Birthday!

Happy (belated) Birthday Mari! And Happy Birthday Chris!

We also recently celebrated Justin's birthday. He was in College Station most of the day, which gave me plenty of time to put up balloons before he got home:

I also made a cheese pie, and even though I put candles on it, I was too nervous about setting off our super-sensitive smoke alarm to light them.

Justin's parents sent him a funny birthday card that doesn't actually open. They secretly informed me ahead of time, so that I would be sure to be watching his face to see his reaction. I had my camera ready and everything... I watched him open it, and he chuckled slightly... "what's happening?" I thought. He had taken the card out backwards, so the first part he saw was the back that said "...birthday cards that won't open" and had a birthday message from his parents and sister. I snatched the card from him and turned it around, but it was too late- he already knew the joke. Oh well. He still got to appreciate the funny card, which I think is the main goal.

Back To School

Last Friday was the last day of our Summer internships for both me and Justin. I'm happy to report that they both ended on a good note. During my last week of work I had informal review meetings with both of my bosses at work to discuss my internship experience. Both bosses reported that they were very pleased with my work and that they would be happy to have me come back to work for them. They said they thought I fit in well with the company and seemed very capable and intelligent. It's always nice to get positive feedback! Right now I'm focusing more on school, and looking forward to being back in academia, but it's nice to know that there's a spot for me in the working world if I choose to go that route.

Justin's bosses seemed very pleased with his work as well. He gave a presentation summarizing his summer's work on Tuesday, and there were high-up geoscience people there who were listening, interested, and asking good questions (which Justin was able to asnwer!). Over the next few days he got lots of positive comments from mentors and coworkers. This makes us feel optimistic about his job prospects after he graduates in December 2011.

I'm really looking forward to going back to school. I like school. Last year I had an office on campus, but it was in building all the way across campus from where we had class... and it was in the basement... and it was pretty small... and I shared it with the 6 other first year grad students. So we never used it. We found that it was convenient to work in the Library or coffee shop. But this year I've been assigned to an office in the building where all my classes are! Well, it's actually just half of a cubicle in an office in that building, but still, at least it's in the right building.

All grad students have some TA assignment. Last year I was a grader for a freshman-level undergrad class; my job didn't involve any teaching. This semester I'll be a TA for a graduate-level class! I think it will involve some actual teaching / answering questions. The class is in microeconomic theory, which is what I want to study, so it will be a good review of the basic concepts. And I feel like it's kind of a promotion, showing that the professor (who's the director of graduate studies, I think) has confidence in my abilities. I'm looking forward to this new job.

Work and Exam Results

I started my Summer Internship a week ago Monday. Overall I like it. It's a long way from our apartment, so that's not ideal. But it's in the same direction as Justin's work, so we've been carpooling. I really like this. Even though we don't get home until 6 pm, I feel like I'm home at 5:25 when I meet Justin because that's when I get to chat and relax. But it would be nice if work wasn't as far.

The company I'm working for does price consulting. Even though I've had some boring moments of staring at screens full of data, at least the data is meaningful. For example, I've been looking at a table of dates, prices, quantity sold, and promotional info, trying to determine how much a certain promotion (price reduction, newspaper flyer, grocery store display, etc.) affected sales of an item such as chewing gum. After studying economic theory for a year, it's neat to be able to sit down in front of a bunch of real world data and see how it works.

Speaking of studying for a year... Friday before last, June 4, I took my last qualifying exam. We were told to expect results in 1-2 weeks. I'd heard that last year results were out 10 days after the exams, so on Monday (June 14, 10 days after my last exam) I was anxiously checking my school email all day. Nothing. Same thing yesterday. Still nothing. Again today I was disappointed time and time again as I looked at my email account. As I was getting ready to leave work today I gave it one last check... RESULTS!!!!! I had hoped to be able to tell how I did based on the subject of the email, but the subject was ambiguous: "Results of the Qualifying Exams." Nervously I opened the email. The text read, "Please click the attachment to view the results of your qualifying exams." I clicked the attachment, heart pounding. It opened up a zip file with 2 word documents. I clicked the first one. After about 30 seconds of nervous waiting, my computer spit out a message the this document wasn't compatible with my version of Microsoft Word (I've been using the boss's old computer). I tried the second document... [drumroll]... I PASSED! ALL 3 QUALIFIERS!!! NO RETAKES!!! I'm so relieved.

