Generation Gap

So I am spending my last summer here in Buffalo. I don't go to campus every day anymore; I only do so when I have stuff I need to take care of. And during the past few days, I have been bumping into Orientation programs for the incoming freshmen for Fall 2012. And wow, I should say, they're really fresh.

Parenting and College

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a concerned parent telling me that her daughter was failing a class in a university, and so she was wondering whether she could hire me as a tutor so that her daughter can pass the exams.

No Spoons

So classes start next week. I already emailed my students a full week before saying that the syllabus is already available online, and that there's assigned readings for every week, including Week 1. I also emailed them about information on the textbook, and other required readings for the class.

Now here's the interesting part. I guess I have quite a few students who are freshmen. This is the first time they are actually stepping into college. And with that, there are quite a few people whose mindset is still in high school.

What do I mean by this? Well, there's spoon feeding. Hand holding. High school does that. In college, however, that isn't done. And people need to realize that in college, things change. People are treated as adults now, and not kids. People have responsibilities, and they need to be told that.

Now what exactly do I have in mind when I say this?

So I got a few emails responding to my mass email. One asked me whether one needs to get a textbook by the first day of classes or can one just borrow the library copy for the first week, and the reason this is asked is because this student is currently out of town and won't be back until a day before the semester starts. Another student asked how much was the textbook, and whether the university bookstore sells it. A third student asked whether they are required to buy the other readings somewhere.

So, I did respond to these queries politely. I didn't let them see how annoyed I was. That's the privilege of people here reading my blog, perhaps.

So, traveling? I don't care. I am all for self-determination. If you feel comfortable showing up in Buffalo a day before classes start, I don't care. It's not my business, so if that delays your procurement of a textbook, you'll have to deal with the consequences. Don't make it sound like you're guilt-tripping me by requiring a chapter of the textbook to be read by the first week. If you haven't read it by Monday, fine, read it by Wednesday. I don't keep tabs on such minute details. And students should know better by now that these minute details are petty and really, insignificant. Just catch up later, you know?

Now, the textbook price. Why would I know that? I am given a free desk copy by the publisher. There's many ways of finding that out. Barnes and Noble has a website, and so does Amazon. Pick your favorite bookstore. Even the university bookstore has a website and tells you how much the book is. I mean, I can find out the answer, but so can you. Whatever happened to plain old curiosity? Are people really so used to information being handed to them for free, without any exertion of effort? I get the feeling that this is all the result of today's media, that things are so boomed into our heads that we just declined using our inquisitiveness. If that is the case, then that is sad.

Third point, is that people don't read. I mentioned in my syllabus that the only textbook that I require them to get a personal copy of is the one book I listed there. The rest of the readings are available online as PDF copies. And they have easy and free access to that. Read the fine print people. I already mentioned that not only in the syllabus but also in the email that I sent to them. What else do they want?

Oh well, sometimes I get the feeling that people are just passive individuals waiting for stimuli to get inside their brains. Hopefully this is not the case.

Oh, in a different and positive note, I am starting a new photo series here. This is the start of my photos taken in Pisac, where I hiked a mountain all the way to the top, with a local guide who always called me by the name "Robert" which was bizarre, since I told him my name, and yet perhaps he decided that it was hard to pronounce and then just substituted Robert for it.



(That's the Goal, from my Pisac Series)

They're Back

The other day, I was on my street walking, and I saw a group of youngsters. By youngsters, I mean those group of teenage folk, who obviously look like they're freshmen and are entering the university for the first time. I find it hard to explain, but it is very much obvious, those happy-go-lucky faces, fresh from their hometown, and so eager and excited to try new things and experience stuff away from the watching eyes of their parents.

I mean, just who walks the street with their voices so loud and wearing colorful leis, while clutching a cup, possibly containing some alcoholic drink?

Come to think of it, the incoming freshmen were born in 1992. Yep, the Class of 2014 is a full ten years older than me. That is quite significant. So, what do these people know and not know?

