Late-night rambling

Hi, guys. I'm working on an essay that's due at midnight, so I decided to write to you guys! Today has been excruciatingly busy and crazy, and tomorrow will probably be worse. Another interesting thing is that tomorrow, the high is supposed to be 48. I'm going to die. I may have to get my birthday jacket out a week early. Is that all right with you guys?? Well, other than that, everything's hunky-dory. Today for dinner I made fritters from the recipe Sister Haines gave me - how is she, by the way? I had peaches and strawberries in milk for a wonderful breakfast, and a cucumber sandwich for lunch -my favorite. I just wanted to tell you about my menu because today it was really good - probably the best thing about my day. :) I really want to hear more from you. I don't even know what happened with the Tokay games Monday!!! Tell Natalie and Skyler Towle that they need to keep their promise and alert me on facebook about how every single game went. Well, after that random stream-of-consciousness rambling, I'm going to finish my essay. (Hopefully that won't be rambling too, but we'll see...) I love you guys! Good night!

Eliza

Grrr....

I'm going to just email mom from now on if the rest of you don't even want to talk to me or hear about what's going on.

Hey, guys. I'm really sorry it's been so long. It's just been crazy - I had tests, essays, assignments, and reading all week, and then on Friday and Saturday I didn't really have interenet access. But I'm writing now! I hope you guys like the pictures. I'll post some new ones when I get all of my stuff organized - I literally spend less than 30 minutes a day inside my room when I'm not sleeping, so I haven't gotten a book-shelving system set up on my newly-freed shelf yet.

I'll start with Monday. We had strength testing in weight training, and I was actually surprised at how well I did! The weight that we had to lift was determined using a percentage of our bodyweight, and our grade was determined by the number of repetitions we did. I got 100% on everything except the benchpress, on which I did seven reps of 75 pounds. It was crazy.... On Monday I also went to Book of Mormon, Calculus, English, and Politics. Then I went to the library and studied like crazy, and went home to go to FHE. For our activity, we were celebrating the birthday of one of the girls in my group, so we made cake, and then we took "family pictures" (Send me a recent picture in the mail, please... 4x6 would be perfect...) with hats we made out of newspapers. Finally we had an activity where we got names put on tags on our foreheads and, using only yes-or-no questions, we had to find out who we were. I was Miley Cyrus. Sigh. I went home and studied for a while, and then I went for a walk with Heidi, and we talked about rooming next year. We've decided that over the next few months we're going to put together a list of girls who we'd like to room with, and then decide on the ideal bunch. It'll be fun, but I'm a little bit nervous - before this year, I didn't understand how crucial it can be to have really good roommates, so it's a little bit nerve-wracking.

Tuesday, I went to my classes (Calculus and History of Philosophy) and studied. Again. I didn't get up really early, but I'll have you know that in spite of your expectations, I'm the first one up many, if not most of the days. Not that 6:30 or 7 is early, but when I don't have classes until noon and I get up at seven, I'm pretty proud of myself. Tuesday was kind of boring, but I had fun migrating around the library.

Wenesday was a very full day. In weight training, we had fitness testing. I did 50 pushups, 60 sit-ups, 25 dips, 11 pull-ups (girl pull-ups - ask dad about them, because I told him) and some other exercise that I don't remember... Then I studied some more, went to class, and came home. When I got to my apartment I did my laundry, cleaned my room, and price-compared the various ads that had been in the Daily Universe. Then at 5:30 Heidi and I went to Buy Low Market and got a bunch of things for really cheap, especially since they were on sale. I got granny smiths for 25 cents a pound!!! (P.S. Mom, could you put your recipe for apple sauce in the comments. Also, the recipes for kugen and those amazing chive mashed potatoes?? Thanks.) After that, I got set apart as RS Compassionate Service committee member. I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do for my calling, though. Oh well. Then I went swimming with Shyler, because she had to do 30 minutes of cardio and she didn't want to go to the pool on her own. She can't swim, though, so I started teaching her how to do freestyle, and only got about 1000 yards done of my own swimming. Then I came home, studied until my eyelids were granite blocks, and went to bed.

Thursday I studied (what a surprise!) and went to class. I also went grocery shopping at Macey's and Smiths to take advantage of their advertised deals. That's pretty much all that happened that day.

