Heigh-ho [Jim]

Having spent two days at my new workplace, I suppose it is time to let anyone who cares (a small set, to be sure) know what exactly it is that I will be doing. But, first, I suppose I will answer the most frequently received question in the volumes of mail we have been receiving: Of what Nature is the Office to which you have been assigned? It is, as they say, a rather nice office—desk, plus a separate meeting table, and chairs for 6. It is one of the few offices in the building that is air-conditioned. No bookshelves, but 6 lockable cabinets. There is also a guy who sits outside the office; I have a button next to my desk which I can use to buzz for him—he brings me coffee, tea, bottled water and lunch. I suppose there are other things he will do, but I have not yet figured out what else I am supposed to ask him. The coffee, alas, is the standard Nescafe stuff—think instant coffee with enough milk and sugar to disguise the taste. The tea comes in china cups.

Thus far they are carting me to and from work in the school cars; I have no idea how long that will last. And, while getting a ride is nice, I do hope that I will eventually figure out a way to convince them that I would rather work more hours in the day than they seem to think I prefer.

Tuesday and Wednesday are Holidays—hard to believe they are having Holidays, no?

But, back to work. After two days, I am still not sure what exactly I will be doing. They have kept me busy in assorted meetings and introducing me to everyone in sight—I even met some visiting members from the Indian Banking Association today—they invited me to the lunch with them. But, given all the conversations to date, here is the list of projects which have thus far been discussed:

1) Teaching a non-credit course on Western Civilization. This is the project which the Director seems to want the most, and from what I gather, what the Director wants…

2) Teaching a 5 or so lecture series for faculty and students on modern macroeconomic theory.

3) Consulting with the head of the new program in Retail Management about the design of that program.

4) Teaching the macroeconomics course in the first semester of the Retail Management Program

5) Teaching the microeconomics course in the first semester of that same program.

6) Teaching the topics in advanced economics in January for that program.

7) Teaching assorted lectures for students in each of the various programs run by the school.

8) Consulting with the Public Policy Program about ways to improve its program.

9) Co-authoring a paper with the professors in Sports Management on the topic: Is Sports Economics properly a topic in Microeconomics or Macroeconomics? [Don’t ask—I have no idea what that means either—but I got made a co-author before I was even told what the paper was about!]

10) Consulting with or helping write a report on rural housing which was commissioned by the Indian Government. [No, I don’t know anything about Indian Housing.]

I have no idea which of the above will actually end up occurring—and I suspect by next week there will be another dozen things on the list. But in short, they are treating me extremely well and I will actually have work to do—so things are good.

In Other News:

1) “Who knew that Heaven was in India?” Said by Lily Hartley.

2) The streets are flooded again today, but since I got a ride home, there are no new adventures to report.

3) A new vendor showed up at our door today—this one selling Dosas—Janet bought some—they were excellent. This apartment complex is large enough that there are a series of vendors who are given permission by the housing society here to go door-to-door. We buy all our fruit from a guy who delivers. We also get our milk and newspapers that way. And there is a guy who sells Indian Snack mixes—Janet bought something from him once, but I don’t know if he is a regular or not.

4) For Independence Day tomorrow, there is a flag raising ceremony on the roof of our complex at 9 AM. It should be interesting.

5) One thing I miss from America—hearing all the Red Sox fans moaning in agony these days.

6) By the way—my fantasy baseball team went 15-1 last week.