I don't want to end the year with a post on identity fraud (thank you, by the way, for all your advice, lovely readers!), so I thought I would take a moment for a nice end-of-year message.

While I continue to love Oxford every day that I'm there, the latter part of the year has been full of hurdles: laptop stolen, visa delayed, cancelled email/library card/phone when I arrived, injury, illness, broken glasses, death in the family, and now this credit card fraud. But as my friend Seth said, maybe this is all out of the way now to make room for a fabulous new year.

Despite all this crap, I am still very happy. I am so thankful to have been given the chance to stay in Oxford for another year, allowing me to see my lovely old friends and to make some lovely new friends. I love the fact that I sent just as many Christmas cards to Asia this year as I did to the United States. As I've said before, the people I've met in Oxford are the people with whom I'll want to stay in touch for the rest of my life.

I am excited about the chance to pursue a doctorate in Oxford, which I hope will open up opportunities for me when I am looking for a teaching position. And I love having the chance to play such an active role in the college life - while planning parties may not seem very scholarly, I feel like I've learned so much from it.

I hope I get a chance to travel in 2007, to get a good chunk of my dissertation done, and perhaps to write something for a conference or publication. Things are very optimistic in terms of finances and scholarships for 2007-2008, which will take a lot of pressure off of me and give me time to focus on my studies.

I wish you all, wherever you are, a very happy and healthy 2007!
Much love,
Kaitlin
xxx

PS - Keep your fingers crossed for me as I start teaching on Tuesday. It's a new course for me teaching-wise, but it's a course I took as an undergraduate. I'm very excited (finally, no more intro course!), but very nervous...wish me luck!

...I open the mail and find out that I've been the victim of identity theft.

Yes, that's right, someone in North Carolina opens a Lowe's credit card in my name and buys a $1000 gift card.

I've never shopped at Lowe's, ever. I've never been to North Carolina. Hell, I was out of the country when the whole thing took place. Now I have to get a new social security number and notify my other credit cards, my job, and about a dozen other people that I've changed my social security number.

This sucks.

A while back, I told you about the funny things my brother PJ says at church. He's 13 and autistic, so he's not much of a conversationalist, but sometimes he says things that are so true and funny that you wonder where he got them.

Ever since we - my brothers in particular - were little, my mom would sing You are my sunshine to us (I'm linking to it here in case my non-US friends do not have the song in their home countries). She would sing the first part of each line, and we would sing the last word.

Tonight, my mom and I went out with PJ and Maggie for dinner. As we were leaving, my mom and PJ and I stopped at the bathroom. To make sure PJ wouldn't wander off, my mom started to sing the song. She started with, "You are my..." and waited for PJ to sing the rest.

His response? "Mom, I'm your son. I'm not your shine."

This is one of the things I'll think about at random from now on, and it will make me start giggling. :)

Wishing you all - wherever you may be in the world - peace, love and happiness in this holiday season, and all the best for 2007.

Much love,
Kaitlin
xxx

...I'll do what all the cool kids are doing and put up one of these voice recorder thingys. C'mon, leave a message, and I'll leave one too if you have one of these.

Sorry to all my friends from the Land of Ox, I'm afraid this only works if you are willing to dial a US number. But if you are stateside, leave some audio love! :)

Peace out,
Me
xxx

Get Your Own Voice Player

Manage

Hey kids, it's my last post from the land of Ox for a while. The next time you hear from me, I will be stateside.

Catch you on the flip side. Yo, check it.*

Much love from the UK -
Kaitlin xxx



*Loooooong story.

A veces me pregunto si vale la pena todo esto. Este trimestre ha sido difícil, pero ¿quizás ha sido así por culpa del estrés o los nervios? No hubiera sido la primera vez que ha ocurrido algo así. Mi madre, que es enfermera, cree que mi tos de cinco semanas fue la pulmonía. No sé si uno puede contraer la pulmonía por culpa del estrés, pero no me sorprendería.

Tengo un amigo que estudió aquí el año pasado, haciendo la maestría como yo (pero en otro idioma). Ahora está trabajando, y le encanta su trabajo. Estoy muy envidiosa de él. Estoy muy envidiosa de mi hermana también, que ha encontrado un trabajo que va perfectamente con lo que ha estudiado, y está muy feliz. Aunque me gustaría mucho obtener el doctorado, me gustaría también tener un trabajo, dinero, seguro médico. Me gustaría tener una vida que no está dividida en semestres o trimestres, donde tengo que buscar trabajo durante las vacaciones.

¿Es típico pensar así? He estado muy triste últimamente, muy insegura. Quizás es normal – pues acabo de empezar, y he cambiado mi tema completamente este año. (Típicamente los que hacen la maestría siguen con el mismo tema para el doctorado. Como ya sabéis, el año pasado estudié el misticísmo, y ahora estudio Cervantes.)

Voy a estar triste cuando salgo este martes, pero quizás es mejor estar fuera de aquí por un rato. De verdad echo de menos a mi familia.

Perdonadme por haber escrito en español, a veces lo hago cuando solo quiero hablar y no discutirlo mucho. Gracias por escucharme.

Thank you all, lovely people, for your kind thoughts during this difficult time. My grandfather was suffering for a long time, so it is comforting at the very least to know that he is finally free. But it doesn't make it any easier. He was my dad's last surviving parent, and it was very hard to be away from my family for the funeral services today.

I went to church at the Oratory, Oxford's Catholic church (the only one, as far as I know). It was a very quick mass, since it was a weekday. I was going to stick around to pray the Rosary, but I couldn't find my Rosary beads, so I didn't stay. I lit some candles there and at the Christ Church Cathedral, and wandered around and prayed a lot. It helped a bit - I felt better after I did it.

On Tuesday I will be packing up to head home after another busy term in Oxford. This was not the best term ever - I had a bad fall in Week 1 (knee is still swollen), had a horrible cough for five weeks, broke my glasses in half, and had a death in the family. So it has not been easy. At the same time though, the more I am here, the more I want to stay here. The people are lovely and kind and wonderful and brilliant. I feel like I fit in far better here in Oxford than I ever did in college or even high school, and that these people are the ones I'll want to stay in touch with years from now.

So, as much as I want to go home and see my family, I feel like I am leaving a great piece of myself behind in Oxford each time. They always say how friends are like family for twenty- and thirtysomethings, and I know without a doubt that this is true.

Stay tuned...

