"I Try to Take it One Day at a Time, but Sometimes Several Days Attack Me at Once."

So this past week has been incredibly intense. As someone like Homer could attest, intense definitely can mean interesting. I'm here in my room, listening to Maná, and just feeling grateful. I think I understand better about how difficulties make us appreciate all things good. For example, I have been looking forward to the weekend probably since Sunday...but let me explain myself more fully. 

Here is my schedule for the past week: 

Monday: Three classes

 Physical Science Exam 

 Spanish Exam

Tuesday: Two classes

 Have the Aeneid read (my copy is 290 pages)

Wednsd: Three classes

 Spanish composition due in class

 Research paper due by midnight online

Thursda: Two classes

 Comp Lit Exam

I think I started feeling stressed out Sunday night as I realized what a monster of a week I was facing. What buoyed me up was the hope of the weekend, which promised the following: 

1. General Conference: Probably one of my favorite times of the year is just enjoying the Spirit and listening to words of comfort, hope, and counsel. I always feel uplifted and motivated to be a better person. 

2. Ethan: Thanks to General Conference, Ethan, his brother, and sister-in-law are driving down to Salt Lake City to watch in the Conference Center (how cool is that?). Since Salt Lake City is less than an hour away, Ethan's planning to come visit BYU so I can take him to Jamba Juice (which has milk-free options), and show him all the cool places I study (like the Museum of Art garden and the library). 

3. Bleakhouse: Last weekend Becca introduced me to the PBS version of Dickens' Bleakhouse.  I thought it was absolutely beautiful. The despair and humanity, the excellent score, the commentary on human nature, the cinematography- it's just a wonderful rendition of a novel. I definitely felt swept up in the story and intricacies, and now I feel a great desire to actually read the novel. Even though Dickens has intense prose, several characters, and complex stories, I hope I can still see the beauty, majesty, and brilliance from a literary perspective. Back to this weekend though, Becca and I will hopefully have time to see another segment of this masterful cinematic rendition of a classic literary work. (P.S. Mark Twain once said, "A classic is a book which everyone praises, but nobody reads." Hahaha)

4. Harry Potter y el Prisionero de Azkaban: So I've been wondering for a while how to increase my general Spanish fluency. I realized that part of the reason I understand English so well is because of my extensive childhood reading. I used to read all the time, and I think my spelling and grammatical fluency is in part due to my love of literature- in a sense I just absorbed the rules and vocabulary. When I had reflected on this I thought, well why not read children's literature in Spanish? I proceeded to the wonderful Harold B. Lee Library, where I spent some time scanning the Juvenile Literature section's shelves for books in Spanish. What should I find but Harry Potter, not only in English, but in Spanish, French, and other languages I am not certain of but could possibly be German, Russian, and one that was character-based but didn't look like Chinese/Japanese/Korean. Since I love Harry Potter, I felt quite excited by the plethora of Spanish options. I finally chose the third book because I enjoy the story and because the grammar/vocabulary is considerably less advanced than the fifth book but more advanced than the first or second. (The sixth and seventh were not available in Spanish). Although I could probably read the fifth book, I wanted something that I could read through with relative ease and without getting caught up in unknown vocabulary (hence the absorption). As I began reading the first chapter, I felt confident that I would be able to enjoy the story but still grow in my vocabulary knowledge and grammar. This weekend holds the promise of a rather lengthier time to enjoy Harry Potter in Spanish. Haha, also, I enjoyed the Spanish with very English names: 

--¿Dónde está mi Dudders?--rugió tía Marge--.  

--¿Y qué tomará Ripper?

"Después de sus amigos, lo que Harry más apreciaba de Hogwarts era el quidditch, el deporte que contaba con más seguidores en el mundo mágico."    (págs. 16 y 24)

Delightful, no?

5. Return of the King time: The approach of the weekend means that I can spend some time recording podcasts of Return of the King for James :). My busy state has meant almost zero time, and I'm looking forward to reading not only for the excellent tale of the hobbits (depite the fact that the chapter we're in about Merry is one of the few chapters that I skipped on my second personal reading), but mostly because I miss reading to James and I definitely enjoy feeling like I'm still part of his life and "spending" time with him. (I love you, James!)

Onwards

There are other reasons why I am excited, such as talking to my family, writing letters, and sleeping. These have been the hopes I have held before me as I've slogged through the week. To give more details on what's been going on, I present the following highlights: 

Physical Science Exam: This is almost not worthy of mention, but basically I did passably well, with an 80 percent on the multiple-choice segment and hopefully a few more points from the essay, which has not yet been graded. It being the first test, I was uncertain about what to expect. I now feel better prepared to study for my next exam. 

