Roommates and dates

Hello, all! This week has been tough but good. Quick rundown, coming right up!

On Monday my FHE was planned by one of the other apartments in our FHE group. They sent out fliers telling us to come in black/army gear. All of the girls just showed up in black pants and dark sweatshirts, but the guys went all out. One of them wore camo borrowed from a guy who's actually in the military, two wore camo shirts, and all of them had black and green facepaint and fake facial hair. So we got there and got facepaint (although the girls only got eyeliner lines on our cheeks, lame!) before having a spiritual thought, on the Armies of Helaman of course. Then we got plastic tubes and marshmallows and marched up to Deseret Tower Fields. Yes, we had a marshmallow war. It was awesome. My Canadian friend Jasmine and I teamed up, and we said we were Victor and Wolverine because we were shooting back-to-back and we're Canadian. It was pretty great. Obviously we won.

On Tuesday I made zucchini bread and orange melt-in-your-mouth cookies. The cookies were for a Relief Society activity where we doorbell-ditched the other Relief Society in our ward, in Fugal. Unfortunately the entire apartment was supposed to make them and I was the only one who took the initiative. Then Madi came, asked me which plate was for the activity, took them and left. Kirsi went with her, but at least she acknowledged that I'd made them. Then Ashley and Shyler ate a bunch, so there weren't enough left to take them to my visiting teachees, as I'd hoped to do. Urgh. I left the pan, spatula, and glaze bowl out because I wasn't about to clean up from what they'd taken advantage of. They were there for two days before I finally cleaned them up. And someone left half a cookie on the plate so she wouldn't have to clean it. It made me rather upset with my roommates, but there's not a lot I can do about their lack of initiative and common courtesy.....

I was up that night until 3 am writing a polisci paper, which I still didn't finish. The next morning I got up, went to my classes, worked on my paper until 4:45, then printed it out and turned it in with three minutes to spare. I went to a group study room in the library and studied chemistry for an hour before Majid, a guy I was interviewing for an intro to Islam paper, came and I interviewed him. He was really nice, and the interview was actually quite fun and educational. He left at about 7:15, at which point I resumed studying chemistry. I finished reading through my notes for the section, wrote an index card's worth of information, and then went to the testing center to take my test! Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that the test was comprehensive, and so it was a little bit exciting, but by the time I finished at 10, I was too tired to care.

Thursday was amazing!!! I got up and went to chemistry, and then walked to the library with this guy from my class named Blaine. On the way over I asked him to the group date for Friday. It was a bit empowering :) Then I went to the gym and worked out for a while before going to basketball. Bball was kinda lame because now we're playing for tournament spots in the class, so none of the guys pass the ball to the girls anymore... Oh well. I got done with that and ran home to get ready. JulieAnn Personius (my high school water polo coach) came to visit me! It was so wonderful. She got here at around noon, and I took her on a tour around campus while we caught up. The weather was beautiful - about fifty degrees! Then we went to lunch at Zupa's, which is this wonderful little soup/salad/sandwich place. We were there for about an hour and a half, just talking. When we left, it was snowing. Oh Utah weather... Then we went back to my apartment, where JulieAnn looked up an old friend of hers who she visited on the way back to Salt Lake. It was sad to see her go but the care package I got from home brightened me up! Mom sent me elderberry syrup, applesauce, a mini-loaf of bread, delish oatmeal cookies, pound cake, gum, clovers, and a Sonora II recipe book with all of the delicious ward activity dishes from the past ten years!!! Whoo! So exciting. So for the rest of Thursday I ate good food from home, did (some) homework, and then went to my next door neighbor's Thirsty Thursday party, where we drank soda, ate cookies, and played spoons. Awesome.

Friday I went to my classes, did homework, and then went back to my apartment. Heidi and I ran over at 4:30 to get tickets for the Honors Symposium, where our Late Summer Honors Professor, Dr. Gong, will be speaking. It was the last day they were on sale for a reduced price, but when we got there they were sold out!! We got on the waiting list, so hopefully we get in :( Then we went back and I started cleaning up my apartment for the group date. I put away all the dirty dishes my roommates had left in the sink (ugh) except for Madi's egg dish, from Monday. I talked to the others, and they agreed that she didn't clean any of her dishes so we should wrap this one up and put it on her desk. That was slightly satisfying. But anyways, not to be vindictive... I cleaned up the kitchen and then decided to use up my artisan bread dough from almost two weeks ago for a pizza for our party! So I rolled out the dough just before Heidi and Katheryn came over to help me set up. We brought an extra couch in and set up apples to apples, after which Katheryn left to wait for her date while Heidi and I stayed at my apartment. Blaine came at about 8:05, and we talked for about half an hour (the three of us...) before Heidi's blind date Derek showed up. Then we started playing apples to apples. It was pretty fun, but probably a little awkward for poor Derek, who didn't know any of us. Then at 9 Katheryn and her date Chris finally showed up, because he'd been taking a test. We continued playing apples to apples, eating cheesecake and pizza, and talking until about 9:45, at which point we made popcorn and settled down to watch the Bourne Identity. It was a pretty good movie, with lots of action and fun ambiguity. I enjoyed it. We got done just before the midnight curfew, so we analyzed the movie for a few minutes and then booted the boys out. I got a parting hug and am now wondering if Blaine will ask me out... we'll see. Dad probably hopes he won't, because he's an RM... :)

