Sunday, August 31, 2008

Rise and Shout!! The Cougars Are Out...

It's been a while since I posted. I'll try to catch up.:)

As of right now--I'm sick with something. It starts out with feeling very cold in the morning with a runny nose, and then an extremely sore throat in the afternoon. Miraculously, my voice has been here for the two choir auditions I did. Miraculously. I don't know if I'll make the choir-- my tone is nice and my range is awesome, but my pronunciations aren't round--in fact, they're "country-western". Ouch. That makes sense, though. I've never had any instruction. Hopefully she'll still consider me, me and my country voice.

Two thursdays ago (August 21st) I began the Late Summer Honors Program. I enrolled in the "An Intro to Space, Time, and Relativity" class, and I ended up loving it. The girls were (are) amazing!! They're basically the closest friends I have here at BYU (so far). I found the pianos, located in the lobby and the basement, and I've been playing as often as possible.

My class was really awesome. We went to class every day except Sunday up until Tuesday (we had our final on Wednesday) for three hours every day. My professor's name was Dr. "Mad-Eye" Moody. I loved the class especially because of him--I could just tell he loved his students. Of course, I was always asking questions and rambling off on tangents, but people didn't hate me for it. In fact, my friends have been telling me they MISS my random outbursts of joy and confusion. Good thing...
When not in class, we played games and shopped and did HOMEWORK. UGH. Both Thursday and Tuesday night we had dance instruction--line dances and swing dancing--which I already basically knew. It was really fun, though. We also had a dance Tuesday night, and I have to admit that I totally expected the dance to be "lame" because "nerds don't dance."

THEY TOTALLY DANCED!!!

The dance was a blast, and I really really enjoyed it.

The next day, Wednesday the 27th, I began New Student Orientation. NSO was a blast as well!! I met many new people, and it was very similar to another EFY. The first night I was overwhelmed because there were so many people that I didn't know!!! We decided to watch a movie on the Helaman Field--and it was just full of people!! AHHHHH!!!
On the second night there was an Honors Banquet where a live Jazz band performed (AWESOME), and then a performance by the Young Ambassadors titled "A Tradition of Honor." It was meant to teach us the points of the Honor Code with music!!
It was awesome--they started with the "Seize the Day" dance/song from Newsies, and just continued on with the fun!!
There was a live band which played songs like, "Life is a Highway" and the Play that Funky Music White Boy song that I hear EVERY DAY.
THEN Jericho Road performed a couple of songs, and THEN
after the closing prayer...

The band set up again. A girl was being led up to the stage, and the drummer said, "So this guitarist here wrote a song for the love of his life, and wants to perform it for her."
And so the band started playing and the guitarist started singing, and let me tell you, it was the most adorable song ever!!
I turned to the girl next to me and said, "If he doesn't propose to her now, when will he get a better chance??"
After a couple versus and after the third chorus, the verse began, "Down on one knee..."

I jumped up, as did the many other thousands of students in the Marriott Center. "No. way."

Then the drummer put down his guitar, and knelt down, and showed his girlfriend a ring. People were crying and screaming and laughing....

Was there a better way to start off my college career at BYU??

I submit that there was not. :)






OH!! I forgot!! I also went to my first Cougar Football Game!!! Against Northern Iowa. We CREAMED them. They also injured a couple of quarterbacks--it was really sad. Their players just kept getting injured over and over again...

but it was crazy!! I was in my BYU Quest T-shirt, like a fan should be, and we won!!! My football team has never won before :).

Then last night was another dance--this time with all the NSO kids. There was the dance, then "The Dating Game" in the Wilk. Ballroom, some inflatable obstacle courses in the Wilkinson Center, and people were playing volleyball on the side. What an extravaganza!! Funny thing, though, I danced mainly with the kids I knew from Late Summer Honors--it's just so much easier that way.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

:)

Greetings!
I have officially been in Utah for, well, two days!
Life has been crazy, as a Standring. Watching Michael Phelps was SO INTENSE!! The whole family, all sons (excepting Garrett) and wives and daughter, was there and it was a blast! In fact, we had dinner last night with the Carver family, the maternal grandparents of the Standrings, all of their cousins, and such. It was a ton of fun!!
And this was AFTER going to the Seven Peaks WaterPark!! It was so much fun!! and not too hot,
in FACT, I got COLD.

I miss seeing GREEN!! The only green here is the grass that they labor to keep watered...

Friday, August 15, 2008

Moving on...

I've moved!

It's quite moving, emotionally, no pun intended. It was sad for me, to say "goodbye, beach" "goodbye, redwoods!", "goodbye..."
It was sad.
Of course it was even MORE sad leaving my family. I love my family, and as I left, I learned how much they love me. It really reallllly touched me.

The drive was interesting. Every time we stopped, I woke up--it was basically a no-stop drive, though. I avoided driving the 12-seater van (which is bigger than a SEMI in my brain) as long as I could, and then finally I got stuck with driving it t 3:41 a.m. PDT. Oh, it was creepy!!! The van was much harder to handle than I was used to, and the road was reallllly narrow. I mean, there was road construction (yeah.) and the HUGE cones were on MY lane, the lane I was supposed to drive in. Bascially, I had to drive between the construction cones and the guard rails... I was just glad there were no semi's nearby.

Finally, that ended, and I was much more comfortable. I had two full lanes to relax in, and the sun started to rise!! I ended up driving for a straight 2.5 hours, which is the longest period of time I have ever driven at once. The sunrise was beautiful.

Today, I slept and slept and slept some more, then I went to the park, came back to the Carver's (Standring grandparents) home, slept, and then went bowling!! I bowled a 111. It was a lot of fun!! I bowled left-handed as opposed to my usual right-handed bowling techniques, and I even messed around a bit, trying to bowl while laying on my stomach. Partway through our game James and April Standring showed up, and at the end Jason and Kendra Standring arrived. We decided to go back to James and April's apartment, and we watched the MOST INTENSE RACE OF MICHAEL PHELPS EVER!!! We were doubtful, and when his lane lit up with the number 1, the cheer was deafening. I'm glad I found people as enthusiastic about it as I was!

As it is 11:11 pm, I should probably go. I have to get used to this Mountain time!! It's only 10 something at home...

Much love:)
Cebre

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Blackberries

Today I went blackberry picking, and I don't think I can even express how delicious juicy, fresh, and warm... blackberries are!

I made up my own little jingle to get through the painful process of plucking those plump berries... it's to the tune of "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches:
"We're picking berries, they're so yummy...
They feel so good and warm in my tummy!
I can't see why people eat anything else...
oh... do do dodo do doododododooo...."

Over and over again.

Then, Thursday I got A Blackberry. Phone. I like it; I have better service, and I can actually see the screen now! YAY!