It’s not like I’m really keeping tab of the months since I’ve started teaching. But I’m counting down the months until I get my first salary from UP. It’s three agonizing months laboring without a cent coming in for the work you do. And it’s not like my expected pay’s large or anything. As I jokingly remark, my monthly salary from teaching is just my gasoline allowance when I was working corporate. Harhar.

In any case, it’s a month into the semester and I’m still adjusting to the routine. I’ve been battling rages of flu and sniffles. Keeping a quarantined life for the past five months really placed me away from the germs and allergens of the Commonwealth Avenue. In so many ways, it’s really a killer road. And it’s killing me. The road. The travel. The pollution. Aargh!

I’m still busy Money Crashing with Principle 3 to get myself a car.

***

While I don’t want to play favorites, I just love a participative class and I’m getting that during my Tuesday and Friday afternoons. At least, in that class, at least half of the class has something to raise, question, and discuss.

I mean, I still think I’m not being a demanding instructor. I’m not burdening them with too many requirements (as opposed to those other professors who would assign requirements that even out-demand an undergraduate thesis in terms of effort). The most I require them to bring in class are their ideas with regard to their assigned readings. And what do I get in return? Dumb looks. Sure I can’t expect them to be kapalmuks a month into the class but a silent classroom isn’t what I need.

***

Last Thursday, one of my mentors, Prof. Magelende Flores celebrated her 75th birthday. The department’s language committee held a surprise party for her at overpriced Chateau Verde. It’s quite amazing since she and her husband, Dr. Frank Flores, are well into their seventies and they still seem to be in good shape. And it’s really nice that she’s still up and about teaching in our department. Being broke, I only got to give her copies of the textbooks I co-wrote. She’s really the one who encouraged me to write and publish. I just wished that I got to give her something really nice.

I really felt the odd guy there. Everyone’s in their 40s. Tina’s supposed to be the next young kid but she’s older than I am by 4 or five years, I guess. Ma’am Mila even jokingly remarked that in the next decade, they’ll be retiring and it would only be around two or three of us who’ll be around. A scary thought, indeed.

***

Thanks to the Illacrimo design release via LifeSpy we have finally breached the 100K unique eyeball mark. Yey!

But still, the summer slump is biting pretty bad.

Check out these other posts:

1. Towards a two-month working spree
2. Hanging tough, managing… barely
3. English language teaching and church hymns
4. Suck ups: a first
5. Benchmarking the graduate