The first week of the holiday

I've been in North Carolina now for about a week. It has been a great trip so far. I have had a lot of fun dancing with my nephew. In fact I posted a dance clip online last night:

http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/~demareed/dancing_with_ian.AVI

He is super cute! I love the butt wiggle he gives at the end of the video.










I've had a lot of good talks with my mom, and we did a puzzle together. I also helped my sister make soup to give to her son's teachers.

I went "up the mountain" to Boone and Blowing Rock on Monday to have lunch with one of the friends I made on an interview at App. State. It was good to catch up with people there, and I enjoyed finishing up my Christmas shopping before coming home. I also bought some gifts for myself :)













I've been catching up for work slowly in the evenings but last night that was at the detriment of my sleep, as I hit a productive streak and stayed up very late. Then my sister came over with her baby in the morning and of course I couldn't stay in bed with my nephew downstairs!

Finally having a good date

So I started exchanging some fun emails with someone via my online profile. It seemed like he was a pretty interesting guy though it's very hard to tell from online and just a few emails. However, I was insistent that I not let work run my life, and I should go out. I decided to ask him to meet me (he had suggested the same) because I thought it would do me good to go out and would be worth meeting him even if he wasn't worth meeting. It turns out this was a good attitude because I went on the date with no expectations, and was fairly relaxed and ready to enjoy myself no matter what. Turns out the guy was cute, and he was super great to talk to, and seemed very mature yet fun. I enjoyed meeting him so much I was ready for the 2nd date by the time the 1st one was over.

We did go out again, 2 days later. We were just going to meet briefly for drinks or something, but instead I got to town early (he lives in Portland) and we had dinner. We at at a very yummy Peruvian place, and the food was terrific. We shared a cheese appetizer, each really enjoyed our main courses and glasses of wine, then shared a trio of flavored creme brulee for dessert. He was charming, funny, and great to talk to. The best part of all was the next day when I checked my email there was a message from him saying that he looked forward to me getting back in town after the holidays.

I'm so glad I finally went out!!

The end of the Quarter

Wow - I am exhausted! I can't believe I survived teaching 250 students this quarter. My new job is amazing - I love it, it is more than I ever hoped it would be. I seem to relate well to my students. I have a lot to learn and there are a lot of things I want to do better, but I feel like I'm off to a strong start. I had a very low drop-out rate in my class, and my students did well. I feel like they really tried to achieve the things I pushed them to do. They also did pretty well on my final - I put a question on there that I thought would really challenge them and they averaged about 65% on it - which means that most of them actually managed to do it right.

I gave my students a diagnostic test to see how well we're doing in the courses before doing our curricular reform. I was worried about the results because it was my first time teaching a large-enrollment course and I was new to this student population. However, my students did great. They did far above the average large-lecture class (as compared to colleges across the country)! I am very proud of them, and myself. I feel like things are going well in the class because I relate well to my students - which is largely because I somehow fit in well in Oregon. I feel like I belong.

I also had my teaching evaluated by two senior faculty members in my department and one faculty member from the center for teaching and learning. There are great things they pointed out for me to improve on in the future, but they were also full of encouraging words and seemed to really enjoy what we were doing in the classroom. It was nerve-racking having them observe my class - but that day was very lively and I couldn't even pick them all out from the crowd so it was easy to forget I was being watched. I was a bit nervous though and accidentally dropped the brand new piece of demo equipment (that was just made by my request the previous week!) on the floor in front of all the students! Fortunately it didn't break :)

The funniest thing though was when I nearly knocked over one of my students passing a basketball to him (to show momentum conservation). I haven't passed a basketball in years - and I've been working out my upper body lately. I guess I have a lot more "umph" in my throws than either I or my students realized! I enjoy having laughter in my classroom... I am looking forward to getting back to my students in Jan.

Fun in Chicago

As I mentioned in the previous post, I went to Illinois and Indiana for work the week after Thanksgiving. I flew in and out of Chicago. While I was in Chicago, I wanted to hang out with the friends I made in Las Vegas this summer. However, the girl had just gotten a new job and couldn't get off work. Fortunately the guy is pretty cool too, and I enjoy spending time with him, so I spent 2 days having a mini-vacation in Chicago.

