This morning I talked to the editor-in-chief of the weekly English newspaper. (I could never get hold of anyone but secretaries at the daily, plus I like the idea of longer, more thought-out weekly pieces instead of banging stuff out under daily deadlines.) I had agreed to call him at 11, so after waking up at 8:30 I went online and read all the back issues I had time for, drank too much coffee, watched youtube's Pat Benatar collection, paced around, picked up the phone and almost did that 7th-grade thing where you dial 6 numbers and hang up, and called him. He said he had time to talk to me that afternoon, and gave me directions on how to get to the office ("takethemetrotoПаркКультурыtaketheleftmostexitgoundertheпереходtakealeft"...I could've sworn he was testing my ability to take rapid-fire dictation).

I taught my noon class, then headed to the newspaper office. Over a cup of coffee, the editor told me he liked my clips and wanted to hire me part-time. Their budget is maxed out for September, so anything I write in the next few weeks will have to be freelance and paid retroactively. He just got this job a few weeks ago himself, and is still struggling with the larger news organiation about budgetary stuff and nationality quotas of employees (apparently you can only have so many Americans). He invited me to their next staff meeting and said he'd keep me posted on possible assignments and hopefully, once the new budget is in place, a staff position. My best-case scenario was that I'd give my notice at the language school today, but still I'm thrilled to have my foot in the door.

In honor of my new combo of location, occupation, nationality, and historical moment, I think I'm going to cleanse my blog of proper nouns. Or at least eggregiously misspell them so I don't have to worry about overzealous Googlers (J, your unfortunate experience with Congressman Constipation is definitely influencing my thinking).

I'm getting rid of my first name, so do any of you, dear readers (assuming I can still use the plural), have a name for me? You can follow suit and name me a fruit. Also, if I get familiar enough with the newspaper staff I'm thinking of naming them after 80s rock stars (more interesting than electrical appliances, less insulting than insects, more plentiful than fast food chains.) So post a comment or email me. I won't ask for an explanation I promise. Also email me if you want a link to the newspaper, and any articles I end up writing for it.


On a different note, Stephen M (not sure if you're still doing humanitarian stuff in Mumbai or if you've moved on to the hedge fund), my strongest memory from 6 years ago today is of exchanging holy-shit glances with you when the principal came over the loudspeaker and interrupted Mr. Zeljo's Chinese History class to tell us about the two planes.