Melancholy?

Nearly every blog ends with longing. Longing for home, longing for the place I live at, longing for places I haven't been to yet. Right now it is longing for something I cannot have: more time in London.

It has been a while since I last posted a blog. Sometimes, so many things happen at once that I don't even look at my laptop. But yay, here are the news from the last couple of weeks! Though there was so much going on, I doubt that I will get it all together, but let's give it a try!

After Maeve's and my Margate trip the term came to an end. Most of the time the university staff was striking. Of course, the class I disliked the most still took place. So I found myself sitting in the library during the day, with a cup of coffee as company and a walk home by dawn.

But home was exactly the place where I wanted to be. In February and March the girls and I went through a face of "let's go out every other night". And so we switched between our two favourite clubs, Jazz Café and Heaven. We kept dancing till the doors closed again. The next day mostly started with a kitchen meeting in the afternoon. Armed with laptops and books we tried to be somehow productive. You could only hear the clicking sounds of the keyboards and the scratching of the chairs, when someone moved. Our flatmates stopped asking how many times we went out that week, looking at our tired faces and the stamped wrists. We even went on walks, as Regent's Canale offered a cozy and welcoming route in the sunshine.

It was one of these times in life where I was proud of studying next to the chaos. Even though we were out a lot, I finished all of my assignments! Okay, maybe the pressure of upcoming deadlines contributed as well.

But our paths not only lead to clubs. Thanks to Laurie, we started to go to a jazz club in Soho. Every months, Ronnie Scotts hosted the musician Vula Malinga for their late late show. These events were true magic. We walked through Covent Garden and St. James park, stopped by our favourite piercing parlour for some new ear decoration and searched through Spotify in the kitchen. The smell of apple crumble filled the air every now and then and no day passed by where I didn't hang out with Maeve, Laurie and Kesha.

At some point, home came home. Emily came to visit, we did long walks along the Thames, ate pizza and sipped some oatmilk cappuccinos. Henrike visited in March, we went to a cooking class and strolled through a container park in Brixton. Even though saying goodbye didn't become easier, it was always nice to welcome my friends. I show them around, tell them the latest news and point out to my favourite places. It reminds me of my old home in my new home. Spending time with my people from Germany, the most important persons in my life, and introducing them to my most important people in London.

And now, I have reached that point again. Every blog ends with longing. Despite the fact that I have the best time of my life right now, enjoying my freedom, it is nice to think of home. And even more, having people from home here. April is nearly over and most of my friends in London already booked their flights home in June. Time makes big steps. Such big steps that I can't keep up. There is a weird vibe in out group. A strange mix of melancholy and euphoria. Everyone knows it's gonna be over soon but no one dares to say it out loud. And perhaps this is the easy way. To live in the moment and not think about the end.