On Saturday I got up late and Heidi and I went to the gym to do some weights. We went from there to the International Cinema on campus, where they show free movies every week. We watched Slumdog Millionaire, which was very good even when watched from the floor (because there weren't enough seats for all the people there). Then I went home and did some homework until it was time to leave on my date at 6:40. I went with Ben Smith from my Late Summer Honors class, and we attended BYU's Hunger Banquet. At the hunger banquet, 10% of the people are randomly assigned to sit at tables and have a gourmet catered meal, 20% sit on chairs eating hot dogs, chips, and soda, and the other 70% sit on the floor eating rice and beans with tortillas and a plastic bag full of water (no utensils). We were on the floor, which was actually pretty fun. There were Indian dancers, people chanting the Hare Krishna, and a keynote speaker from Paraguay. Afterwards we looked at the artwork and then didn't really know what to do, so we went back to my apartment and made chocolate-cinnamon bars. They were DELICIOUS! And it was pretty fun because it had been hard to talk at the hunger banquet (noisy and surrounded by people) plus the whole friendship-date thing was different for me. But we had a great time talking while making cookies, and they were amazing. I sent him home with a plate of them and then greeted each of my roommates as they arrived home from their various activities. I went to bed at midnight, which was a minor miracle :)

Today I woke up just in time to go to a Compassionate Service meeting, and then I went visiting teaching. I've discovered it works much better if I assign Shyler to either schedule or give the lesson. Today I gave the lesson and we got our visiting teaching on the first Sunday of the month for the second month in a row! (Oh, and last week our relief society had 100% visiting teaching!) Then I went to hall meeting, after which Amy taught me a more effective method for curling very straight hair. We went to church, where I was promptly asked to give a talk two weeks from now. Unfortunately, I'm going to be in Las Vegas that weekend, but I told Brother Frederico that I'd be very willing to give a talk any other week. I felt really bad about it, though. Anyways, church was great, as always, and I'm really excited because our Relief Society is doing a service activity on Tuesday where we're going into Maeser (the guy's hall in our ward) and cleaning their kitchens. It could be a bit scary, though. During church, I'd asked my roommates whether they wanted to have crepes for dinner with me. Madi was going to be gone, of course (she pretty much doesn't live here anymore), and Shyler and Ashley already had dinner planned, although they said they'd love to try some. Kirsi and Amy accepted my invitation, but when we got home they just made their own dinner. By this point I was already in the middle of making a huge, full batch of crepes. The blender wasn't working (I found out later that the blade was just jammed because the last person to use it hadn't cleaned it thoroughly), so I asked Madi if I could use hers. She wouldn't let me. Apparently I'm just not trustworthy enough to touch her precious kitchen appliances. She also locks her closet and doesn't talk to any of us anymore... I hope she enjoys a social life and friends at home. So anyways, I knocked on doors until I found a blender to borrow, and then I got them finished just as Amy and Kirsi swept out the door to go to the devotional (which, again, they hadn't invited me to go with them to - that wouldn't bother me except that they'd completely blown off the effort I put into making crepes). By this point I was just a little bit irked with my roommates. But surprisingly, Shyler, Ashley, and I had a good time watching the devotional at home, although they polished off half a jar of my Nutella in the meantime. I finished making all of the crepes and put the leftovers in my fridge. Then I went to ward prayer, went to a compassionate service committee meeting, and came home. Now I am going to bed so I can have a lovely day tomorrow following a wonderful night of adequate sleep. Love you guys!

<3
Eliza

P.S. Any tips on roommates? Leave them in the comments.

P.P.S. I realized that in one weekend I doubled the number of guys I've gone on dates with! Pretty impressive, eh? Well, a bit depressing if you think on what that means about my previous dating habits, but oh well... it's improving. :)

End of February 2010

Hi guys. The past week has been a bit of a blur, but here's an overview for ya...

Monday I went to my classes: Isaiah, swimming, Political Inquiry, Chemistry, and Islam. I left Islam early so that I could go to a ward activity at Soldier Hollow, which is a sledding place about 45 minutes from BYU. (I got to wear my snow boots for the first time, yay!!!) I drove a couple of my FHE sisters and some random other girls from our ward. When we were about halfway up the hill for our second run, the lift stopped. We waited for about 15 minutes, until it got too cold, and then went down the hill. Turns out two girls had gotten in a tubing accident and hit heads/necks/backs. One girl had a minor concussion while the other had a major concussion, was unconscious, and had a seizure. We got everyone together in the lodge and had a ward prayer. It was very comforting to have so many worthy priesthood holders there to give blessings to the injured girls :) After the ambulance came, a lot of people left, but my FHE sisters and I went on a few more runs. My blood sugar was ooc all night, but I had a marvelous time overall, and my enjoyment was curiously amplified by the comfort that the two hurt girls would be all right.

Tuesday my blood sugar was CRAZY. I missed my chem lab because my blood sugar was high and I felt awful, and then I couldn't play basketball because it went so low that I thought I was going to pass out! Gaah. I had the afternoon off so I did homework and calmed my blood sugar down a bit. I went to my art class and then went back to my apartment and did homework! So fun.

Wednesday was typical - I went to class, did homework, etc. I also took the final for my powerpoint class, which was very easy.Thursday I got out of my last class at 11, went to my apartment, ate an omelet with spinach, red pepper, mushrooms, and swiss cheese, and then read my first book of the semester. I got some homework done, and watched Hairspray with my roommates. I also watched the finals in women's figure skating while doing some chemistry homework :)

