Surviving...

I’ve spent most of this week concentrating on constructing my new life here in St. Louis, and at Saint Louis University. I’m used to a much smaller campus…one that serves some 600 or so, and not over 10,000, as is the case here. Obviously, there are major differences living the life of a big campus, all of which have their plusses and minuses. For example, greater anonymity: plus: far less danger of running into people you know (and who might need something) when you’re walking to class or, more importantly, leaving for lunch; minus: it’s rather overwhelming not to see familiar faces (and rather daunting when you see a student who seems to know lots of people – which makes me feel awed, and at the same time unsettled, by the possibility of popularity in such a big pond).
Another difference is having my own office!! I feel like I’ve grown up and found a proper job!! Plus: I can concentrate – there are spookily few interruptions. Minus: I can feel somewhat isolated…and students have said that they find it somewhat intimidating to enter a prof’s private retreat (meaning even fewer visits). I guess I need to learn the art and etiquette of arranging to meet for coffee or lunch or a beer after work. Yet another difference is just the sheer size of everything – the longish walk from the parking garage or the shuttle bus drop-off to the department, the huge gym, a library you can, and I did, get lost in. It’s meant this week that I’ve kept pretty much to a routine pathway, not looking up and around yet at what is not connected to the initial basics of my campus life.

But I am starting to lift my head. I made it to the instructional resource center yesterday, and managed to scan something into a pdf file, with the aid of a very helpful student worker named Michael, who is actually going to study at the Madrid campus next semester. I also made it on Thursday to the Scottish Arms with a good-sized group from the English Department (and beyond) to celebrate the publication of Elisabeth Heard’s new book. I was sorry to cut that short, as the chips and salsa were substantial and nourishing, and even more so the conversation, but I had arranged to meet Diana and some of her friends to go out for a Vietnamese meal.

Ok, so that’s the other part of my life…being Diana’s mom. We are getting along quite well…she’s even taken to going to the gym. She helps me to navigate all of the machines available in that cavernous place. And dinner with her and her friends was quite enjoyable. At the restaurant, I ran into a former SLU student, Colin Hobart, who I hadn’t seen in about 5 years. Maybe St. Louis isn’t such a big city after all.

Though it certainly offers some big city stuff – another highlight of the week was attending the Maya Lin “Systematic Landscapes” opening at the Contemporary Art Museum. Her works of art recontextualize landscapes through different materials (including miniature canyons cut out of atlases, mountain ranges sculpted out of a series of particle boards, the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers outlined by thousands of pins)…causing me to muse about my own recontextualization. I’m still working on creating my life here…a work I trust will be in continual flux and flow, and full of more surprises and unexpected finds.