I got in Friday afternoon. We went downtown and ate dinner, then went to an opening of a Jasper Johns exhibit at the Art Institute. The event was interesting - there were small group detailed tours, snacks, and lots of wine. After that we went to a bar with live music and watched the band "Brilliant Pebbles". They weren't very good - but it was a lot of fun. The lead singer was totally spastic and made some horrific noises at times - in fact one of her signature sounds was like a huge high-pitched sneeze! You can hear them here:

http://www.myspace.com/brilliantpebbles

I suggest you give them a try - I guarantee you've never heard anything like it! I'm glad I had a number of drinks that night because I probably wouldn't have been nearly as amused listening to this completely sober...











On Saturday there was a snow storm. We started the day with a big lunch, then went downtown to look at Christmas decorations. We did a little shopping too, mainly because my shoes sprung a leak and my feet were wet and cold! I got some great Oregon-appropriate dog-walking shoes that have gotten a lot of use since my trip. We saw the window decorations at the downtown Macy's, and we saw the bicycle puppet-theater. I've included the video Matt took of the dancing puppets!




Then we went to one of the cute smaller neighborhoods and window shopped - though mostly we were just trying to stay upright and warm waddling down the ice-covered sidewalks! We went to dinner at a fun little noddle house and lingered a while because it was warm inside. Then we went to a fancy bar with a fireplace and had a drink, then we went back to his house and freshened up before hitting a blues bar with a live band for the night.

The next morning we ate big bowls of oatmeal and then he took me to the airport. He was a great host, and I had a nice trip.

Working Too Hard!!

So I haven't posted to my blog in about a month... After having an amazing long Thanksgiving weekend, things at work started moving full speed ahead. I reverted back to grad school habits of replacing meals with protein bars so I can keep working, and working late into the night and skipping sleep.

What, you may ask, can be keeping me so busy when I only teach for 3 hours per week? Wow - makes me feel like I can't manage my time well putting it that way! But then we should keep in mind that I also have a research project going on (the one I stared in Cape Town) - and a masters student to manage who is working on that data. I'm also leading a journal club with faculty and grad students reading about my research area. Then there is my committee work. I'm in charge of the women in physics committee, and am working on taking charge of the service course committee which fortunately has been lead so far by a senior faculty member while I get situated. I was hired to take charge of service course (large introductory course) reform, so this is a very important committee.

This course reform work is what is taking the bulk of my time lately. A week after Thanksgiving I went to Illinois and Indiana to visit two schools who have done course reform work we'd like to borrow from. That was a very hectic but useful trip. Even more exciting than that is the classroom remodel work that is going on. The public classrooms in our building are being remodeled and I have been collecting information and going to meetings to contribute to those plans. We're also interested in making a private classroom just for us out of some under-used space in our building. That required talking to the foundation about raising private funds. It looks like all of this is coming together which is very exciting!

Then there was the decisions about switching to the new text book, which I was in charge of - meeting with the publishers was really annoying.

And teaching only 3 hours per week does not take into account that I have 4 TAs to train and about 250 students who all have individual needs and issues. Then there's preparing for teaching the next term. That took a lot of time before the holidays because I only had 4 days where the person I'm team teaching with and I could work together on it.

I'm probably forgetting various and sundry things I did, but you get the picture... I'm trying to get caught up over the holidays so I can have a less stressed quarter when school starts back Jan 7th. I don't want to loose the free-spirit I cultivated this summer!

Busy Thanksgiving weekend

I took full advantage of the 4 day weekend to socialize with new friends, hike with Audrey, and get things done both at work and at home. Thursday I ate two Thanksgiving meals - one with some new faculty friends and the other at the house of the brother of an old friend. I had stayed with his family when I came out here to look for a house early this summer. Their 2 little girls are adorable and after dinner I ended up being a horse and jungle-gym for a few hours. At least I felt less guilty about eating 2 meals after getting that exercise!

