Caffeine and Writting

So I think I created a Monday afternoon ritual today. After lunch and classes I came home and let myself slid from the gray outside into bed. I’ve caught a cold either from the weather or transition. After sleeping off the rain for 2 hours I had to get out of bed. I walked around the city center for a half hour in search of the perfect tavern to sit and sip espresso and write. I wondered to Grand Place again and then back towards home and finally wondered into a cozy and typical nameless pub. I ordered an espresso and sat with an open notebook. My pen began to fly. I often try to write in cafés in America; I make up stories about my fellow patrons. Too often I find myself eves dropping to catch tidbits of their actual stories. However, that is impossible because of the buzzing French. The atmosphere lets me become an observer and lends itself to fiction.

The espresso left me wired and writing in a frenzy. I started to pick up on every detail of the room and the people sitting around me. It was the perfect atmosphere for writing practice and for me to catch up on all the thoughts that have been flying through my brain for the last week. I couldn’t believe how easy the words came in this atmosphere and I am excited to do this in a different but similar place next Monday. I can’t believe how much time will be built into my schedule to read and write for myself. In this way I am in heaven. I may even have time to polish some of my free writes, in the future I may post some of them on this blog or a different one. For five semesters I have been a slave to my schedule, and suddenly I feel a little freed. I feel that I need no text or professor for many of the lesson I will learn here. Each time I enter the city I pick up the innuendos of this place. A walk down the block leaves my mind buzzing with globalization, urban development, public policy, and just quarky bits of humanity. So many people exist in peace and flow comfortably through this city. It makes me realize how black and white-up and down America is.

My first Monday in Brussels was simple, but leaves me more excited and ready to seek out all that my new world has to show me.

Smiles, peace, and love,

Amanda Mar