I live when I write

I'm writing my blog again! At a corner table at Starbucks Hotel de Ville with a cup of Tea Chai I listen to the background music and watch people come and go and once again I wonder why a) Everything (studying, writing) is always so much easier at a Starbucks than at home and b) I still, having lived in Paris for four years, always go to Starbucks and not to some charming Parisian cafés. Maybe one day I'll try something French, but I just like the Starbucks ambiance so much!

Anyway, last summer I stopped writing this blog because I felt that I didn't have time to write regularly and it would have been stupid to post something once a month. And then school started and soon got as hectic as always, or even more intense if possible. I sure was writing something every day but for school. Now I'm on holidays before the second semester starts and I know that nothing will change, I will still have lots of work to do for Uni and I also need to write my first Master thesis this spring. But holidays are always good time for thinking. So I've been doing some thinking and decided that I'm just making excuses. If I manage to find time for all the other things I do, I sure will find it for my blog as well. And for example my studies, in theory I like studying and mostly it is interesting but I don't enjoy going to every lecture, doing every written assignment or oral presentation I have to or studying days and nights for exams. But I still find time to do it. I also find time to do my dishes, to wash my clothes and to keep my apartment in order. So why wouldn't I find time for something I love? 

Besides, writing my blog always made me do things because I needed to have something else than my ordinary boring life to write about. It's like I live when I write. :) We'll see how it goes now.

For the moment, I can tell you that I am living even a bit too much. Something's happened to me (and I'm not the only one!). Since the beginning of this year (and even during the weeks when I was supposed to study for my exams), I'm always somewhere. I go out for dinners, drinks or dates almost every night. Or just hang out with my friends at someone's place (or at Starbucks with J). It feels like I'm living in 2010 again. And it's nice, not taking life too seriously, being 20 again. But when school starts again I need to find a balance between my real, "I'm a serious student"-life, and my imaginary, "I'm young and having fun"-life. It's time not only to do everything I have to do for Uni but also to apply to different schools for my last year of Master and find an internship for the summer. All this hoping that everything goes well and that I will graduate one day. Wish me luck!

Champagne with girls to celebrate E's birthday, the end of exams and M leaving to Australia for a while. And just the fact that we're young and happy and friends!

So much fun this night with J going around in bars at Mabillon

Tapas with M at rue Mouffetard

Cocktail catch up with R at St. Michel

Also, what I have been thinking about lately, again, is that I love Paris and that I don't appreciate enough the fact that I'm living here, in this beautiful city. Almost every day I worry about the future and about how my life will turn out and so I forget to live. I think of leaving Paris soon and moving somewhere else. And then I realize that if I actually left, I would miss this place so much. When I tell people that I live in the Marais they always say the same things, that I'm so lucky, that it must be great and I just nod and smile but I don't really get it. Being a student and not even working at the moment, I could have it a lot worse. Walking around in Paris always reminds me of all this. It's really quite nice here. :)

Sunrise at Pont des Arts one morning

A lovely soirée in an apartment at Trocadéro, this is the view from the balcony

E and the Eiffel Tower. I want a place like this!

Moreover, there's always something to do in this city. I've made a promise to myself to do something cultural more often. I started with small exhibitions, it's lighter than walking around in a museum for a whole day. I went to one exhibition at Hotel de Ville, called Brassaï - Pour l'amour de Paris, to see beautiful photos of old Paris and to Musée d'Orsay to one other called Masculin/Masculin - l'homme nu dans l'art, to see old and new paintings, sculptures and photos of, yes, naked men. I wonder what they come up with next. (And no, I couldn't take photos there, that's too bad).

More is to come, my blog is back and I'll keep posting about Paris. Now I'll go out with E for a while, then some sleep and tomorrow morning to the gym (and then some studying!). Enjoy your Friday night, everyone!

xoxo: Emi