Whose room is it, anyway?

When I arrived to teach my class today, my students were all congregated in the hallway. It was a couple of minutes before we were scheduled to begin, and the previous class still hadn't left. This is not unusual, but since there's a fifteen-minute break between classes I don't sweat it. There's plenty of time for me to get set up.

Well, today was different. Class time came, and the other group was still in the room. through the window on the door, it was clear that they were doing class presentations, and as today is the last day of classes, I decided to cut them some slack. After five minutes, though, it was time to put an end to things, because it was getting ridiculous. We needed to have class, too.

I knocked and stuck my head in the door, announcing, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but my class needs this room." Some of you may not believe me, but I was quite polite about it. I totally channelled my "diplomatic" brother, assuming that they simply had lost track of time. Well, I was wrong. The other instructor came over to the door and said, "We came in here because our classroom is not available. Is there another room you could take your class to?" At this point, I got a little angry (I still wasn't rude, though--you can ask my students), and I told her, "No." Inside, I thought (but did not say), "We've been in this room every Tuesday this semester. What makes you think we should go somewhere else? Get out!" Then she had the gall to say, "We'll be done in five minutes." Remember, class was already supposed to begin five minutes ago. Luckily, her students had already begun leaving, so disaster was averted.

I'm still shaking my head fifteen hours later. At least I got a good laugh with my students after the other group left. They couldn't believe it either.