The last time I really wrote was the third. That morning I got up late because of crazy activities the night before. I watched the afternoon session of General Conference at my dorm and took notes. Then I watched Wolverine with Robert. Once I got home, my roommates and I had (yet another) crazy party....
Sunday morning I got up for General Conference and made kugen! I'm not sure that I agree with Mom that Aunt Brenda's recipe was better - it was good, but the walnut topping wasn't like the one we have at home. I think I'll have to compare the two. I watched the second session as well, and got a ton of ironing done. That evening I ready my BOM study manual for about four hours, and finally went to sleep!
Monday I had to take my BOM test. I went to all of my classes, and then went and studied in the library for a few hours. I got back to my apartment just in time to go to FHE, where we did a video alphabet scavenger hunt, and then I skedaddled on over to the testing center to take my test. It was way more specific than I had been expecting, but I still got a 90, and next time I'll know what to prepare for, so that will be good! Oh, and I also got my Calculus test back that day - I got a 90 there as well, and with the curve that should be a high A-.
Tuesday was pretty average. I slept, ate, went to class, and studied. That evening, I went to walmart with Heidi and we had a mad walmart adventure. I bought egg rolls for dinner on Wednesday and some sweet potatoes so I could make the amazing recipe mom gave me. Yay.
On Wednesday, (my birthday!!!) I woke up late with a low blood sugar, and missed my first class. Ugh. But then I opened my presents and I was SOOO excited! I scarfed down about 12 pieces of baklava off the bat, and then I got down to opening everything else :) I immediately put the little key adornment thing from Levi on my keychain - I love it! It's awesome in and of itself, it makes me feel loved every time I pick up my keys, AND it completes the color scheme of my keychain. The bag of pendants and a bracelet from Tess was amazing. Did you make those yourself, or did you buy them? Either way, they're adorable, and the clasp on the bracelet is so cool. I was excited to get the book, but I figured I probably wouldn't have time to read it for quite some time... It was nice to get the gum and the pencils as well - you don't think that these things are expensive until you're on a college budget! And I'm pretty sure you guys (or Mom, either way) can read my mind, because I was thinking about asking you to send me Burt's Bees, but I never did. The monkey is now hanging on my wall - yesterday Amy thought it was cute, so I made it scream, and the entire apartment fell silent for a minute... The box that Mom left with me was fantastic!!! Mom, I don't even know how you got to be so amazing. I felt kind of silly for not even realizing there must be something in there besides a coat and gloves, since it was so heavy, but I didn't even think about that. The owl cupcakes were such a cute idea, and I loved looking for all of the little hiding things you put in the jacket. Also, the thank you card scheme was quite devious, Mom. Just so the rest of you know, Mom knows me better than I know myself. The beets and artichokes made my life. Actually, EVERYTHING was amazing beyond my grandest expectations. :) And this was just in my first thirty minutes of being awake!
When I got to Book of Mormon, somehow my freshman academy group knew it was my birthday (don't ask me how). I got sung to, and we also sang to my Book of Mormon professor, whose birthday is the eighth. Then he told us that the curve for the test would be at 92, and one of the questions had been graded incorrectly. This means I get a 91/92! Yay. After BOM, instead of going to Calculus, I went to a presentation/speech/lecture/I don't know what it was, given by Asha Hagi Elmi, a woman from Somalia who formed the "Sixth Clan" in Somalia to represent the rights of women. Her efforts have led to tremendous reforms in women's rights in Somalia, and she is amazing. if you'd like to watch the video, go to <http://studyabroad.byu.edu/archive/results.php> and search for "Asha Hagi Elmi". I would really suggest it. I got out of there just in time for English, and then I went to politics. They were pretty normal, but still rose-tinted because I was happy it was my birthday. I went home and got a little bit of studying done before all of my roommates got home and started getting ready for the party.
Okay, before I get into the happy stuff, let me give you a little rant about some of my roommates: Amy and Kirsi did everything, bought everything, and organized everything. They told me I couldn't do the dishes, but then they had to go do homework after the party because they'd been working and helping for so long. Ashley, Shyler, and Madi showed up to eat, did nothing and paid for nothing to prepare, and then Shyler and Madi left (Shyler went to the math lab and Madi went to visit and flirt with a guy friend), calling to ask us to save them dessert. They didn't even help clean up.