Friday I took my first test. In the morning, I did some homework that I needed to get done. Then I went to classes, and after those I went to the library and studied for about two hours for my calculus test. I went and took the test - there were seventeen questions, and ten of those were multiple choice, but it still took over an hour-and-a-half. Finally I got out of there and went to check my scores downstairs in the testing center. It said my score (just for the multiple choice) was 89%. I was so confused. How do you get 89% when there are only ten questions?? Whatever. Then, I walked home, packed up my stuff, and drove to Aunt Geniel's. I didn't even get lost. It was amazing! The only problem was that the Bank of America on the way, which is one of three in Utah, was closed, and I have to end my account before I turn eighteen or they'll start charging me. Ugh. So, when I got to the Woodward's house, I ate dinner with Aidan (Aunt Geniel and Uncle Steven were on Aunt Geniel's birthday trip), which consisted of pasta, some amazing homemade spaghetti sauce, and then ritz crackers with cream cheese and pepper jelly. The pepper jelly was surprisingly good - it's pretty much jalapeno peppers and sugar, but the sugar tones down the spiciness.... Then we watched "The Knowing" which was a good movie but a little bit creepy. It was about the end of the world, seeing the future, and so on. Fun stuff.

In the morning, I realized I'd accidentally set the alarm for 6:40 instead of 5:40, so I was over an hour late to my volunteer thing. But fortunately they didn't really need me until 8:30, not 7 like I was assigned, so it worked out well. I just shuttled t-shirts between the t-shirt table and the registration tables, where people actually got them, so it was pretty boring, but it was for a good cause, so I just stuck it out. On the way back I encountered this huge interchange area of about 12 different highways/freeways, which was exciting. I ended up going into Salt Lake proper before I could turn around, but eventually I got headed in the right direction. I was actually rather impressed by my navigation skills though. I originally looked up directions on mapquest, then I wrote them down and used that to get there, even though two of my exits were closed for road work. Then on the way back, I found my way through the interchange and only went the wrong way one time! I was pretty proud of how my navigation skills have progressed. About two minutes after I got back to the Woodward's house, Aunt Geniel and Uncle Steven got home from their vacation. They invited me to stay for another night, and so I decided to stay! That afternoon, Aunt Geniel, Suzannah and I made peach jam from peaches in their yard. Then I went down to the basement while they went to Suzannah's soccer game, and caught up on some reading. That evening, we had tillapia with this stuffing type of stuff including crab on top of it - it was actually good! It's not one of those things that I'm going to be craving, but I like it nonetheless. Kemper and I also picked tomatoes and raspberries to go with dinner. Then Uncle Steven and I went to pick up a movie - "Robin Hood - Men in Tights". It was a pretty funny movie, but there were a few crude parts that weren't necessary, which was disappointing. I went to bed, and set the alarm for 8:30.

A call woke me up at 8, but I wasn't too mad, because it was Mom. We talked for a little while, and then I went back to sleep. At 8:20, Suz came to tell me breakfast was ready. It was fast Sunday, but I was low, so I ate breakfast. I complimented the strawberry syrup and the pancakes, and Aunt Geniel said that the pancake recipe was Dad's and the strawberry syrup was from Mom. It was funny. Then, Aunt Geniel, Suzannah and I went on a walk around the neighborhood. Finally, I needed to leave. Aunt Geniel had prepared a bunch of stuff for me - homegrown tomatoes and peaches (could you please also give me the recipe for frozen peaches, please, mom?), some peach jam, and some rosemary and chives that I cut. It was amazing. I drove back to Provo, and I got there at around 10:45. Everybody else in the apartment (Shyler, Amy, and Ashley) were still sleeping! It was crazy! I took a shower and then went to a hall council meeting, where we planned a party we're having on Wednesday - the theme is "A Very Merry Unbirthday". Then we had our general hall meeting - at 12, and Ashley was the only one up - and I went back to my apartment to finish getting dressed. I'm so impressed that my roommates can sleep that long. Wow. I finished getting ready for church, and off we went! At Sacrament meeting, there were only a few girls who bore their testimony, and the rest were guys, which is crazy in a ward with our guy to girl ratio. But we have some awesome guys in our ward, so I guess that's okay. Anyway... we'd gotten our Visiting Teaching assignments this morning, right before I went to hall council (Madi had been with the rest of the RS presidency handing those out, so that's why she wasn't there when I got there) and we talked about Visiting Teaching and having a 'house of order' in Relief Society. In Sunday School our second Sunday school teacher was finally there, and we had a good lesson about pioneers. After church, I came home, cooked some rice for our ward Break-the-Fast, and started writing this. Then I had to go to the break-the-fast, where we had Hawaiian Haystacks with only rice, chicken and gravy, black beans, and cheese. It was still good, but we didn't have enough rice, and it went a little bit crazy. Then Amy and I went over to the General Relief Society meeting rebroadcast from yesterday, where we met up with Shyler and Ashley in a strange coincidence. We watched that, and it was really good. I took four and a half pages of notes! After the broadcast, we came home and cleaned the dishes (Amy, Ashley, and I). At 8:30 my home-teachers came here. They are assigned to Madi and I, and their names are David and Adam. They're from our FHE group. Coincidentally, Shyler and Kirsi's home teachers, also from our FHE group, showed up about three minutes after ours, and they had to go out in the lobby. We just got to know each other a little bit better, and then they left. Shyler and I then went to visit the two girls we're assigned to Visit-Teach, and we just introduced ourselves for a minute before coming back here. Now I'm home, and I need to go to bed so I can get up and go to class and study in the morning! I love you lots!

