Winter in Athens

Everything is going great out here in Georgia! Jared's program is going well and our family has been pretty healthy, despite the usual colds and sniffles.

For Jared’s PhD, he is part of a major grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The PIRE grant (Partnerships in International Research and Education) focuses on the development of international collaboration for researchers (graduate students and faculty) and international educational opportunities for undergraduate students. This specific grant deals with the genetics of invasive species between the U.S. and China. Thus, Jared is uniquely suited for the grant with his background in China and fluency in Mandarin.

As part of the grant a group of undergraduates is selected and they spend a semester taking intensive Chinese and learning basic laboratory protocols for genetic assays. Then the whole group goes to China for two months to work in laboratories and visit field sites related to invasive species. Jared has been actively involved in helping the students this semester learn Chinese and helping out in their laboratory class.

This semester’s cohort is a group of seven girls, some from UGA and some from other universities. This has caused us to reflect on the unequal sex ratio Jared is faced with each day. In the lab, there are mostly females. In the PIRE group, there are mostly females. And even in one of Jared’s classes, there are six female grad students, a female instructor, and Jared. Thus, each Jared is surrounded by females. Even when he returns home he is outnumbered by females. Without Nathan and his advisor, Jared would effectively be outnumbered by females!

Jared's advisor is really nice and they get along quite well. He regularly gives Jared a ride home since he passes by our street on his way home. He also likes to talk, sometimes he talks to Jared so much Jared feels like he better go home to get some work done! Jared's advisor doesn't speak much Chinese but his wife is a professor of Chinese literature and she handles the language instruction for the undergraduates. They also have a 3-year old daughter who spent a morning with our kids not long ago.

We went to a social function with Jared's department last month during their recruitment weekend. It is totally different going to activities out here compared to BYU. At the social function there were about 40 people there and only 4 kids among them, 3 of them being ours! There were lots of students and some professors and the house had a lot of breakable stuff but thankfully our kids were well-behaved. We have made a good impression as we have gotten lots of compliments from others about our children.

At church, Jared was called as the Sunday School President. This is the first time he has had that calling so he's enjoyed learning about it. He has some good counselors who are very helpful. Heather really enjoys working with the Cub Scouts, Jared watches the kids while Heather goes to the church for the weekly activity, she sometimes tries to go early and practice the piano. She has good boys and it's a privilege to work with them. For instance, one of the boys told her that he saw his father smoking and was sad; so he had a talk with his dad about quitting and he hasn't seen his dad smoke since then. Most are in the Spanish branch so she doesn’t know their families and some live half an hour drive away in three different counties. As such, they come sporadically and Heather is trying to figure out how to get them to come more. The scouting program is really fantastic and Heather enjoys being involved in it. She is preparing a talk for the Blue and Gold Banquet about what is scouting and how the boys will benefit from it. She is even considering giving part of the talk in Spanish.

It should be mentioned there's another family at church with the last name Lee. They've been in the ward for a long time, however. The other Brother Lee is one of Jared’s counselors in the Sunday School presidency and the other Sister Lee is the Relief Society pianist but can't make it in to the room very early, so Heather was asked to play prelude until she arrives each week. Two Lee families in the ward has caused some confusion: one time somebody showed up at our house for a meeting that was supposed to be at their house, the missionaries almost went to their house for dinner when it was at our home, we signed up to clean the church building and somebody was supposed to bring us the key but we never got it and we found out weeks later that that person had called the other Lees who had no idea what she was talking about. We think it's all funny.

Amber's learning a lot in school, they really are pushing the kids. She has learned about the phases of the moon, addition, punctuation, money, and writing a narrative. She still isn't completely comfortable at school. She struggles a little with understanding what is expected of her, with paying attention instead of daydreaming, and with expressing her concerns, and even with all she's learned she is still a little behind the rest of the class. But we are confident as she keeps going, she will be fine. This summer we will work with her more so she can start off first grade at the right level. We ask her how her day was and hear about who threw up or if she got any candy or cupcakes for someone's birthday.

Nathan still navigates the computer really well, turning it on and exploring some of his favorite websites; of course, then he has to be just like Dad and turn off the whole computer including switching off the power supply which cuts out the wireless network. Nathan loves helping with everything! He helps wash dishes, he helps put ingredients in the bread maker, helps make beds, put laundry away, and anything else. He has also become pretty independent. When he needs to wash his hands, he pushes a chair over from the table and climbs up and reaches way up to turn the water on. He'd rather do things himself even if it takes a lot of effort. We appreciate it!

Kyra is another late talker like Amber and Nathan were. But just like they were at this age, she understands a lot. She can get what she wants by very expressive pointing and approving or disapproving grunts. She likes to do funny things like put her jacket on her legs. She has 3 pairs of shoes and is particular about which pair she wants to wear each day.

Heather took the kids to visit Amber’s classroom recently and to help decorate a cake for an activity. In addition to the teacher, her class has a full-time aide and a student teacher right now. Amber’s class has a lot of boys, 16 boys and 6 girls! Most of the kids are African American. She counted 4 Caucasian kids, 3 Asians, 1 Hispanic, and the rest African American. Here are the names of her classmates: Kalijah (girl), Dougliesha (g), Nicholas, Tony, Kendrick, Yashi (g), Cordell, Dylan, DeQavion, Dewey, Victor, Santavious, Ashton, Sosie (g), Y’Trevious, O’Terrion, Logan, Kyrell, Phian (g), Jordan, Jah’viante, and Amber (g). Amber corrects our pronunciation of several of these names. So like Jared, Amber deals with an unequal sex ratio at school and at church (her Primary class has 5 boys and 2 girls).

There are plenty of adventures living out here in Georgia. We don’t get lost as much and refer to the map less. We enjoy the old houses and buildings around here. We want to find out more about the history of this city to better understand the area. Not far from our house, on the side of the road there are some old stone steps almost covered by trees and plants, Heather thinks there was once a house that they led to but it is long gone.

The weather is full of surprises too. After lots of rain storms since we arrived and some cold snaps, it snowed here in Georgia (February 12^th)! It was funny for us to see the different reactions to snow here in Georgia. They predicted it would start snowing around 3 pm and it was pretty accurate. Friday morning the Atlanta news listed several school districts that would be closed. Amber went to school but they sent the kids home two hours early because of the weather. So the kids got home at 12:30, long before the snow. The ward activity for was canceled, the ward temple trip the following day was cancelled, and UGA announced the closing of the whole university, all before the snow really started. Jared stayed at school till 5 as usual but all the classes and meetings were cancelled for the rest of the day. All for a nice little inch or two of snow! It all turned out good since the temperature dropped quickly and the roads got covered in ice. But the next morning the sun was out again and the roads were dry and clear by mid-afternoon.

Enjoying the first, and only, day of snow this winter in Georgia!

The kids loved tromping around in the snow as is came down.

You can catch a glimpse of the thicket of trees around our house.

Nathan enjoyed eating this "baby chick" shaped pancake.

Kyra is learning to clean up her own messes, she spilled the water and voluntarily went and got a rag to start cleaning it up.