Jared's One Blog

I’m not intending for this to be a complete re-hash of everything that was posted on the Christian Grads in Australia blog, but I’ll still recount a few things, borrow some text, but also add some additional description of my own, and of course add plenty more photos. Even if you don’t feel like reading all the text, enjoy the photographic eye candy!
Mon-Tue 2-3 Aug
Travel was travel. Our American Airlines flight from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles had to make an unscheduled refueling stop in lovely Tulsa, however. The reason? The center fuel pump was inoperative. They actually went into a lot more detail than that, which I found quite interesting, but others thought was over-sharing. But we were assured repeatedly that the plane was of course totally safe. 🙂 Ash & I were both reading Bill Bryson’s hilarious travel book about Australia, In a Sunburned Country, and cracking up pretty much the whole flight. It was Ash’s first time reading the book, my third. It’s still just as funny! Tracy & Ash got seats next to each other for the Los Angeles to Melbourne flight, but I was seated somewhere not near them. I was also in a middle seat, so I didn’t get too much sleep. Maybe 3-4 hours total? I had forgotten how long 15.5 hours on a plane was. Oh, and 3 Aug basically didn’t exist. We departed Los Angeles shortly after 11pm on 2 Aug, and landed in Melbourne at 8am on 4 Aug.

Wed 4 Aug
Read Tracy’s perspective here
We hit the ground running. Mike Shepski, the Student Life (Campus Crusade) director for both The University of Melbourne and the state of Victoria as a whole, picked up the three of us from the airport, and we were able to get a much-appreciated shower at his place and chill a little bit before we went out for our first meeting. We had some time to wander around the campuses of RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and Melbourne Uni before our afternoon meeting at University House (a private club for professors/staff and grad students) with Malcolm and Sandy, who both help run the Christian Union group at Uni Melb. We had a wonderful and encouraging meeting with them, and came away definitely feeling like a partnership could work out with them. A few days later Tracy checked out a women’s grad student Bible study that Sandy ran, and two Sundays later Ash went to church with Malcolm and his wife, so there were some additional connections made there.

After that meeting Mike dropped us off at Melbourne Central station with our luggage, and we made our way to our hosts for the evening — Ash & Tracy to a Student Life staff couple’s house in Nunawading, and me to Joel & Rosey’s house in Blackburn, just a couple stations earlier on the same line. I think some of the other Aussies on the train near us were amused while listening to me trying to explain to Ash & Tracy everything that “no worries” means in Australia.
Joel & Rosey had dinner waiting for me (as well as my favorite Aussie breakfast cereal, Just Right, and a package of Tim Tams!), and little did I know but they were also hosting their church small group Bible study right after dinner. I almost zonked out a couple of times, but I managed to stay awake the whole way through the study of Leviticus 4-7. I even managed to participate a little bit, but man oh man was I tired by the end! I made it to 11pm, I was impressed! And so were Joel & Rosey!
I met both Joel & Rosey in the Christian Union group at Monash in 2004. Rosey’s currently on staff with CU, and Joel’s working in pest control while trying to find an engineering-related job. They’re probably the friends I’ve kept in most frequent contact with since I left Australia. They’re both nerdy (love to play Starcraft and watch Stargate), and Joel is fairly reserved, but Rosey is quite possibly the most outgoing person I’ve ever met.
Thu 5 Aug
Read Tracy’s perspective here
After a morning meeting at RMIT with some Campus Crusade undergrads from UVA and Virginia Tech who were on the last day of their 6-week “summer project” in Melbourne and hearing some of their stories, Ash, Tracy & I did a little sightseeing, walking around the Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail), an oddly astroturfed courtyard, which is now part of RMIT. A sign outside proclaimed the Gaol as Australia’s “FINEST” tourist and cultural attraction. I’m sure the museum part is interesting, but the finest attraction in all of Australia? Somehow I doubt it. 🙂

From there we walked all the way down Swanston Street to the Yarra River. We were all fans of the super-wide sidewalks on Swanston. We took the tram back up to Melbourne Uni to meet with Mike again, and we also got our schedule set up the next day at Monash Uni. Then we trammed it back to Federation Square, where I thought about paying $25 to partake in a big wine tasting festival there, but decided it’d be better if I were still awake for dinner, hehe.

