I'm quite exhausted from the last two days. A fellowship of King's people from the Pharmacy Dept took off to a conference in Baltimore (of all places!) and subsequently I picked up a teaching shift for one of the guy's going along. So I had to teach his class the day before yesterday and then my normal class yesterday. Whew! I guess it's good practice if I want to become a professor, but I couldn't shake the feeling that this crop of students (we rotate through this lab every three weeks) were particularly clueless. I think I discovered my answer when I went though the rounds of questions I was asked.

Student: Can I go to the bathroom?
Me: Yes, of course.

Student: Hey, my answer is 50, I was supposed to get 5....
Me: Check your math.

Student: I've tired forever to work this thing, it's broken.
Me: Try plugging it in.

But over the last two days, this was the most frequent:

Student: It's dark now, can I go break my fast?
Me: Oh my God, yes! Go!

Poor little Muslims, starving themselves all day. Doesn't make for good science I think. I guess I'm not used to it, there aren't nearly as many Muslims in America as there are here (if you were a Muslim, where would you rather live?) but here they are everywhere. It's amazing. I think Ramadan is over on the 14th, thank goodness. I can't imagine how they feel; anyone who knows me knows I can't go more than about three hours without eating something!