Dubai, in transit...

Hello from Dubai! (Marc writing while in transit to Ethiopia)

Shuwen remains in Singapore for one more day before returning to Chapel Hill, but I am on my way to Ethiopia to check in on a household survey in the Rift Valley related to climate change, water availability, and assessing the dependence and health impacts of local populations on groundwater that appears to contain dangerously high levels of naturally-occuring elements and minerals, due to the volcanic soils of the region.

We had an interesting trip to Singapore. It was our first time back since Shuwen's maternal grandmother (Wai Po) passed away, and also our first time back since her other grandmother (Ah Ma) had a really debilitating stroke that has left her paralyzed, so we naturally spent a good deal of time visiting both families. All in all, we saw most of the Singapore-based family, and even some who were visiting from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

After Marc barely finished the final exam and final paper grades for his course, we also took a cruise to Penang and Malacca, which Shuwen's parents had arranged. Although I think Shuwen would agree with me that we are not really "cruise types," that was a good opportunity to spend time together, and we did enjoy the stops in those two UNESCO World Heritage Site towns.
While in Singapore, we also had the chance to catch up with many of Shuwen's grade school and high school friends, as well as some of our mutual friends who have since settled there, mostly in university jobs. Singapore is investing heavily in building state of the art research facilities and teams, and those friends are part of that effort.

All in all, a successful trip, with lots of eating of delectable food - one of the highlights of any trip to Singapore. It was amazingly rainy this year, which allowed me to maintain some exercise and fitness, though Shuwen was hampered a bit at the end by an allergy/cold. It was also simply great to spend time with the family.

We have been less than diligent in our blogging during the past six months, largely due to the fact that we both had our busiest work semesters yet, with a relatively heavy teaching load for Marc, and a greatly expanded research portfolio for Shuwen. We both feel blessed to be where we are at this point, but we (or perhaps mostly I) also need to keep conscious of balance between work and the other spheres of our lives.

This spring, I am back to teaching one course (which I have taught once before), so hopefully that will free up some time for catching up on projects and doing more things. We hope to have more visitors to Chapel Hill in the coming year as well!