This blog: an apology
On September 1, I'll be heading to Germany to become a teaching assistant of English. I'll spend approximately ten months in Berlin attempting to inspire young German minds, aged somewhere between 12 and 18, with diligence and enthusiasm for the English language. In my off hours, I'll be trying to find a place to live, communicate in German full-time, and maintain a seven-year stint of vegetarianism in the land of schnitzel.
"Yes, Katie," an asute interlocutor might say here, "but none of those things involves keeping a blog. Therefore, whence the blog?"
Hence the blog: I spent my junior year abroad - fall in Athens, spring in Rome. Every week or two, I would send out an e-mail to my friends, telling them where I had traveled, what I had seen, and what I had eaten since I last wrote. These were often rather long e-mails, sometimes stretching to three single-spaced paragraphs in Word. Essentially, they were journal entries, intended both for the enjoyment of my readers (or at least to allow them to procrastinate for a few minutes while checking their e-mail) and for my own memory. Writing those e-mails allowed me to sort through the experiences I had overseas and reflect on them. I've generally been too lazy to keep a journal for myself alone, and the knowledge that I'd promised people these e-mails kept me from succumbing to that laziness. And now, when I reread them more than a year later, they remind me of what a fantastic time I had and trigger all sorts of warm, fuzzy feelings.
I didn't want to assume the same system for this year, though. For one thing, most of the people on my original e-mail list are no longer undergraduates. They are real adults, hardworking folks in the economy, and I don't want to be responsible for lowering their productivity by sending rambling e-mails their way. Ditto for the people I know who are going on to more education and will have better things to do with their time.
Also, a blog will allow me to use italics, something the school e-mail account was never cooperative about. Sometimes, you just want to emphasize things, you know?
Mainly, though, I just wanted to try a different venue - a place where I could publish the occasional deep thought on American identity and life abroad in the Bush era, as well as (more likely) observations on quirky German habits and classroom anecdotes. If you've read this far, thanks, and I'll try to make it interesting.
"Yes, Katie," an asute interlocutor might say here, "but none of those things involves keeping a blog. Therefore, whence the blog?"
Hence the blog: I spent my junior year abroad - fall in Athens, spring in Rome. Every week or two, I would send out an e-mail to my friends, telling them where I had traveled, what I had seen, and what I had eaten since I last wrote. These were often rather long e-mails, sometimes stretching to three single-spaced paragraphs in Word. Essentially, they were journal entries, intended both for the enjoyment of my readers (or at least to allow them to procrastinate for a few minutes while checking their e-mail) and for my own memory. Writing those e-mails allowed me to sort through the experiences I had overseas and reflect on them. I've generally been too lazy to keep a journal for myself alone, and the knowledge that I'd promised people these e-mails kept me from succumbing to that laziness. And now, when I reread them more than a year later, they remind me of what a fantastic time I had and trigger all sorts of warm, fuzzy feelings.
I didn't want to assume the same system for this year, though. For one thing, most of the people on my original e-mail list are no longer undergraduates. They are real adults, hardworking folks in the economy, and I don't want to be responsible for lowering their productivity by sending rambling e-mails their way. Ditto for the people I know who are going on to more education and will have better things to do with their time.
Also, a blog will allow me to use italics, something the school e-mail account was never cooperative about. Sometimes, you just want to emphasize things, you know?
Mainly, though, I just wanted to try a different venue - a place where I could publish the occasional deep thought on American identity and life abroad in the Bush era, as well as (more likely) observations on quirky German habits and classroom anecdotes. If you've read this far, thanks, and I'll try to make it interesting.
posted by Q at
4:27 AM
1 Comments:
no apology necessary, dear!
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