Good news: my parents are visiting for the week! Not only does this mean I get to spend time catching up with them but I also get to enjoy the hotel pool and some magnificent dinners. They are here until Sunday and I will miss them when they are gone.
In fact, a big part of me wishes I could hop on the flight home with them. On Monday I found out that the two-week intensive course I am registered to take in late March-early April has had its time changed. Originally it was supposed to meet from 9am-1pm but now it has been changed from 2-5pm. This was done (at the behest of complaining students) so that another intensive course which runs during the same two weeks could be moved to the 9am-1pm slot. However, no one sought to ask me what I thought of this change - it was simply done and now I have to deal with it. Furthermore, I doubt I would have ever been told about this change unless one of my fellow students had casually mentioned it to me in class. There's been no email notification and I'm skeptical one will ever be sent. Needless to say this has thrown a major wrench into my plans for the semester and I am pissed that at no single point was I consulted.
Originally I took these types of issues in stride. After all its just part of the experience and cultural exchange takes many forms. Six months later, however, it is starting to wear thin and is enough to make me look forward to when I can go home for good.
Thankfully my parents are here to distract me for a while and in another week I will be flying to Jamaica to attend a Fulbright conference. By the time I get back I'll have 5 weeks left in the semester and the sheer amount of work I'll need to do in that time will stupefy me beyond complaint. I know that sounds hard to believe, but trust me it's the truth. I'd rather save my energy for writing.
UPDATE (3/14/2011): In hindsight, now that I've had a few days to cool off I realize a couple things. First, I feel terribly for my professor who got caught in the middle of this mish-a-mash. By trying to accomodate one group of students via changing the class time she inconvenienced me and another classmate. For her there truly was no good solution, so she was damned if she did, damned if she didn't. Therefore, it was unfair of me to criticize the situation as harshly as I did since it was born out of good intentions. That said, the way all this was communicated was very confusing and poorly handled.
Second, I was simply cranky when I wrote this post originally. I had a lot of built up frustration and angst when this course change happened so it was the last bit that put me over the edge, even though it was a relatively minor event. Lucky for me I was able to kvetch for an entire week to my parents, so it should all be out of my system...at least for a little while! Thank you for your patience Mom and Dad.
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