That evening we met up with Simon Camilleri of The Backyard Bard for dinner. Simon came to Penn State back in September 2008 during his US tour of the show, “Elijah.” We didn’t have phones yet, so we arranged to meet him in front of the National Gallery of Victoria at a particular time — because that was a place I knew of (and, not gonna lie, I wanted to see if those crazy u-turn traffic lights were still there in front of the NGV!). Simon took us to one of the many, many Italian restaurants on Lygon Street, a street just outside the CBD (central business district) that’s lined with ethnic restaurants (especially Italian and Greek ones). After dinner we stopped at an irresistible gelati shop to top it all off. It was a great evening catching up with Simon.

Fri 6 Aug
Read Tracy’s perspective here
We spent the day at Monash University. Joel & Rosey offered me the use of their car, but I wasn’t yet comfortable enough with being on the left side of the road and driving on unfamiliar suburban streets, so I walked up to Blackburn station and then took the bus from there down to Monash with Ash & Tracy. Read my previous post here about the day at Monash, including our meeting with Graeme, the campus director of Monash Christian Union, plus the first of my research seminars.

After my seminar I made my way back to Joel & Rosey’s place, where they were hosting a reunion for everyone from Monash CU from when I was there in 2004. I got to the party a bit late though, because before the party, I had to drive Joel to the army barracks in Ringwood. It was his weekend to go there for army reserves, unfortunately, but because Joel & Rosey were planning to loan me their car the next day, he needed a ride. While that morning I wasn’t comfortable with driving on the left, I had to make myself comfortable that evening. So, while driving at night on a pretty busy but unfamiliar road, I quickly had to reacquaint myself with driving a manual transmission (and the quirks of that particular manual) and with driving on the left side. Throw in trying to adjust to shifting with my left hand and signaling (indicating) with my right, and I was all screwed up — the windshield (windscreen) wipers came on several times, hehe. I only got honked at once though, and that was for not accelerating quickly enough out of a traffic light. I consider that a success. 🙂 And by the return drive to Joel & Rosey’s, I felt like I was finally getting a hang of how that car drove.
Quite a few people were already there by the time I got back to the house. I was so excited to see everyone again! Some folks weren’t able to make it, but many were able to come, it was great! I didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone as much as I would have liked, obviously, but the really cool thing about the evening was that most everyone there hadn’t seen each other in several months either, so everyone was catching up with everyone else. Even when everyone lives in the same metro area, life can still get in the way and prevent friends from seeing each other much. So everyone was glad that I gave them an excuse to get together again finally.

Sat 7 Aug
Read Tracy’s perspective here
Using Joel & Rosey’s car, I picked up Ash & Tracy and then we drove east of Melbourne out of the city on the Maroondah Hwy. We were all very glad to see some of the countryside at last. We drove through Yarra Ranges National Park to see the town of Marysville, which was devastated by the terrible Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. As we were driving through the tall, majestic eucalyptus forests in Yarra Ranges we noticed the bases of all the trees were charred, but above about 20-30 feet there were no burn marks. Along the road that crested the mountain and descended into Marysville, all the eucalyptus trees looked “furry” — the entire trunk was sprouting little branches and leaves. That’s apparently what happens to eucalyptus trees after being severely burned. Driving along that road, I was better able to imagine the frightening and hellish scenes of what it must’ve been like for the residents trying to escape the intense fire. Sobering. I hadn’t ever been to Marysville before, so I didn’t know what it looked like before the fire, but it was pretty clear that something bad had happened. There was a good deal of new construction, temporary buildings, and open lots with signs like, “We will return.” We walked around town a bit, and hoped to check out the Marysville Reconstruction Centre, but it closed right before we got there. Also, we noticed that all the mountains surrounding Marysville were brown instead of green — an indication that all the trees were dead. Gum (eucalyptus) trees can often withstand bushfires (though their resin is highly flammable, so they have a tendency to “explode”), but the fires that day were just too intense.

