Watson's advent calendar - added to Jan 23, 2014

Last year, someone told me about creating a homemade advent calendar and making the daily prize a book. Anyway, I've been thinking about this idea all year, and actually implemented it! I spent the month of November frequenting charity shops around town to collect used books and last week Jubin and I went to Craftworld in City Centre (fun!) to get the supplies for the calendar.

Below is a picture of the calendar I made from poster board, paper, and glitter. I then cut slits in the tree and put a little message in each (the square white pieces you see - each has a number (1-24) on it). The messages are clues that tell Watson where to go look for his prize. For example: I am in the cupboard in the smallest room in your house, I am under the smallest bed in your house, I am in something that carries your brother around.

My homemade calendar on the left and the calendar he got at the Market with Grace on the right.

It has been So fun! Watson was super-surprised Sunday morning and loves opening the clue each morning. He is able to read the clues all by himself, and then searches for his book. Every 6 days, I'll give him a different, small non-book prize (e.g., we have some fun gloves for him for the 6th). And, each evening we then have a new book to read! Some of them are chapter books that take a few nights to read and others we read in one sitting. This idea was so perfect for this year since we don't have many books here and the library isn't as convenient as the one in MI. Thanks to whoever gave me this idea (Brie?)!

Also, since we will have a pretty small Christmas gift-wise while in Florida (NOT going to transport gifts across the Atlantic in Jan and then again in July!), I made every 6 days a non-book, small gift day. Watson's 4 special gifts were: a jump rope (see below), Yahtzee, and 2 small giftcards (Jumping Clay and Build A Bear). Fun, fun!

Not so ordinary, ordinary days (Aug - Dec 2013) - updated Jan 2014

Since moving to Belfast, we've not really been "tourists". Instead, we have been living here. But, that doesn't mean that we haven't had some pretty amazing days! Below are just a few of our not so ordinary, ordinary days:

Very soon after arriving in Belfast, we noticed this place called Jumping Clay (http://www.jumpingclay.co.uk/) in Stranmillis, in between our house and QUB. In we went, and lo and behold, it is this really great place! Jumping Clay is sort of like PlayDoh, but better - the idea is that you create things with it and then let them dry. Watson did two "summer schemes" in August - these are week long 2-hr/day camps centered on a theme. He did the space and under the sea themed schemes, and below are pix of his creations. Since then, he has gone there many times for 1 or 2-hr classes or workshops to make all sorts of creations. And, he made a Christmas scene in Dec. Watson is so keen about JC that we have an assortment of clay at home that he uses as well. Very fun!

This pic is actually on the Stranmillis JC Facebook page. ;)

Shortly after moving here, there was a festival in the Botanic Gardens called "Mela". It is a festival of arts, culture, and heritage and featured lots of music. Here's a link to more info: http://2013.belfastmela.org.uk/Files/mela_2013_programme.pdf. We attended this festival with Bob and Kath, walking up to the Gardens from our house. We ate Indian food, watched Japanese drummers, watched the Kawa Circus, listened to  Ajo Arkestra (Afrobeat Ensamble), and made lots of children's crafts. The boys most enjoyed the Circus, which you can see clips of here: http://www.accessallareas.info/artist_article/37/kawa-circus.htm. At the end, Watson got a DVD to watch it all again (and again) and the next day it was reported back to us that Jubin could be seen in the audience on the TV News coverage of the event - he was even asked to stand up and prove to the audience that a prop being used was VERY heavy. Funny! Unfortunately, we did experience a little angst while at the festival...Watson very much wanted a tattoo, so he and I waited in a long line for henna tattoos. However, after getting it, Watson decided that he didn't want it anymore and wiped it all off before it dried (I think he was perturbed by it being cold and wet). He then spent the next few days admiring mine... Poor guy!

Also in August was Watson's 6th birthday. We had two parties in July before we left MI, one with all of Watson's friends mini-golfing and one with more friends and family at my parent's house. However, we still had a little something on the 21st with his and our new Belfast friends. Here are some pix!

One of Watson's gifts...that Jamieson obviously likes too!

