The BYUH Atmosphere

Hey Jessica!

While you're off saving the world with math, I just scare people. The most common response I get when I tell people my major is: "Oh" (scared look) "you're probably analyzing me right now." I usually then inform them that I'm a freshman and they don't have cause to be scared of me . . . yet. While in line for the cafeteria one day, I met another psychology major. He said that that never stops. I guess I'll just frighten people for the rest of my life . . .


BYUH has a certain atmosphere. I think this is the same atmosphere no matter which BYU you go to. The second you get on campus--marriage time. It was mentioned multiple times during orientation and we all know that that's kinda what is expected and what is going to happen, but it's a weird feeling. I'm 18, I don't want to get married yet, and neither do my friends, but that doesn't mean this feeling isn't affecting us. Here's how it is:

1. Most of the guys here are older than the girls my age. Because we're the same age as guys are when they can go on missions, they are mostly gone or soon to be gone. Why is this an issue? It's because all the guys here are looking for a wife. Or have a wife.This makes dating stressful (not that I've been on a date) because we're just like, "I wanna be friends" and they're like "you could be my eternal companion!" Awkward.
2. There's this feeling that you could meet your future husband at any time. Suddenly, you are on the lookout for guys. Impressing them is a big deal. Even I, with my "a guy just passed us? He was cute?" attitude have noticed some guys. Big deal. This feeling just gets in your head and makes you over think everything and wonder about everyone you meet. 
3. My bishop is very pro-dating. He says we can call him if our home teachers don't teach us, or about anything, including if we don't get any dates. When I had an interview with him (after about two or three weeks of being here) he asked if I had gone on any dates. He was really surprised when I said no. He then told me of how he was going to get on the guys' backs (and how he already had) about them not dating "our girls". How can you not feel awkward when he talks like that? How does that not get in your head and screw you all up inside?
4. Single girls feel really weird. So weird and left out and awkward that my friends have devised a point system. If a guy (a friend or a date) walks you to the curb, you get a certain number of points. If a guy walks you onto the curb, you get more of a certain number of points. If he walks you all the way to the door/lock thingy, you get even more points! However, making out in front of the hale loses you points. PDA in general makes you lose points. I think this point system makes the lonely feel more involved. It lets them hear all the details and revel in someone else's love life.
5. "What race are you attracted to?" is probably a question only really heard here. This means you have to have a preference, you have to know said preference, and you have to let all your friends find you guys that match that preference. Whether it be Asian, Polynesian, Caucasian, African, whatever, there's someone here for you. And don't worry, all your friends will conspire together to get that guy for you. Because that's the BYUH way.

So that's how the BYUH atmosphere is messing with my head.

On another note . . .

Trouble has struck my roommate. Her grandfather was sent to the ICU. The Lord, for some reason, sent us both to BYU-Hawaii. He sent us to be roommates. We were both together when she got the call in the cafeteria having dinner. I, being an idiot, was talking joyfully to some other people when her mom called. She had to ask me to talk to her for me to listen. As we were walking back to the hale she told me.We got a lot of weird looks as she cried  as we walked. Through the Holy Ghost I was able to tell her what she needed to hear. God put us together for some reason. Maybe it was just for this moment. Maybe it was for things yet to come. God knows every one of us and He cares for every one of us. He put our lives in motion so that we could come together right now. It was a delicate procedure, but He did it because she needed someone right then, and I would be there right then. I know God lives. I know that there is life after death and that everyone will have the opportunity to learn the gospel and to accept it. I can't claim to understand God's plan for me or anyone else on this earth, but He has a plan, people die at certain times for a reason. Trials come for a reason. Sometimes, like in my roommate's case, they come all at once, sometimes they come slowly and last for a long time. You can overcome with the Lord's help. He knows your sorrows, He knows your pains. Lean on Him.


Melissa

ACME (Not Acne)

Melissa!

So this past week I realized something: I actually have a cool response when people ask me what I'm studying! In the past it's always gone as follows: What are you studying? Math. Oh, do you want to teach? No. What do you want to do? I don't know yet. Then they look at me funny and think I'm either counting on being a stay at home mom so I can study something with no relevance at all, or that I'm going to stay in academia my whole life and just prove random unconnected theorems about stuff they can't understand.

