More goodbyes
Jun. 12th, 2009 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livWent out for dinner with the Progressive folk on Wednesday night, and celebrated one of our students graduating on Thursday.
The Progressive farewell dinner was a really lovely occasion; we went to Dragon House at my suggestion. And the food was lovely as always, some very good starters such as highly spiced fresh cucumber, which is slightly odd as you expect cucumber to be refreshing rather than spicy hot, and sesame flavoured tofu, and among other things some really nice fish dishes for the main course. The service was less than brilliant; they were short-staffed and a little harried and it took a long time to bring food for the whole party of 10, and it was hard to get anybody's attention to ask for more drinks or whatever. But never mind, we had a really fun time chatting and relaxing together.
The group gave me Shabbat candlesticks, which I had asked for, but I hadn't asked them to choose a really interesting design, silver and sort of squarish dating from the 60s. And lots of people said sweet things to me about how I've made a big difference to the community and they will miss me and such. I was extra touched by the comments of two teenaged boys; they are at the stage where they're fairly surly in general, yet one gave me a spontaneous hug and the other a long speech about how much he's appreciated my teaching, probably the longest continuous comment I've heard him make on any topic in the past three years!
When I was making my way to the restaurant, I saw a man curled up in the corner of the metro station entrance. I was concerned about him; he didn't look like a bum who'd found a warm place to sleep, and I was afraid he might be hurt. One of the other members showed up as I was dithering about what to do, and she seemed fairly confident that he was just drunk, but I didn't feel comfortable not knowing whether he was sleeping off the alcohol or passed out from alcohol poisoning. In the UK I wouldn't have hesitated very much before asking station staff if anyone had been alerted and if not calling 999 myself, but with the language issue I felt embarrassed about it. I went to the restaurant to look for a native Swedish speaker and someone who knows the system and would be better able to judge who's the right person to talk to. By the time we got back to the station it was clear that other people were dealing with the situation though.
Thursday was actually two PhD graduations, one for a woman I know slightly, and one for the first of this year's crop of graduands in our group. I attended the full disputation for the latter; it went on for rather a long time, because the opponent was Scottish and conducted the examination as if it were a UK PhD that just happened to be in front of an audience. He asked detailed questions over the course of several hours, rather than a few symbolic or at least general questions appropriate for a Swedish public defence. His questions very good, mind you, incisive but still very much on the side of the candidate. But she was absolutely wrung out exhausted by the end, and asked for a 10 minute break because she could no longer remember elementary information.
Then there was the party, which was really good fun. It was a low-key thing, just in our lunchroom, with current and former colleagues, and her two teenaged kids doing most of the serving and washing up, as well as providing a really tasty white chocolate and coffee mousse for dessert, bless them. But it was ever so nice to just relax and hang out with people and eat tasty Italian food and not have to deal with any grand ceremony or wild party. And it was good to catch up with some of the folk from the group that we used to share a lab with but who moved to another part of campus a while ago.
The Progressive farewell dinner was a really lovely occasion; we went to Dragon House at my suggestion. And the food was lovely as always, some very good starters such as highly spiced fresh cucumber, which is slightly odd as you expect cucumber to be refreshing rather than spicy hot, and sesame flavoured tofu, and among other things some really nice fish dishes for the main course. The service was less than brilliant; they were short-staffed and a little harried and it took a long time to bring food for the whole party of 10, and it was hard to get anybody's attention to ask for more drinks or whatever. But never mind, we had a really fun time chatting and relaxing together.
The group gave me Shabbat candlesticks, which I had asked for, but I hadn't asked them to choose a really interesting design, silver and sort of squarish dating from the 60s. And lots of people said sweet things to me about how I've made a big difference to the community and they will miss me and such. I was extra touched by the comments of two teenaged boys; they are at the stage where they're fairly surly in general, yet one gave me a spontaneous hug and the other a long speech about how much he's appreciated my teaching, probably the longest continuous comment I've heard him make on any topic in the past three years!
When I was making my way to the restaurant, I saw a man curled up in the corner of the metro station entrance. I was concerned about him; he didn't look like a bum who'd found a warm place to sleep, and I was afraid he might be hurt. One of the other members showed up as I was dithering about what to do, and she seemed fairly confident that he was just drunk, but I didn't feel comfortable not knowing whether he was sleeping off the alcohol or passed out from alcohol poisoning. In the UK I wouldn't have hesitated very much before asking station staff if anyone had been alerted and if not calling 999 myself, but with the language issue I felt embarrassed about it. I went to the restaurant to look for a native Swedish speaker and someone who knows the system and would be better able to judge who's the right person to talk to. By the time we got back to the station it was clear that other people were dealing with the situation though.
Thursday was actually two PhD graduations, one for a woman I know slightly, and one for the first of this year's crop of graduands in our group. I attended the full disputation for the latter; it went on for rather a long time, because the opponent was Scottish and conducted the examination as if it were a UK PhD that just happened to be in front of an audience. He asked detailed questions over the course of several hours, rather than a few symbolic or at least general questions appropriate for a Swedish public defence. His questions very good, mind you, incisive but still very much on the side of the candidate. But she was absolutely wrung out exhausted by the end, and asked for a 10 minute break because she could no longer remember elementary information.
Then there was the party, which was really good fun. It was a low-key thing, just in our lunchroom, with current and former colleagues, and her two teenaged kids doing most of the serving and washing up, as well as providing a really tasty white chocolate and coffee mousse for dessert, bless them. But it was ever so nice to just relax and hang out with people and eat tasty Italian food and not have to deal with any grand ceremony or wild party. And it was good to catch up with some of the folk from the group that we used to share a lab with but who moved to another part of campus a while ago.
