Boulder, Colorado

So, last weekend I went to the Western Conference of the Association of Asian Studies in Boulder, Colorado. The conference was fun, but it was much more fun to hang out with everyone there, like Bekah's dad Merv, who lives in Denver, and Lance Crisler, and Joe and Leslie Marler. I stayed with Merv and rented a car to go drive to and from Boulder. Merv runs the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management and so he know a lot about sustainable development, indigenous responses to modernity, climate change, and so it was a lot of fun to discuss all of this with him. Lance is studying Chinese literature at University of Colorado at Boulder, so it was really fun to have a friend who I could also talk about East Asian literature with. He knows a lot about the various professors and where they are and what they are doing, so it was good to get updated on that, since I am pretty oblivious to that aspect of the job. Finally, the Marlers are good friends with very cute kids. It was very fun to see so many old friends. Boulder is a cool little town and very beautiful in the summer. We drove into the mountains behind the town on Sunday and it was gorgeous, although I couldn't help but wonder what it looked like in the winter.