#livepulchritudinously | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

selflovinalicia · 1 year

Text

100 books in 2022

I posted my Top 10 Books of 2022 the other day and went down a rabbit hole of book bloggers and got a lot of inspo. Rosie, who I’ve followed for years, posted her post, GoodReads Goal and it made me want to do the same thing. I read 100 books last year and while sharing my top 10 is great, I want to share my rating for all my books. My friends say I’m pretty harsh with my GoodReads stars so keep…

View On WordPress

#2022 #2023 #blogger #book tok #books #books of 2022 #buddhistvegann #livepulchritudinously #livingoffleesh #post grad

8 notes · View notes

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Peru profiled

Hi all, as I continue with my long awaited Peru series, I wanted to discuss the house dynamic. Living in a house with up to 24 other people at one time can get a bit hectic, especially when everyone is so different, culturally, emotionally, and otherwise. I’ll start with the people who live in the house and then start with the volunteers in the order I met them. I have also decided to not put…

View On WordPress

1 note · View note

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Voluntaria en Peru

Buenos dias, like many of you may know I have been shitty at posting since returning home from Peru. I had gotten myself into such a routine of writing and coming up with ideas and when I came home, I had gotten out of that routine that I just didn;t write, at all. However, my 5 weeks in Peru were some of the best weeks of my life and I really do want to share what I did while I was there.

This…

View On WordPress

1 note · View note

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Frustrated

This has been a word that has taken up a big part of my vocabulary recently, and for more reasons than one, some which I’d rather not admit.

The reason I’ve chosen this word out of any other is because in all of many babysitting gigs that I have, the one thing that I’ve learned it’s that children get angry and throw tantrums because they are frustrated.

They are frustrated because they think they…

View On WordPress

1 note · View note

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

19

A year ago, I posted something about how turning 19 was irrelevant. That the 19th revolution around the sun was a pointless one separating the enticing year of becoming an adult and getting out of your teenage years.

If a year ago I told you that 19 would have been the best year of my life so far, I would have laughed in your face. But here I am, a whole year later, reflecting on my 19th year on…

View On WordPress

1 note · View note

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Final post before Peru!!!

Happy Thursday to you all. In a matter of 12 or so hours I will be on my plane to Peru. I wanted to make one last post prior to leaving just to be like ‘hey, I’m leaving’ and so on and so forth.

For those of you who are new or simply don’t pay attention to my blog posts… I will be in Lima, Peru for the next 4 weeks volunteering in an orphanage(s). Basically, in regards to posting, I am hoping to…

View On WordPress

3 notes · View notes

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

New Year’s Resolutions Update

Hi everyone, the year is somehow already ⅙ done and I really wanted to see how on track I have been with my resolutions to see if I have to make any improvements or to see if any of you have forgotten about your resolutions and to kickstart the both of us. Let’s see how I’ve done

Blog consistently:I am doing rather well with this one. I have posted on average one post every other day, and if not…

View On WordPress

1 note · View note

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Today was a pivotal day for me as a human being. Today, I attended the women’s march in Chicago with some of my family and friends. Besides the march in Washington D.C, Chicago had the largest turnout of any march across the world. I marched with around 250 thousand, yes 250 thousand men and women alike down the streets of Chicago.

Some were young, some old. Some straight, some gay. Some black, some white. Some rich, some poor. Some abled, some disabled. And everyone in between. I met some amazing men and women of all backgrounds who met on the streets of Chicago for one reason: solidarity.

We marched to show our support for all of the nasty women across the nation. We marched to make sure our opinions were heard, by anyone and everyone. I marched so that my daughters and granddaughters won’t have to. I marched for equal pay, equal opportunity, and equal rights. I marched today so that no woman ever has to have a man tell her what to do with her body.

Today, I marched next to a month old baby (and her parents of course), next to an 81-year-old woman who has been working for women’s equality since she was a child. I marched next to dogs donning signs with “Even I know no means no,” “I march for my moms,” and so many others. While I didn’t get a chance to speak to every single person I crossed paths, these people whose pictures I took, who took my picture, who had to get past me to find their friends, were some of the kindest and polite people I have ever associated with.