We drove back the way we came and stopped for lunch in Healesville. First we poked our heads into the White Rabbit Brewery and enjoyed a couple samples. I was definitely shocked by the $19 pricetag on the 6-packs, and $65 tag on the cases. Egads. But as it turns out, that’s not too out of line for beer prices in Australia. For a culture that loves to drink, I have no idea how they afford it! We got some lunch at a bakery next door, and after I got a meat pie, sausage roll and lamington, Ash & Tracy followed my lead and also got meat pies. Meat pies are kind of similar to pot pies here in the U.S., but a whole lot better and much more common. I really don’t know why we don’t have them here, as they’re pretty good. And the traditional Aussie thing to do is to squeeze tomato sauce (very similar to ketchup, but not exactly the same).

After lunch we went to the Healesville Sanctuary (which I visited once in 2004), so that we could see some Aussie wildlife. I was hoping to pet some kangaroos again, but they were being lazy and somewhat antisocial. We also got to see emus, dingoes, snakes, pelicans, Tasmanian devils, platypuses (platypi?), and lyrebirds, among others. The Australian pelicans and the lyrebirds are definitely among my favorite animals down there. Lyrebirds are really cool in that they can imitate just about any sound they hear, including other birds, car alarms, mechanical sounds, and even people talking! They really are incredible birds. Nearby there’s an exhibit that plays many of the lyrebird calls, but a guide told us they had to turn the volume down on it because it was distressing the male lyrebird in the nearby enclosure, hehe.

We got back to Joel & Rosey’s, where we met up with my friend Paul and his girlfriend Susannah, and then rode the train into the city to go to an Australian rules football game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (read Tracy’s take on the game here). We kind of lucked into it being the most-hyped game of the entire regular season and the hottest ticket in town, between the top two teams in the league, the Geelong Cats (the team that Paul & I both cheer for) and the Collingwood Magpies. Since we’d arrived, when we’d mention to people that we had tickets to that game, they were universally jealous. Anyway, more than 90,000 people showed up for the game, and it seemed like about two-thirds were Pies fans. While the game was going on, Paul & I explained the rules to Ash & Tracy, and Paul was actually rather impressed at how well I was able to explain details of an Australian game even though I was an American. 🙂 It was a fun atmosphere and a really good back-and-forth game, until Collingwood took control in the 4th quarter to pull away for the 107-85 victory. Geelong seemed off their game much of the night too, and had sloppy passing — turnovers killed them. Oh well, it was still a lot of fun!

