ABSTRACT
Some students already sit in the too small room, talking, looking after-work tired, watching as the team straggles in with reams of books and handouts. We enter separately. I, hurried and hopeful as usual, sit down between two students. One of them asks me if I know the teacher. ‘Yes’, I say. Other people come in more slowly, having first to find the room. After a bit, the place becomes overcrowded, hot. Not an auspicious beginning. Many of the students have what I call the doctoral-student stare, the ‘I challenge you’ stare, or am I reading my anxiety into their faces? Some seem relaxed. One sits with eyes closed. Is she sleeping already?
