Thursday, January 15, 2004

Five hours
Five hours of teaching today. It doesn't sound like much, but of course, us Norwegian have a special twist to torture a poor scholar. A Norwegian lecture at a college or university is supposed to be based on your own, original research, preferably done particularly for this class but at least something you, the teacher know intimately through your own efforts. It is supposed to relate this research to the topic the students are working on, and preferably be so packed with information that the students can write a textbook by taking notes. This means that after five hours, if my brain isn't swimming in its own juices, steamed by internal energy, I have done something very, very wrong.

But today is the last day of my personal hell-week this semester. It might get worse, but at least I haven't planned anything rougher for myself. Which means I can bitch about it, which always makes things easier to bear, you know.

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