Okay, rant over. I was a little ticked about that stuff afterwards, but I'll start at the beginning. Amy and Kirsi went to the Creamery where they got the stuff for stir fry. We all ate together for the first time, and then Madi and Shyler split. (I was just about to tell you about the decorations, but you saw those in the last post...) I went online, responded to the many birthday wishes on facebook, and then Amy had our game ready. This is the game: there is a candy bar wrapped in many layers of newspaper, taped together (it's supposed to be held by duct tape, but we didn't have any, egad). You have two oven mitts, a fork and spoon, and a dice. Whoever rolls a six gets to put on the oven mitts and use the fork and spoon to rip open the package. They have to pass the stuff on to the next person who rolls a six. The objective is to be the first one to get to the candy bar, rip the package open, and put a piece in your mouth. After the game, we frosted the cupcakes and I decorated them to look like owls with the supplies Mom sent me. They were SOO cute! And delicious (evil laugh).... We had a lot of cupcakes, so we took some over to our FHE brothers. On the way back, I decided to call you guys, so I had a lovely long conversation with Luke and others. (Luke, you'd better follow my advice....) I finally went in to bed, and was a little sad and disgruntled to find that nobody had done the dishes, so I did them. Shyler had gone to sleep, leaving the streamers as I told you, and Madi and Ashley were singing and playing in their room. Amy was studying, and Kirsi was studying in the library. Amy and I stayed awake waiting for Kirsi, but she wasn't home by 12:20 and she wasn't answering her phone, so we got a little nervous. I called all the library security and was in the middle of a conversation with the campus police at 12:35 when Amy got a text from her saying that her phone had been on silent but she was almost home. That was an adrenaline-filled end to a long, fun day! But in spite of some people, the rest of you made my birthday fantastic. It was especially wonderful to talk to you on the phone. It made me miss you, but I wasn't as homesick as I'd thought I would be - I think the care package helped. :)
Anyway, moving on to Thursday. I got up, ate some more baklava, went to classes, studied, etc. After calculus, I went to another of the Kennedy Center's International Relations lecture, this one given by Padma Venkataram, from India. She talked about her efforts to extend the system of micro-lending to lepers, and how that has succeeded. She was also pretty awesome. To see her talk, go to the same website I gave above and search for her name. Thursday evening Heidi and I went to see Star Trek, because that was its last day in the dollar theater, and we both wanted to see it. It was AMAZING!!! You guys all need to see it, b/c you'd love it. I want to see it again at Christmas time. Anyway, that was a lot of fun.
But Friday I woke up sick. Ew. My sinuses were clogged and I had a sinus headache. I missed calculus so I could go pick up some sudafed, which made me sincerely and overwhelmingly grateful that I'd just turned eighteen so that I could legally buy sudafed. I set up an appointment at the Student Health Center so I could get some antibiotics prescribed to treat my sinus infection, which had appeared overnight. The two classes I went to on Friday were miserable. I wasn't feeling quite as horrible, because of my gratuitous drug use, but I just couldn't seem to focus. I went home, took a nap, and then went to the doctor. Because I'd had no advance warning, I saw a doctor who I don't go to regularly. Her name was Gretchen Fors, and she was very nice. I told her all of my symptoms, and we couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I didn't have strep, but I had developed a sinus (and ear) infection out of the blue. Finally we decided to stop trying to figure out what had caused them and just treat them, so I got a prescription and went to Rite-Aid to fill it. (She had stayed past the time when the health center pharmacy closed so that we could try and find what was wrong with me.) I got my prescriptions, more sudafed, and some chicken noodle soup, and then went back to my apartment. I got there just in time to go to my Relief Society Compassionate Service Committee meeting, where I met the people in the committee and found out what my calling actually was. I went home, tried to study, couldn't focus, and went to bed.
Saturday was a little bit better. I slept in, and then chilled all day. I studied a bit, watched a movie, and then got ready to go on a date. I was feeling better after the antibiotics, sudafed, and overwhelming amounts of sleep, which was very nice. We (Robert took me) went to see the play Death of a Salesman, which was very sad but also very good. Then we went to BYU Creamery (They're making ice cream again, in different flavors!!!!!!!) and home. I had fun, but that was only the beginning of the evening... My roommates were bouncing off the walls when I got there, and we decided to watch Bride and Prejudice. It was amazing, and when we finally got to bed we crashed. (Oh, the ones who watched were Kirsi, Amy, Ashley and I). Shyler was staying the night with a friend, and so I could even leave the light on while I put my pajamas on!
