Pressure & Arranged Rum

“In eternity there is no time, only an instant long enough for a joke.” Hermann Hesse

Dinner on Tuesday was a month old melted camembert and a baguette. That was till I realised, after my first bite, that the camembert had become stale. So instead I ate a baguette with olive oil and salt. It was a feast.

In the English lesson we wrote a review and did an oral exam. The oral exam caught me off guard. Speaking in a formal manner with a certain pressure made me freeze. Nonetheless the teacher said after the examination that apart from the 15-20 second pause it was quite good.

I need to learn how to act under pressure. I had a similar experience in human formation class the week before. When being put on the spot, without any preparation, I usually just freeze. This is also valid in a volleyball setting. When it's match or set point and it is my turn to serve I suddenly doubt in my abilities and usually mess up.

That being said there is a counterexample from this Wednesday : at 8:10 our math teacher said: "Alrighty, I'm feeling quite generous today: here's and equation, the first three to solve it get an extra point on their last week's exam." I happened to come in first! So my grade jumped from a 12,5 to a 13,5. Not all hope is lost.

This week I got introduced to the French type of going out. In Belgium and in Estonia people usually gather around 20 to then head out. Here people gather the earliest at 22. I also heard about some people going out at half past one. It's an absolute joke.

So there I was, leaving my house at 21:45. It was a cold autumn evening. The air felt crisp. The crowds were lively(probably due to the start of holidays). I met a lot of different individuals and thankfully everyone was very outgoing. They largely compensated for my introversion.

We wandered from one bar to another until around half past two when we arrived at a Rum bar called Le Farafina. The very colorful decor was composed of authentic African objects, statues, paintings and sculptures, from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Guinea. They served loads of different drinks including a large variety of arranged rums and cocktails. The vibes were on point.

Since Saturday noon I am on holiday. It seems unreal to not have anything to do on the upcoming Monday. I had not realised earlier, but the end of this week also marks seven weeks (so about two months) of going to HEI. For those past seven weeks it was a "seven to seven" schedule most days if we consider also the work done outside of school. I am glad to have the opportunity to catch my breath. Time passed quickly. Even with a few hiccups, my life in Lille so far has been good.

I was going through my reading list and found Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf. Just as Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita this work also contains a Magic Theater which in this case is for madmen only. The book has a dark tone. Our protagonist, Harry Haller is torn between two personalities : on one half a lone wolf of the steppes and on the other a human. The book explains his elaborate journey.

I found that the majority of the artwork inspired by the Steppenwolf  is very heavy-going. They usually represent very well the messiness and the dark side of the book. While doing research about the book I found a philosophical article that had a very good accompanying artwork ("The Lone Wolf") which I decided to adopt myself. The article itself was reasonably good, but you have to be quite well read to understand it, and it is a bit prolonged in my opinion.

That will be all for this week's word-wrestling!