Class

As we heard the alarm go off, the five of us looked at each other with panicked expressions. 

Nobody else had any reaction.  At all.

There we were, waiting outside of our classroom, siren blaring, and all the people around us just continued their conversations.

Is it a fire?  Is this just a drill?  Is it not even the fire alarm?  Why isn’t anyone else moving?  Should we be evacuating?  Do I smell smoke?  Where’s the nearest exit?

Now, I’m new to this country and all but we just ignore alarms?  I would have expected someone else to at least acknowledge the fact that there was an alarm going off.  Nothing.  Not even a slight cringe as the sirens rang in our ears.

Some days I feel like I’m on a hidden camera show.  I think they just tell everyone else to have zero reaction to things just to see what the dumb American will do next.  Things like this happen all the time.

Today we were doing a worksheet in class and the lights went out.

So there we are, sitting in a dark classroom, doing a worksheet.  Nobody even says anything.  It’s sprinkling outside.  It wasn’t even an explainable power outage.  I would have expected some wise guy in the back to at least say we had to leave class early.  

Nope.  Nothing.

On another day we got to one of our classes ten minutes early.  We pick seats far enough from the front that the professor won’t notice us.  As we wait for all of the other students to arrive, we talk about how excited we are to see what this class will be like but how we're nervous the professor will call on us.  

Nobody else came. 

Not even the professor.