but I’m not letting myself sleep right now.
I only got about an hour of sleep last night and any sleep whilst travelling was not only minimal but also extremely disturbed. I’m just terrible at sleeping whilst I’m moving.
Anyway, the reason why I’m not letting myself sleep for the next 51 minutes is because if I sleep now I won’t to able to wake up for fajr and I can’t miss fajr.
These next 51 minutes are going to be so long.
I saw… Buckingham Palace, Westminster Palace, the London Eye, Trafalgar Sq, Piccadilly Circus, Hyde Park, St. James’ Park, Green Park, and so many other cool places.
I love it the most.
and on my way to London to spend the day with an awesome person (hopefully two awesome people).
I haven’t really been on tumblr in a week. It wasn’t the most productive week ever but I’m happy with some of the things that have happened.
Keep tuned for more amazing updates in the life of Waq…
I can’t wait to see awesome people. It’s been too long.
but then I realised that I’m going to be in Rome instead.
I can’t wait.
Rome.
My favourite city in the world. I love it!
bint-alsrh asked: Salaam friend :) this is (smc27lv). I deleted my tumblr and then decided I wanted it back <---Stupid. Are you counting down the days? I wanted to bother you about your classes. Are they integrated skills classes or do they have a focus?
W/salaam! I’m really glad you’re back. You know, deleting my tumblr would be one of the most thought through things I would EVER do. I would have to make sure I was certain I wanted it gone (I don’t think I’ll ever be certain).
3 weeks and 8 hours before I land in London, in sha Allah. I’ll be home about 14-16 hours after that.
Currently I’m teaching speaking and listening but that has grammar and vocab thrown in. Last semester I thought a couple of integrated skills classes. Last year I was actually teaching English for academic purposes - for medicine. That was really fascinating. We get a mix. It’s kind of the luck of the draw. I work for the largest TEFL programme in the world - we have 10,000 students (ten thousand!) so there’s always something going on if you want to focus on one area.
I sent a short, but straight to the point, email to my boss and all the admin staff at my employers and started telling everyone that I was leaving. I told fellow teachers and my students that I’ll be gone in under five weeks. I told them all that my days in Saudi are literally numbered.
Thirty one of them to be precise.
I’m going to be on a jet plane landing in London before I know it. I’m going to walk off that plane at Heathrow and walk in to the terminal like a man who has finally seen freedom after years of incarceration. I had a huge smile on my face today. A real one. An honest one.
Later, I was coming home from work and I suddenly felt melancholy. Everything felt bitter-sweet. I realised that this part of my life is over and that I have a plan about what to do when I go back home but it hasn’t really all sunk in yet. Maybe I’m not totally ready to end this chapter of my life. I know there are so many parts of it that will seep in to the next phase of my life. It’s inevitable. I’ve been changed irrevocably. I’ve been changed forever and everyone has noticed it.
I imagined today for so many months now. I imagined what it would be like to give in my notice and it kind of lived up to that but there was a hollowness to it too. There is with everything nowadays. I feel like I want to share it all but I can’t and that just makes it ——-.
and the things that will need to be done when I get back. I’m thinking about the route my life will take. I’m thinking about my family. I’m thinking about my friends. I’m thinking about the person I need to be when I step off the plane.
When I stepped off the plane and landed in Saudi Arabia I made a few promises to myself and, alhamdulilah, I kept them.
I have promises in my mind right now that I want to make to myself when I walk in to the Heathrow terminal on that cold Thursday morning on March first. I want to promise myself that I’m going to be a certain version of myself, the best version of myself, from that day on.
I’ll have an idea what path it is that I’ll be walking when I step off that plane this time tomorrow. I’ll have an idea of what the future holds in store for me.
I’m regaining my optimism. I’m regaining my hope. I feel like my life has direction for the first time in month - maybe the first time ever.
It’s liberating.
It’s ironic that starting to walk a path that will bind me to it for the rest of my life is incredibly liberating.
You know there’s something wrong when London is warmer than Riyadh.
There’s the most beautiful thunder storm going on right now. It woke me up and I stood and watched the rain for about 20 minutes (it’s the first time I’ve seen real rain in months). It’s a shame I can’t do capturing it justice with my camera.
Time for Fajr and sleep.
So I watched this movie today called Mr. Nobody and it was a bit of a mind-bender. It stars Jared Leto as a guy who is slightly confused about his life and the path it has taken for him to get to where he is at the end/beginning of the film. The film itself wasn’t all that great but it struck a chord with me in one really big way… it got me thinking about the path a person’s life takes and how you end up where you end up. It’s something I’ve thought about way too much and I’d love to share my thoughts with you. (minor spoilers ahead)
I miss London. I lived there for a year but it’s a place where some of the people who mean the most to me in this world live and it’s been in my thoughts a lot these last couple of days. For those of you who don’t know (have you been living under a rock?) there have been riots ongoing for the last few days in the English capital and the city has been burning. People have died, millions of pounds of damage has been caused, and law and order have vanished. Chaos reigns.
Even the animals are getting in on the looting in London.
WHEN WILL THE MADNESS STOP!!!
(stolen from facebook - source unknown)
P.S. Click through here if it doesn’t work on your dash!