Eliza

P.S. Mom, don't forget the recipes.... I want to get started on them before everything goes bad. Thank you thank you thank you! xoxo

Comment, darnit!

Hey guys! I decided that since you weren't (except for Marta and Mom, thanks!) commenting on my blog even when I asked you to, I would put in some pictures that might make you more likely to comment... So here they are!

This is a picture of the five of us who were there coming home from church last week (fast Sunday). On the far left is Shyler, then Ashley, Kirsi, Amy, and I . Madi was on a trip to Maryland (ready the blog for further info, people!).
This is a picture of us banging pots and pans outside after BYU beat Oklahoma. Everyone was really excited because Oklahoma was third in the nation, and our team got catapulted up in the rankings - we're now at #7! On the far left is Amy, then Ashley, Kirsi's friend Janessa, Kirsi, and me!

This is my bed... On the left of the picture you can see the shelf above my bed. I have several lovely family pictures, but as you can see, I have an empty 4x6 frame, so I need another one. My desk is piled high with books, because I don't have room for them anywhere else!

A slightly different angle of my bed, where you can see the classic star over my bed that mom made at girl's camp when I was little, the magnet board Tess made for me, and a lovely little note that Amy wrote me. I have another stack of books there, as well as my alarm clock and the flowers Mom got for my birthday :)

In THIS view, you can see the bins under my bed and my backpack. The bin on the right has my diabetes supplies and the one on the left has all sorts of stuff, like my walnuts and powdered milk, my first aid kit, and my purse.

This is my desk. I have the pencil cup that Mom made for me, my scriptures, and my desk lamp, which I got for $2 at a garage sale. The red plastic vase on the right (75 cents at DI) contains the sunflower Kelsey gave me, and is wrapped in the yellow paper and red ribbon that the flower came in. It normally holds the bundle of fake flowers that you can see below it now.

This is a picture I actually took before moving in, when I was here with Mom. It shows the side of my room opposite from the desk. The right-hand arrangement is mine, the left Shyler's.

This is the main compartment of my closet.

This is the section to the left. It has my belts, jewelry, washcloths, and beautiful hand-knitted scarves.

My closet door, accessorized by a very cute umbrella hanging from the handle.

My top left cupboard contains food items I don't have room for in the kitchen, such as cheerios, ramen, and stuffing. Yum...

Speaking of food, here's a view of our kitchen. My wonderful knife set is in the back left-hand corner, and Kirsi's profile is in the background.

This is the sink area. As I've been complaining about, the sink is always full of two people's (cough cough Ashley and Madi cough cough) dishes.... I'm not cleaning them this time, although it's getting difficult to wash any dishes because you literally can't get them in under the faucet.

This is our fridge, dishwasher, and cupboards. We have a couple of note-things on the fridge, which is nice. You can also see our cooler in this picture. :)

This is the remainder of my food supply. I didn't take any pictures of the inside of the fridge or freezer because everything might have fallen out if someone wasn't there to hold it in... In the lefthand cupboard, which i got because nobody else could reach it, I have all sorts of breakfast foods, pasta, and peanut butter. That jar of peanut butter is almost gone, because I love peanut butter. The right-hand cupboard has all of my fresh fruit as well as granola bars, grits, and brown sugar, among other things...

This is the main kitchen area. On the left is the fridge that Shyler's boyfriend brought her, which has majorly cleared up space in the normal fridge. Madi brought the rack in the middle, which we desperately needed. We have two waffle irons on the lower shelf. The tablecloth was my idea/purchase and it helps to add some color to our prison-resembling walls. The basket has our silverware, and also holds napkins when we have them.

Our ever-present (and always on, sigh) TV. It's almost as big as the one we have at home.

This is another picture from before the move-in, because I forgot to get a picture of the couch!! It is directly across from where the table is in this picture now.

Above our couch we have a clock and this board hanging on the wall.

This is Ashley in the middle of a dance party in the kitchen, in her pj bottoms.

As you can see, the dance party went a little bit crazy, and here Kirsi and Ashley pose for the camera.

Amy dancing with Kirsi looking on...

Here's Shyler, making a grumpy face for the camera while talking on the phone and chatting on the computer simultaneously (that takes skill).

So those are my pictures of college life so far. I hope you liked them! I will write later today and tell you what has been going on over the last few days, but now I've gotta go. Love you!

Eliza

More fun stuff in the homework department....

When you last heard from me it was Saturday - and in spite of my request, no one except for Mom has left any comments! I don't just want to talk about me, you know. I miss you guys! So tell me what's going on!

