Snow and Coffee!

I had this rockin dream last night about...well, something.  Lots and lots of water was involved.  I took pictures of my cousin underwater.  It was very bright, and colorful, and warm and awesome. Very Carribbean, amazing.  

Unfortunately, I turned my alarm off at some point, and didn't wake up until 12:30!  Ugh.  Of course, I was up until 3am reading Clan of the Cave Bear.  I just love it. 

I looked out my window and the world was a swirling mass of white!  Snow!  Beautiful!  

Sadly, by the time Jason and I met up outside it had turned to a freezing slushy rain.  We slipped and slid to the public library and set up shop in Coffee Star, the cafe there.  I wrote, he worked on his music, and we chatted quite a bit.  Julia and Silvia joined us eventually, and it was quite a lovely afternoon.  When Coffee Star closed we went to Olivier and had some tea.  Everyone had work to do so we all read our own stuff.  

I've been reading The Greek Myths by Robert Graves.  The stories of my childhood.  The Greeks were sort of my gateway gods to the Egyptians, so I feel I owe them my loyalty.  Their stories are just so cool!  :-)

I'm going to make it an early night tonight.  I want to get up tomorrow, cool dreams or no!  And I definitely can't wait to try the coffee Julia gave to me.  :-)

Sweet Empathy

Yeah yeah, Saturday.  I went on a mission looking for yarn and a new bag.  I wanted a bag big enough for my writing stuff, so I wouldn't have to empty out my back pack every time I wanted to go somewhere to write.

I ran into Sylvia, Janos and Jason at the market.  We wandered around for a bit, and then went to the top of V&D and got some coffee and talked for a long time.  Then we went onto their rooftop terrace and looked at the city from above.  Talked some more.

Our afternoon at the market became quite the day.  I found a perfect bag for only €10, and have some beautiful yarn.  Some beads too. :-)  Janos bought pecans!  Still warm!  Jason got some pistachios, also warm!  We went back to Jason's and Silvia's place and drank tea and ate the warm nuts and orange slices, and talked more. ("And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China.") Jason and I watched a bunch of YouTube videos while Silvia and Janos talked.  Then Silvia and I went to the store, because I had gotten to the bakery too late.  

What a great day!

In other news:  My friend, Taher, wrote a poem about me!!  :-D

She is the cosmopolitan brigade of fire

That sets ablaze all the papers of misery by her heart

And my heart was in need of the ashes

That are cathartic and nostalgic at the scent of dawn

My heart was flying to land on purgatory

To pick her fiery soul and taste the apple of heaven

That tastes like the voice of God in the mirror

And the smell of the furs of the wings of the angels woven to my heart

--Sweet Empathy

by Taher Berenjian

Defeated by Love

The sky was lit

by the splendor of the moon

So powerful

I fell to the ground.

Your love

has made me sure

I am ready to forsake

this worldly life

and surrender to the magnificence

of your Being.

--Rumi

The Big Blink

More and more I find the transition between my daydreams and my studies to be  difficult.  Fortunately for me, my studies aren't much of a problem anymore.  Well, I say that.  We took a test today which I failed.  Fortunately I'm not taking this particular class for credit, because I was a dismal failure.  But it was only because I had been writing just minutes before.  And somehow switching from my dream world to ancient Egyptian was just too much for me.  I couldn't remember simple words, couldn't bring the sentences into focus.  Class was fine though, and I had no trouble.  Just the transition.

Before class I went to Lipsius to write for a few minutes.  I had been working, and cleaning all morning, so I waited for a moment to gather my thoughts.  I wrote a line or two, stopped again to think.  The man sitting next to me, clearly a professor, stood up to leave, but before he went he smiled at me and asked, in Dutch "Are you trying to write something?"  When I nodded he smiled and said, again in Dutch "Then stop thinking and write!"  He said I could look back over it later.  I laughed, and he winked at me and walked off.  And I just started writing, no thoughts.  

