Life, so far (May 2016)

I’m on my ninth month here in Rouen and I know I haven’t kept my word when I said I’d write about life here as often as I could. I thought about revamping my page – purchasing a new domain (I went from elconmo.com to leniontheroad.com), migrating back to this platform (from Blogger to Wordpress) and went as far as buying a theme (a first)! I thought to myself: if I invest my time, money and energy, that would probably give me the needed push to write. But sadly, no. I wrote about what has been hindering me from doing so a few months ago and it is with regret that I say that I still have not overcome that challenge. I’m getting there, I will get there.

Eight months went by too fast and too slow at the same time. Too fast for the good times, too slow for the tough ones. Looking back at it now, I feel like I blinked once and life went past me. Where did all that time go?

At this point, I still can’t come up with a way to describe the days that passed. Every day, I notice and realize something new. I think the list will never end.

Exams are over and I have already handed out my application for my second year of master’s. Oh and yes, I get to spend another year here thanks to another scholarship granted to me by the embassy. Details are yet to be ironed out so now, I am basically just waiting. In between, I will try to squeeze in some academic reading, as evidence by the six books, two of which are journals, I borrowed from the university library. Yes, I just borrowed books right after exams, on a Saturday. Did I get started on reading? Yes. But that’s the thing: I always start reading and never get to finish. I have countless books I’ve started reading and only get to finish a few. I can’t say I didn’t try!

We’re in the middle of spring, fast approaching summer. That could only mean one thing: longer days - earlier sunrises and later sunsets. I thought I’d never get used to it; my eating and sleeping patterns have a hard time coping even if this is already the third time I’ve had summer (first for spring and loving it!) in Europe. But just take a look at that sunset at ten in the evening… No words. I think I now belong to a place where the sun rises at six (am) and sets at ten (pm).