Friday I got up and went to the dentist's. Since my tooth was bleeding too much to finish the root canal last time I went, I had to go back and get it finished up. I watched the end of Madagascar 2 and then the beginning of Star Trek. It was pretty awesome. I got back just in time to do my assignment for polisci (not the greatest work I've ever done, but it was graded on completion...) and went to class. I studied for chemistry before class and at four I was done! I felt like going for a walk, because it was a lovely day - almost 45 degrees! - so I went to Regency to find out who my roommates will be for next year. Four of them are already rooming there together and there will be one new girl beside me. I also found out that two of my favorite FHE sisters (incidentally the two who I drove to the sledding activity, one of whom lent me the book I read on Thursday) will be two doors down from me, and one of my freshman academy classmates will be in the same ward! I went back to the apartment and contemplated doing homework for the rest of the evening. Just as I was getting depressed about it, Heidi called and so we made plans to go shopping and then watch a chick flick with her friend Katheryn. We went to Ross, Old Navy, TJ Maxx, and Target, but only bought things at Target - yay for college budgets. We got ice cream and pizza and then went to watch Just Jane, about Jane Austen, at Katheryn's house. While we were there we made plans to have weekly group date nights. This coming week we each have to ask a guy and we will watch the Bourne Identity. Also, after this week we will be having competitions weekly to make sure we ask out a broad variety of guys - the girl who invites the cutest guy will win on the night when we are competing for cuteness, for example, and we will have many other competitions, like wittiness, musical ability, most intimidating major, etc. (Don't worry, we aren't asking guys based on these criteria; we're asking them and then deciding on the competition afterward - the competition is just a motivating factor). We finally left at about 2 am...

Saturday morning I got up and went to the gym with Heidi again. I got home and then went to the BYU-New Mexico basketball game with my freshman academy. The game was so cool but so lame!!! We lost 81 to 83. But the good part is that a local restaurant, Magleby's, gives out chocolate cake if you bring a game ticket after the team has gotten 80 points. Since only 7 people showed up for our freshman academy thing and we had 26 tickets... Nyssa and Mattathias and I went to Magleby's and got a total of 11 pieces of cake before they told us we couldn't do that anymore. But we had a great time rebelling, and the chocolate cake was just a bonus. Then I went grocery shopping. My two favorite buys were .17 pounds of gouda cheese for a dollar, and a little bag full of yogurt-covered pretzels, which I now love. I got home and did some homework and was about to go to bed when I started a book. I think you all know me well enough to guess whether or not I went to sleep right after that....

This morning I got up, went to my compassionate service meeting, had my visiting teachers over, went to hall meeting, went to church, and came home. My home teachers came over at five, and we had a marvelous time chatting. It's really great to know that there are worthy priesthood holders around :) My roommates and I have had a nice night together - I made a burger with all kinds of deliciousness, and though we all ate different things at different times we had a very harmonious dinner-making experience in the kitchen. Right now Amy and Kirsi are making peanut butter cookies, Madi is out (as usual), Ashley is doing homework, and Shyler is already asleep. We have ward prayer later tonight and then I have another compassionate service committee meeting. It has been a wonderful week and now I'm gearing up for a much harder one coming up. This past week I had no major assignments and (crazy!) no papers. This week I have a chem midterm, a political inquiry paper, and an Islam paper. But I will survive! You guys should call/email/comment so I don't go crazy!

I love you,
Eliza

President's day weekend

Hey guys, it's been a long time but no one has commented or complained, so...

I'll just give you a few highlights of the last few weeks:

I've written about three papers for poli sci, two for intro to Islam, and one for Isaiah. I took a chemistry test and decided to study harder for the next one. Classes are going fairly well, and my powerpoint class will be over on Thursday, when I will be starting my excel class. Last Thursday in basketball I was guarding/guarded by a guy who's 6'4" and very good. It was exciting and challenging, and I made a basket! That's about all the news for classes.

Last Saturday I got a place in housing for next year! I will be living in Regency Apartments, which is just barely south of campus. It is a good deal with great people and wards. I am in room 112, and I have no idea who my roommates will be. I would have chosen to be in one of the other buildings, but there were only three rooms with spots, and there was another Eliza in the building I wanted! Oh well. I'm sure it'll be great anyways :)

The most exciting thing in the past few weeks was visiting St. George last weekend. I went to Grandma Houghton's house and spent time with her and with Dad, who was visiting for her birthday. I got there on Saturday afternoon, and promptly fell asleep on the couch. When I finally woke up, we went for a walk and then went to eat at an amazing Thai restaurant. Then we went to Neilson's to get some custard (yum!) and to Aunt Marjorie's to play games. It was fabulous. On Sunday we went to Grandma's ward, which was exciting for me - there were people not between the ages of seventeen and twenty! Crazy. Then we went back to Grandma's, where Grandma and dad did family history, Grandma gave me a copy of all of her recipes (yay!), and I read The Number One Lady's Detective Agency. Then we went to Aunt Marjorie's house for dinner, where I ate salmon! Then we had chocolate-raspberry cake and played games. The next morning, we went to watch Dad swim the mile (I had a high blood sugar), and then ate breakfast and dropped him off. Grandma and I decided to have some retail therapy and headed over to Christensen's, where they had some President's day sales. They even had a rack full of women's size 10-11 shoes on sale 50% off! And let's just say that Grandma made me feel loved. My limited college budget would have held me back a lot, but she really helped me out. Thanks Grandma <3>

This weekend I went to see New Moon at the dollar theater with Heidi on Friday night, watched some Olympics, went to the gym and worked out, and went grocery shopping again. This was all done by yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Then I got back to my apartment, made taco meat for my compassionate service dinner, and put together some pizza for Amy's birthday celebration. Her birthday was on Wednesday but we were all pretty busy so we did the party on Saturday. I went to the compassionate service thing and did some 27 dresses action, skipping between the two parties. Then, just as the party ended, the pizza came out of the oven, and Kirsi, Amy, and I went to see Princess and the Frog at the Varsity Theater. It was very cute, and we had fun eating pizza in the theater (which is allowed there). Then we came back to the apartment, watched some Olympics, and made a fort out of mattresses and blankets. Then we watched Ever After, which I am going to make us watch as soon as I get back in April. This morning I had a meeting and went back to sleep before going to church, eating dinner, having some more meetings, and writing this blog! Now I'm headed off to bed, so good night. I love you all, and would love to hear from you!