Well, chances are these people are born after the email age. Email has just been the norm for all of them. I on the other hand only created my very first email account in 1998. I was 16 back then, so these freshmen were 6. By the time they are computer literate, email would be very much available to them.

All of them have been born after the Berlin Wall fell. I on the other hand still remember seeing it on the newspaper in 1989. Czechoslovakia has never existed for these people, and so did the Soviet Union.

These people know Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, but only by virtue of the classical oldies station.

Chances are, these people have never used a floppy disk. I on the other hand remember using a 5-1/4 floppy in 1994. Now, there are computers who don't even have a CD drive. Everything is via USB drives nowadays.

If you mention Fergie, they would think of the pop singer, not the duchess. Few of them would know how to write in cursive. I on the other hand remember being drilled over and over on how to connect my letters in school. We had specialized writing pads for these exercises.

Beethoven has always been a dog for them, and Michelangelo was a virus.

Oh well, these are just some signs that I am getting old. Another motivation to graduate and stop being on this side of the podium. Well, given the fact that I am teaching starting next week, it's informative to know these facts, so that I won't feel so detached with these kids. At least I have an idea what's in their heads. Although I have to admit, it's just chicken scratch.

For a full list, check out the Beloit College Mindset List.



(Inca Courtyard, from my Qorikancha Series)

The Syllabus

I have just finished constructing the syllabus for the class I am teaching. It was rather easy because I got materials for the class from a professor who taught it before. And this professor is very organized in his methods, so I just followed it and tailored according to my own preferences.

So I did the formatting, and put my personal information in there. I already selected a couple of hours a week to be my office hours. I selected time slots when I know my adviser and my other committee member would be in class, so that I can minimize the time in which we would have a schedule conflict. I also entered the class hours, the class meeting place, and all that. What is still undecided right now is the office hours and the office location of my teaching assistant, as he isn't in town yet, and he is a new graduate student.

I also drafted the schedule for the class. There is a total of fifteen weeks all in all in the semester, so I plotted all the days in which the class would be meeting, and erased the days in which there would be no classes, such as Labor Day for example. I also tried to schedule the various topics that the class would cover, and spread them throughout the semester.

I also entered the information about the reading material, and how the students would be able to get their hands into it. There are reading material that I need to put on course reserve in the library, and I still need to figure out how that works. Otherwise, the textbook information is already there, and so are all the other things that students need to know.

I have an idea how they would be graded: there will be homework, in-class exercises, and a final exam. This I think is the first time I am teaching a class in which I will be giving a final exam. It may or may not be fun, given that final exams are usually a week after the class ends, and people usually want to leave campus as soon as they can. So I am anticipating students to tell me that they want to take the exam earlier than scheduled. Fortunately, the professor who gave me his materials has dealt with that matter before.

So yeah, this is going well, and the next step would be to actually read the material and prepare myself for the teaching. I also need to see the final decision with respect to which teaching assistant I will be assigned: because if it is different from the person I assumed to be, then I need to change a little things here and there.



(The Flying Steps, from my Moray Series)

Cold Turkey Version 2.0

So when I decided to write this entry, I thought of the entry title Cold Turkey, but then thought that I might have used this phrase already in the past, and sure enough, I did. Surprisingly, it was about the same topic.

The other week, we got the first written assignment for the class that I am TA-ing for. This is the second time I am a TA for this specific class, so I kinda know the drill by now. Anyway, I do not like to grade this assignment, as this is the most subjective part of the course.

I have about 70 papers from students, all talking about their experience with multilingualism in the United States, and whether they support or contradict assimilationist views on the English language with respect to immigrants. It is hard to grade, because one cannot expect much from the students, and how do you really grade the narrative of students' personal experiences?

