Finally got around to posting a few holiday pictures online. It’s become obvious that I’m less likely to whip out my camera than I was a few years ago. In part, because K8 has a much better one. But then I also forget to look at her pictures (and she forgets to whip it out, too!). Yes, that probably makes us bad parents.
So enjoy these pics of Javi opening Christmas presents (notice my appropriately parental bleary eyes) & a nice self-portrait of K8 & I out at Chicago’s Carnivale (billed as “authentic Nuevo Latino”—and it did live up to the promise).
But the holiday break was much-needed, even if far too short. We got a white Christmas in Chicagoland, bracketed by two long drives (10+ hours). But we’re back home in Oxford, MS. Where we hit a cold snap in the 20s that sent the locals into a panic (which was fun to watch, until our pipes froze because they’re not used to below-freezing temps here).
Now we’re ready for the next semester. K8 has been teaching a 2-week “intercession” course, so she’s got a head start on me there. I think I’ve all my things ready for next week, when I jump right into three courses: my “Heroes & Villains” course on populism in Latin America for the Croft Institute, a repeat of my first-year seminar on “Travel as a Method of Inquiry,” and an intro to comparative politics course for the Tupelo satellite campus. I’m particularly curious to see how the latter develops.
I’m trying to get caught up w/ Bolivian politics as the country jumps right into the next election cycle—this time for local offices (department governors & legislators and municipal mayors & councils). And, of course, the interesting developments surrounding Manfred Reyes Villa (more on that later). In the meantime, however, I have to catch up w/ some much-neglected writing. Particularly a conference paper I’m presenting in two weeks in Philadelphia; it’s on preparing students to write senior theses (it’s hardly past the first draft stage—so let me get back to it).
