Smorgasbord.

Ok, first of all, I can never think of anything creative or catchy to put for a title. Not my forte.

Here are some highlights of the week.

For those of you who may not know, BYU gives out free Bridal Guides. They are everywhere. And they are hilarious. On my Wednesday shift I work with some pretty funny people. So as I was leaving lunch to go to work, I saw the stand with the guides, so I grabbed one and headed off. I walked into the lab, held up my Bridal Guide proudly, and we all burst out laughing. I'm sure everyone in JKB 1005 thinks we are the most immature people. So we spent that hour flipping through and criticizing everything. Little did I know a Bridal Guide could make for hours of wholesome entertainment.

Every Thursday night me and some friends get together for dinner. It's always a fun time. Last night, we started talking about shows we used to watching growing up. Before we knew it, we had Youtube up and we were looking up the theme songs of all our favorites. The list included, but was not limited to, Arthur, Zoom, Duck Tales, Recess, The Magic School Bus, Animaniacs, and The Pinkie and the Brain. Yes, we could still sing to most of the songs. Yes, we still had our favorite episodes. And yes, we can even still recall the schedule of when they came on TV. Why don't they make shows like these anymore? I would still watch them faithfully.

After dinner last night, some of us decided to go check out the line at Wal-Mart for the release of the latest Harry Potter movie. I expected a huge line, I mean there are two large universities here and what else do college kids do for fun? We got there and there was no line.


But there was a small crowd off to the side watching the movie and eating cake. I won't make any judgment calls, but it was totally the type of crowd that would be in a place where there was free cake. We stood around and debated what to do, and then one of the employees paused the movie for a quick trivia question. "What was the first horcrux to be destroyed?" Annoying little girl: "The locket!" Me: "NO! It was TOM RIDDLE'S DIARY!!" You bet I was right. Prize? A free poster. Of Hermione. I can check that off my bucket list! They turned the movie back on and we watched until the end (15 more minutes) and then waited for more questions. If I could have answered more than one, I would have won so many prizes. Obviously this crowd did not know their stuff. My friend won a poster and then we were out of there by 11 o'clock. Success? I would say so.
Oh, and happy 11/11/11.

I'm BACK!!!

Greetings to all my blog readers! All three of you. I've always wanted to say "greetings" as an introduction. I know you all have been waiting and waiting in suspense, wondering when I would blog again. Well I have good news. Too many funny things this week have happened and I believe you all deserve to hear about it.

1. Apparently I still look like I'm in the 16-18 years old range. Since school has started, I've had way too many people ask if I'm an R.M., when I'm going to turn my papers in, etc. One time (the only time) I went to the mission prep sunday school class, they asked who had served missions. Me and a few others raised our hands and the teacher looks at me and says, "Oh, really? Wow." Small comment, big impact. The most recent occurrence was this week. It started at work with someone saying I looked 18. Then that night while I was taking the trash out, some guys asked if I could help carry some boxes in. There were probably five of us and we piled into the elevator. One thing to note about Alpine Village is that the elevator rides are always, ALWAYS awkward. This time was no exception. So we are going down, and one guy says, "How old are you? You look pre-mission." Before I answer my first thought was "Is he really asking me this to break the awkward silence?" I say, "I'm 21, I've already served." Everyone nodded and raised their eyebrows like it was a huge surprise. What the heck?

2. I went to my very first, and probably last, Pampered Chef sales party. It was a hoax. My friend got invited and told me that a professional chef was "going to teach us how to make a dessert." We got there, and there was sweet Marilynn, our saleswoman. She did teach us how to make a dessert. And you bet she sat us down with a catalog and let us look through it. One of her tactics was to say an item, and we had to find what page it was on. She did this three times, I won twice. And I won a piece of chocolate each time. You'd think this was a nice prize, right? I did, until I discovered that she took it from the candy bowl that was already in the apartment. Real cheap. I put it back in spite of her.

3. I had another biology test. The kids I sit with in class are a lot of fun, but we usually end up not listening to the lecture because it is so boring and impossible to take notes on. None of us did that great on the test, so we all decided that today we were going to pay attention. That lasted for like 10 minutes. By the end of the class we had all taken the Moron Test, an app on my phone, and we had all taken our picture and uploaded it to the FatBooth app. It was so funny. I know I've been complaining about school being so hard. But seriously, PDBio 120 is not the most thrilling class to take.

That sums up my week. This may become a weekly update thing since I work every Friday night and I get bored really quick. I have a stack of notes for Music 201 sitting next to me, but who wants to study Greek literature and Gothic architecture on a Friday night? Not me.

Exactly one year ago...

