it's over...

REU is, that is.

and not really exactly, but my main part is over.

REU goes one more week for most of my students, but the final presentations were yesterday and today. the farewell dinner was tonight. the czechs leave tomorrow. i leave for prague with 5 of the american students on sunday.

i occasionally complain in posts about how much i have to do, but i really do enjoy it.

after every semester i have student withdrawal... no matter how stressful grading, etc. may get, i really do miss the fun of interacting with and helping students when i have the opportunity to do so. same with REU. although i'm more of an organizer/question-answerer than an instructor or a friend, i really do enjoy my work. this summer seems to have gone faster than ever, and i'm kinda sad that it's basically done.

tonight at the farewell dinner, each student got a certificate from the program for their participation, and as always the director of DIMACS gave me one too... he joked that it was for my work "june 4, 2007 through.... august 8.... 2009", which is a joke since this is my last year, but instead of the typical 10 seconds of clapping, for me, the students kept clapping, and clapping, and two of them fairly quickly stood up, which started a standing ovation... just for me. it made me smile... to the point that my eyes teared up... then one of them ran up and gave me hug.

this was the 2nd time ever i've gotten a standing ovation (the first was the last meeting of my 10:10 spring 2006 calculus recitation class). it's better than any reward you could plan on. i don't need a certificate to tell me i've done something well. i don't need a monetary reward. the fact that people feel happy enough with me to give me a sincere and heartfelt spontaneous thank you is worth much much more, and the memory of a whole room of REU students and mentors standing and clapping for me for several minutes is a fantastic memory to take with me. :)

nonetheless, REU is over faster than ever this year... i can't believe the american portion of the program is done, and i can't believe this is my last year running the thing.

time does fly.

the end.