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Big News & On The Move
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This news has actually been breaking over the last couple of months and is long overdue for reporting. (You just don't know how badly I've wanted to post this stuff, but paranoia prevented me from doing so.) Yesterday, I finally felt comfortable enough to inform my superiors that I will be resigning from my most illustrious position as "Academic Technology Liaison" in July and moving out of the state.
For those of you who don't know (and are interested) about the recent developments in Steffi's and my life recently, here's the scoop: Over Christmas, my wife put herself through the living hell that is otherwise known as the Academic Job Market. We went to Philadelphia for a week the day after Christmas so she could attend the Modern Language Association conference and interview with 11 different schools. I'm not even sure I can remember all of them now, but let's see what I can do:
1. Hope College
2. Georgetown College
3. Kansas State University
4. Virginia Polytechnic Institute (aka Virginia Tech)
5. Christopher Newport University
6. University of California at Irvine
7. University of Chicago
8. University of Denver
9. University of Indiana at Purdue, Fort Wayne
10. West Chester University (Pennsylvania)
11. George Washington University in Washington D.C.
To turn what could be a long story into a really short one, Steffi did exceptionally well throughout the entire ordeal, and in the end Virginia Tech pursued her like Homer Simpson after a speeding ice cream truck, and eventually my wife let herself be wooed into accepting the Assitant Professor tenure-track position that VPI was offering. The department and its faculty are a young, energetic, and incredibly sociable lot, and Steffi will have no trouble fitting in. She, along with Virginia Tech's second hire, a woman from Princeton, will help recreate the German division of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department
In fact, VT so wanted her to be a part of their faculty that Steffi convinced them to commit to a spousal hire, so I've received a job teaching one German course a semester, developing a website for VT's FLL department, and instructing faculty in the use of technology as an employee in the Center for Educational Technology. While I'll have to cope with a pretty hefty pay cut and the fact that the job is a 1-year renewable position, I'm happy knowing I don't have to look for employment after (or before) we move to Blacksburg, that I'll be able to teach again and still make use of my technical skills. And the kicker: I don't have to work summers, either! (We'll see how long that benefit outweighs the diminished financial compensation.)
In yet more good news, we bought a house in Blacksburg this past weekend, signing all the documents on our April 15, tax-day, closing date. Our new address, as of May 31, will be: 511 Cranwell Circle, Blacksburg, VA 24060. The story with the house is an odd one, in that we knew the people who sold us the place: The woman graduated from UNC with a degree in German Literature a few years before Steffi got hers (same degree) and had even been my wife's Teaching Supervisor/TA Coordinator. She (currently a Visiting Professor for German at VT) and her husband decided that academia wasn't for them, and they'll be moving back to - get this - this area (Durham, NC, actually). Wish we had had a house here to swap for theirs.
Blacksburg is quite picturesque, a small city high on an Appalachian mountain plain, and it seems to be about 10 degrees cooler than it is here in Carrboro. We actually stayed in our new home (a 3 bedroom, hardwood-floored, unfinished-basemented, appx. 1350 square-footed ranch house within walking distance of the town and campus) both Friday and Saturday nights and had to turn the heat up to stay comfortable. We expect that the summer, however, will be much dryer and cooler and, therefore, much more pleasant than spending that sweltering season here in the Chapel Hill area.
So, again, we'll be getting a moving company (because VT's comping the move!) to box us up and haul all of our pack-ratted items up to Virginia sometime in the final days of May. Besides our enthusiasm for the area, we're happy that this really won't be a major change for us: Blacksburg is only a 3 hours drive from here, and we expect to come back to this area for frequent visits and also want to encourage our friends to come stay with us for a weekend. We've already gotten some hiking in, heard about the great tubing on the New River, considered doing some whitewater rafting in nearby West Virigina on the Gauley River, and are all geared up for the mountain air!
For those of you who don't know (and are interested) about the recent developments in Steffi's and my life recently, here's the scoop: Over Christmas, my wife put herself through the living hell that is otherwise known as the Academic Job Market. We went to Philadelphia for a week the day after Christmas so she could attend the Modern Language Association conference and interview with 11 different schools. I'm not even sure I can remember all of them now, but let's see what I can do:
1. Hope College
2. Georgetown College
3. Kansas State University
4. Virginia Polytechnic Institute (aka Virginia Tech)
5. Christopher Newport University
6. University of California at Irvine
7. University of Chicago
8. University of Denver
9. University of Indiana at Purdue, Fort Wayne
10. West Chester University (Pennsylvania)
11. George Washington University in Washington D.C.
To turn what could be a long story into a really short one, Steffi did exceptionally well throughout the entire ordeal, and in the end Virginia Tech pursued her like Homer Simpson after a speeding ice cream truck, and eventually my wife let herself be wooed into accepting the Assitant Professor tenure-track position that VPI was offering. The department and its faculty are a young, energetic, and incredibly sociable lot, and Steffi will have no trouble fitting in. She, along with Virginia Tech's second hire, a woman from Princeton, will help recreate the German division of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department
In fact, VT so wanted her to be a part of their faculty that Steffi convinced them to commit to a spousal hire, so I've received a job teaching one German course a semester, developing a website for VT's FLL department, and instructing faculty in the use of technology as an employee in the Center for Educational Technology. While I'll have to cope with a pretty hefty pay cut and the fact that the job is a 1-year renewable position, I'm happy knowing I don't have to look for employment after (or before) we move to Blacksburg, that I'll be able to teach again and still make use of my technical skills. And the kicker: I don't have to work summers, either! (We'll see how long that benefit outweighs the diminished financial compensation.)
In yet more good news, we bought a house in Blacksburg this past weekend, signing all the documents on our April 15, tax-day, closing date. Our new address, as of May 31, will be: 511 Cranwell Circle, Blacksburg, VA 24060. The story with the house is an odd one, in that we knew the people who sold us the place: The woman graduated from UNC with a degree in German Literature a few years before Steffi got hers (same degree) and had even been my wife's Teaching Supervisor/TA Coordinator. She (currently a Visiting Professor for German at VT) and her husband decided that academia wasn't for them, and they'll be moving back to - get this - this area (Durham, NC, actually). Wish we had had a house here to swap for theirs.
Blacksburg is quite picturesque, a small city high on an Appalachian mountain plain, and it seems to be about 10 degrees cooler than it is here in Carrboro. We actually stayed in our new home (a 3 bedroom, hardwood-floored, unfinished-basemented, appx. 1350 square-footed ranch house within walking distance of the town and campus) both Friday and Saturday nights and had to turn the heat up to stay comfortable. We expect that the summer, however, will be much dryer and cooler and, therefore, much more pleasant than spending that sweltering season here in the Chapel Hill area.
So, again, we'll be getting a moving company (because VT's comping the move!) to box us up and haul all of our pack-ratted items up to Virginia sometime in the final days of May. Besides our enthusiasm for the area, we're happy that this really won't be a major change for us: Blacksburg is only a 3 hours drive from here, and we expect to come back to this area for frequent visits and also want to encourage our friends to come stay with us for a weekend. We've already gotten some hiking in, heard about the great tubing on the New River, considered doing some whitewater rafting in nearby West Virigina on the Gauley River, and are all geared up for the mountain air!
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