Potsdam!

We're here. David starts teaching on Tuesday. I'm posting from the library, but our internet will be hooked up on the 8th. I hate posting from the library so I'll probably write again once we have the internet in our apartment.

Moving Schedule

Packing is coming right along. It's really helpful to live a block away from a grocery store because we can get all the boxes we need. I hope to be done packing by Thursday night. Here's the schedule.

Thursday- My last real day at work. Finish packing.

Friday around 11:00 am- leave for Lafayette to say my goodbyes.

3:00- Hang out w/ family until 6:30.

Go to friends' baby's baptism at 7:00.

Hang out with friends all night.

Saturday- Meet my new nephew, see as many people as possible, tell them goodbye and that I will miss them dearly.

Sunday- Go to mass at St. Boniface, hang out w/ my family, eat dinner with my Aunt Barb, and go back to Cincinnati.

Monday- See as many Cincinnati friends as possible and tell them we'll miss them dearly.

Tuesday- Repeat. Load up moving truck that night.

Wednesday early morning- Watch Dad and David move all the heavy stuff I couldn't help lift from the night before.

Wednesday late morning/early afternoon- Set off on our 12 hour drive to Potsdam.

Thursday- Move in all our stuff, start our new lives.

Thanks for all the prayers from everyone. I have no doubt they played a huge role in us going where we are going. The move is far and we will live in a pretty isolated place, but I think this is where we are supposed to be.

Goodbye Cincinnati...

And hello Potsdam, New York. That's right, David took a Latin teaching position, and he and I will be moving to up up up up upstate New York in a little over two weeks. I mean way upstate. We'll be about less than an hour from the Canadian border and two hours away from Montreal. This news came at the eleventh hour, too. We were actually ready to send in our signed contracts, transcripts, apostilles, etc to South Korea TOMORROW MORNING!!!! In fact, when I woke up today I was only thinking about going to Korea and had almost given up entirely on New York. And while Korea would have been a hell of an adventure, New York is clearly the more stable option. Plus, we've been told that David's school takes trips to Europe just about every year, so our traveling days are not over.

Anyhow, Potsdam seems pretty cool. Even though the it is only 10,000 citizens strong, there are two colleges in the town and two others within a 15 mile radius. So David will be teaching a bunch of professors' kids. I've never been to Potsdam, but I'm imagining it's somewhere between Twin Peaks and Corner Gas. We're going up there to look for apartments (or houses!) this weekend, so I'll get to confirm my mental images.

We'll miss Cincinnati lots. All of my students complain about this town, but I loved our time here. We met some fantastic people and lived in the coolest neighborhood ever!!!! I'll do a tribute to Clifton in the next couple of days so all of you can see where we lived.

Anyhow, that's all for now.

Still Waiting...

Well, we are still waiting and the pressure is really getting to the both of us, but I thought I should at least tell you what we know. Most of you have either called or written to ask why such a sudden change, so I guess I'll start with that. I'm giving you the nitty-gritty, frazzled, poorly written version.

I'm not happy at my job. That doesn't mean I don't like teaching. I do. I just don't like it under the current circumstances. So I was ready to quit.

David wasn't happy in his program. That doesn't mean he didn't like UC. He did. What he didn't like is being trained to be a researcher. He could never really convince himself that what he was doing was important or meaningful. Yes, writing a paper on a completely esoteric subject might get you accolades in from a some academic types, but who does it help? How does constantly nit-picking at another scholar's work or doing research on a topic that 99.998 percent of the population has never even heard of stack up in the big scheme of things? I once asked this question to a friend back home. He said it was all about finding truth with a big T. I guess we'll leave that to the philosophers and theologians for now. David was successful in the first year of his program. His grades were great and he wrote some awesome papers, but he would rather teach and only teach. He does not want to keep up with other people's articles and publish on things he can't take seriously for a living, and that's basically what being a classics professor would get him. But teaching languages to real live students is something he does find meaning in and is something he would love to do for a living.

We came to work related crossroads at about the same time. I wanted a break, David wanted me to quit (for my sanity and his) and he also wanted to quit. This of course meant that we needed to find something to keep us in the red and fast.

That's how we arrived at moving, but how did we come up with options such as Mississippi, New York, Virginia, South Korea, and Indianapolis (I purposely left this one out of the original list. Sorry!)? David applied for Latin teaching position for the US locations and we both applied to English teaching positions in South Korea. I want to give you more information, but I also want to wait until a deal is finalized. I'll say this: our decision is down to one school in the United States and one school in South Korea. I would say I'll let you know on Monday, but these things have a way of getting pushed back. Right now my brain is frazzled from worry and anticipation. Just keep praying for us.

News, News, News

Well, so much has happened since I last posted. I quit my job. My last day is August 22nd. And speaking of quitting, David is quitting his PhD program. Oh, and then there's the fact that by this time next month we'll probably be living in New York, Virginia, Mississippi, or South Korea. Whew! There's a slim chance that we'll stay in Cincinnati, but that chance is growing slimmer by the hour. We should know everything by Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week. Say some prayers for us! David will be traveling quite a bit over the next couple of days, and we've got a lot of stuff to do in a very short amount of time!