Today started off interestingly enough. Since last Friday a teachers' strike had been arranged for the first hour of classes. It's a national thing about percentage increases, the usual union stuff. The amazing bit was that the students didn't know it was coming. It was the one time where the student body at the school didn't know what was happening long before the teachers.
As part of Peace Corps, I'm not supposed to participate in strikes. And as someone who sees unions as a necessary evil, I would probably never help out in a strike from a union I don't belong to. So I was left with an interesting group of choices this morning. I chose to just relax.
When the strike began, the hall flooded with students, all shouting, some shouting "strike" in Bulgarian. My students all gave me a crazy look like the one a dog would get when it's in a car and it sees a group of dogs rolling in poop in a nearby park. Now, this class is in a tight battle with another one for my least favorite class to teach. There are some great students in it, but there's this terrible chemistry that gets everybody talking and not stopping. Going through 45 minutes of class with them as pretty much the only students inthe building would be hell. I have them for two hours, anyway.
So I turned a blind eye, watched them bolt from the building, and sat down to catch up on a bit of reading. They all came back for the second hour, and on time, too. We actually accomplished everything I'd planned for the day. So the strike actually worked out pretty well.
The rest of the day was pretty cakish. I finished my work at the school soon after that class and went home to take a three hour nap. I'll be going to see Dogeball tonight. Tomorrow's Friday. So I really have nothing to complain about. Good times.
Posted by Rob at November 18, 2004 07:26 PM