Hey everyone and welcome back to another blog post! It's been a minute since I posted anything, but I don't want to bore anyone with yet another update post, but I do want to give you guys a few updates nonetheless!
1) I've now finished my first year of university, and I finished top of my class! (I'm so proud of this fact I want to tell as many people as I can hehe.) We spent this last academic year learning Chinese and even though it was challenging at times, I powered through and now I'm on the other side!
2) I'm completely done with the previous semester, and now I'm on a long summer break. I'll (hopefully) be travelling around my city and to other provinces around China too, so look forward to seeing that!
3) Next semester, I begin my major, which if you don't know by now, is medicine! I want to do a whole post on why I decided to apply for medicine, and why I came to China, so look forward to that too!
Now we can get into this post: my self-care routine. Saying I've just gone through one of the most challenging years of my life is an understatement: I have no words to describe how tough it's been since September, which is why I devised a routine to help me get through it all. I hope you enjoy this post!
CLEAN UP AND DO LAUNDRY
The very first thing I do is begin tidying up around the room. I have a roommate, which in China means sharing an actual room with someone, not just a flat, so we split cleaning evenly. Other than the areas we both share, I also clean up my personal areas, like my desk, bed and wardrobe.
I fold up clothes, put my desk in order and change my beddings to give a fresh new vibe. I also take this time to do laundry and hang the wet clothes out on the balcony (tumble dryers aren't really common over here, especially in university dorms, but since it's summer and incredibly hot, all my clothes will be dry the next day!) Cleaning is something so therapeutic to me, and it's just the act of doing it that already makes me start feeling much calmer.
SHOWER AND SKINCARE
The next thing I do is my skincare routine, then take a really hot shower. I like to wash my face out of the shower because the water in there is way too hot to be good for your face, and I love to listen to music while I do it. I promise I will have a post up soon with all my favourite products, so look forward to that!
My full skincare routine currently goes like this: cleanse, exfoliate, clay mask, toner, sheet mask, serum, moisturiser.
After my clay mask but before the toner, I hop in the shower and use my niacinamide body scrub. I ordered it online and I use it 3 to 4 times a week, ever since I got a ton of mosquito bites that have left some gnarly scars, but I haven't used it long enough to see any serious effects. It does leave my skin super soft though and has a lovely smell so I'll continue using it!
When I hop out of the shower, I continue with the rest of my skincare routine.
TEA AND NAILS
Doing my nails, especially when they're chipped and looking a bit worse for wear, makes me feel so much better! I don't know what it is but I always make sure to do this if I'm feeling stressed and it improves my mood greatly. While I'm doing this I either have a cup of milk tea or black tea nearby and I'm sipping on that, listening to a podcast or some music and doing my nails. Sounds absolutely perfect if you ask me!
I get all my nail polishes from Miniso because I decided to leave all the ones from the UK back home so I could try new colours out here, and so far I've loved all the ones I've bought.
WATCH SOMETHING INSPIRING OR MOTIVATING
Once my nails are dry and looking pretty, I like to head to my bed and bring out my tablet to watch some YouTube videos. I love the channel Jubilee for their thought provoking videos about differences amongst different groups of society (definitely one to check out!) I also love my usual YouTubers like Lavendaire for when I need that dose of inspiration.
I'll typically spend an hour watching these videos, which sounds like an awfully long time but honestly if I need to fully chill out and enjoy myself that day, I don't look at the time and stress myself out even more. I watch for as long as I need to, especially the week our exams were wrapping up I definitely needed this time in the evening to just be a potato and do something chill.
VISIT MY FRIENDS
Depending on how the evening progresses, I may feel like popping into my friend's rooms and hanging out here for a while too. One of the best things about living in uni accommodation is that everyone from class lives a few doors down, and if you need anything you can just knock on their door. I've got classmates on every floor of the building and some even live right next door so it's great to go visit someone or have them come see me when we're stressed out and needing to vent.
We always visit each other with the intention of only staying for a couple of hours max, but the thing about being around people that make you happy is hours and hours will go by and before you know it, it's already 1am and you're still having fun!
CALL PEOPLE BACK HOME
As much as I love everyone I've met here, I also love talking to everyone back home. I think it's important to not forget about your friends from back home once you go to uni, especially if you're studying abroad like me, you should make extra effort to keep in touch with everyone.
Taking to people back home makes me feel so much more at ease and it's nice to tell everyone how uni is going. If anyone can't catch me because of the insane time difference, waking up to messages is also a lovely thing to look forward to.
By the end of the evening (or late late night) I'm tired out and ready for bed! This routine kept me sane during exam season and even now that our exams are over, it's nice to do a few times a week because self care should be a habitual thing, not something you go to when things aren't going so great.
If there are any types of blog posts you'd like to see, definitely leave them in the comments below and I'll be sure to make if happen! Now that it's the summer break I've got time to spend on my blog, which is something I've looked forward to for a long long time.
I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all in the next one!
