Day 129: Preparing for the Fall

Day 129: August 2, 2020
Global Cases: 18, 227, 368; Deaths: 692, 430
Egypt Cases: 94, 483; Deaths: 4, 865

Sophie Farag
Intensive Academic English Program
Department of English Language Instruction

I woke up at 7am, which felt too early as I had gone to bed late last night.  I got up and decided to sit outside for a while. I have a small area outside my kitchen door that leads down to the garden, and I sometimes like to sit there in the morning before the sun gets too strong. It already felt hot and I knew it was going to be a scorching day.

After a while, I went back to bed hoping to drop off again.  After some time spent tossing and turning, I got up and started the day with a big mug of freshly brewed coffee.  As the caffeine started to kick in, I felt more able to face the day.

I spent the morning preparing my courses for online instruction in the fall. This has been worrying me for a while, and I was keen to make some progress.  It is a task which I find challenging as I wonder what my students will be like, what skills they will have, and what will interest them.

How will I manage to make their first encounter at AUC a positive one? How will I build a sense of community and help them create memories that they will look back on fondly in spite of the online constraints?  

After lunch, when my children were finally up, I directed my attention to my family.  During the pandemic, family time has increased dramatically, and this has made the bonds between us much stronger.  I treasure the times spent with my children when we can neglect the pressures imposed on us by the current situation.  They have experimented with cooking and have revisited their hobbies of playing music, and we have had much more time for discussion.

I tidied up a bit before my daughter’s friend came over. After being completely isolated for months, we are at last having one friend over at a time.  They sat social distancing across the room on separate couches! 

Later, they went out with a third friend, which was a first. We have been very cautious and have had very few outings, and very limited contact with other people.  We are slowly loosening up our restrictions to try to restore some degree of normality into our daily routine. 

After a failed attempt at an afternoon nap, I decided to attend an online workshop about tips for engaging synchronous activities which I hoped would ease my anxieties about teaching online in the fall.  I picked up a few ideas, and I felt more confident that I would be able to get my students involved and interested in my class.

As I do every evening, I went across the hall to my parents’ flat for dinner and a chat.  This is another aspect of family time which I have enjoyed during the closure.  My father sliced a watermelon which we always look forward to.  My mother looked up things on her iPad and read them out to us for our entertainment.  

Later in the evening, I called my husband, who isn’t here at the moment, and we had our daily chat and shared our versions of our day. We always try to find something to laugh about in the midst of all the day-to-day events and controversy we are surrounded with.  

At midnight, as I was beginning to wind down, my son appeared, full of energy, ready for a chat. His sleeping habits are completely mixed up, and he doesn’t emerge until 2pm, so at midnight he was preparing for the start of his evening!

I finally got to watch an episode of Would I Lie to You, a British comedy game show which I find very relaxing. Although I’ve seen all the episodes before, I still laugh at all the jokes and feel that this is the perfect end to the day.

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