Anyway, Saturday after my hike to the Y, I dropped some cookies off at Kelsey's house, as a thank you for the flowers (which look lovely in my room, by the way). Then I walked over to the Wilkinson Center and got a "Starving Student card" which has all kinds of free/reduced stuff on it, and has a guarantee that if you save less by buying the card than you paid for it, they'll refund all of your money. I think it's a really good deal, though, so.... After that, Heidi, Sarah, and I went over to the Smith Field House to watch the football game. BYU KILLED Tulane. The ending score was 54-3. It was pretty fun, especially because whenever bad commercials would come up on the TV (We were watching the game on ESPN), the entire crowd would boo. It was funny. I love Mormons. Then I came home and "did some homework" aka goofed off and generally wasted time, which I now deeply regret. I did get a little bit of homework done, but not enough to really count it as productive time. At 10, I went to watch Monty Python in the International Cinema (which is free!). I went with Heidi, Preston (who I met at the Honors Opening Social on Wednesday and who is my roommate Amy's friend from Las Vegas) and some other people who I'd never met before. It was kind of weird, because Preston asked Heidi to come, and she wasn't sure whether it was a date or not, but I came alone and it was all right... Whatever. So he made raspberry chocolate-zucchini cupcakes. It made me so happy! I miss zucchini bread :( Anyway, the movie was a lot dumber than I remember it being, probably because the only other time I saw it I was 13 and it was 3 in the morning. But it was funny making fun of the movie. So I finally got to bed in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

At 10:55 that morning, I had an interview to get my calling. I'm now on the Relief Society Compassionate Service Committee. I have no idea what that means, so anybody who knows, please feel free to tell me in the comments. But it'll be great, I'm sure. Church was cool because so many people got callings, and we got to know the people around us a little bit better. After church I went to a Hall Council meeting. We're planning on having an opening social for the girls in our hall, and the theme will be "A Very Merry Unbirthday." It should be very fun. Then I came back to my apartment, and we had a "group" dinner. Shyler went out and got the stuff that Madi and Ashley needed to make the food, we all had to pay a ton of money for it, and then everyone sat in front of the TV and I had to request that we turn it off to say prayer. Ah well. I guess that's an improvement... It was delicious, though. After that, we watched Sister Elaine S. Dalton give a devotional. Amy and Kirsi went down to the Marriott Center to see it, but I stayed in the apartment and watched it on BYU TV because I was too cold. You know me. I wore sweats under my dress so I could stay warm and still be dressed for Ward Prayer at 8. So, after the devotional and ward prayer, which my FHE group was in charge of, and in which we had to introduce ourselves and tell what food we would eat for a month, (I would have chosen toast, but someone else took it, so I had to say popcorn), I came home and changed into my sweats for real. Then Heidi and I went over and fed stale bread to the ducks on the little creek right next to Heritage Halls. When I got back, Amy, Kirsi, and I went to tunnel singing (I wanted to go to sleep, but I felt guilty for being out all day...). Basically tunnel singing is where you go stand in a tunnel by the Marriott Center, with great acoustics, and sing hymns for an hour. It was really cool, and we got some guys in our group too. Afterwards, someone expressed a desire for hot chocolate, and so we invited everyone over to our apartment to join in making a dent on our monstrous hot chocolate stash. We went up on the top floor's balcony and drank hot chocolate, and talked until midnight. It was fun, but we were SOO tired.

This morning, I got up and went to Weight Training, where I decided that I'm really not in good shape, and I'm not cut out for pushups or pullups. Oh well. It was fun, though. Then I went running for a few minutes -I only did a mile, but that's better than nothing, right? I went home and attempted to do some homework, then had to rush to class. I had BOM, Calculus, English, and Politics today, all in a row. After class, I went to the library to work on some math homework and nearly killed myself trying to figure it out. Finally I emailed my professor and with her help I got it done in about five minutes. Oh well. I stayed in there until about 8:15, when I finally braved the cold and rain (it was 55 degrees! I nearly froze!) and went to the apartment. I ate, and then did some more homework. So here I am.

