Tuesday, July 18, 2006
The Fierce and Fiery Furnaces....
.....of New York City are burning at full tilt, and we all exist in pools of our own sweat, warmed by the 95 degree heat and inescapable humidity...we had it good there for a while, blithely accepting the comfortable 78 degrees that part of July granted us,due to rains , I suppose...we were soooo sure we would get away with a moderate Summer...since when did that ever happen? And so, as it happens, we were wrong:
it is hotter and hotter each day now, and we exist from one room to the other, turning air-conditioning on and off as we go, so as not to totally black out the City and its millions of other air conditioners! It is, to say the least, uncomfortable to be outside.
And of ocurse I had to be outside most of yesterday as i discovered the Queens College Campus over in Flushing....but, actually, despite the heat, or maybe partially because of it, it was an interesting adventure, on the whole. And I met such lovely people, all of whom helped me through the process of getting into the CUNY "system" as an Adjunt Professor, that I can hardly complain about having any sort of bad time...people were simply too nice.
But it was hot. And the campus, lovely even in the heat, and very very sunny, where not shaded by beautiful trees...so I walked a lot in the hot sun. Discovering various buildings I needed to get my process started of "getting into the System"...but since it was all so new to me, it felt adventurous and interesting.The melting into my clothing seemed like part of the deal, so I relaxed and let it happen.
Particularly helpful was Christina Stahl, the Theatre Department Admin Assistant, who really spoon-fed me through the various paper procedures, and who sent me over to another nice nice woman named Sue Georgian in the Human Resources Department, to whom I had to show my actual MFA Certification....since it is a City School, all sorts of deeply bureaucratic details and offical things have to be on file in order for a position to be legitimately filled...I also think my MFA status will help to determine my pay scale...so far, all the places I have taught (Steinhardt, The New School..) have paid me considerably more than CAP 21 ever did. Interesting.
And so, I shall teach two classes at Steinhardt and one class at Queens College in the Fall Semester, and that will be the most I have ever taught at once, so it will be challenging in an entire new way...on Wednesdays, I will go right out to Queens College after my morning Acting Scene Study Class at NYU...a long but interesting day. I'm excited about preparing for all this, which will begin as soon as we return from San Francisco.....and we leave for that lovely journey at 5:00 AM tomorrow morning!!!!!
it is hotter and hotter each day now, and we exist from one room to the other, turning air-conditioning on and off as we go, so as not to totally black out the City and its millions of other air conditioners! It is, to say the least, uncomfortable to be outside.
And of ocurse I had to be outside most of yesterday as i discovered the Queens College Campus over in Flushing....but, actually, despite the heat, or maybe partially because of it, it was an interesting adventure, on the whole. And I met such lovely people, all of whom helped me through the process of getting into the CUNY "system" as an Adjunt Professor, that I can hardly complain about having any sort of bad time...people were simply too nice.
But it was hot. And the campus, lovely even in the heat, and very very sunny, where not shaded by beautiful trees...so I walked a lot in the hot sun. Discovering various buildings I needed to get my process started of "getting into the System"...but since it was all so new to me, it felt adventurous and interesting.The melting into my clothing seemed like part of the deal, so I relaxed and let it happen.
Particularly helpful was Christina Stahl, the Theatre Department Admin Assistant, who really spoon-fed me through the various paper procedures, and who sent me over to another nice nice woman named Sue Georgian in the Human Resources Department, to whom I had to show my actual MFA Certification....since it is a City School, all sorts of deeply bureaucratic details and offical things have to be on file in order for a position to be legitimately filled...I also think my MFA status will help to determine my pay scale...so far, all the places I have taught (Steinhardt, The New School..) have paid me considerably more than CAP 21 ever did. Interesting.
And so, I shall teach two classes at Steinhardt and one class at Queens College in the Fall Semester, and that will be the most I have ever taught at once, so it will be challenging in an entire new way...on Wednesdays, I will go right out to Queens College after my morning Acting Scene Study Class at NYU...a long but interesting day. I'm excited about preparing for all this, which will begin as soon as we return from San Francisco.....and we leave for that lovely journey at 5:00 AM tomorrow morning!!!!!
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