a busy season

It's hard to believe that it's really here: the hunt for a job offer. Before I came to graduate school, I dated a humanities PhD student who was on the academic job market for the first time. Needless to say, it left me somewhat traumatized and deeply anxious about my own future employment situation – starting 7 years ago. And now the time is here: I have several campus visits lined up. I'm polishing the talk, revamping the handout, editing the slides. I'm preparing my teaching demos, researching faculty interests, and starting to imagine myself here, there, or somewhere in between. Part of me wants to ask, how did this happen already? The other part of me reminds me: oh, about seven years of hard work (and I'm even getting the right husband out of it, too!).

I was feeling paralyzed and overwhelmed by it all last week. Too paralyzed even to blog about it. I'm not ready! I'm just a diversity candidate! They'll find out that I'm too young or not what they want or a total red-faced Asian when I drink! How on earth can I possibly the survive the scrutiny I will receive over the next six weeks? Then my dad reminded me, "It's just six weeks." That's right: six weeks. I can do this! It's just "a busy season," right? With all the travel, snatching of sleep, and frantic hand-washing, it will all be over before I know it. It's a little microcosm of this blog's subtitle: "seven campus visits. four performances of beethoven's 9th. one bridal shower. one job offer. six weeks. let's go!"

I'm off to my first school on Tuesday. Wish me luck!

Seattle snapshots

Most of my time in Seattle last weekend was occupied with sweating, pacing, and hand-wringing. But once the interviews were done, we had time to do a little sightseeing! It had been a long time since we'd taken a full day off just to explore a new place together, so it was especially enjoyable. Here are a few highlights:

The famous Pike Place Market – no fish were being (purchased or) thrown during our visit, though!

Delicious fishes

 D.J. and Ashley came downtown to eat dinner with us. Here we are in front of the very first Starbucks!

We had the opportunity to visit with relatives from my dad's side of the family: my dad's aunt and uncle, and cousin and her husband (and two rambunctious boys).

 Pioneer Square, very Pacific Northwest

 This is a picture from the "Underground Tour" of a section of downtown below the street level. Apparently, Seattle was originally built at sea level, which was a huge mistake because of the tides; after the city burned down in the 1890s, they backfilled the whole downtown area and built on top, leaving some areas below still accessible.

 Seattle Central Library (Rem Koolhaas, 2004)

 Olympic Sculpture Garden

And of course, the iconic Space Needle!

We wish we had had more time to get to know Seattle better. I guess we'll just have to go back! Next time, I want to go in the summer, when we can hike in the mountains and go on the water.

Save-the-dates

We are woefully behind on our wedding planning. It seems we've been preoccupied with other tasks! One big priority post-job-interviews has been getting out our Save-the-Dates. I love getting magnets or beautiful postcards to put on the refrigerator. But there is no time for that! The wedding is only 4.5 months away!

So I've been trying to design myself a nice image that we can email to our friends and family as we solicit their physical addresses for the formal invitation. I had originally envisioned a modern-looking graphic image that contained our names, but not our picture. But Dave (and everyone else I talked to) liked the picture idea, and they are so right! I won't post the official Save-the-Date here, but I did want to share the background image. It's one of our favorite pictures of us. This is a self-timed photo from northern Michigan in September 2011. The original colors were brighter (and more blue), but I gave it an old-timey wash – must be the pernicious influence of Instagram!

We had just finished a long drive up north and were eager to go for a walk along the shore while the sun was setting. Dave spotted the big driftwood, and the magical moment was captured! It's hard to look relaxed in posed pictures, and we like how this one has a more casual feel. I hope it gets people excited for the wedding!

post mortem

The annual meeting of my professional organization is over, and I can now happily report that I survived my interviews in one piece. Although it was probably the most stressful weekend of my graduate career, I feel relatively at peace about the whole experience. I made a lot of mistakes, but I also learned a great deal – about myself as a scholar and teacher, and about the field and career more generally.

Some things not to like about interviewing:

• walking into a room full of strangers whose identity and disposition were previously not established
• probing, openly doubtful questions about the value of the research you've spent years on
• strange or incomprehensible questions that may or may not sink your chances at getting a job
• waiting outside hotel rooms and bumping into the same candidates over and over again because you're all competing for the same jobs

Some things to like about interviewing:

• it's a great opportunity to inflict your ideas on unsuspecting scholars from all over the country
• a narcissist's dream: talking about oneself ALL DAY LONG
• the chance to see what different kinds of academics value about their colleagues and institutions – is the most important thing the freedom to grow into whatever kind of scholar you want? or to be surrounded by the smartest colleagues? or to have the brightest students? or to live in the most desirable (however you define it) location?

Everyone has been asking me, "How did it go?" But it's nearly impossible for the candidate to know. The friendly and kind committees will smile and nod, no matter how stupid your answer is; the challenging and pushy committees will frown and ask a follow-up question, no matter how brilliant your answer is. I experienced occasional brain-freeze, but usually had some sort of answer for the questions that came up. I still don't know whether those answers went over well, or not. But at least I enjoyed some memorable moments: the interview in which an older committee member asked one inscrutable question, and then promptly fell asleep on the table; the interview when I was asked about my methodology of early Aegean archaeology, and gave some answer in which I mumbled "Linear B" three times; the interview in which I was asked whether the approximately four Asians in the field had a secret "cool club," etc. etc.

2013

Ready for the new year? When I created this blog, I imagined that it would document a year of my life: May 2012-May 2013. I can't believe that more than half of that year is already over! When I look ahead to 2013, I see some "anchor events" that are inevitable: graduation, wedding, summer travel. But after August, I see a huge blank. Will Dave and I be professors at the same school? Will I be living far away from him for at least a year or two? Will I still be in Ann Arbor, continuing much the same life? I won't know for several more months, and the suspense is killing me! ;)

Dave and I were discussing our New Year's resolutions last night. Well, our lack of resolutions. We both feel that we have enough goals to accomplish this year as it is! I've got to get a job, or position myself to be even more competitive for next year's job market, in addition to planning the wedding and teaching. Dave has multiple grants to write and some big papers to push out, in addition to planning the wedding. Our lives right now are so focused on preparing for the future, which requires sacrifice in the present. If there's one thing I'd like to resolve, it's to "stop and smell the roses" whenever possible. I don't think that has to mean that I take a lot of time off work to go for long walks by the river. But I want to be able to savor the small moments along the way!