Well, almost. By week's end, I should have finished marking papers, submitted grades, packed the bags and started for Illinois. It's been an interesting experience and I am grateful that I had the opportunity. I am happy to announce that Edeline, the woman whose course I came here to oversee during her absence due to pregnancy complications, was safely delivered of a healthy boy. Charles William Trenton Sleigh arrived on May 19, weighing in at a hefty nine pounds, seven ounces. Baby and parents are doing fine.
There are some things I will miss. I think I have adjusted well to pub grub and the environs. I got the hang, more or less, of the richly varied accents of the students, staff and townsfolk. Still, I am ready to return to the homeland. By plane, of course, not by ship.
"Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said ..."
A few lines later the poet speaks of "whose heart hath ne'er within him burned." That may just be a lasting reminder of some of the pub grub.
Okay, that is an expression used by fox hunters to urge on the hounds. I am learning lots of totally useless bits of information during my Durham sojourn.
I haven't put anything up here because, well to be frank, nothing much has been happening worth reporting.
If Damien were here, though, he would probably want to attend a lecture this evening: "The coherence of being a Catholic-Buddhist? The question of dual-belonging theologically analysed" by someone from the University of Bristol. The topic interests me somewhat, but I don't know if I will attend. The main attraction, besides the fact that it is held at the Dun Cow Cottage in Dun Cow Lane (pictured), is that there are pre-seminar drinks. I don't imbibe, but it might be a chance to chat a bit with interesting folks. And there is certainly nothing on the telly. Not even a penguin, to reference Monty Python.
The class I am teaching -- or rather, that I am substitute teaching -- falls in the Easter term according to a usage traditional to the law courts and students which will finish up at the end of May. This is what we in the States might consider a sort of midterm in the actual academic schedule. We are in what they call the summer term, which runs from Easter until July. Fortunately my work will be done sooner, being something they call a module. I have enjoyed my time here, but I am looking forward to getting back to Damien, the cats and Barona. It will be pleasant to be able to make myself understood in English again.
