Update

I just realized that I stop reporting on my actual life whenever I am home. Somehow it just doesn't seem all that spectacular, and it probably isn't.

Everyday life at the Skypad (version 2.0, obviously) involves loooooong hours of staring into books and sifting through piles of paper on a quest to fill the digital pages of my thesis with words that stick. So far I've finished about a quarter of the paper, which is shockingly little given the fact that it is due in December, but I know that I can write, and I do it best when the pressure is on.

While having spent my college years in the glorious absence of the need to work for a living (thank you, mom and dad!!), bills are starting to pile up, and for the first time in my life I find myself working in actual, paid, non-volunteer student jobs: translating at conferences, hostessing (is that even a word? I know waitressing is), and - believe it or not - my first paid gig as a journalist. I am writing a feature article on Ashoka, and it's turning out to be a lot of fun. An odd detail: I've become so used to writing in English that I sometimes need to consult an online dictionary to find the perfect German word.

The quest for a real job is also on - and I am finding it tricky to overcome my good old technique of not even trying things that seem improbable and only going for safe options. The future is wide open - who know where in the world I will be six months from now?

Weekends are often spent at the Mill, trying to satisfy my newfound hunger for fresh air and nature. I guess that happens, especially if you've turned into a full-time nerd. There's nothing like a walk through vineyards, watching the leaves change color (and stealing the occasional grape or pumpkin, shame on me), to clear your head. I suppose "normal" students would prefer dancing the nights away at clubs and sleeping through the days, but in that respect - except for a crazy and fun spell of party fever in Madrid when I was seventeen - I was never normal.

Most of my good friends are married or engaged now, and life has become more quiet, but I like it this way.

PS: I have decided I will use my last semester at school to take Arabic classes. Don't know how much I will learn, but I've always wanted to get beyong haggling at the bazaar and explaining the way to taxi drivers (left, right, left, straight on, here is good, how much?).