Relief in Sight

The number of new foreign students coming to the United States grew this school year, after several years of weakness that followed the terrorist attacks of 2001, according to a survey to be released today by the Institute of International Education.

The institute, in a separate report, also found that the number of American students studying abroad hit a record 205,983 in 2004-5, an 8 percent increase over the previous year and more than double the number in the 1994-95 school year.

from the New York Times

Good news, that, for the Dowbrigade, who makes his living off of said foreign students. Regular readers, if there are any of you left out there, will be pleased to know that the recent paucity of postings on the Dowbrigade News is not due to illness, disillusionment, incarceration or mental incapacity. Rather, for a change, we have more opportunities to make actual money than we have time to take advantage of them. In an intensive program in which 15 teaching hours is considered full-time, we are teaching 37. Since two of the courses are writing classes, we nightly face a bottomless stack of essays, reports, press releases and rewrites to correct. Quite simply, we haven’t had time to blog.

Not that we are complaining. 2006 was pretty much a washout for the old Dowbrigade. After our wandering stomach medical crisis in South America in January we were out of commission for almost 6 months, and are just now getting our strength back and digging out of the resulting financial hole.

Rest assured, we are as irascible and bemused as ever, and have several notebooks full of observations, notes and half-written screeds from the outer limits of academia.

One reason we remain deeply satisfied with our chosen profession and current position is their flexibility. We are capable of intense periods of maximum professional production, as long as we know where the finishing line lies, and that relief beckons thereafter. During stretches like this, when we are pushing the envelope of available energy utilization, it helps us to count down the days until deliverance. As of today, there are 16 days of classes left.

Meanwhile, we have renovated our outlook and our tools (another benefit of abundant work). Expect the Dowbrigade News back in force in the near future.