"education is gthe only area that Americans pay for and almost hope to be cheated"

College life? One of the best things I've ever done. Seriously. Go to college. Especially BYU. I never thought about BYU being how it really is. I never thought I'd be reading LDS talks for homework, or be on ballroom team with married couples, or see women with babies walking around campus, or share a room with the relief society president. I am so excited to be here, and I am absolutely loving it. Admittedly so far, the hardest part has been going to bed before two o'clock each night (but we're getting better!) I love love love my roommates. We do crazy things like stalk our RA while she's across the street at a friend's apartment, or have guys come cook Filipino food for our Sunday dinner (yep, that totally happened today). In sum, this has been the last week.

• Start classes. I love my classes so far (even American Heritage isn't looking so bad! Of course, I've only had a grand total of one class and one TA session, so we'll see how it's looking around midterm). My absolute favorite though, besides my dance classes, is my honors writing class. I can't wait for the rest of the semester, and it makes me so sad that I only have it twice a week! "You've been a writer for a long time...there's power in being able to write." "If you care about your writing, that will make all the difference in the world." "We are all writers whether we like it or not." AH! So excited!  (Oh, did I mention that one of the first things we did was to write the alphabet on the lined paper that you use in kindergarten? So fun!)
• Relating everything back to the gospel. I'm finding things in the scriptures that go along with my writing class (Ether 12: 23-27), with American Heritage. I never thought that learning by the Spirit can apply to secular learning as well. Of course, here we use spiritual learning to attain a higher level of secular education to further our work in our Father's kingdom.
• Going to the BYU women's soccer game against the UofU on Friday. So crazy! I have never seen so many bad calls in my life! We won though, from a penalty kick in the goal box because the U goalkeeper shoved one of our players back down after she tripped. We also beat the record (set the previous week) of the number of spectators at south field: 5, 402. Go Cougars!
• Getting next to no sleep. My roommate, Megan (one of the anyways-we have 2 Megans! Crazy right!), and I both dance, and we completely hit it off right away. I joke a) that 1/3 of our time is spent watching dance videos, 1/3 of  our time is spent talking about dance, and 1/3 of our time is spent actually dancing. We've both vowed that now that classes have started we'll go to sleep earlier.                                              

• Studying. I have 3 books each for two of my classes. Fortunately, for the sake of my back, I don't have to have them in class unless specified. Combine all the books with my dance bag and walking the RB stairs (among others) multiple times a day, my back deserves a break!
• Celebrating a birthday. Emily's birthday was on Thursday, and by the time I got home from work, my roommates had made her a cake! The funny thing? They didn't realize that it was a brownie mix and were very shocked when the "cake" came out of the oven and it was brownies! We frosted them anyway though, and when Emily got home we took her outside to light the matches, since we didn't have any candles and no open flames are allowed in our building.                                                                                                                                                             
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                                                                                                                                                     Didn't the "cake" turn out so good though?! Rachel, another roommate, apparently has awesome marbling skills, and it turned out amazing.
• Going to, then leaving, the first home football game of the season. We decided to decorate our faces.      
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
                                                                                                                                                           This was before the storm: (believe it or not, these pictures were actually taken within minutes of each other. The second one was just taken with an iPhone and edited.)                                   
  
  
  
  
                                             This was right before the storm hit:
  
  
  
  This was visiting my high school ballroom team after the storm hit and soaked us:
  
  
  
  
  
   This was three of us after we ran/walked home from the game. Guess what? We didn't go back. Call us quitters, but we were soaked to the bone!
  
  
  
  
  Before the storm started, I actually go to go visit my team! I have to say I don't miss working concessions! It was awesome to see everyone though and to hear that I was missed :).
  
  
  • (Blogger is being crazy and not allowing me to do what I want, so I guess I have to deal with it, and you do too.) Today the RA for the boys hall in our ward made us dinner! He broke a deal with Emily, and the result was dinner. Guys, I actually tried Filipino food. Be proud of me! I didn't eat the stir-fry, but I did eat the potatoes & pork (it had a fancy name, but I don't remember it) and the rice.                                                                          
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  We also just had an epic battle with a spider that decided to crawl out of a hole in our ceiling. The other Megan smashed it, and Rachel and I vacuumed it up. I also vacuumed the ceiling, just to be safe. Oh dear! Betcha can't wait to see what adventures happen next week!