New Adventure...

So the search has ended, at least the job search.  I have been offered, counter-offered, and have accepted a position as the dean in charge of general education at a small college in Michigan.  Hey, I have never lived in Michigan before…

I haven't told too many people  but one person gave the best perspective I have ever heard about things like this.  We are placed in situations to learn--we might not always know what we are to or need to  learn from a particular situation, but we are there none-the-less.  I will learn where I have landed and I look forward to this opportunity.

Extra points to anyone who gets the visual reference in the photo above.

Green Day

Well, not necessarily because it is the first day of spring, though it was very nice today.  It has been a heck of a few weeks, and right now I am a bit tired.  I am in Virginia, the city, not the state, and go on stage once more tomorrow morning.  Honestly I have had to write down where I am and where I am supposed to be from day to day.  I guess I am completing my tour of the Great Lakes--with this as the far western edge of a big egg-shaped circle, imagine the other edge in the dead center of the "mitten" part of Michigan.  Complete the circle, and that is the 1800 miles that I will have driven by tomorrow afternoon.

It is interesting.  In this big circle of sorts there are probably 30 million people at most.  And I think it is accurate to say that these people aren't exactly well distributed across that circle.  There were parts of the UP and today, parts of Minnesota that I would have been hard pressed to find a thousand people within a 100 square miles.  On one flight last week of a little more than four hours, I flew over  more than 1.6 BILLION people--it was all across Bangladesh and India and much of the Middle East.  To me that is astonishing.  A flight across the whole US would encompass only 365 million.   I suppose that this adds to my sense of dislocation.

So why the Green Day reference?  I think that in many ways I am living a weird Green Day mix tape with two songs overlapping, I Walk Alone/Time of My Life.  I told someone a long time ago that this pursuit and these months looking would be a solitary journey, no matter how much I didn't want it to be and how much they promised that it wouldn't be.  It just is, I guess.  I am leaving and people have lives and are busy and and and so I guess I do walk mostly alone.  I guess it makes sense in many ways.  I am figuring out where I am going, and there isn't and doesn't need to be any  real conversation about where "we" are going in all the senses of we.  Despite my (accurate) prediction of this state, it is still hard sometimes.  I am pretty self-contained but this is new for me and some days are easier than others.  There.  How is that for putting a positive take on all this!

That said, it really is the Time of My Life.  In my life I have traveled  more than most, but in these few months I will have traveled even more.  I have already gotten to explore new places, meet new people and have had even more adventures and these new experiences don't seem to be ending anytime soon.  How many people can really say that?  I can, and I am lucky.

So if I were to listen to one of these songs again and again, I think I would choose the second song. We will see where the adventures take me.

On the road, again

Lake Michigan, along Highway 2.  Fading light.

Last edit

Here are the last of the photos from my recent trip.  I don't know where I will be or what I will be doing in six months or frankly, in six days, but I am very glad that I went.  I met great people, saw that people can be committed to an ideal of the liberal arts, and it was adventure that enriched my life. I have lots of stories, perhaps the best souvenir of any trip.

Here are a few more photos of the Grand Mosque and other random things.

Drat! Thwarted again!

Well, I said progress of sorts.  One more flight cancelled and I am still in Chicago.  I am close, but still far away.  It was a 7AM flight but with all the challenges, I couldn't get out until late afternoon (stand by) or tonight (for sure).  I opted to take the Saturday AM flight, but I must have looked ragged and disappointed enough that they did get me a hotel room.  Honestly, a shower and a bed for a few hours, some afternoon commitments, dinner and about a third of a glass of wine, and I will be in bed again by 8 tonight.  I will be as good as new!  What is another day in transit?

I found out the hard way how tired I was.  About 1AM I was sitting and reading and I fell asleep sitting up, and I fell asleep hard.  About an hour later, I was woken by someone shaking my leg.  It was an airport policeman who wanted to warn me about sleeping with my "stuff" unprotected.  My computer and phone were right next to me and my iPad was on my lap, I thought, but while I was sleeping they moved them and then woke me up to make a point.  And apparently to scare the heck out of me.  I was so out of it I never even noticed.  They could have had my virtue!  But I really would have rued the loss of my computer, so I was lucky.

Enough.  A bed beckons.

Progress of sorts...

