Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Dear all,

As I wrote several weeks back, we have arrived.

However, this time, it's permanent. Well, permanent until I graduate with my Ph.D. and get a job somewhere.

Here are the answers to many of the questions we've received:

Q: Are you coming back to Utah?
A: Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on where I get offered a job in three years.

Q: Do you want to go to California?
A: Yes, but it all depends on where I get offered a job in three years.

Q: Is there ______________ (fill in the blank: electricity, literacy, modern medicine, etc.) in Mississippi?
A: Yes. Mississippi is a modern state. Rural, but modern.

Q: How long will it take you to get your Ph.D.?
A: Three years, which is really fast, as far as Ph.D.s go. Most Ph.D. programs take around five years--and sometimes more, especially for the hard sciences. Plus, in the hard sciences, you're usually expected to do postdoctoral work, which takes even more time.

Q: What happened to the Explorer?
A: We gave it to the Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho; you know, it's that charity with the slightly amusing jingle on the radio about "mak[ing] your car a kidney car." It actually went really smoothly.

Q: Does it rain a lot in Mississippi?
A: It certainly does where we live. Today, Melanie wondered out loud, as we drove through a typhoon, "Did we move to freaking India?"

We're still getting settled, but things are going well. I've had Writing Center orientation for the past two days, since I'll be a tutor in the Writing Center here, and tomorrow I begin my teacher training.

We appreciate your prayers--we feel them. Please continue. We love you all.

J.