BUT NO LONGER!

I realized that I have a super cool major, and that even though I don't know what I'm going to do yet, I'm learning some really cool stuff and that when I'm done, I'll be able to do whatever I want. If I just start listing off a few of the things I've learned in the first 6 weeks of the major, people are really impressed and pretty excited.

For example, being in BYU's Applied and Computational Math Emphasis (ACME) is like being a math major, but you go a step further and learn about the algorithms that people are using today to do everything. You know those image filters on Instagram? That's just linear algebra, and I've programmed a very simple version of my own. And I've made a program that will take a database of actors and movies and find out each actor's Bacon Number (how many steps away they are from Kevin Bacon). At this point, the only thing holding me back from doing filters on large pictures or using a database from more than just the past few years is computing power. Next week we are learning about teaching computers to read handwriting. The program I'll be doing will just be reading numbers, but still, this is a real problem that real people are working on today. In the next two years, I'll also learn about Google's search algorithms, facial recognition, voice recognition (like Siri!), autopilot, and many other algorithms that get used everyday. Math is in everything we use and creating good algorithms is how we solve all of our problems. I'm not learning something obscure or unusable, I'm learning high level math in order to solve all of your problems. I love it. I love the material, I love the teachers, I love the other students, and I've never been so excited. So now when people ask me what I'm studying, I get excited and I basically spew out this whole paragraph.

So Melissa, this is what I hope for you. Not for you do to math, but for you to find a major or career that gets you excited. Because if you don't love it, you won't be good and you won't be happy.

- Jessica

Eight Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Oahu

Hey Jessica!

I'm sorry you were so sick last week, I really hope you're feeling better.

I've been in Hawaii for about a month now and so I thought I would share with you some things that I learned about Hawaii. Here it is:

Eight Things You (Probably) Didn't know About Oahu

1. Chickens. There are stray chickens everywhere. Apparently some were wild and some not, but they mated and you just don't know which is which anymore, so I think they are basically all wild. If you ever go off of campus in the morning you will hear all the roosters crowing. If you leave campus any other time of the day, you'll see the hens, and the roosters, and their baby chicks just walking around. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's kinda cool, and different, and unexpected.
2. Stray Animals. I don't know if this is universal (islandversal?) but there are stray animals here. More than I am used to. We have at least three stray cats and two stray dogs on campus. It is definitely a possibility that this is just a campus thing . . . but since when are there stray animals on a college campus? I've never heard of such a thing before. The biggest thing to know about said stray animals is not to feed them. You can get fined by the campus police if you do.
3. Small Beach. Maybe I'm just used to the beaches we normally go to when we go to California, but there's not a ton of sand here. Like in California there is about what 50 feet of sand before you get to the water? Here (excepting Waikiki) there is more like 10-20 feet of sand. Maybe that is just the beaches by campus, but once again, I wasn't expecting that.
4. Rain. Contrary to popular belief, it does rain in Hawaii. On this side of the island it rains more than on the other side, but it does rain. It just rains for five minutes than stops. Seriously, it's like the sky has a timer that goes off "oh! It's been five minutes! Better stop raining!"
5. Flower in the Hair. Wearing a flower of the left side of your hair means you are "taken" wearing it on the right side means you are "available". So don't screw it up, unless you want to deceive everyone.
6. Shrimp Trucks. There are shrimp trucks all along the North Shore. They get their shrimp fresh from the ocean and they are good! They all kinda look like unprofessional vendor trucks, but trust me, some of them are DELICIOUS.
7. Foodland and Walmart. These are the places to be. Foodland is the closest grocery store near campus and Walmart is the cheapest place on the island. However, Walmart is at least an hour away, sometimes two. If you are ever bored you can just go to Foodland, or you can take your whole Saturday to go down to Walmart. I don't think I have ever been so excited to go to Walmart before coming here. It's crazy. On a related note, I don't think anything here (that isn't like a pack of gum or a granola bar) that's under $4. Crazy, eh?
8. Height. I put this one in here because my friend Brooke (who's 5' 7") says that she was really surprised by how short people are here. Even I noticed that, a bit. There are a greater amount of shorter people here than I was used to at home. I was used to being the shortest person around, however, now I'm not! (And it isn't just all the Asians here.) No. All sorts of people are short! It definitely helps my self-esteem.