Bob and Kath at Watson's party

Birthday cupcakes

Then, in September, we went to Belfast City Centre to the "Belfast Day" celebration (http://visit-belfast.com/whats-on/event/belfast-day). We listened to music, did lots of children's crafts, and ate some ice cream. One question we all had: Why do these festivals always (regardless of location) set things up so that the kids crafts a squeezed into a teeny tiny area, resulting in such crowding that it is practically impossible for kids to do the crafts? Here are a couple of pix from this event:

Then, in November, it hit home that there is no Thanksgiving here - what really made me realize this fact was how early the Christmas season started! On November 16, the Belfast Christmas Market opened, and Grace's family (Watson's friend across the street) had tickets to the opening celebration. Watson attended with Grace and her Mum, and had a great time. They saw the lighting of the big tree in front of City Hall, got some food, saw Santa (Watson didn't want to sit with him), and brought home a chocolate advent calendar. We haven't yet been back to the Market, but plan to go this weekend - there is a carousel! Here is a link to more info: http://visit-belfast.com/whats-on/event/belfast-christmas-market-2013.

A couple of weekends ago, right before Jubin had to submit a huge NSF grant, I took the boys to the Odyssey in the Titanic Quarter to go bowling (here's a map: http://goo.gl/maps/QkksE). We met my runner friend, ex-pat Lauren, and her 2 little girls there (5 and 3 yrs old). The kids had a GREAT time... there was a free train they could ride, they got along very nicely (the kids hadn't met before), the bowling was a bit hit, and we had pizza afterwards. Two cute and funny things about the bowling: First, Watson really likes bowling and was happy to win. Second, Jamieson bowled - Watson would line up the stand (aiming the ball) and put the ball on the stand for him and then Jamie would push the ball off the stand...he LOVED it! So funny... Here are some pix:

The kiddo bowlers - Watson, Jamieson, Ciara, and Lucy

Who knew that a 1-year old could bowl? :)

Finally, last weekend, we rented a car in Belfast for the 1st time. Jubin did a GREAT job driving on the left-side of the street. Funny thing - Enterprise gave us the car that I wrote about a couple blog posts back (Vauxhall Astra). Anyway, we didn't do anything very touristy with the car this time around, but instead did some rather ordinary, but special things around town. Saturday afternoon, Watson had his first Belfast birthday party to attend. It was for Antonia, a girl in his reading group at school. Her party was at the International Ice Bowl in Dundonald, in Indiana Land. Here is a map (http://goo.gl/maps/g7Xzk) and the link to this crazy entertainment place (http://www.theicebowl.com/home.asp) - I imagine that we will be going back (ice skating, mini-golf, climbing, etc...). Anyway, Indiana Land is an indoor jungle-themed play land for kids. Watson had a GREAT time, as did Jamie (they have a toddler area). Check out these pix!

Then, on Sunday, we went out to breakfast at the Lock Keeper's Inn near our house (haven't been out for a family breakfast since August!). This is a really cool little Inn that is on the Tow Path (i.e. River Trail) and is frequented by people walking, running, and biking (map here: http://goo.gl/maps/auHfd). So fun! If the City of Lansing built a place like this somewhere on the Potter Park property near the Red Cedar, they would rake in the dough! After breakfast, Watson played in the River Lagan a bit and then we went back home to do some cooking for dinner that afternoon. Later, we drove out to Bob and Kath's for a traditional, albeit late, Thanksgiving dinner. Paula and Ron Reimer were there too, and we had a very nice time (SO full!). The drive home, in the dark, was a bit more challenging than the way there, but we made it safe and sound and without any "detours".

Speaking at Trinity College Dublin (ROI)

I was invited to give a talk as part of the Department of Zoology Seminar Series at Trinity College Dubin (TCD; http://www.tcd.ie/Zoology/) at the end of November. I took an ~2 hour commuter train ride from Belfast to Dublin, then went just 2 stops on the DART train (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) and found myself at the edge of the Trinity campus. The navigating was made super-easy by my travel companion, Kath, who normally spends Tues-Thurs at Trinity, but changed her schedule this week to host me there (so nice!). While at TCD, I met with lots of brilliant students (undergraduate and graduate) and faculty (postdocs and professors) in the Department, and found them to be a very friendly group.   

