Walmart trip...

Saturdays are my usual walmart grocery day runs (if it makes any sense). It takes us about 30 min to get there on the slowness of a bus, 30 min to shop, and 30n min to get back; that means we spend more time getting there and back then actually being there... not having a car sucks.

Well, on a more positive side, after studing for 8 hours for my Biochemistry test, and praying for another two hours, I finally passed a chemistry test! The organic chemistry tests from last semester were so hard I never did pass one of them. But now that I have a new determination to actually sit down and study instead of watching T.V., I see the fruit of my labor. And labor I must, I have to take four midterms with in the next four days starting with monday. Wish me luck.

News...

I was reading the school's newspaper today and I was just thinking that some of the headlines are a little unorthodox.

The main story is about an 18 year old hockey player from Alaska who died this Saturday while he was trying to block a shot. The puck hit him right on the chest and he had a heart attack. BYU does not have an official team but this team was all BYU students.

It's very creapy because the night of the game, my roommate's friend was over here and he was going to the game. My other roommate told him to yell, "Put him in a body bag!" and then this happens...

Also, Playboy keeps sending their postcards to the guys dorms and the boys are outraged. The school has tryed many times to get Playboy to stop but they just wont listen. I guess targeting the male college population is a smart business move but they should consider the religious population here.

There was also an article about this guy Daniel Ogden, a BYU student, who is serving in the war as a translator. He learned Arabic during his mission and now he gets to use his gift to help others. His dad, Dr. Kelly Ogden, was my New Testament teacher last semester. He always talked to us about his son and today the article was all about him and how hard war is. I bet he was so proud, he must have showed the article in class today. His son points out that there is a real lack of morality among the men of the armed forces. It's a real shame. Where have our morals gone?

There were a couple of stories about the damage that the recent floods have caused in Southern Utah this last couple of months. Little creeks turned into the Colorado River over night.

As for me, I passed my spanish civ. test with a 93 and spanish grammar with... well, the point is I passed. If I can do math in my head (and I cant) I got an 80? It was a two part test, I dont know how she will do the points...

My parents left town on Friday and they did not bother to tell me or my sister that lives in Houston. We are the only two of their kids that don't live in Dallas and they never tell us anything.

I wonder if I would be a good news reporter?

Midterms!!!

What kind or teacher gives a midterm on the third week of school? (Evil ones.) Well, they have started; once midterms begin they wont end till finals. What exactly is the definition of a midterm? Is it an exam given in the middle of the term or is it any number of exams given at any time during the term? Well, it's the latter. I have at least one midterm per week from last week till the week before finals. Yeah my Spanish teacher gave us a midterm a week and a day into school. EVIL.... The week of Jan 31 to Feb 4 I have four midterms to take in four days... I guess it's their way to get us ready for finals. The testing center was very empty though. The kind of empty you only see right when it opens at 7 a.m. and right before it closes on the last day of finals. It was kind of eerie to be sitting there in an empty testing center. This is the one place that is always full of people. Even the halls were empty. The floors are usually littered with last minute crammers, but today nothing. That's because only evil teachers give midterms three weeks into the beginning of the new semester.

Oh, and today I got in trouble for talking to this girl behind me while the teacher showed us a video clip at the beginning of class. I was sitting four rows up in this amphitheatre type of classroom, when the teacher came all the way up there to ask me if I was going to pay attention. I was humiliated. I thought things like that only happened in high school. She was showing the same clip from Friday, I did not think it was going to be that big a deal…

College Homework

An intresting topic that was brought up on one of the comments; homework. What is the point of doing the homework asignments when the teacher will not even give you credit for them? Well, before today I would have said that teachers do it to make students suffer but a teacher actually answered this in class. My Genetics teacher, Dr. Maughn, was not there today so we had the other Genetics teacher Dr. Fairbanks give the lecture. Fairbanks is one of the authors of the textbook we use. He began class by telling us that we had to read the book to understand the lecture. We have to understand the lecture so we can do our homework. And we have to do our homework so we can do good on the test.

Every thing in college revolves around doing well on the exams, on passing tests, on getting A's. I am ashamed to say that even I have gone through classes just to get a grade, to get to the next one without learning anything. Jumping hoops and passing tests is not what college should be about, it should be about learning; pure learning. We should study for the sake of learning, we should take classes for the sake of learning, we should do asignments for the sake of learning. My first semester here I was enrolled in Bio 120 and I would just sit in on a Bio 100 class and just listen to the lecture just for the sake of learning biology. (The Bio 100 teacher was also my religion teacher so I had made the arangement previously.) I learned so much from the Bio 100 class because I was just sat there to learn. I was not there to get an A or to get to the next class, I was there just to learn about the central dogma, and to learn about the creb cycle, and to learn about life. On the other hand in the Bio 120 class, I would sit in class and wonder if what the teacher just said was going to be on the next test. I would do my home work just to get more points so I could pass the class. Needless to say, I did not learn much. I have never learned so much like I did in the class that I would attend to just listen. What ever happened to the good old days where people were self educated? Back in the days were people learned from just reading?

MLK Jr. Day

Well, I spent most of Sat. out so now I have to spend my holiday studing. My roommate had a Harry Potter Movie marathon this weekend. We watched all three movies. It was ok. I gave my brothers the third one for Christmas but I did not get to watch it myself untill yesterday. Wow! JK is brilliant! How in the world can a person create such a world. I did not really like the new director, he just changed some stuff on the set that I thought should have been made to look like the set that the other director had.