Requiscat in Pace James Avery Walsh Sr.
1925-2006

I just got the news from my father. My grandfather had been very ill for well over a year, and he passed away this evening.

I'm not in a really good state for words at the moment.

And it kills me that I can't be home right now.

Wow, I've forgotten how much I love Jarabe de Palo. I just downloaded their 2003 album, "Bonito." I love the title track:

Bonita la gente cuando es de verdad
Bonita la gente que es diferente
Que tiembla, que siente
Que vive el presente
bonita la gente que estuvo y no está.

And I love it that one of the songs that they wrote for Ricky Martin, "Cambia la Piel," is on this album. I loooove that song, and I especially love it now that I get to hear the Jarabe de Palo version.

And I love it that there are two hidden tracks on here. Cool!

Seriously good stuff.
xxx

Whew. I just checked my roster for the winterterm class that I'm teaching, and I'm up to six students. There is one other class with six in it, so finally it is not the lowest enrolled section in the department.

I was worried for a while that the class might be cancelled, but I think six is a comfortable number to ensure that it will still go on. I hope I am right here - it is an intensive winterterm class, so it doesn't attract the huge numbers that the fall and spring sections bring in.

At the same time, I hope it doesn't get much larger than six students. In a winterterm class, where I need to have a very quick turnaround time, I want to have enough time to grade papers AND do course prep each night. (I am not the kind of person who can have it all done well in advance. I need to gauge how they're doing each day and plan accordingly.)

Now if only I could find the time to write that syllabus...

Men wear kilts to posh black tie events!




This is a tradition that I think more cultures should embrace. Like the Danish, for example.

Happy Catz Night, everyone!

After all the crap I've been dealing with lately, I'm thrilled to finally have something come together so well that it is going down in the books as legendary.

We didn't plan on having a bop on Friday night. It started out as an innocent post-dinner cocktail party, which we were conveniently going to give a theme - since the new James Bond movie was coming out, we wanted to have a James Bond Casino Royale party. We always have cocktails after guest dinner, so it wasn't anything new to the schedule.

Then it started to develop slowly. When Anna and I got here and realized that this year's Fresher class is very heavily male-dominated, we decided to make the guest dinner an exchange dinner and invite the St. Hilda's MCR (who, besides being extremely cool, are the only all-female college left in Oxford). That way, we would have plenty of Bond girls to go with all of our James Bonds. After that, Michael, our president, was able to get us some DJ equipment and two people to DJ for us - all for free. And finally, I stopped in town and picked up a few decorations. Not much - some balloons, some streamers, and some James Bond postcards which I acquired for free at the local movie theatres. We had some Christmas lights, so we strung those up as well, and I printed out some "007" logos to hang up with the postcards. We spent less than £10 on decorations alltogether.

I had no idea that such little work would end up being so effective.

The decorations looked amazing - all silver and black and white, very sparkling and classy. I had a bunch of leftover postcards, so I spread those out on our guest dinner table to get people thinking about the party. I also printed out special menus (we usually handwrite them) with the 007 logo and the Goldeneye font, welcoming our guests to James Bond Night. We spent nearly an eighth of what we spent on our last "official" bop's decorations, and the effect was ten times better.

The DJs - one MCR member and one JCR member, who are both pro-DJs - were fantastic. Usually at these events, there is some random person doing the music, and its usually badly mixed and oddly arranged, stopping songs abruptly and switching to something completely random. Not for us - these guys were amazing. The music was nonstop all night, and so was the dancing. Someone commented that she had never seen Catz MCR members dance so hard for so long. Typically, there is a period when the music is just crap and everyone goes out to smoke, but not for us. The dance floor was packed all night, everyone was moving, and everyone was having a great time. Even the dean showed up, and he stayed the whole night, finishing the night off on the dance floor with the rest of us!

Everyone looked fabulous. Guys even wrote to me and asked if they could wear tuxes to dinner, and even those who didn't go to dinner put on a tux for the party. The girls looked amazing too, in all sorts of slinky gorgeous dresses. Our DJs dressed in all black, and our bar girls wore low-cut black dresses, fishnets and bowties. I carried around a fake gun all night, and took lots of pictures of everyone posing, James Bond style, which was fun. I think there is something about the atmosphere when everyone dresses up, because the whole night just felt really classy. It was amazing.

We advertised very little - we just sent emails to our members, and to St. Hilda's and Trinity MCR members as well. There were about 150 people there, which is the capacity of the room. We usually move furniture out, but we couldn't because there was a conference (plus, since it was an exchange dinner, we needed space for people to sit and enjoy cheese and chocolates after dinner). It wasn't even necessary to move anything - there was plenty of room to move and dance, even with the DJ equipment.

There were no incidents all night. No disgusting messes or damage, no overindulgence on the alcohol, no undergraduates trying to sneak in to the party, no noise complaints. Everyone just had a great time. Many Catz MCR members said it was the best bop they'd ever attended at Catz, and one of the folks from Trinity told us that we had set a standard.

It was also one of the most fun guest dinners I'd had in a long time. I had asked to do the seating plan, so I got to sit with a whole group of friends - Enrique, Seth, Elizabeth, Andy, Chrissie, Reb, Chung, Dominique. We also had some cool people near us, so there was great conversation all through the dinner.

Having an event go this well makes me look forward to planning more events. It was well attended, everyone was well dressed, and we did amazing financially - we spent less than £30 all together, and made a terrific profit. We couldn't have asked for a better night.

Catz has a reputation for being a very friendly and social college. I am proud to have made such a contribution towards keeping up with that reputation.

The pictures speak for themselves. More on Flickr, and on Facebook. Enjoy!

De vez en cuando me arrepiento de mi decisión de no escribir en este blog seudónimamente. Tengo muchísimas ganas de quejarme de algo, y no lo quiero hacer aquí porque muchas personas que conozco en vivo leen ésto.

Estoy muy fastidiada. Todavia estoy con tos, y hay una cierta persona que piensa que es necesario anunciar, “te oí tosiendo.” Lo sé, lo sé, muchas gracias. Y no me preguntes si estoy tomando la medicina. He estado con esta tos hace TRES SEMANAS ahora, claro que estoy haciendo todo lo posible para quitarla.

Oyeme (me dirijo directamente a ella ahora, aunque en secreto): tampoco tienes el derecho de estudiar los contenidos de mi basura y hacer comentarios. No te metes en el asunto. Yo no tengo que cumplir con tus obsesiones. Déjame en paz por favor.

