Back to the grind...

Finally... back in Doha, and a ton of cool stuff has been goin' on around here lately. Let me catch you up...

At the start of this semester, the university was approached by the Supreme Education Council to start up a special science program for the country’s high schoolers. First off… we need more “Supreme” anythings. I would do anything to pad my resume with a title like “supreme” or “grand vizier” or “the enlightened.”

Any who… we were asked to prepare an in-depth class for a large group of juniors, and teach them mathematics, physics, and chemistry for two weeks… four hours a day. Everyone moaned and groaned about having to teach an additional class for two weeks… until they said that we would be paid HUGE sums of money to perform. Not being a professor, I thought I would be left out of the money pie, but thankfully I asked if anyone would want any chemical or physic demonstrations in class. Well, score a payday for me…

I worked with one of our new professors, a very cool Pitt-to-Houston transplant that I’ll call… #24 (inside joke in case he ever reads this.) #24 is a brilliant researcher and physicist… but is relatively new to teaching. Better yet, his wry, self-depreciating humor comes out best whenever he feels any social awkwardness… which is often thanks to him being a theoretical chemist. We get together and plan the next two weeks out of lectures and demonstrations. Our physics profs didn't want to be bothered by the lectures, so #24 took it upon himself to teach both chemistry and physics, and I would be doing the demonstrations for both classes.

Some of the demonstrations I did… colored flames from metal composition, thunderclap, liquid nitrogen ice cream (best ice cream ever!), projectile ballistics, centrifugal force, Ira Remsen’s nitric acid and copper, and non-Newtonian thixotropic fluids. Awesome stuff…

Things went well, if not a little boring. #24 found himself in front of a crowd of moderately spoiled rich kids, many of whom already knew the subjects, most of whom just did not give a damn. But like a good soldier, he kept going… no matter how many slings and arrows pierced his heart. He threw one kid out of the class about ten times for talking over him. The more the crowd became bored and restless, the more self-loathing #24 threw upon himself.

At one point he was explaining LeChatelier’s Principle, which a reaction will move to relieve any undue stress upon itself. “Think of it like a deer feeder. If you feed deer a fixed amount of food, all the deer will live. But if we cut the food by half, half of the deer will die.”

Stunned silence. The students just stared at him. I was in the back row trying not to piss myself with laughter. I spent many an afternoon just watching him wish he was eating glass instead of teaching this class… time well spent.

I blew the money I was going to get paid on a huge flatscreen HD TV, and a Playstation 3. Three months after teaching, I’m still waiting to get the other 80% of my money. #24 hasn’t been paid at all. I’m pretty sure it’s the gods testing his faith, like Job.