Utah Sojourn

My life and experiences while I work towards my MS in Utah.

My Photo
Name:
Location: Gitting, Manyara, Tanzania

Just finished my MS in Watershed Science at Utah State University. Am now embarking on an adventure in Tanzania through the Peace Corps. After 2 months of training, I have just started teaching secondary Chemistry and Physics, which will be for 2 years.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Thanksgiving
My favorite holiday. Last year I was in Germany and made dinner with some friends for some Americans and non-Americans alike. This year, I'm close enough to some family to go visit them for this festive dinner.

Since I learned how to make apple pies and did so successfully in Germany, I made one for the Newman Center Thanksgiving dinner because I wasn't going to be there (and would have been if I did not have family a couple hours away).

I took Shannon to the airport on Wednesday so that she could go home and surprise her family...only her sister knew. Then I hung out at her apartment watching movies (to de-stress a bit from school) and eventually made another apple pie to bring to dinner at the McMillan's in Tooele (two-el-uh).

It was the McMillan's (David, Heidi, Sam, Ellie, Ian, & Alastair), Aunt Pat & Uncle Ted (Heidi's parents), some friends (3), and myself. Ati (Alastair) made the cranberry sauce from real cranberries and he and I also made a delicious fruit salad. All of the food was scrumptious and we enjoyed it around the huge table from Africa.
After dinner, the kids and I played Clue downstairs while the grownups talked or something. Then we all ended up playing Cherades with the adults (4 parents) against their kids and I. We made up things the parents had to act out and guess while the parents made up things that we had to act out and guess. It was hilarious and everyone had a great time. Some of the things were hard but were eventually guessed correctly (sometimes with lots of help from the other team).

I spent the night at the McMillans' to leave in the morning to head back to Logan with a pit-stop at Shannon's apartment to check on the cats.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Turkey Bowl
For the past month and a half or so, the grad students and faculty have been practicing football with their respective peers. All of the time put in was in preparation for the annual Turkey Bowl football game between the faculty and grad students in the Watershed Science Department.

Us students had quite a few participants as we were able to field two full teams (7 each) and have a few substitutes as well (about 20 people I think). The faculty had a smaller team as some of the anticipated players either skipped town (how convenient) or were already injured. Of course, two faculty members were the referees so us students had trouble catching a break...and we desperately needed it.

The first half was a slaughter as we played a man-to-man defense and just one person needed to get beat for them to score. So it was something like 35-0 at the half (five touchdowns to none...no field goals in this game).

So we switched to a zone defense for the second half and held them pretty even. We even scored a few touchdowns. My labmates (Molly and Andy in photo) and I played pretty well too. Andy (labmate) had 2 interceptions and I had one against our advisor, who happens to be the star quarterback for the faculty team (part of his interview was whether or not he played football...somewhat j/k). Despite the competition, we managed a photo after the game of our lab and Matt (Molly, Andy, Matt, Christy, and AS). All in all it was a great day: perfect weather (t-shirt and shorts!), fun times with friends, and humbling our advisor a little. Hopefully next year will be a bit more fun though if we can play the faculty more closely.

Following the football game is a turkey dinner hosted by a couple of faculty members. After helping Eamonn out with a few things with the bathroom (I had been working on it earlier in the day before the game), I headed out to Providence for the party. Of course, I couldn't remember the address so I called my labmates and only Andy answered. He tried to give me directions but had me going into Dry Canyon on the other side of the town. I ended up having to call him a few times and have him get directions from someone else there after he sent me in the wrong direction a couple times. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be asking him for directions again, especially if he's started drinking.

The party was nice with some good food. It's cool to have the comeraderie between the faculty and students (even after they just crushed us in the football game). It's also good to be able to mingle more with others in the department, especially all the other students I met while practicing football.

