Paulo asked me to come to class early today. We normally have class at 5:30, and he'd asked for 4:30. No way, I said, but conceded to try for quarter to 5.
I got there 4:40-ish. And Waited. And waited. and continued to wait, filling out a news-stand logic puzzle. I listened to 2 full albums on my MP3 player. I checked with the receptionist: he knew I was there, he just wasn't ready for me yet.
After 6:05 rolled around I'd had enough. I went to this secretary and told her I was leaving. I was annoyed. frustrated. direspected. a little angry.
She said paulo had called me up to his office. was he for real? i decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and walked upstairs to find his office empty. He was still in his meeting. apparently he thought that changing the ambience of my waiting room might get me to stay longer.
I waited for 5-10 more minutes, after which he finally showed. I was pissed. I've taken alot of shit from him and now was time to unload.
"David, how are you!"
"I've been waiting for over an hour. imagine if i had come at 4:30."
my voice was cold and bitter in its grittingly polite, monotonous lack of emotion.
"I'll pay you for your time!"
"that's not the point paulo. I udnerstand you're a busy man but just because my hours are flexible doesn't mean my time is worthless. these are my last twoo weeks in town. there are many other things I could be doing with my time. would like to be doing with my time. This is my job, paulo. you show little respect for the class and disrespect me on a regular basis by regularly taking phone calls, leaving to do business, starting class late and ending class early."
"i totally agree. i understand---"
"No paulo, you don't. I have a flexible schedule and not that many students, so i usually put up with this sort of stuff. i'm a patient guy. but you're about to get a new teacher and he may not be. he may have a much tighter schedule and will not be able to wait around for you like this. also--"
"yes, i understand. I need--"
"No paulo. let me finish. also, it's very difficult to teach when you don't know how long the lesson is going to be....."
and so on. I was calm and composed the whole time, wearing the poker face of anger only people who smil and laugh all the time can pull off. Lecturing him i experssed most of my personal grief with him as a student throguh the lens of his tentaitve new teacher's needs and limits. it aws all stuff i'd bitched about to others before, including students, so it was a long time coming and bound to happen given that our time together was coming to a close.
He made excuses. "i was busy." "I thoguht you were teaching felipe" (another client in his office who wasn't scheduled for class today). Doesn't matter. not the point. i wasn't. you still show very little respect for me or my classes.
He said he was free until 7. i was really not in the mood to give him a class by this point, but i decided to play ball anyway.
and THAT's how i ended up doing the most passive aggressive thing i've ever done in my life.
"ok, we're going to play a little game. a vocab exercise. I want you to put yourself in my shoes. I want you to try to come up with as many words as you can to express what emotions you might be feeling. I've already given you two: 'annoyed' and 'frustrated.' can you thin of any others?"
he stared blankly at me, trying to beat his poker face with mine. it's a game he plays when he doesn't like an exercise. it's his time so i usually just give up and little him read out loud from Cigar Afficionado or Wine Spectator (yeah, he's that kinda guy. i really loathe our classes). But not this time.
"Can you come up with any other words for how you might feel, besides annoyed or frustrated?"
I waited for a response, face unchanged in cold crystallzied boredom since he called me up to his office.
"you know what, i've got this really bad headache. right here, on the back of my head. how about we have class tomorrow?"
"we've already scheduled for class tomorrow, paulo. so yeah"
"yeah I just really want to go home and rest. it's this headache."
"Ok Paulo. I'll see you tomorrow."
Damn right you've got a headache. ME. lecturing him, getting m gripes off my chest, then subtley telling him to go fuck himself with an english exercise had been cathartic enough. i already had the win. i didn't mind letting the control freak end the class on his own terms. i didn't have a class prepared anyway.
12/5/07
sipping a caipirinha from 6:20(?)-6:50. could've gone home/somewhere cool at 4 after my last class, but instead i've gotta deal with rush hour. really, paulo wasted 2.5 hours of my time, not just 1.
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