I was getting a little impatient. For one thing, I'm used to giving courses, not taking them, so it was kind of strange to be sitting in the audience, rather than standing in front of a podium. Much worse was the fact that the course instructor turned out to have very bad teaching skills, and a less-than-firm grasp of his subject matter. Finding yourself thousands of miles from home, forced to listen to a rank amateur for hours on end, can become unbearable.