn't. You can always just ask them again - I love to chat, as you can tell haha - it probably gets quite irritating.

-Cielo-

Cielo!
Ha! That's awesome! I've never been up north, so never been to Rajkot! Our weddings surely are something! I went to one a couple of days back, and it was fun! Do come down south, if you plan to come to India.
Umm.. living here is normal for me. lol! I mean, I haven't lived anywhere else, but I guess the favourite things would be the crazy traditions and the beach a minute away. And the food. And the amount of 'copied' items you can get.

Cheers!
~Lava