Winter Semester

Fall semester went well, it was pretty stressful near the end as I had 5 finals on the same day and left for the airport an hour after my last final. Still I managed to get the grades I was hoping for except in Chinese. However, I am determined to get the best grade ever in Chinese this semester--we'll see how that goes.

Christmas break was spectacular, I got to do all of the things that I had hoped to accomplish and more. Clubbing, modeling, shopping and sledding were some of the highlights. Although I'll admit that Utah is just too cold for me now.

So far for this semester, work is pretty good. Everything seems to be flowing quite nicely--so far we haven't had any major problems unlike last semester where it seemed like anything that could go wrong, did.

I guess I should mention that my old roommate, Emma, applied for an internship in Florida working at Disney World. Luckily she was accepted, so she'll be spending the next 9 months working in the hotels as she is a Tourism Management Major. So for this semester I have a new roommate, Kiki, who is a freshman from Hong Kong. I'm really excited to become better acquainted with her.

It's a little sad walking around campus and realizing that many of my friends either graduated or left for their missions or simply ran out of money and won't be returning, if at all, for a few more years. However, the people that remain have been overjoyed to see me and I've had plenty of activities to keep me busy.

The beginning of the work was mostly just work and getting ready for school. On saturday, however, I went to the beach with a bunch of girls from Mongolia and a recent transfer student from Denver. I definitely got sunburnt around my eyes, so I looked like I'd been crying or something, but it was still a lot of fun.

Directly after this, I went out to dinner with some friends from Hong Kong. We went to a local restaurant, Chop Suey, and afterward had a sweet red bean soup that Yoko made for us. To everyone's surprise, I thought it was pretty good. After such a full day (spent mostly at the beach which is enough to drain anyone's energy) I got home around 7 and was asleep by 8:30pm.

Today was church as usual and afterward I went to choir as most of my friends are in it. But I spent the rest of the day just lazing around and talking to friends/family back on the mainland.

It was nice being in Utah for awhile, but I must admit that I cm glad to be back "home" now. Of course, I've scheduled another mainland visit this summer, but until then I'll be working on my tan. :)

Fall Semester

Alrighty, it would appear that what began as an almost daily activity has become sort of a monthly special. This is mostly due to the fact that I do the same things every day. Maybe I'll take up some sort of hobby just so that I can entertain you guys...but then again, probably not.

So, my job is still going well. I really enjoy the people that I work with and I've finally begun to feel like I'm not completely useless. That has been my biggest beef with this new job--trying to do something to make my presence in the office worthwhile. I hate feeling like I'm stealing people's money. So this week I spent most of the allowed 19 hours setting up the online grading system and getting everyone's assignments online. I'm fairly familiar with how the program works now, so it's surprising to me when my other teachers in different departments aren't using it.

You cannot believe how frustrated I felt when I realized that the majority of my new classes don't post anything at all online. I wanted to get on there, find all of the course syllabi, print them and take them to my new classes today. Unfortunately, only two of my six classes have anything online yet.

Anyway, I did well in my First Term classes, better than I had done during Summer term. Either I'm getting a hang of this new college thing, or I just got smarter at picking classes. I think that it's probably a mix of both.

This semester will be my first semester here. I was feeling so proud of myself for going to college and getting good grades and then suddenly I realized something. The two terms that I just finished (when combined) are equal to one semester. That means that this semester is going to be 3 months long. I've been here for 3 months. And let me tell you, those 3 months seem to have started forever ago. How am I ever going to survive?

My classes include Japanese 101, English 201, History 201, Psychology 111, Book of Mormon 121 and Self Defense. After this term I will have close to no GE requirements left and will therefore be able to focus solely on my major once Winter starts. So this is the last semester that I will take that will feel like high school, after this it'll all be business. I'm really excited.

I have officially found my (semi)permanent ward. After a ton of confusion (which was completely out of my control), I have finally settled into the 8th ward here at BYUH. I had originally thought that I was supposed to be in the 8th ward, however after being told twice that I was actually in the 7th ward, I gave in. A few weeks later, 8th ward demanded me back. The very day I came back to 8th ward, they gave me a new calling as Visiting Teaching Coordinator. I find this calling a little bit frightening as I've never actually had a visiting teacher before...(I'm beginning to think that the wards here are incredibly disorganized. I've been here for 3 months and I've had neither visiting teachers or home teachers.)

In addition to my ward calling, this Sunday I'm going to be giving a talk, please wish me luck. I think that the last time I gave a talk I was about 14 years old. But then again, maybe I'll just mess it up so badly that they never ask me to do it again. haha

I went to FHE on Monday and had a fabulous time. We played dodgeball for about an hour (way too long if you ask me), but I was with my friends so it was actually pretty fun. The ward is huge now, so tons of people showed up. So many, in fact, that when we were finally ready for refreshments, there weren't enough plates. So the girls paired up with one another for a plate to share, while the guys had to share the two icecream buckets. Sometimes, one really has to appreciate being born a girl.

