Walking Data

Posted by Braden

From Sept. 16 to Nov. 1, I wore a pedometer each day from the moment I got out of bed to the moment that I got back in, with the exception of time spent spent in the shower. Fortunately, I don't do much walking in there. Forgive me for only getting 47 days of data--my pedometer broke on Nov. 2.

The first 14 days I wore the pedometer for health class. The rest of the time, I wore it just because I was curious. And now, here are the results:

My average number of steps per day was 10,670. The maximum in a day was 26,675 on Friday, Nov. 1, and the minimum was 2,400 on Sept. 29 (a Sunday). Displayed below are the average number of steps taken and the standard deviation of the number of steps taken broken down by day of the week.

DAY--------------AVG-----STD
Sunday----------3,276----1,109
Monday---------7,717-----1,785
Tuesday---------10,886---2,311
Wednesday-----11,364----3,224
Thursday-------10,286----4,607
Friday-----------17,343----7,434
Saturday--------13,115----6,177

It is interesting to note on the chart below, "Steps per Day over 47 Days," that I typically had only one day with an unnaturally high number of steps in a weekend, either Friday or Saturday. The last weekend with recorded data was a bit of an exception: I went walking for a few hours on both Friday and Saturday. The bar graph "Average Number of Steps per Day" shows approximately the same pattern that my sleep data had: there's a general increase in steps throughout the week leading up to Friday, followed by a drop in steps on Sunday, and the process repeats. "Steps per Day by Day of the Week" is my favorite chart; it shows, pretty consistently, that Friday was the maximum, Sunday was the minimum, and Saturday I did whatever the heck I wanted, taking the high, low, or middle ground in terms of steps, depending on the week.

Sleep Data

Posted by Braden

Every night since Aug. 29, I have recorded the time as I went to bed. At last, I get to see the results of my efforts!

My mean bedtime for the four-month period was 1:08 a.m., with a standard deviation of approximately 1.5 hours. The earliest time was 10:22 p.m. on Dec. 16, and the latest time was 5:50 a.m. on Dec. 26. Time spent while in bed before falling asleep was always negligible (always <10 minutes, and usually <5 minutes).

Looking at the chart that displays times by day, it appears that the time of getting into bed was the lowest on Sunday, and increased until Friday, which typically gave the week it's latest time. Saturday I went to bed at a relatively early time, since Sunday begins at midnight as far as I'm concerned. And on Sunday it all started over again.

Four weeks into the semester, I stopped attending my 8 a.m. health class on MW, so my MWF started at 11:30, and TTh started at 8:00. Interestingly, this doesn't appear to show at all on my bedtimes. Tuesday and Thursday do both have later averages than the preceding days, but that may just be following the weekly trend of later times as the week progresses.

I'll continue keeping track of my times until the end of Winter semester as well to see if this overall gradual trend from a midnight average time to a 2 a.m. average time will reoccur; or if now that I'm at a 2 a.m. time, I'll remain there; or if I'll delay two more hours with a final average time of 4 a.m.; or none of the above.

Click on a graph here to see it in greater detail.

There's the Silver Lining!

Posted by Braden

I am going to be the Resident Assistant of my hall next semester!

Typically, only people who have lived in on-campus housing for a year can become RAs, but since my current RA is leaving on his mission, I decided to apply for the position in my own hall! I filled out the application, went to the interview, and found out over Thanksgiving that I'd gotten the job! It required a few changes in my plans--I'm not allowed to take more than 16 credits, I need to take a two-credit student development class during the semester that I have the job, I'm going to be working 20 hrs/week now, and I had to adjust my plane ticket back to school so that I'll be able to get back in time for training on the Friday before the Winter semester starts, which makes my very short Christmas break even shorter! I think that all these adjustments are most definitely going to be worth it though!

It's a little scary--I'm going to be checking kids in as soon as January 2nd, and as of right now, I have absolutely no training. My training begins on, well, the 2nd! I don't know where a lot of things are, how a lot of things work, and who a lot of people are, but I'm sure it'll all come along soon enough.

It was interesting to me though, looking back at what made this opportunity possible to me. It was kind of a bummer at first that I was placed on the third floor of the hall in the very back corner campus, farthest from all of the buildings that I have class in. Had I not been in this hall, however, I wouldn't have ever thought to apply for the RA position (since my RA probably wouldn't have been leaving on a mission at the semester). At the beginning of the semester, I audition for Men's Chorus. When you audition, unless you plan on leaving on a mission, you typically agree to do it both semesters of the school year. Men's Chorus practices each day from 4-5; the student development class that you NEED to take if you want to be an RA meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5. Had I made Men's Chorus, I wouldn't have been able to even consider this RA position, even if I had thought to look into the opportunity. And now I think that this is the best arrangement I could have hoped for from the beginning of the school year, had I known all the possible outcomes--the leadership experience I'll get, the money I'll be able to put in savings, and the chance that I'll have to lead, work with, and help the other boys in my hall would not have come easily in any other way.

