Monday, November 14, 2016

Vomit and Ghosts in the Classroom

I've been teaching a lot lately, and the classes I teach are long - either 5 hours or 6.5 hours.  Day classes start at 8:00 and tend to end at 1:00.  Night classes run from 5:30 - 10:30.  A few weeks ago I was teaching a night class and my students had taken their finals and went home early.  The other classes had finals as well, so the building was quiet as I set up my classes online for the following term.  I started to hear someone wretching.  I could tell it was a male.

My classroom was a good amount of space down from the men's bathroom, so it seemed weird the sound would travel so far.  It went on and on.  After a while, I started getting concerned that the guy was very seriously ill and in trouble.  So I walked around the building trying to find him.  The two classrooms set behind mine were empty.  Beside my class was a hallway and then faculty offices, which were empty.  The classroom next to mine was a nursing lab, but as I walked by I could see there were just two students in there with an instructor, and it appeared they were studying vitals. 

I finally walked down to the library, and explained the situation to the night librarian.  I asked if he would mind going into the men's bathroom to make sure the person was okay and didn't need help.  When the librarian walked past my classroom, he, too, could hear the violent vomiting.  But when he went into the bathroom, it was empty.

We walked up and down the halls, searching for the source of the dreadful sound.  I certainly didn't feel like eating any dinner that night, after hearing twenty minutes of heaving.  Eventually the librarian and I roped another instructor into searching for the ill person.  Now there were three of us.  And she finally located the source.

Remember that nursing class right next to mine?  The one that seemed to be studying vitals?  It turns out they had a vomit app on an ipad and had spent the past thirty minutes playing with the app.  I guess if you're a nursing student, vomit apps just never lose their fun!

When I told my boys about how the nurses got me good, they thought this was just hilarious.  I'm pretty sure they wish they had a vomit app.  Yuck.

One more story from the classroom - I do teach some basic level statistics in my Introduction to Psychology class.  I saw this little math joke around Halloween, so as I was teaching what a normal distribution looks like, I drew it on the board.  All my students were drawing right along with me.  Then I drew the paranormal distribution, and they drew that too.  It took them a minute before they realized that was a joke, but when they did, they were all amused.


Here's hoping that all of you are finding much amusement in life lately.  Have a great week! 

22 comments:

Out on the prairie said...

Got to keep them on their toes,I like it!

Ginny Hartzler said...

I was on the edge of the couch! What a story! Glad no one was really sick, perhaps this is what nursing students do to de-stress! I can just imagine your boys hysterical laughing.

Karen thisoldhouse2.com said...

Who woulda thought!! YUCK.

Tom said...

Lisa, thanks for sharing this, I never knew that female and male wretching was different.

Marie said...

what an awful sound! funny though!

Indah Nuria Savitri said...

I thought it was the real ghost LOL! but still..vomitting app? Well, not for me..

Tina Fariss Barbour said...

Oh my gosh, first thought was, those are some LONG classes. Do they meet once a week, or within a shorter term? And hearing wretching going on like that would definitely freak me out. Watch out, your boys will find the app. LOL

mail4rosey said...

The paranormal app is funny. The vomit app...not so much, hahahaha My kids would think the latter was def. tops though!

Linda said...

LOL! Thanks for the funny stories. I needed a laugh.

Harry Flashman said...

That's a very strange way for those guys to pass the time. Glad it was just a joke though and not someone contaminating the school with bird flu or yellow jack!

Jenn Jilks said...

That's awful!!!!1 Oh, my. At least, as a mom, you knew what was what! So funny!

Lin said...

Oh good lord. I would have been going crazy with worry too! silly nursing students. Ugh.

Annette said...

Too funny! I teach on Thursday nights; it's fun to try and add humor in the classroom. I think we can all use a break from the daily stressors of family, finances, and work. I suppose a vomit app helps accomplish that goal too. My husband personally has a fart app on his phone :)

Endah Murniyati said...

Thanks for the story

DMS said...

That app sounds gross to me! I am glad no one was violently ill- but so nice of you to take the time to try to help someone you thought was in need. :)
~Jess

An Apel a Day said...

That's so funny!

When I was in an anatomy class for Illustration we went to the Morgue to draw the bodies. Our teacher didn't prepare us like they would in nursing school. I just know because my sister studied to be a nurse. There were art students that dropped like flies. Two fainted and one threw up. I seemed to hold it together. Maybe it was all the years of being around family that are nurses.

Crystal Collier said...

LOL. They totally got you. Oh my. I love that statistics joke. That was my LEAST favorite class, and my 16 yr old college Sophomore son is about to start into a statistics class. I just hope he gets a good professor, because I'm not going to be much help.

Tweedles -- that's me said...

Oh my gosh,, I know you were scared for a bit!
love
tweedles

Nancy Chan said...

I was getting very interested because I thought it was a ghost story! Your teaching may be long hours but it looks like it can be fun too!

Maggid said...

How FUN!!! You had a laugh on all your super students.
I bet they remember and laugh about seriously, carefully copying your work . . . yes, they will, for years . . . and, if they get a chance they will attempt to replicate the JOY . . and get others to unwittingly draw it out as well . . .

Happy Happy Happy

Jenn Jilks said...

I guess you can fool some of your students...

Sally said...

Yeah pretty sure I wouldnt have an appetite after that! Not surprised the boys got a kick out of it though.
Xoxo