Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Sabbatical

For this semester, I am on sabbatical: a whole six months for research, during which I don't have to teach.

I had the option of asking for one year rather than six months, and I also had (and still have) the option of asking for an extension of six months or one year (which I might or might not get), but for a lot of reasons, I decided to just ask for six months.

One is that I kind of want to be around at SILS (the School of International Liberal Studies) during the final semester for our first graduating class. Another is that I had promised to work on an on-going fall semester project. But the biggest reason is that probably because I was worried that if I took one year or more, I might waste too much of my time. With only six months, I really have to get to work, don't I? And if I take six months instead of one year, I will theoretically be eligible for another sabbatical much sooner. (Of course, how soon I get to have another depends on who is on the committee to decide that when I apply next time...)

In the first few weeks, I have just been been trying to get my wrk schedule figured out. In the past, it has always been true that I can't get any work done in the mornings, and that still seems to be true. For the first few weeks, I was feeling bad about goofing around or sleeping in the morning, but now I have just decided to give in, and just plan to work in the afternoon and evenings. But that means that I need to eat less for dinner (I don't work well on a full stomach) and not drink alcohol with dinner... Or else just do the dinner preperations early and eat late, and work in between. That might be the best plan of all.

Why am I even making dinner at all? That is one of the joys of being on sabbatical, I think! WHen I am working, Masashi and I don't get to eat together enough, and we also eat out a lot. I really enjoy cooking when I have time.

During this sabbatical, I am working on two main projects, and a lot of little ones. But maybe I'll save that for another post.

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