Today I had my first test in Social Dance and I think it went pretty well! We tested on the foxtrot, and it was lots of fun! I really, really like that dance. I think the Latin dances are fun (not that we've done a lot with them, we've started the Cha-cha) and exciting, but I think that the classic ballroom dances are so smooth and graceful and it really makes you feel beautiful when you can dance them well!

Anyway, I have to finish up my paper from last night--we stayed in the library until closing, which is always strangely satisfactory and I really like to hear what music they play--anyway, I'm almost done, I just need to finish it, edit it, and then print it and hopefully it will be good! I'm pretty nervous about it, cause it's the first thing that this professor will have graded and I think that he might be a pretty hard grader (although I guess it's really the T.A.s that grade it mostly....but he has a really tough and picky rubric for it).

And then we're actually having the English dinner tonight since last night Harriet and I wouldn't have had time to make dinner with our papers and Lauren was super sick last night and sadly is really sick today! I'm hoping that if it's what Harriet had, then I'm past possibly getting it. Lauren's at the health center right now and I'm just hoping that they don't give her the same medication that they gave Harriet. Apparently, the medicine she got was the same nausea medicine that they give to chemo and radiology patients----super strong meds!! It worked for the nausea, but the side effects were so horrible (she had such bad stomach pains that we thought we were going to have to take her to the hospital) that Harriet didn't want to take it anymore, so she just had to wait the nausea out. Ugh. I really hope Lauren feels better soon.

Well, that's what's happening tonight---then I have my first American Heritage test on Monday that I'm kind of terrified for as well (I've heard they're really hard), but I still feel like after I get this paper in, it will be a relief. So---I must get down to it.

Just a quick update before I head off to class. My pot roast and rolls on Sunday were delicious and I was so happy they turned out well! Thanks to Mom and Rachael for enduring phone calls from me with rather silly questions. This week has gone by pretty slowly, and it's only Wednesday--and I really don't want to go to my classes today!! Last night was pretty fun and relaxing though, because we went to the hot springs up at Midway. It was soooo nice and hot and soothing, except for the part when we took breaks from the hot water up on the rocks and then our hair froze and we didn't even notice how cold our backs and shoulders were until someone would brush up against us and go, "Oh my gosh you are freezing cold!!!!" So we went back and forth lots of times between sitting on the rocks with our feet in and submerging ourselves every few minutes. But it was very relaxing, even though the run back to the car was freezing and rather painful and then I shut my foot in the van door once I got there. But other than that, it was wonderful!

Today will be a pretty busy day, I think. Here's my schedule!

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

4:30 Go to Creamery to get supplies for our dinner night
5:00 Start the British dinner that we're making (complete with Yorkshire puddings and English gravy)
6:00-7:30 Eat dinner sometime, then dishes
8:00 Probably go to library to write a big paper for Human Development (speaking of which, that class made us giggle involuntarily yesterday and then feel very immature since everyone else in the class was incredibly stone-faced during the lecture)
AND I'M GOING TO STAY IN THE LIBRARY UNTIL IT'S DONE!! so I'll probably get to bed around midnight (hopefully)

And at some point during the day I'll get all of my other homework done.

Oh, and Lauren's sick.....I think our apartment is just a plague-house....

And I've also discovered English chocolate this past week (I don't know if I said that already)...but Anna brought a HUGE tub of Cadbury Roses--and it's AMAZING!! And two days ago we made s'mores with the English version of Dove chocolates, called Galaxy, and it was soooo good. Anyway, I have to head off to class!

Well, for those of you that were in on the roadtrip/Moab questions and planning, we're not going this weekend. Our ride fell through, but....we already have new plans for tomorrow. Harriet's almost all the way better, she's just really tired sometimes, so thank you for your prayers! Cleaning checks tomorrow....ugh...and next weekend we're going to go look at apartments. Any suggestions?

Right now it's 3:30 am and I'm trying to fall asleep on the couch. Harriet's been HORRIBLY sick--it's probably the most miserable I've ever seen anyone. The medication she got at the Health Center gave her terrible side effects and just made everything worse (on the plus side, I got to skip my Break the Fast meeting cause we had the EMTs at our apartment...). So I told Anna, who was sleeping in Harriet's bed, that she could sleep with me in my bed....but I forgot how horrible I am at sharing a bed with someone. (Over Thanksgiving, Naomi and I had either a double or a queen-sized bed...I had to get up after a few hours and go sleep on the couch in the living room). So.....I slept for about half an hour in my teeny tiny little twin bed with Anna and then woke up when Harriet was whimpering and trying to talk herself through pain. Couldn't get back to sleep, so I made Anna stay in my bed and I came to the kitchen and tried my best to cover our rather yucky couch with the big blanket Grandmother Jere gave me. Hmm...tomorrow will be interesting. I have class at 10, so I need to wake up in...5 hours. If I fall asleep. Oh well...at this point, I just am really hoping that both Ruth and Harriet get better soon. And that NO ONE in our apartment gets what Harriet has.

