So again, snapshots of life from the past
few months, in bullet-points:
-
What a summer! I’ve literally been all
over the place, to Malaysia, the States, and Portugal… I’ve enjoyed the travelling, as tiring as it
was, but I’m also happy to be back in Cambridge.
-
I have a flat! And it is in the
process of becoming a home. It’s the first time
since leaving home that I’m not sharing my kitchen and living room with a bunch
of other people. I can leave my toiletries in the bathroom! I don’t have to
worry about dirty dishes piling up because other people aren’t responsible
enough to do them! I have space. And I can
decorate! I never bothered very much with personalising my previous rooms in
Oregon and here in Cambridge (other than by leaving lots of my stuff lying
around, very neatly of course), because they always felt very temporary. This
flat could be temporary too, really – I’m not sure I can keep it next year. But
still! Like I said, it feels more like a home, probably because it’s more
private.
-
Wedding planning is a lot of work.
Especially when you have to plan a couple of different events in a couple of
different countries… from neither of those countries! There are so many things
to think about! It hasn’t been too overwhelming though, and I think we’re on top of things (so far!). We’ve also had lots of support from our
families, for which we’re very grateful. We have dates and venues pretty much
set, which was our aim for the summer, so yay! Now for guest lists,
invitations, dresses, flowers, rings, music, flights…
-
Putting on a veil with a wedding dress
makes a wedding DRESS aWEDDING dress.
-
Planning a wedding is a lot of work,
planning a couple of weddings is even more work, and planning a couple of
weddings while writing up a PhD is just plain intimidating! But also exciting.
It’s nice to see my work come into fruition (at least, I hope it will), and to
have things fall into place. After two years of running around trying to get
lots of fieldwork done, it’s nice to be a bit more settled and to be able to
focus on results. Just don’t ask me what my
plans are for the following year yet.
-
As this is the final year of my PhD,
I’m going through a bit of… separation anxiety? with regards to my status as a
student. After my PhD I won’t be a student anymore! There’s no other degree
that is a natural progression from this one, just… a career (which sounds too
adult-y, ugh). Some people argue a PhD is pretty much a job, and is really the
start of a career, but still, while doing a PhD I am a student. I get student discounts. I have a flexible schedule. I don’t have
a restrictive amount of leave. I don’t have to pay council tax. So I’m going
through a bit of a ‘carpe diem’ phase now, where I want to do EVERYTHING! I
want to go for lots of random lectures, I want to learn a language (or brush up
on the ones I know), I want to dance, I want to play badminton, I want to
travel… andplanmanyweddingsandcompleteaPhD. I’ll ride my wave of gung-ho while
I can.
-
I’ve also been going through a stage
of nostalgia lately. I think it’s mainly due to the fact that my flat is
currently internet-less, which has meant I’ve had to find alternative ways of
entertaining myself rather than surfing the net mindlessly. One of the things
I’ve been doing is working my way through the movies I had on my external hard
drive, which I never got around to watching previously. And since I’ve had to
access my external hard drive, I’ve also stumbled across many documents and
pictures that I have stored in there, many of them pre-Cambridge, and some of
them even going into my early teens! I don’t know if nostalgia is the right
word for it, really, because I don’t have the same longing for the times past
as I would have had I gone through these things two or three years ago. But
it’s been a feeling of fondness. Seeing all the people that were a part of my
life, and people that were a part of my life and still are… and looking at
myself at 14, 17, just before going to the States, in the States… it gets me
trying to remember what was going through my mind then, to remember what my
life was like, to remember what the relationships I had were like and to ponder
on what they have become.
-
And finally, I will end on a bit of a
cryptic note – because there are some things that I want to remember in the
future, which are a bit too personal for such a public place. I want to
remember the conversation we had by the river, the three of us. I want to
remember scales and arpeggios. I want to remember your patience, your
indulgence, and your generosity. And I want to remember this part of the
journey with Him.
PS. The title means ‘Tell me, kangaroo’,
from a Portuguese song. The full line goes ‘Tell me, kangaroo, how many hairs
have you… in your nose?’
PPS: I have recently learned that
‘Hungarian’ (as in, a person from Hungary) is ‘Húngaro’, which to me sounds a
lot like kangaroo in Portuguese. And that tickles me.
