Oh, I LOVE this time of year. May has always been my favourite month. More than anything, it's the trees...this first week of May, everything is in a light green, fuzzy phase. There's a pale halo of colour around each tree. It's gorgeous.
Also, I feel happy because all of a sudden, the move to Scary City seems about a thousand times less distressing. I sent an email to a contact I'd been given - another academic, who works at another institution in the city, as does his partner. He's an old, old friend of ex-GF's best friend, RockStar (who really is one) - and ex-GF has known him for a million years as well. RockStar had emphatically urged me to contact him, saying he was just about the greatest. So I sent him a little introducory email the other night, saying I was coming and would love to meet him and his partner, etc., etc. I got back the loveliest note, so entirely enthusiastic about my coming and about the fact that there is overlap in our research interests. It reads, in part:
"There's so much we'd both love to talk with you about. We have a couple of good friends up at Uni (mostly in English) and so can introduce you, when you arrive, to some fine souls.
[...]
We've found the town very much not Home City in terms of diversity etc. but also have found some pockets of weirdos and radicals that are very inspiring. I'm on the Board of a kick ass art gallery (Gallery Name), for instance, and Partner and I are a part of a Radical Pedagogy group... plus there's some okay activist stuff going on, and there are tons of writers around."
I cannot tell you how much better this makes me feel. I feel as if they will be such kindred spirits. And this is giving me the elusive proof I needed that there is something else in Scary City, different from all the things that horrified me about it. Also, dudes, I was thinking of starting some kind of radical pedagogy group. And it's already there, and they're in it! How fabulous is that?!
He also put me onto a very useful resource for apartment-hunting, one that I hadn't yet seen and that looks really promising.
Hooray for friendly new people who will help open the right doors for me in Scary City and hopefully make it much less Scary!
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3 comments:
Hooray, indeed!
Fan-frickin'-tastic! I'm glad you got in touch with them and that there's pockets of fun people to jump into! (that sounded vaguely raunchy...)
Also, I love the fuzzy phase image you mention - I totally looked out the window today and thought, "What the deuce! There's little green leafies all over everything!!" I don't think they were there last night...
Oh what good news! What a relief to know that there are kindred souls whom you'll meet soon upon arrival, and there will no doubt be other kindred souls to whom they'll introduce you. How emotionally uplifting to know this as you go through this summer pre-move.
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