Hmmm, ahora siento un poquito mejor. Regreso a la cama, pues no me acosté hasta las 3 y un día largo me espera.

xxx

Mario Lopez was robbed!!!!!

How the hell did Emmitt Smith win Dancing with the Stars and not him?????

Go here and watch some of the videos - you'll see my frustration. Sigh. Maybe it was because Mario was consistently good and Emmitt kept improving, which is probably the goal of the show. Either that, or the fact that they kept accusing Mario of being too flashy in the beginning.

All in all, disappointing.

I hate it when people advise me to do or not do something when anyone with a brain would know to do it or not do it already. It's like they are underestimating my intellegence or common sense.

Sorry for being so cryptic. No, I do not wish to elaborate.

This is too important to lump into a post about the Food Show, so I will mention it separately here.

I don't know how I missed it last year (they didn't do it in our college), but I discovered that on the Sunday after 11 November (Armistice Day), the British observe two minutes of silence at 11:00 am to commemorate the veterans of WWII. Right at 11:00, in the middle of the Food Show, some trumpets began to play, and everyone fell silent. Then they observed the two minutes of silence, followed by trumpets again. It was a beautiful and moving scene - hundreds of people, silent and still. In today's world, two minutes of silence seems like ages. But it was beautiful. It actually made me tear up a bit.

Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII - one in Europe, one in the Pacific. They are both still alive today. I spent those two minutes thinking about them.

So a few weeks ago, my friend and floormate Chrissie told me about this BBC Good Food Show that was taking place in London today. I've never been to a Food Show, but it sounded cool, so I said I'd go. Having been sick lately, I wasn't sure if I'd make it there today, but my cough has been miraculously well-behaved today, which was great.

The show started at 9:30 this morning. Chrissie wanted to be there when it opened, and wanted to leave Oxford by 6:00 am, but knowing my sleep habits I figured there was no chance in Hell that I could make that happen. We got out the door by 7:30, and into Kensington by a little before 10:00. So we made good time. The weather was lovely, the walking distance between bus and tube stops was minimal, so it was a good day for all this.

The show was at Kensington Olympia, a huge expo center. When we went in, we were a bit overwhelmed by all the things to see and try, but we made a decision to walk up and down each aisle until we got through everything. They didn't have just food - they had cooking supplies, kitchen furniture, cleaning supplies and some random stuff (like garden clogs, Smart cars, and investment plans). I'm pretty sure we got to see everything.

The food samples were amazing. There was food to sample, food to buy and eat there, and food to take home. We sampled cheese, wine and champagne, hot chocolate, chicken, sausage, cakes, breads, chocolate, crisps and popcorn, and bought ourselves fresh free-range turkey sandwiches made right in front of us. (For some mysterious reason, there were several food court areas along the edges of the place selling prepackaged sandwiches. Why would anyone want that?) We also bought tons of stuff to take home, including organic crisps and popcorn, Welsh cheeses (sorry Christian!), brownies, organic juices, tea, Cava, two kinds of honey, and other stuff I can't even remember now. We're broke and we're tired, but we had a great day.

Oh yes! There were also a bunch of celebrity (well, celebrity in the UK) chefs giving demonstrations and doing book signings. The main featured chef was Gordon Ramsay, and of course the tickets to his demonstrations sold out immediately. However, we discovered that there were little tables and chairs along the edge of the demonstration theatre, so we got to sit and watch Gordon Ramsay do his demonstration! It was very exciting - he cooked a three-course meal in 24 minutes.

We got tired around 3:30ish, and headed out around 4:00. We decided to have an early dinner, so we wouldn't have to find food when we got back to Oxford. Once we returned to Victoria station, we headed over to Pizza Express, since Chrissie had never been there before. (It's actually much nicer than the name suggests!)

We got home by about 8:30ish I think, and are now digging through all the pamphlets and free stuff that we picked up along the way. All in all, a great day.

Pics on the Flickr. Enjoy!

xxx

Last month:
Took a bad fall in front of the Porter's Lodge, knee is still swollen, can't kneel on it yet.

Last week:
Developed a cough/flu thing that is still going on. Doctor says he can't give me antibiotics - "have some tea with lemon" is his answer. He says these things can last as long as four weeks.

Last night:
Glasses split right in half. Can't see two feet in front of my face.

All I can do is laugh...

A while back, I posted about some of my favorite commercials. I just found another one I had forgotten about, and am delighted that I came across it: the 1998 Mercedes ad, featuring Marlene Dietrich singing "Falling in Love Again" (Lowe & Partners). Enjoy. I'm off to take pictures of the fireworks.

Happy Bonfire Night! x

The pay rate has gone up this year!

:)

Haha!

This is not a Photoshoppy thing, but rather an effect of the camera. My friend Chung set the camera on autotimer and played around with the light so we could take a photo at the Bridge of Sighs at night. We all rushed to the camera, and I think with the long night exposure it caught us mid-dash.

But I like this photo - it is very appropriate for the holiday.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Behold the rare and beautiful Primark Diamond. Everybody say "oooooh."

This was part of my attire for Sha's "What do you want to be when you grow up" birthday party. Of course, I went as a princess.

More photos on my Flickr. Enjoy!

Mr. Hans Christian Tønnesen, age 26, of Denmark, writes:

More importantly, does your blog have updating powers?

Alas, it does not, but I do. So now that I am settled down for a few minutes, I'll give you an update of how things have been going on since I arrived back in the UK last Thursday.

The flight was long, and bumpy, due to a thunderstorm. It was also late. When I arrived in the UK, I was interrogated nice and heavily by customs - the usual, "Why are you doing a doctorate in Spanish in England?" When I went to collect my luggage, I was delighted to see that my friend Sarah, also in the Spanish program, had just arrived. We collected our luggage together, and took the bus into Oxford.

When I got into Catz, very conveniently, there was no Girovend card, no Bod (library) card, and no email account for me. It turns out that the faculty secretary neglected to send my contract to my house - she sent it to my college address instead. So everything was delayed for a week. My phone number expired too, so I was without a means of communication for several days!

That night that I got there (and Anna, the other social secretary, had just gotten there as well), we dove right into Fresher's Week events. We led a group of about 20 or so Freshers into town for dinner at a nice Lebanese restaurant. It was a bit pricey, and I was very jetlagged, but we had a nice time.

