A Brief Report on My Adventures

[rhyll]

Did you know that I went to Sydney? Probably! Because I talk about everything, all the time. So, here is some of my news about going to Sydney, and coming back, and yesterday:

* I went to Newcastle! I felt very intrepid, because I caught buses to the airport on Friday morning, and then a plane to Sydney, and then trains to Newcastle, where I got picked up by a friend. If there had been some bicycling in there as well I would have felt Most Adventurous Ever.
* Newcastle has a great urban renewal project going on, Renew Newcastle. I am a bit jealous that I'm missing the project's This Is Not Art festival, but I did get to at least get a tour of the little galleries and craft-spaces. I particularly like the upcycling space, where people had been putting together hand-sewn journals with more skill and pizzazz than my usual misshapen efforts. I also rather like the exhibition of "art concerning dinosaurs". I am jealous that I missed out on going to Totoro's Tea House.
* I went to a conference! Some of it was painful, with all the academic jargon and egos. But there was definitely enough exciting work that I felt all excited about research again, and about Learning New Things. I met one of my examiners, and managed not to spill a drink all over her, and I gave a talk to a tiny audience (I was in the last session of the last day), and I ate lots of snacks. I'm going to put up some links and stuff on my grownup blog.
* People! Sometimes, I meet people and think that they are lovely, but then sort of expect never to see them again. And then I see them again, and feel a little disoriented and also delighted by it. In this category, I caught up with a couple of friends in Newcastle, both of whom are lovely, and a conference-friend from last year. There was also a posse of Perth people, including one of my Think Tank ladies, and lots of strangers to talk to. I like talking to strangers!
* Yesterday was pretty exhausting. Everything has felt so rushed for so very long, and the conference most definitely did not give me a break from that, fun as it was. Luckily, I have mostly managed to maintain momentum - I'm sure that's all that got me through yesterday. I had a heap of teaching to do, plus marking, plus lesson preparation, plus had to go to the Real Food Forum and be all grownup for Bluestocking. I'm glad I went, because it was fascinating (in a scary kind of way). I'm going to try to blog about it over the next few days.

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of this, but I feel like I've been getting lots done. Unfortunately, I suspect that's because I've been very busy with teaching...I love teaching, and it gives me short-term, achievable goals, and involved actually interacting with people. When I'm working on my thesis, on the other hand, I often feel a bit isolated, and feel like I'm not achieving much because everything moves so slowly and my goals are so unclear. Anyway! The conference helped me get excited about my thesis again, so I'm going to get back to it! Today has been thesis-day, and I still have a bit more thesis-time left before I play with ukuleles.

Comments

[alexmoon.livejournal.com]

Hopefully!