Tuesday, September 1, 2009

What happened to August?

Alright, so I became a little lax for the month of August...but it was busy!!!

I was busy nailing down a place to live in Moscow, ID that allows me to take a dog (the beautiful Chocolate Lab Sage), finalizing moving plans for the drive from Idaho Falls to Moscow, taking classes about teaching classes, and getting all geared up with lesson plans for the Freshman English classes I'm teaching as well as getting ready for the classes I'm taking. Sheesh!

I'm happy to say the move went without a hitch. I live in a three story house which has a basement apartment, so I live in the ground floor and second story. It's completely furnished, so I didn't have to worry about bringing furniture or anything (heaven knows I brought a lot anyway! A whole U-Haul trailer full). For nearly the entire month of August I lived alone because the landlady was having problems finding people to rent the other rooms to, but Sage and I didn't care because, in addition to having the main house to ourselves, Sage really loves hanging out with the two girls living in the basement. She's taken on the role of protector dog and if she hears something out of the ordinary she tends to make her way downstairs to make sure the girls (Grace and Amanda) are alright. It's kinda cute. Actually, I think Sage is trolling for treats because she knows they have some down there for her (I gave them a bag of the "good" treats to help win Sage over).

For about a week I had a roommate (Mohammed) from Saudi Arabia who's working on his PhD in Engineering, but Sage didn't seem to trust him too much. She always barked when he came into the house and he never petted her. He wound up moving out because "the house is too far away from campus" and he was afraid Sage was waking me up. Whatever! I just think he didn't like Sage and that's fine with me. I think he was a little fishy and Sage picked up on that. Good riddance.

Now it's September 1st and I have two new housemates moving in. One is a girl who isn't going to the University of Idaho, but is working at Starbucks. She's signed a year contract with them and will start moving in today. I haven't met her yet, but I hope all goes well. My other housemate actually moved in yesterday and his name is Chris. He's working on his PhD in Mathematics or something and has his office one floor up from mine in the same building. Sage seems to be taking to him pretty well. She barked at him initially when he came into the house, but how effective is her bark when she's wagging her tail? Apparently Chris has a dog as well that may come to live with us so Sage may have a playmate sometime soon. I really think Sage is going to be fine with Chris because she didn't bark at all when Chris came home last night. Yeah!

Man, this is a long posting!

Classes are going well. So far my German class is pretty easy, but right now we're reviewing a lot of stuff I covered in high school, and luckily I retained most of that. I'm not looking forward to congegations and such! My one grad level class is about Rhetorics in New Media and I'm struggling to keep my head above water right now. The readings are a little crazy as the books are aimed at professors and such so they talk a bit above my normal reading level. My brain hurts when I read them and I struggle to make sense of it...but that's what I signed up for. I'm learning. There are only about 11 students in my class, two of which are working on their PhD's in Philosophy, so sometimes the round-table discussions get a little overwhelming, but I'm learning!

Teaching is going great! At least I think so. I'm really enjoying the experience and I hope my students don't dread coming to class. I try to make it light and fun, but sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get a response from the class. It is getting better as the semester goes on because they're getting more comfortable with me and each other. I think I have found my calling because I'm enjoying it so much. Now I just have to decided (sometime in the next two years) if I want to go on and get my PhD so I can teach college or consider teaching at the high school level. Hmmm....

That's about all for now except for the weather...WHEN WILL IT GET COOLER! I'm definitely a fall kinda gall and love sweater weather. I can't wait for that! Till then I'll just keep sweating away as I walk up and down hills on this beautiful campus!