Scheduling

This week my main task was to schedule 30 writing consultants in our two main centers and five satellite locations for the fall semester. That is 30 brilliant students who all have other obligations, classes to take, classes to teach, office hours to keep, homework to do and their own personal writing tasks to complete covering some 260 hours of writing consultations every week. We have this awesome computer system wherein the consultants can upload their availability for the week, and then my task was to sort them all out into various slots in the various 'writer's roosts'. This task was compounded by a number of variables: no rookies working by themselves, each grad consultant has at least one shift working with grad writers, all shifts in the main roosts having a balance of rookies and veterans, lead consultants having shifts in the home roost, and individuals' preferences respected based on their seniority, etc.

Well, its done... at least until we meet next month and someone tells me that they had to switch their class schedule so they could take that class from their favorite professor.

Couch Surfing

I got involved with couch surfing while I was in Istanbul and this week I had my first surfer here in Lawrence. If you are not hip to couch surfing you should check out the website http://www.couchsurfing.org/ .  It is a very cool way to travel, and, as my surfer pointed out to me this week, it is not just a way to travel on the cheap, it is a way to immerse yourself in other cultures and make new friends along the way.

My surfer this past week was an inspiration in many ways. She is Brazilian, but lived here 35 years ago while her father was doing his PhD at KU. She was still a child when they left, and her joy and awe at rediscovering the sites of her youth -the apartment where they lived, the nearby park, her elementary school - it was marvelous to witness. I was very sorry that her travels brought her to Kansas the hottest week of the year, and I was often concerned for her health, but she managed very well.

A professor of architecture, a cyclist and swimmer, and a recent breast cancer survivor, my couch surfer is an amazingly strong woman who does not realize what an inspiration she is for those of us who spend far more time than we should sitting on our butts. Since I am a huge Tour de France fan, I have spent most every evening for the past three weeks watching the tour, and it was a joy to have her here, sharing in my love for that particular sporting event. Although we live on different sides of the equator, we even share our favorites for the yellow jersey.

I think I am going to shop for an exercise bike...

Hot times

Suddenly Kansas (and wider areas of the middle of the country) has been captured by a brutal high pressure system which has decided to sit on our heads and spin relentlessly. It is as though an oppressive regime has enslaved the center of the country and is torturing the population while awaiting the delivery of an unnamed ransom payment. The newscast this morning predicted temperatures of 100 degrees or higher for the foreseeable future. And unlike Arizona, it is NOT a "dry heat", the air is thick and heavy all the time.

Not unlike the frigidly uncomfortable temperatures of January, the majority of the population has retreated to within their climate controlled environments, only venturing outside when it is necessary for continued survival... to forage Dillon's or HyVee for food... or to seek shelter at the local theater to consult with our favorite wizard, Harry Potter.

I move quickly from air-conditioned environment to air-conditioned environment... from home to work and back again... from the challenges of of my job to the sanctuary of watching Le Tour d'France... from reality to my dreams of standing in the clean, crisp mountain air, watching the peleton speed by.

Disconnected

I am disconnected. Cut off. There is a line from me to all those I love, but it has been cut and those ends are hanging with unreceived communication dripping from them. Okay that was pretty dramatic, but I thought the metaphor adequately describes what it is like being hundreds of miles from home. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, the students and my colleagues. But every day, at some point, I will think "Oh man, so-and-so would love that!" And yet, whoever that person is, they are far away and so the communication goes undelivered. It is the sharing of life's experiences which is missing. There have been days when the only communication I have is with the check-out person at the grocery store, and days where there has been no communication at all.

When my children were small and they misbehaved, they would be sent for time out and their lines of communication with others would be cut. They were not allowed to talk to others until they had thought about whatever it was they had done. That was the punishment in our house. So I find myself wondering if in some way I am being punished for something I have done. Analytically I don't think so, but at times it feels that way.