Today was a day for love. It was a day for happiness. It was also a day for hope. It was a day that will be remembered by thousands forever. I have so many emotions in my heart and love, hope, and happiness are above at the top of that list. I love all of the people that came to march, I love Hillary Clinton, I love Barack Obama, and I love everyone who supported the march today. I am happy with today. I cried tears of joy, had goosebumps litter my body, and am just so content with the amount of support and presence that was present today. I am hopeful. I am hopeful for the future. I am hopeful for women of all kind. I am hopeful that today’s march and protests have set the pace for the next 4 years. I am hopeful that Donald Trump and friends know we are serious about our rights and have no plans on stopping until we get our way. I am full of love, happiness, and hope.

Today was one of the best days of my life and I know that despite our Commander-in-Chief, these next four years are going to be a full-fledged fight, that we will not give up on.

Just remember “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

March on

Today was a pivotal day for me as a human being. Today, I attended the women’s march in Chicago with some of my family and friends.

March on Today was a pivotal day for me as a human being. Today, I attended the women’s march in Chicago with some of my family and friends.

3 notes · View notes

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

500 followers!!

Good morning everyone, the other day I woke up to some notifications, not unusual, one of them being that I reached 500 followers.

I was shocked and speechless by that notification. I can remember vividly when I reached 100 followers, even 10.

When I started this blog last October, I had assumed that I would end up with a follower or five, receive a like and a comment here or there, nothing more.

View On WordPress

1 note · View note

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

A letter to President Obama

Dear Mr. Obama,

Today is your last day as the President of the United States. I can’t begin to wrap my head around that. That tomorrow, you, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Bo, and Sunny will no longer be the first family and will no longer live in the White House.

I was 11 when you were elected. I sat on my couch, watching as the votes began to add up, as you took quite a lead over John McCain. My…

View On WordPress

1 note · View note

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Change is good

Something I have tried pushing to the back, the far back, of my head, recently is that Obama will soon cease to be the president of the United States. But as I tearfully watched his final speech as president I really have to face reality. Donald Trump is our president-elect and soon, he will hold the highest position of power in the entire United States, and one of the top positions of power…

View On WordPress

1 note · View note

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Back to school series: BTS playlist

Hi everyone, I’ve made a few playlists in the past, and I’ve decided that back to school deserves its own playlist. I made 2 playlists: 1 of some pump up songs to get excited for the next 9 months and the other is an ironic playlist… which you’ll see when you take a look at it.

https://open.spotify.com/user/aliciacheninger/playlist/0RhYt0McUggj7gGX7eTsIL

https://open.spotify.com/user/aliciachen…

View On WordPress

0 notes

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Hello August

Happy August everyone. At the beginning of every month, I always see people making goal posts. I always make goals (small and large) at the beginning of each week, month, etc. so I figured I would jump on the bandwagon and post them here.

Finish dorm/school supply shopping

Read 2-3 books

Develop a workout plan for school

Do not spend any money unless absolutely necessary

Drink 64 oz of water…

View On WordPress

0 notes

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Hello June

Well, well, well. I’m alive and well and back in my cozy home, perched on the couch in my living room, writing for the first time in forever.

My initial goal was to blog 10 times while I was in Peru, and only ended up blogging twice. I will discuss Peru in later posts and share photos and all of that jazz, but now I just wanted to write. I wanted to share a bit of a life update (sans Peru) and…

View On WordPress

0 notes

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

Interesting title I know… but bear with me until I get to that story.

Whenever I am not at home, ie. college, vacation, a friend’s house, I always wake up super super early the first few days I am there. This was no exception. I woke up at around 6:30 or 7 (I don’t remember). I didn’t get up though, mainly because I didn’t want to wake any of my three roommates nor did I know how to get out of my bed.

Once my roommates had gotten up and gone downstairs, I basically cannonballed off of my bed (which really hurt) tumbled on the ground and made my way downstairs as well.

The view from my room

Breakfast that day (and every day) consists of bread and marmalade (Peru is known for their Marmalade and it’s amazing!), and a variety of exotic fruits.

After Breakfast, all of the new girls (Marissa, Annie, Skylar, Tressia, and myself) along with Leo and Clara made our way to Plaza San Miguel to exchange money and make ourselves acquainted with the plaza since we would spend quite a bit of time and money there.

