Well, I'm home, and BYU already seems like ages ago....
Did I really take my BOM final this Monday? I can remember taking the test and tasting the elixir of glory when I saw my score, but that seems like years ago... the whirlwind of cleaning and packing on Tuesday is still firmly imprinted in my mind... I was cleaning till the last second and even finishing up during the inspection... it took me literally all day, although I did have a little break when I went to the MOA cafe with Erin, Cami and Merit... but it's still unbelievable that that was this week!
The room felt so empty after the inspection... my bed had been lowered, my sheets and pillows were all packed away... only my suitcases and laptop remained (the rest of my stuff was in garbage bags in Erin's car... we weren't allowed to have anything except our suitcases in the room during inspection). As soon as inspection was over Keith was waiting for me. We took one last walk and said goodbye... we won't be seeing each other for the next 8 months with summer and study abroad, so we broke up as planned. I used my coat as a pillow that night...
Early the next morning I got ready for my dance final... it was really early and I was really tired. I fished through my jeans pockets for my ID and remembered I had also left my debit card in my pockets. I couldn't feel it. Frantically I searched my pockets again, my wallet, my purse, to no avail. Panic clouded my mind. "It must have slipped out while Keith and I were at the park last night." The thought was like ice that settled into my stomach. I knew I had to find it, dance clothes and dance final or not. Grabbing my things I raced out the door into the cool morning air and cut the normal 25 minute walk down to 10. I found the place I thought I must have dropped it, but it wasn't there. Despair engulfed me. I prayed really hard. Still couldn't find it. Well, I had only a few minutes to make it back if I wanted to make it to my final. I called Erin to tell her about it and see if she could pick me up. "You lost your debit card? Your blue one?" she asked sleepily. "You put it on your desk last night before you went out with Keith." And I remembered. Relief made my knees buckle. Prayers of gratitude filled me. I jogged back to campus and aced my dance final despite my lack of practice and sleep.
I packed the last few things and said a few last goodbyes. It's so sad to think that freshman year is over forever. Rachel and I completely stuffed Aunt Robyn's car with our junk. After some of Granny's excellent lentil soup, a sandwich and some chocolate cake we said our last goodbyes and headed home.
Well, that's quite a story, so I wont burden you with the additional tale of my few days of luxurious rest :). Hope you are doing well!!!! And to hear from you soon!!!!
Love,
Margaret
Sonntag, 27. April 2008
Sonntag, 20. April 2008
Finals week begins.... don don don!!!
Yeah, so Tuesday was the last day of classes... pretty weird. I've been busy every single day since then though. Wednesday I spent mostly working on my power of words presentation for English and also my great works response... didn't make as much progress as I was hoping for though. Around 7:30 Judith Frewer, a girl who used to live in my ward in Germany who is doing a year of foreign exchange in Provo came to visit me with the lady she's staying with (Natalia). It was so good to see her again... I showed her all around campus even though it was freezing cold, and we had a lot of fun just catching up a bit.
Thursday I volunteered at a language fair here at BYU for high school students who are taking a language... I had to judge their language abilities which was kind of weird, and then just be encouraging in general. The free pizza afterwards totally made up for the hours of sleep I lost. The rest of my day I spent going over practice sheets for Chemistry...
Friday I woke up at 8:00 and nearly had a heart attack because I needed to leave in 15 min. for my English presentation. I threw myself together and did manage to get there 1 minute late (I'm sure I set a record for going the long way across campus in 6 min.). My presentation went pretty well... I talked about the short story "Eveline" from James Joyce's Dubliners, and how reading Dubliners really made me appreciate literature for what it was, instead of just looking for happy endings. The rest of the day was spent in more chemistry... about 8 hours straight study.
Saturday I decided to take the chemistry test. If there is a record for fitting a huge amount of information on a 3x5 card that is still legible to the naked eye, I think I achieved it. After studying all day I took it at 6pm. While I was taking it it seemed easy; sadly I wasn't really happy with my score. I think I can still get an A in the class though.
Anyway, I really have to go now...
Love you all!!!!!
Margaret
Thursday I volunteered at a language fair here at BYU for high school students who are taking a language... I had to judge their language abilities which was kind of weird, and then just be encouraging in general. The free pizza afterwards totally made up for the hours of sleep I lost. The rest of my day I spent going over practice sheets for Chemistry...
Friday I woke up at 8:00 and nearly had a heart attack because I needed to leave in 15 min. for my English presentation. I threw myself together and did manage to get there 1 minute late (I'm sure I set a record for going the long way across campus in 6 min.). My presentation went pretty well... I talked about the short story "Eveline" from James Joyce's Dubliners, and how reading Dubliners really made me appreciate literature for what it was, instead of just looking for happy endings. The rest of the day was spent in more chemistry... about 8 hours straight study.
