Football, Anyone?

I haven’t seen much of my husband recently because of soccer/football. Each department has a team, and the university takes these football matches very seriously. Any boy who is on a department team is excused from classes and even exams. When I found out, I was absolutely flabbergasted (and disgusted).

I think E joined his team to play football, and not as an excuse to miss classes, and he’s been incredibly dedicated. He goes to every practice and every match. But for some reason, he is the only person on the team that hasn’t seen any playing time. Apparently, some of the other players saw the scars on his body and told the coach. The coach asked E what had happened. Personally, I think it’s nobody’s business, and E told the coach the same. He’s been benched ever since. Yet, I’m impressed that he still goes to the matches, even in the pouring rain.

I love to see E’s dedication, but I’m a bit nervous. The matches finish this week—the last week of classes. When, exactly, is he (and all the other players, including some of my students) supposed to make up exams before finals start?

For whatever scheduling reason that I don’t understand, my students have midterms this next week and finals the two following weeks. I was disappointed, but not surprised, that I had terrible attendance this last week. Most students have gone home on self-declared vacations for the three weeks between exams. It really boggles my mind. Wouldn’t you at least attend all your classes the week before midterms?

Because I am evil, I’ve had my students working on a project for the last three weeks. They will turn in this project on Wednesday for their last exam score. Since only about 1/3 of the students have attended over the last three weeks, I’m afraid only 1/3 of the students will pass the exam. But honestly, I don’t feel guilty at all.

Wednesday was a holiday—Youth and Sports Day. But because E had a match, I spent the day preparing my exams and doing paperwork for my fellowship. I hope to leave for the US in exactly four weeks from today, and I am starting to feel a little bit giddy. I can’t wait until E can come with me to the states. Last night he saw a video of a rollercoaster. He’s never been on one, and I can’t wait to experience so many things with him for the first time. I promised him we’d go to an amusement park—and he’d be scared out of his mind.

For my last American Culture class on Friday night, I invited Mike the ETA and E to be guest speakers. Mike talked about his experiences as an American in Turkey. And E talked about his experience marrying a foreigner. My students were very excited by it all. My group of girls went gaga over Mike and probably wished they’d had a male teacher all semester. And the students loved plying E with questions: Why would you marry a foreigner? What is wrong with Turkish girls? Can our teacher cook? Will you have children? What will you name them? And I enjoyed just sitting back and watching it all.