Spanish Exam: I hope I did well. I felt pretty good about it on the whole, so hopefully I got at least a B. 

Aeneid: Wow. So The Odyssey was interesting to get through. Some parts were very gripping, in particular the Cyclops,  some of the fight scenes, parts with his son, the final battle, and parts with Penelope. There were also parts that were less interesting, such as the part when Odysseus is in the Underworld looking for a prophet but spends several pages talking with other people beforehand (few of which have any relevance to the plot) and then talking with people afterwards. I think it was touching that he got to see his mother, but beyond that most of them were just important to the Greeks, and not to anyone else. The Aeneid was a completely different venture. Virgil was essentially trying to, as Brother Peer says, "out-Homer Homer." So it's an epic, of similar style, but not as well done. It's 290 pages of Roman propaganda, why Rome is destined to rule to world and be the best. Aeneus, the main character, is admirable, but mostly only because Virgil tells you he is, and because he does all these wonderful things, with a ridiculous amount of help from his mother, Venus, and other gods. In class we talked about how much less subtle everything is, how much less showing and how much more telling Virgil uses. On the positive side, the action is more frequent and more interesting, which was enjoyable. However, with everything else going on, I am still only halfway through. Maybe the second half (about the war the Trojans fight to take possession of Italy and found Rome) is more genius. 

Research Paper 

I think I will quote Legolas here, and say more or less, I don't want to talk about it..."for me the grief is still too near." (Insert dramatic elven pose.) Basically, it was a hard paper to write. I'm still not sure why. I think research papers make me feel insecure. But no matter, it's over, and it was only a rough draft. (This means that revision looms ahead, but still, what's written is written). 

Becca's Birthday!!

This was definitely a highlight. I enjoyed documenting her day by taking pictures of everything she did and ate as well as her presents. I don't have much to add, except the documentary will be posted on Facebook and we had really awesome Mexican food for dinner.

Comp Lit Exam

Well, I finished this only two hours ago, so I may be lacking somewhat in perspective, but I felt fairly good about it. Fortunately the Aeneid was not on the test. We had 25 matching questions and then an essay about the choruses in the plays we've read: Medea, King Oedipus, and Prometheus Bound. I found I really enjoyed writing about their roles and analyzing, even though I couldn't remember too much about Oedipus. I really enjoyed reading these Greek plays- not just because I feel more cultured for having done so, but because they were truly works of art. The implications of fate and power in Prometheus Bound are so intriguing, and the strange sympathy and revulsion you feel as you read Medea is a testament to the excellent structuring and presentation of Euripedes. I never enjoyed learning about Greek and Roman culture much in high school, but learning about it through literature has proved to be extremely rewarding, despite the amount of reading required. 

Jamba Juice 

This morning my Book of Mormon class let out early. I thought to myself, how wonderful! I can get some breakfast. Now where to get breakfast... Then I recalled that Jamba Juice has something new called "Chunky Strawberry Banana." The ingredients include yogurt, strawberries, peanut butter, and granola blended together with freshly sliced bananas across the top. I walked to Jamba Juice and lo and behold! instead of the usual line of people waiting to order and even longer line of those awaiting their order, only two people were there besides me! I ordered my Chunky Strawberry Banana and only waited about 7-10 minutes to receive my cup of goodness instead of the usual 15-20. Ahh, and it was a beautiful creation of yummy health. 

Conclusion

Well, that's been my week. I guess I'm ready to tackle my homework for tomorrow, but it's so much less than every other day that I feel as though the weekend has already begun. I now feel very appreciative of free time and the weekend. Even though this week was difficult, I feel as though I've learned a lot, and I've been able to see many blessings and "tender mercies" as I've worked to balance everything. I hope everyone is happy and doing well. I miss you all. 

Matthew 6:25-34

An Amalgam of Annatations: Weeks 1 and 2

Well, I'm here in my room with Becca, on a truly beautiful day, listening to Echoes of the Sabbath, which features the BYU choruses and orchestras. Our day has been nice, just church, lunch with the girls from our hall, and relaxing in our room. I figured I'd take advantage of the time and describe some of my experiences. I know this post is very long, so it's divided into sections for easier reading. 

