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Sherri:
2005 was a hard year for many, including my son Brian's fiance's family, who
had to face the turmoil of Katrina, but the six months I spent in Paris was a
dream come true. I never had the chance to live overseas while a student,
so being in the center of Paris, taking French lessons for 10 weeks, and
immersing myself in the culture and life of the Parisians in the very diverse
11th arrondisement, was so rewarding in so many ways.
While I hoped to become fluent in French, I never overcame "mon blocage,"
hesitating while speaking. But I did improve my language ability and left
Paris still in love with the language. We did so much in our time there,
not traveling a whole lot (Al has more on that below), but sampling restaurants,
attending seminars at Democrats Abroad several times a month, meeting French
people in conversation courses and in other settings, participating in monthly
guided tours in and around Paris, and eating way too many baguettes, chocolate
and sampling the fine wines! But we didn't have a car, did a great deal of
walking, so I ended up not gaining any weight upon my return. However,
unlike the author of French Women Don't Get Fat, the pounds didn't
exactly drop off either. Now I'm working out at a gym trying to undo many
years, and certainly those 6 months, of fine dining.
I had some time readjusting to life in the
U.S. and realized how much I enjoyed living in a city, even though it was noisy
and our living quarters were
smaller. But smaller was better in the sense that we had less to care for,
so each weekend we were free to roam, and we saw a lot--movies are in the
original language, so we were able to see the Woody Allen movies before their
release in the U.S., and others like "Ray." I also was able to understand
and/or read subtitles, so I saw the fall of Hitler with French subtitles, and
other foreign films. We got hooked on a silly BBC soap-opera drama, "2000
Acres of Sky," and had to stay home on Fridays to watch it. I was
fortunate to befriend one of my French teachers, Laetitia Boisdron, who was
eager to practice her English in exchange for my poor French. At a seminar
on the American and French revolutions I met Laure Dubus-Malmassari, and,
eventually her husband Paul, and we met several times during our stay. I
had weekly conversations with George Akoun, a doctor I met at an organization I
joined, and, while he was a French-basher (even though French), and a Bush-lover
(yikes!!), we did manage to discuss politics and enjoy each other's company--and
he always had plenty of dark chocolate on hand if times got too tense. I
also spent time with friends of friends here--my dear friend Kathy Hjelle's
longtime friend, Sophie, from St. Nazaire in Brittany, spent a weekend with me
and we visited lots of museums, saw films, even participated in an anti-Iraq-war
rally at the Bastille (nothing unusual, for we were to see many at this monument
to revolution). Sandra, a friend of a colleague at Brookdale, gave me
shopping tips and took me to the Bois de Boulogne. I was even tolerated by my
much-younger classmates at the French school, inviting them to our apartment for
a farewell party.
We also had many visitors
from home. Brian and Ginger, newly engaged when I arrived on January 15th,
stayed with us our first week in Paris, followed by Dan
and his friend Brian in early April, Joan and
George, our good friends from New Jersey, Tony and
Kathy, colleagues from Brookdale and longtime
friends, and colleagues and friends of Al's, Bob Bornstein, who married us in
1990, and Thor Thordarson. We also met Sandy and Marybeth Kelman, Wall Democrats
and fellow Francophiles, when they passed through Paris in March. Dick Belena, who flies with Eva Air, came
to Paris twice during our stay, and we sampled some very tasty cassoulet
(country sausage stew) in Montmartre with him. Other
trips we took from Paris are described below with some pictures included.
Back in the U.S. I
struggled to avoid the insipid news coverage of the insipid goings-on in
Washington. Frankly, it was so refreshing to listen to French and British
news, where there is more actual news, less hype and less awe shown to just
about everyone, including their leaders. We were on hand to get "breaking
news" of the Jackson acquittal, the Pope's death and the announcement of a new
Pope, but had just returned when, shock of shocks, Paris did not win the 2012
Olympics, and they had such a wonderful logo! Returning to work in
September was very hard, and I am beginning to think about a life beyond work,
though the challenges of teaching an online class, which I am about to do again
this spring, keep me young, even if my eyes are buggy from working at the
computer too long! I was recently appointed Faculty Liaison to the
International Center, so I'm helping to develop programs for faculty and
students, both at Brookdale as well as studying abroad. We face a staffing
deficit, as both the Director and Coordinator left, but once we are fully
staffed again, we hope to generate even more interest in things global.
Once again, I and Anthropology professor Barbara Jones, will take students to
the University of Hawaii in the summer. So work continues to be rewarding.
Brian found a job soon after he returned
home from Paris. He works for
Massive Black, models
"monsters for video games" and other figures, and is hard at work on his
children's books. He and Ginger, who continues to work as a nurse at the
Veterans Hospital, moved to Sausalito, where they
live with their two dogs, Molly and Murphy. Al visited them in December,
and I hope to spend a weekend with them in the spring. They were intending
to marry in April of this year, but Katrina forced them to postpone their
wedding until October 28, 2006. The wedding will be small, in New Orleans
or nearby, but we're really excited about the news, love Ginger, and try to get
any information out of Brian, who doesn't like to speak on the phone.
