I think it was his first time and he was nervous. That made me nervous. Actually, I was already nervous and his nervousness didn’t help. Then he told me to sit down and I told him no way in hell and sat somewhere else. That made him more nervous which made me more nervous.

Because of the disaster a few years back, I still feel nervous whenever I have to do the listening part of the term exam.

Today I went to the sound booth and tried to pass the listening CD to the technician and there was this awkward moment where he refused to accept it and I refused to stop trying to pass it to him. It was a bit like one person bowing when the other tries to shake hands and then trying to shake hands when the other person bows.

Eventually he took the CD and gestured to the “captain’s chair” next to the stereo system and the big sound board. I questioned his sanity (under my breath, of course) and sat down as far away from the sound board as possible.

He seemed very tense, and since I don’t remember seeing him before, I guessed he hadn’t done it before and was hoping I knew what I was doing. The truth is, I did: stay the hell away from all possible disasters that can be blamed on me.

However, he was so tense that it made me even more nervous.

Eventually the listening played and, at one point, I was afraid he was going to stop it early, but he didn’t.

I then went back to my desk to wait for questions. Oddly, none came.