Sunday, November 1, 2009

And so it goes…

Hopefully the last of the trick-or-treaters have gone away for the time being.

I don’t really mean the hungry, costumed youngsters that are the trick-or-treaters, but I’ll tell ya, this past week has been a real trick-or-treat kinda week. I got home from Athens last week about this time and then the week just became this veritable roller-coaster ride, this volatile week of trick-or-treat relations.

And oh yeah, over the weekend we did have the conventional trick-or-treaters as well!

Remember that this blog is a public venue, and anyone can access all my blog entries. I say that not from any delusions of grandeur about the high number of hits on the website, just from the fact that these blogisodes are never “full disclosure,” i.e. I am not here to vent or tell embarrassing tales about colleagues and/or students. I am simply chronicling my life here in Jordan in as diplomatic a way as possible.

How is that for a caveat?!

But the volatility of this last week seemed especially sharp since I had just come back from a conference in which the participants seemed to re-affirm and re-commit themselves to putting “Learning” at the center of the School Enterprise. So the “tricks” of the week, to be a bit more specific, the nasty behavior on the part of some colleagues seemed to disappoint more than usual.

On Wednesday I had a nasty encounter with a colleague—commandments from on high as this person always demands. Frankly, the situation with this colleague is always tense. The person is notorious for chilly, rude, and downright nasty behavior to the ex-pats. When I fulfilled the latest imperious demand I said, “All right, how high do you want me to jump?? How high?” The way the tale got spun was that I was acting too high-falutin’ and I was a-yellin’ and a-screamin’. Funny thing, if I could explain more to you, it would not strain credulity that I should have been offered an apology. To choose the best clichéd phrase possible—I won’t hold my breath. (I used the word “nasty” three times in five lines!)

But then a couple hours later (after a couple more tricks from administrators) I had a lovely treat. I went out to a quickie dinner in Madaba at Chili Ways with a dozen seniors who had answered an appeal from me to help curb the chronic attendance issues here at our school. I had met with the senior class on Monday and compared myself to Dr. House on television. I wanted to solve the “poison” of the attendance problem, and I sought a team of extraordinary cohorts who would help me figure out and solve this problem. I had over a dozen students email me and the baker’s dozen of us went for some coney islands and chicken wings to discuss the problem.

What a treat of our 90 minutes discussion! It was not just a lame attempt to get off-campus for some fast food. We discussed the situation well, everyone contributing, and we agreed that we should meet every other week and tackle more problems. They liked calling themselves the “Dr. House Team.” Maybe we can crack some problems.

Floating back on campus, that treat counter-acted the tricks earlier in the day. But before bedtime the tension and anxiety of a tense and anxious October would overwhelm another colleague and yet one more trick awaited me that evening.

On Thursday we celebrated Halloween. The students were encouraged to dress up in costume. Halloween is a fairly new phenomenon/event in Jordan and we promised a costume competition, a pumpkin-carving contest, an Orange Meal for dinner, trick-or-treating at faculty apartments, and finally a “Thriller” dance.

One of the faculty—I think it was my friend Arthur—decided that we as a faculty should dress up as KA students complete with the hideous dress code violations we see everyday from a sizable group of our young scholars. I loved the idea. I borrowed a blazer from the lost-and-found room so I had an authentic crested blazer. I used my master key (shhhh…don’t tell…) to sneak into a student’s room to purloin a school tie. (I have since returned the tie, don’t worry!). I decided to sleep in my white shirt so that it had the greatest possible wrinkly appearance and I danced on my khaki pants trying to get the crease out of the pants as well as the sophomore boys must do.

Come the morning I worked hard to emulate the appearance of some of our boys. I made sure I was as crinkled and crumpled as possible. I made sure my pants fell down as low as I dared with colored underwear hanging out. The tie was a grotesque mess. I didn’t shave or comb my hair. And I thought—what other details will make this a thoughtfully executed costume. Ahhh…yes, gum to chomp! And a can of Pringles to nestle in the crook of my arm!

At lunch I discovered that I had won the Best Costume for Faculty. Now, granted, I was dressed like 90% of the faculty, but I like to think it was my extreme sloppiness, attention to detail, and surly attitude that put me over the top…always nice to win contests!

The whole day was a treat! Faculty laughed more than usual and the students looked rather appalled at how we dressed and high-fived and texted all day. The weather cooperated and there was even a chill in the air. It might have hit about 58 degrees---which counts as winter here.

That night a mellow dinner with the treats of colleagues. No more tricks in store for the weekend. A dinner party in my apartment. Singing with a guitar. A Turkish Bath in Madaba. Meeting a younger colleague’s new boyfriend. Attending church. Organizing. Cleaning. Solitude. And my dear sister’s birthday…a treat of a weekend after the tricks and twists during the week.

So here we are on November 1. As has been my custom on the previous two November firsts I have been in Jordan, I will share the lyrics to Barry Manilow’s reflective song, ”And when October goes”:


And when October goes
The snow begins to fly
Above the smokey roofs
I watch the planes go by
The children running home
Beneath a twilight sky
Oh, for the fun of them
When I was one of them

And when October goes
The same old dream appears
And you are in my arms
To share the happy years
I turn my head away
To hide the helpless tears
Oh how I hate to see October go

And when October goes
The same old dream appears
And you are in my arms
To share the happy years
I turn my head away
To hide the helpless tears
Oh how I hate to see October go
I should be over it now I know
It doesn't matter much
How old I grow
I hate to see October go


Hopefully the last of the trick-or-treaters have gone away for the time being.

Oh, and today in Art History class, Rome fell.

And so it goes…

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