Random amazingness

Hey, all! College life is going great, but it’s SOO busy. On Wednesday, I had my final - I felt like those went pretty well. Studying late the night before helped… ;) Wednesday afternoon I drove up to Aunt Geniel’s to get the rest of my stuff, and then that evening I went to Freshman Academy Orientation and then the New Student Orientation BBQ. The number of people there was overwhelming, so we’ll see how it goes when school actually starts. But an AMAZING coincidence happened. I had my nametag on from freshman academy orientation, and a girl behind me in line noticed, and her name is Eliza too!!! We were both so excited. Anyway… All of my roommates moved in Wednesday except for Shyler, who was sick, and went back to the hotel with her mom (so we wouldn’t get sick) after dropping off her stuff.

So, my roommates are Madi, Ashley, Kirsi, Amy, and of course Shyler. Madi and Ashley share a room, and Kirsi and Amy share a room. They all, except for Amy and Shyler, seem a little bit spoiled, but still pretty nice. Wednesday evening, we pretty much set up our kitchen. I don’t know whether it was a game of one-upping or just a need to be prepared, but everyone brought way more than they said they were going to. Whatever.

Anyway, this morning (I’m writing this Thursday night, but posting it Friday morning because the Ethernet cable is behind Shyler’s bed) my alarm clock failed to go off, or else I turned it off while I was still sleeping, so I didn’t wake up until 30 minutes before orientation check-in was over. Thankfully, Amy realized that I hadn’t left yet, and woke me up to make sure I wasn’t going to go. Phew. Amy, Kirsi, and I went down to orientation, then went to our Convocation, where President Samuelson promptly put me into a light doze with his talking. (I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep with everything that’s going on…) After that, we ate lunch with our orientation groups, then went on a long, boring, pointless tour of campus in 100-degree weather. Awesome. Then, I went to two classes -- picking a major and prestigious scholarships (on how to qualify for amazing scholarship like Fulbright and Rhodes). After that I went to “Financial survivor,” which was also fairly pointless.

At 6, I went to the Honors Program Banquet, where we had delicious food and amazing lemonade. After that, some guy with a doctorate in music whose last name was Hinckley played the clarinet for us (wow) and analyzed music with us. It was pretty cool. Then, on my way out of that, I ran into my friend Robert, whom I told you about, who invited me to come to a water park on Saturday. More details on that to follow in subsequent posts, but it’ll be fun. Then, Heidi and I went to the “tradition of honor” program in the Marriott center. It was basically a bunch of skits and songs and speeches on why and how we should follow the honor code. So legit, as we say at BYU. Oh, and Jericho road was there, which was awesome. The whole thing was the most amazingly Mormon evening I’ve ever been a part of. Funny like you wouldn’t believe. So then I came back to my dorm, but the night wasn’t over yet!

I was getting some stuff organized when Heidi and her roommates came over and asked if I wanted to go play volleyball. So I did. All of my roommates were out partying, so I was alone in the dorm. I played volleyball with only boys, who happened to be from our ward, and a few girls (the ones I came with just wanted to watch, though) When that ended, we went looking for more adventure, and found it in playing an epic variation on hide-and-go-seek called commando, with a group from another couple of halls. Finally, we headed home where I’ve been getting to know Shyler, who is here tonight, and getting ready for bed, as well as starting my laundry. Love you!

Eliza