ramble through the bronx

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Cool Canadian Cities

So, in the next couple of weeks I should be hearing about my funding for the next year (2006-2007) at Fordham. Either I'll get a Senior Teaching Fellowship ($19 000), a Dissertation Fellowship ($25 000 and I don't have to do anything other than work on my dissertation -- sweet!), or I get a Teaching Associateship ($12 000-- three courses, I get paid per course, about $4000 apiece; two of them would be in the same semester -- so one semester I'd make $8000 and the next $4000). Obviously the first two options would be great; the last would suck, given that I can't work off campus, and I don't qualify for much in terms of loans. Also, only 3-4 folks in our department will be getting the first two kinds of fellowship, and there are at least ten or so of us applying. I think I'm in the running, but I'm definitely not guaranteed anything.

All of this brings me to the following point: why don't I just move back to Canada where I can temp or get some mildly fulfilling job that's just enough work to pay the bills, and work on my dissertation on the evenings/weekend? After all, all I have to do now is write the damn thing, and I don't need to physically be at Fordham, or in New York City, to do that.

So what's a cool city to move to? Because I could move anywhere -- why limit myself to Toronto or Ottawa? I figure I could pretty much live just about anywhere for a year -- if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have to stay there. The main criterion is that it be affordable to someone who'd just be temping or working some crap job -- I don't want to have to put too much thought into what I do for money, since I really do want to finish my diss in a reasonable time. (Oh yeah -- and my French is pretty rusty these days -- so most of Quebec outside of Montreal is probably off-limits eh?)

What are your votes? Saskatoon? Moncton? The 'Peg? Or should I follow the homing pigeons back to Torontottawa?

jane 8:05 PM [+]