Good news, Obama and now toast

So, I got the job and will be teaching 'interpersonal communications' at Bronx Community College - twice.  They have a system wherein the classes are taught in 5 week intensive bursts.  So, those 10 weeks in total will be busy but everything happens within them, which is a bonus.  Also class size is limited to 20, which is great.

The amazing thing about this job, besides the fact it happened to quickly, is that it is a walk from where I will be living, across a bridge.  I got to see the 'East of Broadway' part of Inwood today and enjoyed it very much, reminded me so much of what the Upper West Side above 96th Street used to be like in the 1980s, Latino, lively, taco stores, cheap furniture, dollar stores, music everywhere and people seeming generally quite happy.

The students at Bronx Community College are the New York version of my students at University of East London, so I am glad of that as well.  Diverse, lively and striving against pretty steep odds - a good mix.  There's also surprisingly nice bits of architecture throughout the campus, along with the requisite horrendous more modern, now just kind of sad looking architectural mistakes that abound on campuses the world over.

I am very grateful to have gotten the work, though am feeling somewhat overwhelmed by how much I need to turn around in a short period of time that now also includes a syllabus.

I have received more invitations to speak with heads of departments elsewhere and am very gratified with this response, which makes me feel better and better about my decision to move back to NYC.

However, after the interview and trying to get a bank account and not having the proper paperwork and realizing half of my life is still in London, I just turned into toast and realized I needed to eat and stop.  Paperwork will happen, and I simply cannot do it all at once.

So, I ate, watched Obama speak to Congress - and realized once again that the reason I have liked him is that he is reasonable in the face of such total fucking insanity.  I know he's no left wing firebrand, but damn compared to the vaguely - well - really scary looking Tea Party people sitting ramrod straight and angry, and the mostly bored looking apathetic Democrats in his own party, he looks like a superhero.

No one probably watched the speech though and a bunch of people will comment on it that care, most people will ignore it and the Republicans will make damn sure the economy stays in bad shape so they can get re-elected.  Apparently all the Republican candidates had to take some kind of pledge that climate change is a lie as is evolution.  They all did except for one - who will now be marginalized as the Dennis Kucinich of the Republicans and not allowed to play in their reindeer games.

And I'm coming home!  Even with this...ahhh, welcome baaaack....but at least I'm here and can say and do stuff about it.  She said bravely...

Luckily I went to meet with my sane friends, am suitably tired now go off to bed...