First Day of School

On the first day of classes at the university, these things happened:

1. I received an ovation from the incoming students for being American.
2. I was given a partial class schedule (I know the meeting times of one of my three classes).
3. I was not given any kind of class list, and I don't think I'll be getting one.
4. All of my students stood up when I walked into the classroom.
5. My students kept waiting for me to leave the classroom once class was over. After I realized why they were hanging around, I waved them off.

I also learned today that students aren't given final grades on an official transcript the way American students are. Students have these little passport-sized books called indexes that teachers fill out as students pass their final exams. Grades fall between 5 and 10, with 5 being a fail and 10 being perfect (if a students receives a 5, their index isn't filled out...students can retake their final exams to try to obtain a better grade). Instructors don't necessarily look at their grade books when filling the indexes out. Sometimes they look at what grades students received in the past, and sometimes it's just done by memory. I was told when I arrived that the two most corrupt fields in Kosovo are education and the hospitals. On the other hand, the police, however poorly paid, tend to be on the up-and-up.

I also realized today that even though I don't know when my classes meet, at least I know what classes I am teaching. Not all instructors know yet what subjects they are teaching this semester (and the semester started today). I'm not sure what to do about tomorrow. I have other things I need to do, so I can't run over to the university to check my class times. It's a funny system. The schedule may change, too. This makes it really tough to try to schedule anything else (like my class of high school students, or workshops, or conversation groups, or any of my other duties and responsibilities).

For someone as time-oriented as I am, it's challenging to adopt a more relaxed view of time.