I was bored and watching videos on YouTube one day when I stumbled across this. I know you like this song so I thought I'd share it with you. 

At a one of the devotionals here the speaker talked about meeting new people. I can't remember what they whole talk was about but he mentioned this. He talked about sitting next to the lonely people at meals. Now, I  am usually that lonely person. I had a moment where I could've brushed off the council he was giving us and thought "it isn't for me. People should be coming to sit by me" but I listened. I decided that, whenever I went to a meal alone, I was going to sit by a someone who was sitting alone. It's been ok, I've been meeting new people, many of who I never see again, and I haven't sat alone in a while. But the other day I was really rewarded. I sat by a girl named Abigail, we talked and I found out she is in two of my classes and I had fun with her. After dinner she said she was going to buy Hi-Chews and when I said I had never had them before, she decided to share then with me. We walked over to the Seasider, she bought Hi-Chews, ate one or two of them, and gave the rest of the pack to me! It was really nice of her. The moral of this story is, listen to your leaders and follow their advice, even if you think you may be excused from it. Truth is, you're not. You'll be blessed if you follow their council, it comes from God.

Love,
Melissa

Hard Things

Melissa,

So this week was hard. Not only did I get sick, but that sickness basically made my brain not work, which made my math homework very difficult. Combine this with long days with very few to no breaks, and it gets pretty bad. It even got to a point where Monday during a study group, I was at the white board trying to figure out a proof with some other people, and we were all teasing each other like normal. Then I started laughing pretty hard and the laugh just kinda turned into tears. So I got some hugs and then they made me go sit down and take a break.

That night, I prayed harder than I have in a very long while. I just couldn't do it. School and work were hard enough before, and now with being sick, and not being able to sleep because I was sick, I just couldn't function, I couldn't think - I could barely make it from class to class, let alone get all my homework done. I realized just how weak I was, and how much I really do need to rely on my Savior.

The week got better, and after hearing President Monson's talk in the General Relief Society Meeting, my eyes were opened. Looking back now I can see the heavens opening the instant after I said that prayer. So many of my friends offered help and medicine, and my study group friends all constantly asked how I was doing and were patient enough to slowly guide my muddled mind through difficult proofs. My roommate gave me some Tylenol PM to help me sleep, and slowly, my body started to heal. As much as I wish I hadn't gotten sick, I am so glad I got the chance to see just how my Lord and Savior can help me when I am in need.

I know a simple sickness is small compared to what others go through, but for me, it was a big trial. Now I know without a doubt that God lives and that He cares for each one of His children. I know that when we turn to Him in humility and faith, we allow Him to bless our lives through His kindness, comfort, and His angels here on earth. I know miracles happen, and I know God often works through His faithful members to bless others. I know that no matter what trial we go through in this life, that we can rely on Him and make it safely though.

I hope all is going well in Hawaii, and I want you to know that though college will be hard, the Lord is always there to help you get through it. Have a great week, and I can't wait to hear from you!

- Jessica

Hawaii

Hey Jessica,

So I'm late. I'm really sorry about that. Can I blame it on the internet? Or lack of internet? The new dorms are having issues with the wifi so I haven't had wifi in my dorm since I got here. (You can get really good wifi in the laundry room though.) Mom was supposed to send me an ethernet cable in the box of things I forgot, but she forgot and so I had to buy one at the bookstore. Now I have internet! Yay! But no phone.

I didn't realize how important a phone was until I left my phone cord at home. It's really hard to get in contact with people when you have no wifi and no phone. I'm going to blame my friendlessness on my phone and internet issues.

Hawaii is beautiful. It's a little hot sometimes, especially in the sun, but my dorm is surprisingly cool. Just don't run in the middle of the day and don't stand in the sun for too long. Layers are bad.

