campus

Find your blessings and then leverage them!

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Yes, I live in a sort of self-imposed exile. No, I do not live in political exile like some of my friends. I do not live in economic or some other sort of exile; mine is occupational. I cannot do the work I do here at home. On top of that, it is no secret that for me, South Florida has very few redeeming qualities. So I could live a bitter and resentful life. However, I try to find the positive and leverage it.

One of the many blessings I enjoy every day is walking from my office, across campus to the refectory, where I make myself a coffee with steamed milk in a professional espresso machine (and grab a cookie to dunk). We have a 73-acre campus which used to be an emergency landing strip for WWII pilots learning to fly out of what is now Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

About in the middle of our campus is a lake with a fountain, plenty of fish, and a wonderful path around it! So every morning I walk along the lake, and it is beautiful! Every day is different, cloudy, bright, rainy (this is Florida after all). There are all sorts of wildlife: birds, squirrels, and, if you are lucky, turtles!!

That walk is my first meditation of the day; it is a walk of thanksgiving, of gratitude, of joy, it is splendid!

So, while I could be doing that walk moaning and complaining that I am not home, I choose to enjoy that walk and thank God. I invite you to find your blessings and leverage them. You are welcome.

Lake collage

On the importance of academia, presenting at conferences, a return to UNC Chapel Hill

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Yes, there are a lot of problems with academia, the ivory tower and all that. But at its core, it is still important, necessary, even critical I would say.

It has to do with research, discovery and then sharing that information. I was blessed to be able to participate at this year’s Carolina Conference for Romance Studies, It was great! I had some issues getting to Chapel Hill (but that merits its own post).

Living in 2 season Florida (dry, warm, and wet, and humid) it was fantastic to feel Spring, cool in the morning and evening and warm during the day. I was grateful for Spring! Plus everything was blooming and it was just so beautiful!

My panel was fantastic, well attended, and with great questions. I presented on a little-known 18th C. Spanish book: Los aldeanos críticos. My colleague presented on Galdós, so it was exciting. Other panels I attended were brilliant. During drinks that evening, I had great conversations about Zola with an old classmate and Posthumanism with the conference’s keynote speaker (expect a post on that also).

I also managed to see old professors and friends, even to sneak into the Ackland museum and bask in Carducho, Picasso, and all the other artists, to visit old hangouts; YoPo for frozen yogurt, and Zogs for drinks!

So my mission was accomplished, I was incredibly happy and satisfied with it!

European School of Economics

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The European School of Economics is a great little university. I had the privilege of teaching in their Madrid campus for two years from 2018 through 2020. Elio D’Anna, a visionary Italian founded the university with my kind of philosophy, that the student should actively own their learning process, which makes total sense, but it is not how most universities operate.

As I said, D’Anna is Italian, but the university is accredited in England, with campuses (campii?) in London, Milan, Rome, Florence, and Madrid. Students can rotate through the different cities during their studies.

Even more than the philosophy, I loved the small classes, which allowed me to tailor fit the program for my students. Most times, classes were small enough for us to meet at a local coffee shop. Outside of the sterile classroom walls, in a relaxed environment, students become more engaged and participative, and I would even wager better thinkers!

During my time there I taught all levels of Spanish. The students were actively interested in learning and inquisitive, they really engaged, which added to the immersion factor, meant that their Spanish really took off during their time in Madrid.

The school is really international, I had students from South Africa, Egypt, Botswana, all over Europe, Latin America, Japan, and of course local madrileños. The school has now moved to the quiet Retiro neighborhood, but when I taught there, it was in bustling Alonso Martinez Square!

For the beginning of my second year at ESE, I organized a tour/team building activity around Madrid. We organized different activities at the different stops of the tour. We all had a lot of fun and the students bonded and got to know each other!

Sure, a small university obviously has some drawbacks, but at the European School of Economics, the advantages far outweigh any other considerations, I loved my time there and would recommend it to anyone thinking of studying business in Europe!

Libraries (continued)

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I have the privilege of working on a beautiful campus. There is a pond smack in the middle, there are a couple of gazebos for meditating, there is a beautiful chapel (arguably the most beautiful building in Boynton Beach), there is even a tree swing! There is also a beautiful library. It is not a massive library, it is rather quaint by university standards but still, it is a lovely library.

This is where it gets interesting: In order to get to my office, you have to go through or around the library, through is the much faster route.

So not only do I walk by the periodicals section where I can -at a glance- look at the new magazines coming in, then I lower my blood pressure by walking through the peaceful, quiet stacks, and right before getting to my office, there is a shelf with free books that the library no longer wants. This is my perdition.

I wrote about libraries and bookstores recently (ok, a year and a half is recently for dinosaurs like me), but that was before I had to work next to the goodie room that is the “Free books” shelves outside my office!

Over the months I have collected many varied books. My most recent find – and the detonator for this blog – was a first edition 1944 Divine Comedy with drawings by William Blake. Last year a retired history professor went into an assisted living facility, and he donated his whole library! It was chock-full of great books of which I got a good number of. And since my office is next door to these books, I always have first choice. In fact, sometimes I have even help the librarian stack the free books as he rolls them out!