What happens when a bearded man runs into a classroom, dumps a bag and runs off? Well, the result of this very incident was mild panic when most of my students thought that the aforementioned bag contained a bomb, seeing as, they assumed, the bearded man who ran off was possibly Islamic. The incident caused a few tense moments and was not the best way to kick off the course I was holding last Friday. In fact, I picked up the said bag and took it to what I hoped would be a safe distance should it actually have been a bomb – although it did feel rather lighter than I would have expected a bomb to have felt. Was I worried? Well, yes I was, a wee bit. I mean I could have ended up being spread all over the building, which would not have been too nice, I suppose. Had said bag really contained a bomb, I would have been hailed as a hero, possibly. As it happens, the whole event blew over quietly, which was what I was hoping for. Although my other half made me feel a lot better by telling me that she considers the place I work in to be a prime target for bombing types. If I'd realised this, then maybe I wouldn't have so readily picked up the bag.
As it transpired and after I had taken a look in the bag, there was nothing amiss. We later found out that the escaping man, who was totally oblivious to the panic he almost caused, was no more than someone who was new to the building and had dumped his bag in the wrong classroom. Still, it shows the level of paranoia which Bin Laden and his mob have managed to create.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
I've been super busy recently, but the product of all my long hours of hard work seem to have been appreciated, which makes me feel that all that hard slog was worthwhile. When given a task and a strict deadline, I'll push myself as hard as I can in order to finish what I'm doing. I'm no stranger to deadlines. In my last job missing a deadline meant quite literally my ending up in court. It never happened. Thank heavens: seeing as I had been given zero training on this issue by my ever-wise bosses. Knowing this is most probably what kept me out of court, I suppose.
In general I'm reasonably good at dealing with spur of the moment difficult type situations (I've had a little experience….), but I'm not so good at dealing with long term bad situations which just make me feel stressed.
Boy, am I glad that things are starting to quieten down a wee bit. It may even leave me with a little time to post more often on this here blog.