Anyway, I just did it cold turkey, by sitting down my office and reading every one of them. I made several piles, based on whether I thought the student made a good job of arguing or not, and so on. My objective mind is screaming at the fact that I cannot have an answer sheet where things just add up and are very objective, but hey, I am just a TA, so I cannot do much.

When I got bored, I went online and daydreamed about backpacking again, this time to Armenia. I didn't realize that one can get an e-visa to Armenia, without even applying in person in the embassy, but instead by going to the website of their foreign ministry. I gawked at the sites of the monasteries and the mountains, and found a cheap flight from New York City to Yerevan via Moscow on Aeroflot for just 690 USD.

Oh well, some other time. I went back to my papers.

After a few hours, I was done with it, and I can now focus on something else.



(Grand Ceiling, from my Library of Congress Series)

Discovering the Stapler

The other day, in the class that I am a TA for, I finally received the first written assignment that the students had to turn in. I had about 70 papers that are about 4 pages long. And now the task I need to do is to read them and grade them.

Fun, eh?

Not so much. But at least we have guidelines in grading them, so it wouldn't be a hassle. However, we need to do some precautions to ensure that students are not playing the system.

But anyway, the weird thing is that some of these papers are not worth of being called a paper that was submitted by a college student. Like, hello, has anyone not heard of the instrument called the stapler? Seriously, some students only have the top left corner dog-eared so that they all come together, and then they write their name on all the sheets of paper, but really, is that how you turn in a paper?

There's this thing called a stapler, it is metallic in nature, it allows a piece of metal to go and puncture the papers you have and then the metallic piece folds, so that the sheets of paper go together. They are all found in office places, including libraries and printer places. Using them is free, and would only take a small exertion of physical effort, burning perhaps a calorie or two but nothing more. Totally doable.

And yet some students don't even entertain that thought in their heads.

Bizarre.



(Ceiling Once More, from my Library of Congress Series)

Feel Good

Earlier today I had a conversation with a former student. And that was just a feel good moment.

See, this former student of mine took my 100-level class two years ago. It was a class that basically introduced the different languages that are found around the world, and how they are similar and different when it comes to structure. Basically, this was a class that a trivia person would dig.

So, I bumped into this former student of mine, and he told me that he is now a minor in Linguistics, and that it was after taking my class that he got interested in the whole field and decided to do a minor in it. Wow. I didn't realize that I can have an effect in other people too.

See, the thing is, I have taught this class for about three times now. He happened to have been a student when I taught it for the third time. I have this idea that I basically turned away a lot of people when I taught it the very first time. I looked back and saw my syllabus for that class, and I was so over the top. I required tons of stuff, considering this was a 100-level class. So when I got to teach it again, I revised a lot of stuff, and so when I taught it the third time, I myself enjoyed it.

So there, I saw people who were majors in Linguistics when I taught the class the very first time, but ceased to be a major, perhaps due to me, but now I learned that I am also capable of the other way, of inspiring people to take up a field simply because they found my class interesting.

I felt good.



(Fertile Woman, from my Sackler and Freer Collection Series)

Freshmen

So, the semester has started and one week has passed. There are plenty of people here again. Again, this is the time for the types of thoughts in which I see people who are younger than me, and sometimes I cannot help but feel weird because of it.

So, the incoming freshman body is what? 18 years old? These guys are born in 1991. Wow. I on the other hand was born in 1982, so there's a nine-year difference between the largest contingent in the university (assuming that there are more freshmen than seniors, and more seniors than graduate students) and me.

Sometimes, when I see these young people, I feel like they come from a different planet. Their constraints are different, their preferences are different, everything that is about them seem to be different. I suppose this is reflected perfectly by Asher Roth's song I Love College. If you are curious, find the lyrics online and see what I am talking about.

Don't get me wrong, a part of me actually enjoys that song, even though it is just a small part of me. But the thing is, I do not get why it seems to be the case that for the average American college student, being in college is equivalent to having fun. Not that I condemn having fun, but having fun isn't all there is.

