A Clusterduck of a Week

Tuesday, November 2

Well, this week was not how I envisioned my week going. From Sunday late afternoon to Tuesday early afternoon, I was in quarantine housing because I had been tested for COVID and was awaiting my results. By the time I was released from quarantine with a negative test result, Arabic class was going to start in half an hour. I decided to take a mental health day, go back to my dorm, and just unpack and decompress. Class is recorded, and I could watch the recording later. A friend from class sent me the homework that was due next class, and she also told me that our quiz for the following week was moved from Thursday to Tuesday, and that the next Thursday class was on Zoom. My stress level just keeps rising. 

Thursday, November 4

I made my parents laugh because of Arabic class today. 

By the time I get to the classroom, two other students are there. Another one arrives after me, and then the last student gets to class. By then, it was 1pm, and our professor hadn’t arrived. Normally she arrives between 1pm and 1:05pm. The last guy to arrive looked surprised to see us there in the classroom. He asked us if we all were going to use the room to Zoom. The rest of us were confused because we thought that the class was going to be on Zoom the following Thursday. (And I was going by whatever my friend had told me, as I hadn’t had time to watch Tuesday’s class recording before this class.)

At 1:02pm I logged onto Zoom, saw our professor wasn’t there, and then logged right off. At 1:04pm, another guy logged onto Zoom, and said that our professor was online. Right then, I knew Arabic class was going to be very entertaining today. At 1:07pm, I texted my parents: “Arabic class is a cluster🦆 today.” (My mom hates swearing.)

In our classroom, there’s a podium with a laptop, and a wall camera, projector, and screen. It took us a good fifteen minutes to get situated. I was able to log onto my account on the computer and pull up Zoom, and from there, we had class. All students present, but our professor online. It was a weird situation, but we made the best of it. 

Oh, and our quiz for next week got put back on Thursday. Apparently there was some miscommunication there. Thank goodness, because I was stressed. 

Arabic Word of the Week

crazy / majnun / مجنون