New Job Update

Well, they've fired up the atom-smasher, and we're not dead. So, I guess that means I have to go to work tomorrow...

If work tomorrow is as fun as work today was, I won't even lament having to wake up early. Today I spent an afternoon with a class of students teaching them some library stuff. I asked them, "does anybody know what 'fiction' means?" They asked, "is it like infection?"

And I thought... in a way.... fiction can be infectious... but then I didn't want to confuse them.

Once I explained it in English, they told me the word in Arabic. Something like, Hay-yal. I said Hay-yal, and they all cracked up. No no no miss, it's Hay-yal. So I say "Hay-yal" again. They all crack up. What's so funny, I implore them. "Miss, it's another word you're saying." Not 'fiction', apparently. I instruct them not to tell me the word - I don't want to know.

Did you know that movies can be fiction, too? I ask. This question gets the puzzler going. "Troy?" One girl says. "Maid in Manhattan?" Another offers. "Mission Impossible?" Someone else says. Fiction, fiction, fiction. I'm hoping this is a concept not soon forgotten.

This is my immediate future - teaching. Teach teach teach, teach teach. If you had asked me a year ago if I wanted to teach anybody anything, I would have said of course NOT. Who knew it could be so much fun?