Struggle as I might, my posts have fallen into a bi-weekly rhythm. The good thing is that I get more time to sleep at night. The bad thing is that I forget some great little stories. Luckily, (and with thanks to Munir and Adaeze) I bought a digital camera, and have a great memory-aid.
I delivered the final exams to my students, desperately tried to prevent them from cheating, and finally had a little party with each class on Thursday. The kids out here cheat SO MUCH! It's actually ridiculous. I was having to firmly remind students not to leave their sheets hanging off the ends of their tables - and every time I went to answer a questions, I got the sneaking suspicion they were strategic questions, posed to give their friends a chance to cheat. Either way, even if they cheated, it did them no good - as many of my students failed their exams (oddly [or not], the classes with the least cheating got the highest scores). I had a great time partying it up with the students, some of them even got me gifts (a Parker pen, and a silk wallet!). I later realized the gifts were likely bribes, as the students who delivered the gifts were definitely failing. :)
Oh, oh! I had a student FAINT during a final. She was seated right in front of my desk, near the front of the class. She had come in to the exam a little bit late, and was out of breath and fanning herself for a few minutes. She looked a little pale, and I thought nothing of it, but then she looked at me and said "teacher, I'm feeling dizzy". "Great" I thought, "at least she's got the grammar right on reporting medical conditions"...not realizing how serious she was, I opened a bottle of water that I had sitting on my desk (awaiting sunset), and offered her a drink. Just as I did, she dramatically collapsed out of her desk, arms flailing about, knocking the bottle from my grip, and generally causing a scene. The class quickly came to her aid, and we soon had her laid flat on the ground, with her head supported. Someone busted a strong perfume out of nowhere, and with its aid, she eventually came to. The chaos in the class allowed a few entrepreneurial spirits to take a gander at some of the abandoned final exams of their classmates, but most students were focused on their fallen comrade. Security was called, and manged to get her down to the office. I had to quickly reestablish order in the classroom to prevent further cheating, so I firmly maneuvered the kids back into their seats. Our victim was taken to a hospital to ensure that she didn't have a concussion, and thankfully, all is well.
Friday was filled up with school work, finalizing the marks and such. Marking went much faster this time - I felt an increased sense of efficiency and achievement. Unfortunately, I am still not finished with the administrative work (even though my contract is done, and I will receive no more pay!). Thus, in my updated C.V., I will likely list myself as having volunteered for AII as well.
Tonight was fun! The school booked out a little restaurant/cafe called "Gasolina". They served us all the food and drink that we could want, and gave us a good chance to get to know each other. Many people invited their families and significant others, but I brought along my p-units. They had a great time, meeting the president of the school, mingling with the teachers, and eating some free foods.
I ended up having the ever-famous "why don't you drink?" conversation with many of the staff...only to happen upon this: one of the teachers was like "oh yeah, I used to have a friend in uni that didn't drink as well - he was a cool guy...he was Persian though, not Egyptian." I thought to myself "well, there are a lot of Persian Baha'is in Australia." so I asked him "Was he a Baha'i" He goes "Yeah! That's the one - that's it! How did you know?" Lucky guess I guess :P
A handful of us continued the festivities at a place called Fly Lounge. It was pretty fly. They have a pool encased in plastic/glass that sits right beside the dance-floor. This way, some of the swimmers can see some of the dancers, and vice-versa. Interesting/funky idea. It was a strange club experience for a few reasons, but mostly because some families brought their kids along. I danced with some of my Nigerian brothers, and later walked home. good times.
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