Summer vacation is over

None of the students brought me an apple on my first day as a teacher - but they did bring me a watermelon. (OK, a couple of slices of watermelon. But still.)

Whose bright idea was it to put me in charge of some 200 college students?

On the bright side, whenever I walk into the room, they all leap to their feet and say in unison: "Good morning, Teacher." (My name is just so mystifying to them that they won't even attempt it. In fact, the best that anyone can do here is "Bah-rue-kah.") On the slightly dimmer side, they are not big voluntary participators. I thought bringing up good ol' Yao Ming might spark a little oratory passion, but the best I got was: "He is very tall" and "It is too bad he is married."

Which I guess is better than what happened in Beth's (apparently more sophisticated) class: One of the girls really wanted to know, is it true that American college students have lots of one-night stands, and if so, how do their families feel about that? I believe she is still working on formulating a response to that one.

I finally met with the Tib*tan women's group that I will be working with. They are really amazing women, handpicked from a special class at the University to be part of this group. While they are learning to write grant proposals and implement development projects back in their home villages, they are simultaneously going through a gender studies course that helps them deal with the barriers that they run into because they are women.

The first thing they did when I met them was wrap a khata, a white scarf, around my neck as a symbol of respect and goodwill. Then they gave me a nice long list of things that need to be accomplished, preferably by yesterday.

So in addition to my five University classes, I am teaching two more classes for Sh*m, participating in the gender studies discussion groups, holding office hours twice a week at Sh*m, revamping their Web site, editing proposals, teaching 6-year-olds on the weekends, and taking my own classes to learn Chinese.

Ah, I miss the good old days when I worked a mere 10-12 hours a day.