Amanda Allen tagged me to post 8 things about myself that you didn't know, and though I'm not sure I'll be able to comfortably provide that list, I'm definitely going to try.
Submitted for your reading pleasure, 8 things you didn't know about me (or my further elaborations on some things you may have already suspected.)
1. I secretly wish I was a vegetarian. I like the whole cultural mystique that goes along with vegetarianism, the concern for animal rights and dietary health, though I'm really not so concerned with either of those, at least not enough to give up meat forever. I do, however, go days, even weeks at the time without eating meat simply because I really like vegetables. I was out to lunch with some of the students from my grad program last week, and I ordered a veggie burger. Everyone immediately began asking me how long I'd been a vegetarian, and I was flattered that they assumed I am and kind of disappointed to inform them I'm not. I don't think I could ever give up chicken.
2. I'm an ink junkie. Well, okay, not so much so that I have tattoos on my forehead or all down my arm, but I really like tattoos, and I have two: a crescent moon and three stars on my right ankle and an owl named Conway on my left shoulder. I think body art is beautiful and expressive, and I like the permanence of it. I'm such a stalwart to change, I crave familiarity, and I hate things that don't last forever (so I'm forced to ask myself why I moved away for grad school...), so tattoos are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they are also comforting to me.
3. I love the South. I feel like that statement needs much qualification coming from me, given my political and religious beliefs, lifestyle, and career choice. Here we go. While I concede that the Southeastern United States has closed mined conservative politics, much poverty, and disparate social stratification, I think there are so many good things about being a Southerner and living in the South. I'm a firm believer in Southern hospitality. I love how communities gather around their own in times of need, say for instance when a Baptist church in a small Mississippi town sends out casseroles and helping hands to rebuild an old woman's house after it burned down. I love sitting on a front porch and having driversby wave to me as I rock and visit with family and friends. I love the sense of filial piety and social propriety I have inherited as a result of my Southern upbringing. I think I can make a big impact on the lives of teenagers as a public school teacher, providing for them as safe an environment as I can to express themselves openly. Honestly, I think the South needs more people like me. (And you.)
4. Teaching writing makes me giddy. That may not be something you didn't know about me, but I must say, as an instructor of composition who has been a writing tutor for years, I love helping students express themselves through writing. Nothing pleases me more than guiding a student to a point where she figures out the best way to make her claim, prove her thesis, take ownership of her ideas and really accomplish a great feat in this sordid game of maturation. It's something I'm very passionate about.
5. I have planned out my wedding ceremony. Though I have no prospects whatsoever, I know that I want an outdoor wedding in the fall, probably mid to late October. In lieu of traditional vows, I want various poems from Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the Brownings read throughout the ceremony. These poems will address all the different manifestations of love, from romantic affection to love for a child, and even the daunting task of keeping love alive in a relationship. I don't want a wedding party. Instead, those who are important enough to me to play a role in my wedding ceremony will be readers, serving a more vital role in the union that just holding a bouquet. I want a three tier lemon cake with raspberry filling and butter cream frosting decorated with champagne grapes dusted with super fine sugar. My wedding song (depending on my significant other's taste) will be "Nothing Fails" by Madonna.
6. I like to read chick lit novels. This is a tough one for me to admit to since I'm a graduate student in English and I consider myself a person with critical taste in literature. And I am. I am moderately well read and I love the classics as well as critical commentary and poetic language. Still, sometimes it's just plain fun to spend a day reading _The Nanny Diaries_ and giving yourself a break from Foucault and John Milton. I, therefore, am not ashamed to be excited to read the _Gossip Girl_ series.
7. I was Wiccan once. It was only for two weeks and I was 15, but I think this foray into Neo-paganism provides an important dimension to my identity. In those crucial and awful teenage years, I was unsatisfied with the religious identity proscribed on me by my culture and took the initiative to seek out answers to my own questions about the cosmos instead of accepting what I was taught. I didn't stick with my newfound religion because around that time I came to the silent realization that religion, at least in its traditional and organized forms, really doesn't work for me--it just isn't that important in my life--though I wasn't comfortable enough to admit that realization to myself until years later. Still, I think this experience shows if not intelligence at least curiosity on my part, and it makes for an interesting story at cocktail parties. (I even set up an alter with candles and rocks I had "blessed" in my bedroom!)
