Parkes and Recreation: grad school

I wrote the first part of this post a while ago (like, last October), and I forgot to publish it! Here it is:

Mason is working his buns off at school! He usually leaves between 6:30 and 6:50 and rides his bike the 10ish minutes to school, and then most days doesn't get home until like 5 or 6 (except Monday, when he gets home at like 4). I think his flat tire count since we got here is 10. TEN FLAT TIRES. He is getting to be an expert at patching leaks in the tubes. His dad recently sent him some tires that are called Gator Skins, which sound awfully durable and tough, if you ask me. Mason has only gotten one flat tire since he put those new fancy tires on, which is GREAT. He patched the small leak just today, in record time.

Other than the flat tires, he's liking his group of peeps that entered the program the same time as him. They all share a big room and have individual cubicles where they spend a lot of their time working on homework and stuff. Mason talks the most about Andrew, Dakota, and Sean. They all seem funny and a little weird, which I like. I'm glad he is making friends!

In one of his classes, they all had to take a test. The average score was like a 27/40, but Mason got a 36/40! I am so proud.

He has a professor who always wears a hoodie with the hood up and his ears sticking out. It is ridiculous. He is also like the worst professor on the planet.

We bought a car! It is a Hyundai Accent (hatchback) and it's gray and I want to name it Francine. She's fast and gets GREAT gas mileage and has an Eco button that is cool and most importantly AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!! We are so incredibly grateful to Mom and Dad for loaning us the truck for so long. They are the greatest. But we also love our Francine!

We both got callings! I'm first counselor in Young Womens, and Mason was called to be second counselor in Young Mens, but then President Nelson changed the rules, so now he's a Young Mens specialist. We both got set apart today and are super pumped about our callings.

Mason's second semester of grad school was a little different, because of the COVID-19 pandemic going on. He got switched to online classes from home in March, and had to TA virtually as well. It was hard to figure out how to balance his work life and home life, especially since we have a little baby and I wanted all the help I could get, but I think we have worked out a system that works pretty well.

Mason has worked so hard this year and I am so proud of him. He consistently does well on tests and assignments and he loves to learn so much! He won an award for being the most outstanding first year grad student in his department. Me and Abby are both so proud of him!

This summer he's going to start doing research with a professor in biophysics. He is excited and a little nervous but I know he will be great. It has been so awesome to see him really work hard this year and learn so much and connect with the people in his group that are also first year grad students. Mason is growing in so many ways and it is just astounding! It can't be overstated how proud I am of him.

We drove from Provo to Auburn, AL in our Budget truck. It took us four days. Mason drove the whole time because he hates being the passenger in any car, and I was the photographer and navigator extraordinaire.

This is us outside our door after we were done with all our packing and cleaning. It's blurry, but I'm glad we documented it. That little apartment was a great place to call home, and we really liked it there.

We hit our first snag about 40 minutes in when the road through Spanish Fork Canyon was closed unexpectedly. I guess they had been having problems with mudslides, and since it was scheduled to rain, they didn't want to risk anybody being in the canyon if there was another one.

SO, we took a detour to Fairview through probably the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We went up and up and up and up through beautiful mountains full of wildflowers and incredible views. I'm convinced I saw like 3 yaks up there behind a fence. And we saw some deer and some snow!

The road was beautiful, but it added a ton of time onto our route, and we ended up stopping in Green River for the night. We got there and stayed in a nasty room that was wayyy overpriced, but it was better than nothing!

Here's our Travel Log entries from the day:

Day 1- Friday
Provo -->Green River via Fairview, Utah
Total distance: 190 miles
Mason said, "There's no cruise control!" and we both laughed our heads off
Tried to go to Burger king in Green River at 9:05 pm but they closed at 9. So we went to Arby's instead, got there at 9:30 pm.
Checked into Motel 6

Gross. Made me gag lots.
Mason fell asleep instantly
AC was SO LOUD. Sounded like people with velcro rubbing over our door with no particular rhythm, just randomly.

Here's Day 2- Saturday

Green River UT -->Topeka, Kansas
Left Motel 6 at 7am sharp!

Bri saw a gopher halfway in it's hole.
We're driving next to the mighty Colorado River

Mason keeps saying Green River instead of Grand Junction, and vice versa

We passed a sign that said Frisco and I made up a song with Frisco, crisco, and risk-o in it and Mason thought it was real because "You just sang it with such confidence!"
We went through some big tunnels

It's raining outside in Colorado, and our truck is LEAKING WATER on us! Thankfully my purse was stuffed with clean rags, so we used them to catch some of the water, but we both still got really wet.
We're mad there's not mountains in Denver.
We stopped about 3:45 to eat Burger King in Burlington, CO and saw cute old men hanging out there.

Bri is wearing ridiculous clothes and is embarrassed.

Lots of corn and windmills because we're in Kansas!

This truck is not a "quiet cab."
Mom and Dad dropped their truck off at our new house this morning! Also, they got us a motel for tonight! They're so nice!!

968.5 MILES IS THE HALFWAY POINT
Mason almost wet his pants. We stopped in Hays.

Got to our hotel at 10:45 ish.
The last hour and a half or so was terrible and we were so tired. So we listed all the countries we could think of in the car.
Mom and Dad got us our hotel room and it's AMAZING, the bed is huge and it's SO CLEAN.
When we got to our hotel, Mason opened his door in the parking lot, heard the cicadas, got scared, and immediately shut the door again.

Day 3- Sunday

Topeka, Kansas --> Tupelo, Mississippi
We left at 9:51 am.
We got free breakfast! I tried to make a waffle and the thing broke and made a loud clanging noise and mason took FOREVER to come and save me. He finally came and also a nice black guy came to save me. My waffle was burned and gross.
We're on a toll road! There's no traffic
The Elders Quorum President of our new ward texted me about helping us move in. We are grateful.
It rained last night. We hope our stuff in the back isn't getting leaked on.
"We've passed into Hardee's country!" -Mason
It's green now and there's tons of trees!
Kansas has made 1 President (Eisenhower), like 5 astronauts, and Bob Dole. And the Chrysler guy. We know because there's big signs about them.
Missouri looks just like GA.

We've seen 2 dead armadillos (one was a baby)
It rained hard and we got REALLY leaked on
We spent $73 on gas at one gas station
We saw our first Waffle House- Springville, MO
We didn't see deer in Kansas or Missouri, but we saw them in Arkansas, Colorado and Utah

Mason says there's lots of birds in Missouri
Quality of gas station bathrooms has dropped dramatically since we got to Missouri
We got to Tennessee and got on a big pretty bridge