Not too much exciting happened but Andy did hand me a drink at one point and told me to try it. So I took a sip and then yelled at him something to the effect of, "Ugh! This is the most vile thing I've ever tasted! I'll never trust you again!" I think it was whiskey in the cup. And our advisor was standing not too far away. He said he didn't think I would actually drink it but he was pretty drunk by that point so who knows. Later on, Kirk (claiming he wasn't drunk but was...I mean, he was using a plastic dog bowl dish as a cup) started talking about how the something or other meteor shower was tonight. He couldn't remember the name and came up with some strange ones that he thought it could be. Anyway, we went outside to try to see some meteors but there weren't too many and we didn't stay out in the cold too long to catch more. He claims he saw two but I only caught one (a different one too). It sure is interesting the conversations people have when at least one is drunk.

Then about quarter to midnight, I get a call from Joe saying that some of the Newman folk are going to a midnight movie and asking if I wanted to go as well to either see Happy Feet or Casino Royale. Being a Bond fan, I told him I'd meet them and see Casino Royale. Which left having to get a drunk Andy to leave the dying party (I'd been trying already), drop him off at home (by campus) and drive back to Providence for the movie.

I finally got Andy to leave and drove him home using his directions that turned out to be good (and the shortcut) and we had a nice heart to heart kind of conversation...that he doesn't remember because he was drunk. So I guess if you really need to talk to someone but don't want to have to deal with anyone actually knowing (/remembering), then you can talk to someone who is wasted.

Casino Royale was excellent although I don't think that the guy looks like a Bond...maybe a CIA agent or a villian but not a Bond. I only ended up missing the first minute of the movie too so that was good. Of course, I went with a red feather stuck in my hair that perfectly matched my red fleece that a little girl had given me at the party...Joe pointed it out and we laughed about it because I obviously cared a whole lot by that point. All in all a very busy but good day.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Ski Swap
There is a ski swap in Logan that Amy, Andy, and I (wow, all our names start w/ A) went to today. I decided that I did not know enough to buy downhill skiis yet and will rent a set for the season from Beaver Mtn (where my pass is from). However, I did get other goodies and spent way too much money. I now have a pair of (blue) snowpants, a helmet, goggles, a Columbia fleece, Smartwool ski socks, and a new pair of gloves that will be perfect for X-C skiing. The fleece is used but I think everything else is new but all of it was at discounted prices. The season has already started out at Beaver Mtn so I'll have to get out there in the next few weeks if I can find some time in between working on my projects. I'm definitely excited though... :-D

Thursday, November 16, 2006

College Bowl
There is a quiz game that clubs on campus could participate in to possibly win money for the club. So Newman entered a team then had to change the people on the team due to scheduling conflicts (yes, we do actually go to classes and practices). So I ended up on the team Tuesday morning when I talked with Eamonn over warm drinks in the NR building (every Tuesday the College of Natural Resources (CNR) has coffee, other hot drinks, and some food stuffs). Besides myself and Eamonn, Jake and Joe were also on the team.

Our first match today was against the Service Center, whom we demolished. I felt bad that we beat them so easily and fully...I think they had a negative score at the end. The second match put us against a more equal foe. We were pretty nervous as the game was close at the half-time and they were getting quite a few questions. However, we ended up winning that match as well.

We had to wait around for awhile to find out if we were in the final or not so Eamonn and Jake got some food while I iced my ankle and the four of us talked. Turns out that we won our division and were in the finals.

The final match went well and we knew that no matter what, we would get a prize. Amazingly, we won the final, which meant we each got an iPod shuffle, a Champions t-shirt, and Newman Club got $500! Not only that, but we didn't have an alternate so we had an extra iPod Shuffle and t-shirt. We decided to all sign the shirt and Jake drew a large cross, wrote Newman on it, and it is now framed and hung in the Newman Center. Of course, I needed a team picture of our team with our prizes (l-r: AS, Jake, Eamonn, and Joe).

Although the champion from the college is supposed to go on to Regionals in the spring, our full team is not allowed because the Regional rules state that only one person may be a graduate student and we had 3 out of 4. So Jake, Joe (grad student), and some guys from a couple of the other teams who were good will be headed to Regionals in the spring to represent Utah State University. And we didn't expect much out of the College Bowl...