I've been at this university so long, and taught so many labs, that I can rarely go to any sort of event without encountering someone who knows me. This was the case last weekend when I went to a football game.
We arrived early, so that we could get the best seats in the student section. As kickoff neared, more and more students trickled into the stadium. A couple of guys came to our row to meet up with some of their friends. I recognized one of them. He had taken a lab from me a few semesters ago. He saw me, said hi and shook my hand as he walked past.
His friend, who I had never seen before in my life, looked at me and said, "What are you doing here?"
"Uh. I just came to watch the game."
"But I thought you were on sabbatical right now."
"Sabbatical? No*."
"Weird**. Somebody told me you were on sabbatical in Fiji, doing fish research there."
"I wish***."
Sometimes it really is too bad that you don't get to live the life that others have envisioned for you.
*Grad students don't generally get to go on sabbatical.
**No, what's weird is that you're talking to me like you know me when I've never seen you before in my life.
***It occurred to me later that I should have gone along with it, motioned to the girl I was with, and said I'd brought her back with me. She's Mexican, but he might have bought it.
6 comments:
I had heard you were in FIJI also ... must have been the other native minnow... my bad
so you are not in FIJI?
I heard you were deported from Fiji and living on the strip with a hooker. No? My bad.
I think that's a great idea. You should go on Sabbatical to Fiji immediately, although if this happened a lot I imagine there would be a lot more grad students out there. . .
You actually are in Fiji. It's just that paradise is overrated.
I think this is a sign that you SHOULD go on sabbatical in fiji. Can I come visit? I have an air mattress.
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