Free At Last, Free At Last

That’s it!! I turned in all my grades for all my classes this semester last night!!! My semester – and school year – is now over and summer is officially here.

This is one of my favorite things about academia – the summer. But that makes me wonder: isn’t there something wrong in loving your job because you can spend 3 months not doing your job? But then again, after a whole year of answering emails every spare second of the day, writing lectures, teaching, grading, doing assessments, trying to write your dissertation, applying for jobs and a green card, and finally moving, I am glad to have a little time off.

This summer we have few plans. Gregg and I have spent the past three weeks driving back and forth between Farmville and Lancaster between classes and exams. Four trips in three weeks. On each trip we brought as much of our belongings as possible. We also did a trip with one U-Haul. Each time, Gregg drove 6 hours while I graded in the car. So the plan is to get another U-Haul and get the last of our stuff by the end of this month. But we are waiting till the end of the month to do the final trip because we just cannot be on the road any more.

I also hope to make some headway on the dissertation over the summer – something which was completely neglected over the school year. I had a paper accepted at APSA which means I need to write it over the summer. It is a chapter of my dissertation, so it is a much needed deadline.

I also need to unpack. Everything in Lancaster is in boxes and my goal is to unpack it all by the end of June. This will be a huge improvement on our last two moves. In Grady Avenue (Cville), I never unpacked the boxes for the entire two years we lived there and in Farmville, I did not unpack for the entire year. So, unpacking in two months is a huge step up.

On the lighter side, I need to get to know Lancaster. We have been going to the Farmer’s Market here and I love it. More on that in my next blog. Anyway, I plan to “explore” Lancaster this summer. I also need to explore Millersville University while I have the time.

Any concrete summer plans for any of you?