These Happy Golden Busy Days...

Monday I spent 3 hours dancing, which exhausted and invigorated me at the same time. At the dance lab I taught a guy taking 280 how to dance the Viennese waltz and was surprised at how quickly he picked it up. Later we had an awesome German house family home evening with fun Halloween activities... we had a "spider" game where we got spools of thread and mittens and we had to race to unroll our spool the fastest with our oven mitts on, then we had a toilet paper mummy game and a cookie decorating contest. I won the prize for the prettiest cookie... it had beautiful fall leaves in icing on a white background:


Tuesday I realized I had three tests, a women in German conference and a test to grade for 330 all packed into the coming weekend, which started worrying me quite a bit. However, my religion Professor announced he was going to push his midterm back a week... truly a miracle! Then I got my Honors Civilization test back and walked home glowing with excitement - 198/200 (99%)!!!!! I just felt so blessed, and loved by the Lord... He helped me with my test and things fell into place so beautifully. I know He's watching out for me.

The temple Wednesday morning is one of the best parts of my week. It's also good because it gives me an early start on my day. When I got back I did some laundry and got my presentation for German 310 ready (mom helped by sending me some pictures). I really don't remember much else from Wednesday though...

Thursday I got up early to go to take my German 320 test... I hadn't had as much time as I could have wanted to prepare, but it seemed to go pretty well. I sent my final draft and a short abstract for my project to Professor James for review. There was also a German event in the Wilkenson center that Professor Kelling had asked me to attend. It had general information on all the German programs and activities going on like study abroad, German house, major requirements, scholarship opportunities and more. I think I might try to apply for another scholarship from DAAD for my study abroad soon. That night I submitted my ORCA, and felt really good about having it done. Now all I have to do is wait and see what happens!

Early Friday morning Tanner and I braved the icy cold to go to the Women in German conference, along with about 12 other BYU students who had been invited to participate. This was a symposium where we listened to 8 speakers presenting on different topics, from educational developments that need to take place in the German field, to the role of skin or taxidermy in German horror movies. Some of the topics were extremely interesting... I especially enjoyed one on the role of Muslim womens' scarves and how they can prevent women from participating in politics. When we got back I attended part of a symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants where my religion professor spoke. Needless to say his remarks were fascinating. Back at the apartment I did some homework and made an apple pie while Tanner worked on getting the rest of his ORCA project figured out (ORCA projects were due at 12pm). It was pretty late, so we ended up calling it a day after that...


Saturday I graded all the 330 tests and started studying for my 310 test I'm taking tomorrow. I also did some good clean up... it's so nice to have a clean apartment. Tanner and I took a short walk to enjoy the gorgeous weather and fall colors, then we watched Charlie Chaplin's City Lights and ate apple pie. Who could wish for more?


That's all my news for now, hope you're doing well and to hear from you soon!!!

Love,

Margaret

I love fall!!!!!

Goodness gracious! I can't believe it's already Sunday again!
I think I'm going to try a new method of remembering the week: working backwards. I can't seem to remember Monday, but hopefully something will spark my memory while I remember the rest of the week first...

Yesterday about 15 of us from the German house got in two cars and drove down to Salt Lake City to see temple square and the Joseph Smith movie (I've seen it at least 4 times now). The weather was PERFECT... the leaves are just starting to turn colors, the sky was deep blue and the sun was actually warm (I didn't need a coat!). It was nice to look at the sights without shivering and listening to my teeth chatter. When we got back Jen, Angela and I made a quick run to the grocery store, which I'm very excited about... I got all the ingredients for apple pie and I can't wait to make one... after that we watched a chick flick and I did some homework...


Friday after school Tanner came over for a spaghetti dinner, then we went to see a symposium on D&C. We entered an empty theater and realized I had mistaken the date by a week - it wasn't till next Friday. So we went right over to Erin's apartment (the Erin from freshman year). We met Erin's boyfriend Shelton, and one of Shelton's old mission companions Stew who took Laura (a girl I met in one of my dance classes who is now living with my friends from freshman year) with him on our triple date. It was good we got there early, because we had just enough time to do everything... make chocolate caramel brownies, go ice skating, then eat the brownies with hot chocolate. Needless to say it was SOOOOO much fun! I think I can officially claim I can skate backwards now, which is exciting...

Thursday my classes were all canceled so I cleaned from 9am-1pm for my cleaning check (I still wasn't done after that). I went up to campus for an ORCA meeting, but Professor James left a note on the door saying she wouldn't be able to make it. I spent the rest of the evening studying as well... it was a long evening :-)...

Kelly had a date with one of the guys from the German house (someone in Tanner's apartment actually) on Wednesday. Tanner and I were teasing her about it a little at dinner. She had to leave early to get ready. A few minutes after she left Tanner slyly asked me if I felt like being a spy. I asked him what he had in mind, then laughed and wholeheartedly agreed to his scheme. We left the table and set out to follow them (Kelly and Pat) to the international cinema, in other words stock them for fun. It was hilarious. The movie was starting when we walked in, so it was really dark. When we finally found a spot, we realized we were almost directly behind our targets... they were sitting two rows in front of us. The whole movie we'd nudge each other when their heads moved in closer together. We left a few minutes before the movie was over so they wouldn't see us and so Tanner could finish the last bit of cleaning before his cleaning check. Afterward we went on a short walk and had a really good talk. When I got back I asked Kelly about the date and apparently it had gone really well. We didn't tell them we had watched them till the next day at dinner, then we all laughed about it...

