Spirit

Again, another picture from the lost/found library of pictures. I guess I feel I need to get these up because I just had my desktop computer die a spectacular death and it took thousands of pictures with it (although I had them all backed up other places). Once again the topic is my second trip to India in August 2003. I don't know why this picture speaks to me, other than the fact that it may be the first picture I took of the seemingly never-ending slums of Mumbai. I can still remember snapping the picture out of a car window and my then new friend John telling me that the people who lived there rented the space (I think we were talking about our constant problems with our campus and slum lords). I guess it had never occurred to me that someone might be paying to live there. Maybe I just assumed that people defiantly carved off the space and threw something together, which, obviously, someone did - but those people then began to rent out the space. It's a big issue in India because the political parties and local politicians compete to get the vote of "squatters" so they're always messing with the date in which you couldn't build more shanty towns. Plus, and obviously, the corruption is staggering. On the one hand the situation is depressing, but it also speaks to a spirit to survive that few of us in the U.S. could hope to match. And, thinking back to my previous post, if my biggest daily challenge is finding alternative bike routes then I (and most Americans) don't really ever have anything to complain about. One of the things that I noticed after spending time in India is that I stopped having much sympathy for student complaints about the challenges of getting their work in on time (or, for that matter, much sympathy for faculty complaints about the horror that is our job).

Riding or Wading

Finally the weather has broken, sort of, and allowed me to get my bike out. This has been just about the most dreary spring I can remember since I moved to Vermont. We've had precious few good days, but luckily this week has given us three days that, if you watched the Weather Channel and figured out your windows of opportunity, you could get out. Yesterday was my first long ride when I rode from my office up to Airport Park in Colchester. It was a lovely day for a ride, but in between all the rain we've been having (although, thankfully, it hasn't been anything like what our poor friends in the South have been suffering through) there is some flooding. The bike path runs right along the edge of Lake Champlain and I was expecting to hit some spots that were impassable, but, amazingly, beyond this little spot it wasn't too bad. I did see several folks ride their bikes through the water, but, discretion being the better part of valor, I just turned my bike around and meandered a different way through a neighborhood and reached the same goal (and I suppose there is some profound, or not so profound, lesson there).

Life at the Q: Yak and Yak

Here are some nice pictures of an event we had last night at the Q: Yak and Yak with the most excellent Rob Williams. One of the great things about living at the Q this year has been interacting with the students, especially when it comes to cooking for them or eating with them (and I really need to post on that as well - I have a ton of posts that I plan to get caught up on in the summer, when I'm not working on Arabic or researching/writing or riding my bike). Rob is one of my oldest friends in Vermont (and, I think anyway, that I actually hired him here at Champlain). Among his many unique hobbies/talents (such as singing in the great local band Phineas Gage [phineasgagevt.blogspot.com] and playing a leading role in the Vermont secession movement; and I really should embed links to the appropriate webpages - another summer chore) is that of yak rancher (www.vermontyak.com). When the Russian students were in town last year their favorite trips was out to visit Rob's yaks. His yak business is expanding rapidly and his has customers all over, including his biggest buyer who lives in Florida. As a treat for the little Qsters, Rob came out last night and grilled out yak sausage (which was absolutely delicious). In addition to cooking, Rob also took the time to explain issues of sustainability and small business to the kids. We had a big turnout and the yak was a huge hit with the students, and we even managed to finish up before the deluge. Besides being a really great guy, Rob is also the quintessential Vermonter in that he is both delightfully quirky but also solidly authentic.

Journey Through the Past: Got Ice?

Another picture from the lost and found treasure trove of pictures, this one from my trip to India in August 2003 (it was my second trip to India, and a year before I spent the summer teaching there). It must be all the reading about the Silk Road I've been doing for my China course - I feel like Aurel Stein uncovering a lost city out in the middle of the Taklamakan Desert. I guess I like this picture because it very nicely expresses how easy we have it in the US - how we completely take all conveniences for granted. The thought of travelling down to the corner to get a chunk of ice seems so 19th century to us that we could not process the thought that this is a daily reality (and, in fact, a luxury) for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Of course, the other side of this relates to the fact that Americans (with our squeamish digestive system) would be much better off avoiding the ice. Probably one of the most valuable Hindi phrases to learn is "no ice" for ordering drinks. That said, in the end it's hard to avoid getting sick, and at least then you begin to build up some tolerance, which allows you to be more adventuresome in your eating habits.