I live in the part of town where there is easy access to transportation to/from downtown and the university. It is the part of town that one doesn't need a car to go to campus, since the South Campus is just across the street, and all one needs to do to head to the North Campus is to ride the shuttle. There is also a metro station, so when one needs to go downtown, then one just hops into that. I don't have a car so this place is very convenient, but it also is party city. There are plenty of youngsters walking at night during the weekends, and they usually are drunk. I suppose this is just another added motivation for me to finish my work here and graduate as soon as I can.

Is it the fact that college here in the United States is the first opportunity for most people to be away from the eyes of their parents? Is it because that college years overlap with being 21, and with that, the legal ability to drink? I don't know the answer to that yet. Somehow, I find it bizarre that in this country, one can legally go to war and kill someone but one is not allowed to drink yet if one is not 21. But I suppose that's a topic for a different post.

Anyway, not that I disdain the freshmen and the undergraduate population. I once was an undergraduate. And not that I disdain having fun once in a while, since I do that myself every now and then, when the stars align properly. But what I do not understand is that it seems that for most undergraduates, having fun, getting drunk, and getting laid is all that matters. Wow. How epicurean, if that is what it really is.



(Star Wars, from my Air and Space Museum Series)

Lollipops

I have a weird task. I need to buy lollipops for the class that I am a teaching assistant for. The professor asked me to buy for her lollipops for the class. Apparently this is so that we could understand how phonetics works.

Now this could be interesting. I suppose this pertains to what the oral positions are whenever people pronounce specific sounds in a language. I just didn't experiment with lollipops, since I don't like them myself. Somehow, the idea of sucking on something with a handle doesn't appeal to me too much.

In other areas, I have already talked to a professor of mine about possible paper topics for the seminar that I am taking. There are a couple of ideas that I can pursue, so I am happy that at least I have an idea I can work on.

I need to finish coloring my brain. I worked on that quite a lot yesterday, and so I need to finish it by next week.

So there, the second week is here, and there are thirteen weeks to go. It's not that I am counting since I am so ready for Winter Break, but rather, it is amazing how things immediately get busy and now I have plenty of things to do on my plate.



(Splash, from my Letchworth Park Series)

Grand Conclusion

So, another semester just ended. I am happy. And I am pleased at where I am right now.

I held my final class today. I gave my last test, and some people also turned in their final exams as well. Some of my students told me that they liked the class very much, that it was the first time that they encountered a professor who actually wanted their students to learn.

I guess that made my day. If one has a student who actually appreciates your effort, then that just makes you happy.

So, in a weird sense, I am actually a little bit sad to see this semester end, given the fact that I enjoyed it. But then, all good things must come to an end, and, the show must go on, and we should all go forward.

People are graduating, people are moving out, and people are coming in. The air smells of change. New faces will appear, and old ones will fade out. It's just like that, time, after all, is not only linear, it is cyclical as well.

So there, with that in mind, my semester is heading for closure. I only need to finish this grading, and submit my grades, and I am done. I don't have anything else to worry about for my other classes. So there, I am totally ready to fly now. I cannot wait.



(Repeating Glass Patterns, from my Corning Glass Series)

Breathe In, Breathe Out

Open House is over, and I have about one week left before I head down to the US Southeast. My poster presentation is on its third incarnation, and I have emailed it to my adviser for further revisions. I may or may not recognize it after he revises it.

I have to write a homework for my students; they need to have it for Wednesday. I may cancel my class on Friday, given the fact that it is the Friday before Spring Break, and so depending on how many people would show up, it may or may not be worth to lecture on that day.

So there, I got one burden off my back, and that was the Open House. I have a few more ahead of me. I really am looking forward to May, but I am also watching the news on the developments of the states of affairs in the world, since someone is threatening war to some place. I do not like the sound of that.

Yesterday, I watched Baby, which is a musical about three couples expecting a baby. The first couple consists of university juniors who don't want to marry each other; the second involve an athletic married couple who have been wanting to conceive ever since; and the third involve a middle-age couple who already have three grown children. It was amusing, entertaining, and educational as well.