Now, on to people analyses. These are the interesting parts of the blog. I'll start off with Heidi, because I haven't really told you very much about her. We were in the same class in Late Summer Honors, and we both live in Gates Hall, which is how we became friends. She's from Collegeville, Texas, and she is extremely nice, smart, and funny. You would like her, all of you. We pretty much hang out all the time, and we've decided that if one of us is having a bad day, then we can go to one of the apartments and make brownies. She's the one, along with her roommate Sarah, who I don't know as well but who is part of the group most of the time, who went driving around campus honking the horn and banging pots and pans with me when BYU beat Oklahoma. Since we've both been ultimately unsuccessful in finding jobs, we have decided to look for scholarships together for several hours a week in hope of getting some extra money. Now, on to the roommates. (Dun-dun-dun.....) Shyler was very traumatized when Tyler left last night, and is still trying to get over it. From what I can see, she's very funny, but pretty stubborn. Her side of the room may even be messier than mine... Our sleeping habits are kind of off, though - she can't get to sleep with a light on, and she wakes up to the littlest alarm, and can't go back to sleep. This is of course the opposite of the way I sleep. And I get up earlier than everyone else most days (surprise, surprise!) so that's been a little bit of a problem, but we're working on it. She likes to stay in our room and watch NCIS while doing homework. She hangs out mostly with Madi and Ashley. Madi is the one I've told you about who brought all of the stuff to our apartment. She is a little bit conceited but again, very funny and quite nice when she wants to be. The boy who she liked, and who was a lame layabout, (he always hung out at our apartment, ate Madi's food, and watched TV for hours on end) has now told her that he kind of has a girlfriend, but she was pretty much over him anyways because he was such a lazy mooch. Anyway... her roommate is Ashley, who's sweet, motherly, and doesn't like Ryan (the guy who Madi liked) at all, kind of like me :) She likes to cook, and she spends a lot of time video-chatting with her mom. Of all my roommates I hang out the most with Amy. She's very considerate and nice, and we share similar viewpoints on a lot of issues (such as TV on Sundays). She is from Las Vegas, and doesn't like how the water tastes here. I found out tonight that she only has tomato soup when she's not feeling well. Her roommate, Kirsi, is also very nice, but she's a dancer, so she's often away at rehearsal. Kirsi has an infectious laugh and likes to have fun. She knows more people on campus than anybody else I know, probably in part because most of her graduating class came to BYU. Anyway, that's my people analysis for today. The rooming situation has been a challenge, and something new to get used to, but we're doing pretty well, all things considered. The fact that Shyler's boyfriend brought a minifridge out for her, and she puts all of her stuff in there now, has even helped that a little!

So, let me know what's going on at home! And if you really want to, you can totally ship me dinner overnight every night. I'd be okay with that. I love you!

Eliza

Hey, guys! Sorry it's been so long - things have been SO hectic. The last time I wrote was on Tuesday evening, so I'll start with Wednesday... Wednesday I had Weights training, which continues to be fun but challenging. Book of Mormon was also pretty cool. Our professor has organized a hike up to the Y on the mountain for all of us in the class, which includes two freshman academies and a few other people. Anyway, I went through Calculus, English, and Intro to International Politics. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened except that professor Gates asked if I'd told Bishop Richardson that his cousin was my English teacher. So let him know for me... So, Wednesday evening I went to this Honors Opening Social thing and had a great time eating free pizza and chatting with some friends. It was fun. And then Heidi and I brought home some of their extra chips and salsa - we stash up!

Thursday I got up, finished my resume, then went to class. I only have two classes - calculus at noon and Philosophy at 4, and in between I ate lunch and dropped off my resume with a potential employer. It was fun because both of my classes were taught by TAs on that day. So, after Philosophy, I went, with my friend Michelle, to this thing that my math teacher (Dr. Chamberlain) had told our class about. It was basically an assembly telling us why we should consider making math our major or minor. I didn't know that I had to sit through a lecture to get to the free pizza at the end, but I actually enjoyed it. Some of the career opportunities looked really cool. (As soon as I got home and did some math homework, though, I remembered how much I really don't like math, so that path's out...) After that, Michelle and I went to this New Student Experiences party in the Museum of Art that was themed upon the Victorian-era paintings they've got in there right now. Pretty cool - there was dancing and music done by BYU departments, plus fencing, painting, and sculpting. And they had hot cross buns and hot apple cider. You can imagine what I had for breakfast yesterday morning...... When I got home I found a sunflower on my bed (like florist-style) from our cousin Kelsey, and a really sweet note. I couldn't, and haven't yet been able to, get a hold of her on the phone, but this morning I'm dropping some cookies by her house. I also discovered that my roommate Shyler's boyfriend, Tyler, had surprised her by driving out from California. He brought a mini-fridge for her, so that gives us a little bit more space in the regular fridge. This is her last time seeing him before his missionary farewell in October, so she was pretty excited. After I got home, Amy invited me to come with she and her sister to the Provo temple to do baptisms. It was really cool, even though we were in line for two hours. Anyway, on to Friday...

