Off-line.

The internet at my house does not work very well. In all fairness, the more accurate description would be to say that it doesn’t work at all. Therefore now I have two options: I can go to the library and make use of the wonders of wireless networks there; or I could stay at home live offline for a bit.

The first option has its attractions. It is widely known that library is a place where creativity and productivity flourishes. The quietness of the place helps to concentrate and work get done almost without any effort. If library is not good enough, there is always a faculty café where you can do your thing with a pleasant buzz of fellow students as a background. Yes, the first option is great. The only problem is actually getting to the library.

Contrary to the popular thinking, British Isles are NOT the kingdom of rain. The glorious title belongs to the Netherlands. And thus you wake up in Leiden and it rains. You eat lunch- rain still reigns outside the window and nothing changes all the way through to the evening. Finally, maybe around dinner-time there is a short break in this rainy symphony, but don’t be deceived: the rain will surely return and it will be sooner rather than later.

As you can probably guess, I’m not particularly fond of getting wet, even less so at the very start of my potentially productive day, so I mastered the art of reducing getting out of the house and into the rain to a bare minimum. Nevermind that on the other side there is a land covered with a wireless network.

I’m left with the second option and it’s not looking much better. When I wake up I have no way of checking the news and my email. Grumpy because of such a poor start, I make my breakfast but cannot eat it while watching funny dogs videos. After a cup of tea I finally get round to finishing all these applications that I started ages ago but somewhat never finished. I write about how wonderful I am and that I would make a great commercial lawyer. And so I survived until lunchtime which is not as pleasurable as usual (no news to read), but I persevere.

A light  in a tunnel appear when the rain suddenly stops and the first option can be explored. Hungry for information I go to the faculty café and spend the next three hours looking up recipes, skyping, writing emails and finishing applications which I can finally send because there is a stable connection to do so. Of course during all this time the rain doesn’t stop for a minute and I only make myself wrap up and go when it stops again (although it manages to catch me half way home).

And so we’re back with option 2. Coffee, cakes and a question what to do now? When there is no more tops to fold, dishes to clean or shelves to dust, the only thing which is left is to write a blog post. Interesting how it flows when I don’t pin anything, don’t scroll down my twitter feed or watch comedy shows at the same time. Maybe all this offline time is not as bad as I thought? Although it’s scary how reliant on the internet I’ve become. I still read books, meet with real people and do all this stuff, but it’s somewhat comforting to know that I can simply reach out for my laptop and open up a browser (and actually visit a website rather than see a message unable to connect to the internet).

A new resolution: be more with myself and less with the Web.