I don’t know exactly why I don’t post much to this blog these days. Well actually it turns out that after a year of sabbatical, and a long pandemic, returning to teaching and being at the university full time was – challenging. This semester, I am co-teaching Introductory Biology, with more than 300 students, in the concert hall at SFSU, where once long time ago I did a piano recital for my 40th birthday. I have new graduate students, and my lab is open again. Time seems to move faster, and I am constantly running faster to stay in the same place, like the Red Queen. But every moment is interesting and every day is full of people and ideas. The routines are starting to take hold, like going to the farmer’s market every Saturday, and playing my bassoon on Thursdays: teaching MWF and meetings on Tuesdays or Thursdays. I like riding my Vespa around the city and I try to swim once a week. Eating delicious California vegan food and spending time with the people I love.
In the meantime, there has been quite some traveling. The year of sabbatical came to a close after spending more time in Sweden, and a quick visit to Norway. I started the semester and immediately turned around and went back to Europe, to the avian malaria conference in Bielefeld, Germany, and then a quick family weekend in Vilnius. I did my first 10-kilometer race, in Vilnius and returned to San Francisco with my legs still sore. I am uploading photos from these times, August-November 2022.
San Francisco is truly a beautiful place in the fall, and often I remember why tourists come from all over the world to experience Northern California. Definitely there is a lot of tragedy in the city, and downtown the urban decay is particularly appalling. But there are birds and the warm sun that is so scarce in other parts of the world at this time of year. The laundry dries on the clothes line outside the kitchen door within a few hours. The Annas hummingbirds come to the red flowers on my deck and seemingly stare at me when I am eating my vegan almond yogurt. I wonder what kinds of foods we will have in the future. Will there be more amazing fruits available? 30 years ago, kiwis were so exotic. 15 years ago, vegan cheeses were disgusting, and now they are excellent. Things get better for the privileged, but they get worse for most of the 8 billion people on the planet. Yes, now there are 8 billion people on the planet. When I was born there were about 3.5 billion. That’s a big difference, and we forget so quickly how life was before the population doubled. The traffic is bad everywhere now, the weather is weird everywhere now, the plastic is out of control everywhere now.
I was planning to travel to DRC Congo this winter to do some field work there, but the tragedy of that country engulfed by never-ending conflicts prohibited our travel. That, and the bureaucracy of paperwork. But it will happen, my life is prone to adventures.
I am writing this on a full Thanksgiving flight to Honolulu. More photos and thoughts will be shared soon.