The last two-plus weeks since our return from Addis has been somewhat busy as we re-adjust back into the swing of things here in NC. We had gotten used to there being lots of people always out walking on the streets in Addis, the constant human buzz, animal and traffic noise that it now seems a little weird to be back. Here, our neighborhood has a certain calm and order, with seemingly little movement. Around town, people leave you to do your own thing, and even though there are certain hot-spots of activity during the day, the streets are often quiet by 8pm. Of course, we are also missing Ethiopian food! The two Ethiopian restaurants nearest to us both closed down last year, so our only option now is one that is in Raleigh, which we hope to check out soon as we are going into serious injera withdrawal.

Marc won the Coach Bubba 20K (aka the NC State Championship for the 20K) last Saturday in 1:04:09, which our friends Karen & Drew also ran and did well in. Shuwen opted for the more forgiving 4-mile run, which she finished in around 32:32. Next up, Marc will compete in the National 15K championships in Jacksonville, FL in a less than a week (March 8th). We will make a detour and go see Lillis in Tallahassee while we are in FL, then we will spend a day in Charleston, SC on our way back up. Should be a nice little break. Hopefully we will get to catch bits of the ACC tourney while on the road.

Meanwhile, Marc has been working like crazy juggling working on his dissertation proposal, paper revisions for the various projects he's on, being on his department's faculty search committee (reviewing tons of applications), and commitments at church. He hopes to nail down his dissertation committee soon and be able to defend his proposal in April. Not surprisingly he is a little stressed and worried. Shuwen is working on nailing down some parts of her empirical work, and is collaborating with other grad students to brainstorm developing inter-disciplinary undergraduate seminars, which if moves along will result in actual courses to co-teach with other PhD students. She gave a presentation at the LCHS on Tuesday about Religion in Ethiopia -- not something she knows very much about, except for the introductory information from reading guide books, internet sites and the bits of personal observation while in Addis. Still, it is something that is rather interesting and fun to investigate as there is a lot of contention and historical gaps regarding a number of issues such as who the Ethiopian Jews are and where the Ark of the Covenant is.

We caught Yo-Yo Ma at Memorial Hall on Wednesday, which was a phenomenal performance -- it's amazing that he was even here! He performed a number of new and modern pieces from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Italy with 2 violinists and a violist. The only classical piece was a Schubert at the end. Memorial Hall was the most packed we had ever seen it -- there were even seats up on stage and in the orchestra section to maximize the ticket sale (apparently it reached the legal occupancy limit)!

Friday was the start of a busy recruiting weekend for the graduate school and a number of departments around campus. We met up with a number of prospective students, including a returning Peace-Corp volunteer from Malawi who is considering a PhD in Marc's department whom we hosted. Turned out he runs as well, so Marc took him on a nice 10-mile run Sat morning in the trails. The weather was perfect for runs this weekend, with clear blue skies and cool temperatures. Shuwen even managed a 8 mile run (her longest so far) this afternoon together with a few friends.

We watched the UNC-Duke women's game at Carmichael Stadium this evening. Duke played terribly and deserved the 81-51 loss. Shuwen ripped on the Duke team out of sheer disappointment the whole time, while Marc happily watched the self-destruction of Duke.