What I've Learned from the Ancient Greek Kid in My Comparative Literature Class

When I walked into Comp Lit the first Tuesday of school, my simplified feelings would be anxiety only a little short of terror. My teacher is an older gentleman called Brother Peer. He's pretty much an expert in his field and from www.ratemyprofessor.com I already knew his class would be intense. So part of my anxiety was if the course would be too difficult, especially for the first semester. Mostly though everyone looked much older than me. Some of them had already taken classes from Brother Peer and greeted him enthusiastically. The syllabus was no less intimidating- The Odyssey was listed as the first book we needed to read...by the next Tuesday. Not to mention the several other books we would be reading over the semester- Dante, Virgil, More, Sophocles, Euripides...and a couple others. After class I went up to Brother Peer and said (expressing much of my anxiety I'm sure), "Um...I'm a freshman. ...Is that going to be a problem?" His response was very cheering- he shook his head and said, "No. You'll be fine. You'll do great. You haven't been corrupted yet." And then I found out the girl next to me was a freshman as well! Anyways, now, a couple weeks later, I'm very happy I kept the class. Many people did not though; we started out with 40 people enrolled and now we're down to 18. But I have successfully read The Odyssey and I'm almost finished with Prometheus Bound. Although I'm not much of a history person, I am really enjoying learning about Greek culture. I also am enjoying saying (or thinking), "That idea comes from the Greeks!" just like the father in My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding. To help us understand the culture, Brother Peer (who, by the way, taught at UGA for several years), said, "Imagine that a kid from ancient Greece joined our class. What would we ask him? And more importantly, what would he reply? What would his answers teach us about his culture?" From there, he proceeded to "ask" several questions, and the answers were, of course, enlightening. Two concepts really intrigued me. The first is areté, or general excellence. This was the goal of Greek society- to excel at everything. Despite the fact that true perfection was only attainable by a god, the Greeks believed in attempting to learn and do everything, which is really admirable, in my opinion. From this idea comes "general education" within a university setting. To the Greeks, education would not be professional training, but rather learning about, exploring, and mastering as many subjects as humanly possible. The second idea is competition. To the Greeks, competition could only be against yourself. For example, in the Olympics, the overall winner with the laurel leaves would not be the best, but rather he who had improved the most since the last competition. To compete against someone else would imply an attempt to defeat them. To attempt to defeat someone else is one step away from trying to destroy. This concept intrigued me because how often do we compare ourselves to other people? Not only that, but comparing yourself can become incredibly destructive. Anyhow, after we read The Odyssey we discussed it, and in particular we discussed the nature of heroism. To the Greeks, the greatest flaw in humankind was a tendency towards recklessness, and heroism was the ability to overcome that recklessness through cunning, or wisdom, or shrewdness. After class I asked Brother Peer if this meant that many of our heroes would not be considered heroes by the Greeks due to their recklessness and I gave the example of Harry Potter. Brother Peer said that Harry Potter developed wisdom and would therefore be more like a Telemachus instead of an Odysseus, but that at the end he could be considered a Greek hero. Then he started talking about how J.K. Rowling is an amazing story-teller, and how he met her at Oxford one summer. He said he really liked her because she had a lot of personal integrity and normalcy. How cool is that! I believe that sums up my Comp Lit experiences; all in all it's a very enjoyable and stimulating class. 

College English: Breaking Free

I've known for a long time that teachers lie. I mean, compare the concept of Thanksgiving in 2nd grade (making pilgrim and Indian costumes and eating a lot of food) to that of 10th grade (did Columbus start genocide?). However, this truth always seemed to apply more to science and history, the first for the sake of simplification, the second because what second grader wants to consider the idea of genocide? However, now that I'm here in college, I have discovered that even English teachers lied to me. Let's talk about the rules. 

1. Never split an infinitive. 

Lie! You can totally split an infinitive. It's not even slang- it's real, honest-to-goodness, American English. Only the grammar purists would try to convince you that this is wrong. Why? Because in Latin (which, by the way, is not English), you can't split an infinitive. 

2. Never end a sentence with a preposition. 

Second lie! Feel free to end sentences with as many prepositions as you desire! The see-saw went up and down and around! This is okay because we don't speak Latin. In Latin you cannot end with a preposition. Of course, if the preposition is redundant (i.e. Where are you at?) then it is still grammatically incorrect. It's just not incorrect because of the preposition. 

These two truths both startled, astounded, and delighted me. And, it gets even better. Our style packet has more fake rules it exposes that I just haven't looked at yet! So there. 

Miscellaneous Free-Floating Dust Particles

I just thought I'd talk about a few things here that didn't fall into another category but don't make up their own. 