On the way home, Justin proposed that we go out to eat to celebrate. We went to Two Rows, which is pretty much across the street from our apt. They have $1 beers on Wednesdays! We enjoyed a relaxing meal of burgers, fries and beer, and Justin ordered me a surprise ice cream sundae cake. YUM!

Me vs. The System

When we first moved into our apartment in August, we paid a deposit for the apartment, plus a $50 deposit for a clicker that opens the garage. The apartment people will henceforth be know as "the system". We were told that each apartment was entitled to one garage spot; if there were empty spots once everyone who wanted one had been assigned a spot, the remaining spots would be allocated to those who wanted a second spot.

In September I got an email from the system saying that there were indeed extra spots available, so I claimed one for my car. At the time I went by to pick up the second clicker I didn't have my checkbook with me; the guy in the office said I could just drop the check in the rent drop-box, which I made sure to do next time I left my apartment.

Since then there have been some move-outs and move-ins. Recently I got an email from the system saying that a new move-in wanted a parking spot, so we had to give up one of ours. Apparently we're at the bottom of the priority list, since we live in a one-bedroom apartment. Bummer. But the good news is that we get one of our $50 deposits back... right?

I moved my beloved Beigey out onto the street in front of the apartment and returned the clicker. The girl in the office at the time said she'd make a note, they'd do some paperwork, and I'd get my deposit back shortly.

Later that day I got an email from them saying, "it appears that the second payment of $50.00 for the second clicker had not been received. I now show that we have $400.00 on deposit which is $350.00 for the apartment and $50.00 for the gate clicker you still have."

Hm. I thought I had paid that... I replayed the scene from last September in my mind. I did drop it in the rent box, didn't I? Perhaps it got stuck in there and they never picked it up. Ok Hannah, time for some detective work! I checked my bank account. Unfortunately they don't keep check images online after a certain number of months, which was more than the number of months since the incident. I found a check for $50 that had been deposited on October 7, which happened to be the same day that my rent for that month was deposited. I couldn't see to whom the check was made out, but the fact that it was deposited on the same day as my rent suggested that it was collected along with my rent (i.e. from the rent drop box), making me highly suspicious of the system.

I called the bank and fumbled through their automated voice guy to finally speak with a real person. The girl was helpful and said she could get me my check images, but unfortunately I'd have to wait 5-7 business days for them to come via snail-mail. The suspense! But I found my evidence convincing enough to attempt a follow-up with the system. I sent them a polite email along the lines of "I really think I did pay the second deposit back in October. Please check again." I expected a reply of either, "Our mistake! Here it is! We'll get this refunded right away," or at least, "We've checked again and I am still not seeing it." I got neither! No reply! They seem to be underestimating the value of $50 to a poor graduate student.

Today I received the check images from my bank. As I suspected, the original (apartment + first clicker) deposit AND the second clicker deposit were both made out to and deposited by the system. Vindication! Well, not yet. I guess vindication will be when I get them to refund me my deposit. But I sent them a strongly worded email stating that I did pay the deposit and that if they had lost the record, I had obtained check images that I could show them. Hannah: 1. the system: 0.

My Wonderful Mother

And here's a picture of my wonderful mother on Mothers' Day, doing what she's always done so well- taking care of us little ones.

But I don't Want to Study

Lately I've been feeling the need to justify anything I do other than study. I have my second qualifier (macroeconomics) coming up on Monday and I'm sooooo tired of studying for it. My excuse for this break is that I need to keep everybody informed about my important goings-on (wink wink).

This is where we live:

Here's Justin and me outside our apartment building, about to go on a nice walk to Rice Village. That's one of our favorite things to do.