I had a really nice lunch with some of the graduate students in the Department - they were really friendly and seemed like a very cohesive and productive group.

My talk was in a lecture hall in the Botany Building. In fact, it was in the lecture hall that was featured in the 1980's film "Educating Rita" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educating_Rita_%28film%29). Here I am impersonating Michael Caine in that film!

My talk, titled "Understanding multi-scaled relationships between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems," was well-attended and well-received by a mixture of students and staff (~50 or so people I would guess). Unfortunately, my talk directly conflicted with another seminar that was being given by a big-wig who holds some funding purse strings...so, a few of the people who would have normally attended my talk had to go to that one instead (stupid politics!). But, I had a lot of interesting questions after the talk and discussions during the informal social afterwards. Note that this informal social included beer, was attended by undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, and profs, and it was held in the Zoology Dept. I really wish that MSU would relax its policies regarding such activities on campus. The atmosphere is so much more comfortable when somewhat socially awkward scientists can drink a beer while networking! One thing that I noticed was that the undergrads who attended were really quite amazing. My impression is that TCD is a very good school and that the Zoology majors all are required to conduct thesis research. Scientists in training!

Two scholars who I had conversations with and who could be future collaborators are Drs. Ian Donohue and Andrew Jackson (http://www.tcd.ie/Zoology/staff/). They are both super-nice and super-brilliant. However, it was pretty funny - the day was sort of a comedy of errors. Many of the Profs I was supposed to have formal meetings with had to cancel or rearrange their schedules at the last minute, and I ended up speaking to most of them more informally than was planned. Anyway, I will likely return to Trinity this winter to work with some of them.

A special thanks to Drs. Katherine Webster and Natalie Cooper for hosting me and helping with my 

travel arrangements. 

UPDATE: Here's the Trinity EcoEvo blog post about my talk. http://www.ecoevoblog.com/2014/01/29/seminar-series-kendra-cheruvelil-michigan-state-universityqueens-university-belfast/

What would it take to change US cars and drivers?

In one of my early posts, I mentioned the huge diversity of small, fuel-efficient cars here and how they seem to be designed to be useful - many hatchbacks, lots able to tow trailers, etc... Why don't these same cars exist in the U.S.?

We sold the Accord before we left since it was 15 yrs old and no longer fit our family (you should've seen poor Keya smooshed in the back seat...). Jubin and I have been talking about what kind of used car we'll look for when we return home and there are so few options to us! Criteria: 5 doors, good mileage (which is relative of course, but min of 25 mpg), less than 100k miles, and relatively cheap. Not many makes and models out there... So, why can't we buy these cool UK cars in the US? Market demand and the way that our markets are socially constructed, right? Ok, so what would change this situation? 

There was a used car for sale today on the Belfast a version of craigslist called a Vauxwell Astra 1.6 Twinport, which gets about 40 mpg combined city/hwy (you can click here to see a pick of a new one: http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vehicles/vauxhall-range/cars/new-astra/overview.html). Note that this car is NOT a hybrid, it is NOT the most fuel efficient car in its class here, and it can tow over 2000 lbs (obviously with lower mileage!). The cars in the US don't even come close to this mileage... Anyway, the Astra's fuel tank is 13.67 gallons = 62 liters. Guess how much to fill the tank here in Belfast? Come on, take a guess!

Ok, I'll tell you...it costs 1.29 GBP per liter. So, that's 80 GBP to fill that tank, which is about $120. That's right, $120 to fill a 13.7 gal tank of gas. 

That's about double the amount I was paying to fill up our CRV every approximately 10 days to 2 weeks in Lansing (about $50/fill up). Now, the CRVs gas tank is about the same size at 12.8 gallons (58 liters) so it would cost me 75 GBP to fill it here, or $112 - more than double what I pay in the US.  Do you think that if gas prices in the US doubled, the consumers would change their behaviors enough to alter the cars being marketed there? I'm thinking maybe yes.

And, our CRV only averages about 20 mpg. So, to drive the same number of miles in the 2 cars, I would need to fill the CRV up almost 1.8X as often as I would the Astra (half the mpg, but a bit bigger tank). 

