Forecast: 89°/75° 50°/37° (brrrrrr)
Humidity: 84% 89% (surprisingly similar)
Sunrise 6:36 7:56 am. , Sunset 6:14 4:36 p.m. (so much darker)
I'm staying with a Seattle-based mathematician at her home; she's loaned me a coat, hat, stripe-y mittens, scarf, sweater, and warm slippers. All of this is very much appreciated, since I took very minimal amounts of winter clothes with me to Panama, and hence could take very few with me for this one-week jaunt to Washington State.
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A tree covered with moss, in a park that's along
the walk between where I'm staying and the LightRail station. |
Being back in cold weather doesn't feel like as much of a change as the difference in light. It's been glorious in Panama to wake up naturally with the sun every day; here, my internal clock still has me rising early (5 a.m.-ish local time), but the sun is sleeping in. At the other end of the day, it's strange to see the world sink into end-of-day darkness before I've even eaten dinner yet. Sun, I miss you!
But the math meetings have been every bit of the Fun Festival of Happiness I expected they would be. I met up with old friends, attended some really cool talks, did some committee stuff that I think is worthwhile, . . . it's a bit of a Whitman's sampler full of little sweet people/math things.
It's also been a satisfyingly productive meeting so far. A group I visited last January here in Seattle (one of whom is the person who loaned me all those clothes and put me up at her house here) met to finish up revisions on a paper we've worked on this year, and we uploaded it to ArXiv!
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Four of the five of our group, polishing the paper via zoom call.
We'll meet in person for dinner soon!
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Of course, I gave a talk: it was on the chapter I'm currently writing (Chapter 7), which has been a great way to test out the material on other people, while also thinking aloud about what I'll eventually commit to text.
And then I took a long walk by Seattle's waterfront.
It's a bit grayer and than Panama's greener and warmer Cinta Costera, but still lovely.
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| A "Pocket beach" with a view of a ship out in the water. |
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| A giant sculpture of a head in the Olympic Sculpture Park. |
I am appreciating certain things I've missed while in Panama (hooray for sidewalks and crosswalks! How lovely to understand what people are saying to me without having to ask them to speak more slowly! How nice to walk vigorously for 20 minutes and not be drenched in sweat! Mailboxes!)
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Mailboxes! Such a happy sight after 4.5 months
with no postal deliveries. |
At the same time, being in Seattle reminds me of the wonders of Panama that I'll be glad to return to later this week (morning sun but-of-course, the amazing birds and plants, fresh food in season that's locally grown).
Today's observances in two different countries
January 9 2025 is a "National Day of Mourning for Jimmy Carter" in the U.S. In Panama, a big part of Carter's legacy is the
Torrijos-Carter Treaty, which returned the Canal from U.S. control to Panamanian control a quarter of a century ago. That treaty was very much influenced by a tragic day 61 years ago.
January 9 in Panama is "Martyr's Day" (
more information here), marking the day in January 9, 1964 when an attempt by students to peacefully plant the Panama flag at the Balboa School was rebuffed and spiraled into horrible violence, leading to the shootings by U.S. military personnel of dozens (or more) Panamanian students. The event led to huge international condemnation of the U.S. and, as noted above, is still considered to be a key factor in the later treaty -- the same treaty that is newly a focus of contention, now that the President-elect has made it a recurring theme in his speeches.
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