8. I love reality TV. It's such a curse! I'll watch any reality show that comes on: America's Next Top Model, Big Brother, The Real World, Survivor. I get attached to the characters, involved in the asinine plot lines, wish I was beautiful enough to walk around half naked in a beach environment performing stunts to maintain my place in the game. It's pathological, really.
I don't think I have 8 readers to tag, but I will tag 3 (if they want to play. No pressure).
Donna
Jenn
Corey
Monday, August 27, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
6-10 lines daily
An assignment for my lyric poetry writing class is to write 6-10 lines of poetry a day. It doesn't matter if they aren't cohesive or even good. The professor just wants us to keep our creative gears well oiled. I'm enjoying the assignment lots. Here's what I've written the past three days. Do you notice any trends in theme or meter? (Point them out to me if you.)
8/23
And green glass stars
etched with regal bars
and barrels and curlicues
shine by wick
through a glass darkly.
They become monsters
with memories of homes
left in a hurry.
8/24
Unread books populate a shelf screwed together with threads, not bolts.
A slap-stick comedic performance piece,
Your host a misguided youth
So far from home he can finally feel
the exhilarating flip-flop-crunch
of this car-crash nightmare come to fruition
at the base of a gravel driveway
that leads to heaven's condominium.
Not a pie-in-the-sky,
but closer than a ladder would take you.
8/25
And I ask you, Walt Whitman,
though I call not from a Supermarket in California
but from an Apartment in Tennessee,
Where is my self-defining lyric, my song of self?
Over past the nature trails and river bends
Shirtless young men ride skinny pink bicycles
with whizzing tires and clinking chains.
They have music each moment they journey.
Can you locate my tune?
8/23
And green glass stars
etched with regal bars
and barrels and curlicues
shine by wick
through a glass darkly.
They become monsters
with memories of homes
left in a hurry.
8/24
Unread books populate a shelf screwed together with threads, not bolts.
A slap-stick comedic performance piece,
Your host a misguided youth
So far from home he can finally feel
the exhilarating flip-flop-crunch
of this car-crash nightmare come to fruition
at the base of a gravel driveway
that leads to heaven's condominium.
Not a pie-in-the-sky,
but closer than a ladder would take you.
8/25
And I ask you, Walt Whitman,
though I call not from a Supermarket in California
but from an Apartment in Tennessee,
Where is my self-defining lyric, my song of self?
Over past the nature trails and river bends
Shirtless young men ride skinny pink bicycles
with whizzing tires and clinking chains.
They have music each moment they journey.
Can you locate my tune?
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
On the upswing
I met two of my professor for this semester at the reception held at the university club for all new graduate students and faculty. (Funny, now that I think of it, none of the new faculty seemed to be there). They were both warm and very excited to talk to me about their classes and my interests. They really quelled my fears about graduate school. I was afraid I wouldn't perform well in their classes, since one is on Renaissance tragedy and the other on Restoration poetry, neither of which would be my first choice of pleasure reading. After speaking with them, however, I'm more enthusiastic about digging into the stuff with both hands and getting really involved with new ideas and voices that will inform my future thesis project. Besides, I've never taken a single literature course I didn't take something I absolutely loved from. It's going to be a good semester.
I feel this unmitigated (right word?) pressure to declare an "emphasis" for my MA soon, though it seems to me that regardless of emphasis, master's students still basically take a lot of literature courses in order to secure a broader knowledge of all time periods and genres. After checking the Master's check sheet, I realized that to have an emphasis in one of the writing concentrations--either creative writing or rhetoric and composition--one must only take 9 hours of specialized writing courses. Well, I'd have done that much anyway to fill my elective requirements, so I've decided to declare a writing emphasis. It's the best of both worlds for me, really: I get to learn more about writing and teaching writing, which I'm passionate about, and still take literature courses, which I'm equally passionate about. God, I love it when things work out so smoothly!
