writing, planning, visiting, and jobbing

I am not entirely sure where I left off last, although I know it was some time in October-ish. Yet, I do know that today is the first day of December, and I am writing from JFK International Airport.

The past two months have flown by in a whirlwind of movie editing, ultimate, research proposal writing, and other admin. My accomplishments are as such: the street movie is nearly done (I need to do one more general edit and to tighten a few things); I have completed and submitted my research proposal (which is a huge load off. Still, my project—you know, the one I already did—has not been approved yet—I am doing this process a bit backwards. But, the good news is that writing the proposal meant that I wrote a few chapters to the dissertation. I figure that I am halfway there at this point.); I played in a National Ultimate tournament in Johannesburg (I was voted the female MVP!); I am planning Durban’s first Southern African Ultimate tournament; aaaaaaaaaaaaand I got a job.

After we returned from Cape Town, Ingrid and I kept contact with the street boys. There was still work to be done regarding the drama project, and, more specifically, the boys wanted to make the move off the street. Ingrid helped to facilitate a small apartment for the three boys who went to Cape Town. The other boy was not included in these plans. As time passed, Ingrid’s work intensified as she aided the boys in acclimating to “normal” life, but mine waned, as I had to spend more time on my own doing video editing and writing my proposal.

The research proposal writing process was excessively painful. The fact of the matter is, I have been writing proposals since the beginning of the year, and have about 7 or so on file. However, because my project has shifted so often and with such dramatic flair, the proposal needed to be written from scratch yet again. All of my previous work was not in vain, however, as I was able to salvage a good chunk of the theatre theory.

For weeks, I wrote for 8 hours a day. In the final week and a half, I wrote for the 8 hours, and then my supervisor and I would meet for another 4 to 5 hours a day and go word by word through my work. Needless to say, it was a tedious and mildly terrible process. That being said, my proposal is now strong, coherent, and—although not entirely in my own words—well written. At a certain point, I just wanted to get the damn thing done, and so submitted myself to the grueling cutting, slicing, editing, rewriting process. I know the revision process for all papers is painful, but this, I feel, was even more so, seeing as my supervisor and I spent over 24 hours together in less than a week.

I submitted the proposal on Friday, and on the Monday I was in the air on my way home to the States for Thanksgiving. I arrived home to a cascade of hugs, and some tears too. Unfortunately, I woke up on my 2nd full day home with a stomach bug of note, and spent the rest of the lay lying on the bathroom floor. My stomach did not fully settle for five or so days after, and so I spent my first week at home, literally, at home. I cancelled outings and rescheduled appointments so that I could lounge around with a heating pad on my tummy. (This proved highly conducive to watching all the episodes of Glee that I had missed.) But, in the end, I saw my friends, and ate all the food I had missed.

On the day after Thanksgiving, my little sister and I played an Ultimate Hat tournament in Chapel Hill. 7 games in a row and man-oh-man my body was in pain—but we made it to the final! But the experience taught me a lot in terms of the Hat tournament that Durban is busy working towards.

On December 11 & 12, Durban will host players from all over South Africa, as well as from Mozambique, Swaziland, and Angola for a two day hat tournament. Although I told the Durban guys that I would not be able to be a driving force for this event because of my thesis, never mind the fact that I would be leaving the country for 2.5 weeks, somehow I ended up being the tournament director. Go figure, huh? I may grumble about this, but I do enjoy event organizing.

And I suppose the other quite big bit of news is that I have a job for the first part of next year. I have been hired as the drama teacher at Durban Girls High School for January-July (they have another woman coming down from the UK in July). I will be teaching all girls, grades 10, 11, and 12. I am absolutely thrilled! This will be a fantastic opportunity for me to discover if teaching in a classroom is a good fit for me.

And so now, I wait. I wait for this flight to board. I wait to get to Durban.

When I arrive, a Frisbee friend will pick me up, and we will rush to the fields for a tournament meeting and then a game. With a week and a half to go until the tournament, it is crunch time!

The next month and a half will be slammed full of dissertation-ing, as I will try to complete a rough draft of the entire document before mid-January. I would like to have the dissertation as out of the way as possible when I start teaching on January 14th. In addition to full time teaching and writing the dissertation, I will also be working towards my teaching certificate. I am unclear as to whether it will be valid outside of South Africa, or at least the Commonwealth States, but it will be proof that I am a teacher and that I can teach. In and of itself, that will be invaluable.

So I wait—wait for this plane—wait to go home to Durban, my other home, so that I can begin this next bit of my awfully big adventure.