Finished marking!

Hooray, I've just finished my marking and it's only 18.22 on Friday. Not bad! It has been a bit of a hectic week, reading through all the reports. Some good, some not so good, as always. I'm off to lead a drama workshop at church tonight for the youth group so I'm hanging around uni until then. What better way to spend my time than write a blog post?

Despite the marking madness, last night we found time to get into the Christmas spirit and wrapped all our presents. My concern is that we will get back from Seattle and find that Christmas is upon us. So, in a sharp break from usual, I am hoping to get organised early. D even let me listen to Cliff's Saviour's Day. Ah, Christmas tunes!

And so we are getting ready to head off Stateside. For those of you who haven't quite caught up with why the Wardens are trekking over the Atlantic next week, here is the low down. I am speaking at the American Society for Theatre Research Conference in Seattle. It is one of the biggest humanities conferences in the calendar. I am participating in a working group. These don't really exist in British conference but sound much more pleasant than the British idea of just standing up and presenting. I've been in contact with a couple of other guys who are working in a similar field and we've shared a few weeks of fruitful email chat.

We are staying with the family of a friend of mine who is also attending the conference so we get to stay with a wonderful American family rather than camp out in a soulless hotel room. Now, D is coming too (a ten hour flight without D would be very lonely) but he is heading up to Vancouver for a few days so his photos might be slightly more exciting then mine! We'll be back the day before my birthday (yes, that is a hint and yes, it is a big one -boo!) and then it will be straight back into teaching. Phew! I can't wait to spend a week thinking only about my research. I'm leaving teaching behind for a short time and reassessing my research profile while making some contacts and getting a feel for American academia. Sweet!

Sorry if that was dull but it might have been of interest to someone :-)

This weekend we are taking a lovely couple out for lunch and then spending the rest of the time tidying, packing and doing some last minute shopping. The weather has finally calmed down a bit (goodness, the wind! Try living in a draughty flat on the third floor!) and I have started to think about my American capsule wardrobe. What to take, what to take...

Anyways, I'll try and post some more thoughts tomorrow. I haven't even had chance to reflect on last week's conference yet!

Enjoy the evening. I'm off to play silly games with the youth group. Brilliant!
CSW