The next night, we had a fancy dinner for the new graduate students in the Hall. (I got to attend because I am a member of the executive committee.) We had a huge after party after that, and yet another cocktail party the next night, this time with live jazz. My friend Chrissie and I discovered that the best way to meet new people (and there are quite a few new people this year) is to work the bar at these events: it's hard to break into people's conversations, but people are always coming up to the bar and willing to chat. And then they remember you as the person who served them at the bar, so it helps. Even though I suck at making drinks, I'm going to try it more often. (And no, Hanzi, I promise we won't concoct any more Hanzi Specials.)

On Sunday, we hosted a waffle brunch in the MCR. By that point, having gone nonstop since Thursday and having lived on a diet of alcohol and not much else, we were all pretty exhausted. So this week, the social events have been a bit lighter. My schedule has been pretty easy this week - one lecture, hanging out with Chrissie and Chung (who live on my floor), hot chocolate with Elizabeth and drinks with the new language graduate students.

Last night was our weekly guest dinner (the first one is always black tie), and today was matriculation. I can't believe that at this time last year, I was just starting out as well. Now I'm a big ol' veteran at it all...I was leading the way instead of being led. It was an interesting feeling.

This afternoon, I met up with my lovely Mark and a number of our friends for coffee at Wadham, to celebrate the fact that Mark is in town this weekend. (He was in town last weekend as well, and Elizabeth and I got to see him then.) It's always fun when Mark comes to town - he makes sure we are all staying sane and not locking ourselves up in our rooms and being hermits, and we all have a good time when we hang out together. After coffee, Elizabeth came back to Catz and we helped Anna make an elaborate dinner of chicken and rice, salad, and waffles for dessert. It was fun.

But alas, not all has been well. Yesterday (coincidentally, Friday the 13th), I took a bad fall outside of the Porter's Lodge and banged my knee pretty badly. It's very swollen, bruised and painful right now, and a bit tough to walk on - which is definitely a big problem in a walking city like this! Right now, I'm icing it up and taking lots of Advil. I hope to recover very soon, as I've got a big week ahead of me - movie, poker and clubbing nights in the MCR, Galician lessons, a meeting with my supervisor, another guest dinner, and a housewarming party for Eleanor.

So yeah, as you can tell, I've been busy. And I've been taking photos - check 'em out on Flickr.

I hope my future blog posts are not so sporadic. Stay tuned for more adventures of Kait at Catz!

Much love,
Me
xxx

P.S. to Hanzi: I hope that was sufficient for you. ;)

He's back. And I'm thrilled. My beloved Alejandro released a new single today, "A la primera persona," and it is gorgeous. None of this reggaeton crap, no rapping, just the original good stuff, back in the style of Más and El Alma al Aire. (Click on the link below the photo to hear the new single, and to see the video.)

And the best part is, he's looking gorgeous again. There was a time when he went blonde, and I questioned his sanity. But now he's back to normal, as evidenced in the photo on the left.

I'll never forget the times I saw him in concert, at Radio City Music Hall in 2001 and 2002. He is one of the rare artists who is as good live as he is recorded. And in 2002 I got to meet him. In fact, he asked to meet me. A long and complicated story for another time, but here is some photographic evidence for you in the meantime:

I can't wait for his new album, El tren de los momentos, to be released in November. I wasn't a huge fan of No es lo mismo, so it feels like it's been a while since I've been really excited about his music.

Mark, my obsession for Alejandro rivals my obsession for a certain Japanese cartoon feline, so you will be pleased to hear that I will be distracted from the latter for a while.

It is fun to be a sanzera again.

technorati tags:latin, music, sanz

Blogged with Flock

Thursday is the big day: I pack my bags and head back to Oxfordland to start the doctorate.

I've done this before. Twice, in fact.

I know the routine. How to pack Space Bags so they seal correctly. How to mark my bags so I can find them. Weight limits. The right shoes, the right way to carry my laptop.

I know my way through Newark security, and through Heathrow security. I know how to get to the bus at Heathrow, and where to get the taxi once I get to Oxford.

I'm at an advantage compared to this point last year. I know the place. I know the people. I know where to go, what to expect.

So, then, why the hell am I so nervous?

technorati tags:nerves, anxiety, travel, Oxford, Heathrow, London, Newark

Blogged with Flock

This is a just a random thought I had while I was in the shower today.

I noticed that in academic settings, my research interests get tagged on as a sort of suffix to my name. That is, at conferences and faculty meetings and such, I get introduced as "This is Kaitlinwhodoesmysticism," or "This is KaitlinwhodoesHispanicadvertising." Does anyone else experience this, and does anyone else find it weird? (I'm not talking about being identified by one's general subject area - like history, philosophy, etc. - but specific research interests like "Bakhtin and postcolonialism" or "authorship and Cervantes.") I mean, it is one of my primary identifying characteristics, but I find it strange to have that tacked on as part of my identity. Maybe that just comes with the territory in academia.

I noticed that my friends and I also use this at parties when we talk about our coursemates. (This was more the case at Hartford, but then again there are always dozens of M.A. students in Communication and only three M.St. students in Spanish this year.) If there was more than one Melissa, for example, we wouldn't define them as "blonde Melissa" or "brunette Melissa" - instead, they would be "Gender-in-Sports-Media-Melissa" and "Student-Teacher-Interaction-Melissa."

Does this happen in the faculty sphere or in other grad programs as well, or are my friends and I just dorks?

Oh man, I was channel surfing last night quite late, when I came across this new show called Midnight Money Madness. It was loud, and tacky, and confusing, and strangely familiar.

And then it hit me: it was the American version of Quiz Call.

Great. Wonderful. Splendid. Like we really need another tacky call-in show where viewers pay to call in and name "things that go down" or count the number of triangles in the picture for a chance to win $100. The American version even has a British host, which makes it even more similar to the Quiz Call show.

Anyway, this all reminded me that I have roughly two weeks to go before I am back in el Reino Unido to dive into the madness that is being a doctoral student. Hurrah! Greg, you'll have another three years to ask me how the dissertation is going... ;)

Hope all is well with everyone - xxx

I've had this meme (stolen from Nels) in the hopper for a while, but never got around to finishing it. But now that I've been tagged by Mark, I guess I should get around to giving my answers.

(Sorry, I’m not linking to any of the books. Too much effort, and besides, I’m not getting paid to advertise them...)

1.) One book you have read more than once
I read most books more than once, so it’s hard to choose. One book that I read regularly is Gracie: A Love Story, by George Burns. I love biographies of vaudeville comedians (I know – how random can you get), and this is one of the best.

