Pictures from Seattle



I didn't have a lot of time to venture to many sites, but Pike's Place Market was my favorite location of my trip to Seattle.



The weather was wonderful while I was there- mid-50s to mid-70s. But apparently that was the warmest it had been since last September. The views of Elliott Bay in Puget Sound from the Market were beautiful.



I don't think it's typical to be able to see Mt. Rainier over the SeaHawks/Mariners stadiums, but again with the beautiful weather...
Although there were amazingly colorful fruit, vegetable, flower, spice, etc. stands in the Market...


...my favorite place was the fish market. The wonder of a working fish market, complete with fish flying through the air as people placed their orders, overcame the slightly unpleasant smell.

And then there was the food. I had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl for lunch at Lowell's in the Market. One word: YUM.

I also visited Ivar's for classic fish and chips.

Ivar's actually has a sign that says "please feed the seagulls." So I made friends with this guy over french fries.

Oh, right. The conference. My original reason for going to Seattle was for a conference. I did that too. Here's the picture for proof.

Seattle's thriving Market is much more interesting than the marginal structural models, new longitudinal methods for studies on aging, and weighted Kaplan-Meier curves I learned about in sessions. You'll just have to trust me on this one. I will spare you the conference details. You can thank me later.

Thanks for traveling with me!

To Seattle...

Just spent all day traveling to Seattle for a research conference. I had a layover in Arizona, which equals TWO flights today. Normally this would have been traumatic since sometime during the last 10 years I became a nervous flier. I spent my last flight (March, I think?) crying and holding the hand of the flight attendant. Seriously. Holding her hand.

But I decided no more. No more crying. No more gripping the arm rests. No more increased blood pressure and pulse. No more panicking. No more hand holding.

Today I decided that I would pretend to be calm. And you know what? Practicing calmness actually made me calm. Go figure.


...but now I would like to write a segment called REALLY??! With Kelly.

Dear dad sitting in front of me and traveling alone with your two annoying 8 to 10-year-old girls...
Really?? You didn't pack anything for them to do on the flight? What did you think they were going to do for 4 hours? Sit there quietly? Really?
And then to occupy their time, you give them the emergency flight instruction brochure? Really? And then you let them read it? At a volume not even remotely sounding like an "indoor voice"? Really? You sat there, asleep, while they shouted things like "Is the plane going to crash? Are we going to land in water? Will we be eaten by sharks? Are we going to die? Where's our life vest?" And you just slept there. Really? REALLY??!


I just love kids. Really.
:)

I can't believe I went a whole month without posting! Oh how time flies.
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May was a fairly busy month for me. This Thursday (tomorrow) is the end of a 5 week seminar in which I participated called "Preparing Future Faculty." I applied for this program and was accepted along with ~50 other participants. We discussed career choices in academia, like teaching, teaching-research, and research focused-institutions; work-life balance; teaching with technology; learning styles; salary and start-up negotiation; diversity and the learning environment; active learning; goals of higher education; tenure; interviewing; etc.; etc.; i.e., we covered a lot of material!
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Overall, the seminar was great. It was particularly helpful to me in preparing a teaching philosophy document which is required by most faculty search committees. I learned some new teaching techniques for use in higher ed, but I think more importantly I learned how to articulate my teaching style and goals for students, which I think will be particularly helpful as I begin to look for a faculty position over the next few years.
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I also learned that I don't want to work at UofM. While I enjoy being a student here, respect the high caliber and work ethic of the faculty, and appreciate the many MANY resources to which I have access, it's not for me. Part of the seminar was a UofM junior faculty panel, during which I asked the participants about their work-life balance, to which they universally replied, "What life?" Uggh. Not for me. Too competitive.
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I did visit a small undergraduate liberal arts college in Michigan as part of the seminar and really liked what I saw. The faculty were very involved in student life and had more of a mentoring relationship with their students. They were also able to be more creative with their classroom style and content. And, wonderful of wonderful, there is a huge push right now for public health coursework in undergraduate education. Apparently it's a great time for me to be looking for faculty positions and I will be extremely marketable! :) Who'd have thought it??! Liberal arts here I come!
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Well, this post was probably pretty boring for my 8 readers, but it's what I've been up to lately so I just wanted to share. I will post again soon with some fun pictures to make up for all this writing.