Viet Huong & First Week of Class

It was back to class this week, and while it's fun to be teaching I really did not miss academia's three-ring bureaucracy circus. There was an ongoing drama this week with one of my comp sections, which had seven students enrolled in it. Instead of canceling this class and splitting my Chicks in Space elective, which, at 40 students, is beyond officially overenrolled, into two sections, three students from another comp section were added to mine. So I have one normal-sized comp class, a ten-student comp class (and keep in mind that about half of these likely will drop, because that's how things work here), an exploding science fiction elective, and a giant section of American Lit to 1865. Whatever. Then some drama about getting me a TA for Chicks in Space ensued. It was up in the air for some time, but it seems I now officially have the TA. I cannot actually ask this person to grade essays, but at least she can help me with paperwork.

The comp classes were business as usual: more comments about my appearance, and someone responded to my "Who were the Vikings" question with "Brett Favre?" Happily, the American lit students seem to be on it. They have a lot of intelligent things to say, and I'm excited to have my first punk rock student -- you can imagine how rare that is in this neck of the woods. The same class also contains an Obama detractor and general contrarian who seems invested in testing me and my facilitating skills.

Yesterday Eric and I went to Tulsa to run errands and see A Single Man at Circle Cinema, which is kind of like Tulsa's answer to the Crest. The film was excellent, and we finished the day with a delicious dinner at Viet Huong, a dive-y looking place that makes pho to die for.


Gatos in love

Why does my cat make this face?