Well, I'm done! I took my last final today, Physical Science. It was actually pretty hard, so I didn't look at my score afterward cause I wanted to end on a happy note! Well, it wasn't really happy, but it was not as depressing as it could be. But now I'm finally done.

And I'm excited to be home in a few days! It can't come fast enough!

Today we had lots of Christmas stuff. We had the Christmas program in church, then i came home, ate, then had hall meeting where we read our service chain aloud, then i took a very long nap, then i went to dinner at Ruth's where we had a wonderful potato soup and broccoli salad and then i went to our ward christmas fireside, which was basically a musical talent show, which was fun. Then we came home, had ward prayer, watched a slide show of our semester, then our home teachers came over and Naomi and I got blessings for finals (and in a way we felt bad, cause the guy that was giving them to us was really nervous--we think it was his first time, so we felt kind of bad for putting him on the spot and making him so nervous, but it was a good experience for all of us). Then I played Settlers of Caton (NO idea how that's spelled) with Caitlin, Nate, and Jeff and I actually liked it a little better this time--although it was a very raucous game.

My favorite part of the night was SO cool though. There's one kid in our ward, Matthias, that always takes lots of pictures of events and friends and parties and everything and always puts them up and basically is the unoffical ward-designated photographer, and he really, really likes it as hobby as well. Well, his camera broke a month or so ago, and so he couldn't take pictures any more, and his mom said he wouldn't get one for Christmas, so he was really, really bummed.

Well, our ward (because we are SO amazing) did a little secret plotting--tonight, we presented Matthias with a paper bag full of $115, mostly in one dollar bills and change. It was an amazing experience, cause Matthias started crying when we told him it was for him to buy himself a new camera. I just think it is so cool of everyone to pull together and do this--cause nobody can afford to do it, but everyone WANTS to do it. We're all really poor college students, but people were digging out precious laundry money, or the few dollar bills that they had so that we could do this for Matthias, and it was great to see the look on his face when we gave him the money. It was a great night!

To Mary Beth:

I feel immeasurably bitter towards you for the fact that you never told me that Archie died. I hope you know how miserable I was tonight.

Sincerely,

Elise

To Every One Else:

Naomi and I watched Horatio Hornblower tonight. During the second episode, she kept burying her head and saying fervently, "I hate this movie!" And I never could understand why. Until we watched the ending. We spent the next fifteen minutes literally sobbing and our friends were very confused when they were trying to talk to us.

But it was an excellent movie.

R.I.P. Mr. Kennedy :(

I'm at Mary Beth's right now and we just ate a very big dinner of spaghetti, garlic bread, green beans, kielbasa, and chocolate satin pie and now we're very full and not wanting to do homework. But she has to study, and I have to write a paper, so we need to buckle down...and not fall asleep at the same time, because our little tummies are very content.

So, wanna hear my schedule for next semester? I think I pretty much have it all figured out, at least for now........

Mondays:
11:00-11:50: American Heritage
12:00-2:50: French and Italian Cinema
3:00-3:50: Principle of Biology

Tuesdays:
10:00-10:50: Social Dance
12:00-12:50: Book of Mormon 2
4:30-5:45: Human Development

Wednesdays: (same as Monday)
11:00-11:50: American Heritage
12:00-12:50: French and Italian Cinema
3:00-3:50: Principles of Biology

Thursdays: (same as Tuesdays)
10:00-10:50: Social Dance
12:00-12:50 Book of Mormon 2
4:30-5:45: Human Development

Fridays:
12:00-12:50: American Heritage Lab
3:00-3:50: Principles of Biology

Should be an interesting semester! That's 14.5 credits....and I'm running out of GEs!

Some random Canada pictures, riding up int the hills to try and find the buffalo.


The picture above is probably my favorite mule picture...and the pictures below are ones I took as we were leaving in the car of the ranch and where we were riding....you may have to enlarge them to see it better, cause they're not very good pictures---don't really capture the texture of the land.

I just drank a cup of hot vanilla milk and it made me want to be home! I can't wait! I just realized that all my exams will be over by Tuesday of next week. I only have three exams, which is nice. For my other classes, I pretty much have papers, if anything. So it will be nice to have those over with! Right now I'm in my kitchen studying, wishing I was in bed sleeping. But I need to take my HEPE quiz 2 tonight then the HEPE test 2 tomorrow and then the physical science test later tomorrow. UGH! so many tests......

And my eyes feel dry, but if I take out my contacts, I will want to sleep. And I've shut all the possible doors between myself and the neighboring kitchen--that's the hangout spot tonight, since I told my roommates that our kitchen was off limits to whatever socializing they wanted to do tonight. I think of all my roommates, I find it the easiest to express my opinions. (Naomi secretly high fived me after I just went and told them all to be quiet--she and our neighbor Caitlin are going to bed in Naomi's room, and I'm terribly jealous of them).

Anyway, there's my little post for the day, now I'll look and see what I have as far as pictures....

This is the breakfast that Naomi, Isaiah and I made the next morning in Waterton before riding out after the buffalo. And it's pure Canadian. Canadian bacon, Canadian maple syrup, Canadian flapjacks (out of a mix....haha), Canadian eggs...and of course, Tropica--I mean, Canadian orange juice...freshly squeezed. I wish.

Yesterday was kind of crazy. We had cleaning checks so we were trying to clean and do homework all day. Then last night there was this huge activity at the ice rinks for all of BYU. They had broom hockey, cookie decorating and hot chocolate, ice skating, and a dance. The broom hockey was my favorite! It was fun to get into a competitive mood again, even if it was slightly crazy. So we were there until midnight, then we got shuttled back and I hung out with my friend Jeff for a while and had some good conversation. Then I got up for church this morning, and didn't shower like I had planned because I got up at a normal time, not early enough to catch the hot water. Our building, a building full of 75 girls, is constantly plagued by cold water. It does not make one want to shower very frequently if the only showers available feel like ice water.

