Summer Time

   Wednesday, Shawwal 20th, 1436H, 43cْ
    
      Almost all the people I'm associated to have packed their luggage and hit the road in search for a cozy place where they can spend summer away from the scorching heat of the Arabian sun.

Despite all the reasoning they furnish me with every time I ask them about their eagerness to travel and spend tens of thousands of dollars, in the best case scenario, on trivial matters they deem them necessary, I end up hearing the same thing all over again. Some travel for a change, others travel to show off, those travel to seek out an adventure and all of them return back with high morale that depletes as soon as they resume their duties. If I knew that travelling, as conceptualized in modern times, would give me a jolt of positive morale that would last me for the whole year until another summer vacation comes, I would've been the one leading the pack. But the current trend of utilizing the ample time of summer by travelling to resorts that have been already visited for more than 11 times nonstop, are you listening?!!!!!...., speaks of something eerily stupid with the people involved in it.

 

Travelling is a good thing so long as it changes one from the inside out, instead of from the outside in. If you are going to travel to simply enjoy a short term of soul- replenishment, believe me, soul- replenishment emanates from within. I mean, your town is more than enough a place to make you experience something exhilarating and superbly funny, but the problem seems within you. You have accustomed your mind to the quasi- fact that if you don't travel and spend a year- worth of income on junk and funk, all what you have done so far is pointless, right?

 

And then, after all is said and done, you keep watching the setting sun of the last day of summer with sorrowful eyes and say:

 

 

Only a week or two left of this vacation. Try to make the next one, if Allah extends our lives until then, a far more worthwhile experience, and not a tedious cycle.

 

Salams,

 

Alawi :)

Wednesday 19th of Jumad Al Akher, 1436, 11:37 a.m., 32ْc

     I joined the MA program of the English Language Institute at King Abdulaziz University a year ago (excluding this one), and due to administrative stupidity, which is quite common in my "revered" tower of knowledge, that is KAU, I had to re-do everything from the beginning. The one in charge of the MA TESOL program is supremely helpful, and he managed to save me a humongous amount of time and effort to keep my wheel spinning, which started to lose its momentum as I went through all of those administrative ordeals our "established" Uni is known for.

Despite the fact that I managed to pull myself together for the first semester of this year, I find myself completely devoid of energy and passion as of this writing. The purpose I'm doing my post- graduate study for, the time and strength I'm sacrificing for this program, and the overall psyche, are heading down as the curve finally passed the apex of my zeal. Is it a sign of despair, or one of my "destructive" whims and fopperies? It could be either or both.

I'm the only male student among a group of seventeen enthusiastic women who the majority of are members of the faculty of ELI. After the rift that occurred near the end of last year, a new group of other ladies who are not quite as enthusiastic as the first ones, joined the program, and again, I had to tag along with them..... A single male?.... Among a pack of females?.... In Saudi Arabia?... Is that even true?....Yes silly, it is true. They could see me thanks to the "primitive" camera positioned atop a 14 inch television from the time of the Cosby Show's pilot episode in 1989 (I think), while I could only communicate with them via a super sensitive microphone that can detect the slightest whispers of either end, and you can imagine what kind of pinky stuff the ladies speak of when the channel of communication between us is disconnected, and the mic is unexpectedly still picking their voices. You can't afford but laugh your head out at such a pathetic situation a "modern" Muslim conservative such as me was thrown in.....sigh...:(

More to be discussed later,

Until then, take care. :) 

This is the very first blog I ever had in my entire cypernetic life. I hope you'll enjoy my posts as much as I'll enjoy your kind visits!!!

With love and respect,

Alawi :)