Ick...

so its been a while since I posted. Nothing extremely exciting happened to me the past week or so ergo I didn't post anything. Midterms are upon me and I already took the Physical Science one. I did average. Meaning I'm pretty sure I got a C. Its ok. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I was memorizing things I didn't really need to and sort of skimming over the stuff which I did need.

My next test is Book of Mormon. It starts tomorrow and ends saturday. I'm probably going to end up taking it on friday since I'm going to General Conference on Saturday AND Sunday. I'm not too sure how I feel about Conference. I mean, at home we only watched the Sunday morning session. I hope the talks are engaging. Today at the devotional, which I went to because I missed the one on sunday and I felt bad, there was a guy from the quorum of the 70 and it was super boring. He talked with the same tone someone would use to put a kid to sleep I couldn't pay attention at all! I hope conference is better than that, or I may have to bring my sketchbook along to practice life-drawing so I don't fall asleep. I know thats rotten to say because these people have important things to say, but really, they could spice it up a bit to keep people interested. 

Anyway, back to where I was going with this, I was reading up some stuff for anthropology and eating some sour patch watermelons, (I've been eating a lot of those lately) and my throat started hurting. From the sour bits irritating me or am I getting sick? I REALLY Hope that I don't get sick. That would be wretched. The thing is I've been feeling great. No allergies or anything. last year when I came over Rosh Hashanah (which ironically is today) I had terrible allergies. Hopefully the ill feeling I have is more due to the candy than germs. I'm really cold too. I don't know if thats from my possible illness, or because the room is freaking FREEZING because Chanel is one of those people who is hot all the time or whatever and she likes the room to be at 70 degrees with the fan on High. I hope I feel better. Getting sick right now would be TERRIBLE! 

Weekends!

The weekends here are so fun! So on Friday, which is becoming my favorite day of the week was sweet. After class my roommate Chanel and her twin sister Cami and I went to the mall. I didn't buy anything though because I wasn't in a very shoppy mood. Then we came back and bought 2 pizzas and ate those which was delicious, and I watched the Office. I've quickly fallen in love with that show. Its so good I can't believe I've never seen it before.  Then I went to Fall Fest with my friend Kelli. we waited in line for face painting forever. I got a giraffe on my face. Anyway, then we saw Hyrum and Tanner and these two girls they were with and we went to this lame comedy show. It was all improv and I didn't think It was that hilarious but Kelli did. I laughed a little. Tanner said he looked at me and thought it was funny how I wasn't even smiling. but hey, they weren't that funny. 

Afterwards fall fest was over and we were standing around trying to decide what to do. Hyrum heard that they were giving away free drinks at Legends Grille so we trekked over there and there was a dance going on in there, but we went straight to the free sodas. I got a root beer. Then we found this dude named Thomas who was in the group last week with the big signs game. the group of us chatted a bit joking around. They thought it was funny how they couldn't really tell if I was being sarcastic or not, and we walked back to Merrill Hall and I tried to learn piano. Then we played psychiatrist and at 1:30 they kicked us out and we played murder in the dark again. After that kinda died when people started going back to the dorms, Tanner decided to talk about parasites and stuff which was freaky but everyone in the group was talking about how they wanted to be doctors so it was relevant . And then we told jokes and then I went back at like 3:00.

I don't know why playing dumb games all night is so fun but it totally is. I guess those people are my Friday posse. 

Today we went to a football game and it was so hot I was dying. We left early, me cami and chanel that is, and we got some jamba juice and I watched more of the Office. (Its so great) Then I worked on the ward program, and went to a Foreign film called Black Orpheus. Which was 90% dancing 10% plot. it was kinda bizarre. Don't feel like explaining it now, just look it up on IMDB if you care. 

Anyway. Yay weekends! Tomorrow I have to do homework which isn't so fantastic, but hey. 

And before you say anything about my work ethic (That means you Mom) Just remember. I never did my homework on fridays or saturdays at home and I turned out fine.  