<3

Eliza

Getting into the semester..

So... It's been a while since I wrote and I don't particularly want to go over every excruciating detail this late at night, so instead I will give you some of the highlights of the last two weeks and tell you about each of my classes/teachers in detail.

Last week was the second week of school. Amy was back on her feet and Shyler had recovered a little from her niece's death. I started realizing how intense my classes were going to be, especially as I had to write a 1000-word personal statement for political inquiry due on Wednesday! We had a fun FHE for once, so that was nice. On Friday I went in to the dentist's office to get some fillings and a crown. It was the best dental experience of my life! They gave me laughing gas, then one anesthetic shot before all the others (5!), and played a movie that I could watch lying down, as it was above my head. Fantastic. That afternoon, I baked some cookies and went on a trip with Heidi. We went to Draper first, where we couldn't find any of the places we'd been planning to visit except for the Temple. So we walked around the temple and went to a pet store, where we had fun playing with a random puppy. Then we explored Ikea. I kind of wanted to live there :) After our Ikea trip, we went to Aunt Geniel's house, where we were going to stay. She made us this AMAZING pork burrito thing. (BTW, Mom, what pork do you buy for pulled pork?) After dinner we had fun watching Pirates of the Caribbean with the Woodwards and read before sleeping.

Saturday morning we got up, had another fantastic meal - waffles with fried apples and caramel sauce - and got ready to go for the day. We went up to Salt Lake and had lunch with Heidi's brother Derek and his friend. Mediterranean food is really good, for the record. Then we went to the planetarium at the gateway, but decided not to pay $6 to watch the show. So Heidi and I went (bargain) shopping. We shopped at Banana Republic, where we each got shirts for under five dollars ($2.20, woot!). It was late afternoon by this point, so we decided to go back to the Woodward's for dinner before going to Sandy to see a movie at the Imax there. It turned out that the show we wanted to see was at 9:50, so we finally got to the theater and saw Avatar in 3-d IMAX!!! It was amazing :) If I'd been prone to motion sickness... Well, it was great. We got back to the Woodwards and watched the rest of Prince Caspian, which we'd started before leaving to the theater.

Sunday morning we woke up late, and all the Woodwards were gone. We were a little confused because they hadn't left any notes, but we cleaned up our area, took care of the sheets and everything, and called just before we left. We had a lot of fun there and the Woodwards were wonderful! It was great.

We went to church, and the rest of the day was wonderful. Monday was also pretty good, but very homework-y. The rest of the week was a little stressful (including another paper due for political inquiry) but Wednesday was CRAZY!!! Just as I was leaving Intro to Islam, I got an email from Professor Hudson, and I GOT HIRED TO BE HER TA!!!!!!! So exciting. I got home with cold teeth because I'd been grinning during the entire walk. When I got back to my apartment I made pizza (on Tuesday I made hamburgers) and then took Madi to the ER because we thought she had an appendicitis. I stayed up late waiting to hear the diagnosis (her mom met her there and stayed with her) and found out she had an ovarian cyst and some other weird thing. She went home and has been there ever since. But the rest of the week was fairly routine, although I scored four shots in basketball on Thursday and went to the temple on Friday, which was amazing :) Saturday I had a cleaning check, went to Ihop with the roomies, and then just did homework for the rest of the day.

So, now on to the class analysis.

On Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:00 I have Isaiah, with Sister Madsen. It's awesome. I'll read a chapter for class and not get much out of it, and then show up at class and take a page of notes on one verse. It's awesome :) And the teacher is, of course, amazing.

At 10, I have intermediate swimming. I'm in lane 2 now. Class would be pretty intense except for the fact that we only swim for 35 minutes. Then I have 20 minutes to get changed and ready, walk up the stairs to the JFSB, and go into my next class...

...which is Political Inquiry! It's hard, because we have a paper and an assignment due every week, but the things we've learned so far are SOO cool. We've been going over writing - grammar and style. I've learned so much that it's ridiculous (although you can't tell by how I write this blog). It's super-cool. There are two guys from my ward and one girl from my freshman academy in the class, and so it's nice to know some people, but I really enjoy the class just for the learning. (Oh, and my teacher is Professor Christensen and my TA is Jon Walton, just for future reference)

Chemistry is my next class, with lectures on MWF at 3 and lab (with a TA) on TTh at 8. It's so stupid! We have to watch lectures online and read chapters from the book before class every day, and then we go over lame things in class every day - review of what we learned from the other stuff. In lab we just have to show up and do a worksheet based on the online assignments we have due the night before. The repetition is mind-numbing, although without it the class wouldn't be so bad. But as it is, so so so lame that I can't even discuss it. Whatever.

At 5 on Mondays and Wednesday I have Intro to Islam, from Professor Schulthies. She's awesome, and very enthusiastic. The subject-matter is very interesting, and I really appreciated Grandpa sending me a copy of the Qur'an to use. The people in that class are almost all in my political inquiry class as well, so it's just a little party! And last week we had to do a reading by an author with the last name Aslan. It made me happy. Also last week, we had to write an in-class essay on the similarities between Muhammad and Joseph Smith, which was really quite cool.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I start the day with Chem. lab, as discussed above. My TA was hired last-minute and doesn't really know what's going on, and my lab partner doesn't care. Ugh. Whatever.

My other consistent TTh class is basketball, at 10. My teacher is a grad student in Physiology who has never played basketball in his life. But the class is still fun because it's a game! There are only a few girls, but that's okay because I'm taller than all of the girls anyway, so it's more of a challenge to play with the guys. Speaking of height, my team this week had the two tallest guys and me, the tallest girl. I won't say it happened all because of height, but we dominated.

