DONE!

I'm ready to fly home for Thanksgiving tomorrow! Today I turned in an essay for Spanish, a test for Spanish, and took another exam for Physiology. Tomorrow I'll just go to work for the day and part of the afternoon and then head to the airport! Woohoo! I'm excited to see my fam and eat delicious food!

PD Bio 320 permission!!!!

Big news! I am allowed to take PD Bio 320 this summer!!!!! PD Bio 320 is the dissection techniques in human anatomy class-aka techniques of human cadaver dissection! It's notorious for having a super long waiting list and TA's are given top priority over anyone else, but I emailed the head professor to ask about the possibility of being added to the waitlist/how many years it would be before I could take the class (seriously. it takes that long). BUT since we got the new Life Sciences building and new labs=apparently new cadavers, the waitlist has been whittled down!

This is super exciting because I ultimately hope to go to graduate school to become a Pathologist's Assistant, and part of those duties include helping with autopsies, so this class would be a huge asset to my coursework/application as well as skillset! Nerdy but exciting :)

Tonight as part of Sigma Delta Pi I went to "Navidad/Natal Azul" or "Blue Christmas," where a bunch of the professors in the Spanish and Portuguese department played bluesy/jazzy Christmas songs and in the end the Spanish and Portuguese Honor Societies (that's me!) sang Silent Night in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Can it just be Christmas already?

I spy the SDP advisor and my Spanish 339 professor!

happy birthday from Japan!!

I received a birthday package from Chandler Shimai in the mail today! She actually sent it last week, so it hasn't been in transit for a couple months, don't worry :) It was also freezing today, check out the damage the sprinklers did! Seen on my walk home:

look at those frozen plants!

And now, the present reveal: some cute notes that you can fold so the panda rocks back and forth and quality chopsticks!!! AWESOME.

And one of my projects was finished today! Only like ten million to go!

O Christmas Tree

Guess who set up their little tree last night?

Not bad for an artsy picture, no?

I'm trying to stay positive and happy,  because my days are crazy busy! I still can't believe Thanksgiving is so close and then it's two weeks and BOOM. Finals. Wish me luck! I'll need it!

ELF

Today I was quite the domestic! We had a bunch of overripe fruit so I made some banana chocolate chip muffins for my roommates and an apple crisp for the Werner's in exchange for dinner tonight (broccoli/cauliflower cheddar soup. yum).

We also all decided that each week we would watch a Christmas movie. Tonight it was Elf!

Lulu cold and snuggling with me.

my first apple crisp! It had Jami's seal of approval!

did I mention I'm excited for Christmas?

Can you believe that I go home in a week and two days for Thanksgiving and after that there's two weeks of classes and then finals?! Ahh!

Some final football

Tonight was one of the last BYU football games of the season! We played UNLV and won, woohoo!! It was freezing, though, so only us devoted fans were present :) I had a lot of fun with this crazy roomie of mine!

After we saw "Guardians of the Galaxy" at the cheapo theater and I thought it was so great!! Definitely met and exceeded expectations. Now it's an early bedtime so we can actually be on time to church tomorrow!

the first snowfall!

Well, we finally got some snow here in Provo. It looks like there's just rain or cold temperatures for the next week, so this might be the only snow before Thanksgiving!

not very thrilled.

cold cold cold.

pre-snow. check out that crazy fog.

a light dusting...

it's coming down!

out to go grocery shopping

let it snow!

I can't believe the week is over! That means I'm coming home in 12 days! I'm excited and can't wait to see the fam and Amma and Grandpa Ned!

the service that keeps on giving!

So you know how we also wrote President Worthen a thank-you letter? Check out the email we got today!

so cool!

Let me tell you, that just made my day! I'm so glad he responded. Pretty neat!

Today was busy as usual, but check out the display that made work better! Rachel redecorated part of the office since all of Natalie's stuff was taken when she left. Meet my officemates!

can you find my pics?

Tomorrow brings work, class, and meeting with professors to discuss projects. And maybe a pizza party? I'll let you know!

bucket list worthy

Tonight I had a very cool opportunity that I think was totally "bucket list"-worthy! So for my service class midterm today, we were instructed to leave in the middle of class, go serve someone, somehow on campus for twenty minutes, and then come back and write a reflection about it. My group (Jason, BJ and myself) decided to go write a thank-you note to President Worthen, but while we were writing it in the ASB, some guys from the ROTC came up to us and asked if we could help them out. OF COURSE! They needed someone to push the button that plays the national anthem while they took the flag down for the evening flag ceremony. How cool is that?!

the button!

jason and the guys with the flag! It was huge!

And then, when I came home, this stray cat followed me around and tried to get into our apartment, which I had to put an end to. So it just awkwardly meowed outside our apartment for a good five minutes or so...

came home to this....

Not a bad day, all in all! And I thought the flag ceremony experience was very apt considering it's Veteran's Day tomorrow!

saturday and sunday

It turns out I was not able to make it to brunch on Saturday because the hostess started having contractions that morning! So no brunch, but I still made myself and Danielle some waffles and eggs (my other roommate is gluten-free, sorry Kelsey!)

Tonight (I'm kicking myself that I didn't take any pictures!) was an amazing "pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving feast" hosted by Katie J, my old Laurel's advisor who moved out to Holladay. There were probably 30 people there, all with a connection to the Bay Area and/or friends of people from the Bay. It was so fun to catch up with a lot of friends and families I hadn't seen in a long time!

This next week (and honestly every week until the end of Fall semester!) is going to be busy. I have a Spanish test and a final paper to work on, and English project approval/proposal, and Sigma Delta Pi's opening social. For now, it's time to write missionaries and go to bed early so I can rise and shine for my Cell Bio partner study tomorrow morning!

it's friday, friday

It's finally the weekend! Today was a good day at school, I had a great time serving at Provo Youth Mentoring this afternoon, and then tonight I went to a mini concert at the Riv with Lana and it was a blast from the past hanging out with all of my friends and ward members from last year! I miss those guys.

check out that full moon! 

stadium tour for provo youth mentoring today! 

A long day.

Whew. Another busy busy day, but unfortunately I didn't get everything done that I wanted to. I did make it to the gym and tithing settlement though, so I'm happy about that! Want to see today's schedule?

9-11:15 work
Lunch
12-2 Physiology lab
3-4 Work
5-7 Physiology lecture
8:30 Tithing settlement
9 Gym

I got some extra credit for physiology done as well! Now I'm off to bed so I can wake up early and work on my cell bio homework. Goodnight!

Halloween Weekend!

This weekend was a lot of fun! I dressed up for school because on Fridays I mentor two sixth graders from a local elementary school so I thought it would be fun. One came dressed as a pilgrim but the other one said he was only going to dress up for trick-or-treating that night. Can you guess what I was?

a pineapple!

one of them thought I was a leaf...some other people thought
I was an asparagus. not as obvious as I had hoped. 

At night I went to Lana's Halloween party and then a dance party on Center Street after as one of the three blind mice!

Danielle and I looking cute!

 On Saturday morning the Amateur Radio club was back at it on the roof fixing our antenna's.

Then Danielle and I went to a "Jamberry" party-these stickers that work as nail polishes! Pretty cool. Too bad I felt like I finally got the hang of it on my final nails...

 And last but not least, it feels like it's finally Fall and maybe almost Winter here in the Valley! Check out the cool pictures I got today after church!