Is There School Tommorow?

So here I am, sitting on the computer, peeling an orange and writing a blog post. But at the same time, I am thinking what will happen tommorow.

You see, the past two days have been a nightmare in terms of whether there is school and when the buses actually come to pick the students up. In short, it's a mess. Moreover, on snowy days few students show up. If the number of students goes below half, then the school declares the day off.

Now, as nice as this sounds, its rather fustrating for the student that has to decide whether to go the following day.

You see, if he went to school and found out he was the only one there, and was stuck there for another six hours, he'd do more than pull his hair.

Then again, its not as easy as it seems when you're choosing whether to go to school, or not to.

"To go to school, or to not go to school. That is the question."

Anyway, before we were interupted by these strange quotes, we were discussing what problems we face when choosing to go to school. The reasons for bunking a day of school are endless, like for example the weather, or an open day.

This time, its the "snow". And I put the quotes around the snow, because there is no snow. Its all gone and there is no reason to fear for your life and not go to school. All thats lurking in the streets are the piles of snow, that were left by the dumb bulldozers who have never heard of grit salt.

But, on the other hand, I have my mum who is forcing me to go to school tommorow, because she doesn't want me to stay in the house and make my eyes worse even more on the computer. Add to that the fact that I have stayed at home for the two previous days.

So, tommorow I'm going to board the empty bus and off I go to the empty school. Hey, maybe I'll find my friend and I'll go and play at his nearby house on his new Xbox 360 Elite. And, maybe not.

Wish me luck.

Glasses. Khaled. Together?

Yes, I got a pair of glasses today. I had always thought it was very extra ordinary that my eyes had survived all these years, watching endless hours of television and computer screens.

Until a few weeks ago, back in school. I felt bored, as always, so I decided to try on a pair of glasses from my friend Hussain, who was mentioned in an earlier post concerning school. It was as if magic had worked for the first time.

Everything in front of me was much clearer, like when a photo which was blurred had just sharpened. The minute handwriting of the teacher, which was before unclear because of how bad the pen was, was now readable again.

I kept my mouth shut for the following weeks, afraid I would be doomed to wear glasses forever. Until one day, when the family was brought up the topic of blind people and such at the table, I decided to tell them my story.

The next day my mum told me that she would have to take me to get my eyes checked at Istiklal Mall. Angry at the thought, I refused at first, but then I kept negotiating till we agreed I would go in return of some Cadbury Drinking Chocolate.

Got checked by this wierd man at a shop called Grand Optics, wore the extra thick testing glasses, started guessing which lens was better, something called 'with or without or just-the-same'. The result found that I needed glasses to see smaller things that were far away.

However this wasn't it, because he added that my eyesight would worsen in the future, and I would need the glasses to see/drive/read, etc. He added though, luckily, that I would only need to wear them when I was on the computer, watching television, or in the class.

So here I am now, squinting in these new glasses, looking at a clearer screen and typing my blog post. Thank god its the holidays and I don't need to wear these in front of the class. Then again, that time is coming. For now, I will wear them and see what will happen.

* * *

On a much more important note, tommorow at seven in the morning, I will be setting off to Nablus, a town in Palestine (West Bank) for three weeks. From there I will still be blogging from my uncles computer which luckily has internet access, and will blog also about relatives as well as the current situation in there. Expect lots of photos of the place, that might bring back some old memories (I might even go visit the 'Old Downtown' or the 'Balad al-Adeemeh').

Wish me luck.