Winter Schedule

So I have to do my class schedual for winter on Nov 4th (I think, I should double check that). I spent all afternoon trying to figure it out and I am feeling good about it. So here it is

French: 8-9 daily
Religion (second half of the New Testament): 9-10 MW
French and Italian Cinema: 12-3 MW
Writing Literary Criticism: 9:30-10:45 TTH
Philosophy of Religion: 12-1:20 TTH
Civilization: Literature 2: 1:30-3

The only classes that aren't General Eds are French and Lit Criticism. But I need to take French 202 for my major meaning I have to take 101,102,201 at some point. And then Lit Criticism is for my English major. I'm a little worried about taking classes for my major because I'm still not absolutly 100% positive on it, but right now, my english class is my favorite so I think I'm good. Also the only other Gen Ed I could have taken next semester is Bio, which I want to take during the spring term because classes tend to be easier during spring/summer and also then I only have to deal with it for 8 weeks in stead of the full semester. Oh, the other thing is that as of right now, nobody is signed up for Cinema, so that might change.

I've decided that I am going to stay for Spring term for sure because then, with my summer/online credits, I will be an even halfway through my soph year, a semester ahead.

The Macbeth Murder Mystery

We had to read this for my english class. You guys have to read it.

It's Decision Making Time

Ok, so I've been doing the folk dance thing and I like it. It's fun and gives me something to do. I wasn't really thinking about the future and SPAC (Spring Performing Arts Company) tryouts are next Wednesday! Here is the deal, SPAC reherses all through winter semester and then during the Spring, they go on tour in Utah, they are gone for many weeks and do all kinds of fun things.

The Cons: I wouldn't be able to go to school during the spring term. I was undecided on this matter, but I was pretty sure that I was going to take classes. I have no idea how much it costs. I've heard that the school pays for a lot of it, but who knows. Then I would have to buy probably three new pairs of shoes and things like that.

The Pros: Being invloved/having a group. In a school of this magnitude, it would be nice to be able to associate myself with a group. They were talking about it today and it sounds like a heck of a lot of fun. During spring term, the whole team stays in one appartment complex, then the traveling. It would be a great opportunity to force friends on me, because as you know, I do not make friends well.

I want opinions!!!! Tell me what you think, any other aspects I didn't think of. Also, there is still a huge possibility I wouldn't get in even if I auditioned. So keep that in mind.

Parade!

As you know, I am a proud member of the folk dance ensemble and we were in the homecoming parade today. The Performance team wore costumes and handed out balloons and fliers for Christmas around the World, and we all got to do the grunt work. There was one dance everyone knew, Bongara (a bollywood dance), and then half the teams did a French-Canadian dance and the other half did a scottish dance. The order was supposed to be Bongara, FC, Scot. But thats not how it ended up happening. It went Bongara, FC, Bongara, FC, Bongara, Bongara Scot, Bongara, FC, Bongara, Bongara, Bongara, FC, Scot, Bongara, FC, Bongara, Bongara (sped-up). Now I don't know if thats the exact order, but I do know that we did Bongara an inordinate ammount of times and FC way more than Scot. THat meant that the teams doing FC got very few breaks. I was so tired at the end, I came home, showered, and slept.

I got there early to blow up balloons and we got donuts and hot chocolate. It was fun. Unfortunatly, I don't have pictures, but others do.

Peer Reviews

Alrighty, so I understand that peer reviewing can be helpful, but what this teacher is making us do is insane. In a class of about 150, he has assigned us groups, which makes communication really difficult because I only know the people who sit around me in class, I don't know everyone in the class. But thats ok, difficult, but ok. Then we have to do the peer review thing, duh, its a peer review. What I don't understand is why we need to write letters to our reviewers and letters back after we review them AND write on the actual papers if WE HAVE TO MEET IN PERSON ANYWAY!!!! I am writing them this letter when I am going to meet with her tomorrow and discuss her paper along with the other two members of the group. Seriously, pick one! Either make me write all the letters and do the work OR make me speak with them. This is very redundant.

My mantra: jump through the hoops, Laura, jump through the hoops...

slightly above average

Well friends, thats what I am, slightly above average. I have gotten B's on just about every test I've taken and it's starting to get annoying. It doesn't matter how much I study, I will end up with a B. Today's Religion midterm is a great example. I studied what was on the cwapface studyguide (seriously, cwapface), I even went through a few of the powerpoint slides, I didn't exactly feel prepared, but I knew that my only option would be to re-read 30 chapters of hardcore scripture in order to feel even slightly more prepared. The test was open scriptures and he told us this from the beginning and encouraged us to take notes in our books because, as he sees it, life is an open book test (I agree). So I went to take this test and there were a few questions that were weird or that I didn't get/have the slightest clue where to look for the answer. But I was feeling pretty good overall. I had found direct answers to most of the questions I had really taken my time and felt that my lack of studying hadn't hindered my test-taking.

