Prof. Kondo's Tale

Prof. Kondo with his famous hat, during our school's hiking day - May 2007.

Here is a funny tale that I guess is worth to be shared with you guys.

I have a lecturer, who is in-charge of all the students in my class regarding our welfare, academic, and miscellaneous stuff. In other words, he is like the class teacher for our Mechanical Engineering class. He goes by the name Professor Kondo Toshimi, but we all are more comfortable to call him Kon-chan or just Kondo. So, it was a sunny Sunday evening yesterday and I while I was lazing around, I got a phone call out of nowhere. When I looked at the display screen, I saw that the caller was Prof. Kondo. I was a bit anxious initially. Who would expect to get a call from your lecturer on a Sunday evening, right? Nevertheless, I picked up the phone and this is what he had to tell me.

Prof. Kondo told me that he had a secret to tell me haha wtf!

He sometimes holds a long cane stick, which acts as a pointer on the blackboard while teaching haha - October 2008.

I was left wondering what secret he has to tell me. Don't tell me he wanna share his secret about his affair he has with some random school staff lol. Of course the secret isn't about that at all. So, this is what the secret was all about. It was regarding our finals which will begin from tomorrow and he asked me to "ganbatte kudasai". I suppose you know what that phrase means, but anyway, to those who are still in the dark, it means "good luck and give your best" in Japanese.

I got a phone call from him out of the blue, and now he told me to "ganbatte kudasai". Isn't that a bit awkward? I was still a bit blur at that time actually, unsure and curious why he is so nice to call me personally just to wish me good luck. I'm not saying that he is not a nice person on other times though, because when I just came here three years ago, he often asked me to see him in his room and discuss with him if I face any difficulties in life so far. The line had always been "何か困った事が無いですか？", which was his standard question, and my reply would always be, "特に無いですね" haha!

Prof. Kondo with his trademark hand gesture during the nomikai session with the rest of the lab members - October 2009.

So, the conversation (on the phone, not the conversation in his room lol) continued and I was told that there are other various prizes that besides getting our graduation certificates, there are gonna be other prizes awarded during our graduation ceremony next month. They include prize for perfect attendance, excellent achievements in academic and curricular activities. For the academic prize, it is awarded to students who had been the top two in the class over the years. Top two as in performance in exams, not our body height; otherwise I would be guaranteed of the prize for sure with my giraffe height haha.

Prof. Kondo told me that I was one of the two students in my class who qualified to get that prize, and that explains the reason why he called me and asked me to "ganbatte kudasai" lol!

Then before he ended the call, he some more reminded me (I guess it's more to scare me haha) by saying that the prize is only for the top two students, and if I drop to the third position this time, then I can say bye bye to the prize already. As a final word, he reminded me again that what he told me is a secret between him and me only. It sounded so much as if both of us are some undercover agents working on the country's top secret project haha. Just when I thought I could relax a little bit through my final exam in the college, now I felt a bit stressed up already haha. Nevertheless, I won't make it a big deal and I will just prepare as how I do it usually.

A creative work by one of my classmates haha! I hope Prof. Kondo doesn't see this, otherwise he is sure to disqualify me straight away lol!

The good news is that I have only four papers to sit this time and one of the four papers is an "open-everything" paper. I call it "open-everything", instead of "open-book" because we get to bring our text book, notes, photocopied notes from the lecturer, sample questions, and calculator into the exam hall! How can it be any easier than this, right? But sometimes, it is not necessary that it is gonna be a breeze for us. Anyway, I just wish that everything will be fine.

If I am lucky and awarded that prize, then I will be a happy boy and I promise to blog about it. However, if I don't mention anything about that prize again after this, then you should know whats is the ending to this tale haha!