On the other hand, there is something to be said for a solitary existence, to be able to silence the cacophony of voices pulling one's attention in a myriad of directions simultaneously. Not that I have been particularly productive, but I do feel that now I can focus on those things which are important. I will spend my weekends this summer writing, preparing the story I must now tell. Disconnection has led to an ability to focus.

Pancakes

This morning I woke up (at 5:41 like I do) thinking, "I want pancakes!" So I washed my face, brushed my teeth, pulled on my jeans and a t-shirt and off I went. Making pancakes for one person just is not possible, so I decided to go out for breakfast. I drove to the local Perkins, just a couple of miles down the street. I have two comments about this experience.
1) A short stack of pancakes and four strips of bacon should not cost 10 bucks. Especially when the pancakes are incredibly bland and they give you faux maple syrup to put on them.
2) On the drive home I saw about 300 people out for their morning run. I'm serious - all decked out in their short shorts or stretchy pants, sleeveless tops and good quality shoes, they were running in a long line. Some of them were pushing babies, others had their dogs and many of them looked to be having actual conversations as they jogged along the sidewalk.
Okay, so now I feel like a real slacker, no more early morning trips to Perkins for me!

1st Semester Completed!

I completed my first semester at the University of Kansas this week. It has been an interesting adventure with a wonderfully smart and enthusiastic staff. It has been my pleasure to contribute to the 2873 consultations with writers that were done this semester, including over 320 online consultations. I have learned so much from the staff, about the practice of writing consultation, about my own practice and about the vibrant culture here at KU. And as always seems to happen with me, every day I learn that I have so much more to learn. 

It is also bittersweet to have to say good-bye to the graduates. On the one hand I am proud to have known them, and on the other hand, I am sorry we didn't get the chance to know each other better. I wish them all the best of the adventure that they are facing at this time in their lives. What a ride!

Spring has sprung!

I have to admit to being a little disappointed when I moved to Kansas in mid-January and was greeted by a blizzard. I thought, "I moved pretty far south, I thought winters would be milder!" But someone I met that first week told me that I would be happier in a couple of months when spring arrived earlier than in Michigan. She was right!

February was very wintry, but March in Kansas is more like April in Michigan - many mornings with frost on my windshield, some days early in the month with snow that stuck and piled up, but also many days where it was sunny and 'almost' warm. I went back to Michigan for my spring break week in late March, and had to face lots of snow and single digit temperatures. I wasn't very happy. And it snowed a bit in Kansas the Sunday before I came back. But that was the end of winter in Lawrence!

Spring arrived kind of abruptly. The Sunday after I returned it was 92 degrees! Holy cow! That was an unusual day, record breaking, in fact. But spring had definitely arrived. The next day there were trees in bloom all over town. There are huge trees covered in white blossoms, the red buds are in bloom and the crab apples are in full bud. Daffodils and tulips are blooming on campus and the students are running all over campus in shorts and flip-flops.

Yesterday I walked across campus in the sunshine and students were promoting their clubs and charities with a basketball free throw contest, boys on stationary bikes raising money for the homeless, and various other fun outdoor activities. I almost died laughing when I saw a campus police officer riding down the sidewalk on his segue! (A thoroughly emasculating device!)

I have had a very busy week, since my boss, the lovely Terese, is in Atlanta at a conference. I taught our tutor training class by myself, have had a steady flow of interns in the writing center (along with a plethora of writers), have been doing formal observations, and yesterday I got to spend an entire class period with Sociology Masters and PhD students. That class is on the top floor of the highest building on the hill. The view from up there was stunning! Even more fabulous for me personally was that I spent an hour with my kind of people. It brought me back to the time when I was in my Masters program, all kinds of wonderful people studying all kind of things that I find fascinating.

But as I drove home from campus last night, I was struck by the feeling of being alone more than usual. When I was in Istanbul there was a small and tightly knit group of ex-pats who welcomed me, and kept me from ever feeling like I was alone. In Kansas though, I have arrived into a society of people who already have their very busy, well organized lives well in place. Out side of my work environment, I am not feeling like I have a 'place' here yet. I found myself missing home, my friends and family last night...