Thank goodness for bad days that enable even better days in the future!

Gifts of a Lifetime

Posted by Laura

For the past five or so Christmases, my mom has been trying to stock me up with goods for college. She throws in a couple things that every college student needs. I have to admit, when opening those presents over the years, I always said, "Thank you," and acted excited, but in my head I'd think, “Why the heck did my mom go through all this effort to give me something that I will never use?”

Yet those college days have arrived, and I am so grateful for all of those gifts! They have made my life and college experience so much easier. This year, when I opened a cookbook and a casserole dish, I thought, “Alright, maybe this book will teach me how to not start the ward-dessert-night cookies on fire.” Or when I opened the school supplies, I knew exactly how to put them to use and how needed they were.

Even though these aren’t the kind of presents you can open up and play with all day, they are practical, and instead of just playing with them and then laying them on the shelf, I know that I will actually use them throughout my college years and beyond. I have finally reached that point in life where I can start using all of my Christmas gifts over the years.

My Christmas has been wonderful this year. I love the holiday season and all of the traditions that come along with it. I have enjoyed having a little break from school and being surrounded by my family and friends.

The Last Christmas

Posted by Braden

So it finally came--my last Christmas before my mission. My newlywed sister and missionary brother were both away from home this year, and next year when I'm gone, they'll both be home for Christmas.

I always expected that last Christmas before my mission to be particularly mission-based as far as presents go: luggage, suits, Church books, a new scripture case. And I did get a little of that, but not nearly to the degree I expected. Surprisingly, I found myself asking Santa for a lot of kitchen supplies this year: a George Foreman Grill, wooden spoons, spatulas, silverware, a can opener, a muffin tin, etc. And I was excited about each and every one of those presents! I don't need toys or games anymore (though having a few is still nice)--I need house stuff!

On Christmas evening we got our phone call with my older brother in Taiwan. We got one hour of time, exactly. This was our second year making the call, and it won't be our last! Between seven boys, my family is going to be having a lot of "everybody-get-around-the-speakerphone-at-the-table" hours over the years. It's just odd to think that exactly one year from now, it is going to find me on the other side of that phone call! So soon? But Travis just left! But I just graduated! But I'm only 19! But . . . wow, that's soon. Fortunately, I've got a lot of Christmases left in my life to spare.

I'll Be Home for Christmas . . . Maybe

Posted by Braden

When I bought my plane ticket for Christmas break, the semester was just starting. I saw that my religion final was scheduled for the Friday of finals week, and it being my first round of finals, I figured I didn't want to try any funny business, like trying to take the final earlier. So I got my ticket for Saturday morning.

A couple of weeks later I found out that we were taking our Book of Mormon final the week before that; our instructor didn't want to make any of us have to stay all the way through Friday to take our exams. Oops. In the end, I figured having the whole week to take finals would still be nice, so I left my ticket as it was.

Finals time came around, and I couldn't find anybody (or any bus routes) going to the airport early enough on Saturday morning in time for me to catch my flight, so I decided to ride up with my roommate on Friday night and spend the night in the airport.

Around 3 p.m. that day, an hour before we were going to leave for the airport, it started snowing hard--the fluffy, nasty stuff that makes roads terrible. My roommate's mother insisted on getting a taxi for us instead of letting her son drive and on not letting us pay at all for it, so we took the two-hour drive up to the airport in the taxi (everyone on the highway was traveling 35 mph).

My uncle, who lived nearby, heard about my flight plans from my mother and swung by and picked me up so I could spend the night at his house. Hearing that I hadn't had a large burrito in a long time, he even swung by Chipotle and bought me one (it was SO good). To make myself less of an inconvenience that night, I babysat my aunt and uncle's kids while they went Christmas shopping, then helped my uncle assemble a big wooden playhouse in his basement.

The next morning he drove me to the airport in time to catch my flight, which was overbooked. They were offering free roundtrip vouchers for anyone willing to give up their seat. Flights home at Christmas are approximately $500, so I was tempted. What's a few hours compared to a few hundred dollars? Those would be some of the best-paying hours of my life! Unfortunately, the soonest they'd be able to get me home was the next day, a little over 24 hours later than I'd originally planned. I was obviously already anxious to be home, but when I confirmed that they would pay for a hotel for the night and a meal, I took them up on their offer and volunteered to be bumped.

