Holy Sweet Mother of Toadstools, I am TIRED

We just came in from a 12 hour day of interviews, meals, and a guest lecture (we attended, did not deliver). The people here are amazingly nice, and the facilities are beautiful. John met with all the biggie wiggies, and I got a tour of things teacher-related. One of my favorite parts was observing a tech writing class taught by a colleague/friend. He is really great with teaching and technology, but what visiting his class taught me the most is that you cannot assume many things with these students. The students, 50% Qatari and 50% a mix of other (mostly Middle Eastern) cultures, are smart and willing to learn, but the way that K-12 works here isn't nearly as structured as in other parts of the (Western) world. For example, many of these students didn't learn to type before coming to college. So, Joseph was careful to walk them through basic information, carefully reading and helping students understand/think about the assignment steps (how long does it need to be? what are headings again?). These are "foundation skill" details that I would have taken for granted.

He then had the class break into two groups, each one summarizing a section from the textbook (a chapter on persuasive writing...the same book I used until this spring!). He let me ask questions, and I required them to apply the summaries to new contexts ("Tell me of an example in your own life where you see logical appeals at work"). They struggled a little with the summarizing, mainly I think because they were trying to "get the wording right" (English language vs. concepts), but when I asked these follow-up questions (and told them not to look back in the book), they did a good job. Joseph was introducing an assignment today that is integrated into a mechanical engineering class--that m.e. prof grades the technical aspects and Joseph guides/grades the writing. I was really glad to see that sort of cross-class assignment--if you can't do that sort of teaching/learning in a school (small/good faculty) like TAMU-Q, then where can you do it?

One of my friends/colleagues drove me to lunch in the hotel district (lots of construction). There was hardly any traffic, and before long he was driving down one way streets the *wrong* way to get to our destination (like downtown Austin, the street patterns were confusing). "Hey, um, I think this is one way," I said. "Well, it's paved and there's nothing in the way, so we're driving down it," was the reply. lol

Tonight was a special (fancy) lecture, delivered by a noted Stanford professor, something about modeling reservoir capacity. I made it to the third slide before I was 100% lost. The first slide was the title slide, the second had his credentials, and the third said "inflow-outflow=capacity." I was pretty impressed that I made it that far! Then he put up some equation with capital Greek sigmas and a bunch of crazy subscript letters and my brain went, "STOP! YOU HAVE HAD ENOUGH AND WILL NOW GO TO SLEEP." At which point I started doing that horrible sleep-sitting up head bob thing.

John had good interviews. This looks encouraging, but of course, I imagine they just work hard to be encouraging to everyone...because they are good professionals. :)

Tomorrow we leave at 7 AM to tour the British school, the Qatari International school, and a hospital (brief drop in on the last, just to see). Then John goes back for more interviewing and I go to lunch with Joseph. At that lunch, I will deliver the 3.5 pounds of Reese's baking chips and 1.5 pound of York Peppermint Patties that I brought over here for him.

Tomorrow afternoon is then a housing tour and dinner with some fancy folks. I can't wait for the house tour and will take pictures. They call them "villas" here.

Here are a few photos of the TAMU-Q building. It was built by a famous Mexican architect and his son. The pink marble reminded us of the pink Texas granite.

These one word signs are all over the campus.

An indoor water feature. TAMU-Q Aggies respectfully admire it.
TAMU-CS Aggies would make it into a giant bubble bath.

Beautiful Arabic calligraphy carvings on the wall.

The research area is blue, which helps lost newbies like me find their way to the academic area, which is not blue.

I didn't have a good vantage point for the whole building, but this is the front.
Notice the super tall door--that is to let big knowledge in (like a palace door).
The front wall is sloped inward...this architecture and the colors reminded us a LOT of New Mexico.

PS: You are correct in deducing that I am not nearly as funny when jet lagged and deprived of free First Class bottomless vats o' champaign.