Friday morning I got up early and went over to the Central Building to pick up my copy of the New York Times, which I have to read for my Intro to International Politics class. I got some homework done, and then went to class. In my politics class, we mostly discussed the paper we'll be writing this semester. We got divided into groups for when we have to turn our paper in, and I'm in the last group! So exciting. I also had fun talking to the guy I was sitting next to, whose name is Kenny and who is the oldest of ten. It was great. Anyway... After that I did some homework, and then I went home. I went shopping and picked up some produce/milk/eggs sort of stuff, and I got some really good canned stuff. Then I went to Humor U with Robert - they are AMAZING!! It was so funny. One of them did a rap about Harry Potter - here's the youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tHCdoJQtZc You can't understand all of the words because of the laughter, but you can still get the gist of it, and it's really funny. During the show, they asked for three freshmen to come to the front, and the people who got up there fastest were going to be the three. Robert and I were two of the three because we were sitting in the second row on the aisle. They said the game was called "Whoever touches his nose first wins" and so, of course, we touch our noses really quickly. Then they told us that the game didn't actually have anything to do with touching our noses, which was pretty funny. So they got out three white boxes and said that each one had a prize inside. We got to choose which box we wanted. The first guy's box had a glass of water, complete with lemon and ice, sealed in using ceran wrap and a rubber band. The M.C. blithely commented that they wanted to give practical gifts. Then he pulled a J-Dawg's (apparently a really good hotdog place) certificate out of his pocket and gave it to him. Robert got a Humor U t-shirt, which was pretty cool. Then it was my turn. In my box were three Humor U magnets, and he gave me a J-Dawg's certificate too. It was cool - kind of like being paid to go to a comedy show! So, after that, I went to Fallfest, which is this crazy, school-wide party held in the Wilkinson center. It wasn't really that fun - there was this guy there who is a magician and who went to BYU, but he wasn't that entertaining. Oh well. So I came home and baked some cookies to take over to Kelsey, to say thank you for the flowers. My roommates devoured the leftovers - I ate some too, but two dozen cookies gone in the blink of an eye! It was crazy. So, at a suitably late hour, I finally went to sleep.

This morning, I got up and went on a hike to the Y on the mountain with my Honors Book of Mormon class. I got to know a few people better, and it was really fun, although way steep. Then we got back to school, and I walked to my dorm, and here I am!

So, you guys need to leave more comments. This can't be just a one-sided conversation! That being said, now that I've found my phone, I can talk to you a lot more. So call me, and I'll call you. I love you!

Eliza

Homework.

I'm not having any luck slogging my way through my philosophy/english homework, so I decided to write to all of you! Well, I'll start on Monday morning. I got up at 7 to do homework, and I worked pretty much all day on math homework... I went to the gym with Ashley and Shyler though, so it worked out okay. That evening, after a salad for dinner (from our two gallon-sized bags of leftover salad) we went to FHE. We played a couple of really fun games and each had to share a joke while we introduced ourselves, again. It wasn't really like a REAL FHE, but it was a good activity.

Today, I got up, ate breakfast, got ready, did a little bit of homework, and then went to devotional in the Marriott Center. I was about 15 minutes early, so I got a seat on the floor, four rows away from the podium. It was pretty awesome. I saw Dr. Gong (My LSH teacher) who is the Assistant to President Samuelson, who spoke along with his wife. Their talks were good, but pretty standard, and a faculty member from the Department of Music sang a hymn, but it kind of sounded like she had a bunch of cottonballs down her throat. I guess that's opera for you :) Anyway... it was still pretty cool. I hustled on over to Calculus, and then I had three hours to study before Philosophy. During that time I studied in the library, then went to Student Employment Services. I've been looking online for jobs, and there's one that goes 8-12 Tuesday and Thursday mornings, which would be perfect for me. So I took the Basic Office Skills test, the spelling test, and the proofreading test. Not to brag, but I did pretty well. I got 100% on the spelling, got 100% accuracy on the typing as well as the alpha and numeric filing, and got 68 wpm on the typing. I wasn't that impressed with my performance on the Proofreading test, but the lady who gave me my results said that I had one of the highest scores she'd ever seen. Yay. Okay, end of the bragfest. Then I went to Philosophy, and came out feeling like I had a bruised brain. I came home, then did some homework, ate pasta, and did some laundry. Now I'm up attempting to write an essay that's due tomorrow. Awesome.

So, a rundown on life in the apartment: we've decided that we're sharing salad dressing, which is really the first concession we've had... I'm pretty much done with buying stuff, because I'm getting everything the apartment needs, because I'm responsible like that. Whatever. My roommates are rapidly discovering how absentminded I am - in things like losing my phone, returning to my room about five times for stuff before I actually get out the door, and accidentally leaving stuff on the kitchen table. I'm still doing pretty well, though. I often end up doing all of the dishes in the sink, which is annoying but oh well. I discovered that while I was gone on Saturday shopping and Kirsi and Amy cleaned the kitchen floor, which was their job, they went out and bought ANOTHER bottle of spray-on bathroom cleaner, used one of the dish sponges I'd bought, and "cleaned" the floor. Yeah. Anyway, people are different... Madi's been gone since Friday morning, off on a jaunt to Maryland, where she doesn't even live, because her dad had some frequent-flyer miles that they needed to use. It's been kind of a relief, because Ashley's a lot more open when she's not all tied up with Madi. Kirsi, Amy, and Shyler have also spent time with family. Kirsi was gone Sunday evening through Monday night at her house (she lives about 40 minutes away). Amy went out Saturday and Monday with her sister, and Shlyer had her brother over a couple of times, to help her with math homework and play the guitar. I was a little bit lonely, but I have homework for my family now! Oh joy!

