Makes me sad

The semester has come to an end.  I have one exam to give tomorrow.  I had a couple of really nice classes this semester, but I had one class that may be the worst class I've ever taught.

One particularly irritating student made snide comments in Arabic followed by mocking laughter every time I turned to the board to write something. Twice I caught him cheating on quizzes.  He never even bothered to do the last two major assignments I gave. He NEVER did homework. He came late to class every day until I threatened to kick him out of class permanently - and then he came to the final exam 15 minutes late. This student is repeating the class because he failed it last semester. He had a D going into the final exam.

So...I get this email today.

I know I was not the best student this semester and i was not up to your hopes of me as a good student especially the last two weeks, and I do not know what is my exact stand in the course but I know that i was trying to do my best and i could not. I had a lot of family problems back in my country at the end of this semester so i could not concentrate plus I had a lot of projects and finals the week before the finals week. the reading assignment and the reflective essay are the only major assignment that i did not do for this whole semester. 

I do not know what could be my grade for the course but If I did not pass it, I will get out of the university and I will lose 60 credits and three years I spent finishing them.

I know that this has nothing to do with you or with my grade, but I think that I did good in the final today and I hope that you may understand my situation.

sorry for bothering you and taking out of your time, and it was great for me being taught by you.

Thanks in advance.

Well, he didn't do well in the final.  I don't believe his excuses.

Another student, who was a borderline B+/A- student sent me this.

As you know I really worked hard for this course and honestly I enjoyed every assignement we had to do. My GPA is low and I need to raise it in order to get a financial aid. Therefore if you see that I deserve to get an A in the course please sir help me and I would be really thankful if you took my situation ino consideration. And I would really like to thank you for this great semester.......

Is it any wonder that degrees here are looked at askance?  I was considering adjusting his grade up a little because he did work hard in class, but now I don't think so.  The fact that these two students thought that this would work seems to me to be an indication that it works on some professors.

I am really going to enjoy my summer vacation, which starts in a couple of days.

New driver's license

When I first moved to Dubai more than ten years ago, I got a Dubai driver's license.  It was good for ten years.  When I came back to the UAE last August, I rented a car for 6 months; then I bought a car.  The rental agency had a copy of my driver's license.  The car dealer had a copy of my driver's license when I bought the car a couple of months ago.  The insurance agent had a copy of my driver's license.  No one noticed that my license expired last year in September.  For almost 6 months, I've been driving with an expired driver's license.  Part of the problem was that the Dubai Traffic Authority had an old address, so they couldn't contact me to let me know.  The other problem is that I, like most people, don't look at the expiry date on my driver's license very often.  Fortunately, I didn't have any accidents, but every day that I drive in the UAE, I think I could easily have one.

At any rate, the university has a traffic police officer who comes to the campus every day or two.  Today, he was 45 minutes late.  Then he told me that I could go to ANY Regional Transit Authority outlet in Dubai to transfer my file to Sharjah, then get Sharjah to renew it.  The RTA website has dozens of outlets listed, so I chose one that was listed as being in Festival City Mall in Dubai.  I thought that would be great because I could get everything done and then go for dinner.  I got to the mall and was told that the RTA outlet was a couple of kilometers away, so I flagged down a taxi and went there only to be told that they could not do it there.  I had to go to City Center Mall.  After hiking along a deserted road for a kilometer or two, a taxi came by and took me to City Center.  At City Center, I got an eye check up (5 minutes) and then went to the RTA outlet at the mall and walked away with a brand new license 5 minutes later.  I didn't need to change anything to Sharjah.  I can drive in the UAE with a Dubai license.  It was frustrating getting to the right location, but, once I was there, it was quick and easy - and, yes, it looks like any other driver's license photo - nothing to write home about.