Prismatic Blog

Here we go again! This is a direct reference to my previous Spring Thoughts post about mental health improvement and my educational journey. This time I’ll talk about the things I have been doing during my favourite season ever.

Going easy on myself

Looking in retrospect, the best thing I did for my mental health was avoiding social events that made me anxious or hypervigilant. Some are easier to avoid, like family gatherings, but even as a person living abroad, I had to set some boundaries. Some are nearly impossible, especially if we’re talking about the bus or Red Line Luas (IYKYK…). It honestly pisses me off how this country has normalised teens with antisocial behaviour harassing others, people will witness everything and won’t do anything to stop them. Realistically speaking, the biggest improvement to my mental health at this point would be moving to a nicer neighbourhood, but then we have this problem all over Europe called ✨housing crisis✨.

Academic journey

I was worried about getting my Master’s last year, and now I am already thinking about PhD applications. Time certainly flies! Unfortunately, I could not adapt myself to the 1-year full-time Master’s programme, so I had to switch to a part-time programme that takes the usual 2 years. I am honestly not worried about needing an extra year to complete everything, especially because I don’t believe it is possible to write a good thesis in 4 months. Sadly, I won’t graduate with my colleagues, but I had to make this choice for my mental health.

Cherry blossom season

I swear I cried last year when I saw cherry blossoms for the first time. It might sound too silly to some, especially because in Brasilia we have ipês that are as gorgeous as the cherry blossoms, but that was a silly dream come true.

One of our favourite yearly events is the Dublin Coffee Festival. It was a bit more crowded this year, which triggered my anxiety a bit, but it was still fun! Even though this picture in the middle says “all you need is matcha”, this was actually an ube-flavoured drink by a company called Matcha Ninja. I’ve also had the ube matcha and the ube iced coffee at Starbucks (picture shows the day I got matcha), but those were way too sweet for me. Matcha Ninja wins!

Food trends and claddagh ring

As a matcha lover ~before it was cool~, I heard the newest trends will be hojicha and ube. Ube was nice, kinda reminds me of taro (I love taro bubble tea, btw). Nothing amazing, though.

Omma is another matcha brand I’ve tried here that is more on the ~bougie side~. Definitely not something I would be able to afford on a daily basis lol, but my husband kindly gifted me their traditional matcha and I drink it on special occasions. I bought their hojicha powder AND the hojicha chocolate at the coffee festival (who goes to a coffee festival and only drinks tea? Me, of course!).

My wedding ring is too loose and I didn’t want to risk losing it, so I’m temporarily wearing a claddagh ring instead! I say temporarily because it’s a silver one and I was too attached to my gold ring: in Brazilian culture, wedding rings are traditionally yellow gold. If you wear silver or even white gold, some people might not perceive it as a “wedding ring”… But that’s just my mind not wanting to let these traditions go lol. I think these traditions are fun because they let us know more about someone. For example, in some countries in Eastern Europe, their wedding ring actually goes on the right hand (similar to when Brazilians are engaged), so whenever I see someone wearing their ring like this, I immediately know they’re Eastern European.

Claddagh rings are an Irish tradition and I love how simple they are (Pics stolen from WikiHow to illustrate it better haha).

If you are single, you wear them on your right hand with the heart facing outwards (it basically means you are “open to love”). Then, if you are in a relationship, you wear the same ring on the same hand with the heart facing inwards to show you’re taken. Then, if you’re engaged, you move the ring to your left hand with the heart facing outwards to show you have found someone but you’re not married yet. During the wedding ceremony, it is finally reversed to indicate you are fully committed.

I love writing posts like this, but unfortunately it means I have to leave my house and touch grass in order to have nice things to post about lolol. I hope you all liked it! See you xx