Just forget the words and sing along

Sunday, October 19, 2003

So, this weekend was NAIT's open house, and I foolishly volunteered to help out. Being a first semester, I was stuck playing tour guide; showing around prospective students. And I made the shocking discovery that most of my classmates are puzzled by my selection of the radio program. I was helping out one of my classmates on a tour, and she described the average radio student as being, "The class clown. The one who'd always be listening to music rather than paying attention in class." That was rather descriptive, but then she pointed at me and said, "Except for Mark. We still haven't figured out what Mark's story is. At the start of the year, when we were all asked what we did before we came here, all he'd say was he taught English in Japan. That's all we know about him." Well, I'm sorry, when you've spent a year overseas, we'll see how it messes with you. So I'm just a little saddened right now that most of my classmates question why I'm there, and, as I've learned from watching too much G.I. Joe growing up, that serves to weaken the team. (They make a big deal about teamwork in this program. 90% of my projects are group projects.)

But then, there are things to cheer me up. In the break room, one of my other classmates came up to me and said, "I hope you don't mind, but on a tour, I used you as an example." I said, "Well, what did you use me as an example of?" She then explained that she was showing around this mother/daughter duo. While the daughter was very interested, the mother kept going, "But she has such high marks in math and science! Why should she waste her time doing something like this? Isn't the money better if she gets a math degree?" My classmate said, "Look, we've got a student here with degrees in math and physics. He's here because he loves this." So, maybe some of them do know me.

And in other news, China has successfully launched and returned their first man in space. I thought this was great and everything, until I was reading how this taikonaut carried a small arsenal of handguns and knives in case he landed in "unfriendly territory." Just when you think the world is getting better....

Next issue...Showtime!

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