Category Archives: daily life

During this month of May, I’ll turn this blog over to observations on our trip to Yap.  Yup, Yap.  One small island among others within the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).  I’ll be there for 3 weeks, part of a class from Queens University (Charlotte, North Carolina). I’m accompanying my grad-school friend Reed Perkins, an environmental science faculty member. And his colleague Greg Pillar, and their 12 undergraduate students.  Reed takes a group of students *every* May term to Yap; this is his 11th trip.  They do a range of different environmentally-oriented projects, often focusing on watershed dynamics and sustainable agriculture. This year in particular they’re beginning a GIS-based project that aims to mitigate issues of sea-level rise affecting the outer Yapese islands.

My part in all of this? Being another “adult” on the trip, contributing GIS expertise, learning to scuba dive, and some weeks of off-work time.

To travel from Ithaca (NY) to Colonia (Yap, FSM) required me first to pass through EWR to CLT on day one.  Then about 27 hrs ago we left CLT for IAH, then HNL (where I’d never been before, but an hour in the airport doesn’t count for crossing the state off my list), and now Guam (GUM).

Guam, enough part of the US to still have my cell phone plan work, but still 15 hrs of combined flight time from Texas.  The touristy part of “downtown” of Guam City (?) looks like one gigantic Duty Free shop. All neon, all luxury stores. Cartier, Tiffany, Rolex, Louis Vuitton. Not where the Guamese hang out. But with our 5-hr layover, close enough to find a sushi restaurant for dinner (breakfast, EDT).  Dee-licious.

Almost time for the short flight over to Yap.  We found a wall of free wifi leaking through from the United Club. Fifteen people, thirsty for their internet stream after a dry day of travel.  

Does anyone else out there have stories to share of  managing a lifetime of dual academic careers?  Here are some statistics about our phenomenon in a study by the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford (pdf). Not too surprising that the proportion of academic marrying other academics is high. We’re meeting each other during the years most likely to be seeking mates and the years mostly likely to be in grad school.

I’ve been an exception to the trend of men’s jobs coming first. We’re just doing a tango. It takes two.

The LA Times hosted a health chat with Richard Louv last week, known for describing “nature deficit disorder.”  I’m a big fan of his ideas.  It’s an ongoing challenge to keep nature, in all its forms, an active part of the lives of our teenagers.  We’re in the midst of one success story: the 13- and 14-yr-old are hiking for a week with their grandparents, at the Grand Canyon and in southern Utah (Zion NP, and elsewhere).  We didn’t force them to leave their phones here, and my daughter stays remarkably aware of wi-fi zones in the hotels where they stay. But I know that at least their days are spent hiking and phone-free, and this journey with John and Wendy will certainly be a life-long memory for them.  If they just survive the 24-hrs/day they’re spending with each other right now…

And look, even cats know the fun of roaming outdoors.

Stop reading this blog. Go outside and walk around the block, or if you’re lucky, up in the woods.

Thanks, Janet, for the hat tip on Louv’s interview.