Chocolate is the answer

 Besides all the essays and reports on more or less bizarre topics of political philosophy (questions on equality and justice seem to be endless) I have volunteered to translate materials for a Czech NGO called the League of Human Rights and I have also helped with a research on human rights. This research is focusing on the work of the UN and my role is to read their reports and transform them into a quantitative set of data. In reality this work is extremely demanding, however I think you got the amount of fun I have with it about right. Oh well, I cannot give up now!

Also in return, we will get to go to special seminars on research methods, which I think is extremely useful too.
When it comes to my lectures, some of them are a bit different this year. One of my modules, called the EU simulation, is based on us students pretending to be the leaders of European countries and EU institutions, and having to deal with a made up scenario. This simulation involves a great deal of negotiations, secret meetings and deals, so we do get our share of fun. Of course there is the rest of the lectures which are exactly what I am used to from previous years, however the topics they cover look at the philosophical (and extremely abstract) aspects of politics. In short, I’m certainly having lots of fun this semester.

And all of that is mixed with a big portion of typical Scottish weather. Low temperatures, which are surprisingly similar to those in the Czech Republic, in combination with a monsoon season (well, it’s not really a monsoon season, but I am sure that Scotland is getting really close to actually having them) results into very inconvenient situations when it’s hard to tell whether it is a day or night. Not that it does not matter all that much. I’m at home writing an essay either way.

So how do I keep in a healthy mental state? It’s not coffee, energy drinks or any other dodgy substances. It is simply thanks to an increased (according to some of my friends even excessive) chocolate intake. And it can be in any form – pralines, bars, fluid or frozen chocolate. In moments, when I count days and hours left before a yet another deadline, a cup of hot chocolate seems to be my only pleasure in the universe. Or as someone smart has said: “chocolate doesn’t ask stupid questions, chocolate understands.”