Enjoyment

Truth be told, some days are better than others. Today was better.

This semester I have been working hard keeping up with two new courses: "representations of nationalisms" which is a co-taught course (with a professor of Scandinavian Studies) that is part of the honors program great questions courses; and "cultural geography" (which I taught 25 years ago at DePaul University, but not since). Currently in cultural geography, student groups are making presentations on the geography of food. The year I taught at DePaul one of the geography professors taught an evening course on the geography of wine. The text book was three wine goblets. Each week students (21 and older) would learn about the climate, soils, environment, and cultures associated with wine producing regions around the world complete with a sampling of wine from each region. Ever since then, I have always thought that teaching a similar course about food would be lots of fun. So when I was figuring out how to teach cultural geography I decided now was a good time to experiment. Student groups of 2-3 selected a cuisine to research and present. The presentation was to include information about such things as climate, soils, landforms, culture, religion, diffusion, and innovation, They were also to bring a sample of one unique food or drink from their regional cuisine. Today my 9:00 class dined on Tim Tams (no slam) from Australia (what, no Vegemite?), tabbouleh (parsley, bulgur salad) from Jordan and spanakopita (spinach pie) from Greece. Tasty food, plus I learned new things and I didn't have to worry about preparing a new lecture. Nice.

In my noon Middle East geography class I got to finish up teaching about two of my favorite cities--Nazareth and Jerusalem and then move on to a discussion about nationalism in the Middle East. Also nice.

Then I got to meet with our WomanStats team of faculty and student coders for our weekly research meeting. A fine group of people trying to make the world a better place. Nice

Then a former student from years ago, called for advice on which geography graduate program he should accept. He is giving up a career as an attorney to get a PhD in political geography--with an emphasis on Middle Eastern migrants/refugees in Europe. I wrote letters of recommendation for him and the two universities that have accepted him include geographers who I went to graduate school with or who I have interacted with in professional settings. As we were finishing up Sam told me that it was my world geography class that he took his freshman year that got him interested in geography as a major. He thanked me for getting him started down this path and for continuing to help along the way. Nice.

I then hustled over to the Provo High School football field (striped for both types of football) to watch Joel's premier as a midfielder on the Springville High School JV team. He tried out last week and made the JV team (instead of the sophomore team). Not bad for a 9th grader at the Jr. High. Joel was full of hustle and strategic kicks. Springville lost (7-1 ouch).

 Header

 Hustle.

 Corner kick.

Bench buddy.

 Guess who experimented with my camera?

From there we joined with some neighborhood families for a pot luck dinner to sadly wish the Kauwe family farewell. He is our just released ward bishop who really connected with the youth and who called me to be primary pianist (yeah). They are moving to Orem so he can be close by to help take care of his parents. It was a delightful gathering of many good people.

 Bishop Kauwe and the Young Women in the Zion Narrows last summer at Girls Camp  (photo courtesy of Michelle Wheeler).

Finally, Marie and I went to Sarah's choir concert (with high school orchestra). The choir teacher is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and must have been inspired by the choir's latest release--a new recording of Handel's Messiah. Mrs. Walker had the students sing a nice Easter selection of solos and choruses from the Messiah (35 minutes total). It was a high quality production. Sarah added choir just this semester after dropping Drama III. She and all of the altos sounded great. Nice.

Listen to the altos nail it in Behold the Lamb of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnaq_iq3cWc

Hallelujah chorus

 Newly hung in the hall of SHS--photos of this years Sterling Scholars.

Yeti Eleven: Sundance

Whereas ninth grader Joel Emmett tried out earlier in the week and made the Springville High School JV soccer team (yahoo!) and this morning was the first strength training workout and he went skiing at Sundance earlier in the season with one of his friends.

Photo courtesy of Craig Child

And whereas Will went skiing a few weeks ago at Sundance with his friend Harrison and decided last night that he did not want to go skiing this morning (claiming he wanted to sleep in--which his dad interpreted as meaning Will needs an earlier bed time and lights out time--which did not make Will happy).

Therefore Sarah and her dad spent a delightful morning skiing together at Sundance.

The nice thing about Sundace is that it is close--only a 30 minute drive (which means wake up time this morning was 7:45) and it is a local resort meaning on occasion you run into neighbors and friends.

 It also has great views of majestic Mt. Timpanogos.

Looking southwestward from the summit of Arrowhead lift down Provo Canyon with Mt. Nebo and East Bay of Utah Lake in the distance.