My roommates are awesome. There's Michelle, Rei, and Maggie. Rei's from Japan, Michelle is from Utah, and Maggie is from China. Rei is super adorable. I love her! We sometimes have trouble understanding each other but she is just so sweet, we always figure it out in the end. And she teaches me some Japanese. I think I know two words now. Maggie is always teasing Rei. It's fun to watch them. Michelle is usually hanging out with some friends from other rooms and dorms.

I met some people in the room across the way. They go running in the morning so I decided to join them and be healthy. One morning we got up extra early so that we could run, swim, and see the sunrise. Kate and I (the slower runners) decided we were going to run on the beach a bit. However the beach where we were isn't very flat so we walked instead. As we were walking, we ran into a turtle. IT WAS HUGE! I wanted a picture with it so Kate took a picture. She forgot to turn the flash off her phone though and so as she was taking the picture it woke the turtle up. He opened his eyes and slowly turned his head towards Kate. He had the grumpiest look on his face. He was all "who dares to disturb my slumber". I felt really bad but watched him as he slid back into the ocean.

I got some scholarships for being in band classes. I'm in the North Shore Symphonic Wind Orchestra and the Brass Ensemble. It's pretty cool. The brass ensemble especially. There are nine of us, eight if you don't include our teacher. It's really fun to play in a small group. I've never really played in a small group like that.

Sorry for the weird post, I'm kinda really tired. Sorry again.

Melissa

Good Things

Melissa!

So Summer term ended, I got to visit home, and now I'm back in Provo for the Fall semester. And this semester is looking great because of a few really good things:

1. Family
I have so much family here! Kevin is here, as well as Cami, Danica, Alyson, and John; and we all live close to each other! On Friday we all went to Alyson's and John's new apartment to play Apples to Apples and eat brownies. We had a blast playing through the entire box.

2. Classes
I know this seems weird, but I am so excited to finally start in on my applied math classes. Multivariate calculus and ordinary differential equations were fun, but it will be great to really delve into my major. More than half of my credits will come from my math classes! I'm also taking French 102, Old Testament, and beginning Latin dance. It will be a ton of fun.

3. No Textbooks
What? Did I say that right? Yup! I went to the book store the other day and looked at the book list, and I don't have to buy any textbooks at all. There's $200-300 I don't have to spend! And quite a bit of weight I don't have to carry around as well.

4. A New Job
This will be my first time working while taking classes, but I'm excited to start working as a tutor in the Math Lab. I start Tuesday! With that and my math classes, I am going to be spending all day in the Talmage building

5. Awesome Roommates
After all my roommates left on missions, I found myself in need of some new ones. I'm rooming with my friend Mandy for the first time - we've known each other since freshman year but never roomed together. There's also four other girls in the apartment and they all seem really nice. With this great group of girls, this year is going to be a blast!

Well, that's my good things list for today. I hope moving to Hawaii is going well! What things are you most excited about for this upcoming year?

- Jessica

Sleepover

Hey Jessica,

I had my first sleepover this week. I know, it took 18 years for me to have a sleepover. But you know, parents, rules, yaddy yadda yadda. Now that Keturah and I are 18 the rules no longer apply! (Of course Cami and Kirsten could have sleepovers before they were 18. They had to wait on us.)

It started off at noon. Well it was supposed to start at noon, but Kirsten was late. Really late. So while the rest of us were waiting for her to show up be watched two episodes of "Gilmore Girls" (we're having a marathon). Once Kirsten arrived, the sleepover really started. It started with . . .

WON TONS!

We went to QFC to buy the ingredients for won tons. It took a while because we couldn't find the won ton wrappers. The people weren't much help there, they directed us to the sushi bar. (I can't believe they have a sushi bar at QFC.) We had to call Mom, she told us were to look. If you were wondering, it was by the produce. Then we had basically an extended phone call. I was calling Mom to ask what ingredients we needed and then Cami was calling her mom to find out if they had them. She had most of the stuff.

Once the shopping trip was over we went back to Cami's house and made the won tons. We even made dessert won tons by filling some wrappers with cherry pie filling. They were hot. But the won tons were very good. I ate too much.

