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The 2012 version of the annual conference that I've attended in Austin, Williamsburg, Kyoto, Fullerton, Eugene, and Montpellier was held in Albuquerque. It was a charmed coincidence that allowed me to return to the desert just over a year after my move to Amsterdam. As in January when I had a conference in San Diego, I stopped in Phoenix for a few days to visit family and friends.

From my mom's house, to the northeast

From my mom's house, to the northwest

Interstate 10, facing north toward Camelback Mountain

And as in January, I felt like I'd walked into a different world, where biking and walking don't exist, where cars, grocery stores, and people are expansive, and where clouds are non-existent. There was something more this time - the heat and dryness that I grew up in but hadn't experienced for years (I was last in Phoenix in the summer in 2009, I think). Within three hours of arriving, I felt parched in a way I never feel in Amsterdam unless I've exercised. The trip to Phoenix afforded a rare opportunity to see dear friends and family whom I am only able to correspond with electronically. But it also hit home my preference for where I am now. Living for 20+ years in the desert makes me feel like this damp, dark, cool former marsh known as Amsterdam is a paradise. And the lack of expansiveness I referred to earlier is a bit more my speed.

After a three day weekend in Phoenix, I flew to Albuquerque. The arrival was a bit different than what I'd experienced in Phoenix. Walking through the small Sunport (airport) felt like much more of a homecoming than my visit to Phoenix did. This might partially be because Phoenix is so large, and all the places I knew when I lived there are either far from where I'd visit now (houses in Mesa and Gilbert) or have changed so much since I lived there that they're almost unrecognizable.

But the three places I lived in seven years in Albuquerque were all in the same area, and Albuquerque is much less of a hotbed for expansion and change than Phoenix has been for the past thirty years. Things felt good - natural - as I waited for a ride at the curb of the airport. The sky was blue and expansive, and the west mesa rose up to the west as the Sandias rose up to the east. The dry 90 degree weather and constant breeze felt great.


During my time there, I was mostly busy with my conference and preparing for (and giving) a talk. But I had the chance to walk around some of my old neighborhoods, spend lots of time in Satellite, and meet up with several friends who still live there.

My apartment, June 2010-May 2011

Looking northeast toward the Sandia Mountains, from the Ridgecrest neighborhood

Albuquerque's not-uncommon intersection between streets of the same name

Pool on the Casa Rodeno grounds

I stayed with Annie and Paul, two of my best friends (and, whom I might ad, a couple whom I doggedly - and perhaps obnoxiously - tried to set up as a couple in 2005), and their daughter, Josie. Annie was still pregnant with Josie when Annie and Paul dropped me off at the airport for my move to Amsterdam in May 2011, and it was my first chance to meet her. So that was somewhat special.

Annie and I at the Casa Rodeno tasting room

Annie and Josie near the Casa Rodeno pool

Josie on the floor of the tasting room

Cristin holding Josie

In addition to getting an everything bagel with cream cheese and tea at Satellite, going to Il Vicino, Scalo, El Patio, and Marble Brewery, and seeing a lot of friends, I also made a hike in the Sandias a goal for the visit. Steve, one of my Ph.D. advisors, and an occasional hiking companion, agreed to drive us up the back side of the mountain to take a short hike (~3 hours) along the North Crest trail, one of the more scenic paths in the Sandias.

The trail skirts the edge of the crest of the mountain range, and there are frequent views of Albuquerque and the hundreds of miles of expansive high desert around it down below. It's a small part of the 26 mile hike that Paul and I did in 2006, when we hiked all the way up and down the range, from the north side to the south side. Despite the 100 degree temperatures in Albuquerque, the air was comfortable and cool at over 10,000 feet. Nevertheless, I got my first (mild) sunburn in well over a year.

Flowers near the edge of the North Crest Trail

Looking south down the North Crest trail back toward the trail head

Looking north toward Placitas, where the North Crest trail falls descends toward Placitas

Looking down toward the Rio Grande

Aspen on the North Crest Trail

Small trees framed by the radio towers on the North Crest Trail

And now, as the post below indicates, I'm experiencing some very different scenery.

Jet Lag

When I moved to Amsterdam in 2011, I arrived around 10:00am after being awake for 20 hours. Following advice from multiple people, I did not nap during the day. I struggled to stay awake before falling asleep at 8:00pm, and I slept until 10:00am. There was no jet lag after that - my body had reset, more or less.