Fire

I always find the end of the school year to be a very bittersweet time. Even though I routinely give my students a fair share of good-natured abuse and work them pretty hard I do love them, and so the end of the academic year always gives me the blues. Adding to that this particular year is my own goodly share of personal sturm und drang, and that is magnified by the potential of spending the next year overseas. This last week I've found myself saying goodbye to my juniors, when I began to realize that I won't see them their senior year. It's also hard to think about leaving my close friends. For all of the pain of the last couple years, I've also allowed myself, really for the first time in years, to reach out to other people - and I've been blessed to have an amazing group of friends. Over the last year arguably the most pleasant surprise has been my growing friendship with Cyndi Brandenburg. We have a classic big brother/little sister relationship, with me picking on her endlessly and her getting very competitive around me (as can be seen in the chicken wing competition - oh, and I just realized that I've never gotten around to posting on the second incarnation of the chicken wings for charity competition). Aside from the constant tweaking of each other we've grown quite close, and I really like her husband Bill, the sweet and quiet twin girls Sarah and Maria, and the adorably corybantic Joey. Last night a group of us met at the Brandenburg/Vespa estate for one of Bill's classic bonfires (he is more than a bit of a pyromaniac, although he assured us this time that he had a permit this time). After building a fire, which I'm sure was visible from space, we feasted on hot dogs and smores, and the requisite amount of adult beverages. On nice evenings you can also walk through the field to the lovely country store, which completes the classic Vermont experience. So, I'm posting a few pictures, including ones of Kerry Noonan singing, her husband Steve and their daughter Dasha staring at the fire (I think this was shortly before Steve jumped the fire), and various shots of friends. The second one from the top if of Cyndi and Bill, the perfect hosts.

The Excellent Emily

For the last two years I have been remarkably fortunate to have the amazing Emily Clemons serve as my work-study student in the Global Modules program, and yesterday, sadly, was her last day. When we hired her on two years ago I didn't know that I had actually taught her before (and she still, amazingly, agreed to work for me). She had been my student in an online class a couple years before that, so I had never actually seen her before in person. And no matter what I threw at her for two years she handled it all easily and with good humor (and Lord knows I can be difficult to be around, even on my best days). Whether it was spending hours setting up Global Module shells or receiving emails from me all hours of the night (she said she learned to turn the volume off her phone early on) with student/faculty problems from around the world she never missed a beat. Many of the tremendous improvements we've made in the Global Module program, especially the website, over the last year stem from her ideas. A couple weeks ago I walked into the office and she told me to send someone an email and to cc her - and it became even more clear to me who the real boss of the operation was. What I will miss most if her ability to get her work done, always be cheerful in the face of my generally dyspeptic mood, and adapt on the fly to a constantly changing job. Last Tuesday was a classic example - we were trying to finish up some GM planning while I was also complaining about my inability to achieve a rolled r in Arabic. She called me over to her computer to show me a couple things - one related to the GM, and the other to a YouTube video she had just pulled up to help me with my r's. And the rest of the day alternated between discussions of GM problems and how to roll r's (most folks would have been driven crazy by the chaos, but she was quite at home). Here are a few pictures of the final day, including a great picture of Emily with our beloved Darlene (who organized the party, just as you organizes our daily lives in the Core division - that is, brilliantly). We'll miss you, Em.

The Boy

OK, just another picture that I thought was lost, but which I rediscovered buried in a neglected folder at school. This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of my son. He was 16 at the time, and the picture was taken at our old house in Barre. He's wearing his Braves cap. Since his formative years were spent in Atlanta his favorite team has always been the Braves. I think he's become as big a baseball fan as his father. I remember years ago we were watching the last game of the World Series, and after the last out he turned to me and say, "and now what do we do till spring?" - which is a thought I've had countless times at the same point in the season. The other day he showed me how to stream games from my computer (using MLB.TV, which he also introduced to me) onto my television. Some of my favorites moments today are when he comes over and we watch Reds or Braves games. He really is a wonderful kid. I can still remember with complete clarity the moment he was born (and he just had his 23rd birthday) and the doctor handed him to me, and all I could think of was that I already loved him so much that it was almost unfair (and I still do today).