We then proceeded to play Last Word and Rummikub. I lost at all of the games. However I was not the ultimate loser at Last Word although I'm pretty sure I was every time we played Rummikub. At least for this portion of the event we were outside. It was a very pretty day.

After that we played Mario Kart (something I did not loose at). Then we ordered pizza. We tried getting it delivered but while we were trying to get my gift card to work the store closest to us stopped accepting delivery orders online. So we ordered online but then had to go pick it up. Thanks Pizza Hut.

We ate our pizza, bread sticks, and cinnamon sticks while watching a movie. We watched Sleepover. It seemed appropriate and relatable. Except the girls were 14 years-old, had enemies, and Cinderella stories. Basically it was a stupid preteen movie. Oh well. We had fun.

We then started to play a game of Monopoly. We only played for about an hour and a half (1:30 in the morning). We stopped playing when we bought all of the properties. I knew I was going to loose from the beginning because I only had four properties. They were lame properties too. How do you only land on four properties that weren't already purchased?!? So the next morning, after breakfast, we finished our game. I lost. It was sad.

I had a lot of fun though.

Keturah leaves for college on Thursday. It's quite sad. I will miss her.

See you on  Friday!

Melissa

Cousins and Dancing

Melissa,

So last week, I went to a mini-family reunion! Cami and I took the front runner partway, and then were picked up by her parents and taken to Uncle Alan's to see everyone. There were a lot of people there: the Grand-parents were visiting for pioneer day; Uncle John's family was there on their way to move to Virginia; Kailey, her husband, and her baby were visiting her parents; and Cami's parents and sister were there to bring Lauren to Athletic camp. So we had dinner and played Apples to Apples and talked and it was lots of fun. Jayden is adorable, I can't believe how much he's grown! He's crawling everywhere now and can even stand up with some support. I helped feed him, and of course he got baby food on my shirt. This was probably the last time I'll see Erica for a while, since she's going on a mission in September, but Danica is coming here in the fall! Chadley was super excited to learn I am a My Little Pony fan, and Kailey introduced me to Friendship is Witchcraft, a fan made spoof of My Little Pony; it's funny, but it has some rather dark humor. It's strange to see these cute ponies portrayed this way!

So for the past few weeks, each Wednesday I have been volunteering with BYU's dance program to help Special Olympics kids prepared for Dance Sport. Dance Sport is a ballroom dance competition for students and it's coming up next week. I'm volunteering to help teach these kids how to dance, and then to dance with one of them so that they can compete. It's been a lot of fun, these kids are sweet, funny, and absolutely love being able to dance with someone. We're doing waltz and meringue and despite how simple the steps are, in some ways it's more fun than dancing with really good dancers. There's this one boy, if I just put on a huge silly smile, he'll just start laughing and he has the funniest laugh! I'm excited for Dance Sport and I'm really glad to have this opportunity to serve.

That's really about it, except for my research paper. It's coming along, but I really need to put some work in today before Rachel gets here!

- Jessica

Do it Yourself

Hey Jessica,

I've been pretty bored lately. In order to combat my boredom I've been on pinterest and have been doing various "do it yourself" crafts. Here's what I did this week! (Or watched my mom do for me.)

Mom made me two skirts. There were based off the pattern we got here. The second skirt we changed the top a bit.

Skirt number 1

Skirt number 2

I also upcycled a t-shirt. See, for the first skirt I had to dye the elastic and since we were already dying something I thought I would dye a t-shirt just because.

I got the idea for part of the shirt on some website that I don't remember. So here's the steps!

Step 1: Draw a line, extending the seam from the top of the shoulder, all the way down the sleeve

Step 2: Down an inch from the top of the sleeve, place a pin

Step 3: Cut up the line until you reach the pin. Stop there.

Step 4: Tie the ends together

 This is what it looked like at that point.

I decided that wasn't cute enough so I went farther.

I then added lace to the sleeves. With Mom's help, I sewed lace underneath the hole. (If we were to do this again, we would've done that before cutting the sleeve.

Then I traced the neckline of a cuter t-shirt and cut so that I have more of a boat/swoop neckline.

