• I’m back in Turkey, currently in Ankara and soon in Antep, after an extremely eventful two months.
• My rate of posting in this blog shows no sign of changing.
• However! I hope that this year will feature a more even balance between my teaching and my research, my work here in Turkey and my other projects.

To that end, you can probably expect, on the rare occasions that this blog sees any content, to see some content related to my research, to classics in general, to digital humanities, and to almost anything that crosses my mind– rather than the strict (and relatively empty) log of Turkish experiences that it’s been so far.

And more photos, hopefully, too.

Merry Christmas, everyone, however you observe it.

Yep, it’s pretty empty. Yep, there’s more in the works. Nope, it’s not here now. Yep, there’s a longer version of the talk. Nope, it’s not here now.

Good to know, right?

But first, bullet points:
• I’m working with struggling rising ninth graders (and current ninth graders) for Americorps; it’s tiring. Not to mention that “struggling rising ninth graders” makes it sound like we’re drowning them and they’re resisting.
• Departure date for Turkey is somewhat up in the air, but will occur in mid or late September.
• Grad school planning is happening in a surprisingly serious fashion.
• I am occupied variously with reading things in English, reading things in Greek, computer projects, academic projects, cooking, and reading for fun.

Bullets: shot.

• Found out I’ll be moving to Turkey in September
• Finished a Reed College thesis
• Graduated
• Found a summer job

All of which, naturally, mean some changes for how I’m living (and how this blog is going). Right now, though, it’s summer, and I’m funemployed (as they say) until mid-June. An excellent time to finish putting this website together, and start blogging here on a regular basis.

That is, if I can manage to drag myself inside and onto the computer. Portland is a gorgeous place in the summertime: perfect 70-80 degree temperatures and cloudless skies almost every day, with low humidity and pleasant breezes. I spent most of yesterday and today outside, finally starting to get a vegetable garden together. I’ve never had great success as a gardener: growing up, I wasn’t interested, despite or because of my mother’s very serious flower and vegetable gardening. At my last house, the garden mostly died in the middle of the summer as we all became distracted with other projects. Only the cherry tomatoes and an enormous, grasping, mutant squash plant really took off.

I’ve been anticipating trying again at a garden for most of the last year, though, especially during the last few months. My neighbors started preparing their garden beds and getting early plant starts in. I spent my time (including not a few perfect 75-degree days) in the library, frantically editing my thesis. This weekend is the first time I’ve been able to spend all outside, now that I’m done with academic work, graduated, and soon-to-be-employed. So I’ve spent the time as productively as I could: yesterday I cleared a bed of everything but a number of serendipitous strawberry plants, and today I mulched those with straw, turned the communal apartment complex compost pile, dug some compost into the bed cleared yesterday, and turned and cleared of grass my main allotted vegetable plot (about 6 x 12 ft). I’m exhausted, dirty, and got a little too much sun. It’s great. I needed to start balancing out a whole year spent inside.

I’m hoping this summer will be a good mix of pursuits outside and inside, things done with my hands and things done with my brain. And when things come up in the garden, I’ll make sure they come up here in the blog, too.

I’ve been finding it hard to start writing in this new, public space.  It requires– and, I think, will eventually produce in me– a somewhat different writing voice from the one I use in my private blogging, in writing to myself, or in “real” work.  Here at the outset, I’m tempted to write a windy, self-important post (like this one!) to introduce everything. Luckily, I can resist the urge. So:

Hi! Welcome! We’ll see what happens, but the plan is to fill it with public writing, photos, and nonsense of all kinds. Here goes.