Saturday I decided to take the chemistry test. If there is a record for fitting a huge amount of information on a 3x5 card that is still legible to the naked eye, I think I achieved it. After studying all day I took it at 6pm. While I was taking it it seemed easy; sadly I wasn't really happy with my score. I think I can still get an A in the class though.
Anyway, I really have to go now...
Love you all!!!!!
Margaret
Sonntag, 13. April 2008
Is Spring Finally Here???
My goodness... finals are starting this week. I can hardly believe it! I'm not really ready for any of them, except dance maybe...
Tuesday was the last social dance club night of the semester... so sad!!! It was so much fun... we learned a new west coast step and just danced the night away.
Thursday I got a hair cut that I'm not that excited about... I don't care as much as I thought I would though. Maybe it's because I won't have anyone to impress when I get home lol. After my BOM class that ends at 7pm I went to our closing ward social... we had some pizza and root beer floats and some music... it's just really weird to think I probably won't see half of those people again, or at least very often.
Anyway, Friday we had our dance party. My favorite game was playing musical chairs while dancing the Viennese waltz. Turns out my partner and I won. The last round was extremely intense. At first there was only one chair left, but then our teacher added other chairs that we had to dance around (if we touched them we were out); then he stood right in our way and said if we hit him we were out. The music stopped and Jacob dived for the chair, still holding my hand so I hit the floor pretty hard... I have a beautiful bruise to show for it... but I did eventually make it to the chair. The refreshments were excellent... we had some bean dip, chocolate caramel brownies (Keith and I made them), rice crispy treats, chips, lemonade... a whole table full of goodies! That evening Keith and I went to see "Drums in the Night," a play by Bertold Brecht (famous German playwright). It was a reaction to WWI, so naturally very intense with almost no comic relief. The acting was excellent; it must have been really hard on the actors though, because everyone was constantly yelling at each other.
Saturday was full of homework, except for the evening when Keith and I went for a picnic. The weather was gorgeous, and we were able to scrape a decent meal together by combining our supplies. It was really weird to not wear a coat and not to be freezing; it was glorious to see the sun again when it had snowed and rained earlier throughout the week.
Anyway, love and miss you! Have an awesome week!!!
Love,
Margaret
Tuesday was the last social dance club night of the semester... so sad!!! It was so much fun... we learned a new west coast step and just danced the night away.
Thursday I got a hair cut that I'm not that excited about... I don't care as much as I thought I would though. Maybe it's because I won't have anyone to impress when I get home lol. After my BOM class that ends at 7pm I went to our closing ward social... we had some pizza and root beer floats and some music... it's just really weird to think I probably won't see half of those people again, or at least very often.
Anyway, Friday we had our dance party. My favorite game was playing musical chairs while dancing the Viennese waltz. Turns out my partner and I won. The last round was extremely intense. At first there was only one chair left, but then our teacher added other chairs that we had to dance around (if we touched them we were out); then he stood right in our way and said if we hit him we were out. The music stopped and Jacob dived for the chair, still holding my hand so I hit the floor pretty hard... I have a beautiful bruise to show for it... but I did eventually make it to the chair. The refreshments were excellent... we had some bean dip, chocolate caramel brownies (Keith and I made them), rice crispy treats, chips, lemonade... a whole table full of goodies! That evening Keith and I went to see "Drums in the Night," a play by Bertold Brecht (famous German playwright). It was a reaction to WWI, so naturally very intense with almost no comic relief. The acting was excellent; it must have been really hard on the actors though, because everyone was constantly yelling at each other.
Saturday was full of homework, except for the evening when Keith and I went for a picnic. The weather was gorgeous, and we were able to scrape a decent meal together by combining our supplies. It was really weird to not wear a coat and not to be freezing; it was glorious to see the sun again when it had snowed and rained earlier throughout the week.
Anyway, love and miss you! Have an awesome week!!!
Love,
Margaret
Sonntag, 6. April 2008
RF, Banquet, conference, shopping, sleepover.....
This has been a long week for some reason... I'll do my best to remember the highlights...
Tuesday I got one of the most exciting emails ever. It was from Professor Kelling and was one sentence long: "Will you accept the position as RF in the women’s German House in Fall and Winter?" I was ecstatic!!! RF stands for Residence Facilitator, the native speaker in the foreign language housing. Wednesday morning I met with Professor Kelling to discuss the details and I accepted the position. My job sounds very manageable - I need to be at the apartments for 2 hours at dinner time, make sure people speak German and just be a good example in general. In return I get free housing!!!!!! It's such an honor to be considered a native speaker... I still can't believe it!!!!!
After that elixir of excitement my day went crazy: my argument paper was due the next day so I tried to work on that, then I had a review session for my German 330 class since they have a test on Mon. and to top that all of I also had medals exams. The Lord really blessed me and I was able to get everything done. My medals exam didn't go quite as well as I hoped; no one got higher than a 90. The best grade for me was waltz (89). It was fun to dance with my teacher anyway though.