Anyway, while I'm happy with the classes that I'll be taking this semester, I'm even more happy that I'll get a chance to go home this Christmas. It'll be nice to be in Utah again, even though it snows there!!

First Term

It has been exactly 2 months since my first class started here at BYUH. It has also been 2 weeks since my 2nd term started. Now that's a lot of twos.

Anyway, I have my brand-new classes and I really like all of them. I also finally started my job. Yay! Yesterday I even got my first paycheck!! This is the first time I've gotten paid since April...that is a long time to go without getting paid. I'm a teacher's aid...

So far I have set up the online coursework for the classes Teacher Dude will teach during Fall Semester, I have formatted a ton of his old assignments and finished up designing a powerpoint presentation for him. Lately, I have been helping him transcribe the scribbles that he writes all over his papers into a word document. I've just got to thank my dad for that one, without his horrible handwriting I wouldn't have the right skills for that last job. :)

I like having a busy schedule, but at the same time I don't like that I don't have any free time until at least 4 pm, and usually 5 pm. I am busy all day, and once I do have time to myself its time for dinner and then homework. Not that I have very much homework this term.

My Biology teacher is from Africa, but spent 7 years in France. This means that he has a mix of a French and African accent. Usually I can understand everything he says, but whenever he cracks a joke I am always confused! Its like I can only understand him when he's speaking about Biology, anything else and I have no clue to what he means. However, I think that this experience is good and I actually picked this teacher because of his accent (and the fact that his class started so early in the morning). What makes it even better is that he gives very little homework and his tests are multiple choice.

English is not my favorite class because it is too easy and because all the students there are fresh out of high school. Some of the people in this class remind me why I was so excited to leave high school. It is, however, easier to relate to the other students in this class than in my other classes. I have found way more friends here than anywhere else.

D&C is interesting, but we don't really have a structured system for learning the material. We basically spend the 2 hours of class time asking questions. Strangely enough, there never seems to be a lack of questions and we always ask someone to save their question until next time.

Today I will be working with my friends (both from Singapore) on our Biology Presentation. We'll be doing it on the effects of humans on the environment. It only has to be 10 minutes, so it shouldn't take too long, right?

So, even though it's Saturday, I'm not really doing anything "fun." But like having a day to relax. This new schedule is exhausting! I can't wait until I finally get used to it.

But, that's all for now. I don't have anything even vaguely interesting left to say. :)

Nearing the End

I really need to think of a more creative title for these updates, but I'm too lame for this one. Maybe next time..? :)

So its nearing the end of the term, in fact less than two more weeks. I can't say that I'm sorry for it to be over. It's going to be such a relief to not have Ceramics anymore. Today I finished my last clay project in that class. After tomorrow we can't make anything else because otherwise there won't be enough time to finish everything. We'll be glazing and taking tests for the rest of term.

For my last project I decided to make a teapot. That was a mistake. It was really hard. Plus, I'm not really finished. I still have to stick everything together and make a new lid. I pretty much knew that I would have a hard time doing it, but I tried anyway. My teacher said that we needed to challenge ourselves, so I did. I never want to see my teapot ever again. But it will still be there. Maybe I'll feel better about it tomorrow.

So, the novelty of the beach has pretty much worn off, I haven't been there at all in the past two weeks. I keep thinking I should get down there, but then I'd have to walk. It takes about 20 minutes to get to Temple Beach and about the same amount to find a good place on Bikini Beach. Mostly I'm just lazy.

I have, however, gone to the temple (its closed though, so I just looked at it and went into the visitor's center), visited the Bishop's Museum, been to all of the major shopping centers and saw the Honolulu Fireworks on the 4th. The fireworks were huge, they actually made me jump a couple of times from the sound (much to the delight of my friends).

The power goes out here on a pretty regular basis. Today, it kept going on and off. I took a shower and wondered why the water kept fluctuating between really, really hot and the temperature I wanted it to be...but didn't find out until I realized that my fan was off. Honestly, I never turn my fan off. Once when the power went out in the night, the fact that it wasn't on woke me up.

I am officially really bad at playing soccer. Out of all the sports, why is that the one we play the most in gym? Why not volley ball or tennis? I can actually kind of do those ones, but soccer is completely out of my league. Luckily, we're doing book work tomorrow.

One thing I've learned that's completely not school related is that mailboxes are important! Since moving here, I get mail all the time. Sure it's mostly about my new bank account and school stuff, but if I didn't have that mailbox I would be at a serious disadvantage.

I have started disliking the caf, its not that the food is gross per se. But they definitely need to get some more variety. We have chicken for 2/3 meals offered every day. As much as I like chicken, why can't we get some beef or even some fish thrown in there every once in awhile. I mean, we're surrounded by water right? Fish should be everywhere!

Really though, as many things I have to complain about, I actually love being here. Going to college, even with the classes, is really fun. At the end of the day, I realize that i haven't actually done anything, but somehow I really enjoyed myself anyway. Maybe I am turning into a low-key, relaxed Hawaiian after all. :)

1/3 of the term is over!