Tuesday night I have Great Works in Art, which is a really cool class thus far, although I haven't done all the reading yet, so most of my participation has been in-class. Professor Wescott teaches, and she's really cool. I enjoy her attention to detail and you can tell that she loves the subject, which always makes it better. This one is my only honors class this semester, a big change from last semester. We've been learning mostly about Greek and Roman statues and architecture so far.

My last class is at 7:20 - Isys 101. However, attendance is not mandatory - you just have to do the work online and get it turned in on time. So I don't really go to class, and even on the first day, when attendance was mandatory, I didn't see the professor who is supposedly teaching the class. However, it isn't that hard so I'm not too worried.

That is a summary of all of my classes (9!). The schedule is a little full, and I may die, but I enjoy most of my classes, so it's all good.

Now on to the really exciting news: I think I may have found a major!!! Well, two actually. I am tentatively going to double-major in Political Science and some emphasis of Management. To get a major in PoliSci I will only need 43 units after this semester, and 62 for management, although there should be some overlap... I may or may not do a minor or two - hopefully I will, even if that requires doing a spring or summer term :(

So sum-up of all the most exciting news from the past week:

1. I got the job of TA for Professor Hudson!!! It's going to be awesome. Oh, and the other new TA is the guy who I sat next to every day in class last semester. It'll be nice to know someone...

2. I've decided on a tentative major!

3. I haven't mentioned this yet but my RA, Stephanie, got engaged this week! Yay for her!

That's all pretty amazing.

Now here are some things I got today from RS and Sunday school that are very cool to ponder:

1. The difference between countenance and appearance, and which one we should (and do) base our confidence on.

2. Spiritual death (separation of our spirit and God) versus physical death (separation of spirit and body). Our spirits and bodies constitute one discrete being, so what does that say about our spirits and God? Maybe we constitute one discrete being too - a family :) And just as our bodies are part of us, God is part of us too. (P.S. in case you were wondering, I'm not making absolute statements that I believe this, but speculation about the comparison of physical and spiritual death)

3. Sin v. Transgression - from what was said in our Sunday School class, it looks like sin is something inherently wrong, while transgression is breaking a formally-made law. (I won't get into the philosophical implications of this - talked enough about it in class last semester :)

Just a few things I found interesting at church today and thought were worth writing down. Hope you like them.

Anyways, I love you all and hope everything is going wonderfully!!

<3

Eliza

'Twas the week before Christmas, and the two weeks after....

Hello, ladies and gentlemen who are not in Provo, Utah! Since it's been so long since I posted, I will try to cover everything that's happened since then....

If I remember right, my last posting was the Sunday before finals week. Well, during finals week, I had a wonderful time completing easy tests and skated through simple assignments. NOT. The calculus final killed me, the philosophy final made me exasperated, the English research paper (on the philosophy of healthcare) nearly didn't get done, and the International Politics reading/reviewing took way longer than I thought it would. I pretty much studied straight through, although on Wednesday my plan for a compassionate service committee project got done when we made cookies and gave free massages in the lobby for an hour. It was great. But the tests finally got done, I got all the cleaning done and checked out, picked up a few books from the library to read on the plane, and got all of my overstuffed bags out the door! I got a ride from my Relief Society President's grandparents, because she was leaving on a flight 45 minutes after mine. We got to the airport early, so I found my way to the gate with the help of another BYU student and sat there reading. I was a little bit excited that I brought a baked potato in and ate it for dinner at the gate. I was surprised at the low level of airport security; that was probably just a result of my gender, age, location, and race, though. (I guess you don't get a lot of white female 18-year-old terrorists in Salt Lake, for some reason...)

I got on the flight and sat across from a guy I knew from Late Summer Honors, which was awkward. I read the entire way home, and then met two other BYU students on the way to baggage pickup. Finally everyone arrived, and I was so happy! Marta and Tess had come with Mom and Dad and I was really excited to see all of them! We went to eat at a burger joint and had a fabulous banana cream pie. The drive home was wonderful and I had a great time just catching up with everyone.

Okay, just fyi if you were with me over Christmas break, the next part is going to be review for you, because I'm just writing it down for journaling purposes. That being said.... The next day Luke, Marta, and I went to the seminary party/auction with Julianne and Amanda (I drove). When we got home (which was amazing, by the way - it was wonderful just to be able to drive back home :) we did Christmasy things like baking and such. I was invited to one of my high school friends' parties, but I decided to stay home and hang with the fam instead. We decorated the tree and made persimmon bars, haystacks, apricot-oatmeal bars, and Pfeffernodix.

The next day I loved being at church with people I hadn't seen in four months, and our ward caroling party was marvelous (do you like my collection of superlatives?). Then, in the days leading up to Christmas, we cooked, cleaned, went to Manteca (Tess, Marta, Luke, and I) to shop, had a sugar cookie party with Luke and Marta's friends, watched The Blind Side (Mom and I), and had an overall fantastic time. At least I did.... I also borrowed books from Sister Spangler and got caught up on reading, which I hadn't done all semester. On Christmas Eve, I made a feast with leek tart, stuffed mushrooms, veggies, punch, cookies, and one other side dish that I can't remember. That evening we put on our Victorian masks and went caroling to people in our ward with tea rings.

Christmas day was amazing, of course. I had spent the night in Marta and Tess's room, so we got the traditional coming down the stairs on Christmas morning shot. Dad was super-thoughtful and got me boots and what I call sleeping bags for my feet. Mom picked out the perfect yellow peacoat, and Tess got me Mulan. :) Everyone pretty much read my mind and got me exactly what I wanted/needed. We all got nerf guns and had several nerf wars. I really enjoyed picking out what I thought everyone would like this Christmas and discovered that budget constraints can actually allow a greater degree of thoughtfulness, because you have to decide on what's just right.

