Nights like this

 

It's currently two o'clock at night. Or, some would say, in the morning. Sensible people are sound asleep by now. Not me - I'm engrossed in schoolwork. Not because I have to, I could just leave it until the morning. Only that's not a very good idea: Try to get me to concentrate on my writing at eleven o'clock in the morning, or at three o'clock in the afternoon - it will not happen. Trust me, I've tried. But as midnight approaches, I find myself becoming more and more focused by the minute - all of a sudden, I'm blind to things that normally provide huge distractions (cleaning, arts and crafts, a new episode of Pan Am...) and will write for hours if you let me. That's what's going on right now.

Make no mistake: This is not me "buckling down" or reluctantly sacrificing hours of sleep  - this is just me getting happily wrapped up in the task at hand (which tonight is pretty mechanical, as it has to do with translating), taking advantage of these wonderful midnight hours of distraction-free work. I'm quite content to be working for another half hour or so. This, to me, is part of the beauty of being a student: I can allow myself these kinds of nights when I feel like it, since I'm quite often free to sleep in the next day. I won't have to be at uni until one o'clock tomorrow. It's all good.

Snow globe

Sometimes I feel like I'm a little too detached, a little too cut off from the "real world". I hardly ever even read the papers anymore - I'm too busy being a nerd within my field of research, doing arts and crafts and just existing in this little bubble I've created for myself. It hits me whenever I travel to the capital doing thesis research, seeing all the grit and gloom of a big city. I realize it when I encounter people living outside my bubble.

But the thing is, I like it that way.

 
I really do feel like I'm living in a snow globe. A safe and secure, fairly idyllic little snow globe containing sweet friends, caring family, beautiful surroundings, whimsical dreams and academical analyses, art and writing and all things inspiring. A place where worries and problems are temporary and managable.

They say the only way to evolve as a person is to get out of your comfort zone. There's some truth in that, but I'm saving it for later - for now, I'm perfectly content within my comfort zone. At some point I'll be thrown out of it anyway, so until that happens I'm staying in it. Staying safe and sound in my snow globe.

They danced down the streets

I can't even tell you how much I'm looking forward to this film:

 

I have tried reading On The Road a couple of times, but I can't seem to get into it. Which is embarrassing, really, since it's such a cult classic, and I do love Kerouac's style of writing. Yet there's something that just doesn't resonate with me, so I'll lose interest in the story and start skipping pages... Which doesn't really count as reading in my book. Anyway - for some reason, I'm completely convinced that the film is going to be amazing! A road movie in the truest sense of the word, with lovely actors (I have developed somewhat of a girl crush on Kristen Stewart after watching The Runaways and Welcome to the Rileys) and that beautiful, nostalgic feel... How could it not be amazing?

After a week of train travelling and exams (My Italian exam went better than I thought it would, thankfully) I'm itching to do something with my hands again. I'll run out to the shop in a bit to get some more wire for my candle holder making, and I had an idea to pick up some sort of clay while I'm at it - I really want to make a ceramic owl for my desk. On that note, aren't these animal trends kind of random? A couple of years ago, all you could find in the shops were elephant necklaces, and now it's the same with owls... If it were up to me, seals would be next.

 

(And yes, I changed the name of the blog to the name I first had in mind, to better match the url. Thinking about these things is probably a sign that you have too much time on your hands...)