Friday, April 8, 2011

Students.

22. Coke break. Snow White is telling Zoe and me about her day, "So, a student rang me in my office..."
'Hi, I played football today.' said the student. 
'Mmm, and?' said Snow White.
'It was physicians versus mathematicians.'
'And why are you telling me this?'
'I thought you might have wanted to know.'

23. Three times a week, without looking at the clock I can tell that it is 5ish when Geluck, my supervisor, comes to say goodbye. Leaving work any later would mean he misses gym. Despite the workload of a full professor, Geluck goes to gym with a commitment that makes me ashamed whenever I use work to justify my lack of exercises. So it's 5ish and Geluck is saying goodbye. Because I am impolite, I ask if he could help me with a research question, "Just five minutes?"; and because he's polite, Geluck agrees. "What if I can't answer it in five minutes?" he wants to know. "Then maybe I should start thinking about getting a new supervisor." Instead of pointing out, that with my kind of responses maybe he should start thinking about getting a new postdoc, Geluck just starts working through the problem, and eventually gives me a satisfactory answer. The whole process takes him an hour and a half, but I am not thinking about getting a new supervisor.

24. Tintin is transferring his clothes from the washing machine, located in the bathroom, to the drying rack. I am helping him. Watching my friendly behavior, Gaston can barely contain his giggles, "Someone needs to use the toilet!" 

It is safe to say that there will be no romanticism between Gaston and me in London next week, sharing a hotel room or not.

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