It was my last day at work at the Benedict English School (where I had been teaching English in Puerto Rico) and I was busily rearranging some long, cafeteria-like tables and a few desks in a large room. No one, not even Padial (the director of the school), had told me to do this, and I had simply decided myself to do it. I left some bookcases where they were.

After working hard for awhile, I took a break and went into another room. I stood there eating an orange, when Padial appeared in the doorway. He and I walked together to the room where the tables were, because I wanted to be sure he approved of what I had done. He said, "Fine. Go ahead and do it."

But he seemed sorry that I had to be the one who did all the work. I told him it was OK and that I didn't mind.

I was supposed to have a class at 2 o'clock with my student Hernandez. But I suddenly realized it was 2:15 and that Hernandez wasn't going to show up because he was in Spain. I wouldn't be having another class until 4 o'clock. I went into a smaller room where I was intending to rest. A girl was sitting in the room. Padial was also in the room.

A man who spoke very good English next walked into the room. He said he wanted to improve his English, because he was going to be talking with a woman who taught French at a college. The woman could speak English almost perfectly and he wanted to be able to speak perfect English with her. He and Padial spoke with each other for a while in English and Padial said, "Yes, we're going to do this and we're going to do that."

I began thinking Padial shouldn't be saying "going to" so much. I thought he should be saying we "could" do this or that. It appeared to be a defect in Padial's English.

Padial and the man left. Another person was in the room with whom I began talking. The girl in the room then said, "Yes, you're the person with whom I should speak."

I thought she was talking about the other man and I told him the girl was talking to him. But she looked at me and said, "No, I meant you are the person with whom I should speak."

She was an American who wanted to learn Spanish well. Since I spoke Spanish well, she thought perhaps she could learn with me.

A new male teacher, who appeared to be homosexual, walked into the room. It didn't bother me that he was homosexual. I thought I would still be able to talk with him. He spoke about Germany and said, "Yes, I'm able to speak German."

He said, "I can say I was writing a sentence in German. Ich haben eine Frase geschrieben. Nein, das ist nicht richtig."

I said, "Nein. Ich habe einen Satz geschrieben. In aleman wir konnen nicht den past progressive nutzen. Wir konnen sagen, 'Ich schreibe' oder 'Ich habe geschrieben' aber nicht 'I am writing'."

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