Aussiehalley - Halley Down Under

A telling sign...

You may remember the snark of last year's orientation session for La Trobe's international students. It was very clearly not meant for us. It was meant for undergrad students coming from systems where regurgitation was the appropriate method by which to repsond, and coming to Oz to learn English. You'll recall my restraint in not throwing my shoe.

Yesterday, I attended the general Arts and Sciences grad student orientation at American. At lunch they grouped us into our programs and I met some loverly new folks. A professor from the dept. had come to chat with us and after a bit, looked around the circle and asked, "Does anyone know what time it is?" We all looked at each other for the answer. Why? Because no one was wearing a watch. Just one person, sitting on the side, had a watch on (and she said that she usually didn't wear one either). "And this is how you tell our MFA students. Always a little bit... quirky." I was waiting for her to say 'weird'.

Meanwhile on the other side of the room, the anthro and econ students kept their chairs in two neat rows, facing forward. The whole time. Even during the lunch discussion. I'm guessing they had watches on.

posted by Halley @ 11:24 PM