We made it back just in time for lunch which was a really yummy pasta salad, rice, and a salad. If you think that’s a ton of carbs you should wait for every other meal (everyone always complains and I just think it’s annoying).

just a bathroom mirror selfie of a sleepy, peruvian gal

After lunch, all of the new girls squeezed ourselves into a taxi and headed to Miraflores (a very touristy area on a cliff displaying the Pacific Ocean in all of its glory). In Miraflores, we walked along Parque Kennedy, which is named after President JFK. This park is full of stray cats just walking around and doing their thing. The urge to pet them was so real, yet we didn’t because A. who knows what they had on/in them and B. they were quite skiddish around humans (no doubt due to some little kids trying to yank their tails).

A very pretty bull

Una Catedral

gato

By this time, the five of us had all opened up about being nervous the night before and for the same reasons. We had talked about families, friends, past trips, so many things and we were really getting comfortable around each other.

By the time we had finished telling stories, we were at Larcomar, a shopping center with about the same sorts of stores that the Panama airport had. There we walked around, took pictures of the coast, talked with some locals etc.

View of the Ocean from LarcoMar

Some of the other girls in the house had told us about this Incan Market that was by Miraflores. Marissa wanted a bag, I wanted to look around and see the colors, and the other girls didn’t have a preference of what we were doing so… after a 25-minute walk or so we made it to the Incan market. The market was full of colored bracelets, bags, sweatshirts and more, alpaca blankets were displayed on every wall, and so many hand-carved trinkets. It was such a sight to see and while I didn’t buy anything that day (I didn’t want to lose anything) I will definitely make my way back to the Incan Market later in my trip to get some goodies.

After Marissa bartered for a bag and we had scanned the entire market, we hailed a taxi and were on our way back to the volunteer house.

The Incan Market

After dinner, seven of the eight people who hadn’t gone out of town for the weekend decided to go to Miraflores to go clubbing. Well, the three older people (the 4 new girls were exhausted but we wanted to see what clubbing in Peru would be like… so we tagged along). Apparently buying alcohol in bars and clubs in Peru is just as expensive as the States, but buying bottled liquor is much cheaper so we walked to a local grocery store and came out with 2 bottles of $4 vodka, a knock off orange juice, and plastic cups.

We took a cab to Miraflores(where most of the nightlife happens) and started passing out the mixed drinks. (PS I am legal here so it’s all good). When our drinks were being poured and distributed, I had the pleasure of being the first sip. It tasted like cough medicine that your parents have to force down your throat when you’re little. But we had a lot of it to drink so we shoved it down our throats.

We had a man from Cusco take this.

After we finished our drinks (well Marisa hid the vodka bottle in a bush), we got to the club. At the club, they played a variety of English and Spanish music and had an insane amount of flashing strobes. it was nothing too fancy, but it was nice to be able to check out the party scene of Peru.

I got home with 2 of the other girls at around 230 that morning and immediately passed out in bed, and the other 4 didn’t get home until 5. Nevertheless, we were up at 730 to explore Lima some more.

Sunday was a lot more laid back. We took a taxi to Barranco, a less touristy, more local city by the ocean. There we found a cute cafe and Skylar had her first acai bowl, and there was a very very cute Colombian barista who complimented my Spanish speaking abilities.

We got lunch in Barranco after walking along the beach for a bit. For lunch, I got grilled veggies and rice, and tried Sangria for the first time. It was good but definitely not my favorite drink in the world.

Cafe with acai bowl and frozen coffee

After lunch, we went to this little sort of Farmer’s Market, called Feria, which had clothes, food, soaps, cosmetic products, and just anything you could think of. We didn’t buy anything there but looking around was really nice. A few of the booths even had fake Kylie lip kits, which I thought was rather funny.

After walking around all day in the scorching heat, we needed something sweet. We found this little gelateria called Blu, which had a line wrapped around the entire block, which made us sure it had to be good. They also had sorbet (vegan!) so I was able to indulge in an amazing banana mango mixture that was absolutely heavenly.

Gelateria

We ate our gelato/sorbet in a park in Barranco which was filled with cute puppies and live music, an A+ on all ends if you ask me.