So we had church today, Fast and Testimony Meeting. For the first part, they asked all of the people that are leaving at the semester to get up and bear their testimonies, so it was really cool to hear all of the guys that are leaving on their missions and hear their testimonies (It also changed it up from the usual people). Then Break the Fast (our apartment made Shepard's Pie) which went well, and now I'm back here.

And now for some Canada pictures!

Sometimes it's nice to run around and let loose...especially when you're miles and miles away from civilization. We could probably use this frolicking time this upcoming week.

These pictures were the result of us at the Waterton ranch getting tired aroudn 11 or 12 and deciding to go run around outside and climb on rocks to wake us up.
Me playing August Rush--unfortunately, neither of them had seen it.
This next one, you can't see me very well at all, but if you focus really hard, you can see that it's an awesome frolicking shot.

Last night my exam went okay. I went to the library around 3 or 4 (can't really remember) and studied for my test then went to take it around 7, got an okay grade (considering what I how stressed I was about it) then went back to the library to finish lots of homework on a sudden streak of wanting to do homework. Then at 9, Ruth, Jordan, and Amy picked me up and we went to go to Applebee's and got appetizers. Then we went back to Ruth's and watched Lars and the Real Girl.

Today, I was prepared for class and felt happy. After I got back from class tonight, I called MB to hang out, went to the beginning of the Whitney Hall Christmas Party, then went to hang out at MB's and watched tv episodes with really attractive men in them and just have fun with my sister, and then I went home and hung out with a bunch of my friends. (And the hanging out started at about....11? 11:30? On weekends, it's easy to fit both family and friends in. I hang out with family until they want to go to bed, then by the time I get home, things are barely just starting to happen with my friends. It works out nicely.


On a different subject...Did you know that I have skills? Well, I have some you may know about....but you don't even know the half of it! Maybe I didn't even know for a while...but thankfully, Canada opened my eyes to my wonderful talents!

Right now I'm in the library trying to make myself study for my HEPE test....it's really annoying (I don't know if I've said this on here yet or not) but this is my online health class. At the beginning of the year, I was all gung-ho and on top of things and going to get it done in the first few weeks. So I started it before classes even started, and got the first half of the lessons, the first quiz, done. But the first exam wasn't ready until another week or so, so I had to wait for that.

And I promptly forgot about the class.

And remembered about it when I got home from Canada.

And now I'm suffering. Today is the last day to take the first exam without the 5 bucks fine and then Tuesday is the last day for the second exam. ARGH!!!!!!!! I even contemplated withdrawing from the class...but then I decided that despite what I think, I probably can get this test overwith and the second half of the lessons by Tuesday. It's just frustrating, cause I don't know what the test will be like, so I don't know what to study, becuase I don't want to have to read all the lessons all over again. I repeat, ARGH!!!!!!

So that's what I'm doing tonight. And then after the test, I'll come back and study Physical Science and work on some Writing homework, cause we only have a FEW MORE DAYS OF CLASS! AND THEN EXAMS!!!



oh man.........

I'm going to bed early again tonight---I felt so gross all day. I really should be studying a ton for my health class, but I can't concentrate on school right now, so I'm just going to bed, and I'll study tomorrow before I take it! Today I talked to Lindsey and Dad and it made me feel better physically, but made me want to go home even more! I have 17 days until we leave....it needs to come faster! And I'm worried about exams.....

Oh, here are some pictures of my room for those that would like so see it (I know I always wanted to know what people's apartments/rooms looked like). It's really clean here, this is on a cleaning check day, right now it's almost as clean, but not quite!
And a Canada picture...
That was as we were leaving Banff--we just pulled off the highway and took it! And that lake was frozen and people were ice skating!

Also---would it maybe be possible to send my posters of Aragorn, Legolas and Jack Sparrow? I'm in need of some decoration.....and they are much more home-y.....Thank you!!!!

I'm sick. I thought I had fought it off....and I hadn't. So I'm sick. And I feel miserable. And homesick. And stressed. So I won't blog too much, cause I'm going to bed, but here are some pictures of a mountain goat that we passed on the way up in the mountains in Banff...it just sat there on the road and looked at us.

Today was kind of unsuccessful as far as studying went, but it was very fun as far as friends went. I went to my classes, saw friends during passing time, then I came home and did nothing really and slept a little bit and then I talked to Harriet for a while. Then I decided that I was going to go visit Mary Beth in the library and there we hung out and talked about my trip and lots of other stuff and I uploaded my pictures. I've been uploading a bunch of them to facebook, so I'm kind of uploaded out, but for those of you that don't have access to facebook (and I don't have them all up there yet, I'll probably put some more up after this), until I get a big desire to upload more pictures on here, I'm going to do a picture a day from my trip! And this will probably last a while...until I'm bored and need something to do. Unlikely to happen, I'll be very busy these next three weeks. But I have lots and lots of pictures (most of them landscape) so there will probably be a day when I will want to upload more of them.


This is one of the first pictures I took--this is the view from the back porch of Naomi's house, overlooking some of their land.And, since it's the first day, I'll upload another one, I guess.....well, I actually may upload lots more than one a day, but that's my goal. This next picture is taken from inside the car: it's a view of Banff as we drive up to it!


Mary Beth saw all my pictures and immediately decided that southern Alberta is a prime vacation spot. Anyway, more pictures to come! (actually, if you could all look on facebook, that would be ideal, so I don't have to put very many up here.....oh well.....let me know if you do see them...)