published! kind of...

What a busy week it has been! The semester is only a week old, but I feel like I've been doing this forever. My biggest adventure is my Comms 321 class, writing for the Daily Universe. I was assigned the police beat, among other things, which has been my goal since before I even started at BYU. Today was my first experience in print, and even though my name wasn't attached to it the beat in the print version, it was quite exciting. Here is a link to the story on BYU NewsNet, which actually gives me credit for compiling and writing the blurbs.

http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/70621

Also, I will have another story printed on Monday, probably on the front page!!

Christmas at home!

I had a wonderful few weeks at home for Christmas, and experienced my first white Christmas ever. The snow was lots of fun, but a little cabin-fever inducing. I loved being with tons of family and taking a break from school. Here are some highlights from my time at home: Riding the ferry

Opening cousin Christmas presents

visiting Grandma and Grandpa Treasure

swinging with Isaac

pictures on the deck in the snow

Viva Mexico!

I am officially going to Mexico this spring! I got accepted into the study abroad yesterday! This means that I get to spend the first 3-4 weeks of spring term taking sociology and political science classes in Provo, then head down to Mexico for 3 weeks to apply what we learn about international development. We start in a medium sized city (Cuauhtémoc) and live with families and work with schools, orphanages, rehab centers for migrant workers, etc. Then we go to a smaller town and build schools, houses, and do whatever they need us to do. We spend the last week camping in the mountains and helping the incredibly rural and indigenous people with really basic things like digging irrigation trenches. The get time over the whole trip to explore and talk to people and do research for future projects about poverty.

I am so excited, but I definitely need to start refreshing my Spanish!

Home for Thanksgiving

What a relaxing week I had! It was so much fun to be home, even if I was the only sister to make it back to Washington. (I guess that shows who the favorite daughter is, the only one the parents bought a plane ticket for.) It was a wonderful week of sleeping, playing piano, trying my hand at golf and getting thoroughly embarrassed, biking, shopping, getting pampered with the cousins, and relaxing. Thanksgiving was great, and I even got to try my hand at making the stuffing all by myself, but under Mom's watchful eye. I've expanded my repertoire past cranberries to include dinner rolls, stuffing, and even cooking the hairy yams. It was fun to be back in the rain with family!

I came back and my roommates and I started decorating our apartment for Christmas right away. I just love this holiday season!
Now, its time to crack down because finals start 2 weeks from today!

good news from the library

You know those weeks when the good news just randomly comes and ends up neutralizing the stress? I think this week is one of those. Besides the wonderful weather we've been having (a lovely mix of sunny and rainy days) and the fact that I am going home in 10 days, I just got a fabulous piece of news. I got an email from BYU financial services, and I figured it was because they wanted me to pay my study abroad application fee (which they do), but when I logged on, I had a message that they had more money to give away, and are giving me a half-tuition scholarship for next semester! Based on an application I submitted in March, I just made over $1000. Now that's a good deal! Also, it just kind of made my day!

And now, its back to chemistry problems, stock market analysis, and cleaning the apartment...

Break the fast!

I did it! I survived our stake's media fast with the last 2 weeks of school-only internet, church-only music, no TV and no movies. It was rough, and the music was definitley the hardest part, but my roommates and I all made it through. We started going crazy after about a week. We found some creative ways to stay busy, so here is just a sampling of the escapades in #2 during the last 2 weeks.

Getting accepted into the PR program!!

fort-building with every surface in our living room
empty-the-cupboards jell-o with all of our leftovers or un-identified food inside-- cereal, tortilla chips, marshmallow, carrots, etc. Its a delicasy!

We also got really good at spelling words with our bodies, discussing the meaning of life, making a cooking show, interpretive dancing to classical music, making abstract art for our wall, and rubber band face, which I tried to explain to Mom, but it really has to be seen to be understood, so here is a visual of me breaking the record.

Conference, in general

I had the chance to go with my roommates to both sessions of Conference on Saturday. We had fabulous seats and it was so wonderful to hear the words of the prophet live! The weather was wonderful, and it felt just like a Seattle fall day.
We watched the Sunday sessions in pajamas with cinnamon rolls in the apartment. What a great weekend!

Erin and John-- I'm excited for your new temple!