I apparently wasn't so lucky when I returned from the U.S. on Thursday. I did take a two hour nap after getting to my apartment around noon, and I got another seven hours of sleep before going to work the next morning. I tried to "reset" as I had a year ago by going to bed at 10:00pm on Friday, and intending to get ten to twelve hours of sleep. It didn't work out - I woke up at about 2:30am, and I couldn't get back to sleep.

After an hour of sleeplessly lying in my bed, I decided that getting up was my best option. And I realized that I had a unique opportunity to wander around Amsterdam in the hours between late-partying and early morning risers. Only days after the solstice, the sun rose around 5:00am. So I grabbed my camera and rode around for two hours to look at the normally packed areas that were positively ghostly:

An empty Museumplein

An empty Dam Square

Outside of the maritime museum

The IJ River

A large bird walking away from the harassing guy with the camera

Leuven

I had the opportunity to visit Leuven, Belgium in early June, when I was invited to give a lecture on evolutionary perspectives on human behavior to biology Ph.D. students. It was a very busy time of the year, but there were several reasons to accept, including practicing talking to biologists rather than psychologists, doing a favor for Leuven University, and, naturally, the experience of seeing Leuven. So I took an afternoon train from Amsterdam to Leuven on a Thursday before giving a lecture on Friday.

Leuven is a true college town, in the European sense. It is very small, with the university acting as the heart of the local economy. It had the same cobbled streets as Gent (another city in Belgium I visited in November) and an old church/cathedral and city hall in the square in the middle of town. It is only 21 square miles in size – unlike the other cities with universities I’ve seen in Europe, this one seemed to have the university and nothing else.

This did not detract from its beauty. Lights were pointed at the cathedral and town hall and the bars and cafes lining the few main streets. And, naturally, the bar that I visited on Thursday evening offered over fifty Belgian beers (~90% of which I’d never heard of before), and several shops offered Belgian waffles, one of which I had covered with melted Belgian chocolate before eating.

So, I’m batting 1.000 (two for two) for Belgian cities. I preferred Gent given its larger size and better specialization as a tourist destination, but I’m very glad to have seen Leuven. 

World Photo Press Tour

There have been 24" X 36" posters of provocative scenes hung all around Amsterdam for the past month or two advertising something called World Press Photo. Many of the photos are of a bare chested woman holding her arm up in some type of salute, which led me (and, I'm sure, others) wondering: what are they trying to sell with the topless lady?

After walking by the posters for the 50th or so time, I took a closer look. Apparently the World Press Photo Tour - which is an exhibition of the world's top photos, as judged by a committee of the World Press Photo Contest, which is based out of Amsterdam - was on display for two months in the Oude Kerk (old church) in the Red Light District. I'd never been to the Oude Kerk, it was a public holiday (White Monday), and I had my museum card. So I went on down.

The Church is the oldest building in Amsterdam (built in the 13th century), and it apparently was a used extensively before being alternatively abandoned, abused, and looted after the country became officially Protestant in the 16th Century. Restoration projects began in the middle of the 20th century, and they continue today. The church hosts things like the World Photo Press Tour while the renovations continue. 

The photos themselves were some of the most moving, depressing, amazing images one would ever see. Images of 12 year old girls crying as they prepare for the arranged marriages. Of black rhinos with their horns surgically removed by animal right activists, so the entire animal would not be killed by poachers who want to sell the horn to people who believe it has medicinal properties. Photos of the Femen, the group of young Ukrainian women who protest the sex trade and other human rights abuses by public toplessness. A series of horrific images of the Japanese Tsunami. Several displays related to the Arab Spring, including the winner, which showed a woman in a full body Burka cradling her nearly naked son who had been tear gassed by the military.

The photos are here.

The church is in the heart of the red light district, and the back of the church is surrounded with prostitute windows. As I kneeled on the ground taking pictures of the back of the church, I heard someone scream "You fucking asshole." I looked to my right, and there was a prostitute, whose skin and voice suggested that she was an immigrant from Sub-Saharan Africa, standing a few meters away from me. "You fucking asshole tourists and your fucking cameras, taking pictures of me. Get the fuck out of here before I break your fucking camera." 

I calmly said, "I'm just taking pictures of the church."

She just repeated her previous comments.