Recap of Canada

I should have posted this one before the last post - but I'm killing time on the shuttle and might as well post an update about my trip to Canada last week. I went to the yearly AAPT (American Association of Physics Teachers) summer conference and the PERC (Physics Education Research Conference) that occurs immediately after it each summer. The conference is always invigorating, as I get to talk to a lot of people, learn about different projects, network, and come home with great new ideas and inspiration. People are always really supportive about what I'm doing and what I've accomplished and seem genuinly interested in seeing what we find next, so I always am pumped to work even harder when I get home from

For this particular conference, I went two days early and attended 12 hours of workshops on how to teach the curriculum that I'm interested in starting to use in my classroom. I was already tired by the time the conference started, but I met a nice local high school teacher and got to see a bit more of the city over the weekend. I also took a great walk along the river (the Edmonton River Valley) which was quite pretty.

The first conference ran from Sunday evening to Wed afternoon, with the second one running from Wed evening to Thursday evening. I only had one poster on Monday, nothing on Tuesday (though I was busy all day with networking and attending talks), but on Wed, I had to give a talk, a poster, and be on a panel discussion! Then on Thursday I presented a poster in a focused session that ran two times for a total of 3 hours. It was quite a lot of work all in one 26 hour chunk. Needless to say I was happy to return home - and very tired when I did!!

I must say, though, it was very nice to be attending the conference as someone who has a job and goals at my institution, such that presenting at the conference is not the "end-all" but merely a nice stop along the way. I had things prepared in advance, and was not very stressed during the conference. I was a bit nervous for my talk because I was giving a talk on why more rigorous research methods are needed for studying "writing to learn" (which was my thesis topic), and two of the people whose results I criticized strongly in my thesis were in the same session as me. I have no idea if they have seen my thesis, or were even paying attention to my talk... I think my talk went very well, and the session chair seemed very interested in my work - so hopefully I'm going in the right direction...

Saying goodbye... and I'm off!!

I'm on the shuttle bus, leaving Corvallis at the moment. I was home for less than48 hours between my conference in Canada and my trip to Cape Town. I was exhausted and barely got the things done that I needed to do before leaving, but I am all packed, and shipping off. My flight isn't for another 11 hours, but I hope to not miss two night's sleep in a row - so tonight I'm off to Portland to sleep in a hotel before my very early flight. I figure 5 hours is better than none. My body will appreciate being horizontal and comfortable - I can dream about it when I'm sleeping sitting up on the plane tomorrow night!

I had a hard time packing, and I feel that I have way too much stuff with me. I tried to only bring the essentials - but I have many different things to pack for this trip so it's hard, plus I'm gone for 5 weeks, so I need a good bit of stuff. I need professional clothes, casual work clothes, going out clothes, hiking clothes, and all this for the Cape Town winter weather - which can range from 50F with cold damp air to 80F and sunny. Then I'm off to Safari in Kruger mid-way through the trip, and in Kruger it is much warmer, so I need summery rugged clothes, but sill warm things for the cool evening.

On top of all the clothes, I have my new camera with accessories, work stuff, fun books to read, and the oddest thing taking up space is a bunch of physics demonstration equipment I'm bringing for one of my friends there. He owes me big time! I hope I'm not over the weight limit!! I'm sure I'm quite close...

I don't yet know where I'm staying tonight. This shuttle is quite comfortable and has internet, so I figured I could take care of it on my way to Portland. I can't believe I'm off in the morning - going far away, for quite a long time. I haven't had such a lengthy trip probably since I went to live in France when I was 18!

My dog-sitter's roommate dropped me off at the shuttle, in conjunction with picking up Audrey. I got to say a long goodbye to her in the parking lot, and tell her what a sweet angle she is. I will miss her like mad. The boys, especially Shadow, were mad to see my suitcases out. Shadow took it out on poor Cirrus. I know the cat sitter will give them good love though.

I will try to post on my blog regularly... Send me emails!!