I'm also going to begin training as an ESL tutor, though I've been one before, working as a private writing tutor for a student from Haiti at the Clinton School of Public Service last year. I'm really excited to work with the ESL faculty and the international students. In fact, they have encouraged me to enroll as a teaching assistant in and ESL comp class next semester so I can get a first-hand knowledge of ESL issues in the classroom. I never thought I'd be so interested in this kind of stuff, but, you know, I really am excited to broaden my cultural horizons. For so long my world has been small, spanning only that 180-mile stretch of Interstate highway between Horn Lake, MS and Conway, AR. It's time to branch out, and I'm lucky to have people here who will guide and support me.
I really am more optimistic about this whole grad school endeavor today than I have been yet.
Classes begin tomorrow, and though I'll regret these words soon, I can't wait to have homework again!
I feel this unmitigated (right word?) pressure to declare an "emphasis" for my MA soon, though it seems to me that regardless of emphasis, master's students still basically take a lot of literature courses in order to secure a broader knowledge of all time periods and genres. After checking the Master's check sheet, I realized that to have an emphasis in one of the writing concentrations--either creative writing or rhetoric and composition--one must only take 9 hours of specialized writing courses. Well, I'd have done that much anyway to fill my elective requirements, so I've decided to declare a writing emphasis. It's the best of both worlds for me, really: I get to learn more about writing and teaching writing, which I'm passionate about, and still take literature courses, which I'm equally passionate about. God, I love it when things work out so smoothly!
I'm also going to begin training as an ESL tutor, though I've been one before, working as a private writing tutor for a student from Haiti at the Clinton School of Public Service last year. I'm really excited to work with the ESL faculty and the international students. In fact, they have encouraged me to enroll as a teaching assistant in and ESL comp class next semester so I can get a first-hand knowledge of ESL issues in the classroom. I never thought I'd be so interested in this kind of stuff, but, you know, I really am excited to broaden my cultural horizons. For so long my world has been small, spanning only that 180-mile stretch of Interstate highway between Horn Lake, MS and Conway, AR. It's time to branch out, and I'm lucky to have people here who will guide and support me.
I really am more optimistic about this whole grad school endeavor today than I have been yet.
Classes begin tomorrow, and though I'll regret these words soon, I can't wait to have homework again!
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Weekend in Knoxville
What a weekend it's been! On Friday night there was a big dinner party (very informal) at an English professor's house. There were lots of good foods and drinks, and I really think I got to know more of my classmates, probably because I had a few (free!) beers and was even more social than I usually am. I found out that two of the Ph.D. creative writing students have MFA's from the U of Arkansas, though neither of them knew where Conway is. They are transplants from Southern California.
Yesterday I went hiking in the Smoky Mountains (only 45 minutes away!) with an interesting girl who is a first year MA like me. She's from West Virginia, holding a BA in German and an MFA in fiction writing from Sarah Lawrence. She has lots of interesting New York stories, but she told me she's never published any of her writing, which concerns me. I really struggled over applying to a few MFA programs, and had I gone to one, I would have wanted to publish. I guess it's just her prerogative.
Today I finally found Walmart! And it's not far away either. I'm concerned about my intelligence, as I don't understand why I couldn't find it last weekend. Perhaps it was because I went at night and I'm new in town. I purchased some household items and came home to spend the afternoon reading and doing laundry. I usually don't like being by myself for long periods of time, but today wasn't so bad. I only got a little homesick, thinking of all my friends moving back to Conway to start a new year at my beloved UCA. But then I'm about to start a new semester at UT, which may become my beloved, too. I still get lost EVERY time I step on campus, but perhaps that will change after a week of navigating the place when classes start.
I have to meet with the director of English graduate studies this week to talk about what I want from the program and my future goals. I hope he doesn't scoff at me when I tell him I really, honestly want to teach high school. I mean, maybe I don't want to do it forever, but I do want to try it out. It's something I've been running from, I think, something I've always wanted to do but allowed others to convince me I was too good, too smart, too something for the job. Still, I can't shake the notion that it's something I want to do, and I remember one time last semester I was talking to Donna Bowman about this overwhelming desire to work in the public schools, even the at-needs schools, and she told me, "then you have to do it." I think that's how I'll explain it to Dr. Dunn, if an explanation is even needed. "I firmly believe that to whom much is given, much is expected, Dr. Dunn, and I've been given a lot. I want to--have to--spread the blessings." Well, maybe that sounds pretentious.