One day for $500? That can pay for one of my college sibling's flights home next year, so it's worth it. I spent the rest of the day in my hotel room--taking a nap; reading a book; watching a movie; eating my $15 meal, paid for by the voucher; watching the Las Vegas Bowl. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't family. I survived.

The next day, there were obviously delays in the airports from all of the weather-related bumpings, but I showed up at the Dayton airport around 8 p.m. with four little boys waiting just across the security line to run up and hug me as soon as I was in reach.

And now I'm home, and it's wonderful.

I Won't Be Home for Christmas

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Though she wouldn't make it home for Christmas, Sini set a huge goal for her return to Finland in December 2009: she would compete in the Kuopio National Violin Competition. "It's just a national competition, but in Finland, it's prestigious," Sini says. "First-place prize is $8,000--something like that." It would mean a year of dedication, memorizing and perfecting an entire concerto, but the goal revived Sini, and it pointed her towards home.

Now or Never

Posted by Braden

There are some things in life that only college kids are stupid enough to do. For typical people, at no other time in their lives are they quite so able to eat funny things, sleep odd hours, and do, well, stupid things. I felt like I had neglected the last of those three activities, so when the opportunity presented itself soon after finals, I took advantage of it.

It was Wednesday night, we were all done with our finals, and a guy suggested, "Hey, we should go jump in Utah Lake to celebrate!" Of course, we all told him that he was crazy, but a girl with a car offered to drive, and before long he was putting on a swimsuit. The girls offered to make us hot chocolate afterward if we did, so then before long, I was putting on a swimsuit too.



On the way to the lake, we saw a sign outside that showed the temperature was 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The lake was hard to get to and didn't have very well-defined banks, so we went to Provo River instead! We got out of the car, shivered at the breeze coming through the canyon, stripped down to our swimsuits (just the three boys), jumped in the
river, sat down, rolled around, then ran back to our clothes and blankets.

It actually wasn't so terrible--I couldn't feel my feet after the first two-ish seconds in the water. Feeling in my feet came back about 20 minutes later, but during that time, there really wasn't that much discomfort; it just felt like novocaine for the feet. Then we went back to our home base at the girls' house, and they made us hot chocolate!

We did notice blood on the kitchen floor after we'd been home a few minutes. We had no idea whose it was since none of us could feel anything. After we found the offending heel that had been cut on the rocks in the riverbed, we noticed blood on the carpet, and we spent the next hour getting it out.



The whole escapade was a rather pointless, thoughtless, careless, stupid thing for us to do . . . but I didn't die, and now I have a fun story to tell about the crazy things I did in college!

Final Lessons

Posted by Elise

My finals in a nutshell . . . a moderately large nutshell:

Lesson No. 1 (from my Book of Mormon final):
My Book of Mormon teacher is absolutely outstanding, and on top of that, he's an easy grader. I calculated that I needed a 73 to keep my A. So I didn't study, and I got an 82--no worries, right? Well, then I went back and rechecked my math and found out that I had done something wrong. I needed higher than a 73. In fact, with my 82 on the final, I ended up with an A- in my easiest class. Ouch. Moral of the story: Before you choose not to study, double check your math.

Lesson No. 2 (from my Human Development final):
Throughout the semester, we were assigned to read about 100 pages a week. Well, I usually lacked the time and I always lacked the patience. Needless to say, my reading fell behind. So for the final, I started studying early and I went the whole nine yards: flash cards, study guide, quizzing myself over and over. And it actually paid off: I got a 92 and ended up with an A- in the class. Moral of the story: No matter how much you slack off all semester, the last two weeks can make or break you.

Lesson No. 3 (from my Chemistry final):
This final was long, cumulative, and did I mention long? Chem was probably my hardest class this semester. Well, I take that back. Chem was certainly the class I was most worried about and the one with the most difficult concepts. So I went to review sessions and more review sessions and, yep, you guessed it, more review sessions. Anywho, the test took four hours. FOUR HOURS! Did I mention it took four hours? But I think it went relatively well. I should get my score in the next week or so. Moral of the story: If I think of one, I'll let you know.

Finally done with my final final! Wahoo!

Posted by Laura

After many hours of studying and learning, my finals are officially done with, at least for this semester.

Finals week freaks me out. It is so nerve wracking trying to remember all of the material that you have been taught in class. All of your work and studying comes down to one final test. How do you know how much time studying is enough? How do you know where to begin for a comprehensive test? How do you survive with all of those test all concentrated in one week?

To be honest, I was pretty nervous and didn't sleep very well Sunday night. Yet, as the week went on, I was feeling more confident. It's easier to focus on studying for tests when you don't have class attendance or assignments to worry about. It makes you feel a little better walking in the library and seeing that most of the seats are occupied by wide-eyed students going through the exact same worries you are.

