Summer Update

So I'm sitting at a Café Dépôt on the corner of Papineau and Mont-Royal. I'm back in the most wonderful city of the world for the summer, for 7 whole weeks to be precise, and I've still got 2 weeks left before classes start at Southern Football School--and I can't help but bitch just a bit that our classes start ridiculously early, 3 weeks early by Canadian standards, but still go just as long.

The summer seems to be flying by. Classes at Awesome College ended ridiculously late--3 weeks late by Canadian standards (why do American schools have longer semesters but Canadian schools still have smarter students?)--and then I spent several weeks preparing for the move from Middle-o-Nowhereville down to Big College Town, which went exceptionally well. Moving within the same country was so much easier than last summer's cross-border move! I had completely unpacked and was settled into my beautiful new (rental) condo within 48 hours of the moving van leaving, and then had another two weeks to get settled on campus and managed to mostly unpack my office.

Originally my plan for the 7 weeks of summer research time in the city was to write the hardest of the two new theory chapters for my book, but after only a couple days that goal got completely reevaluated. Just doing the readings, taking notes, and figuring out what I was going to say was more than enough to fill my plate. The research is going well, but I'm not even sure I can finish it all in the two weeks that I have left, especially since I now have to start shifting my attention towards finishing prepping my grad class for next semester. I've got 8 students--6 MA's and 2 PhD's--and although I've taught this class to 4th year undergrads, there is still quite a bit of beefing up to do along with articles to track down, photocopy, scan to pdf, and upload.

But it's sunny and beautiful outside today, this café is pretty happening, there are tons of people walking around the coolest neighbourhood of the city, and I've still got two weeks of festivals and fun with friends in front of me. La vie est belle, quoi!