Realizations

So, we are in Ann Arbor. It has been very fun. For the last two weeks, I have been going to “math camp”, which has been not very fun. Unfortunately, I am not very smart as far as math goes, and I am very unprepared as far as the courses I have taken. Hopefully, it will be alright. However, while in the course, I have been able to meet many very interesting and intelligent people.

In meeting all these people, I have come to a realization that I never really thought of. I feel ashamed for not really thinking about it more. It sounds silly to say, but, I will say it. I never really thought about the fact that different countries have different parts. In the cubes around mine, there is someone from North China, and someone from South China, and they not only look slightly different, but they sound and act different. In asking, some of the difference is due to where they are from. China, interestingly, has been a unified country with one language for many, many years (thousands, I think).

Indians are even more different. It has only been recently that India was one country, and they still do not have one language that everyone speaks. (I asked one of my Indian friends what language he would speak to someone from India he saw to know they would understand, and he said “English.” There is a guy from India in my program I was talking to about this, and he said he speaks 3 languages, but right now, speaks English better than any of them.)

This recent unification means that people who are from different parts of India are even more different. I can already tell the different between someone from Northern India and someone from Southern India. It is very interesting to me.Like I said, I am kind of ashamed for not thinking about this earlier. In the US, we really don’t think much about other countries, and it is a little sad. Coming from the richest and most powerful country has the effect of making one not think about other, extremely important and larger (population-wise) countries. Being here and interacting with people from literally dozens of countries on a daily basis has helped me in that. Anyways, that is that.

Trip To Ann Arbor

So, we have been somewhat deficient in posting to our blog lately. It is not as if we had a lack of things to post about. Indeed, in the last month, we have had the biggest change in our family ever (with the exception of Jacob being born). We moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and have not really said a whole lot about it. So, I guess this post will fill you in on a few details. Our move started out by packing up our house and putting it all on a truck. It was kind of a busy couple days. I took the last section of the CPA on a Friday, we had a nephew get baptized on Saturday, Stacey defended her master's thesis on Monday, and we loaded the truck on Monday. In any event, here I am on the truck, with all our stuff. After sending the truck on its merry way, we had to say goodbye to another truck. I have driven this black Nissan for the past 9 years, and will miss it dearly. We have become one, but, because of reasons outside of my control (and because the truck was never mine, only loaned to me), the truck and I had to part ways. It will be forever missed. So, after the important goodbye to the black truck, we drove to Denver for my brothers wedding. Before the wedding, we spent a few days camping with my family, which was really fun. All of my sibling and all of their children were there (23 folks in all), which was really fun. My family is really starting to become more of an empire than just a few people who are realated. It was very nice to have everyone there, something that has never happened before, and so it was a very good time. Jacob especially enjoyed it. Not only do the out-of-doors provide plenty of grass for him to eat, but he also enjoyed eating dirt, sand, and other things he found on the ground. After camping, we went to Denver and stayed in a house all together. Then, Kevin got married. It was very weird to see him get married. But, he did it, so all weirdness aside, it is done. I feel like he must have been very deceptive in tricking Tess into marrying him, as he definatly married above himself. Hopefully she does not figure this out too soon. Anyways, here is my family in front of the temple, and then Keving and Tess (holding their favorite nephew). Then, we drove to Michigan. It took us two days from Denver, and was kind of a blur. I got reservations for a hotel in Iowa, and miscalculated how long it would take us to get there, and we ended up rolling into our hotel at about 1:30 in the morning. That was no fun. Then, after going to church in East Moline, IL (home of John Deere headquarters), we were back on our way to Ann Arbor. We passed through several states on the way to Michigan. We finnally got to Michigan, and then to Ann Arbor at about 6:30 on Sunday evening. Amazingly, Jacob was very, very well behaved the whole way. We would just give him a bottle and feed him, change him when we needed to stop anyway, and for the most part, he created no problems. His biggest ordeal was when he decided to cry for about ten minutes, but, he got over it and became happy. He also did a lot of talking to himself and telling himself stories. They are apparently pretty funny, because he laughed a lot at them. I never thought they were terribly entertaining. Here is a picture of Jacob hanging out in the back seat, like he did very well for some 24 hours.

Video added

I put the other laughing video under the first one in the previous post. Enjoy!!

11 months old!

Jacob is 11 months today, and we did a few things today to mark the occasion (some by coincidence, others planned). He got to take a dip in a pool today with some friends from the ward, and he tried a new food for dinner that I whipped up for him: zucchini and carrot fritters. He loved them! And, as always, I took the necessary picture of him with the fuzzy little bear that has continued to shrink.

I just love this kid - he is great and makes us so happy. He will make you happy, too, with his performance in the videos accompanying this post. He laughed harder today than I'd ever heard him laugh, and I'm so glad I caught some of it on camera. Who knew lame firework sound impressions could be such a riot to a baby?

And yes, he did sneeze immediately after this picture:

Nice and Smart

So, I am here at the University of Michigan, and I have started what is dubbed “Math Camp.” While the name may conjure up images of happy time with numbers, this is not the case. It is a lot of math, and so far of the 8 hours of instruction I have had so far, much of it has already been way over my head, in the kind of way that I am not sure there is any way I could retrieve it. However, that is not the point of this post. Yesterday I met with a group to go over the first homework assignment, and was very pleasantly surprised with how very nice everyone was. In fact, thinking about it, everyone I have met has been very, very pleasant and nice. Not only are all the people I have met in my class and on campus nice, they are also very smart. But, not just very smart. Very, very smart. But not just very, very smart, very, very, very smart. They do math problems in their head in minutes that I sit and stare at for two hours and don’t even know where to begin (and which they can’t explain to me).

