the secret to life

Yesterday I decided that the secret to life is not smoking.

For the past several years, I’ve invariably been happier on trips to Europe than while living in Egypt. This made me wonder if Egypt’s charm was finally starting to run out.

But now I think the reason is quite simple. Since I find cigarettes boring and disgusting, I’m never smoking in Europe. But in Egypt, I’m generally spending way too much time with shisha at some local café.

Lately I’ve made a genuine effort not to set foot in those places, and now I’m just as happy as whenever in Europe. In fact, the only time in the past five years that I disliked Europe was during a lengthy Paris stay in August 2006, which happened to be the one trip on which I was hanging out regularly at those two shisha places near the Place de la Contrescarpe, not far from the rue Mouffetard (both have since closed, meaning that I’d have to go out to more far-flung neighborhoods in Paris if I wanted to smoke, and that extra trouble always dissuades me).

I’m not really sure what cigarettes are like, since I’ve smoked maybe 10 in my entire life, mostly when acquaintances have jokingly forced them into my mouth at parties. But the shisha has a powerful mood-altering effect, and I think it’s simply not a good influence on the soul.