Alexandria certainly is an interesting and beautiful place. It is much smaller than Cairo ( about six million) and it shows. The Mediterranean is beautiful. When we first arrived we parked the car and walked to the beach, which is right next to the apartment. Upon seeing the sea it reminded me very much of home. That sea smell, blowing winds, and the sand between my toes. A place where the sky meets the earth in an infinite way. It is moments like these that remind me how large the world really is. How small we are in comparison to it.
This is the first time that I have really felt home sick. It makes me realize all of the people that are watching me from home. Waiting to see how I am or what adventure I will have next. In the same breadth it occurs to me that I may never really be home. I am always thinking of what the next step is. There are many things that come to mind, but none of them are returning to the place I have left.
Teaching here is frustrating and, as my roommate says, “Doing a good job here is like peeing your pants in a dark suite, you get a warm feeling but no one notices.” There are only a handful of kids that really make it worth it to go to the school everyday. Students who actually want to learn are nice to have. It is those students that keep my spirits up.
Interim reports came out this week and students got to see their mid-quarter grades and some comments from teachers. I had a lot of students complain, but the last one I talked to made my day, week, month worth it. She came to thank me for giving her nice comments, tell me that she really enjoyed my class, and that I was a good teacher. I told her that she was an excellent student and should consider going to a school where her talents would be better developed. We had a short discussion that ended with me saying, “This school does not deserve you, you are wasting your time here, and you should go somewhere that will appreciate your talent.” To which she replied, “Mr. Hurley, this school does not deserve you, you are wasting your time here, and you should go somewhere that will appreciate your talent.”… hmmm Alexandria next year?
2 comments:
sweet sunset....sigh! i could almost smell the salty sea breeze & feel the sand. Thanks for bringing out my own homesickness...its amazing how a picture can throw you back into your own memories...
sounds like you've fallen in love with alex. hope you get an "ainab" (or as Raghda would make me spell it: 3nab ) deal working for some pishposh school so we can crash at your pad every so often...;-)
PS: visited our camel & pyramids blog yet?
PPS: alex would be even sweeter when there's someone to share beachwalks with, ay? (nudge-nudge-wink-wink)
you must realize that i live for reading others' blogs while doing nothing at school (and that's doing nothing between teaching, playing, studying Japanese, and playing piano).. so i need updates, man!! i will wither and die!...ok..so not so dramatic.. but seriously.. give us updates
:)
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