One year ago from today I was on BYU's campus as a student for the first time. I was scared to death, didn't want to be here, didn't want to meet new people, didn't want to start classes, and I just wanted to go home and have a normal summer break like all my friends. A few days later I was wondering what I had got myself into. I didn't even know how to go inside the Cannon Center, so I didn't eat dinner Saturday night or eat the next morning. On the first day of classes I got lost on campus somewhere down by the Richard's Building and was late for my first class, which was English at 8 a.m. and lasted two hours, three times a week. It was the worst. The rest of the week wasn't much better either. And then I finally started hanging out with some people from my freshman academy group. At first I thought they were all weird and I didn't want anything to do with them, but they all turned out to be pretty cool. College started to be more fun. We went ice blocking every week, went to the Skyroom Cafe when our dining cards got maxxed out, and played night games around Helaman Halls. Today I talked to a few of the people that I met on my first day and it's crazy to think that it's been a whole year. I still remember the names we had to make up for ourselves to "help" us learn each other's names. There was Joking Jake, Joshing Josh, Magical Melinda, Tiny Tara, Grinning Gwen, Ecstatic Erica, Leaping Lindsey, and of course myself, Masculine Michael. Or maybe it was Musical, or even Muscular. Either way, they all apply. Anyway, I've endured classes that probably haven't helped me at all, like American Heritage and Human Development. I've had roommates from three different countries. I've had spaghetti and grilled cheese sandwiches at least once a week, and either Lucky Charms or Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast every morning. I've had enough midterms, finals, projects, readings, writings, and study groups to last me about two years. But there are some things that I am going to miss. My daily 30-minute walk to campus and back, mint brownies from Sugar 'n Spice, the bell tower ringing "Come, Come Ye Saints" every hour, seeing "Y Mountain" every day, studying in the library until midnight when they start playing classical music, night games on campus, pranking innocent EFY kids, and sleeping wherever and whenever I got the chance. I could keep going and going but I don't want to bore you :) Now I am getting ready to come home for good, only to leave it again to come back to Provo once more. And then it's off to Virginia where I will spend the best/hardest two years of my life. BYU, you've taught me a lot and even though I thought I would never say it, I'm going to miss you. See you in two years.

Just a quick update...

Just three more weeks until I leave! I can't believe it has come this fast. It's really hard to focus on school AND getting ready to leave at the same time, but it has helped keep my nerves down. I have my last midterm on Thursday and then one more week of classes, one last trip to Idaho, back down to Provo, finals, back to Idaho for a long weekend, and then back to Provo. It's going to get hectic very fast.

The Past Year

Exactly one year ago, I was getting ready to do this...

A month later, I was getting ready to come here...


I got to eat food like this...


And tried to get as much of this as I could...


I've seen my fair share of celebrities...


And I even became a celebrity myself!

http://academy.byu.edu/newsDetail.jsp?id=71

I've had enough of these to last me for a while...


And in less than 5 weeks, I'll be getting ready to come here!


One big year of change, don't you think?

A Story for the Ages...

By now you all know the story of how I got my call, but here are some pictures of the quickest, most exciting, most boring trip to retrieve that mission call.

After calling five or six friends to see if they wanted to come on a quick road trip, none of them could go! But I knew my good friend Lindsey would. She was in class so I kept calling and calling until she finally walked out because she thought I was going to be telling her where I was going, but not quite... After some quick explaining and persuading, she left in the middle of a class and skipped another class to come along for the ride!

I know he wasn't thrilled to come and probably could have spent his day doing something else, but I couldn't have asked for a better twin to come along for the ride!


After a long 3 1/2 hour drive, I finally had it!!! But with the daunting thought of having to drive back with that envelope screaming at me, I decided to drive back so I wouldn't be tempted to peek. All I knew was that whatever was in there was going to tell me my future for the next chapter of my life! And despite rumors that I looked before I opened it with everyone waiting at home, I did NOT look! (That's right Candria. I do have self-control.)

Richmond, Virginia: Here I come. (And Brittany, Andrea, Amy, and any other family that I may "run into." Cards, new ties, and goodie packages are always welcome!)

P.S. Thanks to everyone for waiting up so late for me to get back, it meant a lot! And sorry for all the late-night phone calls...

And the winner is...

ONE person guessed stateside. As a winner, you are officially invited to my farewell. Anyone else who voted is invited too!

It's been a crazy week, so sorry for the long boring post. After a hectic weekend with an unplanned trip to Utah and back in one day, the time has come to start yet another semester, or term in this case, of college. My roommates are a little crazy. One of them is from Nigeria. He's about 5'4", has a thick accent, and likes to smile and laugh a lot. Before he says anything to me, he says, "My friend..." It makes me laugh. The other one is from Nepal. Yeah I didn't know where that was either. I've seen him once since I moved in on Monday. I'm sure he's pretty cool...? Classes are going pretty well so far. On Tuesday when classes started, I couldn't find my first class, tennis. It brought back horrifying memories of my first day last June when I was wandering around the Brick Oven trying to find the JFSB. I knew there were stairs somewhere, but I had no clue where to go. Anyway, I skipped tennis and waited until noon for my next class. Usually when I go to the JFSB (my home away from home) I have to wander around trying to find a place to study. Today, I felt like I was the only person in the whole building. At noon I went to the JSB for my next class. It was the same room where I had class last summer. So I went in, the class was full, and we waited for the teacher to arrive. At about 12:30, after half the class had left, a nerdy but helpful student realized he had the professor's office phone number in his phone. I'm still wondering why, but hey, he called and the teacher was there five minutes later. He was really nice and apologetic, but after 30 minutes of apologizing and giving every excuse that came to his mind for being late, it started getting old. So yeah, first day was off to a great start. My next class was right after the last one and right across the hall. So of course I was there before everyone else. I started talking to my teacher and found out that he served in the Richmond Virginia Mission! He was really nice and it was a good class. So that is how my first day turned out, pretty crazy. Now I have 7 more weeks of school, a mission to prepare for, a farewell talk to write, farewells to attend, finals, and then the MTC. Life is great.