Three things we love about Mississippi

Thing 1: Imagine the following scenario:
There is one car in the parking lot-say it's a parking lot near some trails. Two people are standing around the car, with both doors open, talking. You drive up in your car. Where do you park?
a) Do you go to the opposite side of the parking lot and do whatever it is you came there to do? Or
b) Do you stop right next to the one other car, get out, and starting chatting?

If you are from points north or west of here you probably answered A.

But around here, everyone goes with B. And we love it. Southerners recognize that we are all sharing the same space and you might as well acknowledge each other and experience that space together.

The perfect illustration of this happened today when we finished our long trail run out at the Noxubee Hills Trails. As we were taking off our orange vests an old truck pulls into the parking lot at the trailhead. The driver, dressed in camouflage from head to toe, parked right next to us, got out of his truck, and just struck up a conversation. Turned out he was waiting for his uncle--the two of them had been out in the woods since 4 am (it was now about 3pm) hunting. He was going home empty handed when we saw him but he didn't seem concerned. He was happy talking about the ones that got away today and the ones that didn't get away earlier in the month. We were happy having a pleasant conversation with someone who we just happened to cross paths with.

Thing 2: Even here you can celebrate a Jewish-atheist Christmas by going out for Chinese food.

Thing 3: Our builder, Davey McReynolds. Check out our house! Imagine it white with dark green shutters.

The House, Dec 25

Teaching sociology

The little blurb at the top of this blog says we'll post about learning how to teach sociology, so Sarah figured it was about time to write such a post. Here it is.

I did it. I survived my first semester as a real college professor and no one got hurt. No one except the one student I almost kicked out of the program and the 30 other students who probably didn't learn anything, but really, whose counting?

I knew going into this semester that it was going to be hard and that I would make mistakes. Directing an after-school literacy program in a public elementary school for a year is not adequate preparation for teaching 2 classes, three days a week, to juniors and seniors in college. But, despite this realistic--and what I originally thought was overly pessimistic--attitude I was continually startled by just how hard it was and just how many mistakes I could make in one 50 minute chunk of time. I mean, really, if you bill yourself as a methods expert you should not be confusing the independent and dependent variable.

To avoid posting a long, rambling, rant I think it's best to summarize this semester in a series of bullet points...possible PowerPoint slides, if you will...

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MISSISSIPPI STATE STUDENTS (especially juniors and seniors)

• The schools these students are coming from have failed them.
• They do not know how to write in complete sentences.
• They do not know how to properly capitalize.
• They do not know what the structure of a paragraph should be.
• THEY HAVE NEVER HAD TO THINK.
  

These students have never been asked to reflect upon something, to read something and use what they've read to support their argument, or to have an independent thought. All they have been asked to do is memorize and spit back what they have memorized. Keep in mind, MSU is the best university in Mississippi (read: hardest to get in to). The students I meet are the brightest of the bunch. While this may seem like a liberal, academic point it has serious consequences for these students. Many of them cannot communicate effectively--a skill I think most can see is important for virtually any job or career. Even the most uncaring capitalist should be able to recognize that we must seriously invest and improve our public education system in order to create a competent workforce. As a pinko, elitist, intellectual I would argue that we should make these investments and improvements just because we should, but that's a conversation best had face-to-face over a cup of coffee or a good bottle of gin (you pick, I'll buy).

MOST SOCIOLOGY MAJORS ARE TRANSFER STUDENTS FROM MISSISSIPPI JUNIOR COLLEGES. This means:

• They do not know where the library is on campus.
• They have not been taught by my colleagues in the lower level courses.
• They have not really experienced college and therefore have no concept of how much work they are expected to do.

THE SILVER LINING REGARDING MSU STUDENTS

• There are a handful of incredibly bright students who amazed me everyday.
• Many students were incredibly appreciative of the extra help I gave them.
• Few students held the entitled, privileged attitude I frequently came across through out my own education.

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT TEACHING

• Teaching is hard!
• Preparing for a 50 minute lecture can easily take 24 hours.
• The rare moment when a student finally "gets it" is worth the 12 hour days.

I have no idea how "real" teachers (those who are the classroom from 7am to 3pm or even just those teaching more than 2 courses a semester) do it. Go out and hug a teacher today. They deserve it.

Well, so much for avoiding a long, rambling post. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on my students when they can't write a concise, focused essay?

Because every post deserves a photo here's one of Bowen Hall--home of the sociology department.

