First, in my classes I give three quizzes and only the best two count. My best student this semester showed up to take quiz 3 and I said, "Why are you here? You pretty much had the full mark on the first two quizzes." He said he wanted practice for the final. I watched him take the online exam. The system automatically scrambles the questions so no two students get the questions in the same order. I saw the questions he was getting and they did not match what he was supposed to get. There were 26 students in the room and 26 taking the test. He was clearly logged in as another student and the other student was logged in as him.
I typed on my phone, "I don't know whose exam you are taking but I will figure it out." I placed it in front of him and he typed back... "Okay I can let you know." By that time I had it figured out.
That students cheat is certainly nothing new to me. That they take it to the extremes of actually doing another student's test is also not surprising. I don't even know why it upsets me so much. Too many of colleagues literally avert their eyes to "miss" the cheating going on right in front of them.
As the class was over he followed me and tried to explain/justify what he did. I stopped, looked at him and flatly said, "It is best that I don't talk to you right now."
*****
Story #2
Following this I had lunch with a guy whose story I can't tell tonight. I simply don't have the energy but I can summarize the end:
"I feel nothing. I wish I could die. If someone killed me I would be thankful but then the cost of transporting the body back to Sri Lanka would be an even bigger burden on my family. Is it too much to ask to be killed and dumped in the desert? After all I've been through I don't even feel pressure anymore. I hear the sad stories from home and I don't cry. On the outside I smile but inside I am dead. I am 26 years old and I have created such a burden for my family that I know they'd be better off if I had not been born. I came to the Emirates 3 months ago. Just before I left my mother told me when she was pregnant with me she went to have the pregnancy ended but the nurse gave her the wrong dose of medicine. I was not even supposed to have been born and everyone would be better off if I hadn't been born."How, exactly, did I meet this guy? He works in the mall next door and I asked him to lunch because he always has a great smile.
*****
Today was Day 56 of working out. 8 weeks down... and today was pretty much the hardest day to feel the energy to do it.
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