And now to start working on part 2…

Okay, so I’m now back from my trans-Pacific trip, and there will be a few posts forthcoming about the trip to Terra Australis. In addition to the Australia trip there have been a few other major things going on, such as moving out of my old apartment and into Isaac’s house, and going to a wedding in Indiana. But let’s start with the wedding.
So on Fri 30 July I gave a seminar on my research at 9am in the Water Tunnel Bldg on campus, the same seminar I was to give three times in Australia. After I finished that and some other things I had to take care of, I hit the road for Kettering, Ohio (a suburb of Dayton), to visit my friends Daniel & Katie. It took a lot longer than expected to get there, however. It was fine until I approached Pittsburgh. For some reason Yinzers are scared to death of driving through a tunnel, so they slow to a crawl for two miles leading up to it. It’s happened every single time I’ve come into Pittsburgh on I-376/US-22 from the east — and this wasn’t even rush hour! Then I hit another inexplicable traffic jam in downtown Pittsburgh, most likely caused by Yinzers being afraid to merge properly (or at all). Then I hit another traffic jam on I-79 near Washington, PA, as it approached a junction with I-70, which had construction both ways on it (several mile standstill backup). Then on I-70 near Wheeling, WV, traffic was backed up several miles up the hill because the tunnel in Wheeling was closed — and so were two of the three lanes of the I-270 bypass around Wheeling. What genius! In all, it took me about three hours to travel 60 miles. UGH. When I finally got into Ohio it was smooth sailing though.
Once I got to Daniel & Katie’s and brought my suitcase into their house, Daniel innocently asked, “Is that everything?” because he wanted to shut the garage door. Then it dawned on me all of a sudden. I had forgotten something. Namely, the clothes I had picked out to wear to the wedding. They were hanging in my apartment’s closet. By themselves. (I had packed up all my other clothes and taken them to Isaac’s in preparation of moving out, so those literally were the only clothes left in my closet.) I remembered to pack the shoes, just not the pants, shirt or tie. SIGH. Anyway, I felt like a dolt, but decided not to worry about it that night or the next morning, and instead wanted to enjoy my time hanging out with Daniel & Katie and their two young daughters, Paige (17 mos.) and Claire (5 mos.). They’ve sure got their hands full, but not as full as they will be when they’re both toddling around. 🙂 It was fun to hang out with them again, but unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of their young brood. I’m looking forward to when they come visit State College sometime in October!
On Saturday I headed north and northwest from Dayton, angling over to Goshen, Indiana. Along the way I stopped at a JC Penney to purchase some wedding attire. Considering all I had was shorts and a t-shirt, it was pretty necessary. 🙂 But I found something agreeable to me at an agreeable price. I still wasn’t thrilled about buying more clothes when I already have so many and am preparing to move to Colorado by trying to fit all my possessions into my car.
Anyway, onto the wedding. I hadn’t ever met Mary Rose before, but I’ve been friends with Luke from way back in kindergarten/1st grade in Mountain Lake, MN (which, incidentally, doesn’t have a mountain but does have a lake). We were on the same bus route and were practically best friends back then. When I was in 2nd grade my family moved to Wisconsin, but Luke & I kept in touch through letters periodically, and he and his mom even came to visit once when they were in Osceola for a Bible camp. Through middle and high school we lost touch, but when I was a freshman at Gustavus, I saw a poster in Björling Hall (the music building) advertising an upcoming concerto performance in nearby New Ulm by the Southwest Minnesota Orchestra, featuring guest pianist Luke Norell. I thought it was worth a drive over to the concert to see if it was the same Luke Norell that I knew, and when he walked out on stage with his red hair, I knew it was him. So we’ve kept in touch ever since then, but still haven’t been able to hang out much.
Luke & Mary Rose are both pursuing their DMA in piano performance, Luke at Indiana University, and Mary Rose at Northwestern University. So of course there was some fantastic music at the wedding! 🙂

Luke even broke from the script at one point and turned to Mary Rose to say, “A long time ago I told you that I’d love to play you some Chopin at our wedding. I’d like to play you some now.” It was a total surprise for Mary Rose!

The reception was held in the atrium right outside the recital hall where the wedding took place. It was nice to have it right on-site. Partly because it wasn’t a large space, and partly because both families are quite conservative, there was no dancing at the reception, and there wasn’t any alcohol either (not even champagne for toasts). It’s not an arrangement that I’d prefer for my wedding, and some people might say that a wedding without any alcohol or dancing is lame, but for this one it actually worked great. I was at a table of people who all knew only either the bride or the groom but pretty much nobody else there, which was kind of nice, actually, in that nobody felt totally isolated. A funny moment came when one guy at my table accidentally lit his program/songbook on fire, hehe. 🙂 The reception was also filled with music throughout, with lots of family members and friends getting up and playing/singing various pieces, many of which were in small songbooks that were at each seat so that everyone could sing along as well. It was great fun!

Even Mary Rose’s grandmother got into the act with a rousing rendition of “He Is Jehovah,” which I unfortunately only caught the tail end of. But she got a standing ovation, quite deservedly!

