Abroad in Baltimore #22
Home Alone
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Spring has still not quite sprung on this side of the Atlantic. Here in Maryland we have a lot of what we call “false starts” to seasons, where we’ll get a tease of 60 degree (18 degrees celsius) weather, before being flung back to freezing temperatures for a week. We usually have to endure this little dance till the beginning of April, but by then things start to get a bit too warm so there’s really no winning.
House sitting has gotten a bit easier, I found I really did miss aspects of living alone. Being able to blast Taylor Swift songs at 3am, maintaining my own dish cleaning system, not having to share a bathroom. It’s given me back the confidence that I’ll be able to live alone again next semester. I’m really looking forward to it now, and am casually scoping Paris apartments in my free time.
The house still does feel a little too empty so I’ve been trying to stay busy by having lunch with friends and going on impromptu thrifting expeditions. My latest thrift store find came in the form of the first two Harry Potter books in hardcover, near perfect condition and only 3 bucks a piece! This is not a blog in which I review books, but if I’m being honest I really only like the first four books in the series. 12 year old me couldn’t make it through the last two and became enthralled by the Percy Jackson series (amazing from start to finish in my humble opinion).
I had another surprisingly great Life Drawing class, this time not with the gesture drawings but instead was blessed with a very nice long pose drawing! I was quick to call it a fluke, but I think my brain has finally adjusted to this new style of drawing. It just goes to show that it’s really the hours that count the most, the time you put into the actual nuts and bolts practicing. A lot of getting better at something is putting yourself in situations where there is no other option but to improve. That’s why I tried to get myself into as many different types of drawing classes this semester, so I would have no choice but to confront my fears and conquer them if I wanted to survive.
I can be a bit of a maximalist when it comes to school, if you’re paying for an education I would think the general idea is to get the most out of it, but even I wasn’t sure how 6 hour studios would go. Fast forward to spring semester and now I don’t know how we’d have class without them! It’s such a luxury to have that much studio time when you can really dig into your work in drawing or painting. After having built up the stamina for 6 hour classes, going back to 3 next semester will hopefully feel like a breeze!
This weekend was spent enjoying my last few days of being home alone and flirting with the idea of homework here and there. I’m lucky to have a nice long weekend thanks to my free Fridays, but I’m afraid I tend to spend most of it recovering from the week. Even in the thick of the semester, giving yourself even just an afternoon off where you’re not thinking about school goes a long way in preserving your mental health. I make a point of having at least one full evening where I do absolutely nothing more productive than clearing space in my Netflix queue.