Smuttynose Dog1 Town
AMHERST, MASS. -- A long day here at Amherst College draws to a close -- and with it the third and final flyback! I have a couple more meetings tomorrow, but the hard part is over. I think.
Being on the East Coast, in a small college town, is making college memories come flooding back: pimping myself out in my Wesleyan sweatshirt looking for a ride back to campus from Bradley airport; Friendly's; still not remembering whether it's "up to New York" or "down to Boston" or what; the NESCAC, the Little Three... stuff I haven't thought about for a long time.
My day today was another blur of meetings, teaching and my presentation, and thankfully my caffeine needs were met at all the right moments. Chapter 5 of 100 Years of Solitude went really well, even though I never got around to confirming the right pronunciation of Melquíades; my job talk, today given for the gazillionth time, came off without a hitch, and I managed to handle all the "feisty" questions the faculty threw at me; the campus is beautiful, but for some reason it smelled like beef bullion all day; and, proving that the world is, indeed, a handkerchief,2 the senior member of the Spanish department not only is from Madison, but he went to West High at the same time as my Mom.3 Crazy.
I was also privy to way more inside information than I've ever gotten at any institution before, including the revelation that the Political Science professor on the hiring committee's dream job would be writing for People Magazine. And a few other more relevant tidbits, which I'll be mulling over and dealing with if...
1 The name of a local (?) beer, worth remembering.
2 This is the literal translation of "It's a small world" in Spanish: "El mundo es un pañuelo"
3 Oh, and also, this same prof, before discovering that I was also from WI, apparently described me as looking like a "German woman from Oconomowac" to another Amherst faculty member. Despite the relative accuracy of the description, I wasted no time in telling him I'm from Madison: those of us from Madison don't take kindly to being told we look like we're from Oconomowac.
Being on the East Coast, in a small college town, is making college memories come flooding back: pimping myself out in my Wesleyan sweatshirt looking for a ride back to campus from Bradley airport; Friendly's; still not remembering whether it's "up to New York" or "down to Boston" or what; the NESCAC, the Little Three... stuff I haven't thought about for a long time.
My day today was another blur of meetings, teaching and my presentation, and thankfully my caffeine needs were met at all the right moments. Chapter 5 of 100 Years of Solitude went really well, even though I never got around to confirming the right pronunciation of Melquíades; my job talk, today given for the gazillionth time, came off without a hitch, and I managed to handle all the "feisty" questions the faculty threw at me; the campus is beautiful, but for some reason it smelled like beef bullion all day; and, proving that the world is, indeed, a handkerchief,2 the senior member of the Spanish department not only is from Madison, but he went to West High at the same time as my Mom.3 Crazy.
I was also privy to way more inside information than I've ever gotten at any institution before, including the revelation that the Political Science professor on the hiring committee's dream job would be writing for People Magazine. And a few other more relevant tidbits, which I'll be mulling over and dealing with if...
1 The name of a local (?) beer, worth remembering.
2 This is the literal translation of "It's a small world" in Spanish: "El mundo es un pañuelo"
3 Oh, and also, this same prof, before discovering that I was also from WI, apparently described me as looking like a "German woman from Oconomowac" to another Amherst faculty member. Despite the relative accuracy of the description, I wasted no time in telling him I'm from Madison: those of us from Madison don't take kindly to being told we look like we're from Oconomowac.
posted by SJB at 10:05 PM
2 Comments:
Though we do like to say the word "Oconomowoc."
This makes me miss the Pioneer Valley. I heard that the Rock Critic took you to the India House--I hope that I got credit, since I was the one that introduced him to that great restaurant! :) Noho is a great town (Amherst is okay, but let's face it, Northampton is better).
Good Luck!!!
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