If I want to improve my academic street cred, I guess I should answer this question by saying that I’ve re-read the Quixote fairly regularly over the past eight years. It’s a beautiful book, and I get something new out of it every time I read it.

2.) One book you would want on a desert island
Probably Rayuela, by Julio Cortázar, since you can’t read it the same way twice; or Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez, so I could use that free time to figure out what the hell the book is all about.

A close runner-up would be How to save yourself if you’re stranded on a desert island, should such a book exist. ;)

3.) One book that made you laugh
As someone who likes to read (auto)biographies of vaudeville comedians, I’ve read quite a few that have made me laugh out loud. Other than vaudeville, Erma Bombeck and Dave Barry always make me laugh, although I can't really name specific books from them because I always buy them in anthology form.

4.) One book that made you cry
Sorry, it keeps asking for one, but I have four that come to mind here:

• Gracie, when George talks about Gracie’s death.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when Dumbledore is dying.
• If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (Jon McGregor), after the car crash.
• The Quixote, when Don Quixote dies in the end.

5.) One book you wish you had written
This may be a weird answer, but I would say the Harry Potter series. I think it’s brilliant that this woman has written a series so compelling that both children and adults read it. It’s sensational and real at the same time. I find it fascinating that it just seemed to rocket to success by way of word of mouth, and that it got kids to like reading again in a world of video games and TV soundbytes.

6.) One book you wish had never been written
Any book written by a ditzy blonde teenybopper starlet. Britney Spears should not have a book out. Neither should Paris Hilton.

7.) One book you are currently reading
I’m trying to re-read El casamiento engañoso and El coloquio de los perros, two of the Novelas ejemplares by Cervantes. I’m also in the middle of Harry Potter y el Cáliz de Fuego, the fourth Harry Potter book in Spanish.

8.) One book you have been meaning to read
I’ve always wanted to read Dante’s Divina Commedia, in the original Italian. I actually learned a decent amount of Italian as an undergrad and was one course away from the Divina Commedia class, but as a double major in Spanish and advertising, there were far too many conflicts in my schedule for a course that was basically an elective.

9. One book that changed your life
One would have to be Why Was I Adopted?, which my parents read to me when I was little. I’ve known that I was adopted for as long as I can remember – my parents never kept it a secret. Because of that, I think I grew up to be a well-adjusted person and very appreciative of the adoption process. Adoption is a normal and beautiful thing – it should not be considered a stigma.

Again, for the academic street cred, I would have to say the Quixote. After I finished Book I for the first time, I knew that I wanted to major in Spanish. And now, I’m getting ready to do my doctoral dissertation, and I will be reading it again as a part of it.

10. Now tag five people:
I tag any five people who haven’t been tagged yet.

OK, read this story carefully, and tell me what's wrong here.

So our power went out today. Even the phone lines were out, so I got on my cell phone to call the electric company and report it. While I was on hold, listening to the standard "Your call is important to us, and will be answered in the next 25 minutes" routine, the automated voice suggested helpfully that I could try logging on to their website to answer my electricity queries.

I repeat: I was on the phone to report that the power was out in our neighborhood.

Thank you, Connecticut Light and Power.

Oh, I want this. A steal at 3 million yen (do the math - I don't know the conversion rate).

Today, while accompanying my brother to the doctor for a brief checkup before he left for college (I'll post about that later), I sat in the waiting room and read that bastion of journalistic integrity, Nick Magazine. One of the articles was a collection of "strange but true" stories in honor of the back to school season. A lot of the stories sounded like urban legends, but one story in particular stood out to me:

A Miami artist was paid $40,000 to design a mural for a new library. This mural contained pictures and names of 175 famous artists, writers, and scholars. Well, when the mural was unveiled, it turns out that ELEVEN OF THE NAMES WERE SPELLED INCORRECTLY. And we're talking about names that everyone knows, like Shakespeare, Einstein, and Van Gogh.

Obviously, the library asked the artist to fix it. Citizens wrote to complain. And here's where it gets fun: the artist was not embarassed by her mistakes, nor did she apologize for making them. Quite the contrary: she was OFFENDED that people would actually complain about such a thing. She couldn't understand what all the fuss was about, and thought they were just complaining because she was Mexican. She actually charged the library a $6000 fee to make the corrections.

I Googled the story this evening, and found out that it is indeed true. There's just something so ironic about the whole thing, and rather sad.

See, this is why I hate hate hate it when schools place more emphasis on self-esteem than on learning skills. I've noticed this shift in the time from when I was in elementary and middle school to now, with my sister in middle school. Why should we praise someone who does not do a satisfactory job? Is an award really an honor if every child in the grade gets one? The library and the town had every right to be upset with this woman. Who cares about her ethnicity? She made an idiotic mistake.

Oh my God, it's September already...

Well, I ordered my two textbooks, and they arrived today, so I'm going to go pick them up tomorrow. I'm kinda excited - I like getting my desk copies of books, and checking out all the free extra stuff that comes with them. With this being a media class, I expect the extra stuff to be pretty interesting.

But today I just realized a bit of irony in this whole situation: the person teaching these kids about media this winter will be someone who has spent more time in the past year reading dusty 15th century Latin Bibles than watching television. And the television I did watch was British television, which is a whole different ballgame from American television.

This (along with Terminaldegree's posts about playing music clips in class) got me thinking about what kinds of media examples I'll show them this winter. I want to start collecting them now so I can have a decent-sized arsenal come January. So tonight, I started looking for some of my favorite commercials.

That's one of the things I love about teaching and researching Communication - it's fun for me to talk about TV shows and pop music and movies from a scholarly perspective. Since I focused on advertising for both of my Communication degrees, I am particularly interested in commercials. My former Spanish prof noticed that when I watch TV, I pay as much attention to the commercials as I do to the actual show! Maybe that's a result of having researched them so much, or maybe it's because I like them so much that I ended up researching them. I'm not sure which came first.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of my favorite commercials, which I hope to work into the class in some way*:

Nike - "I Feel Pretty" (Wieden + Kennedy, 2006)

This came out fairly recently, and it makes me giggle. At the same time, though, it makes me think about the role of women in sports - it practically doesn't matter how well you do, just as long as you look good doing it. What's also interesting is that this ad isn't just for Nike. If you watch, you'll notice that the logos for Prince tennis equipment, the Waldorf Astoria, Heineken, Lexus, Continental Airlines, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Olympus, and the US Open. Oh, and it's an ad promoting Maria Sharapova's image as well. All that in one minute and five seconds!

