The Last Weekend of (My) Summer

My own personal O-week continues, more overwhelming than it has been orienting. Thus the lack of posts here. So I apologize if I've left you all hanging. I fear that less frequent posts may be necessary, since I'm not sure you're dying to read about how many pages I have to read every night and which paper assignments are looming on the horizon.

I do know that one comfort I feel is related to the teaching aspect of my program. Even though I don't think any teacher ever gets to walk into a classroom on the first day (or any day) of class without butterflies in his or her stomach, at least I can walk in there knowing it's not my first time. I've heard a couple little squeaks of fear from a few other first-year grad students as they visualize a room full of eager undergraduates, zeroing on "the teacher." That's old hat for me, right? The only differences are that these kids actually care about getting an education; this is college, not high school; and, oh yeah, I'll be teaching in a different language. I mean I'm practically an old pro, right?

I promise to dispense with this self-pity soon. Oh, who am I kidding? I can make no such promise. But I do promise to enjoy this weekend as much as possible, carousing around till all hours before I make the full transformation into haggard graduate student come Monday morning. Ce sont les derniers jours de ma liberté, n'est-ce pas?