Look at this video. It is really interesting discussion material for the culture class, for one thing. And the language politics are eerily familiar. Also, these educators have a much more interesting job than I do, perhaps.
I must go to Andahuaylas in any case. For this I would have to be in Peru in the dry season.
Speaking of which I would like to start going to JALLA again. It is the most interesting conference by far, because of what people say in the workshops.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Like you, I have been gathering materials for the classes I will teach this spring. One challenge is that they are unusually small, and I find that this means more planning and directing, not less. At least I am getting something done (cold grey weather has brought my usual midwinter mild depression, at last), but I am having trouble getting back to writing, though I am reading for the MMP. I am the sort of person, it appears, who really needs to write every day, Christmas and birthdays included; taking time off does not so much rejuvenate as confuse me. I didn’t mean to take time off, because I know that about myself, but it happened, and now the tasks look large and frightening, instead of enticing, the way objects in one’s own bedroom can loom scarily in the dark. So here I am to tell you, in the absence of the writing group, that today I am going to spend at least one half hour on the translation work I have neglected for months, either starting to check one of my colleagues’ work or just reading the base text to get my head back into it, and I am also going to spend one half hour handling the printouts and outlining materials for the MMP. I hope this hour will lead to more, but if I go back to teaching plans that’s okay, so long as I put in the time handling the research work.
I only like small classes for foreign languages. Otherwise bring on the crowds, I say.
Today at least it is sunny. We have had terrible cold and rain and darkness, humid and near freezing, most days.
I also need to write every day. Instead of writing I have been dealing with crisis.
Min mor har psykiske lidelser og tre brækkede knogler, men nægter at være på hospitalet. Min far drikker. De har ingen hjælpe hjemme fordi de insisterer på at spare penge for vores arv. De bor i et smukt hus, som fungerer mere som en sjofel kro i den tidlige moderne tidsalder! Den situation, som de vælger i de alternativer, giver dem stadig uro og når de bliver hylet helt ud, som de gjorde for nylig, beslutter de at jeg er i fare, og de beretter min død til Louisianas myndigheder. Så havde jeg i julaften politiet ved døren.
Heldigvis har min bror — som normalt ikke taler til mig fordi familien er simpelthen for traumatisk for ham — har ringet, og vi har kunnet insistere i, at de fik noget hjælp. Jeg er gået over deres hoveder og har fundet ud af, hvem der var læge, og hospitalets socialrådgiver fandte mit telefonnummer og ringede til mig. Nu går alt bedre men jeg har i hvert fald været virkelig irriteret over deres drama.
I am intimidated by what I have to teach so have been dawdling on it and fooling around the edges of research. I will now do both, like you.
I get to be my old self, I have to keep reminding myself. And I think I might be some kind of fetishist: wearing costumes helps. I still have a couple of items of clothing from my best eras of life and it is surprising how it helps to wear them!
Costumes do help; some writers have special writing gear, whether a hat or a bathrobe or something else.
I have put in my two half-hours and been to the gym, so I now feel much better about work. I am still gloomy, but not overwhelmed.
With the help of my very old Old Norse I got some of your Danish, but eventually I resorted to Google’s translator to work out the rest. Knowing a few things like verb endings and sound shifts helps a great deal to make sense of a language related to one that one does know.
With large classes the grading is awful but I can perform to a crowd; in a small group I am so much more visible, and the students’ personalities are more prominent. But it is what it is, for this spring; I will deal with it and keep in mind, when I have large classes again, that they have their points. I am making progress on grading/planning assignments. Between you, the writing group, and Virginia Valian, this fall, I worked out that I do not have a work problem, just a job problem (grading), and that is so much more treatable than a work problem.
So, it is not comprehensible with Middle English! Drat! I might have known, but I am still fascinated with West Frisian, it is such a middle ground for Danish and Middle English.
I have not really been putting in the 2.5 hours or going to the gym, but I will start.
I do love Virginia Valian. And yes, I too have just a job problem. The worst all these years has been trying to treat it as a work problem.
Small classes are like doing multiple independent studies.