Yes, that is my bike out front. The one with the big, red basket.

This post is sponsored by MasterCard

A job in Mississippi: a nice chunk of change

Bright orange vests from Walmart: $5 and a little piece of your soul

Discovering 26 miles of gorgeous single track a mere 30min drive from your home: priceless


Things just got a little brighter down here thanks to the Noxubee Hills Trails and the online mountain biking community that led us to them.

House Update

Despite frequent rain, strong winds, and threats of tornadoes (we gather this is what winter is like down here), Davey and his crew have been making steady progress on the house. You can check out some new pictures here.

The House

Assuming no one was blown off the roof by the gusting winds down here today, this week should bring our tin roof, stairs, and a meeting with "the cabinet guy." Ooo.

Ironman photos

In case they guy in the blue speedo wasn't the visual image you were hoping for we've put a few other Ironman photos online. You can view them here:

Ironman

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You can also find better pictures of Phil throughout the race here.

Proof of Life

This post is for Phil's brother, John, who did not believe that the "Wiggly" was real. Here's proof John. This should suffice, sorry I couldn't hold up todays newspaper- this was a drive by picture taking.

Ironman Race Report

The Ford Ironman Arizona sponsored by U.S. Airways and brought to you by Gatorade with support from Power Bar, Doritos, Yahoo!, etc, etc...is now finally over! (The Ironman looked like corporate America had it coming out both ends all over the course and race materials.)

As you can clearly see from the picture to the right, Phil has gained a little weight since living the dream in Miss. Trying to fit in is hard work, eating doughnuts and BBQ 'n all. He's even added a handle bar mustache to stop all the sissy jokes and name calling he hears from the other men folk down at the Piggly Wiggly. The speedo was a little panache for the desert ladies.

Phil and his friends, Quang, Corey, Alex and Kristin, all finished within an hour/hour and a half of each other. Everyone had a good day, no big booboos.

Phil's Time: 12:31. S: 1:11; B: 6:07; R: 4:51.
The swim was much colder than the usu. 78 degree avg., it was around 63. Us neophytes learned a neat trick from an old timer- stand on the little ledge at the waters edge rather than tread water for twenty minutes in 63 degree water in the predawn hours prior to start. Things went well during the out, got warm quick and felt I was doing a pretty good job of passing/avoiding people. On the back the cold started to get to me...the cold and the rapacious Ironpersons. I think people started to get a little desperate, clawing me and trying to pull themselves forward using my long legs. The friendly little bump-ins turned ugly. A few times I had to kick people off of me. And at one point I had to stop and turn to the guy behind me and share three words expressing the aggravation he was causing me during my Ironman swim. Smacking or banging into me I understand, but don't pull at me man! The most frustrating thing was that I had to stop a few times, after kicking people off me, due to cramping in my feet. Feet still not 100%, Bunyon, I am still unable to kick while swimming without my toes curling back on themselves trying to touch my buttocks. All in all the swim felt great and in retrospect wish I'd worked a little harder.

T1: a few hours, give or take 2-3 minutes.

Bike
The bike provided me with one of those "how can that be" experiences...like when Sarah Palin actually spits out a coherent sentence. Granted my T1 time was long, 13+ minutes, but I was taken aback by seeing a much shorter and overweight woman up ahead of me early on during the bike. It really took me a good solid hour to figure out and come to grips with the fact that she beat me out of the water! Nothing against short or overweight people, Rock On! You go girl! I was just confused with my bad self.

After the first loop, right as I saw Sarah at the start, my seat broke. I lost the bolt and barrel on my rear clamp. Three months of pounding on Mississippi roads w/o incident and after 37 miles in AZ the damn thing breaks! I road 8-10 miles to the tech tent praying to the God of Ironman to keep my seat on. The last thing I wanted was a blunt post aimed at my rear end for another 70+ miles. The tech guys helped by securing it with a plastic zip tie. Yes, a plastic zip tie. Now, I weigh 225lbs with most of that above my waist. Do the calculation: how long is a plastic zip tie going to last me? Turns out another 55 miles. The plastic broke at the final turn with 18 miles left to go. And I lost the spare zip ties given me somewhere on the course. So, I had a painful final half lap, but the seat stayed on.

T2: Only an hour and 8+ minutes.

