A note about classes

All of my classes ("papers") are large. Asian studies and my 2 philosophy papers are held in class rooms larger than ftv 111, and they were full on the first day (but not every day after that!). 

My Asian studies professor is AMERICAN. He is huge with a long bushy white beard, bald on top, remaining hair long and pulled into a ponytail. He is pretentious and easily sidetracked, and usually sounds like a muffled vacuum cleaner. 

My Metaphysics teacher is old, with a deep nasally voice. He always smiles at us, which is nice, but he has the most annoying habit of licking his lips with this awful dry noise. His subject always makes him laugh, so he looks like he's enjoying a joke with the class. (We know nothing about the world, isn't it funny?)

My Logic teacher is very old, with huge hearing aids, and yet he is the smartest one of the bunch, because he has discovered the invention of wireless lavaliers. He's a pacer, but we can hear every word he says in crystal clearness, even at the back of the room, which is good, because 1's and 0's can get confusing. 

Kapa Haka is unlike any class I've ever been in. It's held in the Maori meeting house. To get in, we have to parade across the grass (stopping halfway in remembrance of the dead) and then take off our shoes to go inside. We have teatime halfway through class in a separate building. I kid you not, the department provides tea and coffee. Each week, a group in the class is assigned to bring food.

Class is taught by a family. Papa Napur, his son and his son's wife, and their friend. Random other Maori people will occasionally show up and help demonstrate dances - no introduction or anything, they just do it. Last class Napur's great-grandson (who was probably younger than 8) worked the over-head projector, putting up the words for the funny adults who had never learned them. Papa has to be at least 75. Probably in his 80s. He definitely has NOT figured out microphones, even though there is one provided in the room. Luckily the other teachers have. We learn by repetition. Sometimes they write out the words, sometimes it takes them a bit to do so. They haven't figured out the online resources (like Blackboard - here it's called Cecil) so anything we want to remember, we write down.

Right now we're learning the girls' song. The song is about how happy our spirits are, and how we welcome  you. Compare to the boys' song, the Haka (I die, I die, I live, I live) which has a much wider emotional range! The girls' song involves a dance with a poi - a ball on a string. Next class we make our own. We'll see how that goes!