After my first couple of finals, I got to a point in studying when I felt that I was prepared and had done everything in my power to prepare. When all is said and done I think I was imagining the worst for finals week. However, I was surprised at how well I was able to retain all of the information that I studied. I felt so good about my preparation and grades for finals, and it feels so nice to have them done and to be able to enjoy the holiday break.

I have had such a great first semester at BYU. It's like I have been imagining and working and preparing for BYU my whole life and am finally able to live my dream. It has been full of so many new opportunities and experiences that have allowed me to grow spiritually, mentally, and socially and I have loved every second of it. I have also learned that the time goes by so fast. It's mind boggling to think that I have officially finished my first semester of college and that I have so much to look foward to. BYU is such an incredible university with a great tradition and I feel so blessed to be a student here.

Christmas at BYU

Posted by Braden

Reason number #324 why I like BYU:

Teachers say "Merry Christmas," because we're a private school, and we can do that. Back home, the correct holiday greeting was "Happy Holidays" or "Happy Winter Break." We students took to saying "Merry Christma-hannu-kwanzak-adan-olstice," covering Christnas, Hannukah, Kwanza, Ramadan, and Winter Solstice, but for some reason the administration still didn't like that.

Here nativities are preferred to bionic reindeer, and traditional Christmas songs have a slight edge on "jingle bells." It's nice to live in an atmosphere where what's ultimately right trumps what's socially "correct."

As an aside, my physics professor also gave this helpful advice about surviving the winter season:

"Now that it's winter, you kids need to keep a few things in mind. The coefficient of friction between your feet and the surface you are walking on outside has rapidly declined, and your legs will no longer necessarily be orthogonal to the ground when you think they will be (due to hidden ice under the snow). Make sure that you increase the angle of elevation of your legs by taking smaller steps, and favor translation to rotation when you begin to lose your footing."

Random thoughts... a lot of them

Posted by Sini

I can't believe I made it through this semester. I only have one lousy music dictation test left. On Friday at 3.30 pm me and fall semester 2008 will be officially over!

The past four months have been, well, an experience. This has been the best, the funniest, and the most wonderful time of my life, but also the hardest, the busiest, and the most challenging. I have laughed, cried, studied, partied, loved, hated, and everything possible in between. But most importantly I have learned a ton.

Here are a few things I’ve learned during my first semester (just a fair warning, most of these don’t have anything to do with academic stuff and they are in random order):

Nothing in this country is free.
In Finland I was able to enjoy the social health care and the schooling funded by government. Tuition doesn't exist, books are a lot cheaper, medicines and hospital care are basically free, etc. It was a shock when I found out how much my books cost, or that School of Music didn't provide a pianist free of charge. I almost got a heart attack when I went to buy insulin for my diabetes care. It was 100 times more (literally) than what I pay in Finland. Brutal.

Hi and how are you go together.
In school they taught me that you greet people by saying hi, hello, or something equivalent. Soon after I got here I learned that the beautiful, little, and always-so-sincere question “How are you?” is an inseparable part of the greeting. This is something you don't say in Finnish. So at first I was really confused why the same people kept asking me how I am, every time they saw me, many times a day. And often they didn’t even hear or care to hear my answer, which anyway would've been just good. However, I learned to love this habit. It's so nice and friendly, even though the people wouldn't really care how you are doing. And finally, I have also started using this polite, American, “Hi, how are you?” phrase instead of the simple but cold greeting they taught me in school.

Everybody and everything at BYU isn't perfect.
I have to admit it was naive and stupid to think this would be some sort of a perfect place. I guess I never really thought so; it was more of a dream, maybe. And I'm not saying I don't like it here. I really love it. But the happy valley has its own problems, and you can't just blindly trust everyone. It's been amazing to be around so many Church members. That's what I love the most. For the first time in my life I can really be myself and be with people who share my beliefs and values. I don't need to explain who and what I am in every single occasion. But when pretty much everybody is a member of the Church it also has some side effects.

In Finland you're either very active or don't go to church at all. We don't have the people in the middle--the people who kind of believe and sometimes go to sacrament meetings and kind of keep the commandments, at least the easy ones. In Finland you’re either in or out.

So, I thought in Utah almost everybody would be strong and one of those people that are really in. It was eye-opening, and a little disappointing to realize how many just hang out in the middle. I thought living here would be very easy, Church wise. And in some ways it is. What makes it hard, though, are all those people in the middle. I learned that, sad as it is, being a Church member doesn't always guarantee anything. You can't just blindly trust everyone to be good.

