Lubbock, Texas growing nearer and nearer??

 

Well, I hope so anyway! After staying up until 3am last night prepping my job talk, I got up early, gave Stevie a big hug goodbye (he’s never in all of his 12 years been left completely alone for 3 whole nights!), then headed out to the airport. We have very generous friends who live next to the airport and who not only let us park our car at their place whenever we fly out of DTW, they even give us rides to the terminal. But, unfortunately, that’s where the smiles end. When I reached the check-in desk, I was informed that my flight to Dallas had been canceled due to the ice storms in Texas!

Mom’s Steppin’ Out~

I wanted to wish the best of luck to Mom’s recovery. She begins her new life with a human-made ankle today. It is so unbelievable to conceptualize – getting a new joint and being able to stand on it the same day. Science fiction becomes science fact. Here’s hoping all goes well and you are doing wind sprints within winter’s thaw (assuming winter every properly freezes, that is)!

As for everything else… I have no time to blog! I work work work… or clean the house, or take care of the cat, or meet with friends and associates, etc. I’ll try my best to get some pictures up of a recent family wedding (my first at a Catholic church in Korea) and of some interesting culture issues I’ve had my eye on (regarding Korean textbook revision, the insane pressures for beauty conformity/plastic surgery, and some other gender politics stuff).

I do have one horrible news item to speak of. A few nights ago, about a mile from my house, an American solider allegedly raped a 67 year-old Korean woman repeatedly, beating her face in the process. He was caught in the act and thrown in jail. I can’t say this will do well for Korean/foreign relations, especially on quiet dark alleys, late at night.

Mom’s Steppin’ Out~

I wanted to wish the best of luck to Mom’s recovery. She begins her new life with a human-made ankle today. It is so unbelievable to conceptualize – getting a new joint and being able to stand on it the same day. Science fiction becomes science fact. Here’s hoping all goes well and you are doing wind sprints within winter’s thaw (assuming winter every properly freezes, that is)!

As for everything else… I have no time to blog! I work work work… or clean the house, or take care of the cat, or meet with friends and associates, etc. I’ll try my best to get some pictures up of a recent family wedding (my first at a Catholic church in Korea) and of some interesting culture issues I’ve had my eye on (regarding Korean textbook revision, the insane pressures for beauty conformity/plastic surgery, and some other gender politics stuff).

I do have one horrible news item to speak of. A few nights ago, about a mile from my house, an American solider allegedly raped a 67 year-old Korean woman repeatedly, beating her face in the process. He was caught in the act and thrown in jail. I can’t say this will do well for Korean/foreign relations, especially on quiet dark alleys, late at night.

The other side of never

For years, I was all but convinced that I would never finish this degree, and yet, thanks to the constant support of family and friends (not to mention an advisor who quite miraculously never gave up on me), here I finally am. I won’t lie – it feels pretty damn good, maybe even better than I imagined. Actually, since I defended on December 7th, I’ve been swamped with final revisions, prepping for MLA job interviews, planning winter term classes, and now, preparing for campus job visits. Even so, there is much to be said for finally being able to sleep soundly and wake up NOT immediately overwhelmed by anxiety and panic. For this reason, and especially because Matty and I were able to spend the past few weeks celebrating together with loved ones (without a writing deadline hanging over my head for the first time in over 5 years!), this was by far the most wonderful winter break in memory. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take as many pictures as we would haved liked, but you can check out the few we have on our flickr site.

For now, I am back in Ann Arbor with Stevie, and Matty back in Seoul, newly accompanied by Ling (who apparently was a real trouper on the 24-hour trip to Korea). Our original plans of my waiting out the jobsearch season in Chicagoland, then joining Matty in Korea in early March have been altered, due to the fact that I accepted a post-doctoral teaching position through my department at Michigan. If all goes as planned, I’ll finish out the semester here and hopefully head to Seoul with Stevie in late April or early May. If fate smiles upon me and I am offered a teaching position for next year, we’ll be back in the states in late July; if not (or, in other words, if fate smiles upon Matty ), we’ll stay in Korea for another year.

I promised a few people more detailed MLA / jobsearch updates, so if you are interested, read on. Otherwise, here’s to a 2007 filled with peace, happiness, good health, and prosperity!

The other side of never

For years, I was all but convinced that I would never finish this degree, and yet, thanks to the constant love and support of family and friends (not to mention an advisor who quite miraculously never gave up on me), here I finally am. I won’t lie – it feels pretty damn good, maybe even better than I imagined. Actually, since I defended on December 7th, I’ve been swamped with final revisions, prepping for interviews at the annual MLA job convention, planning winter term classes, and now, preparing for campus job visits. Even so, there is much to be said for finally being able to sleep soundly and wake up NOT immediately overwhelmed by anxiety and panic. For this reason, and especially because Matty and I were able to spend the past few weeks celebrating together with loved ones (without a writing deadline hanging over my head for the first time in over 5 years!), this was by far the most wonderful winter break in memory. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take as many pictures as we would haved liked, but you can check out the few we have on our flickr site.

For now, I am back in Ann Arbor with Stevie, and Matty back in Seoul, newly accompanied by Ling (who apparently was a real trouper on the 24-hour trip to Korea). Our original plans of my waiting out the jobsearch season in Chicagoland, then joining Matty in Korea in early March have been altered, due to the fact that I accepted a post-doctoral teaching position through my department at Michigan. If all goes as planned, I’ll finish out the semester here and hopefully head to Seoul with Stevie in late April or early May. If fate smiles upon us and I am offered a teaching position for next year, we’ll be back in the states in late July; if not, we’ll stay in Korea for another year.

I promised a few people more detailed MLA / jobsearch updates, so if you are interested, read on. Otherwise, here’s to a 2007 filled with peace, happiness, good health, and prosperity!