A FLIPPING B!!!!! and an 83% at that. I don't understand. There is nothing wrong with a B, its better than most grades, but really, I couldn't have gotten an A on a religion test? And I always get 100% on the quizzes, I havn't missed a day of class (though I'll admit to some slight head-nodding-like dad used to do when he was bishop, hahaha).

What ever happened to the good ol' days, where a girl had a work dress or two and a sunday dress, and one pair of shoes. She didn't have to worry about make-up and hair was a simple up-do that was functional.

I have three pairs of jeans, one of which doesn't fit, another pair that is long so the bottoms are gross and the last pair which I have worn to death literally, they are falling apart. Then I have my black comfy pants that are new and that I love (even if they could stand to be another inch longer) and grey pants that I'm having fun embroidering (I had to let the hem out and it's turning into a snowball project) and two pairs of cords that i just wish were longer (seeing a theme here?). I also have two pairs of sweat-esque pants, one of which is, again shorter than I want and the other is so old the velour is coming off. Then there are the skirts and dresses and shirts and such. And the shoes. Why isn't one pair enough? I have my converse and exercise shoes, then way too many heels and I still want a pair of black flats and brown ones.


SO MUCH STUFF!!!! Why aren't we content with our two or three dresses anymore? Don't get me wrong, I love my stuff, but it just makes life so much harder to have so much.

One more thought

How is it possible that a powder (such as hot chocolate mix) can be fat free? It seems flying against nature that fat could be a powder, it is fat, it is always greasy hence why they used to use straight up lard for greasing pans and such.

Can Flies Smell?

If feels like they do, after all they gravitate towards food and other smelly items, yet they are so tiny and It doesnt feel right that they should get a sense of smell with those eyes they have.

A few facts from www.flypower.com

"Also, flies don't bite or sting. They have neither teeth nor a stinger. Flies thrust a needle like spike into their victims and injects a digestive juice that breaks down the victims cell tissue. They then suck the liquid in to injest it. Very poor manners to say the least.

But don't think that flies are helpless and otherwise benign to their larger neighbors. In 1923, Black flies in swarms were reportedly responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 sheep, horses and cattle in Rumania and Bulgaria. Of course I would suppose one would expect this sort of behavior from an area of the world that also brought us the Carpathinan warlord, Dracula.

A few more misc. facts to round things out. Did you know.........

The average house fly lives on average 21 days.
A flies wings beat 200 times per second.
Flies don't grow. They are born full size.
Flies have 4000 lenses in each eye.
Flies jump up and backwards when taking off.
Average speed of a fly in flight is 4.5 m.p.h..
Flies smell with their antennae "

So, as I was procrastinating finishing my paper for American Heritage, I was listening to some music and looking out the window, basically zoning under the pretense of thinking about my paper, and I came to an interesting conclusion. Life isn't fun. Sure, you have a few good moments, but for the most part, life is made up of moments like the one I just had. Sitting and just being, but not active, and not exactly "fun". I mean, we are stuck in classes for how many years? And how many of those classes do we actually like enough to be involved?

I find myself content with sitting and listening to music and looking out the window for hours on end. The French have the right idea with all that café sitting, but we are too ‘busy’ to enjoy moments like that. It's moments like that that allow us to learn the most about ourselves, our surroundings, and our beliefs.

do I ever do anything that isn't reading?

Alrighty, when I was home last, I took some books from ashley. the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series. Oh my gosh, so good! If I had read this when I actually had to know greek myhology, it might have come in handy. I will always know who is the god of what now. Not only that, but the story was fabulous and the writing amazing. I was laughing half the time. Really, just read them. It took me a week to read all 5 books, so not hard books, but still satisfying.

First Date

Alrighty, well it was going to come eventually, I just got back from my first BYU date. It was a triple date with Cory (aka Elder Austin) and his two friends Ryan and guywhosenameidontremember and their dates Lizzy and Katie and there was another couple-couple (like not just a date, a couple) who was only there for the first part.

So first we had lots of fun carving pumpkins. Each date-team had a pumpkin and we got some people from the appartment over to judge. Ours was awsome, we had the new batman symbol superimposed on the old symbol, then around the back we had a jack-o-lantern two face. I didn't have my camera, but people took pictures and when I get those, I'll show you. We had a lot of fun talking, the guys had all served their missions in California, thats how they knew each other.

