The first change I had to get used to was the difference in nomenclature. Here I teach a "term," not a semester; I have a "room," not an office; and I'm a "member," not an adjunct. I have as much difficulty now remembering to use those words as I did three months ago. This past fall, as I chronicled in a previous column, "Getting Out of the Kitchen," I left a tenure-track job at Fine Southern University (for a lot of reasons, including a location that left me unhappy personally and an institution about which I was more and more dubious) to pursue my fortunes overseas. Since then, aside from the lingo, I have had trouble adjusting to the reality of some highly un-American benefits of working in temporary teaching gigs here. The fact that I'm a "member" of the university means I get two free meals a week and the chance to lounge in the faculty common room drinking as much tea as I want. Also, every day there's a different free cake.