Amazon.com - "Sweatermen" (FCB San Francisco, 1999)

I liked this whole campaign when it came out, but this was the only clip I could find online. This was just around the time when e-shopping was starting to get big, so online retailers had to pitch it as an alternative to regular Christmas shopping. I like this campaign because it places a modern concept in a traditional/familiar setting, which I think is meant to both reassure the viewer (I need a better explanation than that, but that's just what came off the top of my head right now) and give an idea of the intended target market. When this ad came out, I just knew it was supposed to be "vintage," but my parents were more familiar with the '60s Christmas shows it was trying to parody.

Toys 'R' Us - "Peter Cottontail" (Leo Burnett/Chicago, 2003)

What makes this ad work (and what makes me giggle) are the shrill, annoying voices of the bunnies. People whined about how they couldn't get this ad out of their heads, but they remembered it, didn't they? So, sometimes annoying is a good thing.

Grey Poupon - "It even has wine" (Lowe Marschalk, 1981)

For some mysterious reason, I loved loved loved this ad when I was little. I walked around saying, "Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?" all the time, and even carried around an empty mustard bottle that I said was Grey Poupon. (It wasn't. It was French's.) What impresses me about this campaign now is that Grey Poupon became wildly popular all of a sudden in the early eighties, and the rate by which people switched from French's to Grey Poupon was phenomenal. People associated this brand with style, luxury and class, mostly from the perception that this product came from France. (Coincidentally, it was bottled in Hartford, Connecticut.)

There are a few more ads that I love and for which I am trying to find clips - a Sunbeam bread commercial from a few years ago ("Put a little Sunbeam in your life") and an Hampton Inn commercial with a kid who says, "If you have breakfast, then you can frolic."

Now, if only I knew how I was going to incorporate these clips into my class...

*Sorry for not linking to product or agency websites. It took me enough time to embed and format the videos. If you're interested in the products or the agencies who advertised them, you can look 'em up on Google.

Well, I'm sure this post belongs at my other blog, but since I get more readership here, I will ask here first.

I'm teaching a new course this winter (not new to the department, but new to me) - a 200-level mass media course. When asked which textbook I wanted, I just said, "Oh, I'll take the standard text." I don't usually care - I just like to be consistent.

Well, I found out that there is no standard text for the course. Different instructors use different texts. I asked which text was most popular, and the secretaries couldn't answer - everyone truly uses something different.

So I asked seven different professors at both the University of Hartford and Manchester Community College, where I've taught before. I got five different suggestions for books. And with every suggestion I received, I got the same two comments: either "It's definitely the best one out there," or "They're all pretty much the same."

They're all pretty much the same, cost-wise, too: about $90-$95 new, $60-$70 used. While all of the suggestions looked good, I eliminated one on the basis of the fact that the newest edition just came out, and I didn't want my students to be unable to purchase used editions if they wanted it. Sometimes some of my students take winter classes for financial reasons - they work full time, and it's the only time they can fit the course into their schedule without sacrificing working hours.

I ended up ordering desk copies of two of the books, which I chose because the professors who used them before had a long history of teaching the course, so I was going on their success rate. I may or may not order others, I don't know.

What I want to ask is this: assuming cost is not an issue, what factors do you take into consideration when choosing a textbook for a course? I want to come up with some standard criteria, other than just, "I don't know, I just *like* this one better."

Faculty folk, I'd like to know what you think.

technorati tag: teaching-carnival

In honor of my mom's birthday having been this week, we took our annual day trip to the beach. We tend to stay in CT for these beach days, so this year we headed to Hammonasset Beach State Park. It was a lovely day weatherwise, and the water was not ice cold as it normally tends to be.

I got a horrible sunburn. It was so bad that I couldn't sleep, so I was probably awake when most of my Europe friends were just getting up in the morning. It even hurt to get into bed and pull up the sheets. But I have this weird tendency to burn and then fade into a normal tan, so I should be looking less lobster-like in a few days.

The beach seemed more quiet than usual, so I got to sit and read a good chunk of the delightful If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, which I started a few days ago. It's very good, but I think I will need to read it again to figure out just what is going on!

While I'm thinking about it, what's the deal with lifeguards and all their hand gestures? Nobody knows what the hell they're gesturing about, so they don't pay attention. Couldn't they just yell into a megaphone or something? I mean, honestly, I don't know if I'm supposed to put away the inner tube or bunt and steal first.

Before leaving the beach, we took a family photo, which is a nice contrast to the one I showed you in January. It was a bit windy, so some of us had hair in our faces, but I like how it came out.

After the beach we had dinner at Lenny and Joe's in Madison, and consumed our annual rations of fried seafood and ice cream. It wasn't fancy or anything, but it was fun.

Today I'm trying to deal with this horrible sunburn, mostly by taking showers and sitting in the pool (if I can manage to get back into a bathing suit - everything hurts!). Later this week is an interesting job interview, various getting-ready-for-Oxford bits and the general loafing around of unemploymentland.

Hope y'all had a good weekend!
Much love,
Me

xxx

Hey kids, if you haven't been over there in a while, stop by my old teaching blog and check out my series of contributions for the next Teaching Carnival. If you don't have the address, drop me a line and I'll email you the link. (George or whoever is hosting the September edition: I will get around to tagging them before the deadline.)

Enjoy!

In the midst of pondering the usual ponderances of life (i.e. "Why are Oxonians so obsessed with oompa-loompas?"), I came across an article that addressed an issue I've been thinking about for a long time: getting into the right university.

I have a few issues with the whole way people go about choosing and applying to universities these days, primarily because they involve a whole bunch of extra people who will ultimately have nothing to do with how the student does when s/he actually gets there. It's really quite a waste of time, energy and emotion, if you ask me. Here are some of the things that really annoy me:

Legacies. Just because your parents or your grandparents went there, it doesn't mean you should go there too. And just because that school was really good in 1956, it doesn't mean it's still good in 2006. On a similar note, just because Daddy is an advertising executive, it doesn't mean that you'll be good at advertising too. In this latter issue, I've found out that it doesn't even really matter what you end up doing, or how well you do, because Daddy will just use his connections to get you an interview at the top advertising agency in the country. This is primarily true of the wealthy sorority girls who went to my undergrad university.

