migblog

so my gsi for mcb 61 is this guy named ben. he was a bachelor of science in chemistry, and now he's a graduate student in the molecular and cell biology department here at cal, studying brain, mind and behavior. first day of discussion, and ben is trying to introduce himself to us. he gave us all cute little index cards to put our names and email addresses on them so that he can peruse and pick on us all later. why am i bothering to describe him to you, you ask?

because, for what he's worth, ben can't teach for crap. if there ever were an antithesis for a great teacher, it would be ben. not that i'm taking away his credibility for teaching, i mean, he is a gsi, and he's getting paid for it. it's just that he's not very good at it. one of his favorite lines seems to be "don't pay attention to me/ what i'm doing/ what i'm writing on the board" or "if you have black lightning lecture notes, then you already know what i'm going to talk about." he's crazy. "you can leave anytime after 9/30, basically." it's kinda very sad when your professor is more interesting than your gsi. but then again, noli said that presti's fucking high every time he starts a lecture, so that would explain as to why we're having so much fun.

my spanish gsi is another character. adam is teaching us about critical analysis of literary texts in spanish -- and yeah, he's from new jersey. he can try for a while to get volunteers, but it'll probably be the same seven people who talk in class: the three native speakers, and the four kids who got 5's on the AP test still eager to test out their spanish abilities. it's fun to watch people say "like" and "you know" in spanish fodder. it's fantastic. and adam pushes for office hours, since he holds them at caffe milano on bancroft, next to jamba juice, so he in turn advertises jamba juice for us to go to caffe milano. ah, the logic of these twentysomethings.

as for my portuguese gsis, cesar and valeria, i think i really like how they teach the classes. it doesn't hurt that they're native portuguese speakers, and it doesn't hurt that they have these cute big brazilian accents whenever they speak in english. you can just imagine them walking down a street together, chitchatting in portuguese, or attending the english language program here at the extension building trying their hands out in english. you really should hear them speak english, though. it's kinda cute and kinda annoying at the same time.

i wonder then: what if i end up becoming a gsi? i wouldn't mind; i'll probably like it. and then there's the publishing of stuff and the doctorate and the intensive research. and then the assistant professorship, and then the tenure, and then the settling. yeah. so like, when i'm forty, maybe.

good thing i don't have to worry about graduate school for at least four more years.

posted by Open Source Food @ 4:12 PM