About fifteen years later, I still remember the "crazy Mondays" of my academic year 1995/1996 at the University of Tunis. I used to spend the weekends always with my family in Sousse, a city 150 kilometres far from Tunis.
Every Monday I had to wake up at 5:30 am. I would first walk to the hammam (Turkish bath) of Corniche, about 10 minutes away from home, to clean my body and soap my pysche. The 60 minutes I used to spend at the hammam would give me enough energy to face the challenges of the day. Back home, I would take a fast breakfast, pack my rucksack and run to the train station. I used to take the train of 7:10 am. Two hours later, as soon as I arrived to Tunis, I took the tramway to my College at Khadra City. I had to hurry up, because my first course would start at 9:00 am. Monday was the busiest day of the week at the University. There wer four different courses between 9:00 am and 4:30pm.
After leaving the College, I had to take the tramway again to the Cervantes Cultural Centre of Tunis, where I had been learning Spanish for two years. The course would start at 5:00 pm and finish at 18:15 pm. As soon as the lesson finished, I had to run again. Indeed I was taking evening courses at the Italian Cultural Centre. At the end of the lesson at 8:00 pm, I had no time to waste. My night shift was waiting for me. I used to work three days a week, from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am, at the Postal Sorting Centre, near the Tunis Carthage airport.
Why was I putting so much strain on my body and psyche ? I just wanted to know my limits.
