Day 110: Life in Slow Motion

Day 110: July 14, 2020
Global Cases: 13, 448, 499; Deaths: 580, 349
Egypt Cases:  83, 930; Deaths: 4, 008

Salma Ahmed
Integrated Marketing Communications and Graphic Design Senior

Most days since the quarantine started have been exceptionally long and empty. The day that required the most action was when I decided to go grocery shopping. With gloves already in hand and a mask covering 90 percent of my face, I accomplished my goal without any complications. However today was different to some extent.

The ticking noise of my alarm fully blasted through my phone as I woke up tired due to my inability to sleep early. Even with two summer courses, I still happen to sleep as late as 7 am. I woke up at 1pm feeling dazed. The realization of summer finals suddenly attacked my drowsy self as I quickly opened my laptop to attend class.

With class over, I got ready to go run some errands, which mainly consisted of getting food. The blasting sounds of cars honking surely woke me up and I quickly realized the problem I was in.

I was driving during rush hour. Driving at this time is no longer about taking more time on the road, but rather about the cars that just happen to close in on you, cut in front of you, and stop out of nowhere. With my patience gone, I finally arrived at the McDonald’s drive-through just to find it closed.

To say that I felt hopeless and restless is rather exceptional in my case. I, however, did not give up and somehow made it to another drive-through safely. Although I was satisfied after getting my food, the drive back home brought me back to reality where cars are still honking at me for slowing down for a speed bump. With cars everywhere, people running on main roads, my radio blasting some old song for Akon, I couldn’t help but feel very irritated and angry. This is why the moment I arrived back home, I let out a heavy sigh and said “Finally!”.

With my mind focused on the food in front of me, I tuned in to a Netflix series and watched it as I ate my way through my meal. Finally satisfied, I got ready yet again to do anything else. Minutes later and my friend was already in front of my house waiting for me to come out. With a mask on my face and a hand sanitizer in my handbag, I got into her car and we made our way to Starbucks drive-through.

The ride this time was exceptionally smooth as it was no longer rush hour. With mixed music blasting from the car’s speakers we sang our hearts out to whatever song it was. We played everything from old Nick Jonas music to Hamo Bika. Every time I remember the scene, I cannot help but remember it in slow motion as I slowly flip my hair and play an air guitar. I somehow wanted time to stop or even slow down just so that I can enjoy this moment a bit more.

With our Starbucks drinks finally, in hand, we made our way to this outside coffee car, where we opened the car’s trunk and sat in it. With nothing else to do, we talked and talked until we no longer felt comfortable as unwanted gazes began to make our skins crawl.

For The Caravan‘s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.

Finally, home after a long day, I sat down on my bed and started organizing old photographs I found laying around in my closet. I could not help but stare at every picture for a few seconds just reminiscing how life used to be like. I however could not stop staring at this one particularly old photograph, where I was sitting in-between my brother and my cousin. My dad took it as he told us to wave at the camera. My only thought was ‘how little things like this used to make us this happy’.

Definitely one for the memories.