The rest of the week was really very fun. We mostly hung around at home, although the girls and I staffed a wedding reception at the chapel on Monday. It was great just to spend some time with the fam. We watched movies (Star Trek, HP 6, Mulan, Wolverine, and several others), played games, cleaned the house, and had some of my favorite home-cooked meals (borscht and chicken curry are amazing!). And on New Year's Eve I went babysitting for three hours and got $50, always a nice addition for a college student. We sorted out finances and had a wonderful week with the entire family home. Then on Saturday I had to leave :( We drove down to Oakland and Dad told us about his mission in Louisiana (with a transfer in Missouri). I really enjoyed hearing about it, and I kind of want to go there now, to see the weather and architecture if nothing else. It was interesting thinking about the fact that Dad was only a year older than I am now when he left on his mission, because I don't feel like I'd be ready for that at all, in spite of the fact that I am already at college and I live about two minutes away from the MTC... So we drove down to Oakland, where Mom and Dad dropped us kids off at the Oakland zoo while they went to the temple. We had a marvelous time seeing the sun bears and squirrel monkeys in particular, and it was really fun to see a zoo together, especially since I hadn't been to the zoo with Levi or Tess since they were babies. After the zoo, we went out to eat at a little pizza place and had delicious Thai-style pizza. Then came the hard part; the drop-off. Dad, Marta, and Luke came inside while I checked in, and I ran back to give them one more hug just as I got to the front of the security line. It was rather difficult walking away. After they left, and I got to my gate, I went into the bathroom, blew my nose, and calmed down a little. Then I called to let them know I'd made it in okay, and fell apart. I was in the middle of the gate, on the phone, and it's a really good thing I had tissues for my sinus infection, because I seriously needed them.

When I got on the plane, Matt Relei was there along with Mckay (the guy from Late Summer Honors who had been on my last flight). However, I didn't sit near either of them; I sat next to the one guy on the plane who ordered beer (probably 85-90% of the people on the plane were BYU students). But anyways.... I got in to the airport, met up with my RS president Lisa and her sister Amy, and then waited for my bags to arrive. Finally they did, and we went out to meet Ken, who was picking us up. It took us a while to find him but then we were on the road again, headed to Provo.

When I got back, I was reminded 1) how cold Provo is compared to California, 2) how ugly my apartment is, and 3) how strange it was to be on my own. It felt surreal to go back into the apartment, like I was stepping into a dream. As soon as I got home I needed to tidy my room, because I'd had to pack in a hurry. So I did that, inventoried my food, and finally got to bed when I was too exhausted to be sad that I wasn't at home.

The next day at church there were only about half of the people who are normally there. It was a great testimony meeting though, and we got to meet a lot of our new people (mostly guys). That evening the rest of the roommates arrived and I was in bed by 10:00.

Monday morning I started classes. I had Isaiah first, at 9, and it was amazing. Sister Madsen is awesome, and her understanding of the scriptures is very deep. (It made me laugh when she said that Isaiah is the one class the Savior commanded us to take - study the writings of Isaiah...:) Next I had swimming, at 11. It was pretty cool, but 35 minutes twice a week isn't a lot. Honors Psychology was awful - the teacher talked in monotone and told us that he would use our test-taking for experimental purposes - using weird test administration practices to psychologically analyze us. (This would make tests harder and lower our grades). I decided that I didn't want to be a part of this, so I went back to my apartment for lunch and dropped it. I signed up for Political Inquiry instead. At 3 I had chemistry with Professor Dearden, which was fairly unamazing. I needed to take it so I could take Physiology though, so I will have to live with it. At 5 I had Intro to Islam. My teacher, Dr. Schulthies had received her doctorate only a few days before, so she is very excited about the subject and makes the class interesting. We read an excerpt from a book called Islam in the Eyes of the West, and it was really cool. After that I went to the library, studied, and then went back to my apartment. I found out that Amy had been really stressed and had bought a box of donuts and a carton of peanut butter ice cream to drown her sorrow. But I did some more homework and finally went to bed!

Tuesday I woke up and found out that Amy had been sick all night. I used my new thermometer to find out that she didn't have a fever, so we all figured she had just gotten sick from eating so much sugar the night before..... That day I started a whole new round of classes. At 8 I had Chemistry recitation, which is led by a TA rather than the professor and in a smaller group. It consists mostly of doing worksheets. On that first day, though, I accidentally went to the wrong recitation group, and had to switch halfway through. I wasn't overly impressed with my TA or the people in my section, unfortunately. Oh well. At 10 I had basketball. The people in the class looked okay, but the "teacher" is a grad student who has never played basketball in his life and has control issues. Sigh. I had the rest of Tuesday free until 4, when I had Preview of Nursing. After the first hour in the two-hour class, I left. Maybe it's just me, but I think that the people teaching classes at BYU should actually have enough academic talent to get in to BYU in the first place. However, that's not why I left the class - it just wasn't my thing. Before my next class I finished my application to be a TA for Professor Hudson, and dropped it off at her office, although she wasn't there. At 6 I went to my Great Works in Art class, and it looked fairly fun. It's weird, because that's my only Honors class this semester, and last semester I had four, but it was nice to be in an Honors course again, over in the Maeser building. At 7:20 I had I Sys 101, aka Powerpoint. You pretty much don't have to go to class because everything is online, but for the first day attendance is mandatory. And an otherwise super-boring class was made okay because Matt Relei was there, so we caught up on college life, since we hadn't really talked since Orientation in August. After all of that I went to my apartment and found out that Amy had been sick all day and couldn't keep anything down. She was also quite dehydrated. After several frantic phone calls to parents (thanks mom!) and various healthcare providers, Amy's sister Jessica came to take her to the hospital so they could check her out and give her some fluids. It was quite the drama.

