You, Me + Tea: April 2015

World Book Day

9:27 PM

Hello everyone!

First of all, I hope you're having an awesome weekend. Today I managed to finish most of my homework for this past week and my homework for tomorrow, so I decided to do a little treat yo self and went and had an ice-cream with a friend. (you can click on this link and look at my picture!). However, today's post has literally nothing to do with ice-cream (unless you like cooking books or fictional stories about ice-cream).

On April 23rd we celebrated the 20th anniversary of World Book Day, and because of that, I believe it's a great moment to ask you all about book recommendations and to tell you about my ~~very tentative~~ Summer Reading List!

I've always loved books - I learnt how to read when I was three and haven't stopped reading since.

Despite this, since I came to college, I've been reading less and less for pleasure, and because of that, I want to challenge myself to read some more for fun this summer. I recently bought The Giver and The House in Mango Street, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Currently, I'm reading The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. Do you have any recommendations of other books to read this year? What's a book you've read and it has impacted your life and you'd advice others to read it?

The Giver - Lois Lowry
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir
Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher
The Shallows - Nicholas Carr
El Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges
The House On Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
In the Name of Identity - Amin Maalouf
The Awakening - Kate Chopin
The Old Man in the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Bridget Jones Diary - Helen Fielding
Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Where Rainbows End - Cecelia Ahern
If I Stay - Gayle Forman
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging - Louise Rennison
The Book Thief - Markus Zusa

Hopefully by the end of this summer (starting June 1st and finishing September 7th for me) I will have crossed all of these lovely books out! Again, if you have any recommendations, send me an email to youmeplustea@gmail.com or leave a comment and I'll be sure to check it out!

- Vicky

blog

My top 10 favorite apps!

11:04 AM

Hello everyone! I feel like it's been too long since I last wrote a blog post. College has been taking its little toll on me, but there's only a month left of school - how crazy is that?

Lately, I've been using my phone a little bit more, and trying to find new apps for my future travels and my life during the summer here. I love trying out new things - and new apps are no exception to this rule (can we talk about the fact that the Starbucks app gives you a free app AND a free song every week?). I felt that because of that, a great way of talking about these apps would be to share it with all of you, so here's my little list of 10 apps that have made it into my favourites this month!

VSCO Cam: VSCO has been on my phone since I first got it. I use it all the time - whenever I take pictures, I love being able to control the contrast and the exposure, and I particularly like the fact that VSCO offers free filters, but also some premium ones (that they also give out for free some times during the year). VSCO has one of the nicest user interfaces that I've encountered, and they also allow you to have a little 'portfolio' page where you can show off your best pictures. If you'd like to see mine, you can check it out here.
Mint: Mint is one of my favorite apps by far. As I manage my own money, knowing where this money is going is essential to keep myself from spending it all. With a super friendly user interface, and colorful graphs that show in exact proportions where the money is allocated every month, this app is probably my go-to when I'm thinking about buying something new. Another cool feature: you can put your monetary goals there, and it will tell you how much time it will take you to reach them!
Podcasts: I never thought I would be so obsessed with the podcast app, but it truly has become a part of my weekly life. Podcasts are very varied and the fact that they are free makes them accessible to everybody that has an apple device (and if I'm not mistaken, to anyone that has Itunes). My favourite podcasts at the present moment are Serial, Psychobabble, BBC Global News and This American Life.
P-Tracker Lite: I've used it for almost two years, and to be completely honest, it's probably one of the best out there. I like knowing approximate dates, especially because I'm usually so busy and I'm running around campus and to/from meetings, and around those days I like to be prepared. Also, it allows you to write down 'symptoms' and how you're feeling, so you can keep track of how your body is working!
Coffitivity: Let me preface this by explaining why this app is here. I am the type of person that absolutely cannot study without some type of noise. I've always enjoyed coffee shops, and particularly 'white-noise' environments, so this app and I were a match made in heaven. Super friendly user interface, and it allows you to mix the coffee shop white noise with music (be it your playlists on your phone, Pandora, Songza or any other music app). I use this app on a daily basis when I study, and it works wonders.
Whatsapp: I've been a Whatsapp user for the past four years, and it's by far one of my favourite messaging apps. This is how it works: by sharing your phone number with somebody, you can message them through the app as if you were texting. You can send messages to people around the globe, and it's virtually free! (after a year, you have to pay something like 90 cents, if I'm not mistaken). I use this all the time to message my friends in Argentina, Uruguay, the UAE and the UK, and soon Iphone users will be able to call for free from the app as well!
Elevate - Elevate was chosen as Apple's App of the year in 2014, and it's understandable. I've always been into brain-training, and brain games, and I particularly enjoy Elevate over similar apps because of the user interface but also because of the activities that it offers. It has a 'tailored-to-your-needs' program with 29 different activities that helps keep your brain active. I love using this app when I'm taking study breaks, because after three activities, you're done for the day, and they are quite entertaining!
Duolingo: Great app if you're a first-time language learner or a long-time one. I love using Duolingo in my free time to keep up with my language skills. At times, when college gets busy, I realize I don't use my languages as much, and when they start getting rusty I like to refresh them a little. Duolingo provides free language courses, and their activities range from reading to writing to speaking. I totally recommend this app if you're looking into learning a language such as French, German, Portuguese, Spanish or English!
Instagram: Since Instagram came out, I've been a fan. I enjoy sharing a little bit of my life through pictures (and maybe some sunset pictures...) and having an outlet for the photos I take has proven to be such a positive thing. At times, I think I've been hesitant about posting some of my photographic work, but through the hashtags and the Instagram communities, I've received very positive feedback and inspiration! A must-have if you enjoy photography (National Geographic is on Instagram too, and it's amazing)
Evernote: Despite the fact that I've been using Google Docs more recently, Evernote has proven to be one of the most useful apps on my phone. Whenever I need to make scans, I do them through my Evernote app. All you have to do is place a document in a flat surface that is not reflective, and use the special document mode provided, and ta-da! I also use it to keep track of my audio notes when I'm taking challenging classes. Audio notes are stored within documents, making it super accesible and organized.

I could also go off and say that Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest are also some of the apps I use on the daily basis, but I wanted to showcast other apps that aren't completely social media related. Whilst I admit I should use my phone a little less - and after all, I made it one of my New Years resolutions - having such vast access to information makes it a little harder than I'd like to admit... :)

What are your go-to apps? Have you had any positive / negative experience with one of the apps I've mentioned? Do you have any app recommendations?

- Vicky