Orientating

So, I moved to the Midwest. Bloomington, Indiana, in particular (which I suppose could be considered more the South than the Midwest, but it is Midwest to me). I'm going to be attending Indiana University in T-3 days for an MA in Art History, and have a very cute big-girl apartment, stocked with Wegmans peanut butter. Impressions so far? IU and Bloomington in general are way, way cool.

Not specific, I realize, but I'm a little overwhelmed, sensory and information-wise. I had a 10 hour training today (seriously, 8am-6pm, although we were provided breakfast AND lunch). We discussed teaching tips, for when I will eventually teach. Setting up gradebooks online sounds like my idea of hell. Also: as a graduate assistant it is important to control your sarcasm-impulse with your students. Which I might have problems with, as my eyebrows have a mind of their own.

I am not sure how much I'll be writing, but I hope I can continue to update you on what I'm up to. There are a LOT of cultural activities here--I've already gotten season Opera and Ballet tickets, plus there are world music festivals, indie bands, a huge range of restaurants (falafels: excellent; Thai: doubly excellent), DAVID SEDARIS (yeah, I'm jazzed about that one), and so much more! I'm sure there will be guest blogs, art reviews, and random musings about food, artsy fartsiness, and bus-related shenanigans.

Speaking of which:
--yesterday the first year undergrads moved in, all 8,000 of them, and traffic was gnarly. One of my sister students and I were on the bus, which kept getting stalled because of all the traffic. We were stopped at one point by the swarms of red-shirted first years lugging mass amounts of luggage down the street, and an old man on the bus yelled out the door, "WELCOME TO BLOOMINGTON, Y'ALL! THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD."

Oh, and this template will be changing, but I have to sucker one of my lovely techie friends into making a new one first. Thanks for reading! Let's have a good year.