Assorted Happenings

We've been back in Tucson for about a week and a half now, and we're starting to get back into some kind of routine. I think that's good for us. Of course, it is still summer, and we're not working, so our routine is pretty flexible.

We did have a little bit of excitement last weekend; some friends of ours got married. I know the bride from school, and both of them have been coming to our Tuesday night Bible Study (although they go to a different church, the groom knows one of the group's founders). This was the first wedding we've been to that Mark also knew the people getting married, so he was much more interested in being there. The ceremony was also in Korean, so that made it unique for us. We went to the ceremony, then had dinner with our friends from church, then went to an after party at a really nice resort in town. It was quite a night out for us, and a nice time to catch up with people we hadn't seen for a while (they were out of town, then we were).

It's also been good to go to our church and to the Tuesday night group and reconnect with all those people. We've been talking all summer about needing to invite these friends of ours over to dinner, and we've finally started doing that. It's a shame that we're living in the nicest apartment we've ever had and we've only "entertained" a few times. I'm hoping to change that in what's left of the summer. (We'll see if we can keep it up once school starts...)

As far as the day-to-day goes, Mark has started going to school to practice again in the mornings, and I've been doing some teaching-related reading. I'm also working on my syllabus for the fall, finding that I will be making more adjustments (mostly in terms of the themes and readings for each unit) than I had originally thought. But, it is really nice to think back to how I felt about writing my syllabus last year and how much more confident I am about it now. (Don't get me wrong--I still have some doubts about how the new things I'm trying will work out.) One of the books I'm reading now is a collection of essays by other TAs teaching Freshman Comp. I wish I'd found it sooner! It's so nice to read about things other people like me, from other universities, are trying in their classrooms. Even if I only try out a few of their ideas in my own class, it certainly gets my mind going.