Another Reason I Love This Neighbourhood

Not only do I get to practice my Spanish here, but the people are so friendly. Today, my roommate went out to get a hand-held electric sander from the hardware store so that she could sand down a table she had bought secondhand. (She's so much more enterprising than I am.) Unfortunately, the local hardware store had no hand-held electric sanders. When I left the house to go out for a walk, she had planned to figure out where the nearest Home Depot was then head there after helping a friend move some boxes out from our attic.

While on my walk, I passed by a guy who was doing some (renovation?) work on a house down the street. I hesitated, then decided to ask him where the nearest Home Depot was—I figured he would know; he had all sorts of tools out, including an electric sander. Well, I still don't know where the nearest Home Depot is, but the guy—Mike—lent us his sander for the night, no questions asked.

I'm so happy I don't live in the city proper.
I'm so happy that there are still people who trust in the world.

Much love,
Katherine

L'Shanah Tovah!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Rosh Hashanah, so I have a day off from school. Yay for the Jews. :-) I'll probably spend the day doing rather practical tasks: as usual, my room is a mess, and I really need to get on my grading. The good news is that I have survived the end of the beginning, as one teacher told me this morning: I have made it through Parents' Day (and the month leading up to it) and I am still standing.

I've spent most of the time since my last update working, sleeping, and fending off New York's germs. I've caught and recovered from two illnesses this month, but I returned from a 22-hour trip to Boston on Sunday night buoyed with new enthusiasm and motivation for getting myself back into shape.  To that end, I found myself this evening with a new "hat" and a new uniform, kicking, punching, and sweating at Tae Kwon Do class. (Happy, PChung? ;-)) My hip flexors were already sore by the end of the hour, so I can imagine that I'll be feeling them all week. If I remember, I shall go for a run tomorrow and hope that helps.

I look forward in the coming month to meeting more people my age in Tarrytown and NYC, and also to doing a better job of meeting up with old friends. So far, I haven't done a great job at either task, but I hope that with October will come better balance in my life and more opportunities to see the people I love. Maybe October will also bring some TV watching: I watched NBC's new show, "Life," earlier tonight and it looks like it might be worth a little effort. It'll be on Fridays, so I doubt it'll happen, but who knows. Maybe after I actually get off my ass long enough to get internet at home. ;)

That's all for now. To shower and then to bed is the plan, methinks.
Oh, yes: I will be in Jamaica for Christmas (Dec. 22-Jan 1), but alas! Jo (for those of you who know her) will be in Columbia, so I'll be missing two of my halves.
With the cold front coming, I do look forward to the warmer weather, even though I will miss her.

Much love to you all -- send updates!
xoxo,
Katherine

(Academic) Recommendations

I am now in my third week of teaching. I'm not entirely sure how I got here. I remember the past two weeks as an eternity of stressing over my classes and spending sleepless nights grading papers. I must also acknowledge that they flew by. I feel as if I have been teaching for at least a month yet know little more than I did on my first day. It's been almost three hours since my last "performance" as a teacher, and my heart just now has begun to beat at a normal pace. I shall get my first review from my dept. chair today. Let's hope that it goes well.

Anxieties about my proficiencies aside, I do find that gravitating toward an academic community was the right move for me. I love that the faculty room comes alive with informed political discussion (not much debate: everyone's on the left) at random points during the day. I love that I can sit down to lunch or dinner and always be sure that I will come away from the table having learned something, regardless of my eating companions' interests. I love that a (well-respected) admissions officer from Williams just came to teach the faculty here how to write impressive academic recommendations for our students and was given the ol' slice-and-dice: her listeners refused to accept anything she said as gospel, without first being critical of the warrants her statements implied. Half of it was hubris—we feel ourselves good writers, as well as bastions against grade inflation and hyperbolic, inflated recommendation language—the other half was what I respected: we refuse to take life at face value. We are questioners.

I felt badly for the presenter: we've all had our bad days teaching (I've had a bunch already!) and we were not complaisant, well-behaved students. On the other hand, she should have known better than to begin by praising an overly-long (2 page), oleaginous letter written by an English Dept. Chair who clearly had missed the memo that "great" and "unique" have been overused so much that they have lost almost all significance. Unique means that there is only one, not that an object is special, or even rare. Can you honestly say that "great" communicates anything more specific than its grammatical sense as a comparative of "good"? I use "great" all the time in colloquial speak and writing but I would never write "great" three times in two sentences in a formal letter of recommendation; I've banned my students from using the word in their papers. Anything less would be hypocrisy.

Gotta prepare for my next class, so I shall sign off now. In short, life is good/challenging. Here we go.

Love,
Katherine