At our first (brief) faculty meeting last week, one of the permanent faculty members asked me how I liked it here in Dubrovnik, and when I said I loved it, he asked me why. The answer is complicated. I love the visual beauty of the place, which is ever-present and breathtaking. From the view of …
A few days ago, I posted this image to Facebook: It resonated for me, and reminded me of how important mamamusings.net was in helping me to discover what–and who–I cared most about in the world around me. Last night, over dinner, I found myself talking about how important I thought it was to have a …
I had great intentions of blogging on a daily basis, but I’ve not been as diligent as I’d planned. After spending part of the evening tonight talking about the value and importance of regular creative practice–in words, images, or music–I’m determined to get back to daily posts here. It’s hard to believe that it’s been …
So far, I’m surviving the first few days of class, and am starting to get a better feel for both the material and the students. Some of the students are already memorable, and it’s already clear who the class clowns and troublemakers are, as well as the “shiny pennies” who are already on top of …
As enjoyable as it was to plant the seeds of a new village on Sunday night, it’s not really the same thing as being surrounded on a daily basis by people I know well and love. So starting work this week has been a bit of a challenge on many levels. First, I’m teaching classes …
(Where does the phrase “first day jitters” come from, actually? It seems inextricably linked with the first day of school.) So, classes start tomorrow. I think I’m ready, though there’s never been a quarter where I’ve felt 100% prepared for a class. This week I’ve been immersing myself in readings and videos and activities related …
I’ve tried counting the stairs between our apartment and the Old Town several times, but I get distracted and lose count, so I’ve been estimating. Today on my way back from the Hilton, I took notes–breaking the count up into segments rather than trying to maintain one single count. Here’s what I ended up with: …
Today was supposed to be a work day, because I’m starting to panic a bit about being ready for classes on Monday. I’m teaching two classes that I haven’t taught before, and while the topic areas are things I’m knowledgeable about, I’m having the experience I always have when trying to teach from someone else’s …
Because some of my colleagues have been asking, I thought I’d explain in more detail what I’m doing for my voice and text communication while I’m in Croatia. I’m using a combination of Google Voice (a service which gives you a US-based phone number that can receive voice calls and text messages and forward them …