I'll Take Third World for $600, Alex

Answer: This period event gives students a rock solid excuse for not studying.

Q: What is a blackout?

Yes, the lights, and the internet, and the water pump, went out yesterday. By the time I got out of class, nothing was on, and it was just about dark. As it turns out, though, this worked out perfectly. For the rest of the week, I had basically blown off the other students to bury myself in way too many verbs. Last night, though, that was not possible (though one student did take a picture of his books on his desk with a candle there, eerily reminicent of the Middle Ages). Instead, I had the opportunity to just kick back and enjoy the (very weird) company.

When I returned to the house, the rest of the students were sitting outside with a couple of candles on the table waiting for their rice, which they were to top with the already cooked curry, to finish. In light of the fact that the lights were out and the water pump wasn't working, I took a pass. Anyway, we passed the time with some idle chatter a few riddles that inevitably lead to at least a couple of embarassed people who hadn't realized that the answer had been discovered ten minutes earlier.

Before we knew it, four hours had passed and it was time for them to get some sleep and me to get some studying done. At some point during this diversion, the lights came back on, but we immediately turned them off. It was a rather pleasant evening. Unfortunately, though, my attempts to study thereafter were torpedoed by my inability to get past one of the riddles.

It wasn't as much fun, though, when I woke up this morning to find that the lights were once again out. It was miserably hot, and there was almost no activity in the town. Nonetheless, I did have yet another painful lesson. Fortunately, my teacher has discovered the fact that I'm linguistically retarded and took it much slower today. It'll be an interesting weekend as I try to motivate myself to study and find a place to watch the Final Four at the same time. (Hmmm, wonder which the higher priority is?)