So a little more on the topic of uniforms. As Stacy noted, one of the appealing things about corporate America is the de facto uniform of a business suit. I have envied the uniformed professionals -- nurses with their scrubs, park rangers, cops, EMTs, firefighters, flight attendants -- for their uniformed work lives. I should clarify that I don't really envy our military men and women though, I find camo kind of creepy looking, and no uniform could make going to war an appealing work option to me. When we were looking at Singapore as a possible home next year, one thing that was very appealing to me was the uniformed librarians. I thought this phenomenon was unique to Asia as Chinese librarians also have uniforms in some cities, however a little research uncovered the following bizarre but delightful video of a librarian fashion show.
Apparently the library in Amsterdam decided to uniform their crew in these rather hilarious Euro-modern styles. I also find the "models" pretty amusing as they look nothing like the baby boomers that make up the majority of the library workforce in the States. Somehow I think this library couture would not translate well in America. I would happily wear these outfits to work though. I might be really tempted to occasionally exclaim "now is the time on Sprockets when we dance" as these seem Dieter-esque to me.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Dress codes
With an impending move to an as yet undetermined location, the hunt for a school for Cora has been a bit complicated to say the least. Luckily we have an acceptance to a school in College Park in case we head back to Maryland, but trying to figure out the school situation in South Africa has been a bit more confusing. We found a very good boarding school in Grahamstown that takes day students as well and they have written me to say they would have space for her, though negotiating the differences between the US and S.A. education systems looks a bit tricky . I've been poring over the information on their website trying to get my bearings.
I grew up in uniform. I know the sentiment isn't shared by all of my Catholic school compatriots, but I loved uniforms. It was so nice to be able to wake up every morning and never have to think about what I was going to wear. In uniform you are always in style regardless of how much money you have because everyone is wearing the same thing as you. I love fashion and am somewhat addicted to browsing through fashion week photos and the RTW collections of some of the designers I like, but life is so much harder when you have to worry about what you'll wear everyday. Also, the uniform made non-uniform clothes feel a lot more special. Uniforms also keep kids looking like kids a lot longer, at least 5 days of the week. I don't think I ever got over the disturbing nature of interviewing 8 year olds at public schools in Tucson who were wearing skin tight jeans with words like "Flirt" appliqued on the back pockets to match their "Diva" navel exposing baby tees. I imagine it would be hard to be the kid whose mother won't let you wear clubwear and Hannah Montana clothes to school. Uniforms remove that bit of peer pressure during the school day at least.
We have applied to 2 Catholic schools in Maryland. Trying to decide between them will be difficult if we end up moving there and needing to make the decision. If I'm going to be honest, I have to confess I am drawn to the one school almost solely due to the stricter (read that as more plaid) dress code. I realize that is a really stupid reason to pick a school so I am trying to compartmentalize that feeling as we make a decision.
Cora seems pretty easygoing about the whole school choice. I'm not sure if this is due to her really wonderful experience at Montessori Habitat making her feel positive about school in general or just her temperament. Either way I think it is lucky we have a flexible kid since our plans for the next several years are so up in the air.
Currently she is pretty excited about the idea of South Africa due to the pictures of wildlife, and the school being separated into houses and having interhouse competitions -- like Harry Potter. I think she understands that there is no magical hat determining what house you are sorted into, but she likes the idea of it nonetheless.
It is a really nice informative website with lovely pictures. My favorite is this lovely picture of two girls in uniform. The uniforms are charmingly hideous. They look like they are from another time. I'm kind of in love with them. I find them about a million times more appealing than the current mode du jour at US schools. Here they are -- picture 1 is South Africa, picture 2 is typical American public school wear.
I grew up in uniform. I know the sentiment isn't shared by all of my Catholic school compatriots, but I loved uniforms. It was so nice to be able to wake up every morning and never have to think about what I was going to wear. In uniform you are always in style regardless of how much money you have because everyone is wearing the same thing as you. I love fashion and am somewhat addicted to browsing through fashion week photos and the RTW collections of some of the designers I like, but life is so much harder when you have to worry about what you'll wear everyday. Also, the uniform made non-uniform clothes feel a lot more special. Uniforms also keep kids looking like kids a lot longer, at least 5 days of the week. I don't think I ever got over the disturbing nature of interviewing 8 year olds at public schools in Tucson who were wearing skin tight jeans with words like "Flirt" appliqued on the back pockets to match their "Diva" navel exposing baby tees. I imagine it would be hard to be the kid whose mother won't let you wear clubwear and Hannah Montana clothes to school. Uniforms remove that bit of peer pressure during the school day at least.
We have applied to 2 Catholic schools in Maryland. Trying to decide between them will be difficult if we end up moving there and needing to make the decision. If I'm going to be honest, I have to confess I am drawn to the one school almost solely due to the stricter (read that as more plaid) dress code. I realize that is a really stupid reason to pick a school so I am trying to compartmentalize that feeling as we make a decision.
Cora seems pretty easygoing about the whole school choice. I'm not sure if this is due to her really wonderful experience at Montessori Habitat making her feel positive about school in general or just her temperament. Either way I think it is lucky we have a flexible kid since our plans for the next several years are so up in the air.
Currently she is pretty excited about the idea of South Africa due to the pictures of wildlife, and the school being separated into houses and having interhouse competitions -- like Harry Potter. I think she understands that there is no magical hat determining what house you are sorted into, but she likes the idea of it nonetheless.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
No party for poor Cora
Poor Cora managed to get sick a couple of days before her birthday party and did not recover in time to host her friends. She felt too bad to really care much yesterday, but she was pretty sad today when we picked up her birthday cake (too late to cancel the order) and had no one to share it with.