I have a long day ahead of me. I have to catch up on my reading assignments from last week. I have managed to stay on track with most of my classes, I am just a little behing on genetics. I still have to do the assigned homework problems at the end of the chapters even though I dont have to turn them in. Man, that's just like college. Teachers give you homework but you dont get credit for doing it. At least they should give us completion points or something.

A little game of night Volleyball

I just finished playing vollyball in 30 degree weather. It was so cold my hands went numb. It hurt so bad but it was kind of fun. I served it over the net most of the time and I even had contact with the ball through out the game. I got to hit it over the net a couple of times. The cold night air and the altitude makes it hard to breath though. The cold air pierces your lungs like millions of tiny needles. It hurst to breath. I always new that the people that play sports outside during the cold winter nights have to be a little nuts. I was so cold I could not even move any longer so I had to come back inside and warm up by the nice warm computer. Now that I have feeling in my hands again, I have to study Spanish grammar so .... till you read again.

Not much going on here...

All the snow melted just as fast as it fell. There are only small traces of the snow storm that hit us last week, mostly huge piles of snow that was snowplowed off the parking lot and on to the sidewalk. The rain melted all the snow away.

I like the new semester, it provides a clean slate. By the end of last semester I lost hope of getting an A+ in my classes (it would be a miracle if I just pass) but now with the start of a new semester the possibility of getting straight A's has once again been restored. So far I think I have an A in most of my classes but things will change after the first round of midterms. I am just trying to stay on track with all the assignments.

So I must go back to reading if I want any chance at keeping my A's.

SNOW!!!!

I woke up this morning, walked to the kitchen, looked out the window and WOW!!! EVERYTHING IS ALL COVERED IN SNOW! It's a winter wonderland. It took me by surprise. I was not expecting snow at all. It looks to beautiful.

Now it has been snowing nonstop all day. There is about six to eight inches of snow on the ground. I slipped all the way to class this morning. It is very hard to walk in the slush that forms after the snow has been all stepped on so I ran in the snow because I was late again to class. It's not a good idea when you are wearing ankle socks. I could feel the wet snow getting in my pants and shoes. But it was refreshing because after walking for ten min you start burning up under you coat.

First days of class are always exciting. I like my classes this semester. I only have six classes (four Mon, Wed, Fri and two Tue and Thur). I am taking Genetics, Biochemistry, Medical Microbiology 2, Religion, Spanish grammar and Iberian Civilization. All the teachers sound like they really like what they teach. The beechen teacher said he has taught the course for about 40 years now but he sounds very pationate about biochem. Today I just ran around trying to finish buying my books. I thought I was done but something was wrong with me yesterday when I first bought textbooks, I bought two books for classes I am not in and failed to buy all the materials needed for the classes I am in.

I had breakfast on the floor of the JKHB, the foreign language building. First I accidentally sat across from the boys restroom but I had to move it felt weird to eat there when all the boys would come out. I moved a couple of yards across from the custodian's closet. I was just one more in the piles of people that liter the halls of the buildings once the snow starts to fall. Last year I slept many naps on the floor of the MARB (Bio building) and ate lunch on the floor of the BNSN (the chem building). This year my home will be the JKHB. I start every day in the MARB (which is a good thing because I can practicably sleep walk to the MARB) and end it in the JKHB.

In the grammar class when the teacher, a lady from Argentina, was taking roll she read my name and said, "Esa si es de las mias!" I felt all tingly inside.

Back in Snowy Utah

It only snows here when I go home. I have mixed feelings about that.

Well, the new semester has started. My load is lighter this year. Maybe now I can make straight A's. The last semester was not too bad. I thought I was going to die but it was more like a car wreck. I walked away with minor scrapes and bruises. My GPA is hanging on by a thread.

The Christmas break was fun. I went ice skating on Christmas Eve. Needless to say after about four turns around the giant Christmas tree I ended up with a bruised butt, a bruised ego and a minor head injury. After Christmas I larned how to ride a horse. That was fun. I've been on horses before but not by myself. I survived.

I went to Houston between the holidays. I went bowling. My five year old nephew beat me every time. I did get a strike though. I threw the ball, turned my back to get another ball and when I looked up the pins were all gone. I was stunned. Every time I go to Houston we eat at this Mexican seafood place. Before last summer I hated shrimp and now we go there just to eat shrimp and rice. I also had my yearly reminder of why I should not have children yet. I helped my oldest sister with her new born son, Joshua. He is so cute. I can only handle it for a couple of hours. I got to make his bottle and feed him. I even worked on eating while holding the baby (but that was with the two month old, Jared). Wow, I have a new found respect for motherhood. Elizabeth and I babysat my other sister's kids, Jared and Neavi, for New Years Eve. I took care of Neavi. She is two years old and can talk a parrot to death. She is so much fun. I could not get near Jared and Joshua because I had a cold. Neavi stayed up till one. Mari, her mom, said that was her normal bed time! Wow!

The last of the pregnant woman exploded before Christmas. Llromes-Lem Jr. was born on the 21st. We braved the cold and the snow to see him. Seeing a new born baby is like eating the perfect brownie or listening to your favorite song, time just seems stand still for a moment. Llromesito makes an even eight. Each of my older siblings have two kids each. I keep joking that I'll have to have twins when I get married but if I have twins I'll die. At the rate I am going they'll have six or seven each...