Saturday, November 22, 2008

...another update

i walked into class on Thursday-no actually i ran in. i had forgotten my book in my car so i dashed out to get it and came back into class right as it was filling up. as i took off my coat and dumped my bag into my seat, my professor, without looking up from the computer she was warring with, said

"fcg, before you get too comfortable, i want to speak with you"

"i didn't do it" i said quickly.

she chuckled, and then, seeing that she was having a lot of difficulty with the computer, said "forget it. I'll talk to you after class"

it took three computer geeks and the head of the computer lab to tell her what we knew from the start; the computer wasn't reading her CD properly.

duh.

so she taught without the visual aids. and that is so not the point of my post. once class had gotten under way, she thanked everyone who had made it out on Saturday to help her EMT class. then i realized she probably wanted to talk to me about my calling the VP of Student Development. i hoped i hadn't gotten her in "trouble" she told us that for those who hadn't been able to come, we had two other opportunities to make it up. i was surprised at this, because i thought she had said i couldn't make it up. but i must have misunderstood. our options; to go to the Bodies exhibit in Manhattan and write a paper on the experience. i mentally frowned. that's eighteen bucks for the bus, thirty dollars for entrance fee (they don't give single student discounts) all for two points... the other option; to go to the New York City Lab and sit through a couple of autopsies. only Holly sounded enthusiastic about it. but the more I've thought about it, the cooler it sounds. it's probably a once in a lifetime experience. my dad told me it probably won't be a halachic issue, but I'll have to double check with a rabbi and see.

after class i went up to her and thanked her for giving the opportunity to go, and to reserve me a slot for the 15h. she turned to me and said "oh i wanted to talk to you. someone in this class-I'm assuming it's you-called someone about the whole extra credit thing..."

uh-oh.

i bit my lip and nodded "did i get you in trouble?

she laughed

"honey, I'm an adult. i don't get in trouble. I'm just hurt that you didn't come to me first. i though we had a pretty good relationship."

i explained that i thought she said that there wasn't an opportunity to make it up, and i didn't want her to get annoyed at me for coming to her and demanding that she give me another opportunity for extra credit. i wanted to make sure there was a school policy to back me up. she told me that i must have not been around when she said that she'd be giving lots of opportunities for extra credit.

"i totally understand about the religion thing. honey, I'm married to a Jew"

yikes.

(it's funny how non-Jews are so proud of being married to Jews. i wonder if they all wonder why Jews cringe when they tell them that.)

so we patched things up, i apologized for not speaking to her directly, she said it was all good, and now I'm slated to visit the New York City morgue at eight am to watch autopsies on bodies freshly pulled from the East Side River.

can't wait.

8 comments:

G6 said...

So very very cool!
Can you bring a friend ;) ?

Mikeinmidwood said...

I cant take blood and open bodies. ugh.

tembow said...

can't believe ur really doing that!

I did a tahara once. dead bodies are one thing. cutting open dead bodies is a WHOLE 'nother story.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, you are so failing the class now.

rickismom said...

I went to nursing school at a Catholic hospital, and they also are not so keen on autopsies. Anyway, once we had a patient (an OLD lady who had been a real chain smoker), who had died within 24 hours of admission to the hospital. So even though the cause of death was evident (lung cancer), state law required that an autopsie be done. And as student nurses we were sent to watch. It was actually quite interesting, and when I saw just how black this lady's should-have-been -pink lungs were, I was strengthened in my resolve never to smoke. (I had one son who smoked, and I understood that even less than why he left yiddishkeit....at least he stopped smoking....got too expensive! :) )

nmf #7 said...

Wow- so cool! Wish I could come....

Anonymous said...

Hey you should know, often its the non-religious jewish professors, or the professors who are married to jews who are the most difficult to deal with when it comes to religious conflicts, b/c they wonder why you cant just be like them (or in this case, like their jewish husband).
Ive had a couple of jewish teachers who clearly resented orthodoxy.

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

Your professor sounds nice. Good thing you were able to get the extra credit and that she didn't get offended.

Good Luck with the dead bodies, you must be a strong brave girl to go through with that!

o, and with anonymous, I've seen that too. I had a Russian Jewish professor that wasn't religious, and when finals came out on Shvous time, she was unhappy that she had to give us Jews a makeup day.