Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Quick, Short Answers

The commenters to the previous post had some questions, so I want to quickly answer them here. The home renovation, cleaning, de-cluttering, staging continues, so I don't have much time, but it's good to take a few minutes to unwind online... ;-)

So, yes, I don't work on Friday evenings after sunset and on Saturday for religious reasons. If you want to learn a bit more about my religious affiliation, I'd recommend this unbiased website. I prefer not to discuss religious matters here in the blog, but I'd like to add a disclaimer that I don't necessarily agree with all positions on current issues held by my denomination and described in that site. Another reason why I don't write about faith and religion in this blog is that although it is a big part of my life and I have no major theological problems with my denomination (which is also part of my "cultural and family" heritages), I have ongoing conflicts and qualms regarding not only my denomination but Christianity in general which are too complicated to even talk about, let alone discuss in the blog.

Karen had another question, about the possibility of going back to Brazil. A short answer to this is nearly impossible, but I'll try! I think I've blogged about this issue a few times, but, in a nutshell, now that we have the residency, our perspective has changed a bit and we do want to try to build a life here. One of the main reasons we want to remain here is that we think that K can be more happy and fulfilled as an academic here than there because there are only two or three universities in Brazil that he would like to work at. He has already participated of two concursos (competition to enter into a tenure track job) and not passed, but once in a while he still checks out out these opportunities over there and with the experience he has acquired he'd probably get in if he tried again.

For me, obviously (because of my specialization in Brazilian literature), there would be more academic work opportunities there, but I don't really have any academic ambitions anyway, so... I don't see this as a very strong reason to go back.

Well, I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions! ;-)

1 comment:

KarenM in NC said...

Lilian, you're so good at answering questions! I remember reading about K applying for the positions in Brazil, but with all the upheaval occurring now I thought that might be an option. Although not ideal, it need not be forever.

The "not working from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset" makes perfect sense after reading the link you mentioned. I would hope the Y would be able to work something out for all concerned.

Hang in there, my thoughts are with you.

KarenM in NC