Well, I wish luck to all those gearing up for a new semester!
Yesterday I went hiking in the Smoky Mountains (only 45 minutes away!) with an interesting girl who is a first year MA like me. She's from West Virginia, holding a BA in German and an MFA in fiction writing from Sarah Lawrence. She has lots of interesting New York stories, but she told me she's never published any of her writing, which concerns me. I really struggled over applying to a few MFA programs, and had I gone to one, I would have wanted to publish. I guess it's just her prerogative.
Today I finally found Walmart! And it's not far away either. I'm concerned about my intelligence, as I don't understand why I couldn't find it last weekend. Perhaps it was because I went at night and I'm new in town. I purchased some household items and came home to spend the afternoon reading and doing laundry. I usually don't like being by myself for long periods of time, but today wasn't so bad. I only got a little homesick, thinking of all my friends moving back to Conway to start a new year at my beloved UCA. But then I'm about to start a new semester at UT, which may become my beloved, too. I still get lost EVERY time I step on campus, but perhaps that will change after a week of navigating the place when classes start.
I have to meet with the director of English graduate studies this week to talk about what I want from the program and my future goals. I hope he doesn't scoff at me when I tell him I really, honestly want to teach high school. I mean, maybe I don't want to do it forever, but I do want to try it out. It's something I've been running from, I think, something I've always wanted to do but allowed others to convince me I was too good, too smart, too something for the job. Still, I can't shake the notion that it's something I want to do, and I remember one time last semester I was talking to Donna Bowman about this overwhelming desire to work in the public schools, even the at-needs schools, and she told me, "then you have to do it." I think that's how I'll explain it to Dr. Dunn, if an explanation is even needed. "I firmly believe that to whom much is given, much is expected, Dr. Dunn, and I've been given a lot. I want to--have to--spread the blessings." Well, maybe that sounds pretentious.
Well, I wish luck to all those gearing up for a new semester!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
The Madness Continues
Did you know that at the University of Tennessee, it is impossible for students to fail their first-year writing courses? The lowest grade they can receive is a C. If a student's work in the class is failing, then s/he receives an "NC" (no credit), which does not effect GPA and is required to take the course again. And again. And again. I learned today that it takes some students 6 tries to finally pass freshman comp. The university also affords this "courtesy" to introductory math courses, in an effort to keep freshman in college, specifically at the University of Tennessee, which only has an 80% freshman retention rate.
Now, ask yourselves, readers, does this policy make sense? I perhaps understand allowing the student on chance to re-do these crucial courses, but a seemingly unlimited number of chances to master two of the most basic courses they'll probably take in college, with no consequences at all? I'm appalled. Don't get me wrong. I really want freshmen to succeed in college, but I believe strongly in the university not only as a place where academic education occurs, but also where maturation and personal responsibility is learned. I grew up a lot as an undergrad. I'm sure you did, too. But, it seems to me that the University of Tennessee is doing its students a disservice to its students by not presenting them with consequences, though negative in the case, for their actions. And, as someone who will be teaching composition, beginning Wednesday, I feel like if students know this policy, I will be wasting my time and theirs by attempting to inspire them to care about writing.
However, I shouldn't be so negative. I'm sure most students will try, and I'm sure most won't fail my class. I just want to be an effective teacher, and I feel like that option is taken away from me at least in some capacity if my students know they have chance after chance to take my class with no ramifications. Well, I guess they would have to sacrifice a precious three hours of credit in each semester's schedule to take comp over and over again.
Other than that rant, I'm doing fine. Meeting people, trying to navigate the campus. I lunched with five of the the first year MAs today right through one of our workshops, but I heard it wasn't very useful. I think if I have to sit through another 2+ hour workshop on teaching strategies, university policies, library services, or technology in the classroom, I'll scream. Or maybe fall asleep in the middle.
I miss home, but I'm getting used to my neighborhood. Walked around the cemetery this evening. It was large and hilly, and I think it will be my new favorite walking spot.
Have a good semester to the UCA people.