On Mothers' Day we had a nice lunch with Mama and Daddy and Luke and Amber and kids after church. Then later in the afternoon we went over to Luke & Amber's house for some bocce ball!

It was fun. Also, Sunday, May 9, happened to by my and Justin's anniversary. We went on a date the night before so as not to compete with Mothers' Day, but we did enjoy the top layer of our wedding cake! Mama had kept it in the freezer all year! We were happy to share with the kids and everybody.

Recently when we were babysitting the kids, we gave them an extra helping of berries and cream for dessert. As we sat around the table snarfing down our dessert, Joy, whom I guess has heard "snarf snarf" to describe such an eating situation, looked up from her berries and said "snawf snawf" in a delighted little voice. It was cute. Apparently they don't think of us as real adults- when we were discussing our wedding anniversary, Joy said "and even though you're just kids, you still got married." I sometimes feel that way.

Now I have to go squeeze in a few hours of studying so I don't feel guilty about having fun with the kids later today when we go babysit! I'm really looking forward to being done with qualifiers and getting to work on research and stuff I'm actually interested in.

Reflections on Our First Year

Justin and I are coming up on our first year of marriage! Good for us!

I'm sure every married couple has patterns that they see a lot in their interactions; I wonder how similar those are across couples, i.e. are our quirks unique to us, or are they the same ones that all married people experience? Here are a couple of examples:

Sometimes after we've had a moderate argument, one of us will try to make a joke, thinking "hey, this will signal to my spouse that I consider this argument over and am ready to move on." Unfortunately, this is usually the person who was less disgruntled by the argument, so the more disgruntled person, who may still be in the process of becoming un-angry, feels they're being made fun of. We've observed both parties being guilty of the post-argument joke, but now that we're aware of it we are better about avoiding it. And when it does happen, the other party can simply state "too soon for a joke".

Here's something that I've noticed myself doing: I feel a tiny bit disgruntled (or maybe even not), and somehow Justin gets himself in the path of my annoyance. It escalates, and before I know it I find myself in an argument thinking "what's going on? Why am I arguing with my beloved husband about this? I do not feel strongly about this issue! Why can't I just stop? For some reason I feel committed to this argument!!! STOP! " It's like I'm rolling down a hill too fast to be able to stop.

It tends to happen in the following manner:
Hannah: [frowning]

Justin: What's up? Are you mad at me?

Hannah:[Hm. Maybe he is part of the reason I feel grumpy] Well, I'm not mad, but I'm annoyed that you ... [insert imagined offence]

Justin: What? That's ridiculous! [insert self-defense, plus one degree of intensity]

Hannah: [He's just getting defensive! I must make my point] It's your fault because ... [etc.]

A few lines later is where I start realizing that we're actually becoming angry, and I start wondering why we're arguing.

Recently I had my first realization and successful stop of the pointless argument. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Justin had spent the morning reading, and I had been studying or doing something un-fun. Around noon we got in the car and headed to an event with Justin's family. The day was so pretty that I felt the only way to fully take advantage of it would be for a day-trip through bluebonnets. So I told Justin it was his fault since he had been reading all morning. After a minute or so I realized what was happening and said, "I'm sorry. I know it's not actually your fault that we've been inside this morning. I just don't know how to take full advantage of this beautiful day and I feel frustrated about that. I should not have blamed you."

Justin said "Wow. That's never happened before. Thanks."

So we're growing!

Lord Willing, we will go here and do that...

I have been asked recently about what Justin and I am doing and what our plans are, so here is a brief summary.

[Note: any references to children are speculative. We are not pregnant, we just know we want to have kids at some point.]

I am in my first year of graduate school (for a Ph.D.) in economics. I would like to be a professor when I am done. There are a lot of caveats to this however. Supposedly being a professor is very competative; your research has to be very good. I've never done research so I don't know how good I will be at it. Also, it depends on where we're living. Since I am not a single person, I cannot just apply to lots of places and go wherever I get a job. And of course, most importantly, we want to have kids. We don't know exactly when, but assuming I have kids by the time I am looking for jobs, they will be my first priority. Ideally I could find some sort of job that allows me to teach and research part-time. One of my undergraduate professors who was encouraging me to go to grad school said "everyone needs to hire women! And being a professor is an easy job. You'll have lots of time to raise baby!" I don't know how accurate that is, but I suppose I'll find out. Of course, all this depends largely on what Justin is doing.