So there, that's what's new and exciting for me, at the moment.

Ok, back to work.



(Modern building, from my New York City Series)

Hahahahahahahaha

I finished reading my previous novel entitled The Piano Tuner. I was very satisfied at how it ended. It was set in British Burma in the late 1800s, when a piano tuner was commissioned to tune a Erard grand piano in Burma. It had a conclusion, but the novel also had the window for what-ifs, and other speculative exercises, and provided a nice repose upon finishing the novel.

I guess being sick provided me the time to complete it. Last Tuesday, I was so tired and sick, without my voice, and so I decided to go ahead and go home immediately after my class ended at 3:30. I then got undressed, and went to bed, but before that, I set my alarm to wake me up at 7:00 PM. I didn't want to get carried away and then wake up at around 11:00 PM, and that would give me headaches due to a sleepless night.

So I slept, until 7:00 PM, and then I woke up. I ate something, and then finished the book. After that, I picked up another one, which is a significant departure from the previous one (of course). This new book is entitled The Sleep-Over Artist, by Thomas Beller. And just by reading the first few pages, I was laughing hilariously. I don't know, maybe the mischievous ways of the ten-year-old protagonist is just so common I could easily relate to it.

Winter came back today. Yesterday and the day before that, the weather was very nice, in the mid-50s, and so the snow all melted. However, it is back today, and so I wore my boots again to school. However, some people were complaining that the weather wasn't cooperating, and because of that, they couldn't go out and ski.

I guess people have different purposes for the weather.

I am getting an interesting vibe from my students. They want to know where I am from, but they have no idea where. They say that I have a slight accent, but they cannot pinpoint it. And add to that, my name isn't really a typical name from my country, and so that further confuses them.

I looked up my surname, and it turns out, that my surname is Hungarian.



(Tall buildings, from my Wall Street Series)

Kids

The other day, I went home rather late. I expected that the campus bus that ferries students back and forth the North and South Campus would be rather quiet. Instead, it wasn’t the case.

It was already 10:30. While waiting for the bus, I went to the Starbucks next to the bus stop, and bought myself a small green tea latte, just to warm up. Then, the bus came, but it was filled with students. A bunch of girls all dressed in black (obviously a sorority) got off, but the rest were still one rowdy bunch.

My goodness, it dawned on me that I am old.

These kids, these late teens early twenties, acting as if they are on the top of the world, but in reality they know nothing. They think that they already know everything about sex, drugs, and alcohol, parading the streets flaunting their "cool", when in reality, they’re all immature.

I sometimes don’t get it. How can a reputable research institution produce great minds in the midst of chaos and immaturity?

But apparently, it is possible sometimes. But that night’s bus ride just made me realize that quite some years have already passed, later this year, I will not be someone in his early twenties anymore. My buddies in different parts of the world are getting married and having children.

Wow, time flies fast, isn’t it?



(Worm's eye view, from my United Nations Series)

Sophia

Sometimes I wonder why knowledge is personified as a woman, and not as a man. Knowledge is such an abstract topic that I would wonder why the human race chose the feminine figure to represent it, and not the masculine figure.

Justice is feminine, yet time is masculine. Interesting divide.

Anyway, I would be dealing with Lady Sophia a lot more starting next week. I already submitted my syllabus to the department, and I have already e-mailed my students saying that they can print it online. Some have already e-mailed me back asking about the textbook.

I wonder what adventures face me this coming semester?

Would I get a bell curve with regard to the distribution of my students' grades? It usually is the case, that I get just a couple of students who get an A, a little bit more of A- and B+, plenty of B, and then it would start to dwindle down, with one or two F grades. I do not curve my grades; what the students earn is what they would get.