Let's play a little numbers game. The average person my age in the US drives 1250 miles per month (yikes! compared to my ~700, that is CRAZY!). If we use that number of miles and and the Belfast gas price of $8.79 per gallon, then in the Astra I would pay $275 per month and in the CRV I would pay $550 per month. Wow. Personally, I cannot imagine paying that each month! Do you think that people in the US would stop driving so much and would lobby for public transit if gas was almost $9 per gallon? I know that I would! 

Jamieson is very mobile!

Jamie is SOOO close to walking...Here are some pix of him pushing the toddler chair around the kitchen (he uses it like a walker, either on his knees or walking), standing unassisted, doing the stairs all by himself (up and down, up and down), etc... We thought that he'd be walking in mid-Oct, becuase he was so close to it then, but he appears to be a bit of a perfectionist. He doesn't want to let go and do it on his own until he is really ready. So, it is now mid-Nov and he is still SOOOO close. He spends all of his time walking around the walls, furniture, anything he can put a hand on to steady himself, and then he gets upset when he finally has to plop down and crawl. Soon, soon...

2 minute video of Jamie going up and down the stairs: http://youtu.be/60ZLMrxBTrQ

Where are all of the fat people?

One thing that Jubin and I noticed right away here, and keep being amazed by (and commenting on) is the rarity of obese people here in Belfast. Now, to be totally clear, lots of people here appear somewhat plump and a bit out of shape (think about all of the potato, meat, and beer consumed). But, we have seen very, very few obese people. Granted, we are coming from the U.S. with a 35.9% obesity rate. And, Michigan is ranked the 9th fattest US state, with close to 29% of the population being obese....but still, the difference is striking. Note that I am NOT passing any judgments in this post. I am simply stating what we are seeing and what facts I could dig up relatively quickly/easily.

Here comes trouble...above and below!

So ironic...Jamieson wants nothing to do with his stroller, but Watson is always happy to use it!

At first, we attributed the apparent rarity of obesity to life style - certainly, we are experiencing a much more active lifestyle here than at home. However, I decided to dig a little deeper because I was surprised that a country with so much rain, cool average temps, and long dark winters could really support that much better of a lifestyle than MI could. So, is there really a difference? I looked up obesity rates and found that 23% of the N Ireland population, as well as the whole UK population, is obese. That percentage is certainly lower than Michigan's 29%, but that isn't exactly a low percentage. So, where are they? Staying inside (the City is much less accessible than Lansing is...)? Living in the countryside (have scientists found differences in obesity rates in urban vs rural settings?)? Weird!

Jamie and I went for a walk last weekend (mid-Nov) when it was raining off and on.
On the way back home, we saw a rainbow.
We could see it end to end when standing with our backs to our house.

I then thought that perhaps it is the 'morbidly obese' who are so very visible in MI who might be absent from Belfast. What are the stats on that? These stats are harder to come by, but in 2011, 1.7% of men and 3.2% of women in the UK were morbidly obese, as compared to 6.6% in the US in 2010 (couldn't find rates for individual states). So, the small differences in rates of both obesity and morbid obesity between Michigan and N. Ireland might be contributing to our experience here. However, if we do a numbers game, and randomly pull 100 people in MI and 100 in N Ireland, we would expect about 35 people in MI as compared to about 28 people in N Ireland to be either obese or morbidly obese. Could this difference of 7 people out of every 100 really account for the difference in what we are seeing here in Belfast? It doesn't seem like it... Really and truly (no exaggeration), I can think of only 3 obese people I have seen since arriving here! So, that leads me to my title - where are all the fat people?

For those interested, here are some of the websites I found:
http://www.noo.org.uk/NOO_about_obesity/adult_obesity/international
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/

Jamieson is ONE year old already!

How is it possible that a year has already passed since Jamieson joined our family? Saturday the 9th, I spent time reminiscing about the Saturday 1 year previous (pre-labor contractions, already over a week overdue, emotional meltdown, etc...). I also baked some cake and cup cakes (called generically buns here) and we had all of the neighborhood kids and parents who were immune to chicken pox over to sing to Jamie. Was cute!

