Quote of the day: No more than two nose rubs

I don't appreciate students walking into class late. It's disruptive and it's particularly disruptive here because students who are late have a need to say, "Hello" to the class for which the class instinctively responds.

On the male campus it is not unusual for a guy to walk in late, announce "Hello" in Arabic and proceed to shake hands with half of the class. For particularly close friends they'll rub noses.

Early on this distraction drove me batty. I've come to accept that this is part of the culture but I can place limits... as one of my colleagues has:

When you come in late you can have no more than three hand shakes and two nose rubs before you sit down.

(If you sense deja vu, you're not alone. I swear I posted this before...)