Sunday, August 30, 2009

A change in fortune

(Note: Sundays are the start of the workweek and like Mondays back home they often suck.)

The source of the food poisoning has been confirmed. The others who ate with me have it, too. It led me to go to bed at 4 yesterday and sleep until 4 this morning.

The wimpy medicines they gave me aren't helping much so it was not a happy morning. I went to work where a colleague felt the need to prove every negative Arab stereotype (in short, bull-headed and insistent on issues that were of no concern to him). I learned that they completely switched my schedule and that I had already missed a class I was supposed to teach.

In other words, a great way to start the day, workweek, semester, school year, etc.

By noon (and my eighth trip to a bathroom with no toilet paper) I said aloud, "Can't I catch a break?"

The angels must have heard me. Within the next few hours I had:
  • a class dropped from my schedule
  • my schedule changed so that I only spend six hours on the women's campus
  • my computer from the US now talking to the internet
It's not that I don't like teaching on the women's campus. I simply can't get past the quick head covers and shrieking when I step on an elevator.

I can't recall many days that started out this shitty (in literal and metaphoric ways) and ended so good.

Well, pretty good. Time to head to the bathroom.

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