Me: Oh look at all these beautiful faces! Hello! It’s so nice to see your face…Martin* and Mick* oooh, Mick looks like a—WHOA! whoa! Whoa. Whoa. Mick is not real, right? Is that like an avatar? What’s happening? …That looked really weird. Does everybody see this? Mick— tell— you’re freaking me out! What’s happening?
Mick: What? What do you mean?
Martin: She is freaking out right now.
Me: WHAT IS THIS? Why do you look weird?
Mick: I think because uh the sun is…
Me: Oh! You’re a real person? You’re not an avatar?
Mick: No, no, I’m real. 100% real.
Me: Oh my god, I thought you were like showing me your gaming avatar…Guys, can you tell I’m about to lose my mind?
🤦🏻♀️
*names changed, otherwise this is an actual transcript. I wish I could share the video. Apparently, the sun was shining in just a way that I swear he looked fake.
Other things:
—One student made it back to Korea; he’s not in isolation for two weeks. The government is checking in twice a day—how are you, temperature–and provided food.
–When I asked students how they were doing, one student simply replied, “Kill me now. Seriously, like I can’t take it anymore.” My heart broke as he talked about the uncertainty of his travels back to his home country and the stress of getting ready to move out of an apartment but not knowing an exact move out date because of aforementioned uncertainty. He is worried that PSU will be remote in the fall. I wrote an email to follow up with him (even though I’m familiar with his dry humor and did not feel that his remark was a threat) and provided links to CAPS and asked if there was anything I could do to help. [Update: In his email reply to me he apologized for making me worry and thanked me for the “positive boost”. He emphasized that there are just too many things to worry about and he has fallen behind on posting assignments late.]
—One student recommended to her classmates that they visit and walk around the golf course which is open to the public.
