crazy things we do for love
So, I know it's pretty bad when the travel agent laughs and calls me crazy for going to Africa for two days. I told her that she needed to be supportive, because my friends already laughed and called me crazy.
Screw it, I'm going. Leaving on a jet plane. And then coming back to 14 1/2 more weeks of teaching, but I don't think ahead to that.
Now I gotta do shopping and planning and finish all my applications and papers before I go. Two weeks from today, I'll be on the road to LAX. Woo hoo.
So, goals for Ghana:
-meet Cecee! Dayton's 9-year-old daughter who is now with him
-not get malaria
-get site consent from the camp management for my dissertation research
-communicate with Senor Dayton (I'm back to using the really bad Spanish accent to make my kids behave - anything to make me stop talking - though Rene likes to dare me to say certain words he KNOWS I can't)
-see some friends there
-decide how long I'll stay there next year - it's easy to romanticize it while I'm here, but I have forgotten the evil humidity and latrines and all that
On that note, send me all positive vibes. I just got another international fellowship application for a couple grand, as well as an application to TA in DC - which would provide me with a place to live and a survival salary and would cover my fees for the term. And I've lived there before - it's way sweet. Very clean and quiet, with internet and cable and gym included. Subway stations near, all that. So, don't know my chances, but that would make things do-able next year even I don't get my big fellowship - because having 11 weeks to focus on my writing, with DC contacts to check in with and none of the distractions of here and minimal responsibilities - well, that would be just a little slice of heaven. So, if I went to Ghana in August for one school semester and then DC for winter term, I could finish writing my dissertation draft and go on filing fee status for spring term possibly - making me only pay one term's worth of fees - and during spring term in addition to defending, etc., I could start submitting my work as articles for publication and be looking for gainful employment. Woo hoo!!
Well, who knows how things will really shake out. But I'm a woman with a plan! Or multiple plans!
Screw it, I'm going. Leaving on a jet plane. And then coming back to 14 1/2 more weeks of teaching, but I don't think ahead to that.
Now I gotta do shopping and planning and finish all my applications and papers before I go. Two weeks from today, I'll be on the road to LAX. Woo hoo.
So, goals for Ghana:
-meet Cecee! Dayton's 9-year-old daughter who is now with him
-not get malaria
-get site consent from the camp management for my dissertation research
-communicate with Senor Dayton (I'm back to using the really bad Spanish accent to make my kids behave - anything to make me stop talking - though Rene likes to dare me to say certain words he KNOWS I can't)
-see some friends there
-decide how long I'll stay there next year - it's easy to romanticize it while I'm here, but I have forgotten the evil humidity and latrines and all that
On that note, send me all positive vibes. I just got another international fellowship application for a couple grand, as well as an application to TA in DC - which would provide me with a place to live and a survival salary and would cover my fees for the term. And I've lived there before - it's way sweet. Very clean and quiet, with internet and cable and gym included. Subway stations near, all that. So, don't know my chances, but that would make things do-able next year even I don't get my big fellowship - because having 11 weeks to focus on my writing, with DC contacts to check in with and none of the distractions of here and minimal responsibilities - well, that would be just a little slice of heaven. So, if I went to Ghana in August for one school semester and then DC for winter term, I could finish writing my dissertation draft and go on filing fee status for spring term possibly - making me only pay one term's worth of fees - and during spring term in addition to defending, etc., I could start submitting my work as articles for publication and be looking for gainful employment. Woo hoo!!
Well, who knows how things will really shake out. But I'm a woman with a plan! Or multiple plans!
posted by NOLA at 2:14 PM
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