my crazy teacher

with a title about a crazy teacher, it is probably surprising that this is by shelley, not jarred. apparently, crazy teacher stories are in no short supply here. a week ago one of my teachers called me and asked me if i could change my class time from 8:30 in the morning to an afternoon sometime. since our class time had worked for a couple months now and she comes all the way out here for the whole day everyday anyways, i was a little confused by this sudden need to change. she clarified that she finds it extremely important to change our class time because she assures me that if i ride my scooter all the way to class that early in the morning, i will surely become very sick. granted, the mornings and evenings here are cold in the winter, freezing cruising down the road on a mini-motorcycle. this morning, i wore a 3/4 length shirt, a sweater, a sweatshirt, a fleece, gloves, and a winter hat ("tobOggan" for you southerners; "tOboggan" for my husband) to class; and this afternoon when the sun was beating down on us at 6,000 ft i delayered down to just my 3/4 length shirt. however, it's not snowing and i am pretty sure it won't make me sick. but i politely told her that i would consider and talk to my husband about it.
and i did. but we decided it just wouldn't work- we share a scooter, have things in the afternoon, etc. so monday i texted my teacher to tell her that it just wasn't convenient to switch classes. and while this may seem strange, this is a perfectly acceptable answer here. anything can be done or not done simply because it is "not convenient." also a perfectly good response is "no solution." throw a "i'm sorry/embarrassed" in there and you are good to go. so when my teacher countered my message with "but it is so cold in the mornings, you will certainly become sick," i pressed my luck and threw in all 3 of these sayings and replied. "i know, but it's not convenient, i'm sorry/embarrassed, no solution." after multiple more messages, she relented, and we kept our class time the same.
and let me explain that the rest of the world operates here on a normal schedule no matter the season. all students have class every morning, including my husband who has class the same time as me. people go to work early in the morning, many on scooters, and the majority aren't hacking as they scoot down the road or pulling over to throw up. and in a place where myths spread like wildfire and hold more weight than they should, if this cold 8 am weather would make the whole world sick, people would definitely change. i decided that my teacher just thinks i have a completely defective immune system.
so i got to class yesterday morning and began to climb the 5 flights to the dorm room where we study. as i trudged up the last flight i heard my teacher call out my name, only to look up to find her sitting in a chair drinking tea on the open-air landing with a comforter spread out over the balcony railing (still not sure what that was actually doing). she informed me that she thought it would be better for us to study not at the desk in the room, but sitting in chairs next to each other out on the landing where we could maybe get a little more sunlight. really? this had gone to far. so i went and got a chair and lugged it back to where she had constructed a make-shift classroom, curious why she thought sitting in a place where the cold wind blew through, people walked through, and a roach was crawling around, could possibly be our best possible solution? i then decided that i think she just didn't want to have class in the mornings, despite the fact that she is at campus anyways. i shall keep you posted on our classroom changes. no solution.