My first blog post!

OK, so let’s see what this blogging stuff is all about…

This is a L O N G  overdue post, but the past couple weeks have been INSANE, as you likely know if you are reading this. I am just now able to unearth important things like my computer cord and more tank tops (it’s been in the 90’s here and very humid, so these are important for unpacking – the tank tops, not the computer cord).

June 21^st was the last day of school, and my last day as Grover’s PRISM teacher, which is STILL very weird to me. I always miss my students over the summer, since I enjoy teaching and interacting with them so much, but this summer is just more FINAL, and that’s very strange.

So, after school ended, several of my former students (now students at South) came to stop by and wish me well. We ended up talking and hanging out for a while, and they were kind enough to watch me finish packing up my classroom and office, and then the best part was that I didn’t have to leave Grover by myself. I think I would have been weeping for sure if I didn’t have these wonderful students-turned-friends to walk me out of the building.

When I got home, an old friend I haven’t seen for 20 years and his family were waiting at our (pretty much empty) house, so that was fun. (They had taken their daughter for a tour or Princeton U that morning). The movers were taking out the last boxes, so I gave them my “Grover boxes” and then (after our friends left) it was time to sign papers with the movers so they could start driving up to DC. We packed up the car and a U-Haul (since there are things movers can’t take, like plants, and aerosol sprays and paint, etc. and things we didn’t want them to take, like our clothes and toothbrushes), and headed out.

We got to our new home that night and spent the next few days unpacking and trying to figure out where things should go. (Spoiler alert: some things should go – and have now GONE – to be donated.)

Then it was time to head to Chile, where my husband had business and I went for geeky Science fun. (And, truth be told, I also went to get a break from the boxes. You can only take dealing with so much cardboard and wrapping paper at one time.)

Chile is a really interesting place – Santiago is very cosmopolitan and looks a lot like downtown Miami. We stayed in a hotel not far from the American embassy and close to a terrific Indian restaurant. We met one of my husband’s Chilean colleagues there for lunch – he had never eaten Indian food, and he’s now a lover of samosas and chicken tikka masala. J

The first day we were there, I accompanied my husband to meet with a Chilean conservation organization so his company could sign an agreement with them to work together on some conservation projects, which is very cool. And we met with one of the folks at the United States embassy to discuss the company’s work in Chile (I just watched and listened and enjoyed the experience of being in an embassy, which is basically an office building but with much more security, and you can’t carry your cell phone, which is a weird feeling).

The next day we explored Santiago, an interesting city and has a really great Museum of Precolumbian Art. That was a lot of fun, especially since I’ve seen many of these types of items in the Library of Congress’ exhibit about the Americas. And when I did a teacher training course at the L of C, I got to handle many of these artifacts, which they store in the basement when they’re not on display. Check out this link: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/exploring-the-early-americas/interactives/reading-pre-columbian-artifacts/

The next day we flew to La Serena, on the Chilean coast, where the observatory that had invited us was located. The company is called AURA (they manage telescopes for NASA and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory) and they have several observatories in the area. Their telescopes are OPTICAL telescopes, while the ones my husband’s company (Associated Universities Inc.) manages for the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory are RADIO telescopes.

Flying to La Serena, I ended up being assigned a seat next to the wife of the National Public Radio (NPR) national science correspondent. His name is Joe Palca, and you may have heard his reports on WHYY.  We had a great chat about all sorts of things (can you imagine? Me talking to someone?!?!) and ended up hanging out together the whole time we were in La Serena. They live in Washington, so we’re going to get together sometime here and share photos from our experience at the eclipse.

We toured observatories and learned about AURA’s telescopes for two days, and at the end of the second afternoon it was time for the Big Event. This is the second solar eclipse I’ve seen, and it’s just a magical experience each time. The light around you changes as the moon blocks out more of the sun, shadows get more defined, and the air gets cooler.

And to be able to share the event with so many scientists and people who had a vested interest in what was happening was really terrific. There were astronomers and scientists all over the place, including Kip Thorne, who’s a Nobel prize-winning theoretical physicist and was friends with Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan. He’s the nicest, soft-spoken unassuming man, and is currently working on a project with an artist to illustrate a book of his poems about the stars and the heavens. It was terrific fun.

The next day, we headed back to the states, which meant flying to Santiago and then to Houston and changing planes to get to Washington DC. We traveled with a former Congressman, John Culberson, who holds political views I don’t necessarily agree with, but he’s a very nice man. (And he even flashed his Member of Congress card – yes, there is such a thing – to get us past the crazy line of returning eclipse watchers at the airport).! He is now a lobbyist on behalf of Science and space issues, and so he was there to experience the day.

I took some awesome photos, including one that the U.S. embassy in Chile used at the end of their video about the day (a bunch of them were there) and supposedly CNN International used it as well. So that was pretty fun. If I remember, I will attach it here.

We got back to our new home the morning of July 4^th and that night we watched fireworks from our new roof with some of our neighbors. So that was a great welcome home.”

And now, since then, we’ve mostly been unpacking and purging – I gave away some games we had to the church across the street, and they were very appreciative.

And the donation truck picked up 14 boxes yesterday, so that was good. We have a little bit more room to move around.

It’s fun to live in the city and walk all over the place – we are walking distanced to FOUR supermarkets and so yesterday (after the morning’s historic rain) – 3/5 inches in 15 minutes!) I went to explore one of them (mostly to find out where the laundry detergent was, but it’s important to “learn” a new store to make shopping quick & easy. Right now I’m good at Trader Joe’s because it’s so small (although it has more than a dozen cashiers!) but the others I will need to get used to be able to find things. No problem.

Tomorrow I’m meeting a former student of mine, who is now in college at Georgetown University, for coffee, so that will be fun. I love connecting with former students – and current ones, so if you’re in DC, please let me know!

More to come….