Travel

The time before traveling is always insane, but adding travel to the insanity of the past two weeks ... I'm feeling like a crazy person.  Plus, I am traveling to Chicago and Seattle (where it's colder than it is here).  Most of my cold weather clothing is still in Chicago (I think), but since I'm traveling for a conference, I feel like I need to pack enough options for conferencing in case stuff in Chicago doesn't fit. Plus, I'm bringing back summer clothes that I didn't wear here (if I didn't wear them at all for the last 6 months, I won't miss them if I'm still here next summer), and clothes that don't fit anymore.   Then I'm packing a couple of sweaters, a couple of pairs of pants and calling it a day.  Hopefully, I can "shop" my closet in Chicago and find stuff to wear while I'm there and bring back here.  Otherwise, I'll just have to shop in actual stores at home and back here.

I'm hoping this trip won't be as ridiculously emotional as they usually are.  I have hopes for this for two reasons.  One is that I am WAY more exhausted leading up to this trip and have been swamped with work, which has given me less time to get super excited for the trip.  (Not that I'm not super excited, it's just not heightened to the same degree).  The other is that I saw Pete less than a month ago, and I'll see him again about 5 weeks after I leave to come back ... so the time doesn't feel so interminable.  I'm pretty sure on Nov 13 you'll still be able to find me sobbing in a bathroom stall at O'Hare, but hopefully it won't be as bad as it has been before.

I finished teaching on Friday.  The class was rewarding and hard, mostly due to the fact that most of my students were non-native English speakers.  There was a huge amount of variability in terms of English ability and prior knowledge about the subject, which made things extra tricky.  I was supposed to teach my last class Monday right before heading to Bilbao for the night, but for various reasons the class got moved, so I taught 4 classes in 4 work days last week.  Planning and executing this class really took it out of me, mostly because it coincided with pre-conference prep, an influx of pilot data for a study I'm running, job application due dates and planning some research projects I'm getting excited about.  Plus, I had to teach some "lab" stuff I hadn't planned on using a computer programmer I have a love-hate relationship with.  So more than 20 hours in the classroom, plus 2 hours of prep for every hour I taught added up to 60 hours over two weeks on top of my normal 40+ hour/week job.  I was ready for a nap after my last class.  :)

Of course, teaching is the gift that keeps on giving.  I have to write the exam my students are taking this week, plus give them feedback on the assignments the two assignments they've done.  Then when I get back from the US I'll have another lab assignment and an exam to grade.  But hopefully by then the rest of my job will have slowed down a little bit.

In other news, I've got some new crochet projects in the works, since I was getting a little bored with my giant square blanket project (which is probably 2/3rds done).  Hopefully doing a couple of smaller projects over the next few weeks will bring back my desire to work on the blanket when I come back.  I'm working on a sweater in a really beautiful light blue cotton which will be my plane project on the way home on Tuesday.  I'm also working on two different scarves (one knit and one crochet) in the same pretty merino wool.  I made Pete a scarf, which was sent home with him when he came in September, and I made some flower coasters from scrap yarn for a friend's birthday.  I'm most excited because I've taught myself Tunisian crochet, which is a cool mix between crochet and knitting and produces a fabric that looks knit or woven.  I'm working on a pillow that has two different sides.  It's a little slower than knitting or crocheting for me, mostly because it's dissimilar enough from each of them that figuring out the hand motion is a little less automatic.  But I try to knit and crochet a little bit each day (often on the bus).  Since I'm not huge into Spanish TV, it's a good way to relax and do something that's not either Spanish practice or work!

I'll try to update again before I leave!