Sleep and college don’t belong together.
I don't understand how I'm able to function with about five hours of sleep every night, but somehow I am. I guess my body has just got used to the constant lack of sleep, and nowadays six hours is luxurious. It's kind of sad and scary. But when you have so much to do, especially so many fun things, you can very well sacrifice a few hours of sleep . . . I don’t want to miss out on all of the fun, crazy, or sometimes even serious stuff that’s going around. And I also have studying to do, believe it or not. And anyways, who needs sleep….?

There's a difference between what you ought to do and what you really have to do.
Probably the most important thing for your academic success, as well as life in general, is to figure out what you really need to do in order to do well in your classes. The fact is that there's not enough time to do everything your professors would have you do. I tried it in the beginning of this semester, and it did not work out. You just need to find out what's absolutely crucial and essential, and then leave everything else out. Much less work and you can still get As (speaking from personal experience), plus that there's a lot more time to party . . .

You can make guys do almost anything if you feed them well.
I have applied this truth very well this semester. Just one example: I made my FHE boys dance a Finnish folk song in our ward's variety show by threatening to dump the delicious cake I made. It worked out so well. They didn't even complain.

The things you don’t plan beforehand turn out to be the best.
My life is very random, most of the time. Call me crazy, weirdo, or wacko if you want. You are pretty close to the truth. What I'm trying to say is that I just like to do stuff from the spur of the moment, just go with the flow. We, my roommates, friends, and I, have had dance parties in and outside, at night and in the middle of the day, late night IHOP runs, baking parties, belly painting, temple trips, last minute Creamery shopping, food fights, wrestling matches, sleepovers, etc. I love the randomness of my life. It's so unpredictable; you never know what's going to happen the next moment.

Love it.
Everything is a lot nicer when you love it. I love school, I love living in America, I love my roommates, I love my friends, I love the gospel, I love my family, I live my violin (I named it Johnny boy, so it's a lot more loveable now), I love having fun, I love studying in the library, I love cooking, I love eating, I love staying up late, I love the next day when I'm so tired I fall asleep in the class, I love cleaning checks (bath tub is my favorite), I love all those awkward dates, I love hanging out with my friends, I love when they hug me, I love when they get mad at me, I love when we cry and laugh together . . . I just love my college experience so far. It's been crazy, exhausting, and stressing but at the same time it's been just simply awesome. College is perfect just the way it is. Even the unpleasant things turn out to be enjoyable when you just decide to love them. I wouldn't change a single moment during this semester. I simply LOVE IT.

Time Shift

Posted by Braden

I had a 7 a.m. statics final today . . . it was painful. The "statics final" part was fun--only about an hour, no big surprises, and not too difficult; the "7 a.m." part was sheer pain. It meant I had to wake up at 6:15. I've only done that one other time this semester (for a church meeting) and it hurt then too.

Back home, 6:15 would have been sleeping in. And it's not like I'm just getting lazy either--on a college campus, you just shift your life back a few hours. At 7 a.m., there's nobody outside, and at 11 p.m., everybody is still awake. This time shift is particularly unfortunate when you add to it the fact that my family is in a time zone two hours after me. So I wake up two hours later than them, 8:00 instead of 6:00, and then they're also two hours beyond that because of the time zones. That means if I want to call them before they go to bed at night, I need to do it before 10 their time, which is 8 my time, which is a good 5 hours before the time I typically go to bed!

The first night I'm home, I don't know how I'm going to get to sleep at the same time they all do . . .

What Else Can Be Said But, WOW!

Posted by Laura

Wow. What a semester! The past three and a half months of my life and time have been full of so many new experiences. From walking on campus for the very first time, lost in your surroundings, compared to taking shortcuts that get you exactly where you want to go. From introducing yourself to new faces hundreds of times, compared to saying goodbye to friends that you have learned and grown from. From opening a fresh stiff book knowing that the journey of hundreds of hours of studying begins with that first word, compared to reading the last page of a heavily used and highlighted book. There is so much that happens in a such a short amount of time.

A once-in-a-lifetime experience happened to me the last week of class. There was a American Heritage drawing that took place, where all of the names of the students who completed a course survey near the beginning of the semester were entered to win prizes. I had assumed I lost because it was so long ago, but I got an e-mail notifying me that my name had been drawn and that I won an iPod! Whoot whoot! It was so exciting, my roommates opened the Martinelli's bottle they had been saving for the last day of class and a party began. It was quite the event to see and so exciting. I felt pretty lucky that day.

As I have talked to people about finals week, I have heard lots of different opinions and contrasting advice. One of my roommates thinks it best to just buckle down and get finals out of the way, so starting at 10 tonight, she will be celebrating Christmas break. Some have all of theirs scheduled and have to be done cramming, ready or not. I had half of my finals in class last week, and the other half are unscheduled. I have it planned out that I will have one each day and be finished on Thursday. I have actually felt pretty proud, taking a step back and looking at all that I have learned in each class.

