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Aug. 13th, 2003 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jdmkleinYesterday, i swore i wasn't going to go into the office today. Good thing i didn't put any money on it. i was there at 8:15 this a.m. Fortunately i was out by 8:35. I cleaned off my desk, everything picthed in a box, printed some documents i need, got a hand book, talked with the Assistant Admin. Director, who now tells me 'en sha'allah,' the computers will be here by October or November. (These are the same computers that were supposed to be here last September.) i said goodbye to Imtiyaze and scooted out the door.
Stopped at the pharmacy and picked up two of the three meds i'll need for the trip back, have to check back after two, one of the meds i need is out of stock in the country. Only in Kuwait could one have that happen. People, lives depend on taking certain medications on a regular basis, does the concept think ahead mean anything? Will have to go back later, or take the few i have with me and hope that Auntie Nurse's doctor friend will write me a scrip. Only in the U.S. are drugs so tightly controlled. This is a med i can buy without a scrip in every country i have visited since i started taking it. Why is this not the case in the land of my birth? And why ....no...i'm not going there.
i had a run in (by phone) with the VDSA just after noon today. He wants me to raise two of the F's in my summer class up to D's. These are the very students i agonized whether to pass or not. In the end, it don't mean a thing, but it frustrates the bejeezus out of me that we work so hard to provide learning opportunities for these lazy brats and then the administration turns around and undermines everything by giving in to pleading and whining and crying. i have never seen a culture so filled with non-confrontation, yet be so darned aggressive. In the end, everyone knows a Kuwaiti will give in, so why does the Kuwaiti bother to argue? For that matter, why did i? It is their culture. It is their university. What does it matter to me? In the end, i compromised. i told him if he was asking me to raise the students' grades i was saying no. But he can do whatever he darned well pleases because he's a Vice-Dean. If he does, however decide to raise those girls' grades, against my wishes, he is not to tell me, and he is to tell those girls to stay away from me. They are not to come near me and try to thank me, because i didn't agree to it. He said he would check to see how they did in their other courses and go from there. i'm sure they are doing poorly in all of their content courses because if they don't have the skills we try to provide the opportunity for them to acquire, they can't very well read the college-level text books in English in their content courses. Who knows what will happen. WTF cares? I am drinking my gin and tonic and don't give a rat's patoot.
i have just about finished my packing. i am finishing up the laundry so all my clothes will be clean. Of course i am doing Master's so He doesn't have to worry about it the first week, at least. i've arranged for the cleaning lady to change the bed twice each week, and fold any laundry in the dryer on the days she is here. He should be alright.
Stopped at the pharmacy and picked up two of the three meds i'll need for the trip back, have to check back after two, one of the meds i need is out of stock in the country. Only in Kuwait could one have that happen. People, lives depend on taking certain medications on a regular basis, does the concept think ahead mean anything? Will have to go back later, or take the few i have with me and hope that Auntie Nurse's doctor friend will write me a scrip. Only in the U.S. are drugs so tightly controlled. This is a med i can buy without a scrip in every country i have visited since i started taking it. Why is this not the case in the land of my birth? And why ....no...i'm not going there.
i had a run in (by phone) with the VDSA just after noon today. He wants me to raise two of the F's in my summer class up to D's. These are the very students i agonized whether to pass or not. In the end, it don't mean a thing, but it frustrates the bejeezus out of me that we work so hard to provide learning opportunities for these lazy brats and then the administration turns around and undermines everything by giving in to pleading and whining and crying. i have never seen a culture so filled with non-confrontation, yet be so darned aggressive. In the end, everyone knows a Kuwaiti will give in, so why does the Kuwaiti bother to argue? For that matter, why did i? It is their culture. It is their university. What does it matter to me? In the end, i compromised. i told him if he was asking me to raise the students' grades i was saying no. But he can do whatever he darned well pleases because he's a Vice-Dean. If he does, however decide to raise those girls' grades, against my wishes, he is not to tell me, and he is to tell those girls to stay away from me. They are not to come near me and try to thank me, because i didn't agree to it. He said he would check to see how they did in their other courses and go from there. i'm sure they are doing poorly in all of their content courses because if they don't have the skills we try to provide the opportunity for them to acquire, they can't very well read the college-level text books in English in their content courses. Who knows what will happen. WTF cares? I am drinking my gin and tonic and don't give a rat's patoot.
i have just about finished my packing. i am finishing up the laundry so all my clothes will be clean. Of course i am doing Master's so He doesn't have to worry about it the first week, at least. i've arranged for the cleaning lady to change the bed twice each week, and fold any laundry in the dryer on the days she is here. He should be alright.