Friday=Fun

Oh man today was so fun. I was done with classes at like, 11 so I went back to the dorm to get stuff done. I took my first online HEPE (Health) quiz and got a 94% It was torture. I had to read all about cardio and muscle and flexibility workouts and I felt really guilty about how I don't do any of those workouts. Anyway, then I read for Anthropology and then I watched project runway on the Chinese Youtube because the normal one is blocked. Its ok because it was all in english and there were chinese subtitles. 

Then I saw prince Caspian at the Varsity theatre with Kelli. It was only a dollar and it was amazing. The audience was great laughing and "ooohing" and "Awwwing" and catcalling at all the right parts it was great. Then we went to this lame block party a million miles away and when we got there it was all lame I did get free "Lyma Bean" stickers though...Lyma Bean is like a wannabe facebook. FYI. Then Kelli and I left and we went to her friend Hyrum's dorm and played this game called signs for a really long time till like 1:30 AM with some of his dorm friends and these other girls then they kicked us out and we played Murder in the Dark until like 3. It was way fun hanging out with all them for so long. Then, since Kelli lives off-campus, Me, Tanner, Hyrum, Jeremy, and this other girl whose name escapes me but I think was Megan all walked her home. past Rape hill and we were safe. I almost tripped a million times though. The boys were very chivalrous and wouldn't let us go home all alone in the scary provo darkness. I dunno it was super fun and it was the latest I've ever stayed out before. It was like 3:40 something when I got back. I'm glad my roommate decided to go home this weekend because she would have thought I was insane. Maybe its good that I think I have insomnia. It keeps me up late so I can do fun stuff like that. It probably sounds stupid and everytihng but you had to be there to realize how fun it was. I feel like a real teenager now since before I never did stuff like that. I was always at home.

Ah.

Good Stuff. 

Sorry Mom. I know you probably don't approve but it was great.  

The Early Days of School

ok this is what my side of the room looks like since i know you were dying to see. That blue shirt on my bed was the one I got from the meeting during orientation about art. I was so excited since I always wanted to get a free shirt and since i didn't get one in the raffle I was way happy. The walls are so bare. I want to put a poster or something on them but I don't know what kind to get. or where to get cute ones. BYU blocked allposters.com so I can't look for a nice one either. I kind of like this one

 
but I don't exactly have the means to go about getting it. I saw one at Bed Bath and Beyond but still. Don't think that will be falling into my hands anytime soon. Maybe I should hang my own art up. Problem is, the walls are so big and my paper is so small it would just look extremely dorky I think. 

I also went to a football game in the sweltering heat. That was not so fun. plus people kept like, standing up so I had to stand up to see. Not fun when its burning hot and you don't have anything to hold your hair up. I grew up on baseball, so this was sort of hard to follow until the end when I finally started understanding. 

Then there was this dance where this boy from DC I know was like talking to me which I was relieved at first, because I didn't really see anyone I knew except Blythe but she was with those stupid Potomac girls so I couldn't deal with them, but then he like wouldn't leave me alone so I sort of wandered off into the crowd and found people for my Y-Group and then he like practically followed me home. Later on the dude invited me to a soccer game and I wasn't particularly interested in going but when the dude CALLED me to see if I was coming when I said I was going to get a jacket and must have been taking a really long time I figured why not? I wasn't doing anything else at the time. Its got awkward, I ran out of stuff to say. I don't really want to talk to anyone I already knew from Maryland. I sorta wanted to start over, you know? I feel like since people don't know me I'm not tied down to my old reputation or whatever. 


It rained one day and it got pretty cold outside and on top of the mountain it snowed! I thought it was so amazing I couldn't stop staring at the snow-capped peaks. It was so cool! My roommate Chanel wasn't so impressed but I sure was. 

Class is alright. Almost all of them are huge and I'm not sure how well I'm gonna do with that, but for the most part the teachers Professors seem nice enough. I already have plenty of homework though. not fun. 

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