Oh, important sidenote here. I decided at the beginning of the year that I was going to read the entire standard works this year. So every night I read 1.5 -2 pages of the BOM and 4.5-5 pages of the Bible (Once I finish the Bible I will move on to the D&C and the Pearl of Great Price).

Anyways, on to Wednesday. I went to Isaiah, Swimming (at 10 now, because Political Inquiry starts at 11), and Political Inquiry. I found out that I'm going to be late every day to Political Inquiry, but the class itself was pretty good. We went over grammar, which is an important part of the course, because the class is essentially a writing class, specifically aimed at political research papers. I tuned a lot of it out, because as you may know I'm fairly good at grammar, although this blog doesn't really show that... I did my homework for chemistry and discovered that we have to watch a lecture online and do the book reading before each class period. I think they believe that chemistry is the only class we're taking. I went home after Chemistry and found out that Amy hadn't eaten anything all day, although she wasn't quite as dehydrated as before. Then, at about 4:20, Shyler got a call from her mom, telling her that her 3-month old niece had died. It was awful, and very sad. They'd known she was going to die eventually, but it was still a horrible shock. I finally left and went to Islam at 5. Islam was good again, very interesting. I suggest that anyone who likes to learn ask me for book recommendations about Islam, because our teacher assigned some really cool books for us to read. I was dreading going back to the apartment, but I went back and found out that Shyler's niece had been resuscitated, but during the resuscitation her stomach had burst. So Shyler had gone to Salt Lake to say good-bye. My roommates and I were all very depressed going to bed that night.

Thursday morning I had chemistry at 8 again, and things proceeded smoothly. I had b-ball at 10, and we pretty much just played pick-up games with assigned teams. It was great. That was the end of classes for the day, so I went to my apartment and did laundry, finished some homework, and just kind of loafed about. I had a political inquiry review at 4, so I went to that and then came back and studied some more! So fun! Then I got distracted by my roommates watching the DVD of Michael Jackson's greatest music videos that Kirsi had gotten for Christmas, so I watched it with them. Who knew MJ wasn't always so creepy! We had a ton of fun, and then Ashley and I decided to learn the thriller dance, so we found an online site and learned the dance. At the end of the evening we felt so accomplished :)

Friday I only had Political Inquiry lab (same as chem recitation, with a TA leading) and Chemistry. My Political Inquiry TA is pretty cool and the class seemed sharp, so it looked promising. Chemistry was as fun as usual. When I got back to my apartment I did a little bit of work and then hung out with the roomies. Most everyone went out (Shyler was in SLC with her family), but Amy, who had only just started to eat, stayed home with me and we watched Ella Enchanted. We had so much fun that we decided to go to the library and check out books by Gail Carson Levine to read. It was so much better than actually doing homework...

Saturday I got up and went apartment shopping with Heidi and Alyssa. We looked at a lot of cool places, but the one I liked best was called the Regency. Hopefully we'll live there. We apartment-shopped for about 3 hours and then I came back to do some dishes and go grocery shopping. I had sold a book from last semester online, and the shipping address was for Orem, so I'd contacted the guy and we met that afternoon at the grocery store, to save on shipping costs. I got back, studied a bit, and then went to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with Robert. Let's just say that college students are not exactly the target audience. It was a bit dumb, although there were a few funny/cute parts. Then I came home and watched the end of Forever Strong with Amy. I will have to watch the whole thing some day soon, I think...

Sunday I had a compassionate service meeting at 10, a hall council meeting at 12, hall meeting at 12:30, and church at 1:30. The talks were great, Sunday school was crazy because some class from another ward was in our room, and I had a fun time in Relief Society. That evening, ward prayer was interesting because we got to meet all of the new people in our ward. Shyler had gotten a job at the creamery, from 5-8 every morning (hahaha) so she is now going to bed at 8 pm. It has been very nice because I can actually turn on the lights when I get up in the morning (before 10:00, gasp!).

So that was a week ago. I will write about this last week tomorrow/soon, but I really need to go to sleep now, so I will post this and finish later.

Love you all!!

Eliza

Hey, guys, I don't really have time to write a full blog but I just want to say that living in a dorm is truly like living in a reality tv show. It's a little bit ridiculous. I will do a full update in the next four days, I promise! In the meantime, recognize that you can call me too. The phone system isn't one-way.

<3

Eliza

A grueling week with bits of crazy excitement interspersed...

Hi, guys! I will start with last Monday....... I went to my classes and then went to the library where I studied and worked on writing my philosophy paper. Unfortunately, I found out that I'd read the wrong chapters after having taken eight pages of notes, so I had to start over. I was up really late but finally got done!

Tuesday morning was pretty typical; I got my stuff done, did some homework. But on Wednesday I had my BOM research paper due, so I worked on that until late in the night, again. I was in the library until 2, and was very happy that all through December the library is open late.

Wednesday morning I got up at about seven and finished writing my paper. I got it done just in time to go to class! I made my way through the rest of my classes and then went home, took a lovely nap, and worked on some more homework!

