nell pastel: el fin del año 2013

Years are made up of 365 days. Most are mundane. Most are uneventful. And sometimes that’s wonderful. Honestly, most of the days of 2013 were pretty terrible. In October, I wrote,

It was a pretty shit year emotionally. I left a city that i love. I finished a dissertation, but that means I spent a lot of hours in a tiny room with a computer and not much else. I left another city that i love. I got a job, but that has meant starting from scratch in a new city where I know no one and that's been pretty emotionally draining as well. I hope next year feels like it reaps the rewards of all the crappiness of this one.

The last 2 months have been better, but we're still not in the clear. Nonetheless, at the end of the year, I’d like to remember the highs and lows, the moments of triumph and the moments of defeat. Because that’s the spice of it all, right? (See Bests and Worsts of 2012 & 2011).

Best Meal

Cosmos Club Foundation Grant Recipient Dinner (though I did get mistaken for my professor’s wife rather than an award recipient multiple times)

Worst Meal

My English Pub lasagna that was 2 hours late on Halloween, thereby fully thwarting my plans with Miley Cyrus

Best Party

My despedida from La Paz in July. I ended up tied to a chair on a table, and was fed shots.

Worst Party

When I finished writing my dissertation I called everyone I knew in DC and invited them over. 4 people showed up.

Best 24 hours

Sorrata, la gruta, mi mejor amigo, pelis, and good sleep

Worst 24 hours

Being stuck in San Salvador

Best Teaching Experience

Prof B sent me an email: “Got a good shout out for you in my theory class today. One student--Rebecca with long blond hair--was pretty much the only person who would speak about Geertz. I finally asked her about it and she said she read it in your 110 class. Word.”

Worst Teaching Experience

I asked my “Sex Gender Culture” class students to do a creative final project. I got a few insightful films and narrative stories. And a slew of high-school level collages of cut up magazine images of women’s bodies.

Best Student Experience

Hearing the bagpipes at graduation and feeling like I really had entered “the realm of the anointed”