Run
Started the run without my bib and had to go back. However, I did remember to bring my lucky banana and after running with it for a couple of miles I got a good chuckle from a spectator who yelled "eat your banana PJ" (PJ's my bib/race code name). So, I did as instructed and for about 8 miles I had banana gut and couldn't take in anything else. Lucky banana wasn't so lucky. Had a mental/physical crash toward the end of the first loop. My nutrition plan, or lack thereof, resulted a lot of walking/crying/questioning my sanity for much of the first and second loops. However, after the banana settled I was able to take in more and started Gel'n. By the third loop I felt great and was going at a quick pace. This was when I set the goal to finish the marathon under 5 hours, which was not too far off my original goal of under 4:30. I felt so good on the last lap that I actually started thinking about when I'd do another Ironman, completely forgetting my meltdown during loop two when my goal was simply to finish even if I had to crawl in spitting blood and crying all the way.

This was an awesome experience and so much better for being able to do it with friends. Since I'd like to stay married, think I'll wait a few years before doing it again.

House: Day 23. We have walls!

Look! It really will be a house someday!

Sarah in the reading nook.

Phil in the half bath.

In mourning

We're in mourning down here. Our neighbor, and welcomed bug eater, has moved on. This was Glen, short for Glen Beck (because he scared the hell out of us, but we couldn't stop watching him).















He lived outside our back door but apparently got swept up by the tornado that passed through last week. Seriously. We think he was some sort of orb weaver, but hadn't been able to identify him more specifically.

Luckily for us we do have some people neighbors that probably won't be sucked up in any storms. Since we’re in faculty housing, where you can only live for 2 years, most of our neighbors are new professors like Sarah and most appear to be pretty cool. One of Sarah’s departmental colleagues lives one duplex over. He also has a blog about moving to Mississippi—it’s much more sociological than ours—and is a Tar Heel fan. We’ve also started meeting some folks from other departments, including another Tar Heel who invited us over to watch all the basketball games. Phew, one worry we can erase. This almost makes up for prayer at university events.

Prayer, Presidents, and Public Education or The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same

(WARNING: This post may offend you. But we figure if you're reading our blog you already know this about us and are willing to be offended by us once in a while, just like we're willing to be offended by you once in a while. But seriously, if we weren't going to complain about this most of you would start to wonder what had happened to us. Had we been abducted by aliens? or worse, converted to fundamentalist protestantism? Had the south managed to take away the part of us that makes "exciting" to have around? Rest assured, Sarah and Phil are still the cynical, critical pair we've always been. So, read on.)

There have been quite a few changes down here in Starkville lately. Some of these changes have been good in our eyes. For instance, Sunday alcohol sales just became legal (woo hoo!) so now we can go to the one bar in town on Sundays as well as every other day of the week. Just kidding… one bar, C'mon this is the south. There are at least 5 or 6 that we're not afraid to go into. We’s also gots us a new mayor (a former Tar Heel!) who is younger than us and promises to improve town-gown relations. He wears bow-ties and seersucker suits--what's not to like about that? And, Starkville even started curbside recycling. You do have to live in town and not in University housing so it doesn’t apply to us, but we still like it.

The other big change is that Sarah’s employer, Mississippi State University, just installed a new president. Dr. Keenum is buddy-buddy with all the powerful white guys in this state and some of the national powerful white guys too. His star shines bright in Starkville and MSU. His investiture was a few weeks ago (full disclosure: Sarah played hooky and did not attend citing her lack of official regalia; Phil was obviously off the hook professionally and wisely thought his time would be better spent picking lint out of his belly button). Just as we were starting to get comfortable in our new surroundings Mississippi decided to smack us in the face with a big "you're not from around here." The official university event, paid for with taxpayer dough, since this is a state run institution, started with a prayer service at which the university choirs sang. Then there was a prayer to start off the investiture ceremony and then our dear Dr. Keenum ended his speech like this:

“With your help and with God's blessing, Mississippi State University will open a new chapter of service, leadership, and excellence, and will build on its long and proud history of contributions to our state to help usher Mississippi into a new era of prosperity and a future filled with promise.
Thank you, and may God bless you.”

He then followed this with a thank you email to the faculty and said that "The prayer service, reception, and investiture ceremony itself presented the university to the public in an outstanding way..."

Really? Using our money for a church service doesn't seem like outstanding presentation.

(Although it’s not really relevant, these prayers were not “non-denominational.” They were strictly Christian and apparently Jesus played a prominent role.)

