A new blog and some new resolutions

Yes, you read that right. A new blog is coming up and has even started to emerge into the chaos that is the internet. Not that the internet is in need of more pages, or that I am bored with my one original blog. It’s still my favourite. However people have been telling me I should try establishing my online presence as a baker, so I’ll oblige… and try. Let’s see how it goes!

http://alicethebakingfrog.wordpress.com

 

End of an era and Neubeginn in Regensburg

Did I ever actually mention I am now officially a postgraduate student? Yes, I have a degree: I have finally been able to academically achieve something higher than the baccalaureate. It took me some time, twice the “normal” number of years (ie: a grand total of 6), it seemed like an eternity, I sometimes wondered whether I would ever graduate, but  I made  it!  And now I am moving on, specialising in “Intercultural european studies”: lots of language, lots of translation, lots of comparative cultural whatnots.  Sounds like something totally up, down and spread all over the walls of my street. And the first year of that course takes place in Regensburg! Now I mean no offence to Clermon, which is after all a very lovely town, but I needed out and now here I am, with my 43 kgs of luggage, unpacked and sprawled across my room. It would seem my untidiness followed me here…

And so: Regensburg. New town, new flat, new uni (hopefully, if I can manage to climb over/ram through the extra tough made-in-Germany wall of administration), and new blogging projects. Now I make new year’s resolutions every other minute, but this time, it is the start of a new (school)year, and I think this is ideal for resolution-making.

It’s probably best not to kill my fledging ideas by overexposure to public scrutiny, so I will not tell you about them right away, but let’s say if it all works out, there should be some interesting things in store. Let’s just say I intend to get as involved in Regensburg as I possibly can!

TTYS!

Writer’s block.

I haven’t written in a while, so I suppose I could give you a quick account of what I’ve been up to since, and maybe a string of apologies for not blogging sooner; my life isn’t that interesting though and you would soon be bored. I wish I could say it’s something I knew from the start, but the truth is I started to write a post, read it, yawned and clicked it into oblivion.

I am so rubbish at inspiration. Or rather, it comes and goes in tidal waves: one day I’ll have heaps, gazillions of ideas, and the following, say, three months: zero, zilch, nada, no inspiration whatsoever! All I seem to be able to write is an insipid mush of words that can just go on, and on,and on… and on, and on, and on.

But I should stop writing about writing and get on with it. Or not.

The rest of this post is intentionally left blank

:p

Karate tournament (hence the delays in blogging)

Dear reader,

It’s been a week since last I published anything, and yet again: many apologies. I’ve been having a more difficult time than expected keeping to my fresh un-new-year’s resolutions. Not that I have erred from the straight and narrow path, I’ve stuck to my decisions, only to end up with a lot less time to devote to daydreaming (and consequently blogging). Every time I wa going to write, I ended up doing some reading/studying/grammar exercices. So now I have shuffled out of my usual lethargy, I simply need to find a way for my new found drive to cohabit peacefully with my good old lazyness and propensity to lie/sit/stand around and let my mind wander off. Not as easy as it sounds. Plus, I can’t even write in the evenings, these days as soon as my head hits the pillow I am dead to the world and in no shape to write anything whatsoever.

And yet, I find whenever I do something unusual (go to a local karate tournament, sing at an Irish session, make smoothies), I want to tell the world about it. So no more shilly-shallying, let’s not waste any more precious time and start with the karate tournament.

It was last Sunday (23rd of January), and I’d been really looking forward to it, so on saturday night I made macarons au caramel de beurre salé (salted butter caramel filled macaroons) and charged my camera battery. It was the first “proper” tournament I have ever seen, and I was ridiculously excited, for someone who was just going to sit in the audience and admire her friends do what they do very well, or punch each other to a pulp. What’s a bit sad though is that there were very few competitors: karate is apparently not as popular as other martial arts, and those who choose to practice it often do so with no further objective than learning. Fair enough, says I; that’s precisely why I started, but it is a shame for those who are interested in tournaments and competitions, because they often find themselves without an opponent.

I mean, that’s good for them if all they’re interested in is getting a medal at the end of the day: they can do so without the effort of having earned it, but surely that’s missing the point isn’t it? I thought competition is about finding and pushing back your limits when facing an opponent, about hard work and, well, competition. A girl from my dojo, Roxane, was suggesting I started competing, just so she should have an opponent (in kata, not combat, thank god). She came all the way to the tournament to find out she was championne du Puy-de-Dôme, without even having to pull on her kimono. I know it would be nice for her to have an opponent, but with my less than satisfactory technical skills, I would be little more than a useless presence on the tatami. Then again, what an easy way to become the local vice-champion… (once I got over the ridicule of tripping over my own feet in the middle of my kata – which let’s face it, must be my unescapable fate whenever I try to perform anything in public).

But anyways, it was nice to see them all at it (from a safe distance), and I took innumerable photos with my amazing second-hand lens, and I fed people macaroons, which made me very popular. I look forward to the regional tournament, maybe this time there’ll be a couple more participants.

Exactly how easy is it to err from the straight and narrow path of blogging?

Hello everyone,

I face two problems. The first is simply I seem to have veered clear of my original purpose. This blog was originally created so I could plot and keep track of my homework and progress at University. I am sad to say I have not picked up a single book since the start of the holidays. This is something that has to change. Not only because I am feeling really bad about it and feeling bad is not something I particularly enjoy, but also because if I carry on not working enough, I will end up having to give up on the life and job I have been planning for so long. At last I have reached a point i my life where I am pretty sure I know what it is I want to do, and I have absolutely no intention of going back to the great realm of uncertainty I have just left. I WANT to become an interpreter, and that is precisely what I will do. So there.

The other problem is sheer lack of inspiration. Actually come to think of it, these two problems might be related. Since at first I was planning on writing about studying with maybe a couple of random exceptions, maybe my brain is tired of finding excuses to write about anything but my academic progres…. hmm. Only one way to find out: excavate my books from the pile of clothing under which they lie, blow the dust off the cover and start learning. This is when I wish I wasn’t at home for the holidays. Just look at my house (small speck of white walls with a red roof on the right of the header picture), can you venture a guess at how very far the closest library might be?

It is true that I live in a very isolated place which does not have all the distractions a town can offer. However my house is also devoid of any place devoted to work. I have got a desk in my room but in the years I have spent away from home rubbish has accumulated on and around it and I can no longer access it unless I spend 4 hours tyding up. Here is a picture just to give you an idea. And no, I do not know how my mother’s sewing box and a log have found their way here… Anyway lunch time, that’ll give me an hour to decide on my course of action. Bon appétit!