Long setup for weak punchline.

Today there weren't many lessons for me to teach and unlike last week I did not find my name in various places on the notice board with the lessons that need to be subbed. (I'd like to know how that works in other countries.)

Instead of teaching history to my Year 12, I supervised a group in the same year who were writing an English exam. Invigilating I think is the technical term used in British English - as Separated By a Common Language informs me.

There were some seriously long necks on display and I'm sure one student who left the room for a toilet break decided to get a boost through other means. Most students use ballpoint pens (biros) to write their texts, although fountain pens using ink cartridges are still around. They are more ore less mandatory in primary schools. The ubiquitousness of the fountain pen means that Germany is the country of the Tintenkiller, literally ink killer, a pen with two tips, one to erase blue ink and one to write over the erased bits. Often, in exams, these chemical ink erasers are in short supply and they get passed from table to table.

Hamid (not his real name), who thinks that with charm alone he is going to get far in life, was a little bit too chatty for my liking. "What's the matter? Do you need any help?", I ask him. He mumbles something. I walk closer to him and he has found the answer: "Oh, I was just asking for a Tintenkiller".

I look down at his paper. He'd been using a biro.