Dixie Land Living - 1 Month Down

So - I've officially lived in the South for a month now. I arrived in Athens on 7/25/11 and today is 8/25/11. I can't say it feels like home, yet, but I think 95% of that is due to my living situation. I'm hoping that once I get moved into my new place (latest a week from now - earliest a few days from now) that Athens will start feeling more like home.

Although my temporary living situation isn't the greatest and I am far from all the things I know and love, I am grateful for a work family that cares for me. I have no idea what I would do without my 10 friends at work!

Missing the Prairie

"Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was." - Jodi Picoult

This quote could not be any truer for me right now. My whole life I felt I was being held captive by small town life. In my mind, I had places to go and people to see and Central Illinois was bringing me down. Flash forward and now all I want is the prairie and Central Illinois life. I miss the openness of the land and the corn and the soybeans. I miss driving down gravel paved roads and country lanes. I miss seeing as far as the eye can see. I miss the rich, black soil of Central Illinois - some of the finest farming soil in the world. I miss the bright blue sky and the way the sun feels when it is shining down on you. I miss the wildflowers on the side of the road. It just all feels different in the prairie - my home.

It has been one month to the day since I left Central Illinois to go on this great, big Southern adventure. And, while I have learned much and grown in my short time here, my heart still yearns for the prairie. If home is where the heart is, then my home will always be the vast farmlands of Central Illinois.

Things I Want to Tell My Students

1) I have been in school longer than you have been alive. Perhaps there are things I could teach you.

2) Talking in my class, while I'm talking, will not earn you any points.

3) I could have, theoretically, given birth to some of you. Keep that in mind when speaking to me.

4) I don't care whether you were valedictorian, class president, most beautiful, most popular, star athlete in three sports, or all of the above. I don't care who your parents are, how much money they make, and what kind of car you/they drive. I do care, however, about teaching you. I want you to learn. I want you to enjoy learning. In an ideal world, you'd be as passionate about the subject I am teaching as I am. I would settle, though, for you to at least feign interest for the hour to 3 hours a week that we are together for the next 16 weeks. I want you to understand that learning is a process and that while you may forget the material you learned in my class next semester, I hope you learned things about life that you can use in your college career and beyond.

Go Dawgs!

Today was my first day teaching as a real "PhD." I unknowingly wore school colors today: black top & red skirt. Students here are very polite - called me "Dr." without any prompting. I'm excited to be down here & do something I enjoy. Even though I am still terribly homesick, at least I enjoy my job.

Missing Home

Random things I miss about home:

1) The Central Standard Time zone - My body is having the hardest time, for some reason, adjusting to Eastern Standard Time zone. I know it is only an hour but for some reason - it has been incredibly hard. I'm just used to eating dinner and watching the news with Brian Williams at 5:30, going to bed after watching the 10 pm news, and getting up at 6:30 am. Now, the news doesn't come on till 6:30, the local news isn't on till 11 pm, and I have to STILL get up at 6:30 in the morning.

2) Meijer - I just haven't found a grocery store that makes me as happy as Meijer did back home. Publix is fine but it does not have EVERYTHING I want or need.

3) The rich, black soil - Seriously, how can they call this red clay soil!?

First Day of Work

Today was my first day of work at UGA. Guess it is officially - I'm now a post-doc!!