Episode 6 | EVEN THE LECTURER GAVE UP

EVEN THE LECTURER GAVE UP

After an endless half an hour of chattering and the lecturers’ fruitless efforts in trying to get us to keep quiet and pay attention, the lecturers decided to bring the lecture to an end after choosing course reps and a few announcements. The lecturer asked for individuals to volunteer to be the course reps, and we were all amazed when one guy raised his arm up with the speed of lightening. The lecturer had hardly finished the sentence when his arm shot up. I was certain they briefed him about the responsibilities and privileges that came with the position. After they selected him as the main course rep, the services of an assistant course rep were needed, yet no individual was as brave as the course rep to shoot up an arm.

The lecturer had also decided that to promote equality among the sexes, since the course rep is a male, the assistant must be a female. After several fruitless attempts to get the females to volunteer, he chose an assistant. Immediately, the entire lecture hall went silent. He walked to the middle of the hall and gave the microphone to a girl on his right.

He introduced her as the assistant course rep. After the entire issue about who would be course rep had been settled, the TA announced that because our number was so huge, they would divide the entire class into three groups and each group would have a specified day to attend lectures. The creation of the groups was up to the executives and the TAs. The only time they would need our opinion was when we have any other lectures clashing with the day they have assigned us and we’d prefer that they make changes to our schedules

With that, my very first lecture in the University ended. It wasn’t as eventful as I had expected, but it was insightful.

FIRST LECTURE OVER

After the lecture had ended, we all filed out of the lecture hall in a not so orderly manner. To be honest, it was more of a survival of the fittest situation and I could not understand what the rush was all about. After a long while, my new friend (name withheld) and I finally made it out of the hall. We walked towards the various halls of residence, seeing as we were both residents on campus. We continued talking and in the course of our conversation he mentioned the fact that he was a resident of the Commonwealth hall. I immediately started the V-mate chant, and we laughed and conversed all the way to my hall. After he had left to his hall, I went to my room, ate supper, took my bath and called it a day.

ANOTHER SEARCH DAY

Tuesdays were one of the days during the week I grew to love during my first semester in the University. The reason was simple; Tuesday was one of my free days on campus. On Tuesdays, I literally had no lectures, and all I had to do was my assignments. Which meant I could work on extra-curricular activities and unfortunately, the search for accommodation was one of my extra-curricular activities during my first few weeks on campus. So on Tuesday, I continued my search for accommodation.

To be honest, my mom’s agitation and anxiety about my lack of accommodation on campus was a hundred times mine. So she asked my uncle to accompany me on my next search. He arrived on campus on Tuesday around 8am and we began the search. We began our search from Sarbah, then we moved to the other halls. With each hall tutor that vehemently said they had no accommodation available, the brief glimmer of hope in my heart diminished. We visited every hall on campus in hope of finally getting accommodation, but we found none.

After our fruitless visits to the various hall administrations where we got directed to the office of the hall tutor where the secretary would redirect us to the reception and the receptionist back to the secretary, we gave up and called it a day as it was already getting late, anyway. Before he left, he promised to send his son during the week so he’d take me around town to check if we could get any hostels off campus. I thanked him wholeheartedly for the help and went back to my hostel. Exhausted from the day’s walk, I ate supper, took my bath and went to bed.

7:30 IN THE MORNING?

Wednesday morning came along with my second lecture in the University; Sociology. In all honesty, it was one of those courses that I just couldn’t wrap my head around. It sounded more like Social Studies from Junior High School and Senior High School, but I wasn’t so sure and didn’t want to get my hopes up. The basic reason for which I ended my sweet sleep early that morning was the horrific fact that the lecture was at 7:30 in the morning. To be honest, I am a morning person, but there’s just so much an individual can endure early in the morning. The other reason was that it was also at JQB and I figured, once beaten, twice shy; I’d rather get a seat in front this time round.

I walked into the lecture hall around 6:40am and realized I was not the only one who disliked the thought of an early morning lecture, or maybe I was just early. There were less than ten students in the over 500 student capacity lecture hall. I walked towards the middle of the lecture hall and sat at the end of the third pew on the right. Realizing I had about a half an hour to spare before the lecturer finally makes it to class and being hardly able to keep my eyes shut, I plugged my earphones into my phone and ear and started blasting off some music.

NAP TIME

I put my head on the pew and began taking an early morning nap. A few minutes into my nap, I heard someone speaking to the entire class. I raised my head and saw a gentleman standing on the podium who introduced himself as a continuing student. He was there to preach. Thus, I was introduced to ‘the Legon preachers’. Apparently, every morning, they go round the various lecture halls where there were classes and preach for a few minutes before the lecturer’s arrival. Since I had hardly any control over my eyes, I put my head back on the pew and continued my nap.

OH THE LECTURER’S IN

After a few minutes, the hall became silent. I raised my head and realized the lecturer and the TA had finally arrived. The lecturer was a beautiful young woman with an equally beautiful dark skin. She was of average height and a complete contrast to her TA. Her TA was taller than her and was fairer in complexion. After introducing herself and her TA, she told us what we would do that morning. We would go through the course outline and then call it a day. She shared a few copies of the outline and told us she’d share the rest electronically on the Sakai LMS. When she said Sakai, I became so confused. What was Sakai and why had no one talked about it? Thankfully, she further explained what Sakai was all about and how we would sign up to get access to the resources she’d be sharing with us through that platform.

After what seemed like forever, the class eventually ended when there was nothing else to discuss. I checked the time, and we had only stayed for forty-five minutes. I walked out of the lecture hall and moved towards the hall to get myself some breakfast.

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to be continued...

PLAYLIST

Halleluya -- Johnny Drille & Simi

Dusk till dawn --Zayn Malik