Wednesday, September 3

Naa started late today so I got up and went before anyone else except Sunshine woke up. Even Sunshine didn’t wake up properly. It got off Irma’s bed and crept out to climb on the sofa and fall asleep again.

Jutta was at work before me and we set about getting Lynda.com into shape. I used their neat Excel template to create a user list and then uploaded it. I set everything up and then at 11:15 we met the third year students. I gave them their welcome emails and they registered and logged in. They were all enthusiastic and some were very enthusiastic. I showed them how to subscribe to my Playlist for the course, and we were off.

After lunch we had our regular session, which again raced ahead at breakneck speed. Kirsten said, “this is all just so logical that I can’t stop getting it right”. At this rate we will cover this and the next course before this course has ended. While I was concluding the class the Arcada start-of-year inscription had come and gone. The rector had given a speech welcoming all the new students and they had now gathered downstairs to meet the staff over wine and snacks, with a band provided by the older students.

Jutta, Andrej, Tomas and I went down to mingle. It is a semi-formal party, destined to end after an hour or two. Now I am in the main square with a small glass of wine and several snacks, talking with Passi from the band I recorded an introduction for. He is a friend of one of the new students. I am being asked questions by students I have never met and answering them gamely. Some of them are asking me if the wine is really finished. Apparently two boxes of red and two boxes of white don’t go very far among two hundred people. The snacks, on toasted bread or crackers, however, are both delicious and endless.

After a few minutes I will leave because I have a Skype meeting scheduled with Erik from Odense. We will have unusual Skype problems but manage to do everything needed. We will agree to research and lead a joint online course that will culminate in a production or a critical essay. I will promise to write a draft proposal tomorrow morning.

At 18:30 we will conclude and I will pack up and go home. Irma will be seeing Hannu, and Naa will be at her second journalism workshop.