Friday I went for a local hike with one of the new faculty members in my department, his wife, and their adorable 1-year old girl. She really likes dogs and had fun playing with Audrey. It felt really nice that they had asked me to be social with them. He is fairly quiet and when he talks he asks very direct questions, so I was not sure how friendly he had wanted to be. We have had some good talks about teaching issues though, and the hike was nice.

Saturday I went wine tasting with another new faculty member - actually in the same department as the wife I had hiked with Friday. The wineries have special hours and offers for Thanksgiving weekend - many had live music. Some had the tasting in the cellars so there was more room for the big event. The crowds really picked up in the later afternoon, including many people who had hired limos to take them around with friends. At least that prevents some drunk driving! Neither her nor I drink much so we did the 2-sips and dump the rest for almost all the wines we tasted - but it was still fun.











This lady is nice, and has a thing for Ann Taylor clothes as I do - I'm sure we'll go shopping together at some point though I really don't need anything and am all shopped out for the moment. She had gone to the outlet stores on Friday and apparently they also get into the after Thanksgiving sales - things were marked down way more than usual but only until 10am. Maybe next year I'll do that. This year I have gifts already from my trip to Cape Town.

This person is interesting - she is from Korea and was a hair away from going to the Olympics on their archery team. She gave me some tips for improving my push ups. Funny thing is she doesn't exercise anymore - and has very little interest in such things. In part I'm sure this is because she hurt her shoulder and has some back pain - but it is a shame. She is going home to Korea this December for the 1st time in 3 years - she is very excited.

We went to 6 wineries and a yummy bistro for lunch. One winery had great local products so I bought some as gifts. Another was located in a gorgeous setting. This pic is a view from it toward another one - I recall thinking this particular view looked like a painting - and that feeling is totally captured in this picture I found online.










I didn't bring my camera, unfortunately, but my friend did. She took the following pic of me indulging in a huge dessert at the bistro (I only managed to eat just less than half!):















She also got the following one of me opening the door at the place that had the wine we both liked the most. Unfortunately we couldn't buy it then - as it was a preview taste for wine that won't be released until spring.














Today I went hiking with Audrey again - this time to the highest peak in the coastal range (only about 4000 ft) which is about a 1/2 hour drive from home. I went there because there was snow - and Audrey loves to play in the snow! Unfortunately they don't maintain the road, so they close it at the snow level. That meant I had to hike up the road before joining trails to the summit. That ended up being good on the way down since it was dusk and getting dark fast. I did see a beautiful sunset over the mountains - unfortunately I forgot my camera again because the view was amazing. I could also see several of the large mountains in the Cascades - including 3 sisters, and I think Mt. Hood. There was another large peak between them I could see clearly as well.

This first pic shows Mary's peak from my valley, and the 2nd shows a view from the top - though it does not do justice to what I saw today...

No longer feeling guilty

Well, that period of feeling on top of things didn't last long! Turns out everyone scrambles toward the end of the quarter, in panic that they haven't accomplished enough yet - and all committee work seems to go full steam ahead! I've been working 12 hour days most days for the last 2 weeks, though I have still made some time for fun. I'm posting this from work on a Sunday night, though - and I do have more work to do before I can go home - I should get back to it!

The most exciting thing is that the classroom remodel committee was not only happy with my ideas about the changes to the large lecture hall I teach in, but they were practically willing to throw millions of dollars at me because they need a new prototype large lecture classroom - and I'm the one bringing forward ideas. And here I was worrying about how I was going to be able to improve our teaching spaces (one of the things they hoped I'd do when they hired me). Here is a pic of the room I currently teach in - it's a monster, about 266 seats and none of them comfortable - and many with poor visibility to the board.











Other than that, I've been taking a salsa class in town with a new friend (who is someone I work with and was hired at the same time as me - we actually had met once before that), have gone boutique shopping in Portland with someone who is the friend of one of my cousins in rural Alabama (what a coincidence!), done some more great hikes (including finally making it to the top of the big hill behind my house - it took 3 hours round trip - not bad), and been out to eat a few times (food here is still great!)

Busy - but no complaints here!