Luke and Mary Rose also played a few piano duets:

It was a great wedding and reception, and I was glad I could make it. Even though I of course didn’t get much of a chance to catch up with him, I was able to catch up some with his family, which was nice. Not many of Luke’s friends were able to make it to Indiana, so they had a couple of receptions back in Minnesota for folks there in mid-August. So they were especially appreciative that I was able to make it. I think they enjoyed my story about forgetting my clothes too, and that I was in the process of moving out and about to travel to Australia on top of that, and that I still could make it. 🙂

After staying the night in Goshen, and staying a bit longer than planned for breakfast because of a conversation with Luke’s dad and some other folks, I hit the road for my 8-hour drive back to State College. I got there around 7pm, and then worked furiously to finish cleaning and getting my stuff out of my apartment around 1am, before leaving for our Australia trip at 7am the following morning. Nothing like a nice, relaxing weekend right before international travel, haha! I wouldn’t change a thing about the weekend though, other than maybe being a bit further along on cleaning/moving out prior to the weekend. 🙂 It all worked out though!
I had hoped to fly to my cousin Jonathan & Lindsey’s wedding in Spokane last weekend, just a few days after returning from Australia, but I realized I couldn’t afford it, what with the Australia trip and moving to Colorado. It would’ve been nice to bookend the trip with weddings, but I think I would’ve been too exhausted to hop right back on another plane for another cross-country trip!

[On location in Los Angeles International Airport]
Just in case it’ll be awhile before I can write up another blog entry, I wanted to share the link to the blog that Ash, Tracy & I will be posting to about our missions/ministry work in Melbourne. The URL is http://www.christian-grads-in-australia.blogspot.com. I’ll try to post here when I can, but to be honest, that blog will probably get updated more frequently, if not from me, then from Ash or Tracy.
Right now we’re in LAX, and our flight to MEL boards in two and a half hours. Our flight from IAD made an unplanned refueling stopover in lovely TUL because the plane’s center fuel pump was inoperative. They said the two fuel tanks over the wings are the main ones, and the center tank is just an auxiliary tank, but with that pump not working, they needed to get extra fuel to make it to Los Angeles. How reassuring! Other than that our travel day has been pretty smooth so far. I’m just super-tired from getting only three hours of sleep last night. I didn’t get back from Indiana until 7pm, and then I didn’t finish cleaning/moving out until 12:30am. After unloading my stuff at Hollemans, I then realized I forgot something and had to go back, so it was after 1:30am before I went to bed, and awhile after that before I fell asleep. 5:30am came wayyyy too early. I’m looking forward to a glass of wine or two at altitude knocking me out on the flight! I’m not exactly looking forward to being in a metal tube for 15.5 hours though (16.5-17 if you count early boarding and everything else), but it’s worth it.
Australia here we come!

Colorado is a pretty awesome place. I just wrapped up a full week there, and it was a fantastic week. There were some work-related purposes for the trip, including working with the DART developers at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) and getting feedback on how I should be using it for my research project. Another purpose was to meet my future supervisor, which I did on Monday morning the 12th. He seems like a nice guy, but it’ll definitely be an adjustment changing supervisors. Sue will still be my co-advisor, however.
In addition to all the work-related stuff for me to do at NCAR (and my visit was useful, I thought), Alex was also at the tail end of a 3-month visit to NCAR when I was there. Bonus! I arrived in Denver on Friday night the 9th, and took the Super Shuttle to Boulder, where I had arranged to rent a bedroom in someone’s house, just a 5-minute walk from NCAR Foothills Lab. Convenient! And it was only about three blocks from where Alex was staying too. Somewhere between the State College and Detroit airports I lost my memory stick, however. It had my presentation and other relevant data files on it, among other things. I called lost and founds at both airports and filed a missing item report with Delta, but nobody had found it or turned it in. Oh well. Fortunately Kerrie was able to go into the Water Tunnel Building to find and email me the files I needed. Thanks, Kerrie!! I would’ve been up a creek without that.
Anyway, Alex had gone with some friends out to Steamboat Springs that evening to catch the hot air balloon festival at dawn on Saturday morning. But he left me his car and keys so that I could drive to Steamboat on Saturday and catch up to him in early afternoon. I’d never been west of Boulder in Colorado, and it was a beautiful drive west from Denver on I-70 to Silverthorne and then up to Steamboat Springs on CO-9 and US-40.

