Seasonal favourites – Corona edition

Listen. I know you are sick and tired of hearing about this but… we have to address the elephant in the room. The nuisance that’s quite literally managed to flip our lives upside down in the past couple of months. You guessed it. Coronavirus.

As a student, I struggled. As a friend, I struggled. As a girlfriend, I struggled.

I think we all did.

But what managed to get me through it (and continues to) is focusing on doing things I love and sometimes, things that I normally wouldn’t be doing if it wasn’t for lockdown boredom. So for example, I ended up making a scrapbook, doing a 2-week exercise challenge (I know- disgusting), reading, listening to great music, painting and of course, a whole lot of Netflix binging.

And here is the result. I decided to stockpile my favourites for you and provide you with a list of book, tv shows and music recommendations that hopefully make your days a bit more exciting because if you’re like me (aka someone’s who’s still bored in the house for most of the day because you lost all chance of having a job/ summer internship due to COVID-19) then this list is for you my friend.

– BOOKS

Call me by your name- André Aciman

Where do I even start? There’s one thing you should know about this book – it is a bestseller for a reason. 

The book came out in 2007 but struck the interest of many with its movie adaptation in 2017 starring Armie Hammer and the dreamy Timothee Chalamet (am I right or am I right?). 

The story is set in the early 1980s where a well-educated family spends their summer holiday in northern Italy. Now, in order to avoid giving away spoilers, I’ll just say that it is all about the beauty and intensity of first love (and as many say, it proves to be unforgettable). 

The books itself is beautifully written (shout-out to André Aciman) and it really does manage to transport you to the summer of ’83. Aciman’s use of detail and description is amazing while the writing continuously paints ravishing images in your head, e.g. sitting on a balcony during sunrise, swimming at noon and bike riding at sunset (perfect when you can’t leave your house because of a pandemic).

The book teaches us about how love doesn’t have to be complicated. It is harmonious, and true and real and it shows why taking that away from people who feel so deeply for one another is wrong, and always will be. The story is beautiful and tragic and consuming. It leaves you breathless at times but trust me, it is most certainly worth it.

– TV SHOWS

Anne with an E

If you’re looking for stunning visuals, an exceptional storyline and characters with a wild imagination, then ‘Anne with an E’ is the show for you. It is set in 1890s and details the story of a young orphan girl who has been through more sorrow and pain than some of us ever go through during our whole lifetimes.

But, do not fret. The story takes a rather positive outlook while following Anne on her journey of settling into a welcoming family for the first time in her life, making friends, finding love and most importantly, finding herself and her place in the world.

Apart from having a beautiful storyline, the TV show also has extraordinary cinematography and aesthetic visuals all while exploring topics that were as important in 1890s as they are today. Some of these include racism, sexism, toxic masculinity, homosexuality, sexual assault, cross-dressing, bullying, child abuse, feminism and so much more. What’s interesting is that the show manages to explore these topics in a subtle yet extremely practical way by showing you the situation from the side of the one being oppressed, which really allows you to see the world from a different perspective. This therefore means that you always end up finishing an episode with something new that you have learned (which makes you feel less bad about yourself for being lazy and watching Netflix all day). So, I call that a win-win.

– MUSIC

I don’t know about you but my music taste seems to have changed significantly during lockdown for some unknown reason. Perhaps because I had too much time on my hands? Perhaps because I was talking to my friends all day everyday sharing music recommendations as we didn’t have anything better to do? Perhaps because lockdown just… changes you? Whatever it might be, I’m glad it happened because it introduced me to a whole new side of music that I was never exposed to before.

If you know me, you know how much I like Shawn Mendes (I mean come on, I think it’s impossible not to) but I’m afraid to say my 16 year-old fangirl phase is over. Don’t get me wrong, I still like his music but quarantine really allowed me to venture off and expand my music taste. So – I went from pop to jazz to country to indie, making my Spotify account incredibly messy but hey, at least it was fun!

I’m not going to lie to you, it was pretty difficult coming up with a short list of music recommendations, but… I somehow managed. So, I hereby present to you some of my favourites:

• Sweet talk by Saint Motel
• I don’t miss you at all by FINNEAS
• Flaming hot cheetos by Clairo
• 1950 by King Princess
• Chamber of reflection by Mac DeMarco
• Cold cold cold by Cage The Elephant
• Hunnybee by Unknown Mortal Orchestra

If you end up liking these, too and you want to hear more or you just feel like following my Spotify account, here’s a link for you.

So there we have it. I hope these recommendations come in handy no matter in what stage of lockdown (or boredom) you are. Do let me know what you think once you’ve checked them out. I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts! 🙂

Speak soon,

Dimi

Hello blogging world!

