Seven things you didn't know about me

I was tagged by Chris R. for this meme. So... here it goes.

1. My high school biology teacher was a young earth creationist, and I have never had a biology class that covered evolution, though I used to read the last chapter of grade school textbooks - the one that talked about human evolution - on my own. My high school history teacher tried to make up for our inadequate science education by starting Ancient History with the Paleozoic.

2. I chose my undergrad college because the glossy propaganda included a picture of a snow sculpture of a lake monster.

3. I chose my graduate school because it does not snow there. Not in April, when I visited. Not in January. Not at all.

4. Within three months of arriving in grad school, I missed snow so much that I decided to do field work in northwestern Alaska.

5. All of my academic jobs have been in ski towns, even though I am a Nordic (not Alpine) skier.

6. After my first job interview, I was told that I was not enthusiastic enough about teaching, and that I should consider applying for jobs at research universities. So the next time I got an interview, I asked lots of detailed questions about the courses I would be teaching, and I went to the interview with a lot of ideas about the classes. (I got that job, and I have never applied for a job at a research university.)

7. At one point, I knew how to ask for beer in French, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. However, I prefer to drink red wine.

I'm not going to tag anyone, because I don't want to put anyone on the spot. But if you want to play, consider yourself tagged.