Thankfully, Ginger's mom, Kit, and I have made phone contact and, as Brian says,
"you're my consigliore," on the wedding. Brian and Ginger were here for a
short time in November to attend Brian's stepsister's wedding, and we celebrated
the holidays then, as Alan and I traveled over Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Here's a picture of me and my boys taken then.
Dan returned from his visit
to France and quit his job as a floor/carpet installer, and spent the next five
months doing little. He thought he might try a new profession, but never
got around to doing much about it. So, when he had spent all of his money
by September, he decided to return to flooring and he's been working steadily
ever since. He plans to go to Hawaii with us in the summer, and is
thinking of renting an apartment with a friend.
In October I got together
with my brother, living in St. Louis and recently
retired from Anheiser-Busch, and my sisters, Gina and
Jeffy, still teaching in Virginia, to celebrate the 90th birthday of our
Mom's sister-in-law, Frances. We drove to a B&B
near Charlottesville on a beautiful fall weekend and feasted on a scrumptious
meal made largely by her son, Butch.
This November brought much
better political news than last year, for Jon Corzine, a really decent guy, was
elected governor of New Jersey. It's been rare for me to enthusiastically
support someone who actually won, so we look forward to good things from him.
I continue to dabble in politics, doing some volunteering for the Corzine and
local campaigns, where we saw our friend, John Devlin, return to the committee
in our all-Republican town. I also volunteer with Meals on Wheels, and, in
my spare time, watch a Netflix movie or two. We are both fortunate
to have good health, great friends, and family. We look forward to 2006,
then 2007, then voting these bums out of office in 2008, if we can't impeach
before then! Peace and good health in 2006!
Alan:
Well, it is not worth going over how Bush and the Republicans have mismanaged
our country and its resources. I am encouraged by the election of Jon
Corzine as the new governor of New Jersey, and hope that we can set an example
to get the country back on the right track, and take over Congress this Fall.
Our sabbatical in France was wonderful, and
we will return in March for a week's visit to Paris during Spring Break. I
made several good scientific contacts and discovered that the French do not work
as hard as we do and take time to enjoy life. I tried to learn from them
and bring back that attitude when we came home. I bought myself an
automatic espresso maker to be able to keep drinking the great coffee I got used
to in Europe, and also bought us two kayaks, which we have enjoyed on the rivers
and inlets near our house at the shore. We lived in a great apartment in
the 11th arrondisement near the Père Lachaise Cemetery, and mostly succeeded in
visiting all the nice places in Paris. The people were very nice to us and
it was easy to live in one of the most beautiful cities on the planet (although
Rio, which we just visited, is a worthy rival) with the best food and wine.
Things continue to go well
at Rutgers. I am now
Associate Director of the
Center for Environmental Prediction, the group of faculty and
students in our Dept. who work on meteorology and climate, turning over the
directorship to Tony Broccoli. My student Luke Oman received his Ph.D. in
December, and students Chaochao Gao and Haibin Li should get theirs in 2006.
A new postdoc, Richard Anyah, is working out very well, funded by our new 5-year
NSF grant to look at the effects of climate change on water resources. I
published nine papers all together in 2005, and have one paper in press and
three more submitted. If you are interested in more information or want to
read them, visit my
home page and click on Publications. Two of our faculty members are
leaving Rutgers this year, and we are now in the process of recruiting excellent
new faculty members to replace them and keep our great undergrad program going.
I continue to take care of affairs for my
uncle Leonard Robock, who is in a nursing home in Northern Virginia.
He is slowly declining and not able to communicate or even recognize me any more, but getting excellent care.
Very unfortunately, his sister, Esther Hersh, died shortly after a diagnosis of
pancreatic cancer, at age 91. She was lucid her entire life, and I am glad
I got to spend time with her on visits to Maryland over the years. She was
like a second mother to me, and I will miss her a lot. Fortunately the rest of my family is healthy, including my father who
turned 90
in July, and continues to play tennis, attend conferences, and take
international trips. We spent some time with him in Mexico before my sister
Lisa's wedding in August to Steve Bartram. Steve has three great teenage
daughters, and it is wonderful to welcome them to our family. He is making
Lisa very happy. They joined our
family on a one-week trip to Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Christmas week,
which was very beautiful and relaxing for Sherri and me. The peace Santa
above is along the road from Salvador to our hotel, and we saw a
great sunset over the Lagoa in Rio,
Sugar Loaf from Corcovado, Copacobana beach with Ipanema in the distance
from Sugar Loaf, Ipanema beach,
the Lagoa from Corcovado, and a hang glider buzzing the
statue of Jesus on Corcovado, and here is a picture of
my sister Lisa, brother Jerry and me. I
don't know why people say Jerry and I look alike.
While I did not travel to as many continents as the year before (only 3), I did
have six trips to Europe in 2005, including two trips home during my sabbatical
in Paris, a trip to Copenhagen and Germany in August with Sherri, another trip
to Paris in September to be on a Ph.D. committee for Thanh Ngo-Duc, and a trip
to Madrid in November with Sherri. Combined with domestic trips and the
family trip to Brazil, I became Platinum Elite (>75,000 miles) on Continental
for the first time. I feel very lucky to get all these travel
opportunities. It's still like magic. I sit on a plane for a while
and end up in a completely new place.