There are more or less two types of students. Well, the extremes would be that one of them would just attend my class simply to get an "easy A". Although I am not into predestination, most of these would be the seniors, enrolling in a 100-level class. But alas, they would realize sooner or later that just because it is a 100-level class doesn't mean that it would be an easy class. It is a 100-level class because it does not presuppose the students to know something beforehand. One can take the class with a blank brain at the outset.

Then there is the studious student. One who sees me during my office hours, one who is willing to spend long hours trying to understand the new concepts presented in class. He may not do well in the tests, but at least there is effort that is shown, there is the attempt in learning the material.

Of course, there are plenty of other types of students as well. But to blog about them here would take ages to complete.

One thing that surprises me though is that every time I would teach, there is one, yes, one person in the class in which I wish I had the finger to zap that person, so that that person would vanish into thin air, and the life of me and my whole class would improve immensely. Hopefully, this time, I wouldn't have that kind of person.

Oh well, I guess I just have to deal with those types. Still, I like what I do. I wouldn't exchange it for something else.



(Immigrants' faces, from my Ellis Island Series)

Mouth Yoga

My adviser is hilarious. He is goofy, and he has a dry sense of humour, but it works. Of course, he takes my work seriously and does not laugh about it, and he is a total professional with his interactions with his advisees, but he is a totally different person when he is teaching an undergraduate course.

I happen to know this because I am his teaching assistant for one of his classes.

So for today, we were discussing Phonetics. This topic happens to deal with the way sounds are produced in the world's languages.

So he was explaining how the oral cavity is formed when one produces a /p/ or a /b/ or any other linguistic sound. He was explaining the one closes the mouth on the lips for a /p/, while one makes a closure at the alveolar ridge for a /t/, and one makes the closure on the velum for a /k/. He then sticks his fingers in his mouth to feel the alveolar ridge.

Then he tells the class to feel their mouths. He said "You should be in touch of your body more, because Phonetics is the time for mouth yoga. You should be in touch of your mouth."

Of course, the class starts laughing a bit.

Then he was explaining about the velar fricative, the sound which is the last sound in the German surname Bach. But before that, he gave a wrong example, which was ich. I then pointed it out to him that it is the wrong example because German undergoes palatalization. So, after giving the right example to him, he replies "Oh yeah right, you're correct, because you took Phonetics recently, so you have more mouth yoga experience than me."

And then later on, he asked the class to make a /m/ sound. So he said, "Class, make a /m/." And the class did, to which he responded "See, you all can do mouth yoga!"

Well, I guess that sometimes it is necessary to entertain an undergraduate population. Mainly because not all are taking the class because they want to, but simply because they need to. Unlike in the graduate level, that the reason you are in Graduate School is because you want to be in Graduate School. So you don't need to be entertained anymore.

In the end, I am just amazed at the flexibility that my adviser has. He is indeed quite a character. He can be totally professional to one situation, and be a clown to another situation. He seems like the one who has my personality as well, in the sense that there are different versions of himself to different occasions. Interesting character.

Now, this is the last of my Oswaldo Guayasamin Series. This is a movable mural, which I believe is entitled Los Mutilados, although I might be wrong on that one. One can actually move the individual pieces in different ways so one can create a multitude of possible combinations.

Halfway Point

People have begun flocking back to the campus, starting yesterday. The buses had different routes to accommodate the students that are checking in their residence halls. One sees suitcases everywhere, and students and parents are flocking again to the buildings to see their students off to another year of schooling. The students will then remain in the city, and the parents will drive off to their hometown.

What the parents do not know is that once they leave their children to their dormitories and residence halls, the students let loose, like animals out of a cage.

Last night, we had the departmental annual Welcome Party, where people meet the new faces and see who is who in the department. I came, and brought with me my Thai Chicken Curry with Dried Apricots. It was a hit. People were raving about it, and several have asked for the recipe. I guess I couldn't hide my cooking talents. My pot was returned to me clean.

