A partial life update for those who want to know
1 Comments Published by ginny on Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 6:42 PM.
So I realize I've related my life only piecemeal recently, and I figured it might be nice to do a partial life-update for those people I've been out of touch with. The news is this: I'm drawing to the end of my fellowship at UVA, which means no more guaranteed teaching and no more stipend. I taught two courses this semester – ENGL 381 (which I've taught twice before) and my Very Own Standalone 200 (or 2000, as it is now)-level course called Shakespeare in Place and Space. That frees me up to teach nothing next semester, my last funded semester, so…I'm moving to England!
Nick got a job there last spring at Keele University, which means we're good for a few years of him building his career and me finishing my dissertation. (Read: starting and then finishing my dissertation.) Initially I'll be in England as a tourist – I'm coming back for about a month on March 14th, and then again in July to prepare for the wedding – but after we are married (August 14th!) I will apply for entrance as the spouse of a citizen. I still haven't figured out that form yet.
Keele is nearest to Stoke on Trent, so that's where we'll be living. (Well, though our address is Stoke, actually we're closer to Newcastle-under-Lyme, which is much nicer.) The house Nick has rented looks like this:
It's what's called a two-up, two-down: two "reception rooms" on the ground floor with stairs in between, a kitchen in the back with the bathroom off of it (these houses weren't initially built with them!), and two bedrooms upstairs. We're going to use one bedroom as an office/guest bed.
While Nick works at increasing his already stellar up-and-coming reputation as the foremost Defoe Pirate Authority, I will be attempting to get myself out of the funk I've been in approximately since my oral exams two years ago and actually Work. I have to give a presentation in front of the English department on my dissertation on March 19th, so something has to happen by then. But I really really hope I'll be able to work steadily before then too. I had a breakdown in Clare's office a few months ago, in which she asked me whether I still wanted to go ahead with the project I'd proposed, and I realized I did, but it's been very hard for the last year to get any work at all done on it. It isn't the project, though – it's me and anxiety. So I hope a total change of scene – with no teaching for me to distract myself with – will let me do that. I'm planning to go on the market, I think, in the Fall of 2011. That should give me enough time to get back on track and maybe even have some publications out. God willing. When that happens, Nick and I will likely go on the market together in both the U.S. and the U.K.
So that's the story! Other things: still playing ukulele, thinking about recording and uploading some songs. Ernest is coming with me to England, which looked like not a huge hassle at first but has turned out to be a minorly huge hassle, largely because the airlines charge $850 for a small cat. I am trying to sublet my room, but have so far had no success. And I miss all of my friends, but hope I will actually be a better friend now that I know I have to actually work at keeping up from across the ocean.
Oh, and anyone who wants to visit us DEFINITELY SHOULD.
I want to visit you guys REAL BAD, even though you are not even in England to be visited yet! I'm sure you will find a way to get to work on your thesis. I always get overwhelmed before big projects, too, but it has to be done, and you'll do it.