on the verge of extinction... again

[I know the layout looks like crap because I was toying with an idea and then I just left it in the air... and for now, I don't feel like making any other changes (but thanks for stirring up my mind). Plus, this one post that I really do write just for myself.]

This blog started out as an exercise. For me, so I wouldn't forget my own language, given that I hardly spoke Romanian with anyone during that time. People at uni understood English, so I really didn't bother with translating my thoughts into Romanian. But this one post should be written in English.

I started uni in 2002, so this year was supposed to be the 10-year anniversary. Whatever that involves, I don't really know, in my mind it was all about seeing people I haven't seen in a long time.

Some of the people I imagined I'd see again this year... well, I won't. Because they're not around anymore.

My former History teacher died this last Sunday. Somebody saw the news about the funeral on TV and asked me if I knew him. I couldn't believe it, so I went to check the website. And there it was, the announcement on the first page - unfortunately, it was true.

And then I don't know what possessed me because I clicked the "In Memoriam" tab. And I saw even more familiar names there. The Maths teacher is also dead, although I cannot say that came as a shock. He was very old, a heavy drinker and a heavy smoker and his health was already in a pretty bad state even before we finished.

But the real shock was to see the name of one of the English teachers on that list.

Oh... crap, no...

She was one of the people I was really attached to, one of the people I was most looking forward to see again. And also, one of the last people I saw before uni started. I remember visiting her then, I even remember what I was wearing when I went to her house that day - it was the blue sweater and my green jeans.

I still remember her voice. There are just two people whose voices ring clear in my mind. And the other one got in my underwear...

I still remember the first class with her - that's when I discovered Edgar Allan Poe. She came with that cassette player and hit the button and... The Cask of Amontillado (audio - text) started. Then there was the The Tell-Tale Heart (audio - text), The Black Cat (audio - text), The Masque of the Red Death (audio - text), The Fall of the House of Usher (text).

Because bits and pieces of this song were just popping up in my mind a bit earlier.

Comments are off. They're my memories.