Mostly questions came.  About my character, about her boyfriend, Bal, about what they were doing and why.  But answers came too!  Amazing!  So, I managed to get two pages of questions and answers before class.  Quite a nice exercise!  :-D  

After class I read Clan of the Cave Bear.  I read this book as a child, and Jan let me borrow it so I could read it again.  I can't say it's the best written book I've ever read, but I adore the story.  I can see why I loved it so much as a child: it's about a girl who studies to become a medicine woman.  Those were my favorite sorts of books as a kid.  :-)

Julia and Susanne came over for dinner and we made some pretty amazing banana-carrot curry.  :-)  After dinner I showed them my new poi, and then we all went out into the hall to play.  Silvia came over.  Laura and Matteo poked their heads out of the room and played too.  I taught everyone a few moves, and they practiced and played, and hit themselves in the face, and laughed, and it was just an amazing time.  We played with poi for almost 2 hours I'd say!  I think I'll try to teach a class on poi spinning next semester.  :-)

Now it's suddenly 1am, and I'm not sure how that happened.  Market day tomorrow, and I have plans to buy some yarn.  I have a few things I want to make!  :-)  

Life continues to amaze me.  And I think I might just be teaching Life a few things too!  ;-) 

I Suppose Life Will Kill Me Eventually

This has been a strange day.  I had class, and then I came home and ate lunch.  Then I developed a migraine, and took a very long nap with very confusing, albeit very good dreams. 

Then library.  Mastabas.  Home.  Dinner.  Thanksgiving conversation with my entire family.  And their dog, Beanie.  :-)  Technology is an amazing thing.  And so is my family.  

I just finished reading Howl's Moving Castle and I'm sort of in the zone.  Kia and I were talking about this zone not too long ago.  He was listening to really good music, and felt like the world stopped making sense.  I agreed with him.  Called it art.  Words always do that to me.  They pull me out of this physical world, and hold me solidly in some other, foggier world, of beauty and not a little magic.  I like it, though I agree with Kia that the transition back into the "real" world can be really difficult.

Fortunately for me, I don't have to get up early tomorrow, which means I have no reason to come back to this world tonight.  

Lolpod:  A big poofy white cat in a window, white curtains behind him.  He was so fat, and so content to be sleeping in the window, I just had to stop and revel in the moment.  Happy Buddha cat face.  Until he woke up and saw me standing there.  He was not amused.  At all.  His big eyes stared at me rather disdainfully as I laughed and laughed at him.

I was daydreaming, and Janko told me I have to be careful because living in your own world is dangerous.  "It will kill you eventually," he said.  I just laughed and said, "Everything will kill you eventually!"

Women's Work

I'm not really in the mood to write much about my day.  I'm really in the mood to write in my novel.  Wednesday is my bad day.  It's just too full, too draining. 

Always the optimist, I have to say that I'm feeling more in control of my studies than I have all semester.  During my break I had lunch with the first year students.  We spoke in Dutch!  :-)

Today has been a rush of languages: classes in English, friends in Dutch, friends in German, classes in Egyptian, classes in Coptic, poetry in French (why not?)  

I've been writing, and thinking about writing, too.  Some scenes are starting to come together.  Right now they're just fragments, flashes, but I'm beginning to see how they all fit in.  And I'm really getting to know my characters.  

I'm going to climb atop Kilamanjaro (that's my name for my bed) and write until I fall asleep.  Which probably won't take that long.

:-)

Whuff.  I feel like I've been on a wild roller coaster and have just hit a brick wall.  I'm exhausted.  Like, looking up at my bed contemplating just sleeping on the floor (with a sleeping bag, of course) sort of exhausted.  Today has simply been too good.

I went to the public library here to see if it might be worth getting a library card.  I can read Dutch, but the books I want to read are mostly written in English, and translations are not fun.  So, I checked out the English section.  I found Stardust by Neil Gaiman.  It's a truly pleasant little book, and I read a few chapters of it.  

My back was warm against the heater, rain was pelting against the window, a fairy market unfolded before my eyes.

There's a cafe in the library called Coffee Star, and I sat in there, drank a mocha, and wrote and wrote.  I did a little homework, and then I wrote some more.  One of my characters has jumped out at me and demanded that he be described.  So I've spent most of my day figuring him out.  He's a rather delightful man, if a bit close minded at times.  :-)

Then I came home, and ate, and wrote some more.  I went to the sports center at 6 and danced for an hour.  I'm trying to figure out how to use poi in dance, and make new combinations and such.  Then Tai Chi, and Wushu, and home.

I'm listening to Bela, my room smells like lavender, and I'm simply exhausted.  :-)  But sublime.