Tuesday January 24

January 24^th

First day of class and it is a lively bunch.  The classroom is really old school— like my second grade—upstairs on the third floor, wood floors, casement windows that leak rainy cold wind and water. They blew open in today’s storm and scared the wadding out of those in the back row.  There is no built in technology—not even a white board or chalkboard. So laptop, projector and miles of cords must be schlepped to the building from the faculty office. 

The demographic is different than the Fullerton campus and the gender imbalance is really skewed. It is a very conservative slice of the student body—even more so than the Irvine campus.  I’ll have to try to tread gently on their worldviews until they trust me that I don’t expected them to agree with me—only to make a space to consider the point of view.  I do have about five firecrackers, who I find very entertaining.  We negotiated ground rules for discussions and played with ideas about the sociological imagination.  They seemed amused, but skeptical.  Pop psychology has really ruined their curiosity about things social; they are so sure of their ideas about how things work.  So we’ll be having some challenging explorations about how they “know” what they “know,” and interrogating their so-called commonsense.  Should be fun.

I have never taught this “Social Interaction” course and I am using a book I forgot to pack!  I intended to carry it on—oops.  It is in the mail—thanks, Kathleen.  It will be all right since I can cover basics until readings arrive.

The beauty is that teaching here has the college town feel.  They live together, play together, and travel in packs.  So there is an esprit de corps that all ready exists which takes some pressure off me allowing more class time to focus on provoking and coaching.  Nice. They had good examples of social norms they have observed here as well as apparent contradictions in British life and lots of enthusiasm.

Our weather was like yours today—raining hard at times and mid forty degrees.  The difference, of course, is we are out and about on foot rather than sliding around in cars. I have not discovered the secret of keeping my pretty cashmere/leather gloves looking lovely.  After only one week, they look beat from folding wet umbrellas, holding wet banister and inserting index finger into damp lips and teeth to fix keys into doors.  I guess growing up in LA, I missed learning all the techniques that are second nature to you East Coasters.  Tips, anyone?

I envy that y'all can watch the State of the Union Speech tonight.  I will have to make do with leftover clips tomorrow.

Good news.  Berna tells me we each got letters today awarding her a faculty grant and me a summer stipend.  So I guess we’ll be doing two projects: the health of Vietnamese children in Little Saigon; and, geo-coding our health survey data on Hispanics and Vietnamese living inside and outside their ethnic enclaves.  What a nice change to get that support.  Now it looks like my next seven months will be jammed full of deadlines. 

Other good news--even better news--is that my physical energy is surging—responding really well to all the walking and dashing up and down stairs.  How did I forget that walking at least a couple miles a day makes the spirit lithe and the body glow with a zingy vibration?

Reflections.  As much as I love almost every moment of this adventure, I miss my friends.  Dinner time is particularly lonely.  I am not enthused to eat alone.  I never realized how much I need to share interests, ideas and experiences with other people I feel close to. In particular, it has been a blow to miss my morning routine; but, I planned for that knowing that meditating alone would not be sufficient. What I did not anticipate was this particular alone-ness that penetrates so deeply in such a chilling way. Without the distractions of home, it is certainly more acute.  If you are inclined to email, please do.  I’ll save those up to savor as dinner companions. I need to be in touch.