Second year so far

I haven't posted here for a while; I keep starting a new draft, forget about it and then a few weeks later it's not relevant any more. Time seems to be accelerating and that's something I'm not okay with; throughout my year-and-a-bit in Paris I've had an almost physical sensation that time is slipping through my fingers. I want to savour every bit of this experience.

 My parents and brother came over last week and we all visited the Loire Valley together. It was such a lovely couple of days. I'm learning to treasure the time with my family in a different way now that I live here, and I love that. It was rather odd to show them around my foyer and quartier; the gap between my two lives suddenly became very clear. I'm sure that this is something that every student can relate to; a feeling that your Uni life and your Home life coexist harmoniously in separate bubbles, and when they fuse for a moment it feels very strange. That said, we had the best time together and I can't describe how much I appreciate that they came to see me. 

Recently I've just felt so happy. The other night I was lying in bed, in that strange in-between stage when you're not quite asleep but not really awake either, and I just thought, 'Life is good right now.' Like every student, I'm so used to feeling like life is hitting me in the face all the time with new pressures and deadlines, that I almost didn't realise that lately I actually seem to have everything together. I've dealt with what stressed me out last year, and the result is that my mind isn't so clouded with a to-do list that I can see past my unfinished essay and dirty washing, to the fact that I have the most amazing friends, great opportunities in a new internship and job, and that I'm actually getting a lot of enjoyment out of my degree at the moment. 

Of course, this doesn't mean that I think my life is perfect, and I don't want to appear to be boasting. I just feel like it's important to recognise when you're happy; society as a whole spends way too much time being negative! I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing and hope that this continues for a long time.

My life now consists of: runs on the rive gauche, Friday morning markets, reading up on translation theory, going to the pool with flatmates, learning about spices, listening to the best playlists on the metro, cycling to uni in the morning light, woolly hats, spying on the neighbours with my roommate, porridge, the deepest most honest conversations with my friends, frozen bananas, walking along the Boulevard du Montparnasse in my gold-heeled ballerina pumps and feeling complete.

I like second year so far.

Bisous,

K x