June 15th: an early bout of Junior 2-itis from Harry/Monkey class

Day 272

The day went well until the last class: the Harry/Monkey class. They are one of my favorites. I told them before class began that I was not fine and that my stomach did not feel good. This bought me 0.00 leniency. I had to tell them repeatedly to stop talking. Finally, I made the threat to make the entire class stand if talking continued. They talked, and so they stood.

This did not curb the chatter one iota. I made the threat that if they talked again, we would not have the party next week. They still talked. I seethed as I listened to the last row of students describing their fathers, burning inside at their total disregard for respect or compassion. I am paid to practice oral English, not to bark for silence. What really tore me up is that this was a good class, with some of my favorite students. Did someone swap crack rocks for the sugar cubes at coffee time?

The lesson finished, I had them sit. I told them curtly, "I told you if you talked, there would be no party. You talked so there is no party next week." I promptly left to stunned silence, or perhaps it was a group dumbfoundedness ("What did he say?"). Whichever, I was pissed. I expected it from the apathy crew, but Harry, Monkey and Emnite used to eat dinner with me. I guess they started on their junior 2-itis a little early.

I nibbled a little dinner in the dining hall and Steven sat with me, asked me about going back to America and such. "Er, David" he began, "I have not seen you in er long time."

"Yeah, I eat dinner other places."

"Yer, the food is not very delicious."

"Well, they serve the same things a lot," I said between bites of cucumber, "but also students would eat with me. Then they stopped and I was eating alone."

"Maybe they're shy because they only have a few phrases to say."

I shrugged, invited him to the party next week. He said he had exams to work on, but he'd try to make it. I also invited him to visit me in America and he thought "maybe I cannot go there, would be very difficult."

Went up to the middle school and joined the crew for tentness, although Mike was absent yet again. He's going to be gone soon and I wonder if he is withdrawing early so it won't be as hard to leave. We still have to rock one last huzzah before he takes off, but then he'll be coming out to visit me in Moab and to ride the Slickrock trail, show his some desert hospitality.

Erin joined us for a little bit, but rode home to take care of teaching whatnot. Rhys, Jeni, Heather and I watched "Empire Records" and killed mosquitos. Discovered towards the end of the slaughter that the door was open a crack. No one's fault but the engineer of the door. Like sticking your finger in the dike while leaving the tap running.

We lit a mosquito coil, passed into unconsciousness. I dreamt of hanging out with Sean at a really badass apartment and it was so realistic that waking up in China was even more disorienting than usual.