Peaks

Last week was a long one, capped by taking my first midterm as a graduate student and giving my first as an instructor.  Both of them ended up going well, but by the time Friday afternoon rolled around, I was ready for a little bit of a break. I had been looking forward to going out salsa dancing Friday night pretty much since the end of the dance the week before. Even though I’ve only been going for about the last three weeks, I’ve already made some good friends, and met some incredibly talented dancers (I do miss everyone back in Blacksburg though).  I ended up staying until almost 1:30 dancing and talking.  I even danced a few bachata songs, without, I think, making a complete fool out of myself, and I’m definitely looking forward to going again next week 🙂

The weather here on Saturday was gorgeous, and I ended up driving out to the Cascades to a place called the Dee Wright Observatory, located at the McKenzie pass (5325 ft!).  The observatory (seen above), located in the middle of a lava flow, is basically a turret-like structure built out of the lava rocks that the surrounding fields are covered in.  It offered a breathtaking view of the nearby Three Sisters peaks:

In the other direction was a great view of the lava flow, with a few tiny pockets of trees:

Saturday afternoon, once I got back, was spent doing math, but nothing too stressful.  I ended up going dancing again, this time at a contra dance here at Eugene. They had a great live band come down from Corvallis to play at the dance, and it ended up being a lot of fun.

Sunday was not as exciting, but very productive.  I was able to finish grading my students’ exams, and got through a good portion of my homework for the week.  More importantly, though, I feel very rested, and ready to take on the coming week.

-Ben