A rather odd request

This one goes out to all my non-American friends:

My sister Maggie loves baby dolls. I am looking for one that talks in a British accent to send home to her, but do not know if such a thing exists. For my lovely British friends, while in your travels or visiting your younger sisters/nieces/godchildren, could you see if you come across any British-accented talking baby dolls and let me know where I might find one?

Similarly, I would be equally interested in getting her a baby doll that speaks a foreign language, particularly one that would not be readily available in the United States - Danish, Italian, French, etc. I'm not talking about one of those educational dolls that helps kids learn a language, but rather an actual doll that actual kids use.

I am willing to pay up to £20 for it, which would include reimbursing you in the form of drinks, etc. should I ask you to buy it and bring it to me.

Any info you can provide would be much appreciated. Many thanks!

xxx

New Spanishy Goodness

My goodness, I love Rayito. I heard his song, "Me Falta," on iTunes as the free download of the week under iTunes Latino. It is lovely!

Here is the video, although this is a bit slower version than the one on iTunes. Enjoy!

Secret Message

No, I don't think it's going to work. I thought it might, but it looks like it won't.

Sorry about that.

English lesson

I just discovered last night that the British do not make use of the highly useful word raincheck. I discovered this while sending a text to my friend Seth, and the auto-spelling feature thingy could not figure out what I was trying to say.

Since it is a baseball term, it makes sense that they don't use it. But I wonder what they use in its place???

Here is the OED definition, in case my non-US readers didn't know what it means: chiefly U.S., (a) a ticket given to a spectator at an outdoor event providing for a refund of his entrance money or admission at a later date, should the event be interrupted by rain; transf., a ticket allowing one to order an article before it is available, and to collect it when it becomes so; (b) fig. (see quot. 1930); also, esp. in phr. to take a rain check on, to reserve the right not to take up a specified offer until such time as it should prove convenient.

OK, I'm over it

Perdone mis silencios prolongados, linda gente. I'm sorry for leaving that depressing post up for so long. I am settled in the UK, and all is well now.

My students take their final exam on Monday. It might have been a good idea to do it as a Blackboard exam (where they take it right online), but instead I am having them access it online and then email it to me. The exam will be made available at 10 a.m., when the class begins, and must be submitted via by 12:30 p.m., when the class ends, no excuses whatsoever. I'm hoping this limited time prevents TOO much using the book, but I'm fully aware that they will be using it. And I'm fine with that.

This was my first time teaching this class. I'm not sure how it went. I really enjoyed it - it was my favorite class as an undergrad. But, I feel like I could have done more, or been more prepared. It's really hard to be well-prepared in Winterterm - I don't like setting things up way too far in advance, since you don't know what will happen. For example, my textbooks didn't arrive until three days into the class. Had I not been flexible, I don't know what I would have done. I just hope that my students don't take my flexibility for being disorganized or lazy.

On the academic side of things o'er here, it's all going well. I attended a literary theory seminar that I did attend last year, but now that I really have a reason to apply the topic, I think I paid a lot more attention this time around. I'm attending two more in this series, and I really think they will help my dissertation. I am also attending an undergrad seminar on Books and Readers in Golden Age Spain, which I think will be useful. Unfortunately, I overslept and missed the first lecture. Too bad - I really like the person who is teaching it. The schedule for the Spanish graduate seminars is also quite promising - the first seminar was well-attended and the discussion was quite good.

I'm not going to go crazy this term with the social schedule. I'm going to focus my efforts on doing a few things well, rather than trying to fill up every day of the calendar. We have some regular staples in our timetable - Friday guest dinner, Sunday movie night. I've also booked in three exchange dinners - we go to another college for dinner, and they come to us. Those are fun because it's always cool to see how another Oxford college lives. And finally, we will fill in the schedule with some fun things, like clubbing nights, bops (high school dance meets frat party meets costume party), and other stuff that doesn't come to mind at the moment.

