Midterm

I just completed my spanish midterm.

Midterm. That means half way through the semester. It's flying by! It feels like I've hardly been here, yet I'm getting past the halfway mark. I have a paper chain tacked up around my window to track the days until I'm done and it's significantly shorter than it was when I first made it. It's absolutely baffling how quickly this has been going.

I love it here. I don't want to go home. I don't want to leave these friends and I don't want to live with my parents again (not that I don't like it, I just really enjoy living on my own).

Then again, I really want school to be done. I'd like to have my freshman year of college behind me. I'd like to not have homework on the weekends. Or the weekdays. I'd like to be able to go to the beach and hang out with Sam and Carly and Katie. And my sister. I'm terribly excited for Seth, but I'm afraid she'll have him late and I won't be able to see him because of school.

I'm torn.

47 days. It doesn't seem long at all.

The Weekend

Quite possibly the best weekend in a long time. Although it was overcast and rather chilly the whole time, it was worth every penny.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time with Sam. Because he's a nerd, he did all the math.
You were here for 89 hours.
Of those 89 hours, we were together for 35.96%.
Of those times we were together, we were alone for 45.31%.
Of the times we were alone, compared to the entire time you were here, it was 16.29% of the time.
You were awake for 60.5 hours. You were awake 67.98% of the time here.
Of those 60.5 hours, you were with me 52.89% of the time.
Of the 60.5 hours, you were with only me 23.97% of the time.
Sick.
But it was so fun! We watched movies and went to the dodger game and got soaked in the rain and we played board games and went to in n out and played guitar hero. The best.

Two months left here. The weather is awful. Midterms are this week and next. It's going soooo fast!

Memorial Day

If I hadn't stayed out til three in the morning every night, I might have the energy to actually write about my weekend right now. But I was over at Sam's until 3 every night. This being said, I'm going to take a nap and then I'll write.

Just know that it ws a good weekend. A great weekend.

This week

This week, although only Tuesday, has been crazy busy. I have a LOT of stuff to get done before Thursday afternoon, when I head home to California for Memorial Day weekend.
It's going to be stormy tonight. I love the way it looks/feels outside right now. The sky is incredibly dark. The wind is blowing in big gusts, sending clouds of dust through the streets. The air smells like rain. It's awesome. Thunder storms. We don't get enough of those in California.
But I'm excited to go back nevertheless.

And if I get all my tests/quizzes taken care of before psych on Thursday, I get to not skip class. I really don't want to skip class because that's the day we're training chicks. I've been waiting all semester for this.

Busy

After four hours of consecutive studying, I've decided to take a break.

The weekend is finally coming to a close, and I'm feeling good about the work I got done. I was a little stressed out today because I realized just how many things I have going on this week that I didn't bother to prepare for yesterday (we had good weather and we all seized the opportunity to be outside).

Friday night, to clear my mind, I went with Eryn, Heather, and Randi to go door knocking for dates. It sounds lame, it is lame, and it's so much fun at the same time. We met a couple of guys from Rockland, the mens apartment complex right next to ours, and invited them to see a movie with us. They agreed and we went and saw the movie 21 (with Jim Sturgess...so pretty!). As it turns out, two of the guys used to room with Carly's older brother Danny. Small world. We didn't get home until two in the morning. An hour after curfew. They caught us on camera, but nothing has happened yet, so I think we're in the clear.

Yesterday I had the chance to go with Randi to do baptisms in the temple. It was different than in the LA temple. but it was just as fantastic. The Rexburg temple is so gorgeous, inside and out. I love it. I'm so glad we have it only two minutes from where we live and we can go as often as we want. Walking outside after having gotten wet in the baptismal font felt soooo good! The weather has been brilliantly nice. I love summer time...when it stops raining and snowing.

I discovered that, with a push, my car can make it over a mound of sand. This occured when we went to the sand dunes for a bonfire and I got a little stuck trying to get to the parking lot. Someone should tell the people who maintain the parking lots out there that not everyone has a truck (okay, everyone who is attending the school and isn't from Idaho) and can't make it to the actual lot (where it's not sand, it's nice red dirt). When we got back, we went bowling. And I failed.

I can't wait to go home. Just a few more days!