Thursday morning I was craving cookie dough... so half an hour before class I made some and was a few minutes late because I had been baking. It was worth it though :) The rest of the day I worked on my politics research paper, which was due on Friday. Unfortunately, I found out that the U.S.-Japan relationship (which I was writing about) had changed dramatically in the two weeks since I'd turned in my rough draft, due to Obama's visit to Japan. So I got to write the entire paper over again! So fun. I was in the library until about 10, and my friend Michelle was there with me, working on another project. I invited her to come over for dinner and we had pork chops and salad. Yum. Then I drove her home (she lives off-campus) because it was about 12 degrees outside. I stayed up late again working on my paper, but I wasn't even near done so I went to bed without finishing. I got up early in the morning to write, and wrote all day. I didn't go to any of my classes, and my paper still wasn't done! I emailed my professor and she told me to just turn it in when I was done. So I worked on that until about 8 and then went home. I ate dinner and then went to the testing center, where I took my English grammar test. It was super-fun. Then I returned to the library and got almost all the way done. I went home and slept...

Saturday we had cleaning checks, so I did my chores while we watched HP1 on ABC. It was great. Then I worked on some other homework (what a surprise, right?). I needed to go to the gym and make up some hours for missing weight training class, so I did that, and read a book for politics while I did so. Then I went grocery shopping for a few minutes - the only problem is, the main reason I wanted to go on Saturday was to get butter. I put it in my cart, but somehow when I got home it had mysteriously disappeared. Ugh. Anyways, when I got home, Ashley and Amy and I watched Mulan! We had so much fun singing along and analyzing various elements of the plot. It was great.

Sunday morning I got up, went to my meetings (Compassionate Service Committee, Hall Council, and Hall meeting) and then went to church. It was our last testimony meeting before 16 of our guys leave to go on missions, so we had tons of those guys talk, and it was an awesome testimony meeting. My roommates and I went to RS, which was also really good, and then we left to go to the Christmas Devotional in Salt Lake. Kirsi had gotten tickets for us (don't ask me how) and everyone except Madi, who was going home for the night, went. We got pretty good seats - in the second level - so that was cool. The talks were amazing, as I'm sure you all know, and it was really cool being in the same room with the MoTab. It was kind of confusing though, because the sound from the speakers was reaching us before the actual sound from the singers... But it was great. Afterwards a couple of my roommates wanted to see ALL of the lights, which was fun at first. They were beautiful, of course - the only problem was that it was FREEZING outside and, to compound the problem, we were all wearing skirts. Brrr. So we walked around, took some pictures (sorry, my camera wasn't working, so you'll have to look on facebook to see the pics my roommates took) and looked at the lights, taking frequent stops inside the visitors centers to keep our feet from getting frostbite. On our last trip inside, I ran into Cory! It was really funny, actually. We were just walking into the visitors center and he was literally right in my path. What was really funny, though, was the look on my roommates' faces when he told us he'd have to come down to Provo and take us to lunch sometime, because they didn't understand my fast explanation that he was my cousin. Kirsi asked him whether he was related to me, and I told her that yes, he was my cousin while he jokingly told her that actually we'd been engaged and that's how we knew each other. It was hilarious. So after that encounter, we walked back to the car freezing. Amy and I couldn't feel our toes at all and there was no heat in the back so we took our shoes off and put our feet up on the center console to get heat. (In skirts - scandalous!) Kirsi's driving scared me just a little bit - 60 mph in the snow, less than a second behind the person ahead of us - but hey... we survived. That's what counts....right? So we got home, drank hot chocolate, and I finished my scripture reading for the next day and went to bed!

Monday morning I woke up, worked on finishing my politics essay, went to weight training (where I got 100% on everything, including doing 20 reps of bench press with 75 pounds!) and then came back home and got ready. I went to my classes, finished editing the essay in English, printed it out in between English and Politics, and got to the door at the same time as my professor, who knew my name! (I'm excited because she's listed as #97 in foreign policy magazine's top global thinkers http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/30/the_fp_top_100_global_thinkers?page=0,32, and she is amazing. Of course, she probably only knew my name because I'd emailed her about being late, which isn't quite as good, but hey...) So I turned in the essay and got through the rest of class, after which I went to the wilkinson center to send a package home :) Nothing too exciting in it, but then again I don't have a lot of exciting things at college, so.... On the way, I went to the lost and found to see if they had my scriptures yet. I'm not sure whether I wrote about this earlier, but I lost my scriptures in October, and have been checking the lost and found weekly. They finally had them!!!!!!!! I was really excited, but a little miffed because when I mentioned to the girl who got them for me that this was my kazillionth time checking, she said that she didn't know why I hadn't gotten them before, because they'd been there since October... Oh well. I have them now :) And I forgot to mention - it was snowing all day Monday and all of Sunday night. So it was icy, cold, slippery, and very snowy. I walked home in the snow after arranging a dentist appointment, and did laundry and some homework. Our FHE was cancelled, (again) and so I was working for a while. Then at 9:45 Shyler and Amy decided to go sledding with Jarom, Shyler's brother, and his roommates, and Amy and I talked for about an hour and a half. It was fun, and I'm pretty sure we're twins separated at birth... Anyways, did that and then did a little bit of homework before heading for bed.

This morning I didn't wake up to my alarm, because I've been using my cell phone (at Shyler's request) and it's not loud enough to wake me up. So I woke up late, and didn't have time to get ready and go get my H1N1 vaccine. But I went to class and made another appointment, after which I finally got the vaccine. So that's good. Then I worked on homework and went to philosophy. Afterward (remember, it's still snowy) three other kids from my class, the TA, and I were talking about band as we left. When we got outside, we discussed and had an epic snowball fight. It was awesome. Then I came back to my apartment, had a lovely frozen dinner, and now I need to write my (final!) research paper, for english. I'm so excited that I only have one more day of each class, but I think I'm going to make some fudge to give to the professors and TAs because they're awesom. Anyways, I love you all and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in A WEEK AND A HALF!!!!!!!!

Love you,

Eliza