Anyway, after the party, the graduate students had an after party. We went downtown to get a drink and have a little bit of good time. It was fun. It was Thursday night, but while walking downtown, we saw plenty of flocks of young girls, probably just about 18 or 19, dressed very skimpily, and walking to the entertainment district of the city. For me, they seemed like they just got out of the shower. They were wearing dresses that were very revealing.

Do their parents know about this? Most probably not. Again, that's the thing that I don't like about the beginning of the year. People are already here, but there isn't anything to do yet, and so they flock out, and they act like animals released from their cages and ready to devour anything that catches their attention.

Anyway, classes begin this coming Monday, so things will get busy again. I realized that I am at the halfway-point of my graduate education right now. I already am done with 14 classes, I have ten remaining. I am working at a qualifying paper, and when this is done, I will be moving on to the dissertation. Wow. Time flies fast indeed. Two years ago, I was a new student, who knows nobody in the area. Now, I am one of the older students, organizing conferences and other administrative duties.

So, here I am, enjoying my last day of no classes, then this coming Monday, everything will be set into motion again. Ok, time for my Ecuadorian Flora Series again.

Vicious

Friday is supposed to be a subdued day, but for me, at least this week, it is not.

Yesterday, I was checking my student's homeworks. I found some evidence of what may be construed as academic dishonesty. I won't disclose the details here, but it made me think of how the students value the class.

Wow. Students may think that I am born yesterday and is innocent of their schemata. I have to remind them that I used to be an undergrad as well.

Anyway, so a talk with this student is necessary I believe. I have to ask him to explain what is happening. And I'll go from there.

It makes me think what exactly is my role here as an instructor. I am an educator, not the police. But if I just turn a blind eye, things like these will continue.

Oh dear, for one second I am boiling with vicious rage, and for the other, I am thinking to just let it pass since there is plenty of red tape to navigate once this is started.

I have to think about this later.

Anyway, in a rather mundane turn of events, I guess it took me seven years to finish a bottle of cologne. I had a bottle of Sculpture, by Nikos Parfums, and I bought it in 2000. I believe I bought it in the duty-free area of Kansai International Airport in Osaka on our way to Guam. The reason I remember this so vividly is because I somehow tied the scent of this cologne to the hotel that we initially stayed in Guam, the Hotel Tropicana. I first encountered this scent when I jokingly tried to suffocate a friend of mine in Japan, and his scent stuck in my fingers. He was wearing this cologne. I liked the scent, and so I bought it on the next opportunity.

And seven years later, it is gone.

Speaking of hotels, I believe that our family, or at least, my parents, have the so-called Hotel Curse. The reason is a lot of the hotels that they stayed at suffered tragedy after they checked out. One hotel in southern Mindanao closed down a few years after they stayed there. A resort island in Palawan burned to the ground after they stayed there as well. And now, Hotel Tropicana in Guam also closed down a few months after we all stayed there back in 2000.

Interesting eh?

Ok, here is my new photo series, entitled Ecuadorian Flora Series. These are pictures taken by me when I visited the Jardin Botanico in Quito. This first picture depicts a weird whitish plant.

Revisions

My summer class is two-thirds over. I already finished four weeks of lectures, and there only remains two more weeks; or four more meetings.

I am always thrilled when I see how the student's grades turn out. It's not that I am a sadist and is thrilled whenever I give a bad grade to a student. No. Nothing like that at all. What I mean is that students' behavior in class correlates to the grades that they will receive. And I am just amazed at how true that is every time.

I give progress reports every meeting for my students. I give them small white pieces of paper delineating how they stand in class so far. This is based on their performance; like their grades in their homeworks and attendance. Some students maintain a good number, some slowly go down every time I give them that sheet.

Anyway. Enough of that academic talk.