Thursday I relished skipping Book of Mormon to go to Rachel's award banquet. She had written a paper on "Femininity in Narnia" and won second place in a contest. Her Professor sat right across from us with his wife, and now that I've met him I really want to take a class from him... ideally the same one Rachel took (a C.S. Lewis class). Afterwards Rachel and I just talked for a while, which was amazing since I have hardly seen her this semester. When I got home it was already time for ward devotional. I had a lot of work to do, and for one of the first times this semester I just wasn't focusing very well. At midnight I realized I had a 1-2 page response to write for my German class that I had completely forgotten about, so I was up till about 1 am writing...
Friday Keith's brother was in town with his wife and children (Rachel (3 months) and Garry (2 years old)), so we all went to a Chinese hot-pot place for dinner. It was delicious... you get some raw meat and vegetables from the buffet, then put them in a pot of boiling broth (either chicken or spicy) and enjoy the whole thing on a bowl of rice.
Saturday I watched both sessions of conference with Keith, got some homework done, then went dress shopping with Erin who has a banquet coming up that she needs a dress for. Cami and I stopped by XXI Forever and tried on the craziest clothes just for fun - my favorite was the pair of 3" sliver heels covered in glitter. As if that wasn't enough fun, we all put on some pj's and headed to Sis. Sargent's house (she's our Relief Society specialist) for a sleepover. Pizza, nachos, popcorn, a chickflick, a comfy couch and a huge flat screen TV. What more could we want??? :-).
In the morning we watched conference and enjoyed one of Sis. Sargent's EXCELLENT meals... fresh coffee cake (either blueberry or apple still warm from the oven), bacon, eggs and orange juice. I felt so spoiled. I've never enjoyed conference so much! We packed up and left; I watched the afternoon session with Keith, and now here I am sitting at my computer telling you about it :-).
Sorry this was pretty long; I really hope to hear from you soon!!
Love you!!!
Margaret
Tuesday I got one of the most exciting emails ever. It was from Professor Kelling and was one sentence long: "Will you accept the position as RF in the women’s German House in Fall and Winter?" I was ecstatic!!! RF stands for Residence Facilitator, the native speaker in the foreign language housing. Wednesday morning I met with Professor Kelling to discuss the details and I accepted the position. My job sounds very manageable - I need to be at the apartments for 2 hours at dinner time, make sure people speak German and just be a good example in general. In return I get free housing!!!!!! It's such an honor to be considered a native speaker... I still can't believe it!!!!!
After that elixir of excitement my day went crazy: my argument paper was due the next day so I tried to work on that, then I had a review session for my German 330 class since they have a test on Mon. and to top that all of I also had medals exams. The Lord really blessed me and I was able to get everything done. My medals exam didn't go quite as well as I hoped; no one got higher than a 90. The best grade for me was waltz (89). It was fun to dance with my teacher anyway though.
Thursday I relished skipping Book of Mormon to go to Rachel's award banquet. She had written a paper on "Femininity in Narnia" and won second place in a contest. Her Professor sat right across from us with his wife, and now that I've met him I really want to take a class from him... ideally the same one Rachel took (a C.S. Lewis class). Afterwards Rachel and I just talked for a while, which was amazing since I have hardly seen her this semester. When I got home it was already time for ward devotional. I had a lot of work to do, and for one of the first times this semester I just wasn't focusing very well. At midnight I realized I had a 1-2 page response to write for my German class that I had completely forgotten about, so I was up till about 1 am writing...
Friday Keith's brother was in town with his wife and children (Rachel (3 months) and Garry (2 years old)), so we all went to a Chinese hot-pot place for dinner. It was delicious... you get some raw meat and vegetables from the buffet, then put them in a pot of boiling broth (either chicken or spicy) and enjoy the whole thing on a bowl of rice.
Saturday I watched both sessions of conference with Keith, got some homework done, then went dress shopping with Erin who has a banquet coming up that she needs a dress for. Cami and I stopped by XXI Forever and tried on the craziest clothes just for fun - my favorite was the pair of 3" sliver heels covered in glitter. As if that wasn't enough fun, we all put on some pj's and headed to Sis. Sargent's house (she's our Relief Society specialist) for a sleepover. Pizza, nachos, popcorn, a chickflick, a comfy couch and a huge flat screen TV. What more could we want??? :-).
In the morning we watched conference and enjoyed one of Sis. Sargent's EXCELLENT meals... fresh coffee cake (either blueberry or apple still warm from the oven), bacon, eggs and orange juice. I felt so spoiled. I've never enjoyed conference so much! We packed up and left; I watched the afternoon session with Keith, and now here I am sitting at my computer telling you about it :-).
Sorry this was pretty long; I really hope to hear from you soon!!
Love you!!!
Margaret
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