Kate’s in Colorado Springs
I’m co-teaching a class in Colorado Springs right now. It’s a 100-level class on Climate Change at Colorado College, a nice little liberal arts college. The school is on the “block plan,” which means the students take only one class at a time for 3 and half weeks at a go. Which is why it works out nicely for me and the other CSU graduate students who have gone down to co-teach. You don’t have to spend a whole semester away from home. But, I have to say, three and half weeks is still a long time to be away.
While I’m staying in the Springs, the school has put me up in furnished apartments set aside for “Visiting Faculty”. I think it’s really cool that I’m actually considered faculty right now! As I have spent every day of my first week either in the apartment working on lesson plans or in class in the building 100ft away, I took some pictures of the apartment and put them up in the gallery.
I’m guessing the apartment building was built ca. 1930. There are radiators in every room that I am incapable of understanding. Either they are all the way on, all the way of, or making this horribly loud racket which sounds like ghouls banging on the pipes in my bedroom. There are beautiful wood floors, and this crazy tile pattern in the bathroom that seems to move in the evening after I’ve been staring at the computer screen for 14 hours.
I really like the diggs (as the kids say), they have a lot of character. Without my Tivo, though, I seem to be forced to leave the television on the Discovery Channel, which is playing A Haunting a lot these days. Little details in the apartment give me the shivers after watching shows about ghosts and demons all evening long. The brass plates on each door have an actual keyhole that you can look through! Lights flicker on and off occasionally for no good reason. And the hot water definitely seems to be possessed. It comes and goes, spits and coughs, and sometimes, as it’s running, I hear voices saying I should make very hard test questions to torture the students with!
The teaching is going very well, and I’m learning sooo much. I think the hardest part is over, and hopefully I’ll keep learning throughout the next 2.5 weeks. It’s been a great experience, and I’m so happy to be doing it. Now, does anybody know a priest I could call just in case things start getting weird in the apartment….
Hi Kate, glad you’re having a good time in Colo Springs :-) I know exactly what you’re talking about with the spirits and the hot water – very fickle here as well. Though I guess I know the spirits responsible for cold water in the middle of my shower (room mates…). And I’m finally moving today! Yay! In fact, I’m meeting the agent in one hour to get the keys. Glad you’re having a good time teaching :-)
Hi Maike, nice to hear from you again! I’m glad to hear that you’re finally able to move into your perminant location, I hope it’s a little better than this one.
Despite my complaining, I’m starting to really feel kind of at home in this apartment. Last night the hot water when to scalding nd I burned m foot before I could move out of it, and the floors creaked all night long…. but that feels like how home should be to me. I guess I grew up in older houses and this is starting to remind me of what that was like.