By special permission, refereeing at the Quebec provincial judo championships (biggest ever).
Off to referee at the Edmonton International Judo Championship for the first time. Easier to get to than Vancouver for a short weekend.
Next stops: Matsomoto (a castle!), samurai district, historical houses, festival floats, and gardens. Plus, an 11 hour train ride.
We have in fact been learning more about COVID recently, though it feels not as fast as in March 2020.
COVID didn’t throw too much of a wrench into things, thankfully. Second month of teaching for Winter 2023, including reading week and a trip to Japan.
First overseas trip since 2020, to Japan. Walking on a bit of the NakasendÅ, plus some info on pre-trip planning, and early cherry blossoms.
Back to the classroom (teaching two courses), plus judo tournaments and some skiing. Before that, we hiked Around the Mountain (Taranaki) in New Zealand.
A walk around the mountain (Taranaki). Pretty chill except for day 3 which had super high winds and day 2 which had a short amount of muddy steep terrain.
First conference (SPLASH) in three years (gave two talks) and South Island vacation. Also a bunch of service tasks, e.g. master’s thesis and PhD comprehensive exams. Submitted a paper!
Christmas 2022 trip. Like everyone in New Zealand and many people from overseas, we flew in to Queenstown. Got away from the huge hordes by going to Wanaka (small hordes) and Mount Cook Village (some visitors). Did many of the things we’d been planning: Gillespie Circuit, glacier kayaking, Mueller Hut. Also went rock climbing in Wanaka. Featuring many pictures of Wanaka grebes.