Old and new

I've been back to school the last two days to work out my syllabi for the coming semester, and have been having some very sweet reunions with friends and colleagues. Those with friends were planned and the sweetness expected. But those with other colleagues were unplanned and sweet in other ways. More in a way than my friends - whom I could e-mail and phone from Melbourne, and did - it's these other people I've been mutely missing: being part of a world of people who care about the same pedagogical things, laugh at each other's jokes, share dance and movie recommendations, and occasionally lunch together. You couldn't live off just such friendships, I don't think, but they do enrich life considerably! It's good to be ... home!
By the way, this is the rather frenetic image produced from the New School's latest makeover. Presumably it's not supposed to convey a sense of panic that one has missed the train - or is about to be run over!