THE NEW YEAR

A bit of a hiatus since the last post - as usual.

Quickly, Christmas Day I spent with Uncle Jack and Aunt Joan right here in Phoenix, leaving by car the next morning to head for Marin County just north of San Francisco to visit Lois Johnson, recently widowed after husband Walt passed on last June. She's the Sundberg family historian and one of the few US Sundberg relatives left!

New Year’s Eve I was down in LA to spend it with Ann, who was to drive up to LA from Fallbrook as pre-arranged, but she didn’t bother to tell me her exact plans till the day after (she and Cam had headed instead for Desert Hot Springs near Palm Springs, one of her favorite get-aways), so I ended up seeing in the new year alone in Redondo Beach, having a nice Indian meal, buying a bottle of wine to take back to my hotel room, and watching various TV shows till midnight California time.

Saw a lot of old friends in LA (just not on New Year’s Eve!) before heading back to Phoenix January 3 to get a few business items out of the way (the only time I could get to my personal prep for the CALICO computer conference next March – we’d gotten quite a lot of raw test data from students this past fall that needed organizing).

Then, January 6 I was off again, leaving on a jet plane for Tampa, Florida to see some old Urbana friends (Doug & Riki Peterson), who I’d missed in Santa Fe on my cross-country immigration last summer. Doug had gotten a visiting professorship at the University of South Florida. My six days there were relaxing – even a bit vegetative. Watched a lot of TV shows, ate in most evenings (Doug is a good cook!), went to Fiesta Key Beach one day, then had a fish fry at another more local beach another evening, and spent an idyllic sunny Saturday touring the expansive Ringling Museum site. (Sarasota was the site of the circus’s winter retreat and John Ringling’s mansion – a recreated Venetian grand house: Ca d’Zan.)

Teachers' orientation started up January 12, and classes begin now after Martin Luther King Day this Tuesday, January 20. I’ll be teaching one Listening-Speaking course to visiting Korean Middle School English teachers among my regular ESL courses. One interesting elective this time: American Movies. Sounds fun and effortless, but it involves LOTS of prep work to make it seem effortless and fun to the students!

VERY GOOD NEWS: Finally found someone to sublet my less-than-desirable Tempe apartment (see earlier posts for full details). John Buck and his grown daughter Christin, who had just driven out from Massachusetts and seen my ad on Craigslist.com, moved in January 15 for seven months, while I moved out to a new townhouse apartment closer to campus. (I have no neighbors above or below, so I feel I have a lot more privacy in the new place.)

New address to put in your address books:

Paul Sundberg
842 W. Brown St., Apt. A
Tempe AZ 85281

Happy 2009!