Orientation!

ok so Orientation. Yesterday we walked around campus forever and looked at stuff but that doesn't matter because I still am so lost. I got my books and my ID though and did a lot of little stuff before that. so after walking around for like, ever, we wound up at Helaman Field and they gave us "barbeque" It was basically a burger bun with this weird chicken stuff inside and you could put barbeque sauce on it. And so we ate and stuff. I talked mostly to my roommate Chanel and the girl that shares the bathroom, Rachel and Chanel's twin sister Cami. all of them seem pretty cool so it was good. Then we started watching this weird movie called "The Forbidden Kingdom" But we couldn't really understand what was going on, and it was cold, so we went back to our dorm room  The only thing I remember was that the Maeser Building is built over a graveyard, and the hill behind it is called "rape hill" so we prolly shouldn't walk back there at night.

Today we went on another walk and learned about buying books. and listened to these boring talks about school and byu I don't remember and we watched a very dorky movie about making friends. another movie then showed about the history of BYU which was interesting. then we had lunch, I met this girl from Hawaii and another Utah girl and we played that dumb human knot game. Then there was a talk about a byu education that started off interesting, but got boring really fast. Then we had the multicultural thing which was boring too. They had these people come out in traditional clothes and they sang. I was expecting them to dance or something. Then we spoke with our multicultural advisors. Woo! 

And then I dunno I just came to my room and chilled there with my roommate. and had delicious burgers at the cannon center. And then we had this thing called tradition of honor. That was something. They had tap dancing which I wasn't too impressed with and singing which was very impressive, Then this thing in which they had a skit about the honor code. and how its cool to live by it and whatnot. then this group which is apparently slightly famous who I can't remember the name of sang their christian pop songs. and then the funniest thing happened it was so mormon! The Y group leaders had to like, sing with these fake candles and be all inspiring and stuff and just as we were about to leave, the guy in the opening band was like "Normally you would be leaving now, but this guy here wrote this girl a song and he'd like to sing it for her" So that guy got the band to play along as he sang this song to her in front of practically all the freshman and then there was this line that went "I get down on one knee" or something like that and he did and everyone started screaming and he popped out the ring and obviously she said yes, and then it was all la di da love! yay! but really. how could she say no and embarrass the poor guy like that? I can't believe its only my second day and already I've witnessed a marriage proposal. haha.   

                      

Animals!

so today I didn't really know what to do so we went to the Aquarium and the Zoo! 

(haha I'm in the hotel lobby and the guy here is whistling the song that that rooster whistles at the beginning of Disney's Robin Hood movie) 

The aquarium was so small! it was 8 bucks to get in there, 7 for me, because I'm a student, and there were literally only two rooms. the first area was the aquatic life in Utah. Did you know Utah had aquatic life? I didn't either. I mean it IS a desert. It had these June suckers which are fish that used to be very abundant in Utah lake until those pioneers came and brought some european fish and those fish sorta took over the lake and the pioneers ate them and eventually that european fish are more abundant then those poor june suckers. There are only about a thousand or something left. There were also frogs, and brine ship which are the only things that can live in the Salt lake. Its funny, in Environmental Science last year, we did an experiment with them in which we basically put them in varying concentrations of windex and saw how many could stay alive. It brought me back. Good times. There were also tons of trout.  

The second part had the sea creatures. It had some jellyfish which were pretty sweet and this octopus and of course the tropical fish. Its sort of annoying to me how parents point out the clownfish and say "Look Its Nemo!" AGH Its so irritating. they could just say its a clownfish which is just as fun a word as "Nemo" is.

There were also the rays which were in the little touch pool They feel cool very soft and squishy. I sort of think they are cute. Too bad that one killed Steve Irwin. That kinda ruins their reputation. 

And that was it. we wound up at the gift shop. I wanted to buy a stingray toy but I decided against it. But really I like toys way more than an 18-year-old ought to. 

we had lunch there and I had a smoothie that was in a plastic cup made from Corn and it was 100% compostable. They should make everything out of that

Then we went to the Hogle Zoo. 8 dollars again for both my dad and I and it was nice. Very small especially compared to the National Zoo and that one's free. It was nice though. There was a rare white alligator, and elephants, one was pregnant. Elephants are pregnant for 22 months. Thats a long time. There was also a tiger and a leopard and a cheetah and a wolf a few giraffes There was a baby one. I Love giraffes! lots of monkeys and two bears oh and we saw a sloth. that was cool. The zoo was small so that it was really easy to see the whole thing in a relatively short amount of time which made it nice. Maybe I'll volunteer there sometime. I love animals! 

