Hard frost

It's always interesting to read the comics to compare the weather in Alaska to the rest of the U.S. This Sunday we learned that the leaves are changing colors... Funny, since there aren't many leaves left on the trees here! Yesterday morning we had our first hard frost, the kind that covers everything with a thin layer of white that sparkles as the sun is rising. Ahh, winter! Soon it'll be time to wax my skis and pull my down jacket and bunny boots out of the closet.

In the meantime, we are having a beautiful fall. It feels as though we've had to wait until fall to have summer. Unfortunately I've been too busy to fully enjoy it. We held a glaciology meeting in Fairbanks the week after I returned from Greenland; I was partially responsible for organizing it and making sure things went smoothly. I had no idea how stressful that can be, but everything went smoothly and the meeting was a success. I'm also taking two classes this semester, one of which I have no business taking (a graduate level course in Partial Differential Equations, in case you were wondering). And then of course there is always the persistent insecurity that goes along with being a graduate student - am I really capable of doing good research? I shouldn't make it sound soo bad, though, because there is always time for fun (hockey, drumming, and Carcassonne), and part of the reason that I'm so busy is because I need to make some progress with my research before I leave for New Zealand in two months.