Hi, guys! The days until college start are slowly winding down, and I'm getting nervous about starting classes tomorrow. So, Friday I decided to sleep in because I had not been getting enough sleep (the catchphrase of college life is to say at 11, "the night is still young. Do you think there's a party happening over at Helaman?") Craziness. So when I got up I ate some oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts - thanks mom :) Ashley and I finished organizing and cleaning the kitchen, which took a long time! Then I decided to run some errands - I went all over town looking for a desk lamp and some board shorts. I also got some cream cheese and milk, got my oil changed, got two copies of my car key, and went to DI, where I bought a red plastic vase (75 cents) for my fake flowers - again, thanks mom. There weren't any desk lamps or board shorts there though - oh well.

When I got home, I got ready for and went to our "Friday Night Extravaganza"which was crazy. We briefly met tons of other people, then did some weird group activities (what happened to a Book of Mormon's distance??) The last activity, which was also the most fun, was in groups of three. Each person took turns being in charge for two minutes, and the other two had to do whatever he/she told him/her to. I told my two people to get as many hugs as she could, and count them, and to run to the stage and back, giving high fives to everyone along the way. There were tons of crazy ones. For instance, one person had to head-butt people's legs. Another went along untying people's shoes. There were lots of marriage proposals and "I love yous" of course (I mean, we're at BYU...). One guy's job was to find the tallest girl he could, and then bring her back. So I met this tall football player named Zach who loves tall girls. It was pretty funny. This ended at 10:30. Oh no, the night wasn't over yet.

I hung out at Heidi's dorm for a while, and then we (and her roommate Sarah) decided to go to Mckay's dorm to drop off a book he'd loaned her while in LSH. We had an epic adventure, after which I came back and watched "She's the Man" (so funny) with my roommates. Finally I got to go to bed...

This morning, we had a ward donut party at 10, but I just went over to my LSH professor, Dr. Gong's house for a Chinese lunch/brunch thing at 10:30. It was very fun, and I've decided that I love Chinese food, too. I got a 98% yay. On the way home from that, I saw some garage sales. I decided to go back and check if anyone had a desk lamp. I'd bought one at Walmart Friday, but then discovered it was poor quality and required a weird bulb, so I'm returning it. I found one, for $3! It was amazing. For an extra dollar, I got a cute red pencil skirt and some amazingly cute fabric to lengthen it another few inches to cover my knees...

Anyway, then at 2:30 I met Robert and we went over to 7 Peaks, which is a cool water park about a mile from campus. His brother, Jeph, (who's 20, not actually a biological brother but an adopted cousin who's sealed into their family) came too. It was tons of fun. The park was mostly water slides, but with a few other attractions, like the lazy river and a wave pool. We went on every water slide and other attraction in the park, including the lily pads and a rope swing (does anyone else remember the lily pads at the pool near Grandma Houghton's house?). At 8, when the park closed, we went to the Brick Oven, which is a pizza place that makes its own amazing root beer. Then we got back in time for the last hour-and-a-half of the new student orientation closing finale, where there was a dance, karaoke, bounce house obstacle course, and volleyball. So overall, tons of fun. Robert's funny, and can actually carry on an intelligent conversation, which is very nice. A bit shy, and not popularity-oriented, but that's nice too. On Friday, we're going to get a group together and watch Signs, which several people have insisted that I need to see.

Anyway, back home a little after eleven, I met the other three people who came to BYU from Amy's stake, ate some of the banana bread Ashley made yesterday (I donated some walnuts to the cause), and talked to my roommates a little more. I like them. They're really nice, and hilarious. Now, I need to go to bed, because tomorrow we have a Hall meeting at noon, and church at 1. After that, we're having a dorm meeting. Then, school starts on Monday. Aaahhh! Craziness! Well, I love you all, and I will talk to you soon!

Eliza

Random amazingness

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

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

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

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

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

Eliza

Amazing is my favorite word

Hello, all. I will tell you about my fantastic last two days. So, Sunday I got up, searched all over campus for a vending machine that sold milk (for my cereal), and finally found one. I got back to my apartment, ate breakfast, got ready for church, and went to testimony meeting. It was raining, but a lovely day nonetheless. I've decided that guys singing hymns are amazingly attractive, by the way. Cool stuff. I bore my testimony about Ether 4:12 and how when it says all things that are good come of God, it means people's actions too.

Got home, went to lunch, came home again, took a nap, then went to Annalisa's for dinner. Ken, Kelsey, Vance, and Jared were also there, in case you were wondering. We had (fantastic!) pork, apples, sauteed zucchini and squash, and chocolate pudding for dessert. My compliments to the chef (oh, and Ken made the pudding and cut the apples). After dinner, we played speed scrabble, which is very fun and which Vance is amazing at. I missed the fireside, but that was okay because I was spending time with wonderful family members.

