Sunday, April 13, 2014

A Comedic Workplace

I'm so going to start writing down all the random things that the students at the tuition centre do. They bring all kinds of comedy and ridiculousness in between classes (sometimes even during them) that I really shouldn't waste all this blog-worthy hilarity. 

So as I previously mentioned, I started working at this tuition centre at Hartamas called Pusat Tuisyen Minda Inspirasi in January. It's been really great and I'm really enjoying the work and the company of our nutty kids. Yup. Enjoying time spent with kids. Who would have thought, right?

Last Monday I was teaching Yusuf, one of my Maths students about locuses. And I just heard his voice in my head reminding me that they're called loci. FINE Yusuf you one upped me this time, they are called loci. I'm surprised he learned anything that day though. See, I have this eye infection that back then looked like someone had just punched me in the eye (Now I look like the hunchback of freaking Notre Dame, but who's keeping track right?) that really fascinated almost all the students in the centre. On the bright side of this sudden spotlight, some students who I think had never had a reason to talk to me finally did and I made new student friends YAY. 

Anyway back to Yusuf. He was so distracted by my eye that whenever I taught him something, all he would say was "Does it hurt?" or "How long has it been there?" or "Have you seen a doctor?". I felt the love. I did. 

OR.

He could have just been distracting me from locuses.

FINE I meant loci. Jeez.

Yusuf story, check.

On to the two little boys who are pretty much the darlings of the whole centre. Kabir and Luvdeep are Larry's students and they're at the centre almost every day. When they're not being crazy mischievous or rock-concert loud they. Are. ADORABLE!

One day when I was passing by Larry's class to grab a book or a cup of coffee or something, I did a classic double take and walked back to the door of his classroom to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Allow me to describe what I saw.

Kabir was sitting quietly and doing his work all diligently and Larry, having already given the boys their work to do, was getting some stuff done on his laptop. And what was Luvdeep up to, you ask? Oh nothing much, he was doing his work at the table too.

Except he was....under...the table.

Larry looked up to see my puzzled 'What the hell' face staring at him from outside the class. He shrugged helplessly and gave me a 'Don't even ask' face in reply while Luvdeep smiled in wolfish mischief from under the table. I proceeded to laugh for the next 10 minutes at the mental image that refused to disappear for the next 10 minutes or so.

Then there's RJ's student Beatrix? Beatrice? who came around the other day offering us a box of chocolate, saying, "Food?" Larry and I laughed and we had a nice discussion about whether or not chocolate could be described as food. It was a 'you had to be there' kind of funny but I wanted to blog about it anyway :D

Oddly I have met three students who remind me of my friends!! Only one of them is my student though. Her name is Leea and she reminds me sooo much of my friend Elisabeth. The way they talk is really similar. Then there's this Form 1 boy Daniel who is a carbon copy of my friend Chek, only of a different race lol. And there's this boy Hardiv who I could swear has been cloned using my friend Sanjeev's DNA. 

It's very interesting. I have a theory that if I do this long enough I'll eventually have a student who reminds me of myself. I wonder if I'll love her or hate her for it lol.

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