I always knew it...

It was on the summit of Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone National Park where I recently met a hiker. In this remote environment it was natural to start a lively chat about wildlife (he showed me pictures of a bear he had seen on his hike), the mountains and – of course – personal backgrounds. Instead of the usual short «lovely!» as a response to revealing Austria and Switzerland as my home countries he replied: «Oh, it's nice over there. I was in Switzerland last week and hiked for a couple of days in Vorarlberg and Eastern Switzerland». This was followed by a detailed monologue about Swiss and Austrian (hiking) areas. After having told him about the route to come he did provide me with details on almost any national park destination which could be of interest to me. My natural conclusion was that he must either be a professional hiker or retired. But I proved to be wrong: he was a law professor who seemed to add vacation days to any of his professional trips. Maybe some of us should rethink their career plans and appreciate the long-term advantages of an academic career. For me, this had never been more obvious than on the summit of Mt. Washburn :-)