I know that my prayers were truly answered this morning as I completed my first religion final and got 100 percent on the memorization section. I hope that if I put the time and effort into studying harder than ever, then all will all work out. It has been a great semester, and I am excited to finish finals, enjoy Christmas break, and start a fresh semester with some experience behind my name.

Glorious Day

Posted by Braden

Today was a day to be remembered: textbook sell-back day.

There were moments of pain--$170 of my original purchases were not being accepted for sell-back this semester. And they're not even books/packets that I have any interest in keeping! Two of them are also for a class that isn't offered at most colleges (history of creativity), so there is very slim chance that I'll be able to sell them online. :(

There were moments of joy--$276 in cash for the books that they would take back! I left with a much lighter backpack than when I showed up.

There were moments of boredom--I showed up with some friends 20 minutes before the Bookstore opened, and we had to walk down five separate full-length hallways in the Wilk to find the end of the line. And we were the lucky ones! Fortunately, the whole process only took about an hour.

And now studying for exams is going to be just a little bit more complicated . . . fortunately, the library has a few copies on reserve, I've got very thorough notes for most of my classes, and I can access one of my books online through the end of the year using the password that came on the inside of it.

Selling back my books didn't feel good enough to cancel out the $600 I spent buying them . . . but it certainly gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, nonetheless.

Reading Day

Posted by Braden

My "Reading Day" looked an awful lot like any other day. If anything, it felt less full of schoolwork than regular days during the semester when you still have future exams to study for and projects to work on, but you also have homework to worry about.

I spent 4.5 hours sitting in classrooms--for exam reviews put on by TAs, rather than actual class--spent an hour or two outside of class studying materials and finishing up projects, and spent the rest of the day playing! Before, between, and after schoolwork, I found time to practice a song that my roommates and I are singing on Sunday, meet a friend for lunch, go grocery shopping, make puppy chow with some girls in my ward, watch the Dark Knight in their apartment, and stay up talking with them in the lobby until 1:30.

There was still plenty of work to do, but for someone who has kept up with work along the way and attends as many reviews as possible, it was relatively minimal in stress. I have been getting the sensation lately that I'm about to explode. After reviewing for all these comprehensive exams, I feel so full of information that I'm afraid I'll start leaking. I wish we could have started taking the exams last week! But alas, no. Instead, I'll spend an hour in a line outside the testing center on Monday, waiting to take my finals . . . just like everyone else.

Holy Schniky It's Already Over

Posted by Adam

It's been over a month since I posted a blog, and lemme tell ya what, a WHOLE lot has happened. I don't even know where to begin... so how about Halloween!

Halloween ROCKED! I had a couple friends from home come down for the night. Mixed with some friends we have here, we made the Mystery Gang from Scooby Doo. It's amazing what you can actually find at Savers and pull together!

November seemed to fly by without my permission. I'm sure there was a bunch of fun stuff, but everything really pales in comparison to the big exciting news I got on Nov. 26. I know I planned to stay for the entire year, but the more I thought about it, the more I just couldn't wait.

I was lucky enough to submit my mission papers, and I had them sent to my home because that's where I was gonna be for Thanksgiving! I had been scheming to tell my family in a creative way.

I got the call Wednesday. I hid the envelope in my shirt and brought in the rest of the mail. My sister was standing by the door, and I gave her this disappointed look and said, “Well, hopefully it'll come Friday.”

Then I snuck outside, ran across the street to the baseball field bleachers, and opened the call. I had to read it about four times before I finally comprehended that I was going to the Italy Milan Mission. Then I stood up and screamed like a little school girl. It was pretty embarrassing. I looked over and saw my neighbors walking their dogs. They stopped and looked at me, but I don't think they realized who I was.

I report on April 1--yup, April Fools' Day--learning the Italian language. It totally blew me away, and it was harder to pretend like I didn't have it than I thought it would be. I acted casual, played the piano, but then eventually got too fidgety that I had to go do something. I called and told my roommate Mike. Then that night we had a big friend get together, and I announced it to about six people and called a couple others.

When I got home, my other sister had just gotten home. My mom asked us if we'd go pick up some milk and an onion before we went to bed. On the car ride there, I figured I would need an accomplice, so I told her where I was going and we devised a plan.

The next morning my sister called everyone over for a quick game of speed Scrabble. If you don’t know what speed Scrabble is, it's Scrabble with no board and everyone working on their own words. When someone uses all their letters they yell "go," and everyone draws a tile. It continues till the tiles are all gone.

During the second game, every time someone said, “go” I pulled out another tile from my back pocket. I eventually spelled, "I'm goin' to Italy" in tiles and then yelled, “ I win!”

