a wild goose chase!

Today, I went on a wild goose chase. The goose that I was chasing was my math homework.

Yesterday, neary the very very end of Algebra Lineal y Geometria Analitica, the professor pulled out three pieces of paper that he had written on. He gave the three papers to one of my classmates and said something. I'm not sure what, but I think it was either a) this is your homework due Monday, or b) these are the problems that are going to be on Tuesday's quiz. Either way, we're all supposed to get copies of these three pieces of paper. There are two copy centers at UCSP, and professor often send stuff there for us to retreive. I figured that that's what I had to do. My classmate would bring the papers to a copy center, and later on I would go to the copy center and request a copy of those mysterious papers.

But, I didn't want to assume that I knew what was going on, so I asked a classmate what we're supposed to do. And she confirmed to me (I think--at least that's what I understood!!) that, yes, I need to go to a copy center and make copies of these papers. Great, I can do this!

I decided to go to the university early today so that I could make these copies. The copy center is kind of like a mad house. There's a counter, and lots and lots of students crowd around the counter because they need to make copies. Behind the counter is the copy machines and some ladies who do the copying. I have not yet figured out what the method of organization is at these copy centers. For example, is there a line? Or does the loudest person get helped next? I don't know. Sometimes you just have to wait a very long time. In the United States, many things are designed so that time is spent efficiently. The less waiting, the better. That is is not so here in Arequipa. Here, time is a tool, not a master. Making time-efficient things is not a priority. Waiting is common, and not a problem.

Back to my wild goose chase. I arrived at school and realized that Friday afternoons are a good time to go to the copy center. There was hardly no one there!! I told one of the women who was working what I needed, and she told me to check the other copy center because that professor's materials are at the other center. Okay. I headed toward the other copy center, and spoke with another lady there. She told me that the pages that I was looking for were not there either. I headed back to the first copy center. The woman there was very patient with me. I told her that the papers that I was looking for were not at the other copy center, and I asked her if there was anything else that I should do. She suggested that I talk to the secretaria academica.

I went to the office of the academic secretary and explained what was going on. She tried to call my professor, but was unsuccessful, and she sent me to another office. I went there and told my story again. This time, the secretary there looked in a folder, but there were no papers from my professor there.

So I went home.

The good news: in all of those interactions I had, I think I mostly understood what people were saying and they understood me! They never looked at me like I wasn't making sense (I know that look well)! Of course, there must have been some misunderstanding somewhere... because otherwise I would either have the homework or I would know why I'm not supposed to have it. What DID the professor say??

The bad news: I don't have the homework, nor do I know where it is what it is or if it's even homework. But you know... that's really okay.

In the past I've never had a hard time figuring out how to get the homework. I've had the privilege of instictively knowing because I've grown up in the same culture where I have gone to school. However, suddenly my instincts aren't helping me. My instints say "look in the syllabus" or "call a friend". I don't know how to get a hold of any of my classmates, and the syllabus does not list the homework assignments like they often did at Calvin. I'm realizing again that must depend on Jesus Christ, because I truly cannot do things on my own.

I like this song: