Thank You, Vandals!

Today is my last day of teaching for the term. Every Monday I've been heading into London to teach my Language in the USA class at Queen Mary University of London. And I turned up at the train station this morning to catch my train in, only to discover that vandals had stolen the signal box (or something to that effect) up in Wittham, so trains into London were cancelled. All of them. For the whole day. In other words, I ain't gettin into London today! Which, of course, means my class is cancelled. So, I rang the office and told them that I needed someone to put a note on the door and email the students to try and let everyone know. Exciting way to end the term!

T Minus 10

I'm heading to my folks' house in 10 days!! But who's counting? Oh...right, me. And my mom. Possibly my dad, too. It's been a really rough term, and every day's been a bit 'just get through today'. Well, this next week looks like it's going to continue in much the same way. I'm going to be working like a mad woman all week just to keep my head above water. As many of you know, I'm a big holiday decoration fan. I always have up my Christmas Tree (usually sometime in November!) and garlands over the windows and down the banister. A wreath on the door. Yummy smellies throughout the house. Not this year. I didn't even dig out the wreath for the door. Yep, that's how pushed for time I've been.

And speaking of time . . . I'm out. Gotta get back to work.

Essay Marking Blues

I collected the midterm essays on Monday. If that isn't depressing enough to make someone sing the blues, I don't know what is! I've finally realised the reason I got such good marks as an undergraduate. It had nothing to do with how well I understood the material, and everything to do with the grasp of punctuation usage! The prof was so pleased that s/he could follow the sentence from one end to another that s/he didn't actually care about the content. And I'm not even talking about complicated things like semi-colons and hyphens. I'm talking mastery of the full stop! Don't get me started on comma usage. *shudder* Would you believe that in this set I've actually had a submission which ends nearly every paragraph with . . . ? Yeah! No lie. Talk about a Dot, Dot, Don't.

I'm reminded of these comics from PhD Comics:



Fortunately, there was a remedy for my soul's anguish this week. Saturday was Down Home Blues night over in London. It's my favourite dance night in the month, and not just because I'm a Blues Junkie. It's awfully nice of them to put the venue across the street (literally) from the train station I arrive at! It's awfully nice not to have to travel the hour into London, and then an hour across London! Terribly decent of them to cater to my needs thus.

Back In The Saddle Again

My year doesn't start in January. It starts in September. Kind of funny, I guess, but it's true. The calendar year's never made much of a difference, and I guess since I'm 30 and my whole life has revolved around the academic year since I was 5, that's not much of a surprise. But, yet again, the year has started. I'm back teaching at Queen Mary University of London, and I'm back in the PhD game at Essex, too. Yep, the fun never stops.

Leading Cause of Napping

Haaaaa! It's so true! That's the reason the PhD Offices all have the comfy chairs; for 'reading articles'. Uh huh. Right.

Good Bye Summer

Well, Autumn has arrived full blown to Essex. It's gone chilly, damp and term has started. I broke out the woolies, hoodies and jumpers, turned on the heat and am headed to campus to register tomorrow. Yep. Summer is definitely over.

РОССИЯ (Part 2)

Sorry . . . got distracted. Queen Mary's term has started, so I've been kind of busy getting the administration end of the course I teach sorted.

The cruising bit of the trip was fine. I'm not much of a cruiser. I'm more of a hiker/swimmer/doer, if you know what I mean. However, I've been fighting this horrible sinus infection since June, so just sleeping most of the day was kind of nice. The touring bits of the day were, except for the first day, pretty much the same. Get off, go see a church. Go see another church. Go see another church. Go back to the boat. Yep. Loads of churches. And I have to admit, by the end of it, I was pretty churched out. I liked seeing all the spires all over the country side, but every single church had the same story: This church was built 800 (900, 600 pick a year) years ago. The frescos were damaged in a fire 200 years ago, but were restored. The Soviets wanted to knock it down, but turned it into a museum (storage space, office . . . pick the new use) instead. It's been returned to the Russian Orthodox church (or will be within the next 2 years). There's only so many times I want to hear the story, if you know what I mean. But, like I said, I really enjoyed seeing all the onion domes all over the country side. The whole country is peppered with them! And I can only imagine what it would have looked like before the Soviets. They tore down hundreds of churches! It's really quite amazing to think about! (Actually, there is a colour photographic record of Pre-Revolution Russia! See this link to the Library of Congress.)

Moscow was very different from what I imagined. When I think of Soviet architecture, I think of square, cement, austere, grey . . . very much what we saw in St Petersburg. Moscow, though, was nothing like that! And not because the Russian Federation has done anything about it. In fact, most of the coolest buildings were done in Stalin's time! He even had an architectural style named after him: Stalin Gothic. Yep. Crazy, eh? There are these 7 tower buildings (called the 7 sisters) -- originally meant to be 8, and an 8th has been built recently, but is not considered one of the sisters -- with spires and turrets and all sorts. They're gorgeous. They'd fit right in next to the Chrysler building in New York. Stalin commissioned them for the 800th Anniversary of something or other. And even the normal apartment buildings built during that time are pillared and statued and carved. Not at all what I had expected.

Obviously Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral was the most important thing for Grandma and me to see. We'd only been talking about it for 18 years, after all! So, when we (finally! You've never seen traffic like in Moscow!!) got to Red Square ('red', by the way, is a slang term for 'pretty' or 'beautiful'. So the Soviets being 'Red' wasn't because of the colour, but because of the idea that it's a beautiful or cool idea.) we walked across the car park, behind the cathedral, and were crushed to discover that we couldn't get into the Square! Our guide took us around the side, up to the GUM (think Harrods in London or Watertower Place in Chicago. Major, expensive shopping centre.) where there was another entrance to the Square. And it was closed too! So Grandma and I sat down in the shopping centre and enjoyed a piece of cheese cake and a Diet Coke (well, a Coke Light). Eventually our guide took us back out of the GUM, and somehow managed to sweet talk one of the guards on the Square into letting us into the Square. See, this was the confusing thing: the Square itself wasn't closed. Just the 3 entrances we'd tried. However, there was one on the far side of the Square that was open. So, there were loads of people inside. So this guard let us cross the closed bit into the open bit. This meant, Grandma and I got our photo in front of St Basil's Cathedral! Hooray! We found out later that the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitriy Medvedev, had decided he needed to do a bit of shopping in the GUM, so he walked across Red Square from the Kremlin to the GUM. Umm . . . why, then, were we allowed into the GUM, but not Red Square? I'm so confused!







Well, that's most of it. Except . . . if you make it to Russia, I highly recommend seeing the National Russian Folk Dance Show at the Kosmos Hotel. It's about 2 hours of some of the worlds best dancers ever. It was gorgeous, well choreographed, exquisite costumes and some of the most amazingly executed dancing you've ever seen. Anywhere. Brilliant.

Home Again, Home Again!

Well, Miss Dorothy got one thing right . . . there's no place like home. I've had a ball over the last 5 months. It's been brilliant. But . . . I'm really glad to be home.

There really isn't much to report about the trip home. It was pretty normal. Got on the flight in Chicago on Wednesday, changed planes in Cincinnati, got off in London at 9.00 am Thursday. Although, for a change, I did actually sleep much of the flight. That was a nice surprise. It wasn't great sleep, but it was sleep. So I wasn't totally trashed when I arrived. And, as a true act of friendship, my friends from church, Claire and Joe, came all the way out to Gatwick to collect me! So I didn't even have to lug everything through the Underground/Trains. Yeay! That was very kind, and totally above and beyond the call.

Friday I got up and went into Uni. Had a quick check-in with my advisor. Things are looking good on the PhD front. Had lunch with Jenny, and took a few photos of campus.



Saturday, I finally got around to to unpacking. Surprisingly, I managed to get everything done, including all the stuff I'd packed away so that my house sitters could move in, in under 4 hours! And no, that didn't mean stuffing everything into the laundry hamper. I mostly had clean laundry, anyway. Then, in the evening, my friend (also from Church) Rebekah came down from Cambridge and we played. Saturday we went to Nando's (one of my favourite cheap and cheerful meals!) for dinner, and watched Sahara at my house. Rebekah started playing with my hair and actually put me to sleep twice! Sunday we went to church, which was great. It was so nice to be back home with them. Then, after church Rebekah made me the most amazing Sunday Dinner. And let me get my head down whilst she prepared it! My body's mostly back to normal, but I am still feeling a bit of jetlag. She made amazing roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and sausages. And then for afters . . . oh my goodness! She's baked these scrumptious chocolate with white chocolate chip biscuits at home and brought them with. She layered them in with cream and cherries and raspberry yogurt for an amazing, light, treat. It was perfect. So we sat out in the garden (rather hideously overgrown) and enjoyed the fruits of her labours. What an amazing welcome home feast!



After dinner we went down to the river. Rebekah's an amazing photographer, (She's just started up a blog of her own, if you want to check out her other work.) and she'd brought her equipment, so she took loads of photos of me. Isn't she sweet? And some of those photos turned out amazing!



I'm now back into normal life. Well, sort of. I'm playing catchup just a bit. The garden had been let go whilst I was away. I suppose of all the things to neglect, that's the least problematic. But when I arrived and looked at it I just though, *sigh* That's going to be a bear to clean up. Fortunately, I have loads of marvelous friends. One of the Youth from church, Elliot, and his dad, David, came round today to help. Elliot cut the grass, David trimmed the edges and raked up all the dead bits out of the grass, and I clipped the hedges back. It's not done, but it's at least usable now. Hooray, and a huge Thank You to David and Elliot!

P.S.

That marathon marking essay? Yeah. An all nighter. AND I stayed up and taught a 2 hour class. It's now midnight. I still haven't slept. Think I'll go do that now. I really thought all nighters were the domain of the student! Not the lecturer!!

DONE!!! . . . 'Til Friday. *sigh*

I just finished marking the last essay for QMUL. It's taken me 2 weeks. Same amount of time I took for Essex. Not bad. Means I'm all done marking essays. At least . . . 'til Friday when I have to collect the final essays for QMUL. But I don't have to have them back 'til January! Yeay!! :)

. . . Need . . . Sleep . . .

I'm surprised I don't meet myself coming. I'm normally insanely busy . . . but this term, even I've felt I'm trying to do too much. Now, for just one term, it hasn't been too bad. But I wouldn't want to go on like this ad infinitum. I'm really looking forward to the Christmas Holiday Sleep Time. And then, of course, I get to start over at BYU. There will be three big differences next term, though:

1. I'm not teaching at multiple Universities. Only one. Only one. (Forgive me for that Cosby misquote.) Not having to deal with several Unies, and only having to travel to one is much easier. Even if I have to re-learn all the protocols and red tape.
2. No PhD requirements! I'm not responsible for getting anything done on my PhD whilst I'm in the States. Yeay! Trying to teach a full term and do a full time PhD has been killer.
3. No Church Calling. Well, I don't think, any way. I'm only going to be there for a couple of months. I guess they could give me a calling, but I don't really think they will. And if they do, it won't be 1st Counselor in the Young Women's. Don't get me wrong. I love my girls. And I've never been so happy as I have been working with them. But all 3 of those at the same time is pretty overwhelming. When I get back to the UK I expect to get a calling again. Maybe even quite a labour intensive one, but I won't be teaching at two Unis! I refuse!!!

Those three things will keep next term from getting quite so out of hand.

First Day Jitters

Today was my first day of teaching at Queen Mary's. It was terrifying. And exciting. And I it. I got on the train well before 10.00 this morning . . . which puts me into London around 10.30. And at Queen Mary at 11.00. And I had loads of time to get ready. So, I figured out how to attach my computer to the AV equipment. Made sure I had all my hiring paperwork signed. Submitted my paperwork for my id card. Got my syllabus copied. Found my classroom (nothing more embarrassing than walking around, lost, trying to find your own classroom!) Generally prepared for the day. Managed to get everything done and everything set up 10 minutes before class started.

The class arrived. Some 18 of them. Filled the (very small) room. I've been told there will be some 10 more by next Monday. That means? I'm going to need a bigger classroom!

I have a 2 hour block. The problem is? The first day of class, there isn't much to say. However, I managed to spend an hour telling them my name, what my area of research is, where I'm from, what the class will cover, that they'll have a midterm, a final, and a group project. Oh . . . and that they have to memorize all 50 states. No, really. Yes, that's what I said. Because I said so. Yes, it counts towards your grade. No, it's not a joke. It's only 50 names! Shut up now, or I'll make you memorize all the capitals -- and match them up with their State!

