Tuesday, September 29, 2009

First of many...

Yesterday morning Tony taught what will most likely (and hopefully!) be the first of many classes in his philosophy career. With undergraduate classes now underway here, Tony's responsibilities for the fellowship he received from the department have kicked into high gear. This year he will be doing 6 hours of "tutoring" per week, which is similar to being a teaching assistant in the US. This semester he is working with undergraduate students from a huge (500+ students) intro level philosophy course. Since the lecture class is so big, they break the students up into small groups of 14 students for a one hour seminar where they discuss the class material and get more personalized teaching from PhD students. Tony is really looking forward to the semester and the opportunity to work with these students over the course of the semester.

In other news, summer has officially bid us farewell here in Edinburgh as the days are now noticeably shorter and the infamous Edinburgh wind has returned. I don't really understand how wind can be a seasonal thing - I would have thought it to be a geographical one that wouldn't change with the seasons. But unless the past 4 months of still air were a fluke, the wind does seem to be seasonal here - and it's back!! This also means that even my best efforts to keep my hair in a presentable state before walking to work, church, etc. are now futile.

Baby Bolos seems to be growing well as my belly is getting bigger and bigger. I've hit my baby bump with the refrigerator door several times in the last couple of weeks, nearly knocked over the pot on the stove by hitting the pot handle with my belly and have noticed small collections of crumbs resting on top of my belly after eating crumbly things lately...so apparently I am getting bigger than I even realize!

We've started meeting people at our new church and Sunday felt like a major turning point in our quest to get connected. We saw many of people we've recently met through the two groups we've joined (a parenting class and a theology reading group) and actually sat with someone we knew during the service. For the first time in a long time I feel somewhat at home in a church and I'm so thankful that this is coming together as we're preparing a major life change with this baby on the way.

4 comments:

Jen said...

Wind is mostly a seasonal thing here, too. It's terrible in the Spring and rears its ugly head on occasion in the Fall, too. It's so dry here that it means dust flying everywhere. Ugh!

On a happier note -- I'm glad to hear about your church experience. It will be so encouraging for you to feel at home there. Yay!

Mom Olson said...

I laughed out loud about your belly hitting the refrigerator door and being the crumb catcher!

So glad you are feeling more at home there. Can't wait to go to church with you all!

Jon, Kristi, Jaiden, and Kenan said...

hey! Excited to hear about Tony's new responsibilities. BTW, wind is seasonal here in Indo also.

Janelle said...

I want to see a picture of this baby bump!