Back in Provo - January brings the cold! (but it is sure nice in San Jose)

Well, after our big trip in December it was nice to get home but we were about to experience the REAL cold. Of course it took a while to clear all the snow off Elaine's car and get used to getting geared up everyday, scraping ice and all that fun stuff.
Our Ward, Pleasant View 9th, is so a great job of putting pictures up on the Youth noticeboard here at Church and this is a picture of some of the youth in the volleyball team Emma was a part of late last year. She is now playing basketball and loving it. Emma scores many baskets each game and we are really proud of her for how hard she works and always being there for the team (even if she still doesn't believe her Dad was a great basketball player in his time :).

We finally had a day just before classes started again where the sun was out and perfect weather for sledding so we drove over to the Rock Canyon Park just a few minutes away and had a blast. Even I went down a few times and impressed the kids with the distance I achieved...

Elaine getting ready to go...

You can see Sarah in the bottom left of the one below and on the right Ethan is down the bottom after a great run!

We have been trying to do a few more things around campus this semester. It is a lot easier compared to the first semester as there is no furniture to assemble, paperwork to organize and things to buy for the apartment etc so we have much more time to enjoy ourselves. We have been to a few Cougar Basketball games and it has been great fun. I'm not very impressed with the poor sportsmanship of some of the BYU crowd (always booing the other team and never clapping for them) but the games are always good and so easy to get to just down the road. Elaine and I went on a date to a game with our good friends Pablo & Laura Arias, then I took Sarah and Ethan to see the game against Fresno. There is alot of excitement at the games these days as the Cougars are ranked #8 in the country at the moment and have a star player, Jimmer Fredette who is being compared to some of BYU's greatest players ever and apparently rumoured to get drafted to Boston.

Last week I took Emma to the Women's game against University of New Mexico. It is just good to be doing things rather than worrying about other stuff on Saturday's.

I decided to do a bit of Daddy-Daughter time last month and I had a special date with Emma to celebrate her 'would-be' primary school graduation. We went to the Chef's table restaurant here in Provo, it was very fancy (but I thought the food was a little ordinary). I guess I have been spoiled by too many good restaurants in Australia and Singapore on work's expense. We had a special night and Emma really enjoyed it though (which was the most important part) and it was our way of letting her feel like she had reached that milestone of finishing Primary School.

Sarah has many special talents and gifts but occasionally :) needs some extra incentive to do her reading and schoolwork so some time ago I promised to take her to Cafe Rio once she achieved her goal in reading. It was a treat for me too as no one else in the family seem to like Mexican so it was a chance for us to go. We had a great time lining up, eating and talking and of course, the food was great!

I really appreciate the time I have to be with the kids while we are here and am slowly making up for being away almost every week for the 18mths before we came to BYU.

Late in January I had the chance to go on one of the BYU MBA trips where the recruitment team and students organize visits with companies, meet recruiters and alumni etc to learn more about the companies and research job opportunities etc. As an international student I find this approach very effective as it allows me to make contacts and find opportunities that may not be accessible through straight online applications etc. January brought the annual 'Tech Trek' where we went to Silicon Valley and visited eBay, Adobe, Symantec, McAfee, HP, CISCO and Google over three days. I learned a lot, made some great contacts and enjoyed the trip.

I also visited with Tanya Broekman (now Uyleman) who is now living there with her husband Xander and their kids. Her family and ours did alot of stuff together when we were growing up and it is fun to meet back up with them in all different parts of the world.

I was also able to catch up again with my friend David Liddicoat who is also from Australia and graduated from the Marriott School just before I started. He is working with Symantec and enjoying the life in the Bay Area with Esther and their family. They have been so helpful with advice and friendship and it was good to see him again.

An added benefit was the opportunity to drive up to Sacramento on the Friday night and stay with my Mum's distant cousins John and Barbara Tanner. It was really nice to see them and talk about their family. The next morning I went to visit Rick Loveridge, a friend I knew when I was in High School (from Church). His family lived in Brisbane for a few years and we used to hang out all the time in those fun 14-18 age years and I hadn't seen him for a long, long time. It was great to see him, meet his kids and talk about our experiences since we had seen each other last.
(Rick and I, 20 years ago - yes, that is me on the left...)

Of course, the pleasant surprise was the weather in San Jose, just beautiful - warm, clear skies etc. A real change from the cold and ice in Provo.. It certainly is very enticing and with all the companies there, understanding why it is such a sort after destination.