In January I attended the American
Meteorological Society annual meeting in San Diego, which included special
sessions to honor my Ph.D. advisor, Ed Lorenz, and my host during my previous
sabbatical, at GFDL, Suki Manabe. Sherri couldn't wait to get to Paris and
arrived on the morning of Jan. 15, the day our lease began, and I came four days
later, being sure to be gone in time for the presidential inauguration. In
February, I won the University of Wisconsin Alumni Club bowling tournament in
France and we went to an indoor women's tennis tournament, the Gaz de France,
where we saw Amelie Maresmou and Danila Safina, who ended up winning.
We went to the nearby Cirque d'Hiver, where I got a
good picture of the finale. In March, Sherri and I took the Eurostar train to London under the English
Channel. It was fast and convenient - 20 minutes of darkness in the tunnel
and we were in England. I gave invited talks at Royal Holloway, University
of London and Reading University and we spent the weekend in London, taking a
trip on the London Eye, with
a great view of Parliament. But although we got a
great view of the city, it was clear that it was not nearly as beautiful as
Paris. I returned to the US in March to attend a research meeting in Boston and
then home to do our taxes. The timing was right for me to attend
a lecture
at Columbia by three Dylan scholars, which was very interesting. The
first weekend in April we took a bicycle tour of
northern Paris, a gift from my brother and sister. It was one of the first
nice days, and people were out along the Canal St. Martin
near our apartment and near the Bastille, and
in the park. We also saw an old
Citroen. We also rode by an
all-purpose French restaurant and the
Imax theater at the science museum. In April
we went to Vienna, where I attended the European Geosciences Union meeting, and
then we took a train to Prague. We had never been there before, and it is
very beautiful, with a castle on a hill and
a pretty riverwinding through the
city. My cousin Sam Salganik who lives there was a generous guide.
In Prague, they have the real Budweiser. In May I flew to Exeter, England to visit the Hadley Centre, and took a separate Eurostar trip to Cambridge and London.
In May we went to Roland Garros twice to
watch the French Open, a lot of fun although it was very hot.
Venus Williams played terribly, but we got free pins at
the Al Jazeera Sports Channel booth.
One night, when friend Tony Snyder was visiting, a car
outside our window was firebombed. The firemen put
it out, and the burned out shell was there in the
morning. So we had experience with a common French occurrence, which
has become too common lately. On our 15th wedding anniversary, we ate at
Bofinger (Alan, Sher),
a fixture not far from our house. I also
visited the European Space Agency in Noordwijk, Netherlands in May, and
Estes
Park, Colorado for a science team meeting. Living in Paris was very
convenient for visiting other places in Europe by train or short, cheap flights.
We took a week's vacation to Sarlat in southern France, home of prehistoric cave
paintings, castles overlooking rivers, and a beautifully restored Medieval city.
I was ready to go home at the end of June, feeling very uncomfortable in our
non-air conditioned apartment and non-air conditioned office, but Sherri wanted
to stay in Paris forever.
While I did not get to see Bob Dylan
perform this year (he played three times in New Jersey in June, and I was stuck
in Paris), I very much enjoyed the Martin Scorsese movie shown on PBS and the
Bob Dylan Scrapbook, my proudest Dylan news is my article, Tonight as
I Stand Inside the Rain, about the use of weather imagery in Dylan
songs. It was published in 2005 in the Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society, and the AMS featured it on their home page
for three months this summer. I made the figure from the 1965 movie Don't Look
Back by D. A. Pennebaker, and got permission from him to use it in the article.
And in November we saw the best Joan Baez concert I've ever been to, from the
front row at the McCarter Theater in Princeton.
Wisconsin did not go to the Rose Bowl
again this year, but just won the CapitalOne Bowl on Jan 2, 2006, in Barry
Alvarez's last game. It was an enjoyable way to go out on top.
May your 2006
be a healthy and fulfilling one. Happy New Year!
Sherri:
2005 was a hard year for many, including my son Brian's fiance's family, who
had to face the turmoil of Katrina, but the six months I spent in Paris was a
dream come true. I never had the chance to live overseas while a student,
so being in the center of Paris, taking French lessons for 10 weeks, and
immersing myself in the culture and life of the Parisians in the very diverse
11th arrondisement, was so rewarding in so many ways.
While I hoped to become fluent in French, I never overcame "mon blocage,"
hesitating while speaking. But I did improve my language ability and left
Paris still in love with the language. We did so much in our time there,
not traveling a whole lot (Al has more on that below), but sampling restaurants,
attending seminars at Democrats Abroad several times a month, meeting French
people in conversation courses and in other settings, participating in monthly
guided tours in and around Paris, and eating way too many baguettes, chocolate
and sampling the fine wines! But we didn't have a car, did a great deal of
walking, so I ended up not gaining any weight upon my return. However,
unlike the author of French Women Don't Get Fat, the pounds didn't
exactly drop off either. Now I'm working out at a gym trying to undo many
years, and certainly those 6 months, of fine dining.
