An update on me

I’m living in a very beautiful house in Philadelphia. My flatmates and I have thrown two parties so far (housewarming and halloween). Both were very good.

I’ve completed almost a year and a half of my MFA (three semesters)–one more year to go (I plan to graduate in December 2010). So far, I’ve taken two general fiction workshops, a novel-specific workshop, a poetry class, an independent study with the director of the programme (reading classics like Madame Bovary and Portrait of a Lady), two literature courses (Theories of Composition and Greek Tragedy) and a teaching practicum. I’ve taught every semester so far, and so I’ve been contiuously busy all the time.

I like life in America–I’m planning to stay once I graduate and get a job teaching in a college–although I still find East Coast culture hard in some ways. It’s a hard place, and reminds me from time to time of other hard places like northern India or China. I’m curious to try living in another part of the US soon time–perhaps the west coast.

I’m still writing all the time. I slowly improve.

My neighbourhood:

Daniel

Nearly December

The leaves are falling in the graveyards near my house. The semester is nearly over.

My summer in England

London: I spent five weeks with my family, and it was a wonderful time. Writing in my mother’s sewing room wasn’t always easy, and I underestimated how much money I would spend in the city, but I was glad to put some breathing room between my MFA and me. The course has been great all year–but it is overwhelming. I felt myself get lighter once I’d moved an ocean away.

If London is not the greatest city in the world, then the burden of proof is on New York, Tokyo and the rest. I took some visiting friends from New Jersey to Camden, and one remarked, “It’s like [Philadelphia's] South Street, but bigger and cooler.” I lived in north west London, between Camden Town and Hampstead, both of them city centres in their own right, and when I travelled down to Chelsea, by the river, it too was a city centre, and looking in every direction London spread out, always varied. I shopped in farmers’ markets and I saw six plays. Stoppard’s Arcadia and the Sam Mendes production of The Winter’s Tale were probably the best–both left me with an awe and wonder that still comes back to me now, weeks later.

I met many old friends, I wrote, and now I’m glad to be back in America, preparing for the next semester. I’m taking my ever changing novel in Taiwan to a novel writing course taught by Adam Mansbach, and I’m designing a syllabus for two new classes of undergraduates.

Best wishes.

Pete and Kent do Europe

I’m in England for the summer, meeting old friends and reformatting my mother’s computer (this has been a slow process). Right now, one of my fellow students at Rutgers, Pete, and his friend Kent, are staying in my house here in London–they are beginning their trip around Europe. You can see pictures of them (and a couple of me) over on their blog: The Adventures of Pete ‘N Kent.

It’s a funny experience to watch other people on the first days of their travels, going through the familiar, peculiar experiences: adjusting to a different time zone, the sheer amount of work getting transport and routes sorted out, working out what to do each day, trying not to worry too much about money.

Pete and Kent abuse a telephone booth

Rutgers Camden Student reading