I'm really looking forward to next week when we can start talking about the meat of the subject! :D

Contract Signed!

Got all the paperwork done today, for my new job. All sorts of fun. I am totally in love with their campus. It's right on a canal, very beautiful. And the buildings, though 'new builds' are actually appealing! Just drove home how terrible Essex is, aesthetically (and facilities wise -- they have a million nice bars/cafes/restaurants/shops, right there. Guess it's a perc of being in the middle of London. More competition = better services.) Crazy thing? I was weirded out by being treated like staff. Crazy, huh? Because . . . I am staff. But the thing is, this is the first time I've ever been a regular at a University where I'm not a student. I'm really excited!

First Day Of New Job

Tomorrow afternoon I head into London to find out what, exactly, I've got myself into. I'm very excited, but also a bit nervous. I won't actually be doing any teaching tomorrow. Just filling in paperwork and getting set up on the computer system. That sort of thing. But one of the crazy things I realised was: I'll be getting a University ID from a Uni that I wasn't, in fact, a student at! Oh how exciting :D And not only that, I'll have 3 University IDs that all work at the same time! How wild is that? How many people in the world can say that???? Feeling pretty cool right now.

Insanity Relaps

I must be insane. There is no other explanation for it. Friday I got a very surprising email. It was from Queen Mary of the University of London. Asking if I'd be willing to come teach a class. Starting 22nd September. As in, 2 weeks. I was left feeling more than a bit stunned.

Fortunately the email contained a clue as to where this was all coming from. The head of the Sociolinguistics Scheme here at Essex, Dave Britain, had put my name forward as being a good person to ask. Now, you have to understand. This is the second time I've had a nearly unbelievable job offer arrive, fully formed, into my inbox. How is it possible? Most people don't get to teach at more than one University during their PhD. And here I've been offered 3?!? So, I emailed back saying I was very flattered that I was being asked, but I needed to find out what my teaching schedule at Essex was, and speak with my advisor, as well. So this morning, I rang Rebecca (my advisor). Filled her in on my offer. She was thrilled about the opportunity. Then I went and spoke to my boss (for my teaching position at the Uni) who told me that I'll be teaching Wednesday/Thursday this term, thus leaving me free to my own devices on Monday. So I went back to Rebecca's office to discuss it a bit further. End result: I decided to accept the offer. I reiterate: I must be insane.

So, my schedule this term: Mondays -- Two hour lecture at QM, probably an office hour there. Tuesdays -- LOTS OF RESEARCH ON MY PhD!! and then Young Women's in the evenings. Wednesday -- more research on my PhD and attend the lecture for my Essex class. Thursday -- 2 classes of Essex classes, Data Session (Research Group) with Rebecca, Essex Office Hour. Friday -- back to research for my PhD. Oh -- and in there somewhere I'll have to prepare 3 classes of teaching. Plus my church responsibilities. Ha ha ha. I'm reminded of a song: Who Needs Sleep? That's so my theme song for this next 3 months.

Temporary Laps of Sanity

Well, hopefully my temporary laps of sanity has come to conclusion. I've had another rather hectic week, squeezing everything possible into my week. Now, don't get me wrong, I really enjoy my insane life . . . but I think I'm ready for a few weeks of quiet to get caught up! Then the chaos can resume.

Thursday was the SocioLinguist Essex Conference, or SLX. It was the 13th conference of Postgraduate work in Sociolinguistics at the University of Essex. As a Master's Student I, along with 2 other PostGrads, had been an organiser for SLX 12. Since they needed at least one carry-over organiser from last year, I got sucked into the abyss of Conference Organisation again (so did Jenny). This year there were 4 of us organising it. Jenny and I from last year, then 2 MA students. We'd been organising things since January, so had a pretty good grip on things by this week. However, it's always a bit chaotic during the last few days.

Monday I was still suffering from the relapse of the cold I've been fighting for so long. But I had to get up and onto campus for my usual data session. I had to spend the rest of the day running between one thing and another to get last minute things sorted, and finally met up with the 2 MA students for our pre-conference shopping expedition. We got the food bought and delivered to Campus. Then I met up with several other PostGrads in the Top Bar (so-called because it's the top floor of the building) at Uni for a drink. Jenny had been invited by one of the members of staff at the Blues Cafe, who's just a bit sweet on her, to come listen to his band play. She didn't want to go alone, so we came along for moral support. But I was feeling pretty rough and very tired, so I only stayed for a few minutes, then came come and crashed.

