Whew!

This week was exhausting! I knew it would be a tough transition from summer days spent reading novels and watching movies to school days spent teaching, going to class, and reading academic articles, but I am so much more worn out than I expected to be! I really thought that I would have some free time at school this week when I might get bored. That sure didn't happen! I even had a couple of little projects that I'd set aside to do during the down time, but I never got to them. I guess I can say that this semester, we hit the ground running.

Thursday was a really tough day--we got to school around 8:30, and I felt like I worked and ran errands on campus all day, but I still didn't get everything done. In fact, it was 9pm and I was still re-reading the short story I had assigned for my 101/107 classes on Friday morning. That made me quite grouchy. I think the moral of the story is that I need to devise a new system of time management to make sure I'm able to get things done by the time they need to be done (and save the nights of working till 9pm for the end of the semester when things will be really crazy!). I think the main difference is that all last year I taught starting at 1pm, which essentially allowed me to do the majority of my prep work on M, W, F mornings. That also left T, Th, and the weekends for me to focus on the classes I was taking. Now, I teach at 9, which is great because I'm done by 11, but it messes with my division of work(teaching) and school. I assume that once I figure out a new schedule of when to focus on what, I'll feel better. It just didn't happen this week!

But, the good news is that Mark and I both survived it. He's stayed caught up on his HW and reading, which has been more demanding than previous semesters. I've managed to (even if just barely) finish reading etc. for my classes so far (getting caught up this weekend, I hope). And, we've still made it out for our walk 3 nights this week. Putting it that way, I think it sounds like everything's going fine. This weekend, we've got departmental parties (mine tonight, Mark's tomorrow), so those should be fun.

One final note for those of you living in cooler climes: today's forecasted high in Tucson is 107. Yep; and that's about 10 degrees above average. We're really ready for it to cool off!

The end of the beginning

I've now been to all of my classes and started to get things organized for the semester. So far, I feel like I'm off to a good start. For those of you interested in the details, I'll go in chronological order.

Monday morning: we got up early (compared to the summer) and were on our way to school by 8am. I was actually feeling really nervous beforehand, but once I got into the class I calmed down a bit. Overall, my classes went well. The students are always a little quiet on the first day, since they don't know anyone yet. For most of my 9am students, it was their first class at UA! Most of my students are freshmen, and I have a lot of pre-business majors. Also, most of my international students are from China or Taiwan. I have my work cut out for me learning their names; I really have trouble with the Chinese ones. I talked an awful lot explaining the syllabus, but the students also introduced themselves and did a short in-class writing. Tomorrow's class should be really interesting. Our first unit is about "home," so I've asked them to write about and bring in an object that symbolizes home to them. We'll have a little show-and-tell, which will help us keep getting to know each other (and give me another round of practice with names). I haven't decided yet what object I'll bring... Anyway, it really was fun to be teaching again, and I'm eager to be working with so many ESL students this time.

Monday midday: I was invited to come to the orientation for new EL/L students and share a little about EGU (since I'm a rep now). It was fun to see all the professors again and to meet (and re-meet in some cases) the new EL/L students. They all seem really nice, and I even ran into a few of them later in the day and got to visit a little. We also got a free lunch at the orientation (not nearly as many of those at UA as there were at H-town!).

Monday afternoon: I went to my first class, Cultural Dimensions of Second Language Acquisition. The professor seems really cool. He had something about him that was kind of calming. I think the content will be very interesting, and it doesn't seem like it'll be too stressful. In fact, if I really get disciplined, I think I could finish all the work (various in-class presentations and a final paper) in the first half of the semester.

Monday evening: We still managed to get out for a walk, but Mark and I were both exhausted!

Tuesday morning: Another early start so Mark could be there for percussion ensemble. I had a couple of hours to get some things done in the office. I had a million emails! (Including some very silly ones from my students :-)

Tuesday midday: My other two classes are back to back starting at 11 and ending at 2. First was Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Theory, followed by another grammar class with Dr. Troike. It was nice going in that I knew both professors and many of the students in each class. I think the SLA Theory class will be really interesting. The Troike class is essentially a continuation of the one from last semester, but I'm much less intimidated this time around!

So, overall, things have started well. I wasn't as exited as usual to start school again, but now that I have, I feel much more enthusiastic. This semester will be a little heavy on the theoretical side, while I prefer a more pedagogical focus, but I think it'll still be good. Mark and I are definitely tired, and it will take a couple of weeks to get used to our much more demanding school schedule. Once we adjust, though, the semester will probably fly by!

Gearing Up...

It's hard to believe that school starts again tomorrow. This summer has been such a roller coaster, but I haven't quite convinced myself yet that I'm ready to start things up again. It's strange for me to feel more apprehensive than excited, but, unfortunately, that's where I am right now. I have successfully passed the last several days in almost complete leisure; I was (thankfully!) excused from Jury Duty, which left the end of my week wide open.

I did have a meeting on Wednesday for the Writing Program, to remind us of all the most important policies and new rules as well as to meet briefly with our TEADs and course directors (mine are the same this semester). They also showed this funny video on You-Tube. I'm trying to decide if it's worth showing to my class as I explain my own cell phone policy. Of course, it's texting (not talking) that is a problem in my classes. So frustrating.

