Identity is often described by an association with place, so I begin with a list of my various residencies, jobs and significant travels:
(1) Born, raised and lived first 18 years of my life in Seattle, WA.
A few summers I traveled in the Bahamas, Bali, Indonesia, and Israel & Egypt.
(2) One year in Clinton, NY at Hamilton College.
(3) Two+ years in Middletown, CT at Wesleyan University.
a) I went abroad my junior year to England, Turkey, India, Thailand, and Mexico with IHP.
b) I worked at Windsor Mountain International Summer Camp for 2 summers in Hillsboro, NH.
(4) A brief stint in Ottawa working at the Geological Survey of Canada.
(5) I lived in San Francisco, CA for 1.5 years while working for the USGS in Menlo Park.
(6) I lived in Tucson, AZ for 2.5 years, where I completed an MS in Geosciences at the University of Arizona.
I spent two summers in Bolivia doing field work.
(7) I spent 6 months on vacation: skiing in Tahoe, living in Hawaii, traveling the US west coast and Italy, and doing fieldwork in Spain.
(8) I currently live in Ann Arbor, MI. I'm working on a PhD in Geological Sciences at the University of Michigan.
a) I spent two summers based near Jackson Hole, WY teaching at UM's field camp; Camp Davis.
b) I spent several months in the Spanish Pyrenees and the Andes of Peru & Bolivia doing fieldwork.
c) I spent 3 months in Houston, TX working for ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company.
I love being active and outside in beautiful places.
San Francisco was a hip cultural explosion, with nearby skiing in Lake Tahoe and beautiful national seashores. While I lived there, dot-coms where a dime a dozen with venture-capitalists bringing in their protege web-designing college dropouts turned newly rich by the boatload.
While I worked for the USGS, I was forced to mix fieldwork with wine tasting, hoped for a large earthquake, experienced the great music scene
(the jazz festival and Ali Akbar School of Music in San Raphael were particularly noteworthy), and learned how to play ultimate.
The desert southwest sunsets were always breath-taking.
Arizona weather was conducive to playing ultimate with various teams such as Sunburn, Luv Pump, Volare at Potlatch, and
Barrio,
as well as hiking, camping, biking, and barbequing all year round. The late summer monsoons provided fun flashy floods and amazing thunder and lightning.
The winter occasionally brought nice powder to the White Mountains and the San Francisco Peaks.
The fall & spring were great for bragging to friends in far away places about how nice it was there. Then, there was the, gasp, summer...
Some of my favorite southwest destinations:
AZ: Canyon de Chelly, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Painted desert, Wupatki, Sunset Crater Volcano, Flagstaff, Catalina Mtns, Bear Canyon, White Mtns.
NM: Santa Fe, Bandelier, Mimbres Mtns: Gila National Forest, Rio Grande
SoCal: Death Valley, Kelso Dunes, Catalina Island.
I've lived in Ann Arbor, MI for a few years now.
Despite the long, cold winters, that pre-maturely overtake the beautiful fall colors, I've warmed up to this liberal, intellectual, yuppie college town quite nicely.
You're never far from a bookstore or coffee shop around here. I also must say, my subaru certainly is much happier driving in the snow on a regular basis.
However, it is rather depressing that the largest ski hills are landfills, and we are several hours drive from any cool rock outcrops.
The Great Lakes, with surfing and tides etc.. almost fool you into thinking they are oceans, but the no-salt smell gives them away.
The northwest coast of MI is populated with some amazing beaches and dunes. On another note, I continue to play ultimate. I've managed to endure
a few winter seasons of indoor frisbee, finished my college carreer playing with MagnUM at the UPA College National Championships in Oregon,
and continue to play with BAT.
If you couldn't tell by now, I love traveling. My abroad list so far:
Canada, Bahamas, Bali, Israel, Egypt, United Kingdom, Turkey, Cyprus, India, Thailand, Mexico, Portugal,
Bolivia, Peru, Italy, France, Spain, Andorra, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Iceland, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
Domestically, I've been to every state but Alaska.
My national park list includes Badlands, Bandalier, Canyon de Chelly, Death Valley, Dinosaur, Fossil Butte, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Haleakala,
Hawaii Volcanoes, Joshua Tree, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, Petrified Forest, Petroglyph, Pictured Rocks, Pinnacles, Point Reyes,
Redwood, Saguaro, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, Wupatki, Yellowstone, and Yosemite.
Peaks, folds, and klippes of the Spanish Pyrenees.
Peruvian Andes viewed from the Inca Trail.
Mountains on the high and dry Andean plateau in Bolivia.
Good beer and vistas in Coroico, Bolivia.
Some people say I'm obsessed with music.
I'm guilty as charged! Jazz, funk, bluegrass, latin, fusion, indian classical, cuban, flamenco, middleastern, gamelan, west african, acid jazz, early hardcore rap, hip hop,
rock and roll, hippy music (grateful dead), desert southwest garage-country rock, techno/ambient/house, and occasionally, nostalgically grunge.