Now, ask yourselves, readers, does this policy make sense? I perhaps understand allowing the student on chance to re-do these crucial courses, but a seemingly unlimited number of chances to master two of the most basic courses they'll probably take in college, with no consequences at all? I'm appalled. Don't get me wrong. I really want freshmen to succeed in college, but I believe strongly in the university not only as a place where academic education occurs, but also where maturation and personal responsibility is learned. I grew up a lot as an undergrad. I'm sure you did, too. But, it seems to me that the University of Tennessee is doing its students a disservice to its students by not presenting them with consequences, though negative in the case, for their actions. And, as someone who will be teaching composition, beginning Wednesday, I feel like if students know this policy, I will be wasting my time and theirs by attempting to inspire them to care about writing.
However, I shouldn't be so negative. I'm sure most students will try, and I'm sure most won't fail my class. I just want to be an effective teacher, and I feel like that option is taken away from me at least in some capacity if my students know they have chance after chance to take my class with no ramifications. Well, I guess they would have to sacrifice a precious three hours of credit in each semester's schedule to take comp over and over again.
Other than that rant, I'm doing fine. Meeting people, trying to navigate the campus. I lunched with five of the the first year MAs today right through one of our workshops, but I heard it wasn't very useful. I think if I have to sit through another 2+ hour workshop on teaching strategies, university policies, library services, or technology in the classroom, I'll scream. Or maybe fall asleep in the middle.
I miss home, but I'm getting used to my neighborhood. Walked around the cemetery this evening. It was large and hilly, and I think it will be my new favorite walking spot.
Have a good semester to the UCA people.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Some thoughts while waiting on the cable guy to come
Knoxville, and specifically UT's campus, officially freak me out. They are huge places, and I'm not used to navigating the one-way streets, the turnpikes that turn to wide thoroughfares, that turn to alley ways, the rude drivers. It's overwhelming, really, navigating Knoxville. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it the more places I go. Certainly, though, I'd rather drive in Conway or Horn Lake any day.
Yesterday I was a bit freaked out by all the workshops I sat in on. We were busy with orientation from 8 am to 7 pm. I met some interesting and nice people, and some not so nice people, and I questioned whether or not I'm motivated enough to do this whole grad school thing. I want a master's degree so I can further develop my knowledge and understanding of language and literature and better serve my future, potentially high school, students. That's it. But when the English grad faculty gave us a panel discussion about our new responsibilities as scholars and cultural historians, I began to feel as if I've made a mistake in coming here. I don't want to be a scholar. I don't want to publish books about dead white poets. I don't even want to profess at a university, at least not at this point. I just want to be a good education and teach some kids a little bit about literature and writing an essay, but even more about living with dignity and compassion.
I miss home. I miss my friends. I miss my family. But I'm not giving up hope that this place can offer me friends who will become like family and be home to me. And hey, the instructor I'm assisting in comp this semester is a nice woman who is originally from Mississippi, like me. So that's cool.
I'm off to wait for the cable guy!
Yesterday I was a bit freaked out by all the workshops I sat in on. We were busy with orientation from 8 am to 7 pm. I met some interesting and nice people, and some not so nice people, and I questioned whether or not I'm motivated enough to do this whole grad school thing. I want a master's degree so I can further develop my knowledge and understanding of language and literature and better serve my future, potentially high school, students. That's it. But when the English grad faculty gave us a panel discussion about our new responsibilities as scholars and cultural historians, I began to feel as if I've made a mistake in coming here. I don't want to be a scholar. I don't want to publish books about dead white poets. I don't even want to profess at a university, at least not at this point. I just want to be a good education and teach some kids a little bit about literature and writing an essay, but even more about living with dignity and compassion.
I miss home. I miss my friends. I miss my family. But I'm not giving up hope that this place can offer me friends who will become like family and be home to me. And hey, the instructor I'm assisting in comp this semester is a nice woman who is originally from Mississippi, like me. So that's cool.
I'm off to wait for the cable guy!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Life without Walmart and Community
Okay, okay, as a self-avowed liberal and a graduate of the UCA Honors College, you'd think I'd detest the evil champion of globalization that is Walmart. The truth is, though, it's the store I love to hate. I mean, I'm well informed on how the corporation neglects its employees, drives local businesses out of the market, and horribly rapes the environment. But, I can't shake the fact that Walmart is a special place for me, a big blue battleship full of nostalgia. See, here's the story.
