teaching, traveling, taking pictures
Photo by Nik MacMillan on Unsplash Tell me about yourself. My name is Conan Kmiecik. I will be 43 years old before the end of this year. I have two sons who live back in the United States. They are 20 and 18 years old. I have worked in education for little more than a decade now and… Continue reading The Job Interview
This is the third year of my three-year contract at Qatar University, so I am up for renewal. If I am renewed, I can be present for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. I can almost count on one hand the number of student loan payments that I have left to make. I have to chip… Continue reading What’s on My Mind
I just completed the first week of my third academic year in Qatar, and things seem to be off to a good start. I don't teach until 2pm, and this past week I awoke at 5am every day. So, during my ample morning free time, I have been working out at the gym in my… Continue reading Contingencies for Ugly Situations
On Sunday, August 18, I had to report back to work. My flight arrived at 4am, and I was home from the airport around 5am, but after spending the past 26 hours on planes and in airports— getting intermittent sleep across eight time zones—I wasn’t ready to shut my eyes. So, I bided my time… Continue reading How I Travel: A Reflection
Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fearOf a simple thing he cannot comprehendWhy they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple moreMore people, more scars upon the landJohn Denver, "Rocky Mountain High" Biking around Garden of the Gods Driving up Pike's Peak Rafting down… Continue reading Road Trip 2019 with My Sons (Part 3)
Because Colorado was settled late in the nineteenth century, poetry in English begins late in Colorado. Though there were nomadic Indian groups and, later, settlers from Mexico, there is little poetry of record before the middle of the twentieth century.Poets.org, "The Poetic History of Colorado"
“I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.” Jack Kerouac, On the Road Old Market in Omaha, Nebraska Airbnb in Boulder, Colorado
