My Statistics professor holds a Tea-time on Friday afternoons every three weeks.
We gathered in a little classroom on the seventh (but really the third) floor of the physics building. Seven students, the professor, and one of the TAs.
At first, the atmosphere was a bit tense. None of the students really knew what to expect, until the British professor decided that the water was hot enough to make tea, at which point the Chinese TA explained that the ideal water temperature for black tea was 94°C, and 76°C for green tea. A discussion on the proper brewing of tea by type ensued, with the bewildered students looking on.
I've drunk tea before. That is, I have put a mug of water in the microwave for one minute and thrown in a bag of Earl Grey maybe a grand total of five times in my life. Judging from their dumbfounded expressions, so had the other students.
Eventually, through the natural flow of conversation, we decided to introduce everyone, as not all of the students were in the same sections and the professor didn't know five of the seven of us present personally (both sections combined total over a hundred students). As the second person introduced himself, a stranger burst in.
"Oh, I'm sorry, this is the wrong room. Is this a class? You look pretty cozy. Hey! Cookies! Can I have a cookie?"
Somehow, he ended up staying in the room for ten more minutes, talking the entire time about anime, Japanese, religion, films, casts (his arm was in one), candy, his father, and his roommate, who was out of town for the weekend, so it was OK for his dad to stay in his room. He asked to film us for a project he was presenting at some film festival somewhere, he would ask us about our religious views and have us prove them on camera. Except that he did not have any batteries. So he promised to return later if he found batteries. But before leaving, he wrote his YouTube address (It's Japanese, it's from this manga series I read, did you know I went to an anime convention? I went to the Chinese Lantern Festival a couple nights back, that's where they wrote in Kanji on my cast, it means God, rainbow, cloud. The Japanese have three alphabets, you know? Kanji is for symbols, Katakana is a syllabary, and Romanji is for foreign words [actually, there's four alphabets if you count Romanji, because it is the Latin alphabet, NDLR] [also, that last part was entirely quoting him.]) on the board so we could look at his movies and give them favorable ratings, and did you know it was really easy to create an account?
And then he left.
No one in the room had any idea who he was.
Ten minutes later, after the shock had worn off, the TA threw a problem at us, which was argued about and demonstrated on the chalkboard for the next fifteen minutes.
And then I had to leave, so I don't know what happened next.
But I'm still slightly in shock at some random stranger bursting in on an obviously private social event, monologuing for an extended amount of time, and requesting to film us justifying religious views. Although we didn't have a choice, really. He just pulled out his camera.
And now I realize he didn't even say his name.
We gathered in a little classroom on the seventh (but really the third) floor of the physics building. Seven students, the professor, and one of the TAs.
At first, the atmosphere was a bit tense. None of the students really knew what to expect, until the British professor decided that the water was hot enough to make tea, at which point the Chinese TA explained that the ideal water temperature for black tea was 94°C, and 76°C for green tea. A discussion on the proper brewing of tea by type ensued, with the bewildered students looking on.
I've drunk tea before. That is, I have put a mug of water in the microwave for one minute and thrown in a bag of Earl Grey maybe a grand total of five times in my life. Judging from their dumbfounded expressions, so had the other students.
Eventually, through the natural flow of conversation, we decided to introduce everyone, as not all of the students were in the same sections and the professor didn't know five of the seven of us present personally (both sections combined total over a hundred students). As the second person introduced himself, a stranger burst in.
"Oh, I'm sorry, this is the wrong room. Is this a class? You look pretty cozy. Hey! Cookies! Can I have a cookie?"
Somehow, he ended up staying in the room for ten more minutes, talking the entire time about anime, Japanese, religion, films, casts (his arm was in one), candy, his father, and his roommate, who was out of town for the weekend, so it was OK for his dad to stay in his room. He asked to film us for a project he was presenting at some film festival somewhere, he would ask us about our religious views and have us prove them on camera. Except that he did not have any batteries. So he promised to return later if he found batteries. But before leaving, he wrote his YouTube address (It's Japanese, it's from this manga series I read, did you know I went to an anime convention? I went to the Chinese Lantern Festival a couple nights back, that's where they wrote in Kanji on my cast, it means God, rainbow, cloud. The Japanese have three alphabets, you know? Kanji is for symbols, Katakana is a syllabary, and Romanji is for foreign words [actually, there's four alphabets if you count Romanji, because it is the Latin alphabet, NDLR] [also, that last part was entirely quoting him.]) on the board so we could look at his movies and give them favorable ratings, and did you know it was really easy to create an account?
And then he left.
No one in the room had any idea who he was.
Ten minutes later, after the shock had worn off, the TA threw a problem at us, which was argued about and demonstrated on the chalkboard for the next fifteen minutes.
And then I had to leave, so I don't know what happened next.
But I'm still slightly in shock at some random stranger bursting in on an obviously private social event, monologuing for an extended amount of time, and requesting to film us justifying religious views. Although we didn't have a choice, really. He just pulled out his camera.
And now I realize he didn't even say his name.
2 comments:
One certainly never knows what is going happen next in your sagas!
Whilst GB may disagree Earl Gey is not proper tea! Proper tea is made on building sites by big navvies and consist of a cheap tea blend (lots); condensed milk (a little) and sugar (lots). Stir well and if the spoon doesn't melt it ain't right!
Firstly I suspect that no American will understand what a navvie is. Secondly I strongly (10 on a scale of 1 to 5) that Earl Grey is not a proper tea. As a drinker of 2 cups of green tea with lemon on waking (made with water just below boiling point), Lady Grey or Earl Grey tea with breakfast (black, weak, no milk)and Roobosh Tea with lunch (no milk) I would respectfully suggest that I am well qualified to comment on the subject.
I do drink coffee in between teas and I never drink tea after 5 in the afternoon (because then I regard it as acceptable to drink red stuff out of a bottle without being called an alcoholic).
I'm sure that there must have been more to this posting upon which I could have commented but, if so, I've forgotten.
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