The living room is quite small..but, all of the kids and adults could still fit!

What are those things on fire? Watson helped me blow them out.

Yum...

Watson's 2 best friends here: Grace (left) and Rosa (right).
They gave Jamie some cars and a book, respectively - thanks!

Unfortunately, Sunday night Jamie came down with some horrible ears, nose and throat virus. So, his actual birthday on Monday was a bust. Good thing he didn't know it was his bday! Although we was sort of a mess, we still Skyped with Gramma and Grampa so that they could sing to Jamie. A bigger success was the card that they sent him - he is still dancing to it! Click here to see a 30-second video of him dancing with his musical bday card:  http://youtu.be/U29lKReaJZE

The brothers being silly together - with the beautiful blanket Bob and Kath gave Jamieson for his birthday.

Costa de Sol - the Sun Coast (of Spain)

Schools here in Belfast give the students a mid-term break the week of Halloween. Some schools have 3 days off, some the whole week, and some (like Watson's) have 7 school days off. Wow. Anyway, since Watson would be home anyway, we decided that we should take advantage of the time and do a Europe-hop somewhere. Before coming to Belfast, Jubin and I said that at a minimum, we should experience Spain and France in addition to the UK/Ireland this year. So, to Spain we went. Being on a budget, we booked a resort through our time share. Being short on sun, we booked on the Sun Coast - near Malaga.

Here's a map: http://goo.gl/maps/nkgBz
I've marked the Malaga Airport (Eastern-most marker), Colahonda where our resort was (middle marker near coast), Cobopino beach (Western-most marker on coast), and the historic town of Ronda (Northern-most marker in the mountains).

This is what the sky looked like the whole week...the view of roses in our resort's garden from our patio.

The weather was amazing - 75 degrees and completely blue sky every day. Seriously gorgeous. The views were amazing - Sea in once direction, mountains in the other. Neither Jubin nor I had realized that this part of Spain was so mountainous. Our resort was...ok. We booked one place and were moved to another (long story) that didn't have as good amenities and was further from the beach. And, then we moved from 1 resort to another part-way through the week (annoying, but much better place). Importantly, we had mini-golf and a heated pool onsite, which are key for Watson. Even though the mini-golf was only 9 holes and was in not the best repair, Watson reports that to be the best part of the vacation. Guess we should just spend the next week off of school taking day trips to min-golf courses in the area, huh?

Watson sitting on the patio waiting (patiently?) for us to go to the pool.
Notice his look? "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth"...

The area surrounding our resort was not our cup of tea. It was all developed specifically for tourists, mainly from Northern Europe. Lots of pubs with British food, for example. We could not even find a place that served real Spanish food (although we did get to sample some Spanish wine and sangria)! How is that possible? What a tragedy. But, we really liked our day in Ronda, a neat historic town in the mountains.

Looking into the historic part of Ronda

The Ronda bull-fighting arena

Beautiful views in Ronda. A walking path along at the top of a very steep ravine down to a river.
Above, a bridge over the river connecting the newer and older parts of the town.
Below, the path along the ravine.

The view of the countryside from the path along the top.
We WISHED that we had time to do a hike down into the
 ravine and all around the bottom along the river. 

Ummm...note to selves  -it is COLD in the mountains!

A street view in the historic district.

The other side of the bridge.

When we were to go back to Southern Spain someday, we will definitely explore other small towns (and stay in them) like Ronda and Seville and Gibraltar. The beach near us (Cabopino) was beautiful and we would visit there again, but we would stay just a couple of days there or make a day trip of it and stay elsewhere. The pix below are all taken at Cabopino Beach - we had a couple of really nice days there!

Here are some things that happened during the trip that we thought you might get a kick out of (and we want to record for posterity):
1) We rented a car near the Malaga Airport. On the web, the car was only 45 Euro for the week. How can that be? Well, it can be because they charge you for a full tank of gas no matter how much you use at a rate of 90 Euro! Ha! 135 Euro makes a lot more sense for a week of car rental...

