Massachusetts Bound. part 2.

Hey again,    So. it’s going to be my one month anniversary of living in Massachusetts, happening this Saturday. And as cliché as it sounds, I can’t believe it really – because part of me has felt at home here from the first week. So. I guess it feels longer than a month. I’ve made some pretty incredible friends on the faculty and am still meeting people daily. My academic life takes place in this beautiful new arts building they call the RAC(K). (An acronym for Rhodes Arts Center.) Kind of amusing, because it is well. A nice rack.      I am one of 3 people in the visual arts department – the other two faculty members with me are two old men, one of which has been teaching here for 30+ years, and the other for 10. I mean, I am not only completely new, but I am about 20+ years their junior as well as the only woman in the visual arts. Our department meetings are completely random – both are ridiculously crotchety. Maybe I’m getting on a tangent here. Either way. It’s kind of an interesting dynamic. So I teach about 5 classes total, and we have block scheduling so I have about a 2 hour duration with each of them over the course of the week. These classes are essentially Drawing 1, Digital Photography (probably my all time favorite class), Freshman Foundations (they are small and ridiculous), Landscape Drawing, and Design Theory. The classes here are pretty small – I think my smallest being Landscape drawing with 8 kids, and the biggest is Freshman Foundations with 15 (though it feels like 85.) When I’m not teaching, I am currently the JV coach for the Outdoor Team here. This is basically a PE class for the kids who want to do awesome stuff outside, like rock climb, mountain bike, canoe and sail. (and I don’t pretend that I know how to do all of them – I primarily do the canoe and biking portion of it and let other people run the rest.) I think what I really like about this job is that it is extremely similar to Johnsonburg. One of which being the SNAG events they have here for the students that live on site (primarily the international ones.) they have activities that range from Bingo, to blood drives, to Habitat trips, to bus rides to Boston,  I mean it’s really an endless array of options. We also sing after every school meeting. And they’re usually hymns and the kids kind of pile in a chapel (not much different than the new chapel) and sort of sing their part in the community. In other news, I am still going strong with my vegetarianism (and for those of you that didn’t know I became a veggie, I did this past May as a sort of recognition of a bunch of things. Ask me if you want.) – and not unlike camp, the vegetarian food is freaking amazing. We are currently underway with international week so each dish is being ‘sponsored’ by a different country. Despite this, no matter what day, it’s actually really hard to turn the food down… So, I can ramble on and one about all of this stuff I’m doing, but overall you should know the following. I am extremely happy here. I love every minute of my job. And I am extremely thankful for Johnsonburg these days, as this whole camping lifestyle has made my transition into rural America extremely painless. (I’m teaching my dorm how to make s’mores on a George Forman grill this Friday, in fact, which has been a Lakeside tradition.) I do try and make it out of the NMH bubble once in awhile, and hit up some of the neighboring towns. I made a Flickr account which has been allowing me to show students our residence life shots (I can’t friend them on Facebook), and you can find the link here: My Flickr page. I sort of organized it in a way I hope you can follow – and I’ll warn you that I’m not in any of these photos really (because I’m behind the camera.) but it will give you an insight to what our campus life is about. Hog Olympics is a sub-category. So to explain a bit. The NMH mascot is a ‘hog’. And the school has this annual event where students are represented on teams as the dorm and partakes in certain events, like slowest bike race and water carrying. We also made a flag that represented us, as seen in a bunch of different pictures. Whatever these pictures mean to you, I hope you enjoy.  Now I should be getting back to New Jersey for a few weekends in October. It will be nice to be temporarily back in the mid Atlantic. And as always, visitors HERE are always welcome... already had some camp representation stop in for a brief visit and check out my 'Hogwarts-esque' lifestyle. YAY PAM! That may be it for now. Thinking of you all fondly and loving the various updates I've been getting. Thanks again for being wonderful additions to my outside life, and totally thankful I can share these experiences with you.