on a (somewhat) less political note

The situation in the Middle East has captured most of my attention and most of my blog, but not entirely. I'm working up some posts on books read, films watched, and exhibitions seen (though as usual, neither the things nor my reviews are entirely apolitical) in my weeks in the UK. I'm back in New York now, and gearing up for what I think will be an exciting autumn--more to tell soon. Meanwhile I've got to find a new place to live (know anyone with a spare room near Prospect Park?) and make amends with the food co-op for all the shifts I've missed, and collect my old green bicycle from the East Village, if no one's stolen it yet.

I also turned twenty-five the Sunday before last, so I feel very shallowly grown-up now. I had to get up at 5 a.m. on my birthday to help escort busloads of sleepy, tearful teenagers to Heathrow (it was the end of the summer program), but we still celebrated with a nice quiet little barbeque that evening. I am rich in friends with good taste: they gave me good champagne, sparkly jewelry, Robert J. C. Young's Postcolonialism: A Historical Introduction, the OUP Very Short Introduction to Foucault, and cheesecake. No girl could hope for a better combination of geekiness and bling.

Also my students got me a very cute card that they all signed, and danced with me to cheesy music at their final-night dance, and gave me almost-birthday hugs when I disappeared just before midnight. I need to write more about my students (and my superfantastic co-teacher/new dear friend), because they were so goddamn cool. Teaching this course was exhausting and frustrating and sometimes really very hard, but it reminded me why, in the long run, this is what I want to do. And yes, I will get around to posting syllabus details. We had to throw some our plans out the window halfway through, but I think we did a good job regardless.