It will please some of you to know that you are making history by being one of the very first people to read my very first blog post. Kind of crazy, huh? Anyways, welcome, it’s so great to have you here! My name is Dimi, Dimi Dyakova (sorry Bond) and I am a 21-year-old university student, studying English language and linguistics at King’s College London. I’m also a bookworm, cheese-lover and sucker for good music and romance.

To be fully honest with you, regardless of how corny this may sound, this blog is kind of a dream come true. As you might expect (for someone that has dreamt of having a blog) writing is truly a passion of mine. I have always dreamt of having a place where I can share my thoughts and interests and as I’m typing this, I’m in fact realising that I am finally making this dream a reality, so I may or may not have a bunch of butterflies fluttering in my stomach at the moment. But anyways, back to the introductions.

Transition from Bulgaria to the UK

I come from Bulgaria but I have lived in London, England for the last five years and I had a crazy (slightly bumpy) but incredibly adventurous ride upon my arrival in the country.

When I moved to the UK in 2015, I was of course looking to join secondary school. But, here’s a fun fact for you: I was placed in Year 9 even though I was originally supposed to be in Year 11. This unfortunately resulted in a number of issues including being bullied, hearing people whisper things as they pass me in the halls daily, feeling out of place and so on and so forth, which as you can imagine wasn’t the most fun experience. But it’s okay, I persevered.

Even now when I look back on it, I genuinely don’t hold a grudge, nor did the negative experiences fully cloud the overall situation. It was a great learning curve because it showed me who I could trust and who the real people around me were. In fact, five years down the line, one of my closest friends now is actually a girl I met during this bumpy time in my life, because she was one of the few who saw me for who I was.

The challenges along the way

Towards the end of Year 9, I was actually given the chance to skip a year and join my peers in Year 11 in September but this meant teaching myself the whole Year 10 curriculum over the summer. So, as you might expect, catching up on one year’s worth of content in only two months is… well, challenging. Initially, the school leaders were against this, but hey, I am one determined gyal (plus my charms lent a hand).

Anyways, when I joined year 11 in September, you could say I faced some new challenges. Making friends was difficult and finding the right group of people was even harder. But, eventually I ended up finding the best friendship group I could have asked for (you know who you are) and I’m more than grateful to have met them.

However, scepticism was still a very strong constant in my life as most of my teachers continued to doubt my academic capabilities. But, that same determination that I mentioned previously came in handy here too. It encouraged me to prove both to them and to myself, that I was capable of succeeding which resulted in me successfully completing both my GCSEs and subsequent A levels and well… you know the rest of the story.

Starting my blog

So here we are – two years into university and finally my blogging dream coming true! I should mention though, by ‘dream’ I don’t mean a hugely successful blog and thousands of daily readers. Don’t get me wrong, that sounds amazing but it is not why I am doing this. Truthfully, I just want to have a space where I can write. I want to be able to produce content I am proud of and share it with you if you’d allow me. 

You might be wondering why I didn’t start a blog sooner, and even though I want to say that the reason is because I was busy, be that with school/uni work, getting work experience. Busy with setting in a new place, new culture, new people…and although this is all true, the main reason is probably because I was scared. Scared of failing, scared of not being good enough, for failing to reach the standards of successful bloggers I follow and so much more. But, here we are now. I decided to do it, and I’m finally daring myself. Hence, daringwithdimi.com

So, with that being said, here’s what you can expect to see in my blog:

• Me sharing my experiences (and hopefully helping you in the process) e.g. travel ideas, city reviews, what it’s being a fresher at university etc.
• Trying new things and sharing my experience with you e.g. cooking (mind you, I’m an awful cook so that should be interesting)
• Discussing topics that I feel passionate about e.g. taking care of our environment; gender, racial, sexual and social equality
• Babbling about things that I find interesting e.g. fashion, relationships, concerts
• Listing seasonal favourites: giving music, book and film suggestions (and hopefully introducing cool new artists into your life that you may not have heard of before)
• A day in the life of … (a KCL student, a vegetarian, a foreigner living in a new country etc.)
• Maybe sharing some of my poems here and there
• Opening up conversations with you and allowing you to share your thoughts/ideas/comments on a given topic
• And well, anything new that arises, that neither you, nor me knows of yet (hey, at least it’ll be exciting!)

And so, we have come to the end, folks. If any of this has sparked your interest, then do stick around! I’d love to have you here. 🙂

Hope you’ve enjoyed my first ever blog post, and I’ll see you in the next!