I feel like I updated this today, but actually I am not sure when it was.  The progress is that I am in the US, which of course is the first step.  My flight from JFK to Chicago is delayed some undetermined time--who knows, but they promise me that I will get to Chicago sometime before midnight.  It might have worked better if it was earlier as my flight from Chicago MSP will have left several hours before I get there.  Oh well.  The nice folks at United rebooked me for 7 AM flight.  One more drag--a night in an airport, though a few more hours in an airport one way or another can't matter that all that much.  So by your clock time, I think I left Chittagong at 5AM on Wednesday.  A staff member from the college was flying just ahead of me and she experienced many of the same challenges.  Her response was let's use another airline for college travel...

This will allow me to be back by noon, which is good because I have an interview at 12:30 and one at 3:00.  That should be fun and I hope I will be at my best.

I am whining but really I am being silly.  First, all of this really is an adventure.  It isn't a bad thing to say, sorry, I am tired because I was just in Bangladesh.This is an incredibly exciting time in my life, and I am learning a lot about myself and other people and colleges.  Who can really complain about having choices?

More from the road

I am at the Dhaka airport, but I am not sure what means in terms of progress getting even close to home.  First, they canceled my ticket(s) because I was a no show on my scheduled flight to Bangladesh.  I did mention to the airline rep that I did indeed make my flight and provided evidence that I did get to Bangladesh by stressing that I was standing in front of him.  After more than an hour they were convinced that I was indeed here and that they should try and get me home.  Mind you, I was at the airport at 3:15 to have this conversation.

That is not really in doubt though the when part is uncertain.  My flight to Abu Dhabi is late, and thus I would miss the Abu Dhabi to Chicago leg.  So they booked me to JFK, but I think that I will be late for that as well, but even if it is on time I will barely make the flight to Chicago.  I don't know.  I tend to avoid JFK, but can you make it from the international terminal, pick up your luggage, get through customs, recheck your luggage,  and make it to a domestic flight in 45 minutes?  I am a bit doubtful but I will give it a try.  Of course it is somewhat of a moot point, because I can't catch my flight to MSP, since that leaves hours before I would land in Chicago.  At the earliest I will get in to MSP tomorrow about noon.  Plus, any bets on where my luggage might be?  :)

This is part of the challenge of this position--getting there and back is a challenge of no small import.  I suppose, since it is about 12,000 miles away from MSP, I am really on the other side of the globe.  Could I burrow through?  That's doubtful, too.  In the mean time, I am providing lunch for mosquitos, something that the Dhaka airport is famous for.  Who knew?

More from along the way if I can

Last morning in Chittagong

I am up early and packing and getting ready for another day of interviews.  I finish up at about 2:00 and then travel to the airport to begin the trip back.  I leave from Chittagong so it is Chittagong-Dhaka-Abu Dhabi-Chicago-Minneapolis. 21 hours of flight time plus other fun time in an airport or two.  I might have an hour or two for a bit of sight-seeing before my flight but I am not sure--it will be a busy day.

The sunrise was wonderful and I really have had a great trip.  I was once told to never ever just take or even look at a position just for its location, but always consider the people you would be working for, and I can see the wisdom in that.  People here are fantastic.  All parties  will have much to consider in the next few weeks.

An evening walk

I had just a few minutes for a walk today after eight or nine hours of interviews.  The day went well perhaps because I might have been more coherent because of some uninterrupted sleep.  Truly people are great.  I met students today and I noted that they are the University's secret weapon for recruiting.  They are bright, charming, curious, interested and interesting, and every one has an amazing story on how they made it to this place.  It is transformational here which is a real draw of this place.

I went to a grocery store, something that I always try and do when I travel.  I can't think of how many students rolled their eyes when they saw that on my list of things to do, but you really can learn a lot in  a grocery store.  I stopped for that reason but I also needed bottled water and I was hungry for something salty, probably because it is has been in the high-80s/low 90s and i have been genteelly sweating my way through the interviews and through a suit and a tie.  I am a terrible traveler--I did end up with water but I also ended up with Pringles.  Yep, Pringles.  I have no idea where they were made as my (whatever the language the package is in) is a bit rusty, but they taste similar to what I have heard they taste like, and they are salty.  Mission accomplished.

The photos are street shots.  There are several of commerce that line (and fill the streets.  The street vendor would roast any of about a dozen different kind of nuts and seeds.  Tempting.  The children are my new friends who insisted on getting their photo taken.  Traffic was much heavier this late in the day and it showed in one of the photos.  The more rural scene is the future site for the University.  When fund raising permits, the University will move to the edge of the city.