I spent yesterday basically reading and watching movies. I watched My Fair Lady in the afternoon, and Mark and I watched 12 Angry Men in the evening after our walk. Both were quite good, and I think I'll use 12 Angry Men in my 102/108 class next semester.

That leaves me with today to get ready for my big first day. I'll teach from 9-11 (two classes), then go to an orientation meeting for new EL/L students (to talk about EGU, since I'm now a representative for our department), then I have my first class in the afternoon. So I do feel a bit like once I get through tomorrow, the rest of the week will be downhill; especially since my Tuesday/Thursday classes are with instructors I had last semester (so I have an idea about what to expect). I guess thinking about it all does make me a little more excited...I just hope I don't get too nervous before I teach. Really, the first day should be easy (except pronouncing my students' names!). I guess there's not much more to say about it at this point...I'll let you know how it goes.

Savoring the time

Between trying to enjoy our last days of freedom and take care of a few loose ends (renewing our car registration, working out our student loans for the year, etc.), we've stayed pretty busy.

The weekend was particularly fun--we spent most of the afternoon on Saturday at an open house of some friends from church. On Sunday, we met up with Aunt Linda and Uncle Chuck for lunch, and her son and his family (who live in Tucson, but whom we've never met) came too. It was nice to meet them and get to see Aunt Linda and Uncle Chuck again before school starts.

I also thought I'd mention a new recipe I tried a few days ago for sweet potato french fries. I've tried about half a dozen recipes for baked french fries with regular potatoes, but none of them got the crispy on the outside, soft on the inside texture that these did. If you like sweet potatoes, you'd love these. I think I might try the same technique on regular potatoes and see what happens...

Tonight, we're headed to the pastor's house for our Bible study, so that should be fun (they have a pool, so maybe I'll get to jump in and cool off!). Tomorrow, I've got to go to the writing program's general meeting for GATs, then find out if I'll actually have jury duty or not. The week is flying by!

Counting down...

Incredibly, the summer is almost over. I'm sure it'll be good for us to start school again and get into a routine, but it's hard not to miss the idea of leisurely days...

I have now finished my syllabus, including planning out the class schedule for the whole semester. I'm sure I'll make a few adjustments to that once we get started, but it's nice to think back to last year and be able to appreciate how much more working ahead I've been able to do. I was very happy with my assignment sheets and rubrics from the summer, so after changing the due dates, they are done, too. I've also planned the first week of classes, so I am hoping that the first week won't be terribly overwhelming. (At least I should be able to focus on getting organized in the courses I'm taking.)

Other than that, there's not too much to report. I was supposed to have jury duty yesterday, but I was rescheduled for next week. I hope to either serve or be excused, though, because it'll be a real pain to have to report once school starts.

I should also mention the pleasant change in the weather. It's been anywhere from 100-108 just about every day since we got back in July, with almost no rain. Yesterday, it rained in the evening and cooled things way down. It's been cloudy all morning, and right now, it's only around 80 degrees! (when I was teaching, it was almost always 90 by 9am). Of course, it's also very humid, but since I'm just hanging out inside, that's not bothering me. I'm just glad the A/C isn't running non-stop!

AZ Residency!

Well, as of this morning, it's official: Mark and I are now considered AZ residents by the University! We took a giant folder of documents and a couple of forms in to the residency office this morning, and after a very brief review of our materials, the officer re-classified us. This is a huge blessing and answer to prayer. It won't really change things for me (since all of my tuition is covered by my GAT position), but it means that Mark will be paying in-state rather than out-of-state tuition from here on out. He's figured out that it will save about $15,000 this school year. We're thrilled!

The only other excitement to report is that we had a little, tiny lizard in our bathroom on Saturday evening. After the tricky episode of catching the lizard at Grandma's with Dad during our last visit (after mom and I found it, it crawled up into the couch and we had to call for help!), I was thankful that this one was small and in a room without any furniture for the little guy to crawl into. It took me a few tries to coax him into my hands, but I finally got him. (And sent Mark to get the camera!)

Here, you can see just how small it was; not even the size of my pinkie finger!

He blended in too well with the sidewalk...

As I was trying to get a good picture, I scared him (again) and he ran toward our welcome mat.

Outdoor Updates

I finally got out the camera to take some pictures of the latest changes at our apartment. Here's the view looking out from our new security door. We've had the door for about a month now, but just got the handle and deadbolt installed yesterday. Unfortunately, the deadbolt is misaligned, so we can't use it at all; and our current keys don't work in the new locks. The landlord tells me they will be re-keying all of our doors so they will all use the same key, which will be great. Till then, we'll only be locking the security door when we're actually home, I guess.





















Here's the door from outside. Notice also the new light fixture. They also put up our apartment number again, but as you can see, you practically have to be standing on our welcome mat to see it. (It's right above the security door, underneath the arch).















From our front door, looking to the right (the charcoal grill, light pole, and picnic table are new):
















From our front door, looking to the left:

And last, here's a picture I took a while ago, but looking at it on my camera's screen, I didn't think it came out. It's not great, but I think you can make out the lizard sitting there. This is the one that routinely crawls through a hole in the screen on our living room window and hangs out between the screen and the glass pane. I thought at first that he was trapped in there, but I've seen him come and go...I've asked the landlord to fix the screen, too, so that we can open the window when it gets cooler without worrying about letting this little guy in.