Birthdays and Accomplishments

Feliz 32! 

El Decano Nicolas with the cake

Doris as she presents

El Decano Nicholas, Doris and Karla after all was said and done

Things are a bit tense here in Panama City because the Construction Workers have gone (I believe) on strike and apparently, sometimes things get violent at times like this.  I had 2 friends send me messages about this though I wasn't able to get much more information.  It is still a concern and Elba said she'd call me if she hears of anything.

I could see the results of this because there were very few cabs on the street today.  I finally saw a cab and flagged it - though it had 2 women also in it.  It turned out that they were going very nearby so it was OK.  But I wouldn't have done that if cabs had been more plentiful.

The day at UTP began with sweets.  I had gotten a late start because I spilled on my last shirt and had to do laundry before I could head in.  The department gathered to have one more birthday party.  The cake was huge - and very tasty.  I joined the coro and it was great fun to sing again.  I really must learn the words to the second verse that they sing here.  

A friend from South Africa pinged me later to tell me that 32 in binary is 100000, so it's much more important than 30.  :-)

Shortly after lunch, at 1 pm, one of our students, Doris, was presenting her Masters work.  I'm very interested in what she did - which is good because I'm going to coach her as she writes an article on it in English.  Man, what a daunting task!

Thing was, I was supposed to be teaching at 1:30.  The class was all interested in Doris' work too though so we rescheduled for tomorrow - same time, same place.  I went back over, but by that time, she was in the midst of her presentation and I really didn't want to throw her by coming in mid-stream, so I waited outside until she was done.  There was a long pause, and then they called her back in to ask a bunch more question.  It took me back (WAY back)!  

But, no surprises here, she did a great job and passed her defense.  YAY DORIS!

I went back to the office and completed my rap.  Yay!  I also found someone who can beat box so we'll work on that tomorrow.  Then I plan to put together a slide with the text and slides with each of the "Lessons learned" too.  Plus (most importantly and significantly) I have to put together my Case Study slides.  I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do, but I have to do it.  Now.