Maybe more tomorrow, though I start home and rewind the long journey already.

Bangladesh, day two

I am human again…I slept for 8 straight hours horizontally, not in an airport waiting room or an airline seat really helped my cause.  I am still struggling as to which time zone I am in, but I think I am upright and functional at this point.

Plus I figured out hot water, and that is no small thing.  My prep yesterday for an interview with my supervisor and the campus forum was a bit rough, as I forgot about on-demand water heaters.  I remember them from England, but I did not make the connection.  I probably looked a little tattered as I showered and shaved in cold water.  I teased the search committee about setting up a series of challenges outside of the interview process to see how I did.  First there was getting here, and then there was the hot water and then…  Ahh, the simple pleasures of a warm shower!  It helped today.  My victory over water continued as I figured out how to make coffee.  It's instant but at some point coffee is coffee!  It is very black, strong, and there is enough sugar in it to make me wired for hours.

My early morning walk produced a few photos.  It was a short walk, I admit.  It isn't that I felt unsafe or anything like that, though watching for traffic is a bit challenging.  There is no look left or right before walking.  Instead it is a multi-dimensional chess game--look left, right, ahead, behind and then still walk confidently and fast.  And don't mind the horns--they aren't offensive weapons of road rage as they are in the US.  Here they are just like saying, "hey, best pay attention--I am a 20 ton truck (or rickshaw or CNG or bus) and I am approaching your blind spot at 30 kilometers an hour."  I also loved the sign.  There is no doubt that I am a bit a way from home, but it is good to know that I am not that far.

Things are going well--people have been extraordinarily kind and open.  No one threw anything at the open forum and actually it was really fun--it probably helped that the lights were out several times--they couldn't see me!  The dinner last night was tremendous.  I was taken to an Indian place that is, let's just say, a bit more traditional than the Star of India.  Fantastic food and four of us shared six dishes and walked away stuffed.  Total cost?  About $22.00.  I'll talk more about the economy and such, but being able to afford to eat out is not really a issue.

It starts again in 10 minutes so I am off.

Chittagong

I made it, and while I am not sure if it is morning, noon, or night, I made it safely.  I made it that way mainly because I had lots of help.  When I landed at Dhaka I was met by two officers who whisked me through customs and the visa application and then shepherded me through the rest of the night, even to the point of walking me to the departure bus to make sure I was on the right plane.  Truly, they whisked me through…I thought that only happened in movies.   It just shows great planning on the part of the staff.

I am not so sure that I would ever drive here…I have been in countries where traffic signals are suggestions but this brings controlled chaos to a new level.  But I learned that driving is best left to the professionals.  Interesting.

I better get some sleep.  My interviews start at 4 or so, and I need at least a few hours to crash before then.  For those of you who are keeping track, I am 12 hours ahead of Chicago time, but I am not sure if that is after they stole an hour of your life this past weekend.

More soon--the photos are of my bedroom and then out of one of the 4 balconies.  Nice digs!

PS:  It seems I am very well connected here, so emails are welcome!

A quick take...

I don't have a great deal of time before I have to start the next leg of this adventure, so just a quick take on what I saw today.  The early morning sun was the pool here at the hotel.  It was in the low 90s today, not that I would be gloating…

The other photos are from the Grand Mosque--I have others that I will share sometime but they will take some work.  It is an amazing building and more amazing as a house of worship.  They say it can hold 40,000 worshipers so it is tough to get the feel of this place in just one or two photos.  It is awe inspiring.  It is so different, for many different reasons, from a St Paul's in London or Notre Dame.  It's bigger for one, but those cathedrals use light so differently than light was used in creating this mosque.  All for the glory…

Abu Dhabi Day

Well, most of a day.  After delays, contrary information etc, I did make it to my first destination  It is just a really long flight that was made a bit longer by extra time in an airport or two.  No matter, I am here.  Actually the flight wasn't that bad--I had an empty seat next to me so I slept some, and the movies were far better than the norm.  I caught up on my Oscar films and saw Gravity, Twelve Years a Slave, Nebraska and then Frozen.  Hey, Idebede whats-her-name won, didn't she?  I just couldn't remember what John said her name was.

