Bonjour, Reader!

Last week I returned from a lovely trip to Lyon, France to visit my boyfriend’s family. In my camera roll, you can spot some really cool moments from this trip.

1. Lying on the floor of the Palais de la Bourse, watching a light show projected onto the ceiling to the tune of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
2. Browsing the Les Halles de Lyon — Paul Bocuse, an indoor food market with rows and rows of cheeses, pâtés, and colorful macarons.
3. Climbing down the steps of a Roman amphitheater.
4. Celebrating a second Christmas dinner and exchanging gifts.
5. Drinking hot wine and strolling along the Saône river.

But a few parts of the trip are missing from this list: To begin with, my boyfriend caught a cold somewhere on the way from Madrid to Lyon. Then, on the very first day of the trip, his wisdom teeth suddenly started bothering him (”bothering” is an understatement). He suffered with this until we managed to get an appointment with a dentist a few days later and they removed the teeth right then and there (I was shocked that wisdom teeth removal, in some cases, can be done in ten minutes). On the last day of the trip, I finally caught that same cold and started shivering and sneezing myself.

I guess the trip didn’t go entirely to plan, but I have to say, my memories of Lyon are only happy. While these other moments may appear less exciting in photos, this trip also included: playing Mario Kart, working on the New York Times “Puzzle Mania” Mega crossword, carrying the Christmas tree to the recycling drop-off, having slow breakfasts every morning…

In total this Winter Break, I was in the US for two weeks and in France for 5 days, and… it was actually relaxing. And that can be rare! I’m not sure if people say this outside of the US, but you often hear the phrase: “I need a vacation from my vacation”. I felt this during my 3-week adventure in Japan and Taiwan this summer. After a few days of marathon sightseeing and racking up tens of thousands of steps, you realize that what your carefully planned itinerary was missing was a bit of downtime to recharge your batteries.

I won’t pretend like I returned to Madrid 100% ready to hit the ground running. I was still sick and a bit stressed about getting on top of my second semester classes and content schedule. But I also felt deeply rested and itched to get back to my routines.

One of the things that I’m most proud of, for example, is that I felt the urge to go to the gym. I think this is one of the best signals of a habit that’s well-established. Going to the gym means taking an hour out of my day, lugging an extra duffel bag to school, and obviously exerting myself during the actual workout. But after many years, I’ve made physical activity an integral enough part of my life that I start to crave this routine and the mood boost it gives.

I also miss waking up early and having that long, quiet morning to myself. That’s why last night I set my alarm to 6AM and left my phone in the living room where I’d have to get up to turn it off. I plan to continue this for the rest of the week 💪

…

I’m going to be grinding out videos and internship applications this week, but this wouldn’t be sustainable if I didn’t bring in a few slices of that relaxation that I felt in Lyon. I’m going to keep doing my morning crosswords, working on my knitting project, and spending time with the people I love ❤️

ICYMI

If you’re a student, you’re probably starting your second semester right about now. I put together some of my best study tips in this video so you can ✨make over✨ your study routine, get homework done faster, and enjoy school more.

A few of my favorite things

*Some of these are affiliate links. When you shop through them, a small portion of your purchase goes to The Bliss Bean, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

🇫🇷 In keeping with the French theme of this newsletter, here is a gift for you 🎁 a little playlist of French songs I like.

🤸 This experiment about regular movement throughout the day blew my mind a little bit. As I’m writing this, I’m about to go take my Pomodoro break, so I’ll make sure to do a few jumping jacks before I come back to work.

🎙️ My favorite podcast right now is Radio Lab. The stories are amazing, but I also nerd out over their sound editing. I especially liked the episodes about numbers and randomness.

⌚ I got a new velcro Apple Watch band in Cypress green. I really liked my old leather Watch band and got a lot of questions about it (the company who made it has gone out of business, sorry!) but the holes got really worn out and I could never find the perfect fit. I’m definitely converted to velcro bands now!

❔ An exercise for you

Make time today to recharge your batteries 🔋 Here’s a tip: I always find the rest more refreshing when I treat it as a proper event. So instead of mindlessly picking up my phone to scroll through Reels, I’ll settle onto the couch with a cup of tea, pick a show to watch, pick up my knitting project, etc.

​Find all editions of the newsletter here. Thank you for reading!

Lots of love,
Beatrice