2) We picked up our rental car at about 10pm Sat night, and we hadn't yet had dinner (time change, weird travel time), so we asked the man at the desk how to get somewhere with an ATM to get Euros where we could also get a quick bite. He directed us to an open air mall that was super-close to the airport. Like, 5 minute drive. However, it took us about 30 min to get there on account of having to get on and off the highway about 8 times and going around and around and around 2 traffic circles about 20 times trying to figure out which direction we were supposed to go in! OMG - no angst in the car during that 30 minutes, let me tell you! But, we finally got there, got Euros, and got fast food. It was actually a really cool mall - 11pm and tons of people out and about. This should have been an indicator of #3...

3) No one eats dinner in Spain until at least 8pm. The restaurants don't even open until 630 or 7pm. This timeline might work well for singles, couples without kids, and retired folks, but how do families deal with this timeline? Obviously, we cooked in most nights. But, really, not even open until 7pm? Yikes!

4) On our way to Ronda, we discovered that Watson gets car sick. All over himself and the back seat. Poor guy... We were on a very narrow road with lots of switchbacks heading up the mountain, so it was the perfect situation for car sickness. Jubin was able to get to a scenic pull off and luckily I had brought a 2L of fizzy water (used it to clean the seat) and extra clothes (used to clean out the back seat, clean off Watson, and re-clothe him). We also switched locations of car seats so that Jamie's was over the wet part of the seat. Ha! Poor little man got sick on the way down as well, but this time knew what was coming so was able to warn Jubin early enough that most of it landed outside the car. Then we moved him to the front seat for the rest of the drive. Yah, yah...safety...probably isn't that safe to be swerving off the road looking for places to get sick either! How gross, huh? Good thing it was a rental car!

The view from the scenic pull out where Watson was sick on the way up the mountains.

5) Jubin did an AWESOME job driving in Spain. They drive on the same side of the street as in the US, but the signage is really different, there are traffic circles everywhere, and of course it was a stick shift (most cars in Europe are). We are both comfortable with manual transmission, but it has been 5 years since we've driven one, and of course we haven't driven a car at all since July. Our only issues really were with signage and having to go around and around traffic circles trying to figure out where we were headed. We also got a little off-course on our way back to the airport because of bad signs, but luckily we made it in time - again, thanks to Jubin!

6) We loved Cabopino Beach - super-soft sand, nice calm areas and areas with waves, just beautiful. Watson and Jamie were so funny there, though! Watson kept wanting to clean himself off of the sand (oh man, he really really hates that texture!) while Jamie kept wanting to eat sand (what is this stuff, Mum?). Ha! But, with all of the time out at the heated pool and the beach, Watson got VERY tan and even Jamie got a little farmer-tan from his beach suit. So cute!

There is a resort/hotel right on Cabopino Beach where we would love to stay someday for a couple of nights. There is a marina, shops and restaurants, everything you would need for a couple days of relaxing bliss (well, at least fun!).

 

You could throw bread bits into the water at the marina and tons of fish would come.
Watson enjoyed this activity!

7) We were in Spain for Halloween. There is trick-or-treating in Belfast, so Watson was a little disappointed to miss that. But, our resort had some Halloween activities scheduled. On Wed, we carved pumpkins. Then, on Thurs, they had costumes for kids and a whole series of events for the kids, culminating in trick-or-treating. Watson decided that he didn't want to do these activities since he didn't know any of the other kids...but, then was a little sad about it that night when we saw other kids doing so. Fortunately, when we got home to Belfast, Rosa and Elsa had saved him a bag of candy and that seemed to make him happy.

8) Jubin and I spent some time musing about the state of our vacations at this point in our lives. We spent a good 10 years traveling prior to having children, and think fondly of times spent relaxing at a cafe or pub with a cappuccino or glass of wine... Of course we love our kids and are so very thankful for them, but during this week in Spain we hardly had a moment of relaxation. And, we never even got to sleep in the same bed! It is certainly not the easiest thing ever to travel with 2 young children (how do people do it when the kids are only 2 years apart in age? how do they do it with more than 2 kids?). So, I decided that what we experience this year while living in the UK will be an education - For Jubin and I, we will learn all about the places that we want to return to when we retire, and for the kids, they will (hopefully) learn the value of other cultures, taking risks, and traveling. We'll see!