Skype.

Hey there!

Before I start my blog I want you to know that I am not sponsored by Skype or anything. I just really like using Skype and wanted to share some of my thoughts about it with you. 

So back to the point. Skype. Skype, for the people unfamiliar with it, is this program to which you can connect to via your phone number, your Hotmail account and by simply making a Skype account. The program itself allows you to add your friends and either text chat or video chat with them. If you want you can even do both at the same time. Besides this one to one function there you can also chat with a bunch of your friends in a group chat. 

DO NOT take those group chat things lightly though! Before you have a functional chat with more than one friend at the same time some years might have passed. It's a mess, honestly. You can kind of compare Skype to MSN, the chat program that died a couple of years ago and was just the best thing in existence. 

There you have it, Skype in a nutshell. Now onto the real talk.

Well, I absolutely love Skype and I think it is super underrated. As in nowadays society we spend most of our time behind a computer screen or on our phone. Even for socialising with friends apps and programs for communicating have become a must. Decide for yourself but when you come to think about it it's nearly impossible nowadays to not use an app or program for communicating on one of your technological devices. Whether it's pictochat on your old NintendoDS, whatsapp, Facebook messenger, kik, ping, twitter, Skype or whatever other apps there are out there. You use at least one of them, don't deny it. Besides all these "new" apps for chatting, you can still use the "old school" call to communicate with others. This however gets done less and less at least that's how I experience it. 

For me personally the "old school" making a call has always been a great issue. As someone who isn't really good at communicating, has some troubles with understanding how people meant something they said and hates the unpredictability of the things the other person says during the phone call leaving me not knowing how to reply, making a phone call has always send my anxiety levels to the emergency setting. For me these chat apps have been great as they don't require verbal contact and you can take as long as you want come up with a decent reply or ask others for reply suggestions. 

The only thing that I don't like about these chat apps is the fact that when you have a lot to tell someone it can get pretty annoying to have to type something that looks like an essay and press send only to wait for half an hour for the other person to read it and write a decent reply. 
The reason above is basically the only reason I call people sometimes, like not too long ago my stress levels were reaching a new high and I just really needed to talk to someone so I rang a friend of mine. We ended up chatting on the phone for about an hour and it was one of the first phone calls that didn't give me anxiety just by thinking about ringing someone. It was great.

But Renée how does this relate to Skype. Well I must admit I got off topic really quickly and this entire post became one big mess but hey lets continue anyway. 

So as I mentioned before on Skype you can either just ring someone without the video thingy. Just talking to each other. As Skype does require an internet connection to make any calls I recommend you connect to a wifi network to use it btw. But once you use it whilst connected to wifi you will avoid that high phone bill you will get by simply ringing your friend the old fashioned way. So that is great. On another note Skype is pretty similar to the old MSN so it gives you a certain feeling of nostalgia when using it which I personally really like considering I still miss MSN a lot up to this day. *sniff sniff* 

So you can make a sort of old school call using Skype but you can also use it to simply chat by typing whatever you want and you can video chat one or multiple friends at a time. I love the video chatting function as some of my friends live further away and I can't meet them very easily so Skype is a great way to still see each other sort of irl. The video chatting function, for me, also takes away a lot of stress as you can now see the person who you're talking to which makes the interpreting of the things they say a lot easier. 

Yes, I really like Skype and I love using it to communicate with my friends to catch up or just share our latest adventures or dreams with one another. The only thing with Skype is that in my social network it is still really underrated. Some of my friends that live pretty close to me have Skype and use it sometimes but most of them either don't have Skype or don't use it which I find such a shame. Skype can get rid of so many misunderstandings coming from typed messages. Besides when using the video chat function you actually have an excuse for not leaving your room as you are still socialising with your friends and you don't even have to leave the house to do so! 

That's all I have for you this week. Sorry for my bad uploading schedule recently, the main reason is the start of my new internship and it's just been crazy busy with all the irregular shifts of a nurse life and stuff.

Anyways, thank you for spending some of your precious time to stop by and read my blog / rant about Skype. If you don't mind spending some more of your time please subscribe to my blog by putting your email address in the Follow by Email section on your left or share your opinion on Skype and other communicating apps in the comments!

Love you lots,
ThatDutchGirl96

Things that make me happy in December.

Hey there!

In life there are a lot of things that make me happy, some are pretty unique others are so ordinary you might not even notice them any more. Yet any of these things can make a smile appear on my face if I only pay enough attention to them. Let me share some of these things with you guys!

Renée from the past

 
   Blue skies, snow, thunderstorms, warm pyjamas, Christmas trees,        marshmallows, tea, snowmen, holidays, Christmas, food, fairy            lights, ice skating, books, sunshine, duvets, Harry Potter marathons,    Christmas movies, stockings, advent calendars, (Christmas) music        and New Years Eve.

   Those are just a few of the things I love about December. 
   There is more: stars, family, friends, sweaters, fuzzy socks, scented candles, lit fireplaces, romantic comedies, the end of another year, rain, snow angles, Doctor Who Christmas special, warm showers, hot chocolates, Christmas decoration, secret Santa, baubles, presents, fireworks, champagne, chocolate, wearing my onesie, tinsel, having days off, sledding, streets covered in Christmas lights, December / Christmas themed drinks, Christmas snacks.

As you have read by now there are many things that make me happy in December. Which makes a lot of sense as December is a month in which a lot happens and a lot happens around the things that happen.
Let me continue a bit more: Christmas smells, vlogmas, snowball fights, gloves and scarves, earmuffs, the world looking like a Christmas card, my sisters birthday, forgetting my diabetes (not so good for my health but sometimes you have to give in to all the sugary goods in your life), the beginning of a new year, looking back at an awesome year with a lot of amazing memories and the chance to start again or to continue where you left off.

2015 has been really really good to me, I absolutely loved this year with its downs and big amount of ups. 2016 has a lot to live up to but I'm sure it will live up to my expectations and turn out to be even better than 2015. How I'm going to do that, I'm not quite sure, all I know is that 2015 will end in a very special place and 2016 is going to start in the most magical place on earth. So yeah that's probably what I'm most excited for from all of December. (There will be a blog about that later though so get yourselves ready)

What things make you happy in December? Or maybe some really amazing things are happening this specific December that should be in your "things that make me happy in December" list. I want to know more about those things and I can't wait to hear about them!

Anyways, I wish you the best of luck this December and I hope you make it a remarkable one!
Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96