Justin is in his first year of graduate school (for a Master's) in geophysics. He thinks he might want to be a professor also, or maybe work in industry doing research & development. He has the option to continue at A&M for his Ph.D. The benefit to this would be continuity (working on the same stuff with the same professor), and he would be done sooner than if he were to go elsewhere. The (obvious) downside is that he would have to continue commuting for several more years, or we would have to move to College Station. We also have anecdotal evidence that to stay in academia (i.e. become a professor) it's better to get your Ph.D. somewhere other than where you did undergrad. So another option for him is to go somewhere else for his Ph.D. If he were to go to Rice, he could of course start as soon as he finished his Master's. Or he could wait until I'm done with enough of my school that I can live somewhere else, and we could move to be close to his school of choice. If we were both students or professors with reasonably flexible schedules, this might work well for raising children. Of course, if Justin goes to work full-time then I would need to be a lot more available for taking care of our future children.

There are certainly benefits to staying in Houston, most importantly being close to family. Having grandparents and aunts & uncles and cousins around would be good for our kids, I think. But we also think it would be fun to live somewhere else, at least for a while. We really enjoyed living in Denver last summer, getting to see a new place and experience different weather than we're used to.

I feel a little bit overwhelmed thinking about all the decisions we have ahead of us. Thankfully I know that I am not the controller of my life; for now Justin and I will both do our best in school, and try to plan responsibly for our future.

"Come now, you who say 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what you life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'" James 4:13-15

Rice International Cultural Night

Last night I went to the Rice International Cultural Night. One of my classmates was dancing with the group of Lebanese students. She's the middle (short) one:

Also, one of my TAs was playing in a band with other Turkish students. Both of these performances were very good, although I had trouble seeing, due to the chairs and people in front of me, and hearing, due to the noise of people that didn't stop talking the entire time.

There were a few lame performances/presentations, including a pre-recorded audio-visual presentation (i.e. a video) about Egypt that looked like it was made by the Egypt tourism department- it showed the airport, beautiful hotels, and white people enjoying Cairo's nightlife. There was also supposed to be some sort of traditional music performance by the Russian students' group, but it turned out to be one Russian student and 2 Turkish students (including my TA again!) playing a Turkish song. I guess the Russians didn't have enough musicians to make up a whole performance. Afterwards there was a variety of international foods for dinner. Yum! I even got to take home some Kung Pao chicken!

Classes, Homework and Qualifiers

At the conclusion of this school week, I will have only two weeks of class left this semester. I look forward to that with great anticipation, as I am getting quite burnt out from this semester.

I have 3 classes this semester. They can be summarized as follows:

• Microeconomic Theory: this is my favorite class, and is what I want to focus on. We don't have many homeworks for this class, and those that we have are not that bad, in my opinion, because I really like the subject.
• Macroeconomic Theory: I can see how some of this material is interesting, but it's not my favorite. This class has a LOT of homework, which seems very laborious to me since I am not as enthusiastic about this material. We are expected to have 2 more assignments in the remaining 2 weeks of this semester.
• Econometrics: this class is alright. We don't have much homework assigned, which is nice, but we're not forced to stay on top of the material. So there will be a lot of preparation required before the qualifier.

April 23 is our last day of classes; after that we'll be very busy taking finals and studying for qualifiers. However, I consider the end of classes to be a reasonable event to look forward to. For one thing, it's much closer than the end of qualifiers, so it seems more tangible. Also, I currently feel like I need to be studying for qualifiers as well as attending class and learning new material and doing homework assignments. Once classes are done, I will be able to focus on just one thing; I'll be making sure I know the material I've already covered, rather than trying to learn new stuff.