Everyone was into their own game, and they looked at my discombobbled tiles, figured I was kidding, and went back to work on their own games. Then my sister said, “No! Adam won!” So they all kinda stopped and stared at the tiles. It took a good five seconds to register. Then Mom started screaming, along with everyone else. I had the call underneath the tablecloth, so I pulled it out and showed them. My mom kept saying, “You’re so mean! I don’t believe you.” Then she read the call and believed me finally.

So now I've got four months before I head into the MTC. I leave just three weeks before the winter semester would end, so I'm not able to attend school. But I'll be able to earn some good money.

It's sad that we usually don't notice our blessings till they're almost or all the way gone. I've been trying to do my best at enjoying my stay here at BYU and now that I'm near the end of the experience I just want more. It seems like I've done so much, but still not enough. I think back to the beginning of the semester and want so much to just experience it all again. It's been an entirely rewarding experience, one that I'll never forget!

Trading Spaces

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Randomly assigning strangers to be roommates, especially six freshman girls, can be a gamble. By the beginning of December, one girl in Sini's apartment wanted out. "She felt uncomfortable around us," Sini says. "Everyone else was sharing food; she didn't. We were not allowed to talk about boys, kissing, holding hands--anything like that. She thought it's not right to kiss before you're married or engaged." After mediation with an RA, the affronted roommate opted to move into Wyview, where she would have her own room. In the shakeup, apartment 46 absorbed a new roommate, a friend from down the hall.

Do the Polka!

Posted by Laura

Just before Thanksgiving break, my dance teacher announced to the class the "opportunity of a lifetime." At the social dance lab, there would be a polka competition for the social dance 180 students, where students would learn the polka and then perform it in a series of competitive rounds. After she told us the details and mentioned that there would be prizes, I decided to enter. She told me that she would teach me the polka right after the break, but not to worry about it because it was supposed to be a stress-free event.

I didn't think much of it until I realized it was the week of the competition and I still had not learned one step of the polka. I was getting pretty nervous but my teacher reassured me that she would teach it to me a couple days before the event which would give plenty of time for practicing and mental preparation. With conflicts in scheduling, my teacher wasn't able to teach it to me and my partner until a half-hour before the event started. So all the preparation I could rely on was a couple videos from YouTube of an old Swedish couple telling me that "the polka is easy as 1-2-3" and the short frantic lesson from my teacher. I have really enjoyed having my dance teacher and it was easy to match her instructions to the old Swede's visual learning, but it was nerve-wracking knowing that I wasn't as prepared as the other competing couples.

One thing led to the next and before I knew it I was dancing the polka in front of judges and hundreds of students. Surprisingly, I made it to the final round, competing with seven other couples for the grand title. I tied for third place with my partner and left with a candy bar and very sore feet. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

With friends like these, who needs a pet cricket?

Posted by Braden

I run my life by guilt:

• "I should probably be studying . . . OK, I'll do it now and play later."
  
• "I need to start getting some work/leadership experience for my college resume . . . alright, what options do I have?"
  
• "I probably shouldn't eat ice cream right before going to bed . . . alright, I'll just wait until breakfast in the morning to eat something"

My roommate now serves as an anti-conscience for me, and it may not be altogether unhealthy.

Me: "I probably shouldn't eat anything before I go to bed..."
Him: "Oh, suck it up--go eat something!"
Me: "You know what? Yeah, I think I might!"

Me:"I'd love to . . . but I should probably finish the chapter while I'm here and in the studying mode . . . "
Him:"Oh, you're always studying! Go play volleyball. The homework will get done; it always does!"
Me:"That's true--I will finish it tonight before I go to bed. OK, see you in a few hours!"

Me:"Yeah, but I can't just NOT attend the lecture . . . it's free information!"
Him:"You've been to the last five that the college hosted. You've earned a day off! Stay home and do something for fun!"
Me:"I don't know that I have time for something fun . . . "
Him:"Shut up--we're playing Super Smash Bros. Get over here!"
Me:"OK. That sounds good."

It's different . . . but now that my id has a little bit of a boost, I find myself doing a lot of things that otherwise I wouldn't be doing. Not bad things, just simple little enjoyable things that I wouldn't normally be able to convince myself to do. Thank goodness for complementary roommates!

Dates, Dates, and More Dates

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Via Skype, Sini's oldest brother, Oaquim, informed her that something was different: “She has the opportunity to spend more time with guys. It shows on her face,” he says.

Here are a few highlights of her semester's dates:

• Her first blind date--a date with a friend's boyfriend's friend--entailed a BYU women's volleyball game followed by grilled s'mores and an outdoor volleyball game at Heritage Halls. A boy there with another girl noticed Sini and asked her out the next day. "He asked me to go four-wheeling," Sini says.
  
