Monday, April 27, 2009
London
So, it dawned--faster than I could ever have imagined--my last two classes at NYU-London. And with that, the academic year has come to an end, for me at least. Since I only teach on Mondays, I am done for the year as next Monday is a Bank Holiday and I am off work. My colleagues will keep teaching all of next week, but for me, I collected some more essays to grade over the next few days and closed shop. Though I was really sorry to say goodbye to my students, I took consolation in the fact that I will see several of them next academic year (i.e. in September) in New York as they have signed up for my course on South Asian Studies. So it was Au Revoir, not Goodbye.
It occurs to me that I have to start to clear out my office and ship back my books and files home to Connecticut--so I guess this is really the beginning of the end of my stint in London. Despite the fact that I will remain in the UK at least until the end of July, my teaching responsibilities have come to a close and I can now focus on my research and writing. I am still looking for Anglo-Indians to interview with the aim of completing at least 50 interview. With 30 of them done, I am hoping that the months of May, June and July will provide me with 20 more interviews. Fingers crossed.
Right after my classes, I had a short meeting with Yvonne to sort out my utility bills and then I hurried straight to our faculty meeting--another last one--the last one of the semester and academic year. It is always preceded by a light dinner--which, I realize in the UK usually means tea sandwiches and tray bakes for dessert. Since I am still on my low-carb lunch (I had a scotch egg and a cup of soup for lunch), I took the fillings out of a few of the sandwiches and ate them for dinner with a Diet Coke.
This last meeting gave me the opportunity to speak on behalf of my colleague Karen and thank the Director of our program here David as well as the administrative staff and my faculty colleagues for all the support they provided us over the past two semesters. It has been an unforgettable professional opportunity and I know that this year will remain forever etched in my memory as one of the happiest I have ever known. I am aware of the fact that in another three months, this entire year will seem like a dream to me as I get caught up in the routine of my regular domestic life in Connecticut and my professional life in New York. But for the moment, I am trying hard to live entirely in the moment and savor each second.
A few of my colleagues actually came up to say goodbye and wish me well and said they hoped they would see me back in London sometime. Then, I said my own goodbyes all around and hurried off home, went straight to my 'larder' (M&S Simply Food) and bought a few items (eggs, bacon, sausages, chicken) as I need to cook for this week. This low-carb diet means that I am pretty restricted in what I can eat and I need to cook more than I have done in all these months.
Then, I did something I have been putting off so too long--the reconciliation of my accounts and the filing of all my credit card slips for almost two months. This took me an hour (as I had expected it would) and left me only with enough time to find out, using Journey Planner, how to get by bus tomorrow to Norwood Junction where I shall be meeting some more Anglo-Indians.
Being too tired to do anything more productive, I read a little bit of The Order of the Phoenix and went straight to bed.
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