Duty Tutoring

After Ken pulled a fast one on Seth and me (we got stiffed into working as "Duty Tutors" an extra 17 days), Seth met with him again yesterday to discuss some sort of compensation. We originally agreed to be Duty Tutors for only 10 days and move out by December 15th. From the 15th until the 31st we were to house-sit for friends of Seth's, then find new accommodation off campus.

For being "on duty" these extra days, Ken agreed to let us stay at Johns the month of January. What a relief! Not only will we be saving over $1,300 for 4 weeks of rent and food, plus reducing commuting time and cooking time, but we also won't have to worry about moving everything into Stephen's house then move everything out again on New Year's Eve.

The bad news is the inconvenience of Duty Tutoring. One of us must be at Johns and on call from 4pm-8am, daily, then 24hours over the weekend. Basically, we are "in charge" 16-24 hours a day when the administration goes home. The job itself is simple: carry a mobile phone and big set of keys everywhere we go, make rounds before bed, check in conference guests who come in after hours, let people back in their rooms if they get locked out, and be available in emergency situations/fire alarms.

The hard part is that Seth and I will obviously not be able to work the same nights (we each will work 2-3 nights a week), we can't go anywhere after dinner (like to the library, go for walks, etc), we won't be able to do anything out of college together on weekends, and most importantly it will be tough on my morning field work. Seth needs to go running before 7am or it will get way too hot. So, I can't go running with him or go to the gym at this time. I also (very unfortunately) can't do field work before 8am. It gets extremely hot very quickly (and lately it has also been a bit humid) and ideally would be out around 6:30am certain mornings (then come back and go to the gym).

It seems like for most people it would be pretty easy to not leave college before 8am (most people don't even wake up until much later), but it will be tough on us for the next three and a half weeks.