Alex’s friends returned to Boulder about 20 minutes before I got to Steamboat, so when I arrived we went right to nearby Strawberry Park Hot Springs, where Alex had just been with his other friends. They have natural hot springs there, but also a snowmelt-fed creek, so for the different pools they blend different amounts of each, so each pool is a slightly different temperature. That place was really neat, and well worth the $10 admission.

From there, after buying a bunch of food for camping and hiking (way too much food, but at least we were prepared!), it was on to Rocky Mountain National Park, following Trail Ridge Road all the way from the southwest corner of the park to Estes Park. What a spectacular road! Much of the road had a steep drop-off on one or both sides, and Alex said he was a bit nervous driving it, even though we had perfect weather. I’d hate to drive it in fog or snowy/slippery conditions! It also got pretty chilly as we climbed above 2 miles above mean sea level (maxing out at 12,183 feet), as we were still in flip-flops, t-shirts and swim trunks from the hot springs, so I didn’t linger outside when we stopped the car to take pictures. In addition to great views, we also saw a couple of moose (a mother and juvenile), as well as several elk.

We planned to camp, but the first campsite we went by on the west side of RMNP, Timber Creek, was hideously ugly and looked like a scar in the landscape (hence we got to see most of those great views above). Then we tried Aspenglen, but it was full (and dark). Finally we tried a campground a couple miles south of Longs Peak (14,259 ft), which Alex & Anne camped at a couple weeks prior. Fortunately, at 9:45pm, long after sunset, we found a spot, so we could set up our tent and finally grill our steaks and bread. We were totally roughing it. 🙂 It was my first time camping since Australia in 2004, but the hard ground prevented me from getting too much sleep. So in the span of three nights I’d gone from State College (~1200 feet) to Boulder (~5500 feet) to this campground (~8000 feet) south of Estes Park. So I at least let myself adjust to the altitude a little bit before we did any hiking. 🙂
On Sunday morning the 11th we drove back up to the Alpine Visitor Center (11,796 ft) in Rocky Mountain National Park to do some hiking. We hiked along Ute Trail, which started across the road from the Alpine Center, and took turns carrying the backpack. Our map said the trail went 4.1 miles to Milner Pass, where Trail Ridge Road crossed the Continental Divide. Views along the trail were pretty spectacular.

After awhile I started thinking we’d been hiking more than 4 miles, but we just kept going. Eventually we came pretty close to a herd of bighorn sheep too, which was really cool. We later found out that it’s rare for people to see bighorn sheep as close by as we saw them. Occasionally we passed people going the other way. I’d asked one person, “How much farther is it?” “Oh, another hour and a half or so.” Hmmmm. Later, we passed another person. “How far ahead is the [Continental] Divide?” “You’re on the Divide. And that’s Mount Ida over there, about 45 minutes ahead.” I heard what they said, but it just didn’t register. And I hadn’t heard of Mount Ida before, so that meant nothing to me. Anyway, we kept walking. And walking. Above 12,000 feet. Through a steady 20-mph wind battering my senses. I got a little light-headed at one point, but it wasn’t too bad and went away (that was it for me as far as being affected by the altitude). Eventually the trail disappeared amongst a scree of boulders on a mountainside. We kept going a bit further, but then started to strongly suspect that somehow unbeknownst to us we were no longer on Ute Trail. So I got out the map, and my eyes went right to “Mount Ida.” That’s so far off Ute Trail, along the Continental Divide, it suddenly clicked that that’s where we had to be. I asked Alex to look over the ridge and tell me if he saw a couple small lakes. Yep. That’s where we were. Instead of merely walking across the Continental Divide, we’d hiked 3.5 miles along the Continental Divide, at 12,000 feet. We were pretty close to the summit of Mount Ida (12,880 feet), only about a half mile of hiking and about 300 feet of elevation away. But we had no idea what time it was and there were rain clouds approaching from the southwest, so we decided it was wisest to turn around and start walking back.