We finally made it back to the volunteer house, ate dinner, showered, and promptly fell asleep, awaiting what was to come n the following four weeks.

Alicia

Warm vodka

Interesting title I know… but bear with me until I get to that story. Whenever I am not at home, ie.

Warm vodka Interesting title I know... but bear with me until I get to that story. Whenever I am not at home, ie.

0 notes

selflovinalicia · 7 years

Text

¡Hola a todos! I am officially in Peru!! Sorry that I have been a bit MIA lately but this is the first time I have unzipped my laptop since arriving. I figured I would give a bit of a rundown of the first day for this post and then write about my first weekend for another post.

Basically, I woke up at 4:30 Friday morning, got dressed, did my final packing of chargers, books, Fitbits, and phones, downed a Dunkin Donuts iced mocha with almond milk and made it to the airport. I was there 3 hours before my flight(recommended) however, passed through baggage checking and security in about 20 minutes so I had ample time to fill my water bottle, buy some plane snacks and magazines, and use the bathroom.

Upon boarding the flight, I made my way to my window seat (that didn’t have a window) and waited patiently for the girl in front of me to open hers (she didn’t). I spent the 5-hour flight to Panama with on and off naps, watching friends, reading one page of my book and playing Sudoku on my phone, you know… the typical traveling things.

breakfast

Upon arriving in Panama, I had to walk the entire length of the airport to find my connecting terminal (which is fine since I’ll be doing the same on my flight back with an8-hourr layover). The Panama airport was nothing like I had expected. It was oozing in glitz and glam. The walkways adorned with Pandora, Rolex, and Louis Vuitton shops and the shoppers matching the ritzy ways of the entire airport.

I took a seat at my terminal, while I awaited the arrival of Marissa, the girl I had spoken to on Facebook. I had only ever seen her in a full face of makeup (profile photos) so there was a girl who resembled her in the airport but I didn’t approach her just in case I would have made a fool of myself.

My window seat on this flight did have a window (which made me a very happy gal) so I was able to see Panama and Peru in all of their glory during my flight. We finally arrived in Peru at about 730pm, to which we made it through a very simple cutstoms process and made our way to baggage claim. After getting all of our bags, seeing quite a few dogs, and exchanging $20 we found our driver and we headed to San Miguel.

Our driver was a very sweet man who spoke little to no Engliah and really likes Salsa music. Speaking decent Spanish myself, I was able to communicate with him pretty seamlessly.

I immediately fell in love with Peru. The cool breeze (which I can now say is not always there), the Palm trees, the colorful houses, and so much more made me really feel like Peru was definitely the place for me. The insane driving, however, I can live without.

Marissa and I arrived at our volunteer house, unloaded our baggage, and were immediately welcomed by Martina, an Italian girl who had already been volunteering in Peru for 3 months, and has three more months to go. She knows the house, rules, bus stops, everything really, inside and out and she was very informative and helpful for any qualm we may have. She gave us a tour of the house, gave us a rundown of all of the rules, and showed us to our rooms. After somewhat settling in..AKA shoving all of my belongings into the small closet and drawer i was alotted, I made my way back downstairs to get acquainted with the space, girls, and wait up to meet 2 more new people.

I tried to stay up with the other girls, but all of us newbies were so exhausted, that I went right up to bed. My bed, doesn’t have a ladder so I basically have to do some aerobics to get up there. It’s not too bad, especially since I am one of the tallest people here, I have definitely gotten used to it. the first 2 days were actually hell though, especially trying to get down.

Once I finally made my way into my bed, I got really nervous. The girls who had already been here were best friends. They talk about everything and they do it with such ease. I sort of felt as if I were intruding on their friendships. I really thought I was making a huge mistake coming to Peru. Trying to put those negative thoughts behind me, I shut off my phone, pulled up my covers, and went right to sleep.

Alicia

Also, If you want to follow my journey more frequently, follow my Instagram: @aliciaheninger

¡Estoy en Peru!

¡Hola a todos! I am officially in Peru!! Sorry that I have been a bit MIA lately but this is the first time I have unzipped my laptop since arriving.

¡Estoy en Peru! ¡Hola a todos! I am officially in Peru!! Sorry that I have been a bit MIA lately but this is the first time I have unzipped my laptop since arriving.

0 notes