No Day But Today...

Although there were definitely good points to today, I was rather pissed off for most of it.  A couple of weeks ago I did a group presentation for my favourite class Education in a Multicultural Setting on North Korea.  The idea was to pick a culture, present the main facts about the culture and where they come from, and then discuss as a teacher how we would go about helping an child immigrant from such a culture adapt to our Western culture and how to integrate them comfortably and respectfully into our classrooms.  All to be done in 8-10 minutes.  My original group, which consisted of another girl and myself, had the basics planned out and the research divvied up when we were approached by another girl asking if she could join our group, and so we became a group of 3. Although I have much respect and admiration for this new group member, she's from South Korea and comes with a very strong accent and an electronic dictionary glued to her hand.  According to her, she's been here 7 years already and I find that hard to believe.  Anyway, we proceeded to re-think our presentation (the two-some had wanted to do some kind of skit or dramatic presentation and the new member said she wasn't comfortable with that...boring powerpoint presentation it is!).

I (stupidly) volunteered to create the powerpoint presentation when all our individual research was complete and decided upon and was left with not only canceled meetings due to certain group members not being present (can you guess who?) but left rushing literally 5 minutes before our presentation to add a bunch of her information into the slides because she didn't show up the hour and a half earlier for our planned run-through.  To boot, since the time limit was very stringent on this presentation, she had apparently asked that considering we are a group of 3, if we could get a couple extra minutes to present; she was apparently told we could get 12-13 minutes instead of the 8-10 the groups of two received.  Zoom forward to our presentation, and we're just barely hitting the 10 minute mark and our prof is demanding that we wrap it up. Of course, our 4 most important slides are at the end and got the least amount of air time.  *headdesk*  Afterward, a very confused self went to the prof in question and inquired about the extra time we were supposed to have been given.  He said he never told anyone that that was allowed...*headbrickwall*  Needless to say I haven't said a word to the girl in question since and I gave a scathing comment (not naming any names, of course) about our group dynamics in my self-evaluation.

Fast forward to today, where another set of groups are performing.  The first group took 29 minutes. By about 15 minutes we were all looking at our watches and the wall clock wondering why they were still going.  At 20 minutes we started looking back at our prof wondering what the heck was going on.  By 25 minutes we gave up wondering after the presenters in question came out with "And just quickly before we wrap it up, because I know we're running out of time..." YOU RAN OUT OF TIME 20 MINUTES AGO!!! Not once did our prof make a comment, shift in his chair, look at his watch, or make any indication that they were wellllll over the time limit. Now, I obviously have no idea if he wrote any comments on their mark sheet, but the fact that he let them go on for so long is upsetting when we got unceremoniously booted from the front of the class when our time hit the limit.  I was livid.  However, I decided not to stir the pot and say anything until we receive our marks.  If we get crappy marks or are penalized for being "overtime" then I will have to address this issue.  So very unfair.

As if I wasn't already having a rough go of things, I got sat on today. Yes, you read that correctly, sat on.  I was sitting on a bench in the university, waiting for a pick-up, when a group of particularly rowdy boys congregated near me.  Lucky for me (pure, dripping sarcasm there, folks) they were talking about how one guy must have scabies on his penis from how many chicks he's banged in the last week. Lovely. Really...  As they got rowdier they shifted their group to be right in front of me, and the diseased boy in question decided to take a seat on the bench...in exactly my spot.  Needless to say, I let out a few choice expletives, and he got his diseased balls in a knot and called me a whole lot of nasty things for being in his way. Lucky for him my ride called at that exact moment to say that they were outside, other wise his face would have been rearranged.  Yes, I'm a girly-girl, but after years of being teased in elementary school, I have the courage to stand up for myself, and that guy would have been decked into next week.  Totally disgusting.  I came into the car crying with tears of frustration...not once since elementary had I felt that much like a loner, a loser or that...invisible.  Obviously it's not a big deal and I'll most likely never see him again, and who really cares, but in that second it was a complete flashback to elementary. Scary bananas.

On a much more positive note, CANADA WON GOLD!!! Way to go Canadian ladies hockey team! Awesome game...shut-out against the USA!