Tuesday I still can't manage to remember for some reason, but on Monday I danced my heart out for 2 1/2 hrs... one hour in class, then 1 1/2 hrs in the dance lab. I was able to practice some of my 380 steps and learn some new foxtrot steps from a guy in my class... it was a little challenging since He's probably 1 1/2 ft. shorter than me, but it was still so much fun and I LOVE learning new dance steps!!!!!

Okay, that's all for now... love and miss you all!!!

Margaret

Caramel Popcorn and Monkey Bread (a good week...)

I guess I should say a little about conference weekend (last weekend) before I move on to the present. I watched the Saturday sessions with Tanner, then on Sunday I caught a bus to Sandy where I spent the day with Robyn, Granny and my cousins. After conference Granny put a scrumptious ham in the oven and about 20 people came over to participate in/witness my cousin Robert's ordination to the Aaronic priesthood. There was a wonderful spirit present as so many great men gathered around Robert to give him the priesthood and bless him. The dinner afterward was delicious... ham, salad, rolls, and some of the lightest fluffiest potatoes I've ever eaten. It was actually Robert's birthday, so we had a birthday cake, ice cream and a treasure hunt as well.

We had an excellent discussion about conference in our FHE group Monday evening. Elder Uchtdorf is now my favorite speaker of all time.

We've been doing some awesome Bolero in dance class... it's a mix of Latin and standard which makes it very unique. Then we're also working on getting waltz ready for dance sport which is coming up in about a month I think. I just love dancing! It makes me so happy...

Thursday I talked with my ORCA mentor (Professor James) again, and showed her my proposal (a solid first draft). She said I was making excellent progress, and gave me a few suggestions to change/improve what I'd written. I'm really excited about it!!

Friday I took an Hon Civilization test that I've been studying for for two weeks... It went really well I think, but it took me a good 2hrs and 45 minutes to finish. My head hurt after that, and it was swimming with people like Aristotle, Hammurabi and Cicero and the main contributions of Hellenistic society to the world. It was such a relief to watch Enchanted with Tanner afterward (he'd never seen it before). I made caramel popcorn too, which was excellent...

Yesterday I had Tanner over for breakfast. I don't know why, but I've been in a baking/cooking mood this week. The fresh steamy monkey bread with scrambled eggs was the highlight of my day. The rest of it I spent grading tests for German 330. Yeah, I'm really not a fan of grading, but it wasn't to bad this time since Herr Kelling had taken half of the tests to grade himself (I told him I didn't think I'd be able to finish them all). In the evening I went with Kelly, Pat and Brett to see a movie in the international cinema. It was edited for BYU audiences and was basically the Chinese version of Hamlet. It started snowing on the way back. Tanner and I went for a short walk in the snow, and he said something to me about being a meteorologist, which reminded me of my high school English teacher Mr. McHugh. He had an excellent extra credit policy... if we saw it snowing outside and went to him and recited the last line of James Joyce's The Dead, and we were the first ones to do it, we'd get extra credit. I managed to do this twice, and thus Mr. McHugh reccomended that I consider a career in meteorology. I did recite the line for Tanner after I told him the story.

I think that was everything... I miss you all!!!
Write soon if you can!!!
Love,
Margaret

ORCA and Tanner

Oh my goodness... busiest 2 weeks of my life and I'm pretty sure I won't have any time to document them tomorrow. So even though I'm about to collapse forward onto my computer I'll try and give you the rundown:

First things first. Tanner and I are official. That happened last Saturday night, and right after we decided to date exclusively he asked me if I wanted to go meet his family with him the next day. Sunday morning I sang in church (How Can I Keep from Singing again), and it wasn't as pretty as the practice, which was disappointing. Could have been worse though. Right after Sunday school his Mom picked us up and she had Tanner's two little sisters with her... so cute! We drove to Bountiful where we slipped into the church meeting, joining the rest of Tanner's family. In Sunday school the teacher looked at Tanner and me and said "Welcome Brother and Sister..." waiting expectantly. Tanner quickly introduced himself as Tanner Hardison, then introduced me as his girlfriend Margaret Ebeling. Kind of weird to hear my new "title" for the first time in Sunday school :-). After church the whole family went to the park where we celebrated Hannah's (I really hope I remembered the right name) birthday with some good food and presents, and I met the whole family including one set of grandparents. It was a lot of fun, but I was pretty exhausted by the time we finally made it home.

Next huge thing going on in my life: ORCA. Professor James gave me a ton of reading and research to do last Thursday to prepare me to write my project proposal. Of course, they were some of the busiest weeks of the entire semester. I did read, but not as thoroughly as I would have liked. This Thursday we had a second meeting, and she'd like me to have a very solid draft done by Thursday. I've got a 330 test to grade after Wednesday, a huge civilization test to study for and tons of other homework to do. It's going to take a miracle this week, but with all the conference talks today about not letting anything bring you down, I think I can just have faith and move on. If all goes well with ORCA though, I'll be coauthoring the introduction to a section on Elisa von der Recke's travel journals (yes, I'll be published!!), plus I'll be able to use it (with a little extra work) for my capstone paper, and with a lot of extra work for my honors thesis. Professor James said they'd then publish my capstone paper as well since it has so much to do with the topic, so I'll be published twice!! Professor Kelling said with the kind of research experience I'll be getting he thinks I might be ready then to move straight to a PHD and skip my masters, and that I could probably apply and be accepted anywhere I want. So cool... sounds just too good to be true.

It's midnight... those are the current highlights... maybe I'll have time for more tomorrow.

Miss and love you all!

Margaret