A huge downpour last night and at six in the morning I find the room I watch pointless hours of television flooded. With nothing but a rag and a pan I clean up most of the dirty water that came in through the sliding door that leads to the balcony looking east. The balcony is full and when I leave the office in thirty minutes I will walk home, a forty minute walk, and bail out the balcony.
Today we were asked to submit the leave for the summer form. Was I going back to the US the form asked. I've considered it. I should open a bank account, get my stuff from my cousin's cellar, get a credit card, yikes, to rent a car once in a while. To buy books online sometimes. I found a dozen or so books at the big shop in Dubai but hesitated. Who spends $60 on a book these days?
I don't know what I'll do this summer though I know a part of the time will be in Nepal. Another year here. A few days ago I sent my MA diploma to Muscat to get it attested and then it will go to various ministries and then return to the college where I will then do an international shuffle with the Emiratis and hopefully within two weeks I'll have a road pass. Yippee. Even if I go only once a month to the city I miss, that'll be enough.
Today Mister Obama visits the Pope and then he's off to Saudi to visit whoever. From Catholicism to Islam touch all bases, dude, you're just a man.
Afternoon professional development 'sessions' are going on but I remain flatly planted in my chair. Next week is quiz one and I am finishing up the answer keys, two versions of the quiz we give because the students are absolutely the worst cheaters. So, I'm making it hard for them to cheat with versions that will barely recognize each other. Some students are so desperate they'll cheat off an exam if they know the questions are different. If that doesn't define pathetic then my days are done.
And in February a professor of business was fired when he failed all of his students because of plagiarism. The university student guidebook states very clearly that cheating and plagiarism are wrong, and the repercussions are supposed to be obvious. But here, the professor was fired and asked to leave within days. Well this didn't sit well with the tall bald Greek man and he hired a lawyer and went to court, asking for a year's wages and a letter in apology. Yesterday we heard Miro won! A miracle, he wasn't dissed and dismissed as a newcomer, a foreigner who's always wrong simply because he was here. He won, the judge saw the travesty of an institution that one, had no right to fire someone without at least a month's notice, and secondly, firing a staff member because he had evidence of widespread plagiarism, an academic crime that proliferates, and the university doesn't even know how to manage it. I feel bad for this place, its learning curve is an arch that reaches the moon. I stay because I fail to find ambition in anything. I'm stuck in default mode and I don't know how to get out. Another year here bums me out but if I can endure, Lord a road pass will help, if I can find peace here, I'll stay. But right now, the weekend is nigh,
Today we were asked to submit the leave for the summer form. Was I going back to the US the form asked. I've considered it. I should open a bank account, get my stuff from my cousin's cellar, get a credit card, yikes, to rent a car once in a while. To buy books online sometimes. I found a dozen or so books at the big shop in Dubai but hesitated. Who spends $60 on a book these days?
I don't know what I'll do this summer though I know a part of the time will be in Nepal. Another year here. A few days ago I sent my MA diploma to Muscat to get it attested and then it will go to various ministries and then return to the college where I will then do an international shuffle with the Emiratis and hopefully within two weeks I'll have a road pass. Yippee. Even if I go only once a month to the city I miss, that'll be enough.
Today Mister Obama visits the Pope and then he's off to Saudi to visit whoever. From Catholicism to Islam touch all bases, dude, you're just a man.
Afternoon professional development 'sessions' are going on but I remain flatly planted in my chair. Next week is quiz one and I am finishing up the answer keys, two versions of the quiz we give because the students are absolutely the worst cheaters. So, I'm making it hard for them to cheat with versions that will barely recognize each other. Some students are so desperate they'll cheat off an exam if they know the questions are different. If that doesn't define pathetic then my days are done.
And in February a professor of business was fired when he failed all of his students because of plagiarism. The university student guidebook states very clearly that cheating and plagiarism are wrong, and the repercussions are supposed to be obvious. But here, the professor was fired and asked to leave within days. Well this didn't sit well with the tall bald Greek man and he hired a lawyer and went to court, asking for a year's wages and a letter in apology. Yesterday we heard Miro won! A miracle, he wasn't dissed and dismissed as a newcomer, a foreigner who's always wrong simply because he was here. He won, the judge saw the travesty of an institution that one, had no right to fire someone without at least a month's notice, and secondly, firing a staff member because he had evidence of widespread plagiarism, an academic crime that proliferates, and the university doesn't even know how to manage it. I feel bad for this place, its learning curve is an arch that reaches the moon. I stay because I fail to find ambition in anything. I'm stuck in default mode and I don't know how to get out. Another year here bums me out but if I can endure, Lord a road pass will help, if I can find peace here, I'll stay. But right now, the weekend is nigh,
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