This morning, I got up, got ready, went to breakfast, then went to devotional, which was taught by my friend Stephanie's dad, who's a BOM professor. It was fantastic. We talked about how, in the scriptures, there's the verse that says basically "Be thou perfect, even as thy Father which is in Heaven is perfect". But he said that this verse didn't mean we can't make mistakes. The original Greek word was "telios," which means "complete". In the Book of Mormon, Jesus repeats the verse, only this time he says "Be thou perfect, even as I am perfect, or as thy Father which is in heaven is perfect". This is because he's been resurrected, so he's complete, like a God. So, even though he's sinless, he wasn't "complete" until he was resurrected. What Brother Swift taught us instead is to be "diligent" in keeping the commandments of God. I thought that was really cool - instead of being a perfectionist, and giving up at every small failure, you can just keep on trying to be a good person. That lesson was awesome, and very meaningful.

After devotional, I had class. For group assignments, we read a chapter each night and then present it to the other group the next day. Then they have to teach the chapter WE read to Dr. Gong, and we do the same with their chapter. We did this, and then he pretended to have the ambassador to China on the phone, who wanted advice on what he should do to improve the situation with China, and we had to tell him what to do, based on what Margaret Thatcher said. It was pretty funny. Dr. Gong's cool. Then I had lunch and went to the library where I worked on homework for, like, 3 1/2 hours. Crazy. I went to dinner, where I sat with a fun group. Robert convinced me to try drinking jello through a straw, and I decided I don't like blueberry jello. Then we had 30 minutes to burn before going to the Maeser building (where, ugh, all of the honors stuff is, and it's all the way across campus...) so we went for a walk and talked about neuroscience (he's a neuroscience major, by the way) and language and fun stuff. Then we went to Home Evening with the rest of the LSH kids. It was very fun - an awesome lesson (I volunteered for opening prayer because the conducting/lesson guy offered blessings... :) on the honors program and learning and lifelong opportunities. Then we went outside, where there were a giant twister board, ultimate frisbee game, DOZENS of donuts, and a bocce game. Guess what I played? Yeah, you guessed right.

Then, we walked home. There was a thunderstorm and the clouds were PURPLE!!! Amazing. It wasn't really raining though. Did you know the Eyring science center has a whole weather station that tells all the outside conditions? It's awesome. ANYWAY, walked home, then unpacked a bit and here I am!

Love you all lots, and have a wonderful week!

Moving into Heritage Halls, and life

Hey, family. I just moved in and will give you an update on what's happening... I'm the only one in the apartment so far, and my stuff is scattered all over the place b/c I haven't really had a lot of free time since getting in. Tonight after moving all my stuff in, I went to an LSH sundae party and swing dancing lesson/fun time/amazingness. I got back and my roommate Madi Gordon, who was in town for a wedding reception, came to visit/meet me/check out the dorm. We talked for a long time with our RA (Resident Assisstant is what it stands for, I think - if not ask Mom.), Stephanie. It was very fun.

Earlier today I went to class, where Dr. Gong brought us donuts and played frisbee with us on one of our ten-minute breaks. Yesterday we played freeze tag. We're reading the book "Statecraft" by Margaret Thatcher, who was the UK's first female Prime Minister. It's pretty amazing. A lot of information to take in, though, especially because I don't know anything about modern world history (Let's just say that leaving for an 8-week maternity leave and not providing a lesson plan is very tacky. Cough cough Ms. Woods cough cough.) Anyway, life is peachy here at the Y. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is nice. And there are lots of tall guys. (wink wink dad - but hey, you shouldn't be worried about the freshmen - they're all leaving on their missions within the next year or so.) ANYWAY, moving on... Lots of friends, study groups are fun, and tomorrow I'm having cheerios that I already bought and milk from a vending machine for breakfast! I also didn't need to go shopping tonight because they actually put some basic stuff in here like tp, some basic cleaning soap and a sponge.... cool stuff.

I've also discovered that walking around the campus when you're not talking to anyone around you is a great time to call home. So be prepared for random calls in the middle of the day, everyone! Life is already extremely hectic, but I'm loving it. I can't imagine what it's going to be like with a bunch of classes, every day! I already am short on time, and I'm eating at the Cannon Center. We'll see how cooking plays into everything. I have the feeling that I'll be eating a lot of basics, like bread, raw fruit and vegetables, granola bars, and basic breakfast foods like yogurt and cheerios all the time. However, I suppose that's good for me. Well, however it turns out, I'm sure it'll be amazing! Like the title of my blog! I love you guys. See you later!