Tomorrow I do have a day to wonder and wander.  I want to see the Grand Mosque, and a market--I hear the camel market is interesting.    Who knows?  Then later tomorrow night, it is on to Dhaka and then Chittagong.  But since right now I am not sure when it actually is, I am calling it a night.  Or a day.  Whatever

Adventures from the road

I am really trying to get to Bangladesh.  I know that this is an unusual statement but I really am.  I left at 5AM this morning to get to MSP, hoped to get to Chicago and hop a plane for Abu Dhabi, then Dhaka, and finally, to Chittagong.  So far it's been a bit rough, with poor weather this morning and that darn fog in Abu Dhabi.  I hate it when it is foggy there…

Whatever the reason, it will mean that I will have left at 5 AM on Friday and not reach my destination until Monday at about 8 in the morning.  Of course it does include almost 24 hours in Abu Dhabi.  I am not quite sure what one does in Abu Dhabi, but I should be able to find something to do.  On Monday and Tuesday, I was scheduled very tightly for interviews at a very interesting university in Chittagong.  I suppose I can still do the interviews though I am guessing that I might be a little toasted around the edges--I am a rough sell when I have had my Wheat-a-bix AND my 8 hours of sleep a night.  This should be interesting.

Whatever.  Two key points come to mind.  Travel is supposed to be an adventure and you are supposed to expect and relish the little adventures that come along with this.  So I will--at least I know that I have gotten a lot better about that in the last 20 or so years.  Secondly, all this reminds me of what I have said before.  Man plans, and God laughs.  Everyone should get a big chuckle our of this adventure.

In case you are following along...

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Date Departs Arrives Flt # Route Passengers Seat Term Fri, Mar 07 11:15 PM 10:45 PM (+1 day) EY 150 ORD to AUH Mr Jason M  Tetzloff   T5 Sat, Mar 08 9:25 PM 3:50 AM (+1 day) EY 258 AUH to DAC Mr Jason M  Tetzloff   TERMINAL 1 Thu, Mar 13 5:10 AM 8:45 AM EY 253 DAC to AUH Mr Jason M  Tetzloff     Thu, Mar 13 10:20 AM 4:25 PM EY 151 AUH to ORD Mr Jason M  Tetzloff   TERMINAL 3

Memory, and some other things I forgot...

I read two very interesting books this past week.  Both were by Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain and The Garden of Evening Mists.  They are recent books by a fairly new author, though their succes belies that--both books have made several prestigious lists, even pretty short ones

Tan set both books in Malaysia, specifically Penang.  In these books the area is lush and green and, well, complicated.  A crossroads of sorts, Penang is peopled with Chinese, Malays, Indians, and of course the colonial British, to name just a bit of the ethnic diversity.   WWII and the legacy, both good and bad (if you can be that concrete)  of the Japanese and the Japanese occupation play a key part in these novels.  Certainly the impact (and the memory of those years and peoples) are still felt and seen today and this era dominates the characters in these books even though the books themselves are set decades later.

The historian in me wants to simplify and catagorize these novels--are they historical?  What is the characters' point of view?  Was it all accurate?  This is pretty easy to do, but other than determining whether or not the novels would be good texts it accomplishes little.  For the record, I think that either of these books would be easy to teach from.  They are rich with examples  and they are entertaining enough for an intro class.  Well, maybe...I apparently have a high threshold for the less interesting, but I think that these would work.

But what were they really all about?  I could put them in a time period, a region, a point of view, a general topic.  They were post-WWII post=colonial Southeast Asian, conflict driven books about the resolution of WWII-caused conflict.  But what were they really about?

What they were really about was memory and memories and the impact of both of these things.  In someways the books lead you to think that memories and memory are but a template for what your life long after will be, indeed must be.

Hmm...I am older, I have lots of memories of what I was, what I did, the people in my life and my actions throughout these past 50 years.  Is that what I am to be, what I must do, and who I must be?   But if this is true, what of will? Can't I take a new direction and skip the roads, taken and not taken but templated in my memory.  Or have my memories pre-ordained or already caused my future? 

While I am probably not going to change my last name to Arminious but I have to believe in some level of self-will in imagining my future.  Very certainly I will be carrying along my neatly packed matching  suitcases of baggage wherever I will go, and it will shape and affect my future. But I can carry my baggage along any road I choose, traveled or not.