Then one of the girls suggested we toast the pumpkin seeds, so we did that. Really though, the best part of playing with pumpkin seeds is coming up with fun things you can put on pumpkin seeds, like ranch, bbq sauce, butter-cinnamon-sugar. We had much dessert consisting of really good cake (it was one of the guys birthday the day before and someone had made him a cake) and this fabulous mint cookies and cream ice cream and hot chocolate to top it all off.

Then we went down to the volleyball/basketball court and played a bit of each sport. I was really bad, but so was one of the other girls, so I didn't feel quite so bad. We were really just having fun though. I found out that one of the guys served in Sandy's (my aunt) ward and knew Superstar Five. They just had a new baby named Sassafras.

I had all kinds of fun. They were some great people and I hope to repeat the experience. (Also, I feel like I should mention this, Cory opened doors for me and the likes, very gentlemanly)

ATTACKED!!!!

Ok, so short post. I was run/walking today around my usual neighborhood, but it was later than I usually go so there were a few kids that were home from, like, first grade playing in the front yard. I was walking at this point and this little boy with two fake swords (that could be sheathed on his back) come up to me in slow motion and taps me with the two black swords. So I say "ahhh, you got me!" and keep walking. Then his brother/friend/another little boy comes out of the door. Sword-boy tells me that he got his swords at the Big K, then the other boy has to show me his watch and tell me that he got that at the Big K too. I was kindof walking through the whole thing, I didn't think that stopping to talk to random little kids was a good idea, not that the kids would hurt me, but I didn't want the neighbors to talk "yeah, there was this weird chick talking with those boys." They kind of followed me for a while though, like it was another full house before I stopped being attacked and I got the feeling that that was the limit to where they could play, like they would have kept going, but weren't allowed. Though what kind of parent sets up play-boundries but doesn't teach "STRANGER DANGER" to their kids, I have no idea.

Also, there was a little blond girl in some kind of princess costume, I want to say it was tinkerbell in princess-dress form, not fairy form.

Fun With Midterms!

Ok, so today I took my American Heritage midterm. Basically what happened was I got home from my classes at 11, I got done with my running/showering/lunching by 1 and then I tried to force myself to study and I did pretty well. As Kelli figured out, studying really well involves drinking massive amounts of water, then, you get bathroom breaks and you can't feel bad about breaking for that. Well so I studied. At one point I thought that maybe if I did some of my reading for my Book of Mormon class, I would get extra points and do better on my test.

Then the time came when I realized that, though I hadn't planned to take my test until 5, studying any more really wouldn't have been helpful, I would have been going over stuff that I already know and wasting time just reading my textbook, hoping to find something useful. So I put on my new boots and my happy jacket and went over to the testing center where I decided that going to the bathroom before hand would probably be a good idea (remember the water) and all I have to say is that that bathroom smelled like rotten fish!

Lemme describe the testing center to you all. You go up this massive staircase and get to this level that has carpeting marking where the lines should go. If you show up on like the last day of finals, its packed with many people who probably spill out onto the staircase. Lucky for me, I am an overachiever and took my test on the first day it was offered (but really, midterms are different times for different classes, so it's not like finals week where everyone is testing at one time). There were like two or three people in each of the lines. The lines lead through the doors where you go to the counter, hand over your id card and they ask what test you want to take. They then give you the test and basic instructions ('no calculator allowed on this not-math test') and then you go down the counter and pick up your personalized scantron in its indimidating red color. Then you go into a ballroom-sized room with rows and rows of desks. You pick your desk and go.

Now the fun part. So the multiple choice starts off with the lovely 'here is 12 names and 5 quotes, match them up' not once but twice. Then it was a regular MC test. The written section was actually fun. I knew enough about each of the answers that I wasn't stressed about it. I said things like "Modern liberty, as described by Benjamin Constant, is the idea that you can do whatever you want. For example, if you wanted to go to college and go on to invent the first microwave freezer, you could. Or if you wanted to sit around eating lasagna all day, you could do that too...the problem is that then you might end up with a society full of fat lasagna eaters and no microwave freezers." Now, I actually think that the TA or Professor, whoever ends up grading my test will rather enjoy these little bits, and when grading some 150 papers, that has to be a happy moment and happy moments lead to happy grades. I'm not kidding, I was like almost laughing as I was writing some of these answers. I hope they hand back the tests so I can enjoy that forever.