Well, I guess I'm back with the weekly readers, except in a better and easier way. I figured that since I'm going to be in Utah for a while, that I might as well be fair and keep some sort of "newsletter" for everyone to follow on me.
Well, to start off, the drive up here to Utah was extremely long, but it was pretty fun nonetheless. I'm just glad that I wasn't alone, or it would be scary and lonesome. I had great company with me though (Alex helping me drive and Mike driving the Jeep), which made the trip a bit more worthwhile, despite a couple of obstacles along the way, which I'm not going to repeat. Let's just say that we would not have had to waste the money and time if Mike had known which gear to use going uphills. On that note, we finally arrived at Dixie on Saturday, got unpacked and then later met with Mom and got last minute shopping done. Mom ended up spending the night with me that night and then the next day we were hoping to go to church (it was cancelled due to the dedication of a temple, I believe). So, we ended up instead having lunch with Mom before she had to head back to Salt Lake. After she left, I spent the last few hours with Mike and Al eating dinner and later watching a movie, which was great.
On Monday, classes started. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays my schedule consists of just one class, which is at 9 in the morning, so I have yet to decide what else I can do to fill the rest of my time on those days (we'll have to see). Tuesdays, I have 3 classes one of which is all the way across campus, for which I have to use my car to get to. It starts at 10:30 and my first day I was about 10-20 minutes late trying to figure out which building it was at. I got in the right location and in the right building finally and ended up asking someone to lead me in the right direction. Once I got to the class, the teacher seemed to understand and was ok with it. Right after that class, I have a class back across campus. I was a little late the first day to that class as well, but he later told me that it was ok and he is willing to work with me if it had to happen again for any reason. The nice thing about my schedule is that all of my classes are in the same building except for Tuesdays and Thursdays when I have the class at 10:30 all the way across campus, but it helps to have teachers that are understanding and are willing to work with you, and that's one of the things that I love about this place.
Anyway, Thursdays I have 4 classes and my last class doesn't end until 6:30. So, this week I was pretty exhausted on that day because I felt like I had classes back to back. This class starts at 4 and ends at 6:30, but I like it because it's a class that teaches about special needs and disabilities and it's for students that want to be Special Ed teachers, which is perfect and I'm really excited to be in it. I hope it goes well. I have decided to drop a class though, just to make my first semester a little bit easier. Plus, I figure that I have as much time here as I need, so I don't need to rush, but I have yet to figure that out this week, so we'll see how that goes.
On a social note, I have met a few awesome people here. One is a Resident Manager who lives with her husband and two kids on campus. Her name is Janille and her husband's name is Mike. Mike is an assistant basketball coach and is also one of the advisors for the school. They are both so nice and have offered to help me with anything. In fact, Janille has offered to do my laundry for me since I can't really get to the laundry, or really reach the machines. Anyway, she has been a lot of help with that and I'm very grateful. Another person that I met is an RA on my level. Her name is Lauren and she lives just a couple of doors down from me. She is engaged to be married in February, and is excited about that. She has been so welcoming towards me and has offered for me to hang out with her anytime. In fact, Wednesday night the school had a magician/comedian come to perform at the school, so her and I and her friend Mackenzie all went together. Needless to say the performance was not that great. We wasted 5 bucks on a disappointment, but the company was still good and I had a good time just being with them.
This weekend not too much happened except for today. I ended up going to church with Lauren and her fiance Gavin, who is really nice, and a girl named Ashley. It was good, but long. Different parts of my "house" go at different times depending on what tower you are in. The place I'm in is called Nisson Towers, I'm in the A tower, and we are lucky to have church that starts at 1:00. We'll just see if I make it when they change it to 9:00 in the morning, should be interesting. For some reason they had us meet in one classroom for the whole 3 hours, and it felt like we were in there for forever, but it was good nonetheless. Then tonight we had a fireside/convocation where we got to hear Pres. Henry B. Eyring speak, and it was awesome. I was excited the whole week once I saw the poster for it on my way to one of my classes one day. I haven't yet signed up for Institute, but I definitely plan on going. I heard a whole thing at church today about Institute and how we all should go, and what great experiences we can have from going, and I definitely plan on going for sure.
Well, that wraps up my first week here. So far, I love it here. I'm so excited to be here. I feel like this is a whole new chapter in my life that I can't wait to keep on writing, so to speak. I had great memories at Andrew that I will never forget and I hope that I can make even better memories here. I'm excited to know that I'm not the only LDS member here, and that is comforting and a huge relief. At Andrew I was the only one and it was pretty hard, but I still had a blast there. The other thing that is a little awkward for me is that in almost every class that I'm in, majority of the students are married or engaged. So, it makes things pretty interesting and a little weird for me. It makes me feel a little out of the loop, but hopefully this is where I hope to be one of the lucky ones too (someday).
Well, I love you all and hope to keep this up. Expect a weekly blog from me every Sunday. If I happen to slack off for any reason, well then keep bugging me about it, and I will get right back on track. Otherwise, Sundays it is. So until next Sunday, so long!!