Mom then did a double stitch about 5/8 inch from the top to give it a more finished look.

Yay!

But that's not all I did this week. I made another earring frame hanger thingy for college. I used a lot of duct tape on the back. Good thing you can't see it.

I also made a coin pouch! I used leftover fabric from skirt number 1, a random zipper we had lying around from some sewing project that was never finished, and my imagination! Cute, huh?

So that's what I've been doing to stay busy. It's amazing, so much of it involved sitting around watching Mom sew. I should really start actually learning how. There's still a lot of summer left, so if you think of any crafts I could do, pin them or send them to me because even though I'm not bored at the moment, the boredom will come.

See ya!

Melissa

Top Tips for College

Melissa!!!

Well, you are growing up and heading to college soon, so here's my top tips. Some are quite random, some you've probably heard before, but here's what I've learned from 2 years of college:

1. Know the Climate

Nothing's worse than being stuck on campus wearing the wrong kinds of clothes, so know the climate and prepare for it. For me, this meant following Sunny's instructions and buying a nice, warm, stylish pair of waterproof boots. I wear those things so often! For you, this will probably be less about cold and snow and a lot more about wearing cool clothes to survive the heat.

2. Keep the Scholarship

College is expensive, so put your classwork first and get the grades to keep the scholarship. I believe that you can do great in any class as long as you put in the time. So give classes the time they need and get those grades!!!

3. Talk to people who know about your major.

This could include counselors, teachers, and most importantly, older students. They are the ones who know about good teachers, bad teachers, hard classes, easy classes, and when you should start looking at jobs and internships. There is no better resource for finding out exactly what you need to succeed in your major.

4. Take advantage of on-campus jobs

This is something I didn't do. In today's economy, every employer expects you to be overqualified for even the smallest job. Finding a job at home for the summer is extremely difficult if you don't have any work experience. However, on-campus jobs aren't as picky. My job in the math lab didn't even ask about job experience. So start working early and get plenty of job experience before you start looking for internships. I didn't do this, and now I'm looking for internships and will only have a few months to a year of work experience to put on the resume. Start working early, even if its only working 10 hours a week or less.

5. Go to Activities Alone.

This one also took me a while to get used to. Freshman year, I didn't feel comfortable to activities or clubs without dragging one of my roommates along. Well guess what, they were busy a lot of the time I wanted to do things, so I stayed home. DON'T DO THAT!!!! Go alone, it will let you meet more people, cause guess what? If you always go with someone you know, you will only stick around them and never meet anyone new. Find clubs your interested in, go to ward activities, go to institute, go to everything! It's a lot more fun than sitting at home.

6. Take Fun Classes.

Take that hula class, take that bowling class, take that social dance class. They're easy, fun, and that's where you meet a lot of people. Guess where most of my dates sophomore year came from? My social dance class! You don't get know people sitting next to them and listening to a professor, you get to know them trying something outside your comfort zone and by actually talking! So have fun, learn a new talent, and meet people.

7. Always, Always, Always, do your Dishes

Freshman year, I heard a lot of drama about roommates because that was when everyone was just randomly put together. But the one thing I learned is that almost every argument boiled down to one thing: cleanliness. If one person didn't do their dishes or clean up their stuff from the living room, the whole apartment was mad and no one was able to be friends. It doesn't matter how kind or interesting you are, if you don't clean up after yourself they won't see you as anything but a slob. So for roommates, the first step to being friends is cleaning up after yourself. (Even if this means making a pile of stuff on your bed everyday. Just keep the community space clean)

8. Boys

I guess they need their own category, huh? My friend Wilson pointed out something quite strange about BYU culture: people look at meeting the opposite gender purely as a way to find their next boyfriend/girlfriend, and if it doesn't work out they never see each other again. Well, that's just stupid. Look for friends first, of both genders! Being friends first is a lot simpler, easier, and more fun. If something develops, great! If not, you have a new friend to hang out with.