Fridays

I don't have actual class on fridays. I work on my two online classes and start my weekend homework. It's quite nice, because it allows me to stay home and in my room.
today I've been getting things done and editing essays and such...but now I don't want to do anything. I get like that after a hard day or night. Last night and this morning were definitely hard. Perhaps a nap and then finishing what I have to do.

I can't wait to go home. I miss my mom.

Bien

I woke up this morning feeling down and unhappy, probably because it's Monday and it's raining. I wans't excited to go to class. I wasn't excited for anything. It's funny how quickly that can change.
In my spanish class we were going over our practice questions and Sra. Peck called on my to answer a question. I began to answer then I paused for a moment as Sra Peck just stared at me and then I finished. She continued to stare and then she smiled and said, "¡Tú hablas español muy bien, Amanda!" Which means, "You speak spanish very well, Amanda!" It made my day. I'm now completely happy. And more confident that maybe I really do want to major in spanish after all.

The Student Health Center

After my spanish class tomorrow morning I would really like to stop by the student health center to get my ear looked at, since it's been hurting really bad since yesterday morning. Unfortunately, since this will be my first visit there, I have to call in to make an appointment instead of doing it online. They're not open until tomorrow morning. I have class then. So I have to wait til after class and then I have to wait until they can see me. And I have to fill out a bunch of paperwork with medical information that I don't know.
All I want is to have my ear looked at so they can know if I have an ear infection or not. And then they can give me the right medication to make it go away. Irritating.

Hypnotism

In my psych class my teacher hypnotized all of us. It was quite possibly the most relaxing thing I have ever experience. I would love to do it again. It wasn't hypnotism like you'd think it was, where you become zombie like and would cluck like a chicken if told to (we talked about this and all that is pretty much false). It was more relaxation. It was soothing. And comfortable. Instead if half an hour, I wish it lasted the whole hour and a half of class.

Good days

The Roommates plus one. L to R Me, Rachel, Taylor, Megan, Heather, Randi, and Lauren from across the hall

I live on the third floor in the Tuscany Place apartments. We each have our own room. Despite having our own space where we can be, we spend a good amount of time in each others rooms lounging on the bed. One of our favorite things to do is take the screens out of our windows and have conversations with the people passing by. On Sunday night Randi and I decided to try passing notes between the windows via paper airplanes. We weren't too successful. Instead we got several young men to stop and throw the paper back up to us. It's silly but really fun at the same time.

I think I want to major in spanish. I keep changing my mind when it comes to my major, but this seems like a good one. I could be an ESL teacher. In almost anything. It's just an idea. I don't know if I'll actually settle with this major, but I do like it. A lot. My spanish class is one of my absolute favorite. My Book of Mormon class too. Brother Hayes is a fantastic teacher.

And even though I love it here, I get to go home in fifteen days. For one weekend of glorious fun. I can't wait.

Dreams

Today in my psychology class we started talking about sleep and the different stages. We just started getting into dreams before class ended, but it was really interesting. We were talking about lucid dreams where you're aware that you're dreaming and you are able to manipulate the events in the dream. This makes me want to go take a long nap so I can get back to that REM state of sleep so I can have an amazing dream.
Instead I'll go to devotional.


My last two fish died today. I'm a failure at being a mother to fish.

New Love

My roommate Randi has introduced me to lacrosse. And I really like it. I'm fairly good at it, too. If I get good enough, I'll buy a stick and play in the games they're having this semester.

My birthday was really fun this year. It was relaxed, but still the best. Randi, Heather, Megan, Taylor, and Lauren from across the hall (she's practically a roommate she's here so much) took me out to dinner at Craigo's. They have the best BBQ chicken pizza ever. After that we went back to the apartment and had cake (it was an amazing cake) and cider and watched the office and Lost. My friends Vickie, Jenn, and Chris came over too. Earlier in the day flowers, a teddy bear, and a balloon were delivered for me from Stefanie and Shawn. It was a nice gift. Over all being nineteen doesn't feel very different.

Being another year older makes me almost nervous. I had another friend get engaged yesterday. She doesn't turn nineteen until the middle of June. That's four friends who are within a year of my age getting married this year. I suppose when I get married is in my control, but when I fall in love isn't. It scares me more than it should. Especially since I haven't really been dating any returned missionaries. But still...