Chat

I have been enjoying my first year here. The classes are fun to teach, I have almost enough time for research, and the students are for the most part good. Teaching majors of course helps, and while there are a few majors who seem to be majoring in this subject for very unknown reasons, I have few complaints. The really good students are quite excellent, and I like to think I've made an impression on them.

For one, several of them regularly come by my office "just to chat." They usually have five or so minutes before another class, and so they come by. Luckily it has usually been during times that I wasn't that busy (although it can be distracting). There is a part of me that thinks there should be more separation between faculty and students, but at the same time, I have had this type of relationship as a student (both undergrad and grad), so it's definitely not out of the ordinary.

Of course, I am egging them on. I have already had a few discussions about California with some students, both of whom are from there, and just to have some fun I just discuss all of the things wrong with the state. (Which aren't always bad things, for example, I have said that I am too bitter a person to be able to handle such perfectly sunny weather all the time, and that's sort of true.) One of my students is in love with In N Out burger, which is a statewide burger chain out there. C and I always go there to eat when we're out there, and while it's good, it does not hold a candle to What-a-burger in Texas.

That being said, my mother in law gave me an In N Out t-shirt for Christmas, so I am wearing it to class today (it's going to be 65!), because I can only imagine that this one student will probably freak out a bit. It'll be fun.