1. Spanish 321... is a class for returned missionaries. And it's the class the placement test put me in. It's a pretty crazy class- we've been talking about accents, diptongos and triptongos, and reviewing the preterite versus the imperfect. Our teacher is from Uruguay, which is really cool- I love his accent! I also met this kid who just moved here from Uruguay and I got to talk to him for a while in Spanish, which was way cool! I think he liked that he could express himself a little better with me since he barely knows English. My Book of Mormon class has been quite interesting so far, I've been learning little things I didn't know, as well as looking at certain aspects in a whole new way (like the Tree of Life). Physical Science is not my favorite class, but I have a really nice TA who explains things simply, and the book is not difficult to read. Orchestra is not bad at all- we meet once a week and the music isn't too difficult. I haven't been practicing much so there are some runs I'll have to work on, but after Diamond, I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to nail everything by December (assuming I practice, which I will). I miss Pope Orchestra though- Mr. Gray's crazy stories and metaphors and the general enthusiasm for playing, even though most people here really do seem to enjoy the class. I'm going to be working on a literary magazine here- one that Orson Scott Card started, which is really cool! Everyone is older than me, but they all seem really nice, so I think I'll keep going. It'll be good editing practice. A lot of stuff they talked about reminded me of Oneiric, so I think I'll have a good time. I went on a multicultural student retreat, which was really fun :). One of the counselors is a flame thrower? from Hawaii, and so he did some flame throwing for us. It was amazing! We were up in the mountains, and it was very chilly in the morning and at night, but it was fun being with friends and counselors from SOAR. They had a student panel that talked about sharing your heritage and getting involved in other people's heritages. Then in the morning we did this activity where we had to "hold to the rod" to get to the "tree of life" without being deceived, which was quite fun.

Rebecca: Why My Roommate Rocks

Becca and I have been having a great time. We have two plants: Frances and Fangorn. Frances has a central flower that has not bloomed yet, and Fangorn looks a bit like a tree, which is why we named him after Fangorn (Treebeard) from Lord of the Rings. They adorn our windowsill and enjoy the sun. Becca and I have had some interesting experiences together already. 

1. We were returning from a ward social, in the rain, carrying fruit between two plates. As we were dashing to our room, hoods up, we heard some boys ahead of us yelling "Hail! Hail!" and then of course we felt the hail. We kept running and the hail got bigger and bigger until I yelled, "Becca! There's such thing as golf-ball sized hail! We have to get inside!" So we ran to a nearby guys' hall and stood there, dripping, clutching fruit in both hands, laughing hysterically at the hilarity of being caught in hail. When the hail stopped we ran the rest of the way, still laughing, with grapes flying off of our plates (probably, we assumed, to be later found and eaten by less-scrupulous guys). We were completely soaked by the time we returned to our room. 

2. Another girl down the hall, Heidi, is rather similar to Becca. They both have played piano extensively and have good senses of humor. Heidi decided that Becca would be Relief Society president and was teasing Becca about it, saying she would call her RSP (pronounced ursp, or ersp; although Brittany, Heidi's roommate, mentioned that it really ought to be risp, or resp). Well, later that evening, Heidi came by and banged on our door (this is a usual occurance). When we opened it, she was holding a water gun and began spraying us with water. In my attempt to take it from her, I was locked out of our room until Becca mercifully opened the door. Although we were not very wet, we knew we needed to plan our revenge. After some thought, we used a pad of Becca's sticky notes (a small one) to write RSP. When Heidi was no longer in her room, we snuck in (with Brittany's help) and stuck the post-it notes all over her bed. Then we hid her prized possession, her basketball, in our room. She found it that evening and we had a fun time watching her search. Later that evening, we opened our door to find it covered with our post-it notes. Haha!

3. During the first few days of New Student Orientation (NSO), Becca and I met this guy, Bernard, who seemed nice and cool. So we talked for a bit between activities. One time we went to go get some water, and on the way we found out he was a returned missionary and a transfer student. We kept talking for a bit and soon parted ways as he had to go join the transfer student group. Becca and I looked at each other and said, "That was an RM???" He definitely did not look old and we were surprised we weren't as freaked out to talk to him as we thought we would be. (We were more freaked out later actually) Anyways, it was a very interesting experience and we have not since then spoken much to an RM (since it would not be a wise idea). Becca had developed some good tactics to avoid being asked for her number or for appearing to friendly. Whenever she stands beside someone in a line for food or starts talking to someone who is an RM (they're all at least two years older than the freshmen, so it's not too difficult to tell), she starts replying to their questions (Where are you from? What's your major? etc.) in monosyllables. 

