Last class

On Monday night I had my last class meeting. We had agreed the week before to go out for pizza. The decision had been preceded by a eat in (have pizzas delivered) or eat out debate. The decision was to eat out.

Class started at 6:30 - I mostly reviewed material. We took a break around 8, so people could pray and then at 8:15 car pools formed. (The Pizza Hut is close to the place where I usually eat, but driving was the right decision. Not only does the campus get really dark, but it is rainy season and it was raining.)

It took the staff a good 10 minutes to set up tables for 16 and I was lost when I looked at the menu. First I was puzzled/distracted by the "set meals" (a variation of fixed price) and non-pizza options. Ordering basic pizzas with selected toppings did not seem to be an option. There were 4 types of "supreme pizzas" with (what I considered) mildly uninviting toppings. I appointed Mahis to order - we got set meals (bread sticks, pizzas, mushroom soup, and soft drinks). The pizzas were deep dish - the area around USM could use New York slices.

My pictures were surprisingly bad and some how the women got blocked by some one else's head. In the group photo Mahis is on the right. He was the youngest class member. Next to him is Hesdey who works in Motor Vehicles. He played the role of telling me how Malaysian bureaucracy worked. He also drove me home from class throughout the semester - a short trip and a much appreciated favor. Next to him was Rattu and then Khariel who works in a bank. He wrote the most poetic papers, full of metaphors and stories. He also gave the class a stash of red envelops (with the bank's logo) for their Hari Raya gifts. I also snapped a picture of Yong who has the heart of a politician. I was able to fill in some of the missing faces from the pizza party with this picture from the August graduation. Herrly sitting at the table on the left gave me a 1" by 24" belt (?) from Sabah. He spent the meal looking for a potential spouse for Rebecca (standing behind me). Behind Herrly is Zalifa, her policy issue was extending maternity leave. I can't remember the figures but it was a pretty generous plan. Next to her is Azida in the pink head scarf; she frequently spoke out on the failure of government to implement policies. Sitting next to Herrly is Nurel. She has a "UK" in her e-mail address and she speaks relatively good English. So I asked if she had been to the UK - turns out she hasn't ever been outside Malaysia. Her policy issue was the traffic on the Penang Bridge. I didn't get a picture of Zorheh from Iran - the true star of the class. I also missed Lim who gave a stunning wrap up of a class discussion on policy instruments. Each of them contributed to my knowledge of the Malaysian culture. Perhaps the greatest pleasure was to hear them interact and develop their own memories of each other.