9. Be Prepared

Always have the ingredients for your favorite treat on hand. For me, it's chocolate chip cookies. You never know when you'll have a bad day, some free time with a friend, or someone to thank. Having the ingredients on hand for something delicious and simple is a quick fix for any of these. The only hard part is not making them too often! (Also, have a can of chicken soup in the cupboard for those lazy days, those sick days, or for a friend in need. Thanks to Dad for that tip)

Wow, I'm kinda surprised I came up with that many! You've probably heard some of these before, but it's what I thought was worth repeating. I hope it's actually helpful!

-Jessica

So Much Stuff!

Hey Jessica,

So much stuff has happened in the long time since I've written last, so I'm just going to post some pictures with brief descriptions.

 I went to the Priest/Laurel Formal with some friends. I reused an old formal dress. It was a ton of fun!

 I also went to prom! I had a lot of fun going to Stanford's to eat, going to Target to get mints (inside joke), being all fancy at prom, and having good treats at a friend's house afterwards. I got my hair done at a fundraiser at Sunset High School then Sister Densley did my makeup. I felt really fancy.

Kevin came home from his mission! It's exciting to have him around again. He's engaged now. I've forgotten what it's like to have a guy in the house besides Dad.

I graduated! With an "A" in calc. (That's because of all your help.) The red sash is for being an Academic Scholar and the white cord is for the Instrumental Music Career Pathway. The medal is because everyone gets a medal. Guess what! I got a 5 on my AP Psychology exam! I'm so happy! It's my first 5.

I went to New York!!! This is a picture of the Statue of Liberty

 This is a panoramic shot from the boat I took to the Statue of Liberty.

This is a panoramic shot from the top of the Empire State Building at night.

This is a panoramic shot of Central Park.

Obviously I love the panoramic shots.

I got to see the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, the Guggenheim, Carnegie Hall, Julliard, the Manhattan Temple, The Lion King (Broadway), Matilda (Broadway), Times Square, Tiffany's, Grand Central Terminal, Brooklyn Bridge, and lots of other fun places. And I was with my best friend (and her mom) the entire week!  I'll never forget that experience.

Anyway, I'm not being very descriptive so I'll stop shoving my good fortune in your face. However I hear you have your room up in Provo, which is more than I can boast here. I'm not the only lucky one.

Love you!

Melissa

April

Melissa!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, April was the best name I could think of for a title.

Well, its been quite a long time since I've written, sorry about that. This semester has been crazy though! Great, but crazy.

First classes: I have absolutely loved my "Old Testament Roots of the Book of Mormon" class. I have never worked so hard or been so satisfied with a research paper before! It is insane how much I have learned.

Second, I have a growing entourage of Doctor Who friends. They just seem to pop out of the woodwork! We haven't been able to watch any together, but it is so nice to have friends that get my Doctor Who references. I haven't seen the new episodes yet, and it's driving me crazy! Did you guys record them? Please save them till I get home!

Third, lately I've been reading a ton. All of my classes basically had everything due a few weeks ago, so it was completely crazy, but then I didn't really have much to do till finals. So I read Pride and Prejudice, then Emma, both by Jane Austen, and then Graceling by I forget who (that one was good, but not spectacular. Eventually it just felt like I was just reading about the Hunger Games characters put in a different world. Their names were even Katsa and Po. Sound like Katniss and Peeta, anyone?) Then I read Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind, the first of the Sword of Truth series and Hood by Steve Lawhead, the first of the King Raven trilogy. Both were great, but I don't think I'll read the rest of Sword of Truth, however, I do want to read the rest of King Raven.

Fourth, 12 DAYS TILL KEVIN COMES HOME FROM HIS MISSION!!!!!!!!! I am so excited to see him again! (for everyone out there you can see his letters home here.)

Fifth, I had Easter dinner with cousins and friends. Ellen and I made a big ham, as well as scalloped potatoes and carrot cake! Then other people brought sides. It was such great food and great company.

Sixth, I went to the French Club Cheese Night! I got to try like 6 different cheeses. I liked most of them, but the Bleu D'Auvergne was much too strong for me. And that's also the only name I remember, so that's what you get to hear about!

And that's some of the recent highlights of winter semester. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm a little sad to see so many of my friends leave on missions. I'm excited for them, but sad that they won't be here. Now it's just finals and then I get to head home!

- Jessica