Tuesday was spent doing errands and Young Women's activities. We did some scrapbooking at YW. I've been taking loads of photos at our activities, so it was time to do something with them. We didn't get them all done, but made a good start. We'll have to do another week of it, soon.

Wednesday I ran around like an absolute maniac. During the morning I cooked and made last minute preparations for the conference. In the afternoon I drove out to Mersea Island to collect food from Jenny. Whilst there, I begged her to do my nails all pretty for me. Bless her, she said yes. After we were done, I rushed off with all the food and took it out to Enam's house. Enam's a member of the teaching staff, and had volunteered to host the post-conference social. We had it at her house last year, as well, and it was a resounding success. So I went out and made sure she had everything she needed, as well as dropping off the frozen meats to her. As soon as I did that I rushed off to the city centre to meet up with a couple friends to see the new Indiana Jones Movie. Not as good as the original 3, but a fun flick just the same. One of the girls who came along for the film was Caroline. She's a PhD student at the Uni, but lives in Brighton. So she doesn't get in to campus every day. She was the other co-organiser of the SLX 12 last year, so I know her reasonably well. She needed a place to stay the night Wednesday, in order to make the conference Thursday. She was also presenting. I love Caroline. She's a lot of fun. So we got home and had a bit of a catchup, then went to bed.

Thursday I got up far too early (for me): 7.00 am! Caroline and I got out the door about 7.45 and collected Heather (another PhD student who lives down the road from me) on our way to campus. Heather and Jenny were the first presenters at the conference, so she didn't mind having to get there an hour early. All the organisers got there early, and with the assistance of Caroline and Heather, finished up the last bits and pieces of preparations. The conference itself went reasonably smoothly, with only minor hitches. All the feedback I've had has been that it was well organised with interesting topics. Several people even commented that the professionalism was exceptional for an intradepartmental conference, and that they've been to large and well known conferences that have been less successful. So, people enjoyed the conference itself. As soon as the conference concluded Jenny and I cleared the conference room, packed my car up and headed off to Enam's to help prepare for the social. We got the bbq going and set the salads and things out. People started arriving about a quarter to 7, and the first food was coming off the grill around half 7. I'm afraid I don't know much else past that point, though, because I had to leave. I've heard that the social was successful, though we apparently had far too much food. Better too much than too little, though!

And why did I leave early? Well, I had to drive across the country! And why did I have to drive across the country? Because I was going to Alton Towers Friday. It's about a 4 hour drive from Colchester to Alton Towers, so it worked out best if I drove over the night before. Otherwise I'd have had to get up at some insane hour of the morning to get there on time. Why was I going to Alton Towers? I'd been asked out on a date! (Hey, no fainting!)

I had a fantastic time at Alton Towers. My date was excellent company. His friends (there were 10 or 11 of us total) were great fun. The park was relatively empty, so we didn't have to wait in queues for ages for every ride. The rides themselves were great. It was great fun. If you're going, I highly recommend Air, Oblivion, Nemesis and Rita. The rides are all good fun, but those were my favourite. Air is particularly amazing. You climb into the seat and pull the harness down over your head. As you do that, it also locks your legs in. Ok, that's different! You know at that point (even if you hadn't been watching from the queue) that this was going to be a serious ride. As the floor drops down before the carriage takes off, the seat pivots up, so that you're now parallel with the ground, hanging above it. So, you literally fly along the track with nothing between you and the ground except that harness. Absolutely fantastic! Oblivion drops you down 200 feet, which is quite a rush. What makes it even more fun? You're facing the ground as you go. So you see nothing in front of you as you plummet. Quite a rush. Apparently you also pull 4.5G's. I so should have been a fighter pilot. Loved it!

Upon the return from the park I debated about staying another night. But I decided to come on home for several reasons. One, it meant I could sleep in this morning without worrying about having to drive home. Two, it meant I could sleep in this morning without worrying about being an imposition on anyone else. Three, it meant that my date and his family didn't have to entertain me for another day. So I made my farewells and headed home. Got plenty of suggestions that I return, though :) Including from my date.