If I was really really rich, I would donate a couple million dollars to the zoo, probably the national one, to make the elephant house and the enclosure way bigger. probably the big cats area too. The poor animals probably hate sitting around in the same old area all the time with hardly any room when compared to the savannah or whatever. The thing I liked about the zoo here is that they routinely move the big cats around so that they always have a newish area to explore so they don't get too bored. Maybe I would take those millions of dollars and make a safari park instead so they could be in a nice big habitat. Yeah so If I get really rich thats what I'll do. When I get old I'll take my money and open a safari park. or make the elephant area bigger. 

Hello Hello!

This is the first time I got internet access since I came to Utah. I'm in the hotel lobby because thats the only place that gets a constant internet connection. I had been sorta mooching internet off of someone who didn't have a password in the room but that wasn't working so well. 

Anyway, I found out that I don't need to take English. YAY! I always do alright in English class but thats kind of a weight being lifted off my chest. No papers for me to write. About English stuff anyway. In its place I'm taking Physical Science. Science is ok and it's one of those requirements so I'm doing that. I suppose I could drop my history class but I really don't want to at this point because I really like history. So right now Im signed up for 16 credit hours out of the maximum 18 and I don't really want to add anymore until I get used to the flow of college education. Thats also the reason that as of now I'm not taking any honors classes because this is a new experience and I really don't want to jump in and be overwhelmed and swamped by the whole thing. If I do well this semester I'll try the honors thing. But not right now. It looks really bad to fail an honors class. 

So Utah is a strange place. Its a quiet sleepy sort of place and the people are very friendly. Almost TOO friendly. Its gorgeous of course in that dry crunchy sort of way and its very flat except for the mountains. Its sorta funny because when we went to the salt lake temple's visitor center the missionary there asked me if I wanted a book of mormon and I said "I already have one, I actually am already mormon" haha 

We also visited BYU's visitor center and the girl there was extremely excited. We came in and when she learned I was going to be attending there she sorta exploded and was like "YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN!!!!! I LOVE IT HERE!!!!" Based on all the reviews I've gotten so far BYU sounds a bit like Disneyland. people always tell me how fun it is. 

We got in a fender bender in the Denny's parking lot. The rental car is a Dodge Magnum and although it looks something like a hearse it's tough. The other man's car got a dent but ours got a little scratch and thats it. 

Anyway, I miss my mom after we said goodbye at the airport, my I couldn't stop crying until after I'd been in the hotel a bit. I feel bad. I was all weeping during breakfast at Denny's the waitress probably thought I was having some big issues. Then we went to temple square, still crying a bit on my side and since it was sunday, and we weren't at church the nice missionary asked If I wanted a tour. But I'd been there before and I didn't really need one. Plus most of the stuff in there was stuff I'd been learning since I was born practically. 

Had dinner with my relatives, that day, My cousin and I discussed the founding fathers and politics a bit. They don't seem to like Obama. Right now I like him a lot and before, I was considering McCain but ever since I heard he can't use a computer plus his smearing Obama instead of telling what he actually wants to accomplish makes my respect for him go way down. Also the fact that he is so old that I don't really think he'll last very long if he became president. The stress of the job ages men younger than him and I think the job just might do him in. We also talked about how racist people are. It was funny sort of. 

Anyway I gotta go, My battery is almost dead. Wish me luck. I check into the dorm tomorrow. Not gonna lie, I'm nervous!  

Love, Meredith 

Cram!

So I pretty much finished packing most of my personal belongings today, and doing that is one of the most draining things ever. I feel like I'm about to pass out. 

My whole life is packed into these 3 suitcases

I don't know where I'm gonna put my box of art supplies or anything. Its weird having to pick up everything and stuff it in there. Basically there's only clothes in those. I think I'm going to go through and take out more stuff. Awful. If I'd realized/thought about how awful the whole packing situation would be, I'd so be doing this differently. I don't know If I should bring any books, like novels or whatever to read because I really have zero space. I think I can jam a couple DVDs into the laptop case... Packing sucks. 

I kind of wish I was going to some cool exotic foreign country so I could pretend I was a globe trekker but no. I'm going to Utah, which to tell you the truth doesn't sound terribly exciting unless you like mountaineering. Not saying that I won't go hiking, but only doing that seems like a drag.

Oh well. I'm going to go take out a pair of jeans, and maybe a shirt or two from my suitcases now.