PTSD

(Not) teaching and watching football at TUWSNBN

It's the Cheese-eating surrender monkeys versus the Latin show ponies for the World Cup final.

Who says I can't be offensive?

Seriously though, I get the feeling the Italians will win the Cup since they have such a stingy defence and France's defence (one word: Barthez) is not that great. But, did anyone see Zidane today? A few months ago, the man could barely walk during the match (World Cup qualifiers) and now he's absolutely fantastic. What was Scolari thinking by not having a proper forward on for nearly half the match, by the way? No matter how much C. Ronaldo runs about, he's not a forward. Maybe he thought C. Ronaldo was the other Ronaldo.

In case yous are wondering, I got off teaching duties (last minute hiccup involving my only having 3 kids in my class!) due to the magnificent generocity of one of the other instructors who combined classes so that I could watch (part of) the match. I watched it at TUWSNBN's library, standing up to watch the match on a tiny screen, and missed the huge screen at Harp and Fiddle. The commentary here was much better though since they were showing the match on the French channel (TV5) instead of the usual ESPN/ESPN2.

For those following my teaching and clothing saga, here's something that yous will find amusing: I walked into the building where classes were held (4 classes were going on at once) just before classes started only to be asked by one of the other instructors which class I belonged to.* It was rather amusing since I was in my "formal" teaching gear (or so I had thought) of (black) skirt, T-shirt and (non flip-flop) sandals.**


* The question was along the lines of "Are you in X (his class) or in one of the other ones?"

** Oh, and I don't look young for my age. In fact, I look older (years in the Aussie/Thai sun will do that to you. Wear sunscreen) but the situation exemplified how expectations shape interactions. You expect a bunch of students to show up, you see someone walk around looking for a classroom, you assume she is a (lost) student. Since most of the kids wear suits (the boys do, the girls are less formal), it is often difficult to distinguish students from teachers.

posted by Priya @ 5:31 PM