It’s hard to articulate what is more frustrating—that prayer, god, and Jesus played such a large role in this supposedly non-religious institution’s event or that few people seemed troubled or concerned about it. While a few of Sarah’s colleagues grumbled and talked about contacting the ACLU there was no outcry from the community (university or otherwise). There wasn’t even an out-peep.

We were prepared for people to ask us questions about where we go to church and what we’re doing for Christmas. We even practiced inoffensive responses. We were also prepared for nothing to be open on Sundays. We probably were even ready for high school football teams to pray before the start of Friday night games (we have avoided these games so far and have no idea if this actually happens). But, deep down, we had hopes for the university community. We had “faith” that individuals’ faith wouldn’t intrude on academic life.

So, it looks this is one stereotype of Mississippi that we aren't able to shoot down.

And now for something completely different, here is a picture of wild flowers and a bug from our farm:

House: Day 16

Or Day 2, depending on how you look at it. The near constant rain kept our builder and his crew idle for two weeks. Thankfully we've had 5 days of no rain with another couple of dry days ahead in the forecast. That means they were able to pour the foundation yesterday! Here are some "action" shots.


From the driveway:

Smoothing out the cement (that's pronounced SEE-ment for those of you not from around here):


Unfortunately, it's still too wet for any farm work to happen.

Breakin' ground. House: Day 1

We have dirt! Four days with no rain meant our builder, Davey, could finally get started. Woo hoo! As of today they’ve cleared the driveway and the house site. Dirt down here is dark clay which is apparently not what you want under your house, so Davey also trucked in a bunch of red dirt to put on top of the dirt that was already there. Of course, it’s supposed to rain for the next 2 days, so who knows when the foundation will get poured…

This picture is from the middle of our driveway looking towards the "house."

That big tree on the left is a pecan tree!

This picture is from another spot.

Swamp'ssippi

This is not the farm. It's our place on Bulldog Circle, a few hours BEFORE they announced the flash flood warning, thunderstorm watch, and tornado warning. This picture captures why nothing has happened farm-wise or house building-wise in the last month-it's been raining! Everyone says this is unusual. Ya.

The two positives are that we now understand where all the flood risk areas on the farm are and why there are no basements in Mississippi. So, that's a bonus. However, what we still don't understand is why our neighbor seems to think his trash can (pictured) is supposed to stay out permanently. Baffling. We caught them yesterday walking out to the can to throw trash away, it was the day after collection! They left the can out there!?! Who does that? Can't blame Mississippi for this one, almost everyone on the street is from out of state. We'll investigate and let you know where these trash can miscreants are from, if you care.

Next time footage of Fire Antz-if it stops raining.

Meet the farm

Well, it’s raining down here and has been for the past month. It’s the most rain they’ve had since 1984, or something like that. Needless to say there are no house or farm updates.

So, we thought we’d take the opportunity to introduce you to our farm. Pictures can be found here. Our apologies to those of you who have seen these already on Facebook—we’re just trying to bring everyone up to speed. Believe it or not there are some people out there who are not on Facebook…crazy…

The official address is 1819 Mt. Olive Rd, but if you google map it you won’t get the right spot. Here’s where it actually is. The house will be built just east of the clump of trees in the middle. The old well is at the base of the big tree just west of that clump.

The farm is still unnamed. We're searching for inspiration.

Introductions and what's in a name.

Welcome to our blog! When we told people we were moving to Mississippi the first reaction was "huh?" When we followed that up by saying that Phil was going to start a small, sustainable farm the reaction was "you should write a blog.” So, here we are.

The aim of this blog is to keep you, our family and friends, updated on our life and experiences during this adventure. That means it might get kind of boring at times. It also means that we’re going to post whatever we feel like posting. You’ll likely get pictures of the house and farm as they start to take shape, our musings on life in a small southern town, recaps of our athletic adventures, and probably a little complaining too (it is us after all). We hope to post at least once a week, probably more if there are big exciting things happening (like the homecoming parade this weekend!).

Why did we call this blog “Challahs From the Old Well?” If you don’t know what a challah is, use that new-fangled intra-web that you’re on and do the google to it. If you haven’t had Sarah’s mom’s challah, then your life isn’t complete. Challah, pronounced with a deep gurgled h and not like cheese, comes from grain. Grain is grown on farms. On our farm there is an old Civil War-era well. So, this blog is just us, hollering up from our farm every now and then with our insights and reflections and maybe even a little nourishment. So, would a blog by any other name smell as sweet? Probably, but we like this one so we’re stickin’ to it.