The "Re-Penthouse"

247/365: Sunday, 09/04/2011

One of traditions at Miami U. involves off-campus students giving their houses catchy/punny/suggestive names. They often have something to do with the street they are on and yes quite a few involve references to alcohol. This one is situated right next to a church and it's also on Church St. Hence it's moniker: Re-Penthouse...

242/365 Tuesday, 08/30/2011

This is another shot of the view form my office. the difference being that now there are usually a few students sitting here getting work done or just chatting. The campus is so large that the outside areas don't seem to get too crowded. Around lunchtime some of the lunch venues do though as does the Starbucks in the library. (It's OK in the morning). 

237/365 Thursday, 08/25/2011

I apologize for the blueness of this and a few other of my pics--I had the phone camera on an "incandescent" setting and hence overly blue-ish tinged photos were the result...This is a picture of the traffic logjam that occurs regularly on weekdays on Spring St. at Miami U. I wait here for my shuttle to take me home, and so I see this particular procession quite frequently.

First day of the Fall 2011 Semester!!

234/365 Monday, 08/22/2011
So the firist day of the semester finally arrived--and along with it the reliable and very fast shuttle service between Campus and my apartment. I decided to take a shot of the interior of the bus. The first day (and week now) went well and I'm settling into a routine of going in everyday except on the weekend. I teach every day but only one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Friday I teach all three of my classes, which is a bit strange, but I think it will be OK. It looks like next semester I'm going to have Wednesdays off--which will be nice. This first week was still very hot here. Walking between buildings and waiting for the bus in my teaching clothes was sometimes a tad uncomfortable. I'm hoping for cooler weather soon. 

230/365 Thursday, 08/18/2011

Towards the end of the week the streets of Oxford started to get more lively due to the influx of new and then returning students. I have heard that about 16 000 students attend Miami, which of course has a large (economic etc.) impact on Oxford, which is actually quite small at least in terms of non-student population. Wikipedia tells us that of the 21,943 people that were counted in Oxford during the 2000 census, 15,726 were students. Wow that means Oxford is actually smaller than Albion! (But the two are just so different in terms of atmosphere and ambiance and of course decent places to eat!) 

229/2011 Wednesday, 08/17/2011

A fun day! New faculty orientation in the morning and then I helped me new colleague in German move into her cute little house. (It so happens we know each other). It was hot, but we had a very nice lunch at a lovely sandwich place that I will definitely go back to. 

227/365 Monday, 08/15/2011

On this day (that now on Thursday the 25th of August seems very long ago...) I attended the library orientation for new faculty at Miami University. It was fun and informative.

Irvin Hall, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

224/365 Friday, 08/12/2011
This is a picture of Irvin Hall--the languages building at Miami U. I'll be spending quite a bit of time here I think!

215/365 Wednesday, 08/03/2011

This is a picture of the IKEA restaurant area, fairly early on Wednesday morning. We decided to eat a bit more breakfast before commencing the looking and shopping spree.We always have fun at IKEA and today was no exception. It IS tiring though. I noticed more IKEA-newbies at this store, who stood around wondering how to go about getting the things they want--they apparently had overlooked the little pencil and paper dispencers that one uses to write down the item name/number plus where the item is in the warehouse area. Sometimes you heard people say things like: "They're going to have to order that..." 

We made it through the showroom, marketplace and warehouse area in about 3.5 or 4 hours--after which we  paid for everything loaded up the car and went back inside to get our fill of cheap Swedish meatballs and a piece of chocolate overload cake for lunch.  My excuse for eating more than usual is that I have not been sleeping all that well-I regularly get up from about 3am-5am and so lose a coupe of hours of rest--hence chocolate cake must come to the rescue. (We split a piece). 

Then we moseyed on home in our trusty civic and Bill immediately set to putting all the pieces together. I continued getting settled and cleaning the apartment. We had decided that instead of Bill coming back and having to re-load the car and George all by himself I would accompany him back to Albion the next day, in order to offer moral etc. support for the trip back to Oxford with George and the rest of my stuff. (which will take place on Sunday). 

I thought I would have more to do, but since most of my clothes etc are coming on this next trip I didn't have that much to do yet - I had already taken care of work-related tasks such as getting an ID and showing my employment documentation. So as I write this I am back at my old desk, for a short while longer at least. 

Once we go back I'm sure I'll want to get cracking on course-preparation -- it will be Miami's first semester using a new e-learning system that I need to figure out how to use, plus there is all the usual prepping/planning necessary before classes start. I have seen my office and it is quite nice--it might be a bit noisy since it is directly opposite a door to the stairs. 

214/365 Tuesday, 08/02/2011 Miami University

Here is a more appropriate picture commemorating the move to Oxford--this is the entrance to the University. We walked around the campus after enjoying a delicious  "Jäger-Schnitzel" (Hunter's schnitzel) at Oxford's German restaurant- the Steinkeller. Bill and I also celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary today.