As you can see, Cora went with a Harry Potter cake. The picture was a photo sprayed with dye on some sort of sugary paper. The picture was not particularly tasty, but the cake was good.
Daphne also tried a bit of cake. Very little reached her mouth, she mostly relished in smashing it with the bowl.
We had to put Cora's candles on a tiny piece of cake so she wouldn't germ up the whole cake by blowing them out.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Initial trepidations
So I am joining the blogosphere. I don't know how frequently I'll post, but I thought starting a blog now was a good idea for a couple of reasons, namely:
1) we do not know where we will land next year but it may be on another continent and this seems like a decent way of keeping up with people
2) being the wife of an academic in the current job market is more than a little stressful and likely to get more so with the economy as it is and this seemed like a decent place for my fellow academe spouses to commiserate/vent/speculate/sympathize
Not sure how to kick this sucker off, but laying out the current situation seems as good a start as any. Currently Scott has a tenure track offer at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He has a job talk at CASL (University of Maryland affiliated) in 2 weeks. He has funding for 1 more year of a post-doc here at UIUC as well. He's short-listed for a TT in Konstanz, Germany, but they won't pick until summer. A few other applications are still up in the air but it seems like these are going to be the major players in the decision making.
The South Africa job is both really intriguing and somewhat terrifying. It is very remote, which makes it much safer than someplace like Joburg or Cape Town, but also means it would take 2 full days to get to from the States. There is a very good prep school there for the girls, but it is the South African system which may make coming back to the States hard for them educationally if that was to happen. We have not gotten the package offer from HR yet but we are anticipating the salary will be very low by US standards. That wouldn't be a problem as the cost of living is quite low in South Africa, but the cost of travel back to the States would then be prohibitively expensive and we'd likely only get back once a year tops and it would be very hard for family to come to us. South Africa appears to be at a tipping point right now as far as the future goes and it is really hard to predict where the country is going long-term. If they survive the current growing pains it could be a very exciting place to be permanently. It also seems equally possible that the current instability there could get much worse and things could go the way of Zimbabwe. Hard to know. There is rampant poverty, an AIDS epidemic, residual systemic economic and educational disparities by race, and pretty rampant crime. Those things are all pretty big negatives. However, Grahamstown is fairly isolated from the violent crime and the other problems seem to present really compelling opportunities for us to really engage in humanitarian work as a family. I think making service as a family a priority would be a wonderful thing for all of us long term.
So that is where we are now. We did hear that Cora was admitted to Holy Redeemer in College Park, so at least we have that school option lined up if CASL makes an offer. For now we're in limbo, but being a compulsive planner I'm trying to wrap my head around all the options and have plans lined up for how we respond to any combination of circumstances that pan out. In no way would we have guessed that these would have been the options we were considering if you had asked a few years ago, but a bad economy makes for tough choices. Any feedback or thoughts on the whole process would be welcome. Next year looks to be exciting wherever we end up and at this point I feel lucky to have the security of a guaranteed paycheck come summer. That puts us in better shape than many and I am acutely aware of that.
1) we do not know where we will land next year but it may be on another continent and this seems like a decent way of keeping up with people
2) being the wife of an academic in the current job market is more than a little stressful and likely to get more so with the economy as it is and this seemed like a decent place for my fellow academe spouses to commiserate/vent/speculate/sympathize
Not sure how to kick this sucker off, but laying out the current situation seems as good a start as any. Currently Scott has a tenure track offer at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He has a job talk at CASL (University of Maryland affiliated) in 2 weeks. He has funding for 1 more year of a post-doc here at UIUC as well. He's short-listed for a TT in Konstanz, Germany, but they won't pick until summer. A few other applications are still up in the air but it seems like these are going to be the major players in the decision making.
The South Africa job is both really intriguing and somewhat terrifying. It is very remote, which makes it much safer than someplace like Joburg or Cape Town, but also means it would take 2 full days to get to from the States. There is a very good prep school there for the girls, but it is the South African system which may make coming back to the States hard for them educationally if that was to happen. We have not gotten the package offer from HR yet but we are anticipating the salary will be very low by US standards. That wouldn't be a problem as the cost of living is quite low in South Africa, but the cost of travel back to the States would then be prohibitively expensive and we'd likely only get back once a year tops and it would be very hard for family to come to us. South Africa appears to be at a tipping point right now as far as the future goes and it is really hard to predict where the country is going long-term. If they survive the current growing pains it could be a very exciting place to be permanently. It also seems equally possible that the current instability there could get much worse and things could go the way of Zimbabwe. Hard to know. There is rampant poverty, an AIDS epidemic, residual systemic economic and educational disparities by race, and pretty rampant crime. Those things are all pretty big negatives. However, Grahamstown is fairly isolated from the violent crime and the other problems seem to present really compelling opportunities for us to really engage in humanitarian work as a family. I think making service as a family a priority would be a wonderful thing for all of us long term.
So that is where we are now. We did hear that Cora was admitted to Holy Redeemer in College Park, so at least we have that school option lined up if CASL makes an offer. For now we're in limbo, but being a compulsive planner I'm trying to wrap my head around all the options and have plans lined up for how we respond to any combination of circumstances that pan out. In no way would we have guessed that these would have been the options we were considering if you had asked a few years ago, but a bad economy makes for tough choices. Any feedback or thoughts on the whole process would be welcome. Next year looks to be exciting wherever we end up and at this point I feel lucky to have the security of a guaranteed paycheck come summer. That puts us in better shape than many and I am acutely aware of that.
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