Regular Stuff

Recently I've been thinking that it would be nice to take more pictures of everyday stuff because those are lots of fun to look at later. So here are a few of our apartment:

This is Justin locking our door as we leave to go to Luke & Amber's house:

And here is Justin walking out to our car in the little parking lot behind our building:

Here are a few pictures of us having fun with the kids.

Graduate Housing

The other day Daddy asked me if I was acquiring lots of good stories about living in this graduate student housing that I could pass on to my kids some day. So far it's actually been quite nice, but here are some things I will not miss about living in this 1940s graduate housing setup:

• Not having a dishwasher
• Not having a washing machine/dryer
• Having a small kitchen
• Having only small-ish windows
• Being able to hear lots of sounds from neighbors, including: crying baby next door, noisy parties next door the other way, arguing couple somewhere downstairs, and a lugy-haucking neighbor in an unidentifiable direction

Here are some things I will miss about our apartment:

• Nice hardwood floors
• Great location near Rice Village
• Pretty tree visible from our window (see previous post)
• Cheap rent

On a different note, guess how much Justin and I are getting back from our tax return? $3000! (That's $3000, said excitedly, not $3000 factorial) We plan to put it toward student loans.

I have a pretty view

The other day I noticed this beautiful tree just outside my window.

It looks very Springy to me and makes me feel cheerful. I thought "if I was Mari, I would take a picture and write a blog post about it. And if I was really Mari, I would take a picture from this same window in Summer, Fall, and Winter."

I can't promise the all-seasons-from-the-same-vantage-point, but here is this Springtime tree picture.

Shortly after I had noticed the tree, one of my classmates who had come over to study said "wow! That's a nice tree!" In a later discussion with my neighbor/classmate who lives downstairs from me, who said he is thinking about moving to a "nicer" apartment next year, my other classmate said "Hannah's place is nice- and she has this great view of a really pretty tree!" It turns out my downstairs neighbor can't see the tree from his window- all he can see is the parking area (whose corrugated metal top is visible in my tree picture). Yesterday another of my classmates, who lives on the 4th floor of the apartment across the street, said she is able to see over the top of our 2-story building to the beautiful white-flowered tree beyond. I'm glad we are all able to appreciate this lovely tree... except Xin, who lives downstairs.

When I loaded the tree picture from my camera, I realized that I had some pictures from Japan on my camera that I still hadn't downloaded!!!!! So here are a few of them:

Spring Semester

The first half of this semester was spent counting down the weeks to Spring Break, which was last week (March 1 - March 5). It was a nice week, though it didn't coincide with Justin's Spring Break (next week, March 15 - March 20). But I did get to relax and spend some time not doing anything. I also got to enjoy a day of shopping with Mama, which was a belated birthday outing. I got lots of cute stuff on sale! Thanks Mama! Justin and I also got to spend a super-fun day at the zoo with Amber, Titus, Joy and Apollos. Justin and I get in free with our Rice I.D.s. As we were leaving, Justin offered to buy the kids ice cream. Yay! We get to be that fun uncle & aunt that spoil the kids! We sat by the duck pond while the kids ate their ice cream. Apollos crawled around chasing pigeons and trying to get in the water with the ducks. Then he spotted a cooler and headed speedily towards it. I pulled him away just as he was about to reap a bumper crop of strawberries and juice boxes. Thankfully the guy whose cooler it was seemed to think it was a funny as we did.

Sadly, my spring break is now over. I have 8 more weeks of class (finishing on April 23), then a couple weeks of finals, finishing no later than May 5, then ... my qualifying exams! I have to take 3 qualifying exams, each of which pretty much summarizes one of the subjects we've learned in our first year: microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics. I'll be done with those on June 4, so 13 more weeks until I'm really done with my first year of graduate school! In the meantime, I have to study diligently, first for my midterms (going on now through next week), then for my finals and qualifiers. Based on past exams I've looked at, it is not unreasonable to expect that I will need to be studying pretty much constantly (or at least very regularly) from now until the exams. Wish me luck! Or, better yet, pray that I'll do well.