I borrowed a CD from the music library yesterday. I wanted some music here in the office, and so I went to the music library and borrowed a CD of Goyescas by Enrique Granados. Enrique Granados was a Spanish pianist and composer, who unfortunately died in a shipwreck in 1916, if I remember correctly. I used to play one of his pieces from his 12 Danzas Españolas. It was the Andaluza, which was a rather famous piece of his. It was originally written for the piano, but it sounds like a guitar. Indeed, when someone else transcribed it for the guitar, it sounds like a piece written for that instrument.

Anyway, so, Goyescas is a collection of piano pieces that was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya, hence, the name. They are pretty good, albeit long. I once had a score for these pieces, and they were really hard. Now they are the property of a good friend of mine in the Philippines, who is an aspiring pianist.

Did you notice the change in my blog? I got tired of the minimalist lay-out, that was mostly white with a few brown shades here and there and some pieces of wood. Besides, that scheme was almost 4 months old. So I changed it to this one, complete with flying birds in the mountains! By the way, that is a big hint for those who want to know where I am planning to go this coming May.

Finally, I want to extend a warm Happy Anniversary! to my folks in Prague. This day marks their 26th year of being married and in happy bliss. Guess what? Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana were married three days after my folks got married. But they are already kaputt! My folks are still going strong. Yay!

Ok, I have to go. But before I go, here is another photo from my Quito at Night Series. This is another of those small side streets that invoke romance, especially if you ride one of those horse-drawn carriages that are available for rent for a stroll in the old town.

Robotic Education

I was pissed off yesterday.

My class runs for 3 hours every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. There are a handful of students. It usually is a lively and intimate group, but some are just the epitome of rudeness.

I give homeworks every meeting, and people are also supposed to turn in homeworks every meeting. So what some people do is that they come to class, submit their homeworks, and since I pass the homeworks early on, they get it, and then leave.

I don't give credit for that with regard to their attendance, as far as I know, they did not "attend" my class. Look it up in the dictionary what that word means.

I initially pondered on whether I should give the homework out at the end of the class, to make people stay. But then, I thought, if they don't want to, then fine. Why would I attempt to make them get a higher grade when they themselves don't want a higher grade? If they want their attendance grade lowered, then fine with me.

So, I stick to my original design. Give out the homeworks early on, so those ones who are not interested in attending will leave the moment they get the new homework, and I have a lively discussion with those who remained and are sincerely interested in the class.

Plus, I design my homeworks in the way that most of the questions can only be answered by those who remained in class.

But one really pissed me off. This one student didn't get the previous homework, because he wasn't present. So he asked me early in class yesterday whether he could get the previous homework. I said that I don't have it with me, and he should follow me to my office after class.

So guess what? He leaves the class. I thought that he already returned home. But no, I was wrong. After dismissing the class three hours later, he comes back in the classroom, and waits for me to go to my office.

I asked him what's the problem? Because he obviously was in campus, he just opted to not attend my class. He even waited for me to finish class and get the homework.

Man, you are paying for this class and yet you waste it!

His answer to my question of what is the problem was that he just wanted the credit and move on, nothing personal. Wow. I bow down to that. Nothing personal.

I told him that it may be nothing personal to him, but it is extremely personal to me. No, I do not take this personally, but I put my time and effort to this class in preparation. I literally do a song and dance to these people so that they would learn, and yet some people just do not seem to see that. The greatest joy I can get from teaching this class is when I see people understanding what I am saying and seeing that there are actually these different stuff that are interesting in the world's languages. I am not a robot, I do not teach in a mechanical and impersonal way whose goal is only to convey information to people and give them a high grade. No, I feel bad if I have to give a low grade to people. Because I see these people self-destruct, collapse, and die, and I don't like that to happen.

But some people just don't care.

I guess I should focus my attention more to those who deserve it.

Whew, life is indeed interesting. Ok, enough of that. Here is another one of my Quito at Night Series. Enjoy the glowing lights and the romantic horse-carriages. By the way, nobody seemed to guess the language of the song I was playing for the last 2 days. It was sung in Albanian, in case people were wondering.