First Day Impressions

A late night arrival in a new country means some major disorientation on Day 1. Combine that with the fact that shadows point south, not north, and my head starts to spin. After one day in Quito, I’m happy to spend an evening hibernating in my room and processing what I know is a little bit of culture shock.

Morning sunlight in the courtyard outside the bedroom at my Quito B&B.

Morning sunlight in the courtyard outside the bedroom at my Quito B&B.

And if you’re wondering why I have only one photo to show you after a full day in the city…well, one of my ways of adjusting is to leave the camera at the B&B in order to keep a low profile until I get a better feel for a place. It’s bad enough that I occasionally have to stop and look at the map I keep folded in my pocket. I can’t help looking like a foreigner. But I can avoid looking like a clueless foreigner.

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11 days to go, 3 bags, 6 pairs of shoes (at least)

Airline tickets are in hand! (Or, at least, in my inbox). In 11 days, I fly to Quito, Ecuador, where I’ll spend my first week doing an orientation with Fulbright, visiting the immigration office and the US embassy – taking care of ‘paperwork’, and perhaps a little sight-seeing in my free moments. My biggest challenge at the moment? Finding the perfect pair of shoes!

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Is this enough bag-space for 6 months?

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So … Why Ecuador?

As I begin to count down the days to an as-of-yet-unspecified day of departure (still waiting for my plane ticket), and I try to rally my strength to get through the cold weather and build my enthusiasm for traveling again, I realize that I have never really shared what made me apply for a Fulbright to work in Ecuador in the first place. Why am I about to pack up my life into a big purple suitcase and move to this tiny South American country for 6 months?

Map of Ecuador - I'll be calling Cuenca 'home' for 6 months. (Source: US Dept of State website)

Map of Ecuador – I’ll be calling Cuenca ‘home’ for 6 months. (Source: US Dept of State website)

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Starting the Year at Home

It’s here – 2015 has arrived. And in a month or so, I’m headed off to Ecuador. I seem to be frequently getting the question: Are you getting excited? The answer: Well, not exactly. Not yet. Under normal circumstances, I would be. But 2014 took a lot out of me, and here, at the start of 2015, all I can say is there’s no place like home. I’m content to sit in my living room with a cat on my lap and stare out at the sunshine on bright white snow, and simply not think about anything.

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Keeping Creativity Alive in the Ivory Tower

I have taught for 19 semesters straight – yes, almost 10 years – two or three classes per semester, sometimes with a lab. That’s 19 sets of midterms (2-3 per semester per class), 19 sets of final exams, probably close to 2000 students, and many thousands of homework assignments, papers, and projects to grade. Now, in my 20th semester of employment, I get to take a breather.

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GSA Resource Roundup

Alternate Post Title: Saving the Planet – One Website at a Time

I recently added Canada to the list of countries I’ve visited. (I know, of all the places I’ve been in this world, I had never been across the border just to the north.) Vancouver gave me a chance to experience truly cloudy skies, rain, lush green vegetation, and a rush of thousands of geoscience enthusiasts on their way to catch the next talk at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

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Afraid of ghosts? I’ve got something scarier.

In honor of the spooky time of year, I thought I would share with you a little spookiness from a trip to Scotland awhile back.

Ardvreck Castle sits on a lonely spit of land in the middle of gloomy Loch Assynt in the northwest Scottish Highlands. If all you know about Scotland are scenes from Rob Roy and Braveheart, and descriptions from books such as Outlander, whatever you imagined the Scottish Highlands to look like, you would find it here at Ardvreck.

The ruins of Castle Ardvreck on the shores of Loch Assynt in the northwest Scottish Highlands

The ruins of Castle Ardvreck on the shores of Loch Assynt in the northwest Scottish Highlands.

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