Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Good Morning Cairo

I woke up this morning in a really good mood. The main road I pass on my way to the Metro in the morning seemed more vibrant that I'd ever remembered it, everything and everyone around me seemed to be in high definition (maybe I'd just given my contact lenses an extra good clean). The weather was also magnificent. It was just the right mix of cool air and gentle sun. I crossed a narrow side road to get to the Metro and took a deep breath, trying to savour the beautiful day that I believed it to be. That was a bad decision to make - a inhaled a lung-ful of motorbike exhaust fumes and started spluttering worse than the motorbike that was having a pretty bad start to his -what I can only imagine- would be a pretty gruelling day.

My lessons today went really well. In my first lesson I  ended up completely diverting the topic from education to talking about dystopias and 1984. This diversion saved my lesson, which seemed to have come to a stand still on the topic of education. The thing was I hadn't prepared anything about dystopia, yet at the end of the lesson my class said that it was the best lesson they had had. I think it was because they learnt a lot of new vocab and some new information, but I felt that they hadn't really spoken very much in the lesson.

After I finished my classes I headed home. But I was feeling really good, on a high from the lessons and my pupils that I walked really slowly, hoping to be distracted by anyone and anything. My call was answered when I saw someone I'd met at a Couchsurfing event a few weeks earlier. I asked him about his language school that he had previously told me was in Dokki, and he took me to it. I must have rubbed a lucky charm or something, because this school was not only 1 minute away from the centre I teach, it was also impeccably clean, beautiful and the staff were incredibly courteous. The price was also very reasonable. Sometimes when things like this happen I feel that something is guiding me to do things in a certain way, as putting these things down to sheer coincidence seems incredibly demanding.

I returned home and still feeling on a high, I decided to call my entire phone book. Usually in my usual self, I am too shy to talk to people/make new friends if I am out of a work/school environment. But I decided to just test my luck. In the end, I organised myself a trip in Old Cairo, and arranged to meet up with my cousin to walk around our neighbourhood (ok so he's not exactly a new acquaintance but at least I got out of the house!). 

2 comments:

  1. that 'coincidence' is the universal language of the world - the alchemist, paulo cholio

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  2. when you want something, the universe conspires to make it happen. no coincidence!!!!!

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