Thinking about thinking

Thinking too much. This morning F told me that quarantine has been forcing him into thinking too much. About who he is and his life and stuff. I just thought: that’s just a regular day for me. I’ve always thought too much. In fact, my brain is wired in such a way that I can […]

Life in quarantine (day 2)

I am an island, surrounded by fiction. I’m home alone, as my parents and grandmother are old and we’re fortunate enough to have more than one place we can hole up in. And truth be told, we’ve always been loners. We’ve always been a family of people stuck in their own heads. We love each […]

Fiction Heaven (new and hopefully improved)

This is what I think: perhaps there is no Heaven nor Hell. Perhaps when we die, we go to Fiction. Let’s face it: the concept of Heaven sounds much more appealing in theory than it would ever be in reality. It’s like you’ve made this huge effort to be admitted into this exclusive club, only […]

All quiet on the western front

I can’t stop thinking about F. I haven’t contacted him ever since my birthday, but it’s a constant struggle. Every second of every day I feel this impulse, this force that is trying to escape my every cell through my fingertips straight into a text message. I’ve been strong so far, but god knows how […]

HP: a character sketch

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this exercise. I don’t deserve to study here.” HP wrote this instead of a composition on his test last week. And what really kills me is that he believes it, believes himself unworthy of the opportunity he’s been given. And when I offered to sit down and go over the […]

why I have no life outside work

Love. It’s very easy for me to love. I love many people, in many different capacities: as friends, as family members, as (potential) romantic partners. And whenever I love someone, I do so fiercely, eagerly, enthusiastically. I love people the same way I do most things in life: wholeheartedly and never holding back. I fall […]

The cemetery of lost love

Where does love go when it dies? To the cemetery of lost love, of course. To that corner of ourselves where we bury ex boyfriends who broke our hearts, potential soulmates who never really saw such potential, friends who really loved us but just as friends. I am there right now, digging – tooth and […]

On popularity

My teaching “niche”, so to speak, are fourteen to twenty six year-olds. It doesn’t matter if they are poor or rich, fast or slow, boys or girls, gay or straight, popular or nerdy, good at English or struggling with the language: it’s very rare to find a person from this particular age group with whom […]

Teaching tall tails

Anyone has the potential to learn anything. If a student isn’t learning, it’s because the teacher hasn’t found the right way to teach them. If you are a language teacher, chances are that you’ve heard and read this before. Probably many times. We’re led to believe that everyone will eventually learn a language if we […]

A lengthy history of time

I’m just going to say it: Einstein was out of his mind when he said time is relative. There, I said it. Seventy years of scientific advances just went down the drain because I’ve made a groundbreaking discovery: time is not relative, it is inexorable and inescapable. It doesn’t matter that I don’t look 39. […]