My sincerest apologies for failing to update with more frequency, faithful readers, but I fear that nothing of extraordinary interest to anyone but myself has occurred recently! Jon finished the big project he was working on, so hopefully we'll have more time for exploring soon! The past week featured two more trips for camembert and bread, a couple of visits to Green Leaf, and another meal of currywurst and fries. We've also started cooking, which has been rather nice - pasta with seafood, pork chops, chili - tonight's menu features baked ziti. We seem to have adopted a habit of sharing something for breakfast/lunch, then having our big meal around 5 or 6, and then possibly something smaller later in the evening if we're still hungry. So far it's been a good change...I feel more awake, have more energy. Now I just need a gym or a pool or a yoga studio! I'm actually starting to miss exercise...me of all people!!
Our days are much the same - Jon works, while I try to find work! - although now I find much of my time is devoted to my own writing. It's been a long time since I've been so inspired by something, and it feels incredible! Ideas are constantly flowing though my head, jostling for position. I haven't started writing the actual story yet, but I've typed up a lot of the basic info...plot ideas, descriptions of locations and the main characters, research needed for the story...I'm getting distracted just thinking about it now.
The rest of my afternoons seem to be occupied by Torchwood and Oxford withdrawals. Torchwood because it partially inspired my own story, and Oxford simply because it's amazing! I started watching videos of Gareth David-Lloyd to stave off the Torchwood withdrawals (and now I've fallen completely in love with him, because he's adorable!), and have been researching Oxford's higher degrees to lessen the pain of missing the university. Unfortunately, it's just reminding me of how much I truly adore the place. It just feels so right - I belong there! Looking at photos really does make my heart physically ache. It's rare in this life to feel so strongly about something, isn't it? So how can I ignore it? Oxford feels like a part of me (or a very important part of my self-concept, for you psychology nerds out there), so living my life without ever attending seems like condemning myself to live forever with a gaping hole in my chest. Histrionic, maybe, but the truth. And the most terrible part about it all is that, ultimately, I have no control over the matter. I can break my back studying and apply every year until my arthritic hands can no longer fill out the application, and they can still choose not to accept me. I would like to give it one more chance, at the very least. I would go this instant, if they'd take me, but of course funding is utterly nonexistent. I'll be ancient by the time I can afford it! And what if I'm rejected? Do I try indefinitely? Do I settle for a summer course? Do I give up? Do I consider - God forbid, saints preserve us - Cambridge? *shudders* It's far too horrible to think about...
Let's discuss something else, shall we?
Munich at night has so far proved to be much quieter than Moscow or Saint Petersburg. Or perhaps we just haven't found the right venues yet... We've visited New Keybar (technically called Holy Home) a few times now. It's always busy, but we haven't connected with anyone yet. We seem always to get lost in our own conversations - I think we seem to fall into "deep" conversations more easily here than in NY, which has been quite nice - and end up ignoring everyone around us. The best was a discussion that somehow managed to range from my writing to morality to the possibility of time travel to the supernatural and unexplainable. Most of those topics I tend not to discuss with others, so it was interesting to open up a bit and hear another person's opinions.
I have also been occupying myself with Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, which I was hopelessly addicted to after just one chapter. I picked up On Beauty by Zadie Smith as well, and it's also quite good. Both come highly recommended, for anyone who is looking for new reading material. I'm starting to miss school - or rather, I think should say "I'm starting to miss learning," because I believe that's more accurate - so I'm doing my best to keep up my education on my own! I'm engaged in two books, write every afternoon, study a little bit of German every day...now I'm starting to do research into the actual scientific theories behind time travel because I'm rapidly becoming fascinated by the topic and I've been doing research on Ancient Rome for my story. That means I've got English, creative writing, foreign language, science, and history...I think all I'm missing is a little math, or I'd have a complete liberal arts education going on!
If only I had a little more time and a lot more room in my brain...I need to do more work with my Russian, and I'd very much like to add Latin to the list as well. Not to mention that I've become desperate to learn some kind of Gaelic language, though I can't decide which...votes?
Now I just need to discover a way to make a living being a traveling writer and self-taught intellectual...hmm... *ponders* ;)
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