Onward Winter Semester

I'm not going to be sunshine and daisies for a second, this semester is going to be brutal. I've now attended every class that I'll have for the next 3 months, looked at the syllabus and immediately felt all semblance of a social life fade into the background.

Anatomy 220 (with lab)

Chemistry 105 (every day)

Nutrition 100 (75 min. 2x a week)

and Book of Mormon 121

I suppose I really shouldn't complain though. I've already basically taken these classes before at Green River. I love the Anatomy class, didn't try very hard in the Chemistry class... as well as the Nutrition. This week won't be too hard because we're discussing the scientific method. Again. People, I know what the independent variable, control group and operational definitions are in this experiment but I digress.

Anatomy is going to be amazing. BYU has the unique opportunity to work with cadavers in the labs! Most colleges don't because of the expense and because of the contract issues with the families and the hospitals that they receive the bodies from. I'm incredibly pumped to actually see thing like: which muscle performs which function, the nerves that produce the reflexes and the sections of the brain that secrete the growth hormones.

Chemistry is my first class at BYU that is scheduled for every day and it will be grueling. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have Recitation Day. We meet with our TA's (they're called RL's (recitation leaders)) and we discuss the lectures, go over practice problems and work on the assigned worksheets. I met my RL yesterday and I'm slightly nervous... I'm sure she's a phenomenal and brilliant person but I just can not understand her. She's from India. Unfortunately that time is the only slot that works for my schedule but fortunately there are about 15 other TA's that have review sessions offered throughout the week.

Nutrition is going to be a really fun class! Carly and one of my FHE brother's Andrew is in it and my VT AND my neighbor across the hall too! The teacher is no-nonsense, which I really appreciate but he does have a slightly sarcastic/sadistic/witty humor which is highly entertaining.

Book of Mormon... it's hard to get a read on this teacher. It's her first time teaching BoM, usually a warning indicator right? She's from one of the arts departments and she's a children's book illustrator. Think Mary Poppins/ Sis. Hinckley on steroids mmkay? She's very sweet... and slightly scatter brained (not to say that Mary Poppins or Sis. Hinckley were!). This is probably because this is her first experience with a religion class. Maybe that will make it an easy class!

Who am I kidding. This is BYU.

Anyways, so last night our dorm had our reunion! Jillian was the last to get home (to Provo) so we waited for her before we started our party. Kimmie and I brought back the pizza, while Elizabeth brought home ice cream and Jill covered the cookies. ;) We decided before we left that we would make short clips of our break so that we could share a bit of home and our experiences away with each other. It turned out to be a really really fun night. Kimmie went all out and made a freaking movie haha.

After that we exchanged gifts (we drew names before we left). Jill had me and I got...

FOOTIE PAJAMAS!!!!!

Best gift ever. What a great first night back with everyone!

It's been really great being back. Although due to my current exhaustion I realize that I did not fully appreciate the decompression time that break allowed me to have.

We've got some new people in our ward. I think I've met about 3 and one of them is a new FHE brother since 2 aren't returning this semester due to their missions. One is actually in the MTC right now!

Anyways, there you have it! Just an update in the life of me.

PS: I don't personally like "comment lobbying" but if you're reading this, will you comment with a shout out/heads up? I can't help but wondering who is actually taking the time to sort through this jargon. haha.