Thursday, August 16, 2007

So this is what panic looks like

Baby sister went away to college... Humboldt University in Norcal.

Okay, so spent the whole week in seminars and working furiously on the same manuscript as always (hence, no blogging, crafting or even mailing; I am soooo behind). I found out in these seminars henceforth known as "TA training" that I am responsible for learning these kids some history.

I mean, I knew that as a teaching assistant I would be grading papers etc, but NOW I've learned that I will have three history labs, 60 students, and I am primarily responsible for generating the ENTIRE content for these classes and discussions, homeworks and quizzes. All the professor has to do is lecture and create the final exam; she doesn't even grade them! The course content, my office hours and syllabi etc have to be done by MONDAY and they only told us YESTERDAY! The funny thing is, I didn't major in history as an undergraduate, so I've never even taken the course that I am teaching!So if you ever attend a class where it seems like the teacher just made up the syllabus and entire course in just one weekend, please take pity on them... they did not know what they were getting into. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!


So knowing all this, I couldn't work a great deal on the final chapters of the manuscript and felt there was no reason to meet with the author this friday at 8:30 in the morning on the other side of the island. He said, "there may only be one or two changes we can discuss, but I'd still like to meet." And then, this same guy, the author of the manuscript, had been using citations from non academic webcites; I had told him that I thought the publishers might nick us for it. The solution from the publishers? "Oh, Kili (that's me) why don't you go to the University library and find these sources for Doug... I know that there should be some references to the same things in the University's repository..."

AAAAAHHHHH! Do you not understand? I am busy just trying to finish EDITING the last chapters of the stupid manuscript! I am not supposed to be responsible for fixing shoddy academic work on the author's end, that's his job! So now, I have two more chapters to edit and insert Hawaiian historical perspectives into, then I have to create a genealogical chart, then I have do create a glossary, then I have to do all this extra stuff. I think I'm going to ask for more pay.

Nature seems to be reflecting my frenetic mood; Hurricane "Flossie" (dumb cow name) hit the Big Island, and I'm on Oahu so it was okay. We had a wildfire though. But it all pales in comparison to the earthquake in Peru.... so sad.

Anyway, the hurricane wasn't bad; I do wish a giant lego man like this one had washed up here... I would have brought it home and put it in my parking space at the apartment. Isn't it funny? This lego guy was found a couple weeks ago off of Austria or Amsterdam, I forget which.

It's hectic times like these that make me appreciate the little things; you guys have been so great and so caring! Thanks so much for being so nice, niceness makes the world go round. Hopefully soon I'll be able to post better stuff in my blog and store!

2 comments:

  1. I'm exhausted just reading about your busy-ness! amazing stamina
    :-) sarah xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. ohhhh. I'm so sorry. :( That's quite a load you've managed to carry, but don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine. :)

    I taught junior history, seventh and eighth grade, and my degree wasn't in history. It turned out to be really fun. :)

    Anyway, I LOVE the lego man. I would marry him if I wasn't already married...and if he was real...and if he loved me back. :)

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...