"You will be the twelfth in a long line of governesses, the last of which stayed only [checks paper] two hours."

Transcript of a conversation between myself and my departmental advisor (“A”):

A: What time should I stop in to watch you rehearse tomorrow?

Me: Well, we start rehearsal at 9 a.m., which means the students will start showing up by 10, so… any time after that.

A: You are lucky that for you they are only late by one hour. It means they like you.

Me: Really? But I asked the other faculty, and the students are never late to their classes.

A: Those are classes. Yours is a performance workshop, and you are only visiting the university. But you are doing very well. You see, we’ve been trying to have guest directors for a while now, but they have always had problems. The last one who came could not even stage his play, because the students decided to stop coming to his rehearsals. So… do not worry about this one hour lateness. In a few days we will have a play. That is what is important.