School begins 2

Wow, lots of comments. Here are my responses... Yeah, yeah, I'm really lazy. But this is what I'm best at. Ask a question or make a comment and I'll ALWAYS have something to say... Especially the last response to ts3c6cwo.

tiggerj: maybe I can sneak into the lectures using my old badge (and just take a nap or read the newspaper...) (nap in the frontrow, newspaper in the backrow) I'll periodically raise my hand to point out errors in the formulas... ooops wrong class...
Tigger, you can come to my class anytime... you don't have to sneak in. Question is: Will you be able to READ the formulas in Japanese. Hah!

mmh: hope it will be a fun year! 
Thanks! Words of encouragement are always welcome...

sleetse: hope you meet some new-good students and your academic year is a safe one. 
Is this Sleetse talking? Wow, I knew you were a softy at heart. 

nefarious_hatter: Of all your new students, which ones stand out the most. There's always one or two each semester that the teachers take extra time out of their personal schedule just to help out or get to know. 
This may sound like a hackneyed response, but I make a concerted effort to treat my students equally. Of course, J majors are more equal than others, but that is because I know them better and see them more frequently. I have come to know many non-majors just as well, so it boils down to how much face time we have. And as I have mentoined many times, I treat them as if they were my own kids. Christine0109, below, is one such non-major who doesn't even attend my school anymore...

those_days: sounds like you have your work cut out for you.
Ah, an understanding ear....

Piratechan: wow, that's a lot of classes. I don't think they expect profs here to teach that often. Course, art studios are 3 hours long, so maybe it all adds up. Have an execellent semester, and I hope your students aren't idiots. 
No, my sutdents can be many things, but rarely idiots. And if you add them up, my classes equal 3 hours, they're just split over two days...

Christine0109: sensei!! ahh i wish i was in ur bungo class! unfortunately im not taking japn this sem, cus the prof here is extremely boring. i almost died last sem. ha ha. but i so wish i was back in DC with everyone.. have a great semester! ganbattene!
I wish you were here, too! In fact, you're still on my roster... Better do something about it otherwise you-know-who is gonna end up charging you fees...

ts3c6cwo: Mr. Onigiriman, Do you ever fear an another terroist attack teaching at a school in the Washington D.C. area? 
Dude! I never feared until you had to mention it! Geez... But seriously, I'm not that afraid. If I die, I die. What am I gonna do? let my life be dictated by terrorists? I have been on the cusp of disasters a number of times: In 1989, I was in the Bay Area during the San Fransisco earthquake. Scary rocking. I was sitting on the can and had the worst thought in the world--"Will they find my body with my pants around my ankles?!?" In 1995, I was gonna take the Hibiya line to go to the Bank of America in the Arc Bldgs near Roppongi. I woke up late and cursed that I wouldn't be able to make my deposit before noon. but when I got to Shibuya to change lines they wouldn't let me into the subway. It was the day of the sarin gas attack. Had I left in the morning when I had planned, who knows what would have happened... and of course there was 9/11... But while I have been on the cusp of disaster, my sister has been on the threshhold. She lived in the Marina during the '89 SF quake and had to evacuate her apartment for 3 weeks. And now, she works in NY in the one of the international finance bldg. right across from the WTO. Fortunately, she happened to be in LA that day tending to our then-ill mother, but some of her colleagues saw the explosion and collapse of the bldg. We used to laugh with our mom, saying that she survived Hiroshima and we inherited her surviving-averting-disaster genes... *sigh*