My parents divorced when I was 3, and I remember visiting my dad every other weekend. We had a routine, because my dad is big on routines. On Friday nights, we'd have pizza and rent movies, and Saturdays we would go to the Big Star in town for groceries. This was back in the early nineties when all Olive Branch, Mississippi had was a dollar store and a Big Star. On Sunday mornings, after he'd taken my great-aunt to the Methodist church, Daddy would take my brother and me just across the state line to the Walmart on Riverdale Drive in Memphis. We'd shop for things, like paper towels and soap, and Daddy would always buy me a little something, a matchbox car, a new backpack, whatever my "need" was for the day. After that, we'd have breakfast at the McDonald's across the street.
So, you see, my life has been seriously influenced by American corporations, Walmart cheif among them, and I've never lived anywhere without a Walmart within a five minute drive. But here in Knoxville, which is the biggest city in which I've ever lived, I've driven all around my neighborhood and can't find one. I needed lots of things, like groceries and toiletries, so today I went to Kmart (which is also quite a nostalgic place for me) and Kroger. But I can't shake the fact that I probably would have saved a little money on my purchases if I could have just found a Walmart. Well, maybe not that much. I always wind up buying things I don't need there.
Please excuse my rant. Write it off as something a bored extrovert with no friends yet occupies his time with.
Tomorrow, bright and early, I begin my first day of graduate orientation. Then I will meet all the new MA English students and the old ones, too. I'm terribly excited about it. I think I'll even iron a shirt to wear for the event! Mary Ruth promised me instant friends when I got to grad school, and I assure you, I'm ready for some. I've been here two days without any interaction to speak of (I did meet my neighbors--a Ph.D. candidate in Forestry from China and his wife. Wonderfully nice.), so I'm ready to put my people skills to work!
I'm still thinking of you all, and missing you daily. I'm sure my homesickness will pass in a week's time, though. Again, happy trials to all of you!
My parents divorced when I was 3, and I remember visiting my dad every other weekend. We had a routine, because my dad is big on routines. On Friday nights, we'd have pizza and rent movies, and Saturdays we would go to the Big Star in town for groceries. This was back in the early nineties when all Olive Branch, Mississippi had was a dollar store and a Big Star. On Sunday mornings, after he'd taken my great-aunt to the Methodist church, Daddy would take my brother and me just across the state line to the Walmart on Riverdale Drive in Memphis. We'd shop for things, like paper towels and soap, and Daddy would always buy me a little something, a matchbox car, a new backpack, whatever my "need" was for the day. After that, we'd have breakfast at the McDonald's across the street.
So, you see, my life has been seriously influenced by American corporations, Walmart cheif among them, and I've never lived anywhere without a Walmart within a five minute drive. But here in Knoxville, which is the biggest city in which I've ever lived, I've driven all around my neighborhood and can't find one. I needed lots of things, like groceries and toiletries, so today I went to Kmart (which is also quite a nostalgic place for me) and Kroger. But I can't shake the fact that I probably would have saved a little money on my purchases if I could have just found a Walmart. Well, maybe not that much. I always wind up buying things I don't need there.
Please excuse my rant. Write it off as something a bored extrovert with no friends yet occupies his time with.
Tomorrow, bright and early, I begin my first day of graduate orientation. Then I will meet all the new MA English students and the old ones, too. I'm terribly excited about it. I think I'll even iron a shirt to wear for the event! Mary Ruth promised me instant friends when I got to grad school, and I assure you, I'm ready for some. I've been here two days without any interaction to speak of (I did meet my neighbors--a Ph.D. candidate in Forestry from China and his wife. Wonderfully nice.), so I'm ready to put my people skills to work!
I'm still thinking of you all, and missing you daily. I'm sure my homesickness will pass in a week's time, though. Again, happy trials to all of you!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Knocking around Knoxville
The drive from Memphis (or, in my case, just outside) to Knoxville is fraught with big city traffic and mountain passes, but blessed by some of the most gorgeous landscapes I've ever seen, farmhouses on rolling hills that would put *insert old, dead, white, British guy*'s pastorals to shame. My parents rode in front of me in the over-sized UHaul Daddy insisted on renting as I followed behind in my white hatchback, fighting off the impulse to sleep or turn back for home and its promises of familiarity. The trip took us about 7 hours total, and we drove all night, which was a good idea to beat the traffic and the heat. I got to Knoxville yesterday around 9:30 a.m., and I've been knocking around ever since.
