July 19, 2019

It would appear that it has been nearly a year since I last wrote an update! My apologies. Life got a little more busy than normal. I took over as Graduate Director for the Geology Department in the Fall, and have been working hard to keep on top of things and stay productive.

But now that it is summer, I have a little time to send an update about what I have been up to for the past 10+ months. Fall treated us reasonably well, and for the most part it was low key. I attended a conference in Indianapolis, we visited Matt’s brother and his wife in Annapolis in October, and we visited family again in December.

Now that 2019 has reached its halfway point, I can say it has been a good year. In February, we spent a few days in San Francisco, where we got to see some dear friends, and watch part of the Chines New Year parade (the parade now goes for hours, which is too long for me to stand and pay attention). We stayed in a very central location and had marvelous weather; we took advantage of this to connect a lot of dots on foot (like walking to the ocean through Golden Gate Park, and walking to the Bay through the city interior). We returned to California in March for an “LA Spring Break”, and had a wonderful time. ‘Stayed on the Queen Mary for several nights, got to have dinner with several of my cousins, spent a day hiking on Catalina Island, went to the Magic Castle with my Dad and Brother, and explored part of Hollywood on foot. As far as trips go, it was A+. LA has a lot to offer. The key is to avoid getting in a car as much as possible.

Shortly after returning from LA, we headed to Cleveland for my annual anthropology conference. The weather was unfortunate, but the conference was good and we were able to find some interesting ways to occupy our time in addition to the science. I’m not sure I would jump at the opportunity to revisit the city, but I’m glad that we checked it out.

Spring was delightfully cool and lush in Cincinnati, and we have spent a good amount of time outside. The little cherry and pear trees we planted a few years ago are starting to grow, and I actually got to enjoy some sour cherries this year. The most exciting local event was when we were sitting in our backyard on a lovely evening, and within the span of five minutes, it started to rain, the wind picked up considerably, and bam, a tree nearly fell on us. Then the storm died and the sun came back out. It was quite the memorable experience. And what’s more, as we walked around the neighborhood afterwards feeling stunned, we learned we were the only people in the neighborhood to even notice that there had been any aberrant weather. Interesting.

May was mostly filled with me going back and forth between my lab, where I managed to get a hefty number of samples processed and analyzed in a short amount of time, and Michigan, where I helped my mom with consolidating and downsizing from two houses (hers and my recent grandmother’s) down to one. We also got to visit our friend Andy in Madison.

We spent most of June into early July in Germany. Matt had a visiting Professorship in Halle am Saale, which is a lovely city just north of Leipzig. We rented an apartment near a large park and the river (the Saale) and were a short walk from pretty much everything ranging from the grocery store to museums, castles, and delightful beer gardens. I have many colleagues in Germany, and decided to take advantage of my time in the country to visit some of them. During our first two weeks, I gave a seminar at Max Planck in Jena, and at the University of Vet Medicine in Hanover. Although this created more work for me, my mini lecture series gave me an opportunity to (1) visit my science friends, (2) visit other institutions and see their facilities (including the mouse lemur colony in Hannover), and (3) see some additional German sites. All in all, it was a good time, but I’m relieved it is now behind me.

Matt’s schedule was much more grueling than mine. Nevertheless, we were able to enjoy Halle, and also spend some time visiting other cities in the region. In addition to seeing Hanover, we did a day trip to Leipzig, where we caught up with a friend from State College and visited the Panometer, which is an art venue for massive 360° installations (check out www.panometer.de/leipzig/unsere-ausstellungen/ for a description of the space, or  www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7P8kMWB5TE, which gives a good impression of the experience). We also spent several days in two charming little towns on the edge of the Harz Mountains, called Goslar and Wernigerode. We checked out the winding streets and architecture (with some houses built around 1500 AD!), but also made sure we spent as much time as possible in the mountains themselves. Among the more interesting things we saw were 100% slate-covered buildings in Goslar (this is apparently an abundant building material in the region), some historic waterworks within the Rammelsberg Mine (which was an active mine for over 1000 years but closed in 1988 and is now a World Heritage site) and the Wernigerode castle, which is the perfect example of a quaint but impressive castle on a hill. We also took a train up to the top of The Brocken, which is the tallest peak in the Harz range. It’s the mountain of legends, and the subject of “Night on Bald Mountain”. It is internationally known for its intense lightning storms, giant specters (these are real, check out “Brocken Specter” online), as well as its gatherings of witches flying on brooms and semi-cloaked dwarves that lead travelers astray. We hiked about 18 km back down to Wernigerode from the mountain top, and experienced nothing that was particularly unusual other than the massive die off of the spruce trees. It was very eerie walking through a dead forest for hours.

Near the end of our trip, we visited Weimar and Erfurt. I have been to Weimar before (twice) but Erfurt was new to me. It was very hot when we were in Weimar, which was unfortunate (actually a surprising number of days were exceptionally hot when we were in Germany). Nevertheless, we did manage to see a good amount of the city. We also walked along the river both south and north to visit castles that are several km outside of the city center. I like visiting old castles and trying to imagine what it would be like to live in one of them. Usually, I end up feeling quite happy that I do not live in a castle. The weather was better in Erfurt. We checked out the main tourist sites, including exploring the Petersberg Citadel, which sits atop a hill just west of the old town. And we stumbled upon a genuine puppet maker’s studio, which excited both of us very much. He carves everything out of wood. ‘Really impressive handiwork.

Our last night in Halle, Matt took part in a public event called “The Long Night of Science”, which is a series of public talks that goes until around 11 pm and is followed by fireworks. Matt gave a great talk, and the fireworks were superb. They’re designed by a computer scientist at the University and timed to music.

We spent our last three days in Prague. I had the opportunity to visit this magnificent city back in 2000, which was nearly half my life ago. I remembered some things quite well; other memories were more hazy and inaccurate. The city is way more touristic than anything we encountered in Germany, but there are ways to escape the crowds. We spent a lot of time in the parks around the periphery of the city, for example. However, we also made sure to check out the heart of the old town.

The rest of the summer promises to be equally fulfilling. We are back in Cincinnati for just a couple of weeks before heading back to Europe for a conference I will be attending in Dublin, and we will also be spending part of August up on Mackinac Island in Michigan. I have posted some photos on Shutterfly website (https://brookecrowley.shutterfly.com/3), and will add photos from Ireland when we return in early August.

Take care, and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Brooke