frogprof

I'm trained as a French instructor but am currently working in a small, private medical technology firm doing editing, research, and VERY basic computer work [I call the things "magic boxes" and am terrified that I'm going to be the one to crash the system any day now]. Our company helps hospitals comply with governmental and non-governmental regulations and "suggestions" about safety, etc., by creating websites that teach said hospitals how to follow those regs. Really exciting stuff, but it actually does help save lives.

I'd rather be teaching, though, but I need to finish the "DD" ["darn" dissertation] in order to get my Ph.D. in French Lit. The DD is/will be entitled "The Voice of the Dead Soldier in French and British Poetry of the Great War" -- a topic EVERYONE is clamoring to read about, doncha know! Maybe this is why I haven't finished?!

I'm single with 2 cats [I think it's a law], living in civilization again after 4 years of exile in the [Rio Grande] Valley of the Shadow of Death, where I actually did teach French to Spanish-speakers for a while ... although trying to convince them that French was pretty much Spanish with a different accent was a losing battle ... Then, when The Powers That Be at that "university" decided that, since I hadn't finished the DD and didn't have my Ph.D., they didn't want me anymore [never mind the fact that the majority of the SPANISH faculty members don't have THEIR doctorates, either!!], I was unemployed for 2 years, but still "living" in The Valley and being supported financially [and emotionally, God bless 'em] by my aunt and uncle.

But now I'm back in Austin, where I belong [as long as no one in England will hire me to teach French -- or introduce me to a RICH DUKE to marry ...], and I'm much happier. Just gotta buckle down and finish the DD!!