Taking Notes

I'm a little hestitant to write too much too directly about school, since I'm not pseudonymous and most of my amusing stories have to do with my classmates and, of course, amusing stories are very rarely generous or charitable.

Such as, for instance, the young girl who sits in front of me in one of my tutorials who insists on wearing low-rise jeans at least two sizes too small, and I'm sure she's lovely and clever but every time she sits and then stands again the waistband of her jeans pushes more and more of her butt out of the top of her pants so that by the end she is at least half-out; and I don't mean to be derogatory, but I'm sure I've seen more of her ass than I should have by this point of the semester.

Or the girl in my occasional lab with the long dark hair in a ponytail and the ultra-low-rise jeans and a shirt and jacket much too short so that, rather than sitting in her pants as one might usually do, she was mostly sitting on her pants, and her ass was on clear display throughout the entire period; and this was the most perfect metaphor for the quality of opinions she fearlessly expressed throughout. During a brief discussion on how one might research information on the choice of Sarah Palin for McCain's VP and what one might interpret it to mean, for instance, she said: "It means Americans are stupid because 37 per cent of them would vote for her." See? Displaying her ass from both ends.

Or the young man in another tutorial who seems to have enrolled in the professional writing programme specifically to have it demonstrated to him how brilliant he is already and how little he needs to learn. Unfortunately for him, I doubt this will be the case; to this point his contribution has consisted almost entirely of voluble complaints on how the insufferable rules of grammar exist solely to stifle his creativity and repress his god-given right to self-expression, thus persecuting him. Fortunately, I suppose, his ego seems hardy enough to withstand whatever critisim might be directed his way. (There has already been plenty.) I'm afraid this tutorial stands in serious risk of degenerating into a weekly discussion of why he hasn't won the Nobel already.

Or I might observe that my group for this tutorial consists of four very quiet people just like me plus one social person. We were broken up into our groups on Monday and ran through our assigned questions in approximately 11.5 minutes, thus leaving us with 38.5 minutes to spare, during which we mostly sat around in a companionably awkward silence eavesdropping on the other groups. Whenever our self-confident anti-grammar student opined within his own group (it carries) each of us would groan, mutter, gasp or shake our heads; and then, realizing that we were all reacting to the same thing in the same way, share a guilty snicker.

If we can manage to overcome our shyness and speak, I think it will work well.

Also, they thought I was 20.

How can I complain?

Is it ok as long as I include no names or identifying characteristics? Or am I risking my life? Can you be Dooced from school?

The problem is, just like the dating stories, I don't want to publicly mock anyone I actually like. So it might be a good sign that I can only think of three real characters so far to share here.

Is anyone actually interested in hearing about school and what it's like? Or are you all bored to tears by the thought of me writing on the continuing subject of "What I Did in School Today"?

Posted by Andrea at September 18, 2008 2:44 PM under The Supposedly Mature Student

EMAIL this entry

(comments fields are below this section)