cheers to life

1 sept 2010

hilra & kalina at the highfield campus. photographer: Clarissa

I met with hilra and her troupe this afternoon on the highfield campus. What a great surprise to see the little ones all with lovely cards written to me saying they love me and missed me. I hugged them as we met. It is always a funny moment because they know I want a big cuddle. Hilra had bought the cards to give away to friends and they asked to write one for me, nominating me the first chosen one. I got two lovely cards and a cute book marker with nice words from hilra, leonard and clarissa and also a prayer. So so so sweet and heart warming!!!

It was fantastic to spend this time together. Because we were at first at the workstation at Hartley library we all had to whisper our words not to bother people. The kids behaved nicely. I think that when they saw me using a computer at the workstation they thought I had something there that was my own. Clarissa asked: ‘have you got a house?’ sooo cute. she knows I do, she’s been here to my place a number of times. I told her I do and that that place was where I went to study.

I had put the cards in my backpack to read them later on because I wanted to keep our presence there as quiet as possible. but Leo whispered determined: ‘when are you going to open the card?’ I whispered back ‘now’ and opened them to read. It was so much fun, Leo crouched down the chair to hide his shy face. He knew I was going to grab him for a big hug and a thank you kiss. We all laughed, I mean, quietly laughed. Then I got Clarissa’s card to read and she did the same crouching down the chair. One thing that was lovely was that the students around didn’t make any unhappy face with the presence of the kids in the room. They’re good fellas!!!

Hilra was finished with the printing thing and we were headed to enjoy the beautiful day at the gorgeous park we have at uni, where we stayed until nearly 5pm. Oh my was it good! The kids were joyfully running around and making friends with a girl their age. Oh and mr spider man paid a visit. Hilra and I talked non-stop – what a surprise! – and yes, it was refreshing and a perfect break even from big stressful deadlines I had for the day. We always simply talk, I feel so safe and tranquil to think hilra is around. It really gives me a sense of security. Amem!

After the great time at the park they left and I went back to Hartley library where I stayed until it was about to close, which is 9pm during the summer. at the library i did some more of my work which was due today. i am pleased i at least managed to complete a task and send it on the deadline, although i think i messed the application process. i am now also left with an important reflection about my slow and threating last minute approach to things that seems to want to become a pattern in my life. oh no!!! On my way to the bus stop I passed by Ros, who was I think walking home from avenue campus. ‘Hello kalina’ ‘hello ros’ and I rushed to the U1C bus that was coming. I ran not to miss it and when I got into it asked the driver if he had seen me run and if he would leave me there waiting for the next – 20 minutes later – bus. He said he did and that he would not leave me behind. I gave him a thankful smile and the trip home was safe and pleasant. from the middle of the bus i thanked nice bus driver before leaving bus. He responded back ‘cheers’.

the moves of the day

27 Oct 2009

at Lattes Cafe Bar with Hilra and Highfield Campus in Autumn 2009

Today i came to Highfield campus to teach an Academic English class on Management building. After that i came by Hilra's building (Education) to do something with her about my blog. We went up in this super secure lift which only the cool people can ride, such as Hilra and whoever is lucky enough to follow her, like myself today, as you need an ID to make the machine work.

Then we went for our agreed upon nice coffee at Lattes Cafe Bar, the staff club. We had our calories for the whole week (I had a chocolate muffin with coffee and Hilra had this unbelievably caloric fruit cake with coffee) in one single sit and talked about life. . . It is usually inspiring to talk with Hilra, and the conversation always goes on and on and on and on from one topic to the other in a very interesting flow that does not require clear cohesive devices to be coherent. What makes the whole bit coherent is our understanding and the freedom to speak up freely, which we certainly do.

It is amazing how we can find pleasure out of dealing with pain to an extent. It is really a puzzle to me sometimes that we choose to be around the ones with whom we can exactly talk about what worries us rather than just spending time with people to laugh only. . . My meetings with Hilra have been opportunities to explore thoughts, experiences, (im)possibilities and whatever the topic of the day is. Sometimes our conversation is so seriously around concrete worries, not only about ourselves, but also about others who relate to us, and it is so nice, so nice. And we say bye bye with the feeling that we still have this something else to say about whatever. hehehe

Well, today I had to bear with a new feature my friend Hilra is starting to display, which is a sort of neologism, well, not exactly neologism, but more like 'hibridism' in the sense that she, after having been living here for more than five years now does sometimes mix Portuguese with English. We clearly speak only one language at a time, which may in the end be another sort of symptom :-) but the point is we two try to keep being the naturally good Portuguese speakers that we are. My friend, however, is now with this little problem, so funny! She said she feels the need to buy two dictionaries to help her out on this issue, both of them starting with the letter O: Oxford dictionary (for English, of course) and Orélio dictionary (for Portuguese support, obviously).

Anyway, the main point of this post is to emphasize my rationale that no matter how busy you are, if you want to, you can manage to find a moment to spend with a friend and help and be helped in all ways. This Tuesday has been (it's 5.55pm now) a very busy day for me. Still, we had agreed to meet for a coffee today and the new things I had to add to my day to do as well, which represented round trips from highfield to avenue throughout the day, were not important enough for me to cancel our meeting. I am happy because these breaks during the day are so invigorating and should be part of life. It is like being responsible in a more harmonic way.

I feel so tired right now because I came to Highfield to teach 9 - 10:45 in the morning, spoke with Hilra from 11am to 1pm, walked back to avenue campus, grabbed a slice of pizza to eat, taught an EAS class 2 - 3.30pm, met with Chris Sinclair, walked back to highfield for an appointment here at 4.30. I am now free and waiting until the buses are not too packed with people. I need to buy fruits, but am not in the mood to go to supermarkets and queue up and carry heavy bags home.

I have to write an email to this one person to talk about something really bad that is going on now and is having an undesired implication on my personal life. I should stop torturing myself and just go ahead and write the email. duh!!!

Kalina Morena

bus stop at the Avenue, and Highfield Campus in colourful  Autumn 2009