SOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....
 I'm still alive, which I consider quite an accomplishment for this
week... tis a tale of thrilling adventure, miracles and other such things,
so lend me your ears!
Monday was our last dance class before Dancesport, so we practiced a lot of
cha cha, but we also learned a little waltz which was fun. I talked to Jon
and we decided to meet Tuesday evening at the social dance club meeting to
practice for the competition. Tuesday evening after a Book of Mormon review
session with Cami, Kelsy and Natalie I headed up to the WSC to meet Jon.
Practice went pretty well, and we decided to meet one more time on Thursday
to practice. When I got back from practice I decided to do some more
studying just to make sure I really knew what I was doing. It was 1:30 am
when I finally shut my notebook on Tuesday night to get some sleep before
the ordeal.
 Wed morning was the BOM test...  I think it went alright; didn't go as
well as my last one though. After German I was talking to Lillian when I
realized that I had voice lessons and was already a few minutes late.
Panting I arrived and we had a nice lesson... my favorite piece right now is
"Romance"; the music is gorgeous (Debussy is pretty much the best composer
ever). After our usual two hour session of calculus I sat through an extra
hour of review by Dr. Speiser for the test. It wasn't particularly helpful,
but it could have been worse. That evening Erin persuaded me to take a
studying break to go see the Mr. Helaman Halls competition... it was amusing
to see some guys make idiots of themselves on stage and I had needed a
sanity break.
  Thursday right after Physics I met for a German study group in the
library. It was definitely a tender mercy of the Lord that our physics
homework wasn't due till Friday instead of the usual Thursday, because I
wouldn't have had time to do it. Johnathan asked if he could join Lillian
and I in our review session and we agreed. Well, he's a really fun guy but
he gets sidetracked a lot. It took us four hours to review 2 chapters, and
we didn't go into the usual depth that Lillian and I are accustomed.
Johnathan hasn't ever lived in Germany and doesn't have enough vocabulary to
understand everything in the text perfectly, although he can get the general
gist of it all, so we had to spend lots of time explaining what certain
words meant. I thought I was about to go crazy when I was done, but I had to
take the test right then so that I would be done it time to meet Jon at
7:30.
 Sadly, I'm pretty sure this test was the worst one so far for German,
probably because our review wasn't that great and I was kind of under stress
to get it done. Needless to say, the questions were much more particular
this time than they have been in the past, so all I can do now is hope and
pray. As soon as I left the testing center I power walked to the dorms (on
the opposite side of campus), grabbed a PBJ and left for the WSC. There
weren't any empty rooms for us to use, so we went to the basement of his
dorm to practice. It was trickier without music, but we still did pretty
well and I thought we would at least be able to make it past the first round
of the competition.
 Friday after German I had a good talk with Lillian, probably much longer
then it should have been, and we decided to get together on the Tuesday
before Thanksgiving break, have a sleepover and watch Sissi, my favorite
German movie of all time and high on my favorite movies in general list, and
lots of good things to eat and time to talk. I'm so excited!! Mentally
psyching myself I went to meet Natalie in the ESC (Eyring Science Center) to
work on physics with her. The problems were pretty tricky, but I think we
figured out the first two. Professor Turley saw us and stopped by to tell us
the homework wouldn't be due till Monday, another tender mercy because we
needed time to study for calculus.
 We sat there reviewing derivative formulas and all of the other formulas,
then at 2pm we went to the WSC to meet our TA Sara for a review session.
Well, she never showed up, so we studied on our own as best we could, went
to the math lab and asked some questions, then went to the testing center to
take the test. It really could have gone either way. I'm pretty sure I
completely messed up on one problem and the problems are worth 20 points
each. I'll get partial credit, but I'm not sure how much. Anyway, I was just
so relieved to get out of the testing center and be done with tests for a
little while. Sipping a cup of hot coco I watched a movie and went to bed.
 6:00am is early... I don't understand how I got up at 5am every morning
before. Trying to be as quiet as possible so I didn't wake Natalie up I put
on my red dress and a little make up, found my shoes and straightened my
hair, grabbed a cinnamon roll from the vending machine and headed up to
campus. No one is really around that early in the morning on Saturdays I've
discovered. Jon was a little late, apparently he heard his alarm then turned
it off and went back to sleep, only to wake up and see he had about 8
minutes to get ready. We practiced one last time. I found out that 250
couples were competing in the 180 cha cha competition, and started to worry.
We were near the end of the line - number 703. Finally after waiting in line
for what seemed like forever our heat took the floor.
 "Exude confidence and happiness" I reminded myself. We both smiled a lot
and danced and had fun. The judges would walk around writing things on their
clip boards. We made sure to do our best moves - cross body leads and the
chase for example. At the end, we both took a light bow and joined the crowd
of tightly packed people waiting for the results. The waiting was the worst
part. The sheet got put up. Jon, taller than almost everyone else in the
crowd read it. The magic words came: "We made it!!" I gave a little shriek
of joy and we got in line again. We danced a second time. Again we waited.
We made it to the next round. The shriek of joy was louder this time. After
the fourth call back I was ecstatic. Finally, we were dancing for the 6th
time There were about 50 other couples. If we made the cut, we would be in
the quarter finals. But we didn't. We were so close! I was pretty
disappointed. It had been our goal to make it to the quarter finals, but at
least we got really close and I had sooooo much fun in the process. It just
made me want to go and start practicing some more.
 It was probably a good thing we didn't make it to the quarter finals
though, because I had sooooo much homework to do. I worked from about 12
till 8:30pm, lots of German and some physics and calculus. Lauren, the girl
from across the hall, went with me to see the last parts of dancesport: the
Latin junior competition, a professionals showcase and the adult's final
competition with a mix of Latin and standard. Everyone was incredible, but
the junior competitors impressed me the most. They were kids about 10-12
years old, and I found their performance more compelling than the adults'.
The vibes of their dance radiated throughout the room. Every move was
precise, perfectly in rhythm, and beautiful. I could hardly take my eyes off
of them. I have a few short video clips of them that are pretty much
amazing.
Anyway, that would bring you up to date.
Miss and love you all so much, and thank you for your letters and support!
Margaret