Spring-winter-summer

We've had some interesting weather recently. Yesterday, a perfect spring-conditions powder and crust ski at Prospect just enough cover to for Aubrey to classic along with 1.5 trillion Bill Koch league kids. Today, a snowstorm that should coat Williamstown with a foot for the first time since October. Next week, temperatures in the mid-50s and sunny.

I always thought mountain weather was something limited to the Cascades, Rockies, and Alaska Range, but Greylock has proved otherwise. The road is rideable, but not when coated with a freak 2 inches of ice that magically appears some days.

Williams Semester 2 2011-2012

A shout out to the awesome professors I have right now:

J albrecht for data structures and algorithm design

D Tucker-Smith for math methods for physics

E Kolbert for nature writing

P Kohler for environmental policy

You make Williams the best!

When I left Garfield, I was a little bit afraid of heading to a college almost smaller than my high school. But the size of Williams has somehow turned out to be one of my favorite things, both in terms of professor relationships and classmate continuity into everyday life and other classes.

Other blogs

If you're interested feel free to check out the Williams ski team blog at ephnordic.blogspot.com for training, pictures, and results. It is somewhat unclear who's coauthored what, but most all of its good.

Winter Study at Williams

Design Garage, or as my grandmother wrote, Garage Organization Class, has been an invitation into experience and product design. Taught by Carissa Carter (A Williams Geos Alum), our class of sixteen has been interviewing, prototyping, testing, filming, and presenting. I'm part of "The Green Eph Project" (greenephproject.tumblr.com) along with Piper Sallquist, Postyn Smith, and Ari Benjamin. Stay tuned for more design information, or just go to greenephproject.tumblr.com

Ski Season

Greetings from Bethel, Maine. I've been skiing on a lot of ice, grass, and rocks recently; so much for nor'easters. For real though, Bethel is near Rumford which is near Black Mountain which is home to a lot of manmade snow from nationals. Tomorrow I'll be racing my first college carnival, which will ideally go better than the eastern cups last weekend. A pair of Salomon Lab skate skis is ready to go, with some new snow forecast to make a fast course. Manmade snow is getting a bit boring, especially the 1.5km gerbil loops we've been skiing on, but next week promises some sort of storm. Maybe I'll finally get to test out my new carbonlites and featherlites here in New England.

First impressions of Williams

So far, Williams College is even better than I could have wished for. I doubted a bit whether we'd make it in time due to Irene, but after a several hour detour from the Albany airport (which is one of the best, easiest to navigate, and friendliest airports in the US) my parents and I made it to Williams. It hasn't been a typical New England fall weather-wise, but as I'm writing this we're in the middle of a full week of sun, a first in the last month or more. Ski training remains of good quality, with regular weight sessions and roller skis twice per day.
The workload class wise is relatively large, but not impossible to handle. Africana studies 211, Race and the Environment, continues to be one of my favorite classes. The discussions are invigorating, stimulating, and are of a much higher level thought-wise than any class I've had before. Though I miss my HP notebook a bit, the switch to a Macbook has been nice, as no one looks weird staying up writing with one at 2 am.
So far I've made it to Stratton, VT and some small organic and dairy farms (as part of Art History 201). My hope is to head into Boston and New York in the next few months, and maybe go back to Seattle for two weeks at Christmas.

Graduation and future plans

A month ago, on June 14th, I graduated as valedictorian from Garfield High School in Seattle. Though an eight mile trek across the city every day might seem crazy for high school, it was in all ways worth the long bike ride. Yes, I may have at times been frustrated with the lack of classes, sub-par teaching in some cases, and administrative difficulties. But my classmates, teachers, teammates, and friends made up for any shortfalls. There is nowhere with the diversity, community, and kindness that most Garfield students and teachers exhibit. Of all the other schools I've visited, none have displayed the same level of student involvement, investment, and dedication to others. Thanks Garfield, for four great years. For those others who are moving on, its been awesome working with you. Have fun at UW Ms. Martin!