RM: Oh, hey, what's your name?

Becca: Becca. 

RM: That's a nice name. Where are you from, Becca?

Becca: Georgia. 

RM: Oh wow, I had a friend who served his mission there! Maybe you know him? Elder So-and-So?

Becca: Nope. 

RM: ..... Well, so what's your major?

Becca: Music. 

RM: Wow! Music is great! I used to play trumpet. Good for you. I'm majoring in Marriage and Family Relations.

Becca: Mmm. 

This conversation is mostly fictitious and is a representative example of Becca's stories about the conversations. 

4. Alas, though Becca and I have many other fun experiences (an international movie, dances, our search for ice-cream, our many meals at the Cannon center, reading aloud, watching funny comedy clips, telling jokes, singing Wicked and other songs), I must now report our one sad experience: an empty mailbox. Too many times have we stood awkwardly in the Helaman mail office, peering into our mailbox from a distance to avoid the shame of opening an empty box. We're not asking for much... just a few friendly pictures to adorn our bare walls... We're not desperate... mail would just make our day. :)

My Hall: Some of the Coolest Girls on the Planet

I considered discussing this in the next section, but I just feel the girls I share a small amount of space with are just so amazing they merit a section of their own. The hardest part about these past couple weeks has been learning names, but we're starting to get the hang of it. It's been nice just visiting with the other girls and learning where they come from and who they are. One girl and I ran into each other only in the bathroom for the first few days. After a few times we realized what was happening and had a good laugh about it. Since then, it hasn't happened much- haha. Several of the girls love dancing, so it's been fun running into them at the dances because they're so passionate and good. On another note, everyone is extremely generous. Our resident assistant, Sky, had a date. It was wonderful watching everyone come together to help her decide what to wear, lending her clothes, and helping her curl her hair. My favorite part of living together is hall prayer. Sky suggested this at our first meeting and everyone was very enthusiastic. Becca and I volunteered to be the announcers, so every night at 10:10 we run up and down the hall knocking doors and yelling, "Hall prayer! Hall prayer!" We quite enjoy doing this, and spending a few minutes of the evening together, talking and praying. We have so many interesting, fun, and kind personalities- I think we all feel confident that we'll have a great year together. 

Oh, one last story. The third floor hall flooded on Friday! A pipe burst and the girls upstairs had about three inches of water all over their floor. The water leaked down to the second hall and finally to our hall. A few girls had water pooling on their floor (thankfully Becca and I didn't). They brought vacuums to suck up all the water and as far as I know nothing major was damaged, but the experience was quite memorable. 

The Four Aims: What makes BYU Amazing

Somewhere near our hall is a sign that marks the border of our campus. It says, of course, Brigham Young University, and underneath is reads "Enter to learn, go forth to serve." This has to be one of my absolute favorite aspects of being here. Everything at BYU goes back to the four aims of a BYU education: 1. Spiritually strengthening, 2. Intellectually enlarging, 3. Character building, leading to 4. Life-long learning and service. I love the idea that we're not here just to help ourselves, or just to have a good time and study some, but rather that we're here to learn how to learn, to essentially start the rest of our lives, to develop skills that we will hopefully be able to use to serve others. The perspective is so much farther-reaching. We're not just looking at the next year, or the next four years, or even the next ten years, but at the rest of our life and beyond. There is a wonderful feeling of community and love. My ward is great- we get together to talk, socialize, and pray together every Sunday night, and we have socials at other times (not to mention the unscheduled socializing we do at dances and meals). The teachers truly want to help you succeed, and I'm amazed at how many times they bring the lesson back to the gospel, back to how to develop as a person. Everything is integrated into everything else- the importance of academics, a social life, and developing spiritually. I feel like I'm learning a lot in so many aspects of my life- time-management, Greek culture, Spanish, living in a hall, where all the buildings are, how a ward is structured, Book of Mormon, etc. Every day I spend here convinces me that I made the right decision. Though there are several excellent universities in the nation, I feel I'm at the right one for me, and that's a very comforting and happy thought. 

In conclusion...

I could probably write a whole lot more on everything that has been going on. (What do you know, I ended with a preposition! ...It still feels wrong though). However, I know this is already a very long post. The next one will probably be shorter since I'll just be talking about a week or a few days as opposed to two and a half weeks. Basically, I love being here at BYU, despite the fact that I do miss the warmth of Georgia and the many amazing people living there. I hope everyone is doing well. Have a great day!

(p.s. If you didn't know, we smashed UCLA 59-0 at our last game. Go Cougars!)