Yesterday Harriet's friend Anna came in from England and it's lots of fun! It's kind of crazy, cause now I feel like the foreigner--and Anna has an even thicker accent than Harriet cause she's from a more northern part of England, even more closer to Scotland. And I didn't really realize how much Harriet slows down when she talks to us in America, cause when she and Anna get talking, they are just going so fast and I can't understand anything! Sometimes Harriet forgets that I can't understand when she talks that fast, cause she says something to me and I'm like, "WHAT? Was that even English?" and then she has to take it to like half the speed...haha.

Anyway, today we don't have school and we're planning some creamery trips and then will make cookies for boys in Young that are nice to us, because it's gotten kind of clique-y lately. So we are rewarding the nice ones. And then later we're hopefully going to find a ride to the mall and go shopping (so that I can finally spend my Christmas money without being terrified that I'll spend it on something else!)

Anna brought some delicious CadburyEnglish chocolate with her---a whole tub of it and then she brought me a chocolate bar that is called "Double Decker". Anyway, the chocolate has been sitting on our desk---which is very bad, because it just gradually disappears and we don't really know where it goes. Anna also brought Harriet an English flag which is now proudly displayed in our window--last night we also hung Christmas lights around our bedroom, so it's very pretty at night! After I get my posters, our decorations will be complete!

We're about to go to the Creamery to get food and then we can eat! Oh and Mom---apparently I can only use my signature card to print stuff off and copy stuff, so I can't use it for food---so I still have that money on my card, but I haven't used any of it.

Anyway, today will be fun (although we have to do lots of homework).

Tonight, I hated my roommates. With a few exceptions.

Well, Harriet and I made dinner tonight and it was so good! We ended up making Neil's breadsticks with the corn chowder and it was delicious! And we were especially proud of ourselves for it finishing cooking all at the same time! Mmm, yummy! And we made Scott eat some when he came over and then he said "I'm about to give you a very big compliment. I think it's better than my mom's corn chowder." And then we got very, very, very excited! YAY! So it all worked out very well and now we're deliciously full. And thank you all for your suggestions! I thought that Mary Beth's oatmeal bread would be really good as breadbowls but then I didn't have any wheat flour, so we ended up making breadsticks, but it was still really good!

Well, I'm still watching silent movies in my film class--they're interesting, cause they're the first films made, but I'm tired of my professor telling us what happens in every scene! Cause I can definitely follow along with the words that they say on the screen....but it makes me happy when the movies only have French words and I can mostly understand them! But my classes are so much fun and I really like the fact that they are more diverse ages and have RMs in them (but that's all I'm saying about boys...)

And I'm so happy every day that Harriet is my roommate! She came into Biology the other day straight from German and said, "Du bist mein bester Freund", which means, "You are my best friend". She said that their teacher asked them what phrases they wanted to learn how to say, and that was the one she asked about!! But we have a ton of fun together all the time and it's great to have your roommate be your best friend.


Tomorrow I have social dance, then an hour break, then Book of Mormon, then a 3 hour break, and then Human Development. So, I hate the feeling, but I've been saving up lots of reading to do in that hour break....ugh. I hate putting homework off until a later time, it feels so yucky. But we have lots of soup left over so Harriet, Lauren and I are going to hoard it and eat it later! Yay! But no breadsticks left...those were delicious. And thanks Mom and Dad for the help when I called!

So, today Elder Holland gave the devotional and it was amazing! I almost didn't go, cause I have a class on either side of the devotional and I didn't know whether I wanted to make the effort. But I did today, I was just like, "Well, I'll just go" and then it turned out that Elder Holland was speaking and it was AMAZING! He was so good and gave a really powerful talk and I'm so glad I went!

Tonight we had lasagna for dinner and it was very fun to sit down and have a dinner. Tomorrow Harriet and I are making the dinner--I was thinking of corn chowder, but I don't know...does anyone have any suggestions? or of some kind of bread or something that I could make with the soup? I don't know....but suggestions are very welcome!

Well, I don't really have very exciting things to say now, but I have lots and lots of reading to get to, so I'll get on to that. And yay Rachael for keeping the secret for so long and I'm excited for July!

I feel very left out of the family circle of knowing-it-all....I eagerly opened my email when I finished lunch so that I could read Mom's Sunday email.....and then there was nothing there. Very sad. And nobody has updated their blogs for a very long time. I haven't either, I guess, but I never have very exciting things to write on my blog, but OTHER PEOPLE DO!

