Hello, October

So you realized that it's October already, right? I just did, and I can hardly believe it. It feels like that it was still summer a couple of days ago, we just started school yesterday,; yet, a whole month has flown by incredibly fast. I really don't know what I have been doing with my days, where and how all those precious hours of each day slip. I guess I really should get back down to keeping a journal on a daily basis, because then I would know how I spent my days. 

I do remember starting university three weeks ago, being back in the dorm, reuniting with the remaining members of our little company. It was the night before the first day of school, and boy, had we been looking for that day! Most of us was back by the evening, we all sat out in the dining room around the big table, chatting, talking, ranting, going on and on at the top of our lungs because we had so much to say to each other after more than two months of hiatus, and because it was simply pleasant to be together, sitting next to each other, elbows rubbing, feet touching under the table, some puffing fags uncounted, some having a beer or two, and just chit-chatting. Celebrating that our unorthodox urban family got to stay together for another academic year, and we don't have to start that really-adult, very responsible and often so ruthless real life just yet. We got to stay in our comfort zone for another year, we got to remain in the bell jar, safe and sound.

Then shcool started, and we slowly settled into our good old daily routine. Since this is my fourth (and hopefully last) year as a BA student, I have hardly any classes left; in fact I have school only on Mondays and Thursdays, the rest of my week is relatively free. Yet, days go by, and I cannot find time to do so many things I am dying to do: I haven't read a single book in the last month (SHAME ON ME!), neither have I written a single word, no poems, no journal entries, hardly any blog entries. No sewing, no painting, no any other creative projects, no going to the cinema, museums, or any other exhibitions. 

Then what have I been doing all these days? ...Well, if I think about it, I do remember spending several hours roaming the streets of Budapest, just wandering around, looking for and finding real treasures on the streets,  being lost in my inner world, enjoying my solitude and the breathtakingly beautiful autumn in Budapest. Yep, I have been photographing quite a lot (you can find photos here), taking long walks in the Castle, on Margitsziget (Margaret Island), at Normafa, and in the ever so charming narrow streets of the City. The everlasting beauty and romance of Budapest will never cease to amaze me, I shall be in deep love with our capital for the rest of my life. (Because true love lasts a lifetime. - That's the thing we all learned from Love Actually.) 

And I guess, the other true love in my life right now is photography. Who would have thought just a year ago, that I would fall so madly in love with photography, and we would have this beautiful, blooming and productive love triangle: my camera, the World, and I. Don't get me wrong, I am not praising myself, but it's surprizing and wonderful how much I progressed, got better photography-wise since early January when I started Project 365. The difference is clearly visible, and I often feel embarrassed when I bump into the photos I took in winter and early spring: how could I take and pick such poor pictures as Photo of the Day? However, I am pretty sure that, should I stick with photography in the future, when I will look at the photos of Autumn 2010 in a year or two, I will find these rather poor also. That's a good thing though, because it means that I am actually getting better, or at least more critical. Anyway, what I sure learned about photography in these past 9 months is that you have to take photos each and every day, even if you don't feel like it - you know, the first shoot is  the most painful, then it gets easier - shoot hell of a lot, but then you have to be very critical and delete most of the photos, not just the bad ones but the mediocre ones too. And most importantly: you have to be patient. Practice and patience ALWAYS pays off. You just have to wait it out, you have to be patient enough, for pay-off time may come later. Finally, the last thing that you have to accepct that there are bad days photography-wise too, days, when no matter how hard you try, no matter how many pictures you take, there will not be one single good one, there may be a few mediocre ones but those aren't good enough either, simply because you are having an off-day.  The trick is to go on and continue the next day.

Okay, enough with all these rambling and sharing my not-so-wise and not at all wisdomy wisdom with the world. The point is that I am having a long weekend at home in Miskolc, I won't return to the dorm until Wednesday, so hopefully I will have enough time to do the things I have been procrastinating: curl up on my bed with a large cup of tea and  just read, write, blog, sew, paint, etc...

I hope you are having a happy and sunshiny weekend too!

Andi