They are from a huge variety of places, from the eastern US, to the western US, to China, Japan and Korea, to Eastern Europe. They have come straight from an impressive set of school, or have worked at fancy impressive places doing high level consulting or pricing corporate bonds. They age from 25 or so to 40 or so. They vary hugely in their ability to speak English or in their ability to communicate effectively despite being native English speakers. However, so far I have not met anyone that is not nice. All my group mates (out of whom I knew by far the least math) were all very, very willing to explain things and help. Some of them had completed the problem set with no problems, but just showed up to help out. So, that is that. I am among very, very smart, and nice people. Hopefully they continue to be nice.

Update and a Beach Party

Well, we made it to Michigan earlier this week and have busied ourselves with unpacking, adjusting to the eastern time zone, hanging things on the walls, attending events here and there, and for Jeff: school. I'll write about the first couple of weeks of August a little later but wanted to share some cute pictures I took this afternoon. And I had to take the token first day of school picture of Jeff on Thursday...right before he went to catch the bus to central campus. Our complex had a beach party this afternoon, and since Jeff was off hitting the books, Jacob and I decided to venture out on our own. The complex is huge, lots of houses, parking lots, etc., so I'm glad we found the party. I decided Jacob would have enjoyed it even more if he were 5 or 6 but he still had fun crawling around on the grass, handling waterarms for the first time, and as always he made attempts at eating grass (a favorite pastime). He also shared a popsicle with me but we opted not to participate in the water balloon toss or limbo game.

Things left undone in Provo

So, we are on the road headed to Ann Arbor. This means that we have left Provo, not to return for a long time. I spent 5 years as a student in Provo, and they were very good years. I am very pleased with what I did there, from finding a wife and having a child, to preparing for a mission and getting a college degree. However, there are several things that I did not do while in Provo that I wish I would have. Some I am ashamed to have not done, others merely regretful. Hopefully those of you who still live around there might take the opportunity to do a couple of these things, to live my unfulfilled dream. Here they are:

1. Hike Mt. Timpanogos. From the time I started at BYU, I have hiked the highest peaks in four states, ID, AZ, CO and UT. I hiked the Grand Canyon from North to South Rim, and hiked many other things. However, the most hiked mountain in Utah, the peak that anyone in Provo who has any inclination to being willing to exert effort to climb up a mountain has hiked, I never hiked. I had several opportunities, had several plans with several different people to do it, but never did it. Sigh.

2. Go to the Manti Temple. I went to many of the other temples in Utah, but, despite making three serious attempts at the temple (two it was closed when we arrived, and one I got lost on the way and ended up in Price.) So, that will have to be done at some later date.

3. Drive the Nebo Scenic Route in the fall. Apparently, the colors are supposed to be spectacular, and the drive very pleasant. I have driven half of it a couple times, but never in the fall, and never all of it (at least, in daylight).

4. Mountain Bike off the lifts up at Sundance. I am not a bike Mt. Biker, but I think I would have enjoyed this.

5. Go on the Green River rafting trip that Outdoors Unlimited offers in the summer. It sound fun, and is a good deal.

6. Hiked Mt. Nebo with Outdoors Unlimited in the winter. I hiked it twice in the summer, but would really like to do it in the winter with all the winter gear and such.

7. Visited my Uncle who lives in Heber. He moved there a year ago. I biked up to his house and saw him once when he was in the process of building his house, but I never went back and saw him again.

8. Kayak down the Provo River. I brought a Kayak from Soda Springs to use, but never did it.

9. Volunteer at the MTC. I went there once to try, and they said that they had too many volunteers that day, but to please come back. Since, they have called several times, and they have e-mailed once a week, but I never went again.

10. Tour the Kennecott Copper Mine. I lived for 7 years in Globe, AZ, a copper mining town, and toured the open pit mines there. It is cool. I wish I would have seen the ones just north of point of the mountain.

11. Hike many more of the little peaks. There are dozens of cool hikes to do just around Utah Valley, and while I did a few, there are far more left undone than I did.

12. Go to the Salt Lake. I went once when I was little, and faintly remember it. I wish I would have gone again and checked it out.

13. Camp on Antelope Island State Park. I never went, and I wish I would have. So, there are a few of the things I wish I would have done. I will visit Provo again, and may do a few of them, but, I sure wish I would have done them whilst a resident.

Fear

I remember well back when I lived in Globe, AZ and was in the Junior High. I played both football and wrestling – two sports that require a great deal of physical endurance. Given the physical rigors of the sports, the practices are often very physically difficult. For example, I remember football practice where we would scrimmage hard, we would do tackling practice, we would run sprints, laps, do bear craws and up downs, push-ups and sit-ups, and all other forms of physical training. I remember dreading these practices every day. I would get a sick feeling in my stomach, a feeling of dread and wondering if I would be able to survive the practice. I enjoyed football, and played for 6 years, starting on whatever squad I was on each year, but always dreaded practice. Up through my senior year of football, I would feel a little sick at the end of each school day, knowing that after class, practice would come and I would be worked hard.

I am, at heart, a very scared person. Anyone who knows me well knows that I often get very anxious about things, especially difficult things that I will be required to do. Regardless of my knowledge of how I will do these things, or my past experience with them, I often get scared. This fear extended even to non-physical things, and before every semester at BYU I would be scared, wondering if this would be the semester that I was found out and failed all my classes. This fear drove me to act irrationally, dropping several classes and changing teachers at the last minute.

I am currently in the car headed for Michigan, where I will be going to school. From all accounts, it is a very difficult thing to do. And, as with everything else, I am very scared. My stomach feels a little bit uneasy. I know of my problem, but despite my rational ability to understand what happens to me, I cannot overcome my irrational fear. And, that is that.