Last night Andrew and I hosted a farewell party for the first couple to move away among those Wesleyan professors who have been part of the circle of friends from our first year in Bloomington-Normal. Josh and Carolyn and their little Liam will be missed by those of us left behind as they go back to their hometown in Nebraska, where Josh found a ( Read more... )

Yesterday, we made an offer to buy the house that has the beautiful landscaping and the cool fireplace and the nice closets in all the bedrooms and the unfinished basement with the ancient furnace ( Read more... )

For Andrew, it started with the dentist. He spent Friday being worn down (got up extra early for 8 a.m. appointment) and upset at the dentist's strenuous recommendations for emergency treatment of tooth roots and gums for a condition he's known about for years. He has been keeping on top of it (meaning, it hasn't been getting worse or better for a ( Read more... )

This was really funny: at the end of a Japanese movie we saw with two other Illinois Wesleyan faculty members and another prof's wife, an audience member near us made the comment "It would be great to have that bowing to the teacher ritual here [like what happened at the high school in the movie]." A person in front of our group turned toward us ( Read more... )

The day before my ATM card's PIN number arrived in the mail, I needed cash, so I went to make a withdrawal at the bank. I was really floored when the teller said the way to do this was to write myself or the bank a check, which would then be cashed. I've never been asked to do such a thing before, not at 10 different banks and credit unions I've ( Read more... )

Tomorrow we'll have been in Normal, IL for a month. I still giggle inside when I tell people I'm living in Normal. I've decided I simply must make a photo collage of pictures of signs around town that say "Normal" something-or-other on them. The centerpiece is definitely going to be a night shot of the huge neon sign at the Normal Theatre, the ( Read more... )

Little things, but missed enough that we've remarked upon them to each other over the last couple of weeks or I've thought about them to myself ( Read more... )

I went to fill out a change-of-address form at the post office today. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that mail forwarding is available to the United States. I got sticker shock when I gave my form to the postal clerk and he told me it would be $196 for one year of forwarding. I asked for the six-month service instead. "That will be $110," he ( Read more... )

Apparently this site exists outside of Canada, but I had not heard of it before making the move to Calgary. It's more popular here than craigslist and less annoying to use than eBay or classified ads in the newspapers. I used it to find advertisements for apartment for rent before coming here, and Andrew's posts on it have helped us find new homes ( Read more... )

According to an anecdote from my friend Anne, anyone considering someday moving back to the United States after living in another country for several years should always keep some sort of financial history in the U.S. to maintain a credit rating. She heard about a woman who went back to the states after several years not living there, and she ( Read more... )