Parents who run the whole search process. I've worked at many recruitment sessions at the University of Hartford, and I've seen far too many parents who go around asking the questions while the student stands there, dumbfounded. Sometimes, I'm not even sure if it's the kid or the parent who will be taking the classes. "We're interested in psychology." Ummm, who's we??? Will you and your son be taking the classes together??? I've also heard professors talking on the phone and saying things like, "If your son wants to do this, he needs to take..." Personally, I think that if the student can't work up the effort to make the call or ask the questions, can we really be sure that that is what the kid wants to do???

SAT and application coaches. If the kid has crap grades throughout high school, won't an excellent SAT score be a little suspicious? The same is true for padding the kid's CV out with extracurricular activities and Habitat for Humanity trips to Guatemala at the 11th hour. I feel like this is setting the kid up for failure. There are all these stories about students who want to get into Oxbridge, so they go to these coaches who tell them to choose these obscure programs because they're particularly desperate for applicants. I'm sure the same is true for Ivies. I wonder how many hardworking, talented students who do extracurriculars on their own but don't have much money lose places at top universities to students who are not so bright but have a highly expensive coaching team behind them?

Choosing brand-name universities or prestigious majors. I think the whole problem with the university search is that students grow up hearing specific brand-name universities (known either for their academic or their athletic prestige) and reject anything else just because they've never seen those schools play in March Madness. But just because the nearby state university has been the NCAA basketball champions for the past five years, it doesn't mean that their sociology program is right for you. I've had people say to me, "Why did you choose the University of Hartford? I mean, they don't even have a football team!" Umm, I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't play football (American or otherwise, but I'm referring to American here). I don't even like to watch football. But they did offer me a nice scholarship, and they had a good foreign language major at the time. So that's why I chose it. I think students have to give the obscure schools a chance, and rely on their gut instincts. If you visit some teeny place like Mitchell College (New London, CT - never heard of it until I had a friend who went there) and you like the grounds and the faculty and the social life, go for it.

On a similar note, I have a problem with people who choose a specific major just because it's popular or it's where the money is right now. If you major in something and you're not good at it, then you're not going to get a job, then it's a whole waste. And what's the point if you don't even enjoy it? I know that a job as a humanities professor isn't going to bring me piles of wealth and riches, but I love what I do, so I think that's what counts.

One of the things I really agreed with in the article was the suggestion that students try out the smaller schools first for their undergraduate degrees, and if they want to go to grad school, then they can try for the top-tier research institutions. In a smaller university, particularly one that is focused on undergraduate education, students have more of an opportunity to get involved academically and socially. Your intro classes are taught by actual professors, not by graduate students who don't speak English. I cannot overstate the benefits of getting to know professors early on. I always feel sorry for undergraduates who need recommendations for scholarships and the only person they know well is the grad TA who they saw once a week.

And once you find your way through the small university, I think you end up better prepared for the bigger-name institutions. By then, you have a rough idea of what you want to do with your life, you have some maturity and life experience under your belt, and you know what you do well. The smaller name places leave you better prepared for that, since you end up with better access to faculty and resources. You don't have to pay an extra $30,000 for coaches who don't know you - you're already there, and these people already know what you're like. (Speaking of money, these smaller universities often end up with better scholarships to give to students, since they actually need to make more of an effort to attract the good students' attention.)

Well, this was a bit of a longish rant, but it is something that has been bugging me for many years. I think it annoys me because the helicopter parents and the coaches are the ones doing all the work - and they don't even have to take the classes. It's such a waste.

I did not post yesterday at Phantom's Wednesday Whining (which I highly recommend if you've never done it before), because although I have been having chronic headaches, yesterday I could not justify coming up with a whine.

Why, you ask?

Well, they found my missing DPhil application. And they accepted it.

That's right, folks, you can expect another three years of Oxfordy goodness here at Kait at Catz. I'm in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited. This means I get to see so many of the things I missed, and spend another year with all my wonderful Oxford friends. And, of course, I get to have a doctorate from Oxford. How exciting is that???

Much love,
Me

Well, I guess I owe you a genuine update since I've been sending nothing but cryptic messages lately. So here goes, in Bullets Of Random Crap format:

• After calling and emailing and begging and pleading for feedback regarding when I would find out about my DPhil application, I got the following response from the graduate secretary: "Where did you send the form?" Ummm, that's not the answer I wanted.
• No ear infection, but no explanation for these constant headaches I keep getting. I had one all day today. It was horrible. And they're only on the right side of my head, behind my ear.
• Today was the faculty seminar on Blackboard. I did my presentation on the virtual classroom. I'm not too happy with how it came out - it was late in the day, I had a bad headache, I was tired, and I didn't think all of the logistics through. No one had a hands on part of their presentation all day, but my application was the one that needed hands on the most, and I should have realized that they needed to see it before I could talk about it. But honestly, it was late in the day and I think everyone was tired at that point. And I know what to change for next time.
• There were a few good points of the day, though. In the morning, I gave brief demos of Flickr and Facebook, and at lunch I had a faculty member thank me for talking about Flickr because she wanted to start using it. Another faculty member had some questions about Facebook, since her daughter is about to start college. So we had an interesting conversation at lunch. At the end of the day, I found out that another faculty member (a professor in the English department), did his DPhil at Oxford. I think it's the first time I met a fellow Oxonian outside of Oxford, and it was cool.
• I got a job interview! I am interviewing for a part-time position at the Village for Children and Families, as a communications associate. Yes, web stuff. Fingers crossed, please.
• I also have an interview with a new grant manager at the University of Hartford, to discuss some ideas for the new Women's Education and Leadership Fund that is getting started. I think that will lead to something promising, but I don't know enough about it to elaborate just yet. Watch this space!

The insurance company is giving me less money than I thought for my laptop - about $500 less.

The Modern Languages graduate office can't find my DPhil application form.

I think I have an ear infection, and I have no health insurance.

*%&#(%)&#)*%&@#)&*%&#@)*%&%)@*$^*!!!!!!!!!!


Thank you. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

To the lady who was leaving the 1877 Club this afternoon:

Fanny packs are never the right answer.

Love and storage,
Kaitlin


>>Update, 11:08 p.m., 8/5/06: Oops, I didn't realize that "fanny" is a bit more obscene in UK English than in US English. The UK translation for "fanny packs" is "bum bags," which sounds a bit dodgy to me ;)

Speaking of British English: I have a question for all you British people out there. How do you pronounce the word row, as in "I had a row with someone"? Is it pronounced the same as the row in "I row for the Catz Boat Club," or does it rhyme with words like how/now/cow? I've only seen it in writing - I've never heard it spoken before.

