Columbia

I went to Columbia University for the first time today. It's on 116Th street, which is a long subway ride for me.
I went to meet a professor of Serbo-Croatian literature and language, who I found by googling, and who was nice enough to invite me to her office after I dropped her an e-mail just a few days ago.
Columbia's campus is amazingly big and beautiful. I used to think American has a nice campus.
When you get in, after you go through an alley with old buildings on left and right, you see an Acropolis looking building, with an Alma Mater statue half way on the long stairs. On the right side are three huge lawns, in front of another library. The buildings are beautifully old and I had a feeling I was in a European museum complex, not an American campus. Not at all.
This professor is a sweet Serbian woman in her 60s, who invited and encouraged me to come to some Serbo-Croatian events and seminars in the city. I believe that Columbia is the only University that teaches Serbo-Croatian in New York.
I was interested in employment. She said that there's no chance for that, not even for their own PhD students. She also suggested I get one. And for a moment, I thought about it. But then she said, it would take at least seven years?! Seven years?
My, that's really long. I don't know if I can commit again, to something like that. I mean, I'm already married.