Sense of Humor, Anyone?
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Thirty-two days and counting; I will have to try and keep my humor to myself…
My friend Al sent out an email that suggested we buy fruit baskets for the new teachers arriving next year. He asked who would be interested in participating in such a thing. I sent back a reply to all that voted my assent, but I thought maybe we should buy whiskey instead. My boss pulled me aside to ask if that was a joke. When I said yes, she told me that it was inappropriate as some might be offended by it. Okay, so scratch the humor then.
Yesterday was International Day at our school. This is essentially a big carnival with tons of food and games. It’s a big event for which the Mother’s Club does a tremendous amount of work and the elementary staff and students run all the games. The kids love it. To kick the event off there is a parade. Students choose what countries they wish to represent. They are encouraged to dress in clothing from that place and they march with a teacher and a flag from that country to the field. Teachers are assigned arbitrarily to supervise different groups.
We practiced the whole thing on Friday morning. We were told at the beginning of the rehearsal that each country would be read off and alphabetized in English. The parent who ran it only spoke Spanish. This meant that at least half of the elementary staff had no idea what was going on. There were an equal amount of students in the same boat. We sort of guessed and stumbled our way through the whole thing until we were finally lined up properly.
I stood with my Russian student, waiting for instructions when the Director walked up. He was agitated by something and he put a whistle in his mouth and blew, but nothing happened. He tried twice to no avail. I said, “Hey, looks like your whistle’s broken, maybe you need a new one!” As he is still recovering from a bout with Bell’s Palsy, he took offense. He called me into his office later and asked me what that comment was all about. I told him I was just commenting on the fact that he blew the whistle and nothing happened. Dang people, lighten up!
The day was good fun with plenty of tasty food from around the world. I ate till I could eat no more and then bought more to take home with us. Zachary’s teacher ran a game that involved a bunny so we are now the proud new owners of a bunny named Bugs. He is white and cute and he poops all over the floor, but he’s friendly and Zman likes him so I guess I’ll get used to him.
Thirty-two days; that’s not really so long, is it?
MJR
Thirty-two days and counting; I will have to try and keep my humor to myself…
My friend Al sent out an email that suggested we buy fruit baskets for the new teachers arriving next year. He asked who would be interested in participating in such a thing. I sent back a reply to all that voted my assent, but I thought maybe we should buy whiskey instead. My boss pulled me aside to ask if that was a joke. When I said yes, she told me that it was inappropriate as some might be offended by it. Okay, so scratch the humor then.
Yesterday was International Day at our school. This is essentially a big carnival with tons of food and games. It’s a big event for which the Mother’s Club does a tremendous amount of work and the elementary staff and students run all the games. The kids love it. To kick the event off there is a parade. Students choose what countries they wish to represent. They are encouraged to dress in clothing from that place and they march with a teacher and a flag from that country to the field. Teachers are assigned arbitrarily to supervise different groups.
We practiced the whole thing on Friday morning. We were told at the beginning of the rehearsal that each country would be read off and alphabetized in English. The parent who ran it only spoke Spanish. This meant that at least half of the elementary staff had no idea what was going on. There were an equal amount of students in the same boat. We sort of guessed and stumbled our way through the whole thing until we were finally lined up properly.
I stood with my Russian student, waiting for instructions when the Director walked up. He was agitated by something and he put a whistle in his mouth and blew, but nothing happened. He tried twice to no avail. I said, “Hey, looks like your whistle’s broken, maybe you need a new one!” As he is still recovering from a bout with Bell’s Palsy, he took offense. He called me into his office later and asked me what that comment was all about. I told him I was just commenting on the fact that he blew the whistle and nothing happened. Dang people, lighten up!
The day was good fun with plenty of tasty food from around the world. I ate till I could eat no more and then bought more to take home with us. Zachary’s teacher ran a game that involved a bunny so we are now the proud new owners of a bunny named Bugs. He is white and cute and he poops all over the floor, but he’s friendly and Zman likes him so I guess I’ll get used to him.
Thirty-two days; that’s not really so long, is it?
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 2:14 PM
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