In Which I Have To Think

A View of Bathford

Sarah has suggested that it might be good if bloggers defined what they hoped their blogs achieve. That sentence construction is very British. Sarah is English, and she managed to say it more bluntly, "I thought it would be so cool to read through a post that really defines what your blog is about." Signs that you've been in British academia too long: You believe in your own brilliance. You're offended at the idea that your teaching might be more important than your research. You cannot write in anything but the passive voice.


I suppose those problems of the cultural language of British Academia are how this blog began. I wanted a space in which I could share, sometimes bluntly, my life outside of British Academia. I love this country (defined both as the UK and England) for the life it offers me. I wanted to share that with the larger world.


When I began the blog, I saw three possible goals. I was working with international students from the US and Nigeria at the time. Every term, they would come in and give me a list of things they wished they had known before arriving in the country. I hoped here to share some of those things with students and others who were coming into the country. I wanted to move beyond that to share those Fabulous Things About England that keep me here. Finally, I hoped to build a large enough reader base that might one day read a book I've written.

Local Race Horses

That last goal is no longer a way of defining this blog. Rather, the blog is one way of sharing an eclectic way of viewing the life I have here. It's a life that I love and value, and one that often frustrates me. When I began writing here, I did not tell my friends and family. Slowly I began to share it with all of the people who have joined me at important junctures in my life, and it has become a way of staying in touch with my community and making new friends. 


You can pop over to Sarah's to read more about the hows and whys of people's internet spaces. Just click the button below.