2007 Year in Review - Annee 2007
This was a year of major changes for us: Aylia graduated from High School and moved to Occidental College in Los Angeles in August; I started a new job at the University of Central Florida and we moved to Orlando in July; and we lost Daisy to old age. We’re happy that Occidental has a long winter break, so Aylia is here with us in Orlando for five weeks. We’re looking forward to our first Christmas in the new house followed just a few short hours later by the arrival of Lance, Sylvie and Emma for a madcap week of fun in the sun.
Beaucoup de changements pour les Colwells cette annee. Aylia vit maintenant a Los Angeles ou elle va a l’universite. Josh travaille pour L’universite de Floride Centrale a Orlando. Nous avons demenage en Juillet. A plus de 15 ans, Daisy a fini sa vie juste avant notre depart. Aylia est avec nous pour ses 5 semaines de vacances d’hiver ou Lance, Sylvie et Emma sont venus nous rejoindre pour profiter de l’hiver de Floride.
The pool, which was in the low 90s in August without any heating has now fallen into the low 70s even with our solar heating system (which faces East rather than South). Still, it was near 80 degrees and warm enough for a swim the first week of December. In principle it should pass the 80 degree mark again in February sometime. On our last visit to the beach, also in early December with a visiting prospective graduate student from France, we ate lunch at the Cocoa Beach Pier and watched a surfing contest. The beach was littered with Portuguese Man ‘o’ War (Men ‘o’ War? Man ‘o’ Wars?), a small colorful siphonophore that isn’t a jellyfish but has the same general creepy appearance, along with tentacles that can cause death but “usually only excruciating pain” according to Wikipedia. The surfers didn’t seem to be bothered. We all noticed something in the air tickling our lungs and causing us to cough. We later learned this was probably due to red tide. That’s kind of a negative portrait of the beach which is actually a beautiful beach less than an hour from our house. We have seen one launch from the Cocoa Beach pier, one shuttle launch from our friend Nate’s boat dock, and one shuttle launch from a parking structure on campus. With only thirteen shuttle launches left, we’ll probably make an effort to see most of them.
L’hiver en Floride ca veut dire profiter de la piscine et de la plage, aller voir les lamentins, les alligators, les oiseaux migrateurs, les azalees et les camelias en fleurs, faire des ballages en bateaux ou aller voir decoller les fusees.
Aylia weathered her first semester at Occidental where she started a Harry Potter club and took care of a bunch (technical term for 4) of required courses in a semester with a California environment theme. This included field trips to Yosemite and the Mojave Desert. On the latter trip the Occidental bus broke down twice, stranding them for four hours the second time. I guess that’s what you get when you go to a cut-rate school. She braved the Los Angeles freeway system more than once. At the end of the term she successfully auditioned for a part in “The Vagina Monologues” (although in Florida it is also known as “The Hoohaa Monologues”). She’ll be on stage in the Spring.
Aylia semble s’adapter a Occidental College. Apres un semestre un peu dur ou elle a etudie l’ecologie de la Californie a Yosemite et dans le desert de Mojave, elle a tout de meme rapporter de bons souvenirs (voir: http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/Eratosthenese/) et elle est maintenant prete a retrouver ses penates dans une quinzaine de jours pour reprendre le rythme de sa vie et commencer sa carriere. Elle a decroche un role dans “The Vagina Monologues” et nous irons la voir sur scene a la fin du mois de Mars.
I had the smallest class I’ve ever had: an honors section of introductory astronomy with just 17 students. After years of teaching to 200 or 300 students at a time, it was actually a challenge to modify my approach in the classroom to work with a smaller group. It was certainly easier to learn my students’ names, however. Next semester I have a class with an enrollment cap of 295. I’ll be busy with that and with writing a couple of book chapters due by next summer as well as preparing for a new graduate-level class on the formation of the solar system that I’ll be teaching next academic year. I’ll be starting 2008 off with a couple of trips to JPL (Pasadena California) in January. The first one is so early that Aylia will still be in Orlando, but I hope to be able to visit her at Occidental on the second trip at the end of the month. And I’ll have one or two trips to Europe in the summer. Details are still being worked out.
Josh s’habitue a son role de professeur et se construit sa petite equipe. Il continue sa recherche et ses voyages mais ecourte ses sejours le plus possible pour manquer le moins de cours possible. Ses etudiants semblent beaucoup l’apprecier.
De son cote Anne-Marie a pris des vacances qu’elle espere definitives de l’enseignement. Bien que son annee scolaire 2006-2007 ait ete positive, elle prefererait ne plus enseigner le francais. Elle essaie de faire son trou dans le monde artistique local. Elle s’est construit son petit nid au fond de la maison. Son studio sert aussi de chambre d’amis, alors si vous decidez de venir nous voir, prevenez-la assez tot qu’elle y mette un peu d’ordre. Elle espere mettre ses peintures et autres fantaisies sur son site le plus vite possible.
Meilleurs voeux de Paix pour la nouvelle annee a ceux qui nous lisent et aux autres.