Eventually we found where we left Ute Trail and started down Mount Ida Trail. Coming from Alpine Center, Ute Trail takes a 150-degree turn, and we didn’t see it at all. We saw a sign pointing back to Alpine Center and forward to Mount Ida, but the type on the sign didn’t register with either of us. Neither of us turned around either, otherwise we would’ve seen Ute Trail going down the hill. So instead we kept going straight, and eventually wound up on the slopes of Mount Ida. Anyway, coming back from Mount Ida, we took the fork of Ute Trail that went down to Milner Pass, to complete the hike we originally intended. On our way down to Milner Pass, a guy named Dan, who we’d run into after we turned around near Mt Ida, caught up to us. He said, “You guys are made of metal! Accidentally hiking an additional 7 miles at 12,000 feet and you’re still going strong!” By the time we got down to Milner Pass (10,758 ft) we were exhausted though, having hiked a total of 11 miles. Dan was kind enough to give us a ride 4 miles (and 1000-ft elevation rise) back up the road to Alpine Center and Alex’s car. We certainly could’ve hiked that last 4 miles up the hill, but we were thrilled that we didn’t have to. Neither of us have any regrets about missing the turn, though. It was super-cool and breathtaking to hike for 7 miles along the Continental Divide! Definitely not something too many people get to say that they’ve done.

By the time we got back to our campsite to take down the tent it was 5:30pm. We’d intended to be back for a late lunch and grill our other steaks. Oh well. By then it was late enough that we decided just to pack everything up and go out to eat in Estes Park. We were pretty hungry, because all we had to eat all day were two Twix, two bananas and three granola bars each. (That might be another reason we were so exhausted by the end of our hike!) We found a pizza place, but they said they didn’t have any beer. What they said they could do, though, is to bring our order down to the Irish pub a few doors down the street. Sweet! Let me tell ya, that order of onion rings, pizza and big pitcher of Fat Tire really hit the spot for both of us! Then it was back to Boulder, about 45 minutes from Estes Park. What a day, what a weekend!
As for the rest of the week, we checked out some other cool places. Monday night was the Boulder Draft House, with a $7 burger and beer special. Any burger on the menu. So we both got their most expensive burger ($12) and Fiesty Fiddler IPA. Yum! On Tuesday night I convinced Alex to try something new — the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House (a Tajik restaurant). Delicious. Thursday for lunch we went to a place called Smash Burger, and then that night we drove up to Lyons to go to Oskar Blues Grill & Brew. Ribs and IPA. Glorious. I’ll tell you what, Colorado has lots of fantastic beer!

While we did a lot of eating and drinking, we did do more stuff than that. 🙂 One night Alex introduced me to the game Bananagrams, which is basically like simultaneous, real-time Scrabble, except you can constantly rearrange your words to fit in new letters. We fit in a workout early Wednesday morning (I got up at 6am to go run with Alex down to the gym), went to an NCAR picnic Wednesday afternoon (when I helped Dr Greg Holland carry a keg of Fat Tire back up to his vehicle, he said to Alex & me with a smile, “I’m glad to see that grad students still have their priorities straight when it comes to free beer,” lol), played some pickup soccer with a bunch of Alex’s friends from NCAR (we were the only two Americans, interestingly), and went rock climbing that evening. It was my first time climbing since our study abroad orientation in Australia five years ago.
Climbing didn’t go well for me this time though. Whatever physical excuses I might’ve had (tired/sore arms from lifting weights that morning for the first time in a couple months), let’s just say I really need to work to change my attitude when I run into difficulty in a physical activity, be it skiing, running or rock climbing. When it comes to my body, my will is pretty weak, and I have a tendency to get easily frustrated, excessively negative and pouty. It’s not pretty, but it’s something I realize I desperately need to change. I had hoped to redeem myself with another go at climbing on Friday morning, but Alex was too tired (woke up super-early) and had too much to do, with it being his last day at NCAR. My arms were still sore that day anyway, so maybe it was for the best that I’ll wait to try again. Next time, whether I reach the top or not, at the very least I will have a better attitude.
I flew out early on Saturday morning the 17th, and the original plan was for Alex to drop me off at the airport and then continue his long drive eastward to Iowa and then Michigan. But we got home from his farewell party too late Friday night, and he had too much more packing to do, so in order to let him get a bit more sleep before his super-long drive, I took the Super Shuttle to the airport (the shuttle was 45 minutes late though, which didn’t make me happy, as it was supposed to pick me up at 4:30am). I was very close to calling and waking up Alex to ask him for a ride when the shuttle finally arrived. I was glad I didn’t have to because he really needed the sleep with two days of long drives ahead of him.
Overall I had a terrific week in Colorado. It was a useful trip work-wise, and it was fantastic to be able to hang out with Alex for a week. I really enjoyed that. I desperately needed the break, too, after having worked so hard in the six weeks coming into it. I think I’ll be able to get used to living in Colorado starting in November (mountains and low humidity sure are attractive!). Visitors welcome!

