Graduation and Mistranslation

My graduation ceremony for Leeds is on Thursday morning. I have been getting Facebook messages from my classmates and friends for weeks about making plans for reunions and parties this week since many of them are going back for the ceremony. It's making me a little sad that I don't get to join in the festivities or attend my master's graduation. I see no future plans for a PhD, so that was my last chance at a graduation ceremony. Poor me. Maybe my parents will take me out for a nice dinner or something to celebrate from a far.

Speaking of graduation, my brother graduated from UT last weekend. One thing I admire about my brother is that he has always had a vision and a goal. He wants to be a movie director. He has had this goal since he was about 15 and started making movies with his friends. He graduated from the RTF program at UT and has taken advantage of lots of opportunities to gain experience, and I have to say, I think he has a shot of making it. His plan is to move to LA in May. This plan is probably every parent's worst nightmare, but I think everyone in my family sees how hard he has worked to accomplish his dreams and are supportive of him. Yay Christopher!

I realized that I need to start blogging about all the funny things that happen at work. Working with international students lends itself to comedy. A few days ago, a man came into my office and wanted me to make a doctor's appointment for him. This is normal because many of my students are uncomfortable making phone calls because people can never understand their accent over the phone. Anyways, I asked him what was wrong and he tried to explain his symptoms to me but couldn't come up with the words in English. He pulled out his electronic dictionary and finally came up with translation for the problem he had: Herpes. He was looking at me with these big eyes and nodding his head up and down vigorously: "Yes, yes, I have herpes." I started to laugh. I guess I am not a very good counselor.

We got everything cleared up eventually.