2008 Year in Review

Hurricanes to Holidays. As always, the fall term was extremely busy. School got off to a shaky start thanks to Tropical Storm Fay. In September, I took a short trip to Guadalajara, Mexico where I was invited to give a talk (which I read in Spanish) on contemporary U.S.-Latin America relations at the Universidad de Guadalajara.


October was an exciting month. I had a hot date to see State Radio perform at The Social and got to see Paul Simon do a short performance and interview with poet Billy Collins on the Rollins campus. I rode with my motorcycle gang to Daytona Beach for Biketoberfest. I traveled to Cambridge, Mass. with a Rollins colleague to deliver a couple of talks at Harvard University. And I did my best David Beckham imitation for Halloween.

In November, I was excited to learn that I was named a Research Fellow at the Center for Inter-American Studies as the ITAM (Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico) in Mexico City. I will be moving to Mexico in September for a nine-month residency to coincide with my sabbatical (paid leave) next year.

In December, a long and busy semester mercifully came to an end. To celebrate the end of classes, I joined my friends and colleagues for the fourth annual Festivus Party at Jenny's place. After turning in my grades, I boarded a plane for Cancun (there seems to be a Mexico theme to my life these days) where my friends Martha and Sean were married at a splendid ceremony on the Caribbean Sea. Finally, I spent Christmas with my family in Myrtle Beach before returning to Orlando for a New Year's Eve party featuring the Legendary JCs at the Backbooth.