À qui de droit:

I don't even know you, so please stop trying to IM me. Just because we have a mutual friend, it doesn't mean that I want to talk to you. Besides, you don't even speak English, nor do I speak your native tongue. So any communication between us would be pretty much pointless. I don't know why you even bother.

Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l’expression de mes sentiments distingués.
Kaitlin

I know that England is not too well known for its culinary delights, but there are a few things I tried and grew to like while I was there. So lately, I've been frequenting the International sections of my local supermarkets to pick up my favorite foods that I had in England. Over Christmas, my dad and I drove up to Massachusetts to buy some Pimm's, so now I can enjoy the tasty beverage at home. I've also picked up smoked salmon (which I know isn't foreign, but I never ate it before going to Oxford), hummus (ditto), brie and cream crackers, Aero Mint bars, and rich tea biscuits. Next time, when I am not poor, I will go for the PG Tips (which are, alas, $6.99 a box). They even have Marmite, which is very British but I've never tried it because it looks disgusting.

These are all nice, but I just found out the best thing of all:

I can order Ben's Cookies from the States.

It's fairly pricey (about $14 for a small tin with 4 large cookies), but when you take the exchange rate into consideration, this is actually a slightly better price than at the Covered Market.

Being able to have that tasty cookie goodness here in the States would be pretty awesome. However, I have to consider some other factors, like nutritional value, the willpower to have 4 Ben's Cookies in my home and not eat them at once, and the sad state of my bank account.

Which is more important? Tasty cookie goodness, or the state of my bank account?

I'd like to know what you think.

Peace out,
Me

Hey folks, I'd like your advice here.

As I mentioned before, I'm leading a seminar presentation on the Virtual Classroom feature of Blackboard in about two weeks. I've presented and made handouts on this before, but I wanted to get some more perspectives from people who have used the tool.

I have no problem getting people to participate in the virtual class sessions. But I am particularly interested in strategies to get people to stay focused and on topic, and to keep people from slacking off during the class session.

If anyone has used Blackboard or WebCT to hold live online classes, I'd be interested in your feedback of what works and what doesn't. I'm also interested in suggestions for when to use the virtual classroom, other than exam review or bad weather. And finally, what do you do to deal with technical difficulties? Some people genuinely have problems that keep them from entering the virtual classroom, so I hate to penalize when it's not their fault.

Any feedback that anyone may have (from your experience as a student or faculty member) would be much appreciated. Leave a comment here, or drop me a line if you'd rather comment in private.

Many thanks! :)

As I’ve mentioned more than once on this blog, I have this weird reaction to change. I resist it as long as I can, it makes me physically ill, and then once I plunge in and do what I have to do, I can’t imagine why I ever felt hesitant to begin with.

Last night, I went to a talk by Susan Douglas at my old university. (Yes, I went to a lecture on a Friday night. I have no life.*) Her talk was on the representation of motherhood in the media. A lot of my former professors were there, as were a lot of my colleagues from my last Master's degree. It was a great talk, and it gave me a lot to think about. And just as I did in Oxford, I bought the book and I had her sign it.

But I felt really out of place.

Don't get me wrong, it was a great lecture, and it was great to see some old friends. And the style was a bit more lively than some of the Oxford lectures I've attended. But I've grown accustomed to the Oxford academic life. I missed how presenters would cite articles written by scholars who happened to be sitting in the audience. I missed going with my friends and exchanging scandalous comments throughout the lecture. I was even a bit surprised when I got there and remembered that "refreshments will be served" does not include wine at an American university lecture.

I keep feeling compelled to go back to visit my old University, but every time I go back, I just feel like a visitor. The place hasn't changed much, the faculty haven't changed much, and a few of the students I knew are still there. I guess I'm the one who has changed.

Anyway.

In related news, I found out last night that the article on Media Literacy that I co-authored with two professors and a grad student last summer has been accepted for presentation at the National Communication Association Convention in Texas in November! Yay! I know it doesn't have anything to do with my current Master's or DPhil, but it's another line for my CV. :) It's also under review for publication, so I'll let you know how that turns out as soon as I find out.

Much love,
Me
xxx

*In Oxford, if my friends and I had decided to go to a lecture on a Friday night or some other weird time, we would have complained noisily for hours about what losers we are, but we would have genuinely enjoyed the lecture and would have talked about it at the bar with our friends afterwards. Ahh, the social life of grad students...

***Update, 2:56 p.m., 7/22/06: Sorry, for some reason I ended up posting this six times. I have no idea what the hell happened.

Dear Amazon.com,

Why, oh why, when I need two books so desperately for my DPhil proposal and order them with expedited shipping, do they arrive in my mailbox exactly one hour after I finish my proposal? Please advise.

Love and Literary Theory,
Kaitlin

OK, this is really weird, but hear me out.

I was looking at some childhood photos of a friend recently, when I realized that I am totally envious of people who have childhood photos of themselves in a different country. Yes, I know they were born and raised there, but it just seems so much more exciting to have childhood photos from Italy or India or Scotland or whatnot.

I don't know what goes through my head - not just, "Hey! That's you when you were little! Cool!" but also, "Hey! That's a backyard in France twenty years ago! Cool!" Babies and small children seem to look the same the world over, but for some reason knowing that the photo was taken in another country makes the baby much more interesting.

Maybe I've just become indifferent to my surroundings. I've had them for the past twenty-six years, so it's all the same to me. When my friends came from Spain to visit me during my freshman year at the University of Hartford, I thought it was funny to see the kinds of things that excited them. School buses. Tall buildings. Baseball. Jack-o-lanterns. People who say "Good night" when you leave a restaurant at 7 pm. Hell, my friend even got excited about apple juice. It's the same around the world - Americans who go to London snap photos of the "Mind the Gap" signs (I did it too when I was there), when it's really something just as mundane to Londoners as a "No smoking" or "Exit" sign.

So why do I get so excited about childhood photos from other countries? What makes a baptism in a church, a high chair in a kitchen, a picnic in a backyard so much better when it's in Brazil or Spain or Hong Kong? I have no idea. It's just one of those odd quirky things that I find interesting. Maybe it's just because it's something different. Although I whine about how boring things are around here, it's probably interesting or exciting to someone who has never experienced anything like it before.

Sorry for this long-winded ramble. Off to have dinner and then back in the pool. Have a good week, everyone!