This is a delayed post. In retrospect I should have been reporting more regularly but, in fact, there was little news to report. I taught an Earth Science class every day for two months which was quite enjoyable but did require a fair amount of out-of-class prep and grading. Students learned to identify basic rock types using samples I collected in the fall and also improved their skills in map-reading, Google Earth analysis, and 3D visualization. With regard to field trips, all I could say was "look out the window". Maybe I should have taught a glaciers class?
Until March the roads were snow-packed, the sidewalks icy, and the mountains buried beneath a meter of snow. Back home I would revel in winter, using snowshoes and x-country skis to travel into the backcountry. Not here. Skis would be useless but snowshoes would have made a big difference. Shoulda, coulda.... And I woulda needed to be up-to-speed on avalanche safety, given the nearly constant slumps and slides cascading down the steep slopes. And that's not the only hazard: a wolf pack arrived in February, tragically mauling a child and man in one village and killing two women in another. Yikes.
The university celebrated the equinox (a national holiday called Nawruz) with a ten-day Spring Break. Perfect timing. So a group of us traveled to Dushanbe en-route to Uzbekistan for a Silk Road tour. And instead of the typical 12-hour drive, the university arranged for helicopter transport. What an incredibly great feeling to fly just 90 minutes through some of the most spectacular mountains on earth, arriving well-rested in balmy Dushanbe and leaving winter fully in our past.
