Egypt is beautiful. Ricardo exhales as he walks by so many impressive sights daily, including the drive past the Nile River just to get to the school he's teaching out of every day. Even after a few days of it, he still finds himself staring out at it. It's impressively beautiful, both in appearance and by its historical relevance. He hums and closes his eyes, trying to imprint the visual to memory, because soon he will be back on the road, flying out to Spain, then finally, home. It'll only have been a couple of months, but still. It feels like forever since he's last talked to Alicia or Sofia, or looked at his son.
Andre is at that age where he grows every time you look away, and it aches somewhere deep inside of Ricardo to miss any potential milestones. But it is what it is, and he feels blessed that Alicia has been so supportive and accepting. I hope they're taking lots of pictures, he thinks with a wan smile.
But there's no time, really, to miss home- not much, anyway. His training plan is picking up, the wrestlers slowly getting ahold of what he's teaching them, and he's eager to move on to the next set of lessons he's planning on. It's also a busy weekend for wrestling, between CM Punk's official return after seven long years, and Summerslam taking up Saturday night. Still, his students do quite well, despite all of the distractions. Ricardo is very proud of them when he notices they're past time to wrap things up, and he stands at the door, catching each person's eye and thanking them quietly, smiling at each of them as they walk by, most responding. A couple seem trapped in their own heads, perhaps mulling over slight imperfections in their training. He makes a note to talk to them both later, relieved when that's over and he can begin to help the others disinfect the main areas used today.
It's a long, arduous process, and he's relieved later to go slump down on his bed in the rooms he was given when he arrived here, tempted to drop back and stretch out but knowing he'll fall asleep as soon as he does. Sleep, he tsks at himself. Who needs it when everything's about to change?
And he's not wrong. By Monday morning, the wrestling world is deeply changed, and he's enjoying every second of it.