Sunday morning I woke up feeling yucky and sick again. I got up, but didn't go to Hall Council or Hall meeting. I went to Sacrament meeting and then headed home with Amy and her younger sister Sarah, who had been visiting for the weekend and had to catch a flight in Salt Lake at 5. (Sarah had been staying with their other sister, so she wasn't over much, and Amy wasn't home much either). I chatted to Tess on google, talked to some of you guys on the phone, and then conked out. I woke up, ate some random food for dinner, and then went with the rest of the compassionate service committee to introduce our committee and our goals to some of the apartments. I got done with that and then came home and did some reading. I went to bed at around 11, but then I couldn't sleep! I was lying in bed until almost two in the morning. It was way fun. I found out that Shyler goes to bed early (thereby forcing me to work in the kitchen) and then calls her boyfriend late at night while I'm asleep (or she thinks I'm asleep). I think one of the questions on the housing survey should be whether you're a light or a heavy sleeper, and one should be about how much you mope. Anyways, just so you guys know I don't actually say this to my roommates, and I only tell you guys because I need to get it out or else explode. So our relationships aren't really as bad as I make them out to be...
Moving on, I woke up yesterday (Monday) and went to my weight training class, where we had to do strength training again. I tied with my old record of benching 75 pounds 7 times, but then later on I stupidly went back and did 20 reps of 45 pounds, so my shoulders are SO sore today. I went to all the rest of my classes and then came home to prepare for our cleaning check. I had to clean the oven, the stove, the bathroom floor, the back entryway, and the kitchen ceiling. That took me about an hour and a half, and then I worked on some math homework. At 7, everyone but Amy and I was still working on cleaning tasks or studying, so we went to FHE alone. :'( It was an amazing fhe. We frosted and wrapped cookies to hand out at the testing center on Wednesday (because we're in the middle of midterms). It was way fun. Then we went back and had our cleaning check. It was at the same time less and more strenuous than I had been expecting, but we passed so it was all good. Our RA Stephanie was accompanied by our Hall Advisor (who provides over several halls) because it was her first cleaning check, so we had a fun time talking to the advisor while Stephanie looked around. I wrote and decorated thank-you cards to Amy and Kirsi (using the supplies from Aunt Geniel for my b-day) and did my math homework. I didn't leave the room and actually went to bed before Shyler (crazy, huh?).
This morning I watched the devotional on BYUTV and made mashed potatoes. Tonight I'm going grocery shopping and attending a study session for my Intro to International Politics midterm, which is Wednesday-Friday. Other future plans include going to a major fair tomorrow and seeing Aunt Geniel and some friends of hers on the 27th, because she's going to come up and see Greg Mortensen (who wrote Three Cups of Tea) speak at a forum. Life is going pretty well right now, although it's a bit stressful. This post may have to hold you for a while, because I have my politics midterm and then my calculus midterm, back-to-back. I will talk to you soon, and I love you!!!!!!
Love, the family's newest 18-year-old,
Eliza
P.S. Mom, could you pass along the recipe for pie crust??? Thanks!
I just wrote you the longest, newsiest comment, and then I lost it. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteMaking chili tomorrow. Glad you liked the presents. Levi and I cleaned and put out autumn decor today. YW tonight was on media and we served kitty litter and dirt cakes. Next week I'm doing YW on dating. Please give input. (Kelsey's helping). Love that you're doing the Kennedy Center lectures. Does that indicate a career direction? Freshman first tests are hard--learning detail and scope, plus competitive GE classes. Glad your roommates are (mostly) thoughtful and considerate. Luke is into serious eating mode. Still picky. May starve. Dad knows you and I are related now. I've been reading books. Just finished "Emma Brown" and liked it.
Love you lots, and gotta run.
Eliza,
ReplyDeleteI made the pendants with that wiring kit I got in my Easter basket, but I bought the bracelet on that day when you, Marta, Mom, Mrs. Russell and I went Bargain Shopping at Garage Sales.
You may be pleased to know that I am now reading The Immortals series(Wild Magic, etc.) and might soon die of suspense!
In case you start thinking i am a sissy when I say I am sore, dryland and swimming are just as hard if not harder than they used to be.
Homework is still doing its job(keeping me up until 10-11 every night)! However, math is getting easier because now, Mr. Skutches is getting through whole lessons without bleeding into second period. Mr. Sweitzer continues to be my least-favorite teacher (40 push-ups every day!!!). Ms Hennessy is the most amazing teacher (as usual) because she is probably the only teacher that I know that gets really annoyed by Anthony Streeter(most annoying, rude kid in universe).
And now, I hope that this comment was long enough to make you feel just as loved(if not more)as when you were at home.
Love, Tess