Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Office hour

I have to have at least one office hour per week for the class I am teaching. Not having an actual office, for the office hour I sit at the local coffee/pastry shop. After announcing like 20 times to my class that my "office hour" will be at the coffee shop, I realized that I was implying that the coffee shop was in fact my office. The next time I announced it, I muttered that my office hour will be at the coffee shop, "where I also sell delicious pastries." They thought that was funny. So now, whenever I announce the hour, I talk up the "delicious pastries" and "refreshing beverages" that "I also sell" at the coffee shop. But they don't laugh anymore. Weird, huh? 'Cause now I am getting really into this whole owning the coffee shop scam. I might start using "my" coffee shop as an example of things in European history, like how the Bolsheviks initially let the peasants own their own farms, just like I own "my" coffee shop. Though that doesn't make complete sense, because "my" coffee shop is a national chain.

2 comments:

Tom said...

what about the cake bakers!?!

your small american said...

It's Au Bon Pain. And the other day, one of my students said he'd leave his paper in my mailbox, and when I asked if he knew here my mailbox is (it's in the history department) he said of course he did--it's at Au Bon Pain, right? He was completely serious.