Progress on Two Fronts

Three neat things happened to me on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. On Wednesday, one of my female students who is studying hotel management and tourism asked me if I could help her get an interview for a job at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. I have hooked her up with a friend who knows someone in the Marriott chain who is now reviewing her resume, after heavy editing for correct English. I really felt good about that.

And on Thursday afternoon, while I was preparing my final two lectures for next week, three of my students plus a friend knocked on my villa door and said the surf is up. Some storms had come in from China and kicked up some four foot waves on the NSYSU beach. I had been trying to get some of my students to try body surfing and this time they came seeking me out. Needless to say, off we went and we had a ball. The same thing happened the next afternoon with three different students, this time with six foot waves, the biggest I have seen here. I was the only one to catch the big ones (three) before I became scared that without fins they were too big for me and I might be tossed into the rocks nearby. They even let me ride behind them on their motor scooter to get to the beach which I have been wanting to do, but I forgot to take any pictures!

Conclusion? It took almost four months to get my students to ask me for help and I saw them every week. It takes awhile to establish trust and a lot of that came from informal interactions (hiking, tennis, wine and cheese party, plays, etc.). Living on campus made all these things much easier. I worry how I will achieve a similar outcome when students are finally admitted to our doctoral program at Touro and I teach part of my courses virtually. I am not sure I can substitute cyber educational experiences for the benefits that come from face to face interaction. We'll soon see. 16 more days, but who is counting.

PS. Update on the war. The other side got more reinforcements. Two more lizards showed up after I euthanized one of them. I did knock the tail off of one and chased the other out the hole in the window, so no sign of either for three days. However, I have noticed an increase in moths and spiders since I have upset the ecostructure of my villa. Fortunately, one of my students who has been following our blog gave me reinforcements as well--roach traps. After initially killing a 1/2 dozen, I have not seen any of them for three days as well.