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Note #153: Year of the Snake (2025.1.31)
We are on the other side of the (lunar) new year holiday now and officially into the Year of the Snake. So, once again: Happy New Year!
We also happen to be on the cusp of February, which means that preparations for the upcoming semester will now begin in earnest. The academic year here doesn’t begin until the first of March (technically speaking—the first is a national holiday, so classes actually begin on the first weekday after this), so it might seem like I still have a while left, but the calendar has a way of filling up with meetings and other such obligations in February, so the time ends up flying by.
February is going to be even more of a transitional period this year because I was on sabbatical last semester; I haven’t been in a classroom teaching students since last June. Part of me is a little sad to see this period of relative peace come to an end, but I think the greater part of me is looking forward to getting back into the classroom. I didn’t go anywhere for my sabbatical semester, which meant I spent my time working in my study at home. I had to make sure to take time during the day to go out for walks just so I wouldn’t get cabin fever, but it still began to wear on me after a while. So as soon as January rolled around, I started heading out to my office again. One colleague of mine commented on me already being back at school even though I technically still had two months of sabbatical left, but the truth is that I couldn’t wait to get back out.
I still have a lot to do in the remaining month before the new semester—an ongoing book project, a journal paper for a special issue, and of course class prep, among other things—but I’m trying to take things one step at a time. It will be a little bit of a readjustment to start teaching again, but I imagine I will slip back into things fairly easily. I would like to say that I hope to post here more often once things get rolling again, but I’ve learned the foolishness of making such pronouncements. We’ll just have to see what the Year of the Snake has in store.