From the top of Arrowhead looking east towards Deer Creek Reservoir.

 Where Sarah learned to ski.

Another nice thing is that it has a beginner handle tow that is free. This is where I took Sarah and then Joel for their first few skiing lessons with dad. It takes extra back, arm and leg muscle to ride up the handle tow holding on to the bar with one hand and then using the other hand to keep your child secure against your pinched together legs. The unfortunate thing about the free tow is that it is up the mountain a bit which requires a short hike--if you are too cheap to buy a pass.

Sarah learning at Sundance.

Joel learning at Sundance. (sorry about the quality--these are photos of photos)

The downside of Sundance is that it is lower in elevation that most other Wasatch Front Resorts and as a result it usually gets less snow. It also means that snow days elsewhere can mean rain days at Sundance. A few years ago a fun evening of skiing at Sundance with Young Men in our ward ended in a rain storm which arrived just as we were trying to find one lost boy (who unfortunately had taken a tumble on the terrain park and got a concussion).


 Limited snow at the base of Jake's.

A nice improvement in the past few years has been the addition of Jake's lift. This means that instead of parking in the upper parking lot and then riding a shuttle down to the base of Ray's lift (which is always packed with beginners), skiers can now park in the upper lot, purchase tickets and then start skiing.

 The base of Ray's.

Skiing down Amy's Ridge under Arrowhead. Love the corduroy.  Bishop's Bowl and Bearclaw were our favorite runs of the day.

For an extra credit assignment in her physics class, Sarah has to take a photo of something and then write up an explanation about what principles of physics it illustrates. She decided a photo of a skier would be good to illustrate things like gravity, slope and friction. I was happy to be her model.



By noon the snow was getting softer and stickier. Sarah had a long list of things still to do before the evening dance practice so we decided to make it a short day. From the base of Jake's it was a short walk to our car (red Subaru). Notice Sarah's cute pig tails. Earlier in the week she cut off 12 inches of her beautiful hair which she will donate to locks of love. One thing she did this afternoon was go to the library for a new supply of books--her happy find today was a book entitled "The History of Redheads."

To see Sundance in the summer with its new ziplines go to this blog post.  http://beitemmett.blogspot.com/2015/08/flying-high.html

Provo City Center Temple

Last Tuesday morning we went to the Provo City Center Temple Open House. Sarah was excused. She didn't want to miss calculus and had already toured the temple once with the Young Women in the ward (below) and then again last Sunday with Marie for a special tour for girls and their mothers of the Bride's room.

In December 2010, the pioneer era Provo Tabernacle burned down. It was a church and community gathering center where I remember attending concerts and priesthood leadership meetings (while serving in a BYU Ward bishopric) and where Marie and I once enjoyed a Messiah Sing-In.

Church leaders decided to take the brick shell that remained and transform the tabernacle into a temple--a phoenix rising from the ashes.

The new temple was built and decorated in keeping with the original pioneer style.  The green and red design (an original section that survived the fire is show above) from the Tabernacle now graces the upper trim in the bride's room--with its Minera Teichert painting of Esther.

After our silent walk through tour of the beautiful building we learned more about temples in a parking garage visitor center. The map above shows the location of LDS temples over time. The Provo City Temple is the 150th temple to dot the earth. There was an explosion of temples in the 1990s and 2000s.

The eight stakes (diocese) in Springville plus a similar amount from south Provo and BYU make up the temple district.  Joel and Sarah are currently learning a dance and song that they will perform in the pre-dedication cultural celebration. Will's comment when we passed that baptismal font is that next year when he is 12 he will be able to attend this temple to perform baptisms for the dead. Sarah plans to have this be the temple she gets married in.



Our neighbor Craig Child was in charge of restoring all of the brick work.

 The gazebo is where people can wait during weddings. The big dark glass NuSkin Headquarters shares the entrance to a linked underground parking garage for the temple.

The following photos courtesy of : https://www.lds.org/church/news/new-temple-honors-pioneer-legacy-of-provo-tabernacle/gallery?lang=eng&_r=1

The lovely stained glass image of Jesus as the good shepherd (early 1900s) in the entry was reclaimed from a Presbyterian Church in New York that was slated for destruction.


 Baptismal font


Instruction room with murals showing the creation with nods to our local landscape..

Bride's room.

Sealing/Marriage room


Celestial Room--symbolic of Heaven.