Home alone

Friday night, home alone.

I can't remember the last time I was home alone. My brother's on holiday in the US, his girlfriend is staying over at her friends, so I have the house all to myself tonight! Just tidied up the place a bit, since it's been a while, and a mess. I'm having a bunch of people over tomorrow, so the place should at least look presentable. As I was cleaning and vacuuming I was suddenly reminded of those years I lived all by myself here. Ah, the freedom! I could walk around in my underwear, sing to the radio, sleep in any of the beds I wanted to, or just go from one room to another without anywhere being off-limits... I miss those days. And tonight, for a night I have this freedom again. And it feels sweet.

It's been a long and tiring and hot week. Temperatures have risen (very abnormal for the time of the year) to arond the 30C, and those annoying insects and mosquitos I thought had all hibernated or died off are back again and humming in my ears at night. And this week I had my first full week of classes, since another of my course started this week. It's a course in International Relations (IR)...and if you've been reading my Formosa blog, you'll know it's one subject I have an opinion or two about. The lecturer is great , and one of these professors who knows so much that he can just go on and on and often on a tangent about anything that comes to mind. So for example we were talking about the Cold War yesterday, and at one point, in an attempt to draw an analogy of a conflict of ideologies, he started talking about the Dutch resistance (Calvinists who fought for religious freedom) against the Spanish Catholics in the 80 Years War of Liberation. On and on he went, until he realised the class was almost over and we had not even covered the detente, and that the Wall had not even come down yet! But it's all good fun and amusing, and after two hours you get more than just IR, but a dose of (Dutch) History, Politics, Economics, Sociology etc etc.

As usual, lots of reading to do this week, and I was told even more for the next. When I got to class today, my Public International Law (PIL) lecturer said he'll start cracking down on people who don't bother reading...a suggestion that he'll start asking random questions. We were all instilled with fear. But as it turned out it wasn't as intimidating as it sounded... It's usually the same bunch of people who bother to say anything in the tutorial groups, out of a total of around fifteen. The material isnt't that difficult (yet?), and to be honest I've already covered all the stuff we're doing during high school and my undergrad years, some in much more depth than now. Which makes me wonder whether this is really a masters course, or only just the beginning and an attempt to get everyone up to the same level.

Though, we've got an assignment due in less than two weeks. I'm not worried about the actual writing, but the word limit of 1500words, including footnotes. I mean I used to wrote much longer essays than this, with huge bibliographies of articles, references and cases, and these were excluding the footnotes which sometimes were as long as the actual text of the essay (I LOVE footnotes!) And what makes this assignment even harder is the topic: discuss whether Palestine is a state. Hmmm, the world has been discussing and fighting over this since the turn of the last century, and they want us to elaborate this in the average number of words of my blogs...

Well, which brings me to my other writings. Since the start of my study two weeks ago I've basically had to put a lot of my other 'commitments' on hold, and most importantly my story 'Loving you, Loving me'. Just the fact I've had to find my way around uni again, and get back to study mode and socialise, go out with friends (the usual 'hurly burly of uni life'). And everyday by the time I get home I'm already too exhausted to write anything else. Before I didn't have the problem, and nighttime was usually the time my inspiration and words flowed. But it's different now, and I really need to 'make time'.

I'm still committed to finishing off my story, and my editor has suggested some excellent ideas on how to develop it further... but really it seems like so many things are standing in the way of me actually wrtiting it! To be honest, the story is often at the back of my mind, and I feel a little upset by the fact that I've not been able to continue as I had hoped. I mean usually when I commit to something I want to do it well and until the very end. But now I'm worried if I rush things I might not be able to maintain the same ('artistic') standard that I've up to now been able to write with. I sort of had this fear before I started my studies as well.... I used to have all this free time to read other stories online, read newspapers, write blogs and work on my story, but I really need to cut down now. I gues it must be disappointing to some people out there...

Well, the good news is the next chapter of LYLM is finished, and I plan to post it this weekend! :)