Those Who Can't Do...

So, I've just returned from teaching my first class ever. I was very nervous, but once I got up there and started talking, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. Or, should I say, I wasn't as bad as I'd feared.

That's not to say that there weren't a few mistakes. For a start, I got to the office way too early (I was expecting a line at the copier), so I had a lot of time to kill. After I got sick of strolling around ECS, I headed over to my 8:30 class. Big mistake! I got there around 8:12-8:15 for an 8:30 class, and there were already students in the room! Students I had to entertain! Acccck! I spent as much time as possible writing on the board, checking my notes, and just generally pretending to be busy, but it was this kind of slow torture.

New faces, New spaces.

I refrained from blogging in the first few days of being in Kansas, because I knew I'd have nothing good to say. More importantly, I knew I'd be making unfair comparisons, but now, after the fourth day of orientation, food, and a shower, I feel a little more capable.

Having never really traveled the country, I literally had no idea what to expect. As previously stated, most of my previous knowledge came from books and movies, but when it came right down to it, I knew almost nothing about what it would be like. While I now understand that this was a ridiculous and boneheaded plan, I'm sort of glad that I did it this way.

Leaving...on a Southwest Plane?

So I've been packing for a few hours. And when I say packing, I mean......well, mostly instant messaging or browsing the internet, or editing a certain someone's cover letter, punctuated by short, intense bursts of packing. It's going well, for the most part.

For instance, I finally embraced the boyscout method of packing...and now I have a 40 lb suitcase full of rolled clothes. And as much as I hate to admit it, rolling your clothes does actually save space. So I'm in pretty good shape...except for the fact that I'm stalling.

Not only am I stalling. No, I've brought stalling to a new art form. In fact, I'm stalling so hard, I think I deserve a medal. Or a place in the National Hall of Fame of Stalling...or a plaque. Anything.

The Distance

As I make preparations to take the almost-1,600 mile trip to my new home for the next two years, I've been struck by just how small our world seems. Like essentially every grammar school student, I learned that before the advent of automobiles and airplanes travel was almost unheard of. Until the past century, people rarely traveled, and those who did rarely made it more than a few miles from where they were born. Sure, there are examples of those who ended up far from home, like Magellan's translator (i.e. slave), Enrique, who circumnavigated the globe in stages, but we have been taught that such cases were rare.

As a student, it was always fun to contrast how far the average farmer traveled in a lifetime with how far we could travel by car in a single day. In comparison to the medieval peasant, the car-less farmer of the 1920's or the Englishmen who landed at Jamestown, our world is huge. With Skype, we can see the face of a loved one hundreds of miles away, and Facebook and instant messenger programs have replaced the slow-moving, handwritten letter with the instant and impersonal one-liners. And of course, with Google Maps, I can view the entire world by satellite. It stands to reason that my world, unlike the world of the pilgrim, farmer, or peasant, is limitless. But I'm not so sure anymore.