Last night (Friday) was the first guest dinner of the term. I love the black-tie dinners - they remind me how surreal this place really is. (I never have an opportunity to go to posh black tie events at home - here I've been to at least 15 so far!) And tonight, I went to dinner with Elizabeth and Mark and then we went to a party at our friend Eleanor's house. Enrique joined us at about 11 p.m., and the four of us (well, three - Elizabeth took a cab once we hit the bus station) walked home together. While the party was lovely and great fun, I also love the chance to spend some time with smaller groups of friends just walking home after a party.

After last night and tonight, I am a bit conglomorated (*winks at Seth*). Time to sleep it off before a busy day tomorrow, with a trip to Headington in the afternoon.

Actually, I've been so busy, that I haven't bothered taking many photos. I am relying on the kindness of my friends, from whom I will steal photos over the next few days.

Hope all is well with you, and that you have a lovely weekend wherever you are - especially those of you about to begin the Spring semester!

Much love,
Kaitlin
xxx

Not Ready Yet

When I wrote the title of this post, it reminded me of when I was little and my dad played on a softball team with the above name. He was also on a team at one point called "The Wrong Stuff." They had t-shirts with the team names on them and their last names or nicknames on the back. My sister and I used to wear these t-shirts to bed or after we got out of the pool.

Anyway. That's not the point of this post. Moving right along...

Last year, and over the summer, I absolutely couldn't wait to get back to Oxford. Now, I'm kinda dreading it a bit. I feel like this break wasn't long enough. I know, things are always hectic at home, and I know I absolutely love Oxford, but I feel like I'm not ready to go back yet.

I did some reading but didn't get enough of my paper written. I don't feel like I'm teaching as well as I could be. I never feel like I'm able to keep up in winterterm - I'm the kind of person who always has to gauge how things are going from day to day, and winterterm doesn't give me enough time to process it all. I just feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done.

My educational technology backup side job is going well, and I wish I had more time to work there. I just finished up revising a handout to help faculty copy their course content in Blackboard, and am now working to come up with strategies to help faculty manage the file sizes in their Blackboard courses. (We don't have quotas, but we have people who do things like load 10 or 15 PowerPoints or PDFs that are all 10 or 15MB each. I've even had faculty who have loaded files that are 50-100MB each, and wonder why students have trouble loading them!)

On Friday, I had an interview in New York for a scholarship. I went with my mom and my sisters. The committee people were lovely, and it all looks very promising. So keep all extremeties crossed for me please!

On the personal side, I don't feel like I've spent enough time with friends and family. I haven't been to the mall too much. I don't get to see my sister that often. I haven't even had a chance to go to the cemetary where my grandfather was buried last month. I want to do that before I go back, to have some closure.

Don't get me wrong, my Oxford friends are lovely and wonderful, and the experience of being there is amazing. I miss my lovely Oxford people terribly, and wish more of them lived in Connecticut. (I swear I must be the only Connecticut person in all of Oxford. I've met tons of people who have gone to Yale, but no genuine born and raised Nutmeggers.) But this trip back feels like it will be different. The first two times, I couldn't wait to go back. This time, I wish I could wait a little longer.

Sorry for the randomness of this post. I feel like it mirrors my train of thought lately - all over the place.

Four days to go...
xxx

On my way back to Adjunctland

Hello lovely people,

So tomorrow I begin teaching my Winterterm class. Teaching-specific rants will be posted at the old blog, so go look there for the soap opera that is Adjuncting.

Anyway, I have a request for y'all. I plan on doing some discussions (some online, some in person) on social networking software (including blogs and wikis), and viral videos. Can anyone recommend any decent sources that I can provide to my students as reading material? They can be academic, trade publications, news stories or similar.

Also, any suggested activities/discussion questions I can give them? I'll show examples whenever I can including my favorite YouTube video - the Helsinki Complaints Choir.

Any suggestions you can provide would be much appreciated.

Many thanks and Happy New Year!