Hey family! I don't have a lot of time, but I'll give you a quick update on what's happened in the last week or so....

Wednesday the main distraction from normal routine was the Major Fair. I went there after I was done with classes and explored all the majors BYU has to offer. Unfortunately, it left me even more confused about my future than I was before. I'll tell you about some of the majors though.... One interesting field that I learned about was information systems, which is pretty much a combination of business and technology - you update business to the technological level required to run in the 21st century. I also looked at a bunch of biology majors, but I'll reserve my judgment on those until I've taken a biology class or two. I think I'm going to try to get an Editing minor, because that would provide a lot of opportunities... I also looked at some of the engineering majors, and that was exciting because Vance was at the mechanical engineering table! I asked him to tell me about mechanical engineering and he said that if something is awesome, mechanical engineers are there. So, it sounds pretty cool, but again, I don't really know enough about the field itself to make judgment yet.

My political science test was supposed to end at 10 pm on Friday, but when I looked online at the testing center on Thursday night, it said that the test ended at noon on Friday instead. So I freaked out and studied like crazy until the early hours of the morning. I got up at seven so that I could be at the testing center at 8, so I could be at class by 11. I'd sent my professor an email asking what the deal was with testing hours the previous night. Just after I finished getting dressed and was about ready to head out the door, an email popped up from a TA in the class, saying that the test really didn't end until 10. I was super-frustrated, but I went back to bed (in my clothes) and slept for a few more hours, which was nice. However, my alarm didn't go off until 10:45, so I was late. Luckily, it was an optional class that day... Oh, and in math we found out that my teacher got engaged! It was exciting, because she's pretty much amazing.

Friday evening I went to take my political science test. I felt like I did pretty well, although there were a few questions that I didn't know. I did get all the map questions right though :) Before and after the test, I was talking to mom and dad, and I'm very jealous that you guys got to go to an October party. Lucky!

Anyway... Saturday was crazy. I got up and went to BYU's lost and found sale, where I found all sorts of treasures. I got a CTR ring for $2 and a watch for $3. However, the most impressive bargain was on the TI-84 plus I bought - FOR THIRTY DOLLARS. I figured that if my calculator broke again, I would be set without having to pay $80 on ebay, and if my calculator holds together, I can sell the calculator to mom and dad for Marta next year! Perfect. That was exciting. Then I went back to my apartment and made homemade applesauce and oatmeal for breakfast (Oh, by the way, oatmeal is amazing if you put a few chocolate chips in right after you put it in the bowl, and stir it around until they're melted...). It's a lot easier to make applesauce then I thought it was, and that's really nice. It does take a long time though. So, that afternoon I studied a bit and then spent a couple of hours looking through the course catalog. I decided to write down the classes I'm interested in taking next semester so I could make a final choice. My list was two pages long. It'll take some whittling... I also looked at majors and minors. I can't decide on a major, but there's all kinds of minors I'd like to do. Maybe I'll just get five minors and my major can be Bachelor's in Jack-of-all-trades.

Saturday night my roommates Ashley, Amy, Kirsi, and I (Madi was at her brother's mission homecoming and Shyler was at her boyfriend's farewell for the weekend) went to Humor U, which is a stand-up comedy group at BYU that does clean, super-funny humor. We had a ton of fun. There were lots of comments about Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, and there were also some great jokes about BYU life - one girl said that she was composing a new type of romantic ballad. One of her proposed titles was "Break my heart and I'll break your face." That's the only one I can remember at the moment, but some of the other ones were even funnier. After the show, we walked back home and decided we wanted to go have some fun. We took a camera and went out to be crazy. First we took pictures with the Brigham Young statue. That was pretty tame, but Ashley had a hard time climbing up on the tall pedestal, which was very funny. Then came the really great part. There's this big square in between the Joseph F. Smith Building and the library, in which there are several little grassy areas with trees dividing the sidewalk. It's a major intersection. We got a newspaper recycling bin from the Joseph F. Smith Building, put Ashley inside, and placed the recycle bin next to the intersection. Amy, Kirsi, and I sat on a bench about 50 yards away from her. When people passed, we would call Ashley on her cell phone, and she would jump up from the recycle bin and scream. We got some fantastic reactions. There was jumping and screaming from everyone, but one guy was the best: he jumped, screamed like a little girl, and blew a whistle. We could barely breathe from laughing so hard and Kirsi actually fell off the bench... We walked around campus taking some more crazy pictures, and then we headed back to our apartment. It was freezing by this point, so we made hot chocolate and put chocolate chips in it. Yum....

On Sunday, we got up and went to church, then came home, ate our assorted dinners, and went to Hall Meeting. While there, I talked with Heidi about doing a Halloween party on the thirtieth (we have a stake party on Halloween). That was pretty much all that was exciting on Sunday, although we had a really good lesson in Relief Society.

Monday I went to weights training an hour early to make up for missing it on my birthday. By the end of two hours, my muscles could barely move. Oh well... I studied for my calculus exam all day, and then went at 8 to actually take the test. Strangely enough the free response questions were easier than the multiple choice - that's never happened to me before. I missed FHE unfortunately, but all they did was take family pictures, which reportedly took only 15 minutes, so not too important.

Tuesday was an exciting and long day. I went to the library in the morning, and then went to devotional, which was the opening for homecoming week. We learned all about Eugene Roberts, to whom homecoming is dedicated. He was amazing. He jump-started the slowly-dying BYU Athletics program, started the whole tradition of ballroom dancing here, began the program which would become Institute, and made Boy Scouts a part of Young Men's. Wow. I saw the BYU marching band for the first time, and it was intense. After the devotional I went to calculus, and we got out early so I got to go get free homecoming lunch in the quad! It was super-exciting. Free food has become such an amazing part of life now. After lunch, I went back to the library and looked up a ton of books for my politics paper, for which the outline is due next week. Then I went to see the TA for my philosophy class. It was my first time going in to see a TA during office hours. We talked about Sophocles and Socrates, and I was really intimidated that this is the guy who grades our tests. I will be studying extensively for my philosophy test this weekend. Anyways, after philosophy was over at 5:15, I went back to the library and then headed over to the law library to look up some books there. I got home at around nine, and I felt so intense for studying so long...

Yesterday I went to all my classes and then came home. The only thing of note that happened during that part of the day is that I forgot my laptop at home, and didn't have any paper, so I was a paper mooch all day. When I got home I did some math homework and ate dinner, and then went grocery shopping. I really enjoy price-comparing. It's super-fun. For example, I got an 11-pound pumpkin for about a dollar, and I found Jonathan apples for 25 cents a pound. Exciting. When I got home I made some easy microwave fudge (again, way easier than I'd thought it would be) because Shyler's boyfriend went to the MTC today and I wanted to make her day a little better. Then I texted Heidi to come over so we could go feed the ducks stale bread and eat fudge. We talked for a long time about school, majors, roommates, etc. Super-fun. I went home, attempted to do some more homework, got stuck, installed Skype so I could video-chat with Amy across the room, and finally went to bed.

This morning I got up, got ready, and went to the library. I did my math homework, headed to class, and came back to the library. Now I need to study some more and eat lunch, so I will talk to you later!

Love you all!!!

Eliza