I must say, UT's campus is huge and confusing. There are too many one-way streets and streets that don't lead anywhere for my comfort level, but I'm sure I'll have them all figured out in a week's time. The campus isn't as pretty as I'm used to, but at this point in my journey, nothing looks so good as UCA or Conway, Arkansas, because its all I know. I'm sure I'll grow to love it here.
My apartment is a small, one bedroom unit owned by UT. The rent is a little more than I was paying in Conway, but I feel like that I'm living in a community of graduate students who are all in the same boat as me. Most of my neighbors are international students, and many of them are older, they have families. I've seen lots of children playing in the pool and on the playground behind my building. The family atmosphere is nice.
Across the street from me is a whole slough of interesting little shops. A locally-owned pizza/subshop, where I lunched today (it was good enough), a thrift store, an art gallery, and a farmer's market. There is also an assortment of smally, sketchy gas stations and a trailer park, which makes me feel like I'm driving down Dave Ward past Satterfield's all over again. I've also discovered a cemetary with a nice paved trail throughout it just down the street, and I'm thinking of strolling through later on tonight, because, oddly, cemeteries make me feel at home. I think it's because I'm from small town Mississippi, where so much life revolves around the cemetery: I learned to drive taking the back roads from my house to the community graveyard where my entire family is buried. Every first Saturday in May is graveyard clean off day, which brings the whole community together in the heat for laughs to bellow, tears to fall, and tempers to flare. Yeah, I like cemeteries. And I'm going to walk in the one down the street, if I ever finish unpacking.
Unpacking is a major chore. I decree here unto the world, I have no plans to ever move again after I finish my Master's degree, find a job, and move to that city. Okay, world, keep me accountable.
I begin my graduate student orientation on Monday. All week we have workshops and lunches and happy hours planned, so it looks like I'll be extremely busy. I like the idea of that. Meeting friends, making memories. That's my favorite part of life.
I'll keep you updated on my progress.
I must say, UT's campus is huge and confusing. There are too many one-way streets and streets that don't lead anywhere for my comfort level, but I'm sure I'll have them all figured out in a week's time. The campus isn't as pretty as I'm used to, but at this point in my journey, nothing looks so good as UCA or Conway, Arkansas, because its all I know. I'm sure I'll grow to love it here.
My apartment is a small, one bedroom unit owned by UT. The rent is a little more than I was paying in Conway, but I feel like that I'm living in a community of graduate students who are all in the same boat as me. Most of my neighbors are international students, and many of them are older, they have families. I've seen lots of children playing in the pool and on the playground behind my building. The family atmosphere is nice.
Across the street from me is a whole slough of interesting little shops. A locally-owned pizza/subshop, where I lunched today (it was good enough), a thrift store, an art gallery, and a farmer's market. There is also an assortment of smally, sketchy gas stations and a trailer park, which makes me feel like I'm driving down Dave Ward past Satterfield's all over again. I've also discovered a cemetary with a nice paved trail throughout it just down the street, and I'm thinking of strolling through later on tonight, because, oddly, cemeteries make me feel at home. I think it's because I'm from small town Mississippi, where so much life revolves around the cemetery: I learned to drive taking the back roads from my house to the community graveyard where my entire family is buried. Every first Saturday in May is graveyard clean off day, which brings the whole community together in the heat for laughs to bellow, tears to fall, and tempers to flare. Yeah, I like cemeteries. And I'm going to walk in the one down the street, if I ever finish unpacking.
Unpacking is a major chore. I decree here unto the world, I have no plans to ever move again after I finish my Master's degree, find a job, and move to that city. Okay, world, keep me accountable.
I begin my graduate student orientation on Monday. All week we have workshops and lunches and happy hours planned, so it looks like I'll be extremely busy. I like the idea of that. Meeting friends, making memories. That's my favorite part of life.
I'll keep you updated on my progress.
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