Well that was really fun

Both of you who read this blog, you know the haps in broad outline. The last two weeks of the course were a true challenge on a whole lot of levels. I'm typing this in the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, waiting here instead of having taken a later bus from Oxford becaus, well, you don't want to leave a damned thing to chance or traffic or any of the nine million minor f-ups that could occur and will occur if you count on people to do the right thing. Alex is temporarily engrossed in his iPod, and I should be marking papes, but I wanted to at least get a placeholder up before embarking for the European finish of this tour.

All the halflings checked out of college, and there were only a few little curveballs in the process. Nothing like the stuff that started two weeks ago as I started hearing about mutinous rumblings and then had a horrendous encounter with modern-era Mean Boy Syndrome, lots of wishing I could go back in time and clarify my expectations and accommodate he un-satisfiable, all in all a strange and sad revisitation of high school or middle school, tapping into all that old geeky stuff as you realize people are smiling to your face and stabbing you behind your back.

I am pretty confident I made a good save of the last week of the course, with a hastily but competently written explanation / exhortation of my methods and my concerns. No one really fessed up to being part of the Complaining Group (according to a mole there was a petition being readied about my running of the academic side of the course (discussion / papers at end rather than lecture-and-quiz) and the lack of organized activities (expecting them to take charge of sightseeing and college visits according to their own interests rather than follow-the-umbrella tours). The fact that the previous syllabus (such as it was) was still posted made it clear that my rendition fo the course would be different, but it provided a template for complaints. One student went to me--and to this day I do not know confidently whether she overdramatized the unrest, or whether she was the true mole who rescued the program by her courageous ratting out of her fellows. In the event: had three or four sleepless nights and complete bunker mentality before I could put this horrific episode behind me. I will try to put this into words another time.

Meanwhile, we're off to Paris, Alex and I are, to join up and send a couple of nights there before heading to see the bro and family.... More soon, as you-know-who is pissing and moaning about how much he has to wait....