I'll also tell you guys more about my professors. My calculus professor, Erin Chamberlain, only comes on MWF, and her TA Chelsea teaches/quizzes/reviews on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is a little bit weird, especially as it's not a typical college class, having only 40 students. Whatev. My Reasoning and Writing Professor, Darin Gates, who's Bishop Richardson's cousin, is funny, and has referred to Harry Potter to explain concepts at least five times. Dr. Siebach, my Philosophy professor, refers to Lord of the Rings. He's a bit grumpy, though, and doesn't like it when you aren't right... (Oh, I should note. My Freshman Academy, which consists of three classes, is called Philosophy through Writing. So my English class is actually Philosophy 150, Honors Reasoning and Writing. My "Philosophy" class is actually Civilization 201. It's a little weird) Moving on to other professors. Dr. Whitchurch for BOM seems pretty cool, but I've only had two classes with him, so I'll analyze him later. Same for my weights training instructor, whatever his name is. My Intro to International Politics professor teaches my only class that has many students - 180. Her name is Valerie Hudson, and she's a little eccentric, but very sharp, and she knows her stuff. I just wish my New York Times subscription would come to the right place. Anyway, that's my analysis on the professors so far.

What's happening in Soulsbyville? I heard about the slingshot incident, and I'm glad Levi didn't get thonked on the head. But how's everyday life? I am still very jealous of all the homemade food. I'm going to visit Kerry Waites sometime in the next week or two, and when she asked me what I wanted her to cook, I told her that anything with more than three or four ingredients would be great. By the way, mom, I would still like you to send me baklava for my birthday. As I told you, USPS has a great deal on flat rate boxes... Love you!

Eliza

Well, I do miss you, so I'll follow Mom's advice and write to you.... On Thursday, I got up, did some homework, went to class, and then came home, went to the doctor's office, where my blood pressure was textbook perfect (80-120), cooked, did some more homework, stayed up late playing with my roommates, then went to bed. It was kind of a lame day, but I ate an amazing salad with my Asian Sesame Seed dressing :).

Friday, I had a low blood sugar during the night, and finally woke up, late, with a pounding headache. I went to Calculus, then English, then Intro to International Politics. Oh, and I called the doctor's office, and my Hemoglobin A1C was 6.4. Epic! Then I came home and watched "She's the Man" with my roommates. Fun stuff. Then I went to the bookstore to return some books I got for cheaper online, and talked to Grandma and Grandpa on my way over there. It's kind of nice to have a long walk to get anywhere, because it provides the perfect opportunity to talk on the phone. When I got back, I ate some of Shyler's mac'n'cheese then went with Heidi to the Heritage Halls tailgate party. It was pretty tame, so after about an hour we split with plates full of free food back to our apartments. Then, Heidi, Sarah, and their other friend, whose name I can't remember, came over and we watched Ironman, which is a very fun movie, and ate popcorn. (Sorry for the abuse of commas in that sentence...) An epic search for my lifeguarding certification ensued, involving mom and me, but I couldn't find it, so I couldn't even apply to be a lifeguard. Because of that loss, I decided to stay up later and watch High School Musical III with my roommates. Maybe someday I'll even watch the first two! By the time I got to bed I was bushed.

Saturday I woke up, got some stuff done around the house, and then went to Walmart to buy some salad stuff for our ward Break the Fast and some cleaning supplies. We cleaned our apartment, and then hung around watching Sound of Music. We don't get ESPN and we didn't go over to the Wilk, but we knew that BYU had won the game by the sound of screaming people running down the street at around 8:30. So, to join in the celebrations, we followed Kirsi's idea and ran down the street banging pots and pans. We started a trend, and it was amazing. Then we headed over to see what the Helaman Halls party was like. On the way, Kirsi realized she was wearing a pink shirt and turned around to change. Just as we were about to get back to Gates Hall, we ran into Heidi and Sarah. So I split off and went with them. We decided to get some instruments of noisemaking (muffin pans and a ladle being my choices) and drive around in Heidi's car yelling our heads off and making tons of noise. We did that for a while, then decided to go to the International Cinema's showing of "Howl's Moving Castle". It was in Japanese with English captions, and it was very fun. You guys should get it on Netflix. I got back to my apartment, got ready for bed, and settled in to read my scriptures for the night. It took me about 1/2 an hour to get through Moroni 7 because Shyler was watching NCIS on her laptop and I was trying to actually comprehend what I was reading.... Anyways....

