Author: sundialgirl

  • Summer Break

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    sundialgirl
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    I realize that this is the first time in ten years of teaching that I’ve had a summer break. I think most folks assume that teachers have a summer “break” since some of us don’t teach (at least those who don’t have mid-year classes to teach) but really, there’s a lot to do during summer.…

  • It’s Another Year Of…

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    sundialgirl
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    I actually wanted to write an end-of-the-year post around December 2021, but it was winter break and I was regularly raging against the snow (very pretty for the first ten minutes, and then ongoing misery for the next three months) and the world continues to fall apart at the seams, and so my brain simply…

  • FAQs Asked to the New Grad Student Who Moved Halfway Across the World

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    sundialgirl
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    After being in Pittsburgh for a couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that every day feels like a press conference: you will always be answering questions. Sometimes, the questions are coming from a place of care and concern. Other times, the questions are there because the other person really doesn’t know what to say. Having been…

  • Pressing the Big Red Button

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    sundialgirl
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    In the first Christmas special of the rebooted Doctor Who in 2005/2006 (I can’t quite remember when it was first broadcast), David Tennant — playing the freshly-regenerated Tenth Doctor for the first time in his pajamas and robe and with his hair all sticking up — talks about a big red button. Granted, he was…

  • A Difficult Year

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    sundialgirl
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    (+) I’d like to think every generation has their own struggles, their own history-defining moment where, collectively, a particular memory is generated and imprinted upon those who survived through that event, only to be forgotten, then misremembered, and then forgotten again. I always though 9/11 was that defining moment for my generation. It turns out…

  • Lockdown, Week 2

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    sundialgirl
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    Hours Bleed Into Days I wake up at noon, or just after one o’clock in the afternoon. Husband has already made lunch (usually leftovers from the previous night’s dinner). We do chores – washing the dishes, cleaning the floor, doing the laundry. We don’t have a washing machine, so we decided to just cycle five…

  • Lockdown, Week 1

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    sundialgirl
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    We went to the office. I had a meeting. We heard about a possibility that there were cases on the rise, chatter on social media. Might be a quarantine. We decided to stock up on some basic grocery items at the nearby mall. The queues were already long, but it was okay. We didn’t want…

  • 2009 vs. 2019

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    sundialgirl
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    I didn’t plan these photos, but it seems apt to pull a 2009 photo from when I was living in Singapore, and a 2019 photo from when I visited Singapore earlier this year for a conference. I was 25 years old when the first photo was taken, and obviously after ten years, I think I…

  • The Road to Ph.D: Starting from Scratch

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    sundialgirl
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    To be quite honest, if I didn’t need it for work, I probably wouldn’t be doing this in the first place. But well, here I am, finally pulling the trigger (so to speak) and taking the first concrete steps in applying for a doctorate degree. Sounds so pretentious, right? But I also recognize that, given…