Heading Home!

Well, we didn't keep the blog up perfectly, but now it's time to pull it down--at least for a year or so. The apartment is almost all in boxes now (except the kitchen), and we're getting ready to head to Myrtle Beach while I write my dissertation on the early American bank debates.



After the Minnesota time, we came back to Evanston after New Years for winter term. I had double teaching assignments, so it was an unusually busy term, TAing argumentation for Professor Zarefsky, and teaching my fourth semester of public speaking. I also risked one of the coldest and longest winters in Chicago's history, travelling down Lake Shore Drive once a week to take a class at the University of Chicago with Martha Nussbaum. Combined with a class here at Northwestern, I had a term full on Cicero's rhetoric.



During Spring Break Rachel and I had an EXCELLENT time with our friends from Belgium, Hendrik and Eileen. You can see them below on the El--one of our favorite photo spots--probably because it takes so long for us to get into the city.



Then in the spring there was a conference in Savannah, one in Eugene, Oregon, and one in Seattle. In between I was teaching my final semester of public speaking, taking a seminar on Abe Lincoln and taking a trip to his museum in Springfield, and catching two other seminars before I finished coursework. I also managed to take one exam during the term--the other two have to wait until later this summer.


Meanwhile, Rachel had a position reading and editing guest books for obituary site Legacy.com. By the end, they had put her on a few other jobs, like screening advertisements and pictures of puppies for sale--which helped pass the time! Rachel also cut her hair considerably shorter while I was on the conference to the Pacific Northwest--what a pleasant surprise! I think it looks great.


Our time in Evanston has been great. It's been fun to live in the snow since we don't have to shovel it, and the streets are cleaned often enough that driving is not too risky. If the winters were just shorter, they would be more tolerable! It took us until June to stop wearing coats, and then it was suddenly 85 degrees and sunny! We'll miss the cool summers here though, the beauty of the neighborhoods where we live, and the walking/biking lifestyle that kept me active. It helps to know that some of our other closest friends are leaving Evanston at the same time, and that I will be back for many conferences over the coming year to see my friends. Most of Rachel's friends from Loyola have scattered after graduation as well.