Fall 2006 adventures

2006-12-22T04:56:00.000-08:00

Dear all,
for those that I have not been in contact with for a long time, I wanted to post some notes on recent updates in my life. As of the end of August I have moved to New York City, starting graduate school at Columbia - I will be playing with lots of corals, trying to reconstruct ancient climate change. Well, it'll involve a lot of lab time, but there will also be the occassional Caribbean cruise for sample collection...I know, working in the Caribbean sun sounds tough...but you know, someone's gotta do it. :) Anyway, since this summer my heart ever more strongly desires to travel the world, learn about climate change in the past and in the future, and work with different people towards sustainable development and economic resilience [and hopefully, have someone to travel the world with]. In a nutshell, I have discovered that I would like to dedicate myself to education: both in Earth Science in a strictly academic/scientific environment, as well as in small-scale environmental/sustainability awareness educational programs in small communities largely economically dependent on successful, integrated, holistic natural resource management.
But let me tell you about New York. While fascinating and diverse in so many ways, it seems a bit detached with a strong 'island' mentality in quite an odd way. While every day is bound to show you something new and curious in New York, I often feel slightly claustrophobic as I am caught in the business-casual swarms rushing to work or just rushing in general, in the subway and on the streets. The lights of Times Square, the shows on Broadway, window-shopping in SOHO, the fun dancing night outs with my new Bulgarian friend Mariana (she's in the Comp Sci department at Columbia), the peculiar excitement of travelling to several countries in just a few miles as you go to Chinatown, Little Italy, Jackson Heights (Indian neighbourhood), topping the food options with Bosnian sirnitsa (just like Bulgarian banitsa) and Greek baklava...Outings on the town are always bound to be interesting. But still...but still the soul yearns for the outdoors, the mountains, the forests, the beaches, the clean crisp air of the wilderness - where things are simpler, somehow brighter, and yet more meaningful.
And so I am lucky to have met some like-minded friends who work in the city, but look forward to escaping to the great outdoors on the weekend.

Here are a couple of pictures from the top of Bear Mountain with Kaloyan [he's Bulgarian] and Chris [he's American, but really, he's Maltese] (both consultants for Ernst & Young). I was surprised that in such a short drive from NYC (~40 min) you could find yourself in such a gorgeous place.

I also went to Iowa City, Iowa, to visit my brother and his wife. Iowa City was lovely with all its greenery, interesting little shops and the famous Java coffee house, where my brother and I spent most of our time (waiting for Hristinka to get off work). :) We also had a great time eating tubs of Ben-&-Jerry's ice-cream at the top of the stairs on the College Hill in the picture.
A couple of weeks later Kal and I went camping in the Catskills, NY [this time ~2 1/2-hr drive]. The fall colours were magnificent, and even though it was short, this was my first proper backpacking trip. Both in terms of carrying all I would need on my back and considering my speed up the mountain, I would say I looked like a snail with its 'house' on its back. :)

It was quite lovely to spend the night in the mountains - we, well, Kal, made fire [while I went to fetch water], and we cooked and had hot chocolate under the stars [we could actually see stars, which was in itself quite an accomplishment since in Manhattan you're lucky if you ever see a little patch of sky amidst the steel-and-concrete jungle :)].
I did visit my college, Franklin and Marshall, a few times this semester, which was wonderful because it does feel like home and I still have a few very dear friends there. My time at F&M has been remarkable and lovely, and I love going back there to visit. Perhaps one day I will go back there to teach, who knows. :) I'm quite happy, too, that a couple of F&M friends - Kathryn and Marina (and a few others that I haven't had the chance to meet up with yet) are also working in the city. A few of my F&M friends came to visit in New York also - Roshni, Allison, and Will came one weekend, and Kal and Chris took us to a beach on the north shore of Long Island [Sunken Meadow beach] and a cute town [Port Jefferson] on the water with lots of ice-cream parlors. What a beautiful day that was! Mariam also came to visit for a few days just before Thanksgiving [Nathalie was there, too] and we roamed the streets of New York a bit - she was trying to convince me how fabulous the city is, but I insisted that I enjoy living in a quiet rather suburban part of Queens. Oh, and we ate delicious Pakistani food. Together, Mariam and I, went to Washington DC for Thanksgiving to visit Vania, another close friend from F&M. There we had a wonderful time just catching up and cooking a lot, consequentially, eating a lot, roaming the streets of DC, and exploring the night life [for me, one of the highlights of the Washington night life was a place called The Reef, which actually had huge saltwater aquaria, which little coral reef ecosystems, complete with Nemo, some anemones and other cool colorful creatures].
In terms of my program, things are very different from what I have been used to and what I expected, but everything is going well, and my colleagues seem really nice. I'm quite excited about the project that I will be working on: it will involve trying to develop a new geochemical way to tell sea surface temperatures in the past from coral reefs, which I think is pretty cool. I had the opportunity to go the geological conference in Philadelphia, which was nice because I got to see some of my friends from my Keck project from summer 2005. Right after that, I was fortunate to go to Mexico, where I also presented at a small sustainability conference in Guadalajara - which a Mexican friend of mine organized, and which a few friends from my summer 2006 sustainability course attended (and presented). I am beginning to love conferences and meetings - they seem a wonderful opportunity to have a reunion with friends from afar. I am hoping to attend a couple of sustainability conferences in the coming spring, which would be exciting because I'd get to discuss ideas about sustainability with lots of interesting and committed people.

In the beginning of December I had the chance again to visit another gorgeous beach with Kal, this time on the southern shore [the Atlantic side] of Long Island. The waves were big and seemed quite hungry for the beach as they crashed and crawled at high tide. And even though it was cold, with the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair, and good company, who could really ask for more.
I am currently at home, in Bulgaria for the holidays, recharging and getting ready for next semester, which undoubtedly will be very interesting.

Happy holidays to all, and I hope you have a wonderful new year! :)

Summer in the Swiss Alps

2006-08-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

So, recently, I spent 2 weeks in the beautiful Swiss Alps (in the village of Braunwald to be exact) on a course dealing with issues related to sustainability and sustainable development. There were 35 other kids (students) from 29 countries, from all different fields. So, the mix of cultures and training was amazing and contributed to a wonderful learning environment. Plus, all the kids were really cool, and we all became great friends! The program itself was designed around lectures dealing with environmental, economic, social, engineering, psychological, and other aspects of sustainable development. We also went hiking in the gorgeous mountains. Did some breath-taking rock-climbing, which to me was remarkable, since it was my first time. I mean at one point we were just sort of hanging out at vertical cliff faces, strapped in with harnesses and everything, but still sort of hanging out, and above the clouds, too! We also jumped in a beautiful picture-perfect alpine lake, which was so cold, it was literally breath-taking! :) Topped with picturesque bike rides, some wine, lots of dancing, funny people, stimulating conversations, and good food - I mean who could ask for more! And it was my birthday at the end of the program, too - which was a real treat! Now, I hope to keep in touch with all those wonderful people, who are really dedicated to making the world a better place little by little! :)

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Fall 2006 adventures

Summer in the Swiss Alps