Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:06:22 -0800 (PST)
From: Fred Kontur
Subject: Re: happy holidays!
To: Peru Group
Hey there everyone!
I realize I'm very late to be jumping on the happy holidays train of emails (or very early to be starting off the happy valentine's day train of emails) but it's been so nice hearing from everyone that I didn't want to be left out. And I also wanted everyone to know that I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth, which some of you may have thought based on how terrible I've been at replying to emails for the last few months.
I don't have any big news or revelations. I went home to Pittsburgh for the holidays and had a wonderful time with my family. I even took a detour to visit my brother in Rochester, NY and see his new house. As you all know, I started a new job teaching introductory physics at the U.S. Air Force Academy in August. This is what's made me a terrible email correspondent. Teaching is the most amazing, difficult, and time-consuming job I've had by a longshot. My student evaluations were average (compared to other physics teachers) and my students performed a little below-average in the class, so I can't say I was a rousing success right off the bat, but I absolutely love being in the classroom and towards the end of the semester, when I realized that classes were going to be over, I realized how much I was going to be missing those 19-year old kids who probably wanted to be anywhere except in physics class three days a week, but who were amazing people to get to know and work with. I don't want to tarnish my reputation as a rock-hard cold-as-ice manly man, but I choked up a little, or maybe a lot, on the last day of classes. I hate being such a crybaby anymore, but it seems like I'm always saying goodbye to people I adore.
Anyway, I'm teaching a new set of students this year, and I'm just as busy and just as much loving the job. We have a long weekend this weekend, which is how I'm finding the time to write this long email. I read some teaching handbooks over the break, so I'm hoping the students like the class a little better and do a little better on the tests. We'll see. I've already been told, unofficially, that I'm hired on for another year. I'm going to be course director for the intro. physics classes this summer. Course director, I'm told, is Latin for "work your ass off", so I'm hoping to squeeze a vacation in before the class starts in July, after which I'll have no time whatsoever.
Well, I wish you all the best and I hope you know that you're all in my thoughts often. That little two week trip really does seem to have been a life-changing experience for many of us in both large and small ways, and it makes me so excited to hear about where we've all gone from then.
Os extrano muchismo,Fred