last days

classes start on tuesday. i'm enjoying my last days without anything to grade or worry about... except that i am not ready at all to teach my first class. the good thing is that i only teach on thursdays and fridays... but we have our first esl meeting on tuesday, and since i'll be the "chief" of this thing, i should really try to prepare something so i don't look too much like an idiot.

ok, story time: a couple of weeks ago, there were two big "placement days" for our part-time (community) students. representatives from all departments were gathered around tables and students would go around and talk to the people in the departments they were interested in taking courses from. very often, they were given placement tests and then were assigned to different classes and levels according to the test results. there also were people from the esl sub-department, placing students in our grammar, writing, culture, and pronunciation courses and i was helping. i was sitting next to mary at a table and learning as much as i could and then tentatively helping with the "easiest cases," and other esl people were sitting at other tables. at some points, when there were fewer students to take care of, some of the other teachers would come and talk to mary about certain problems... and each time, mary would introduce me, since i'd never met any of the other esl people before. ...

... and each time, these other esl teachers would say, when mary introduced me, "oh, you're dr. lulu?! i thought you were just a student helping mary..."

as soon as i get my next paycheck (in 2 weeks, dammit), i'll have to go spend a LOT of money on clothes that look a little more professional, and makeup, and i don't know what else... because right now, i look like a freshman right out of highschool and that's NOT good!