Robitussin rocks

Just 4 tsp of the cough mixture and I was out cold for 11 hours. And boy was I grateful... The past four to five days have wrecked havoc not only with my sinuses but I swear also my blood pressure and stress levels. Teaching has always come quite naturally to me and I've never had issues with planning or conducting a class. But when faced with the prospect of teaching my first undergrad class last week, it was like the first day of school all over- the panic attacks, the "oh-no-what-if-no-one-likes-me-or-listens-to-me" jitters and every part of my body turning to jello just thinking about those thirty pairs of eyes looking at me expectantly (I could only hope) for the key to unlocking the wisdom of the world. I obsessed over everything I was going to say- "what's your name?", "where are you from?", "why are you here?", "how can I makes this less painful for the both of us?..."- and was just this short of timing my jokes and bringing in my own laugh track. A momentary thought of lip-syncing my lesson actually crossed my mind. It was really quite nerve-wrecking. I couldn't sleep for 3 nights straight, promptly fell sick, and had to spend the weekend nursing a flu that was supposed to be miraculously alleviated by a good Hot Toddy. I shall withhold opinion on the efficacy of the drink to protect the identities of the individuals who convinced me of the medicinal properties of above mentioned drink, but let's just say the next time we have drinks while I'm sick, I'm just going to stick to orange juice. This is actually brings me to a story about gastro-intenstinological reactions to scallops, but I think I shall leave that for another day...

Anyways, in the end, teaching went far better than expected. Having undergrads isn't really that much different from teaching Singaporean kids, hip-hanging gym pants or no hip-hanging gym pants. They responded to me fairly respectfully, laughed at my jokes and most importantly, got my message, which is about as much as I can ask for right now. Teaching the philosophy, history and politics of education to a bunch of 20 year-olds may not be the easiest thing to do, but at this moment, it feels right and good. The teacher in me is nodding her head in sweet and silent agreement.