So it's been awhile since my last blog, but being in Hawaii is a lot more low key than Japan was. I've settled into living by myself and haven't cried myself to sleep too many times. I was feeling really lonely my first week here, but I've made more friends since then and I try to keep myself busy.

Ceramics has gotten better, we're working on the potter's wheel now. It was really difficult at first, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I do better when my teacher isn't watching though. I just get so nervous when he's watching everything i do wrong!! But he is really helpful too. :)

Science is officially not my favorite thing, but that's okay too. At least I'm not failing, right? I'm actually doing fairly well in the class and mostly keep up on studying. Mostly.

Gym is almost fun, except when we are getting tested. I wouldn't say I have friends in that class, but I talk to almost everyone in there.

I have explored a little bit more of my surroundings. I went snorkeling at Shark's Cove, that's where I discovered that I don't really have a phobia of fish, but a phobia of unknown live things in the water. If that makes any sense at all... I swam to China Man's Hat at high tide, it was really difficult and I probably won't do it again, but climbing to the top was really cool. One of my really good friends, Jonah, took me to Kaneohe yesterday. It's prety much the only mall around here. It's not all that far away, but here the speed limit ranges between 25-35mph, so it takes a pretty long time to get there.

Last night my roommate and I water ballooned some of her friends as they were coming home from work, it was way funny cause even the guys started running away yelling. The only crummy part was waiting 30 minutes in the bush for them to arrive. We got so excited about our plan that we left early (just in case).

Umm, the ward I have been attending has agreed to take me in. They requested my records, so I should be an official member (of their ward) soon.

I really like being here because I get to meet people from all over the world. Learning about different ways of living is one of my favorite things, so I think that this is a really great opportunity for me.

First few days of College!!

So as many of you know, I stopped e-mailing while i was in japan because of some complications with my computer's charger...anyway, those are all fixed and I am now in Hawaii. :)

This is just gonna be a quick overview because I have done tons of things since getting here last friday. On my first day I met my roommate, shopped and unpacked, that's as far as I got with anything. On Saturday I said goodbye to awesome mom and went to the beach with my roommate, Emma (who is amazing, she lets me follow her around everywhere).

Sunday I went to church with the 16th ward (the ward Emma is in), apparently you don't get assigned to a ward unless you're attending one of the semesters (the next one is Fall). The rest of the day I spent napping, because for whatever reason, the time zone change has had a ridiculous impact on my sleeping habits. :(

Monday was my first day of school and also the day I got my TB screening shot. Then I got my Insurance Cleared (but at first the lady tried to convince me that I hadn't signed up for it...) and finally got my student id! Yay! Without that little piece of plastic, I hadn't been able to open my dorm door!

In my first class, EXS 177, I heard the people behind me speaking in Japanese. So I started talking to them (in English of course) and after awhile, the guy invited me to join Japanese club with offers free conversation classes to its members! Another yay!

Next I had Ceramics where I met a kid whose also in my EXS class, his name is Brent. At first I was thinking that we could be good friends, but then I found out that he's taken tons of classes in Ceramics and therefore has skills (I haven't taken a ceramics class in 6 years). I told him that I'd feel bad when all his projects look better than mine. lol

Afterwards I have PHSC 100 with Mark Cannon who happens to be one of Jeremy's classmates back in the day. He was really excited to meet me, I'm still trying to decide whether or not this turn of events is a good thing. In this class I also made a friend, her name is Meagan, but she's only here for Summer Semester. I'm gonna be really sad when she leaves cause she's the only person that I hang out with (other than Emma of course).

Today I only had Ceramics and I spent 2 hours overtime perfecting my pot. Ridiculous I know, but my teacher said that this is one of the hardest classes in the entire school (I thought he was kidding, but if this is the first project, he might be right...).

I spent the rest of my day doing my PHSC homework and I'm really glad that I'm not taking any other classes. I would be swamped. My homework from PHSC had only 13 questions and then 2 chapters from the textbook but it took me the better part of 3 hours to finish all of it up!

Maybe I'll get faster as I get more homework...I should have taken more than just one science class in high school. I should have taken a science class my senior year rather than my sophmore year, maybe then I wouldn't be so dumb at it. I really think that the class is interesting, I even almost enjoy the textbook, but it is SOOOOOO hard!!

Anyway, that's it for today. Tomorrow I have all 3 classes again, but on thursday I only have ceramics (not that I'll have any freetime afterwards at the rate this class is going, we have a new project due every day).

Laie

So basically, I am now in Hawaii. You should be totally jealous and yes, I do think that I'll take up residency here. It's amazing. I'm in Laie going to school for now, but once I graduate I'd like to move to Maui (much less crowded than Oahu, not that Laie has any people living in it. I mean, the nearest walmart is an hour drive away).

This is a really short post because I'm really too lazy to write very much more. I'm super tired because I spent the past few hours at the beach. I can't believe that I'm finally an adult. Not that being a college student is really all that cool. Anyway, ciao!