The news has been out for awhile now, but just in case some of you haven’t heard: I’m moving to Colorado this fall.
About three weeks ago my advisor, Sue, told us she was taking a job at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) starting at the end of August, and had arranged to bring along the four grad students she currently pays and for whom she is the main advisor — me, Andrew, Luna & Tyler — if we chose to go along. We had absolutely no idea that it was coming, though I did guess that was the purpose of the suddenly-called meeting about a couple hours beforehand.
So after the shock of the news, I decided within an hour or two that I’d follow her out to Boulder. I felt like the decision was pretty clear. The next day I met with Sue individually and worked out the when of my move: the week of 8-12 November. There are many reasons I wanted to stay until then, but a chief work reason is to get a journal article written on the research I’ve done this summer before I move to Boulder. Getting that moving date set really allowed me to relax a lot (she’s starting at NCAR on 30 August, so I was panicked at first that I might have to move to Colorado right away upon returning from Australia). There are still many details that have yet to be worked out, but it appears all systems go for me to move out there.
It’s an exciting new challenge and opportunity for me, and will look great on my resumé to have some experience working at NCAR while in grad school. NCAR is a great place. I’ll still be a full-time Penn State student (and will only be getting paid at a grad student rate at NCAR, rather than a full-time employee rate), but I’ll just be living and working in Colorado (and possibly maintaining my Wisconsin residency). I may end up stop keeping a foot in three different states and just change my residency to Colorado though, we’ll see. I’ll be sad to leave behind my friends here at Penn State, and to leave a place I’ve lived in for 5 years now, but I’m also excited to have a new beginning out in Colorado. Forcibly shaking things up a bit won’t be a bad thing for me.
One of the challenges of this sudden move comes because I have a lease signed at my apartment through the end of July 2011 (signed the extension back in February, which is actually fairly late in State College to sign an August-August renewal). However, now it looks like Anders & I have probably found someone to take my spot on the lease (an incoming meteo grad student who we hosted on the visit weekend back in February) starting next month. And he’s interested in purchasing my furniture too (which I’m selling because it’s prohibitively expensive on a grad student salary to rent a moving truck from State College to Boulder). Hooray! Because I’ll be in Australia from 2-21 August, however, that means that I need to move my stuff out before I leave (and I’m going to a wedding next weekend in Indiana, so it actually needs to be out before the weekend). Hollemans have graciously agreed to let me store my stuff in their garage or basement while I’m in Australia. When I get back from Australia, then I’ll move into Isaac’s new house, where I’ll be renting one of his bedrooms through mid-November (David D will also be living there).
And then I think I’ve also found a roommate and place to stay out in Colorado too! I emailed the Evangelical Free Church in Boulder (Calvary Bible Church), told them of my situation, and a guy named David emailed me back, saying he had a room available in his townhouse in Longmont (about 10-15 miles northeast of Boulder, Longmont is a popular place to live for NCAR employees, as Boulder is ridiculously expensive). That seems like a great place and a great situation for me, so I think I’m going to take it. Everything’s really fallen into place this week (mostly yesterday) in terms of living arrangements for the next few months, praise God! I’m really glad to have gotten these things set before I go to Australia.
Now I’ve gotta get busy early this coming week and pack up everything that I’m not taking to Australia and a few days’ worth of clothes for the wedding and before I leave. Looks like I’ll be camping out with just the bare essentials in my apartment for a few nights!