Anyway.....church was pretty good today, except I was rather tired and hungry. Harriet and I just made a yummy lunch of spaghetti (kind off...it was twisted noodles and spaghetti noodles mixed together with a sauce of spaghetti and alfredo sauce mixed together.....SO DELICIOUS!)

There's a fireside today at the Marriott Center that President Monson is speaking out...apparently, the lines were already forming before I got home from Ward Council. So I don't know if I'll actually be able to go, and I don't know if we're having dinner tonight or not, because of the Fireside....so, if we are, call me!

My semester has been pretty good so far (the one week of it, anyway). I like all of my professors and my classes and the homework load hasn't been too horrible yet. All I've really done is just READ. I have a ton of reading to do for every class, but it hasn't been totally bad yet, since I'm still excited for new classes. Anyway, since I've updated on my life, everyone else has to as well!

So, the best part about today was the dinner that we made at about 8:30 (although my human development class was pretty cool). We went to the Creamery and I then cooked a dinner of some kind of deliciously marinated steak (can't remember what it's called, but it was yummy), garlic mashed potatoes, garlic breadsticks, the best frozen corn I've ever had (it tasted like it had just come off of the cob...so sweet and crispy!), and then Harriet made some English gravy....it was all delicious! So Harriet and I had a big full dinner and then Lauren had some mash potatoes, corn, and even tried some steak (she used to be a vegetarian and still hasn't quite warmed up to meat all the way). But it was so delicious and was a full and balanced meal and we even set the table for ourselves!! So good! (and I managed to have it all ready at once....a tremendous feat).

Our light in our bathroom went out and we went a long time with it being all dark (Starla eventually brought out a little emergency lamp and Harriet and I were thinking of stringing our christmas lights in there so we could shower) But then our friend brought up the obvious idea of just taking a light from the kitchen into the bathroom (they're all the long thin ones) but he wasn't sure whether they were the right lengths. So I broke out my trusty tape measure from my trusty tool box and we switched the lights! So now we don't have to shower or use the bathroom in the dark (even if lighted by christmas lights).

Today was rather yucky and mucky (I stepped in several parts where the I thought the mush was solid, only to have my entire foot and ankle soaked....boy, am I excited to have those boots come. I was wearing flats that didn't even cover my whole foot, but I thought it would be a better alternative to heels).

Anyway, tomorrow I think Mary Beth and Ruth and Jordan and I are going to the Cannon Center for dinner, so I should have two good meals in a row!! YAY!! and Lauren and Harriet both want to have good meals more often.

Today was the first day of class and it went pretty well! I had American Heritage in the JSB (in which we watched clips from the Office and Jay Leno and read Calvin and Hobbes strips), then had to run to be late for my French and Italian Cinema class in the JKB (in which I got hungry and we watched a very long french movie which ran over) and then I had hurry to not be late for my Biology class in the MARB (in which the class gave the very experienced professor teaching suggestions), all of which was during very icy and snowy conditions. But it was a good day, and I'm looking forward to all of those classes that I had so far.

Tomorrow I have Social Dance (the class I'm most nervous for!), BOM and Child Development. They're more spaced out time-wise, so I should be able to get to them on time.

I'm also soooo excited to have Harriet as my roommate! Already we're having tons and tons of fun and sometimes I think our other roommates think we're a little crazy. Krista's feeling a bit better and Lauren is disinfecting the bathroom as I type this (and Harriet and I are going to go help in a minute--we three agreed to split it up and just get it clean).

Well, I need to get on to my lots and lots of reading for my film class and then clean the bathroom and then get to bed at a good time because I'm tired right now. Hopefully I can make it through the 40 pages of rather dull reading without falling asleep! (and Harriet and I were planning to have a little "first day of class" celebration tonight....I don't think that's going to happen). Anyway, tomorrow's another day and hopefully it goes well!

I'm already ahead! I was bored today, so I did my first writing assignment for my Book of Mormon class and then actually read a bunch of the book for my Human Development class. It seems like it will be a really interesting class, but a lot like my psychology classes that I've already had. I saw Mission: Impossible III today and I really enjoyed it (despite the rather sarcastic crowd that I was watching it with....) Tomorrow, we only have sacrament meeting, so I'm finding the idea of getting all ready for church and then going home after an hour will be a waste of time. Oh well. And Mom, I'm making those cornish game hens tomorrow but I don't really know how to cook them...I think there are some instructions, but they use a meat thermometer, and I don't have one....so I might be calling you. anyway, I'm off to bed.

Well, I'm back. I'm figuring out my books for this semester and then I'm going to go buy them.....money, money, money. And my stomach is being weird, it can't decide if it's ever hungry or not. Oh well. Good thing I'm a natural snacker. Now I just have to wait for my friends to get home....