This morning, I woke up with a blood sugar of 38, and it scared my roommates because I wouldn't wake up. Aaaahhh! I'm working on keeping my blood sugar under control... Anyway, after that I got dressed, went to church, had a great testimony meeting (guys passing the sacrament are amazingly attractive, btw) and had a wonderful Relief Society lesson on visiting teaching, which I'm very excited about. We had a Sunday school lesson on .... you guessed it, marriage! Yeah, welcome to BYU. After that, we came back to the apartment, put together our salad for ward break the fast, and then went over there. I was very impressed by some of the cookies/desserts, but none of the lasagna people thought outside of the tinfoil, store-bought box. Ah well. After that, I went to our Gates Hall community council meeting, and I'm on two committees - birthday and decoration. It should be quite fun. Then I came back, did all the dishes, and came in here to write to you! Yay. I have been missing you guys, but don't worry Marta, I have plenty of fresh fruit. Right now, in my cupboard, I have two nectarines, four apples, and a cantaloupe, and I just ate a pear. I am sad, though, that you have to finish all that fruit without me. The U.S. postal service is having a special on flat-rate boxes, if you want to send me some.... I'm continuing in my jealousy for all the delicious home-made food you have, but I'm eating pretty well. F0r the next few days, we're all going to be eating salad, as we have two gallon-sized bags full of leftover from the stuff we had to make for our break-the-fast. But Amy and I have some plans. Do you guys have any idea on what kind of stuff we should put on our salads?? I love you lots!

Eliza

Amazing first days of class

Hello, all. Sorry it's been so long... homework has taken its toll. I'll start on Sunday - we had "talks" by each of the members of our bishopric, then a relief society lesson by our "relief society specialist," who is the first counselor's wife, and then sunday school by our bishop. It was pretty cool, but the guy-girl ratio was way off. That night we cooked, napped, and went to ward prayer at 7.

Monday, school started. I was ten minutes late to my first class (weight training) because I got lost, and then five minutes late to chemistry because again, I got lost. No problems since then, though. I've already told you all about weight training, and I dropped chemistry, so here's an analysis of the other classes that I went to on Monday. My Book of Mormon teacher is Dr. Whitchurch, who is a white-haired, cheery older man who really likes to examine the historical context of the Book of Mormon, which is awesome. My calculus teacher is Erin Chamberlain, who's probably under 30, and does a very good job of shortening what the book says to make our notes clearer and more concise. My English teacher, Dr. Darin Gates, is, I found out yesterday, Bishop Richardson's cousin!!! Crazy. But anyway, he's really cool, and a very good teacher. So those were my Monday classes. When I was done with school Monday, I went to my apartment, then went to the Post office (which I found only by the American flag out front) to send some test strips to Julie. Then I went grocery shopping and got all kinds of good stuff like stuffing and fresh fruit and waffle mix. When I got home, I went to ward Home Evening, where we got assigned into family home evening groups. For the first time in my life, when we played ten fingers, I didn't win! I love Mormons. Anyway, after that I went to the library and studied until eleven. ugh. I wasn't even close to done, but whatever.

On Tuesday, I repeated Chemistry and Calculus, but I also had another class, that I didn't have on MW. That was philosophy! My teacher Professor Siebach is an older guy who's very funny and also a bit grouchy, but not in a bad way. One quote from his syllabus (which he called "my big fat greek syllabus" because we'll be studying lots of greek philosophers) says "Please do not cheat in this course. If you must sin, make certain that the pay-off is much greater than a grade in this class. Trade your soul at least for something grand, like the Bahamas, or a billion billion dollars". Pretty funny. Anyway, after class on Tuesday I studied, then came home and ate a baked potato with white sauce and steamed veggies, then studied some more, then went to bed!

Oh, I forgot - on Wednesday I decided to drop chemistry, which I did, and researched other options. Wednesday(yesterday) I got up early (sorry Shyler... she can't go back to sleep after the alarm goes off) and went to weight training. It was really cool. We are basically given objectives and then have to meet them on our own by the end of the semester. I worked hard, and I'm actually really surprised I'm not sore this morning. So after weight training I ran a mile and a half, then got cleaned up, went to the library to study, and went to class. I had book of mormon, in which we talked about Jerusalem 600 b.c., and then calculus, then English, and then International relations, which was really interesting. My professor's name is Valerie Hudson. The class has 180 people, which stinks, but I really liked the material. It was fun. Then, I came home, studied, cooked some food, looked up service opportunities, etc. At 8:15, I had a bishopric interview, because our bishopric wants to get to know us before giving out callings (but we'll get them in the next ten days). Then I went to my apartment and remembered I needed to pick up my workout stuff (which I'd left at the gym). So I walked down and then back, talking to you guys the entire way, which was great. However, it kind of freaked Amy and Shyler out, and I'm not allowed to walk across campus at night alone anymore. Their concern was sweet - they said next time I have to drive my car or walk with somebody else. Anyways, calculus starts in an hour, so I'd better go get ready... Love you lots,

Eliza

P.S. Class at college is brain-expanding. It's so cool...