Finally, the day arrives! Parting is such sweet sorrow. The fates conspired to deliver a class for the record books this final, abbreviated six-week semester, one which we will not only not miss, but one which reminded us on multiple occasions that we have been in the mocrowave long enough and were getting while the getting was good.
We had a group that was 80% Asian, without the diversifying leavening of Europeans, Latins and Middle Easterners who usually offer so man oppertunities for cross-cultural comparison exercises and comic relief.
Our one non-Asian was a Saudi named Bashar who had a disconcerting habit of falling asleep in class. Now, in the name of full disclousre the Dowbrigade must admit he once fell asleep in Prof. Eliot’s Greek Drama lecture in Sander’s Theater, but he was hidden on a back bench high in the upper balcony of the theater, far from the podium and the professor’s awareness, and our mere presence at a 9:00 class at the tail end of a 72-hour drug binge should stand as testimony to the rare power and eloquence of professor Eliot.
Bashar has fallen asleep at least a dozen times, and right in front of the teacher and the other 7 students in the class! In nearly thirty years of teaching, this is the first time such a thing has happened to the Dowbrigade. Another sign that it is time to hang it up and move on to something else.
That something else begins in a few short weeks with our departure for South America. Part two of the Great Experiment begins July 1 when we return to the US determined to live the life of a homeless blogger while readying the Great Leap Forward of the final phase. Look for more details this weekend in this space.
Meanwhile, today, our last day, we recieved our long awaited and much anticipated raise, the first in two years, retroactive to the first of the year, and it amounts to an extra whopping $188 in our check. Definitely time to move on. But first, let me go and bid a found Adieu to the current band of miscreants. Lunch at a Brazilian meat market and then a sorry Sayonara…..
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