Job Applications and Desert Camping Trips

I'm still busy sending out job applications for the Professor. Our contract here is on its third and final year, it’s non-renewable – for better or worse – and so we’re looking high and low for the moment to find a job for next year. We’re looking for something that will not only feed our mouths and pay our student loans, but also something that is a step forward for the Professor in his career. You would think with

so many universities in the world, that there would be a lot of jobs available, but since it is a narrow field we’re looking at already– Philosophy – and then take into account that the area of specialty has to agree, there’s not much out there. My husband may have a degree from one of Europe’s most prestigious universities, but it doesn’t help much if nobody in North American has ever heard of it. He may have published, taught, and has a book contract with Cambridge University Press, but still the competition is tough. We are afraid to hope for anything, yet we have to. In any case, applying takes a lot of time, and add our trip to the desert, colds, Thanksgiving, activities, etc. and you have a busy recipe indeed.

Our trip to the desert was a welcome and very intense break from our everyday life. It was arranged by the university, and although we only went for two days and one night, we’ll have memories for life. The landscape was breathtaking. Over and over again, I caught myself gasping. The kids had so much fun in the sand with their friends, and it was a joy seeing Abraham busying himself surrounded by a vast nothingness. We camped out, saw millions of years old whale bones, stood under the Milky Way, hand in hand, just staring for a long time, listening to nothing, talked to one of the world’s leading paleontologists (the boys kept singing the song “I am a paleontologist” by TMBG, giggling over the fact that the man in front of them actually WAS a REAL paleontologist), held on for our lives in our 4x4, and enjoyed every minute. Hopefully we can go again soon, because although it’s a very easy trip, it’s most enjoyable, and right up there with our Sharm El Sheik adventure.