• Then there was Homecoming: after hours spent sitting next to Sini in Symphony Orchestra, in classes, and in church, Spencer Jensen worked up the courage to ask her to Homecoming. Though Sini was performing in Spectacular on Thursday and Friday night, Saturday was wide open. "We went with a group of his friends to the Old Spaghetti Factory and then to the casual dance," says Sini. "It was a good time."
  
• The most awkward date of the semester was a setup arranged by her "Sandy mom"--the mother of her friend who served in Finland. The blind date took Sini to Brick Oven and mini-golfing. "He didn't talk much," says Sini, adding, with emphasis, "He's, like, 25."
  
• Her favorite date of the semester took her go-carting, to "the Sonic," and to watch the movie Cars in a park.

Studying Environments

Posted by Braden

When I study, I sit at my desk, in front of my computer. When I e-mail or index, I sit at my desk, in front of my computer. When I read scriptures before going to bed or in the morning, I sit at my desk, in front of my computer. And I kind of like that. It's a comfortable chair, a nice desk, and my room is fairly quiet. My dormmates prefer to do their work while listening to music, sprawled on the couch, or sitting in bed, among other things.

I was at my friends' place the other day while a few of the girls were studying. The one in the kitchen said, "Ugh, you all are fun to talk to, but there are just too many distractions; I'm going to have to go finish this in my room." She got up and left. Literally not 30 seconds later, one of their bedroom doors opens up and a different dormmate comes out with her laptop, saying "Ugh! It's too quiet in there; it's driving me crazy. I'm going to study out here."

I have no idea whether one method or type of studying is better than the others. But I do think that if you ask 10 freshmen what their opinions are on it, you'll get at least 11 different answers!

Fish Here

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Freshmen girls send subtle messages through dorm décor and signs in windows. “Looking for a date?” asks a giant crepe-paper sign in Sini's apartment, complete with a blue pond stocked with fish labeled with the names of the tenants. “Fish here.”

New Thanksgiving Memories

Posted by Braden

The weekend before Thanksgiving was my sister's wedding, which I flew home for. The weekend of Thanksgiving was thus spent in the empty dorm building, since I'd just been home and it didn't make sense to fly back and forth twice in two weeks--and it was a blast!

• Since I had just seen my family (and because I hadn't been too homesick even before I went home the previous week), there was zero moping around wishing I was somewhere else.
  
• When the last of my five dormmates had left, I cleaned the house . . . and it stayed clean all five days of break!
  
• While I was cleaning the house, and then throughout the rest of the week, I played whatever music I wanted, as loud as I wanted it, without headphones. I turned the thermostat up from our usual 68 degrees to a balmy 73 and basked in my newly found warmth.
  
• My roommate wasn't using his side of the room, he being a few hundred miles away, so I used it. Had my papers out on his side of the desk and tossed my shoes at the feet of his bed, because, frankly, he never knew and therefore didn't care! I straightened it all up before anyone got back.
  
• I had Thanksgiving meal on Thursday with five others from my ward who'd stayed at the dorms. The bishopric used the ward budget to buy us a 10-lb. turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberries, etc., all already cooked. It was delicious, and it was fun to be alone together and chat for a bit.
  
• With all the extra time and no distractions, I got a lot of good work done! Most nights, I went to bed around 3 A.M., woke up about 11 A.M., and worked on homework, scholarship applications, semester projects, etc. until 7 or 8 P.M., when I'd go watch a movie with someone. Being productive felt good, as did watching movies! It was just the right combination of work and play. I never would have been able to get so much done if I'd gone home for the break.
  
• I also got around to reading half of a novel one night--me, reading a book, for fun! That hasn't happened since I came here! It felt so good to be reading for fun again.

I'm very excited that Christmas break is only three weeks away now and can't wait to see my family and go home then! But man, this ghost town Thanksgiving was certainly one to be remembered!

Organization of Work

Posted by Laura

As the semester has rolled on, I have found that I have to organize my time. I have the planner from new student orientation which has been great!

In high school, I always had a planner but I never really wrote anything in it ever. I just decided that it was in my mind and that I would have reminders about the big events. But for college, I look to that planner everyday for upcoming events and due dates.

For me, a planner really is essential when it comes to college. I have it set up that all of my tests are in color: yellow is the time bracket that the test runs to, and red is the actual time that I am planning on taking it. I have gone through each syllabus and written down all of the assignments and projects that are due this semester. Some of my professors don't give a reminder about assignment due dates, so it has been crucial to have all of my class assignments recorded in a format that I wont miss anything.

In the few years before I started college, I would always ask my sister at BYU either on the phone or in person if she is done with her homework so we could plan something fun together. More than once I actually got the reply, "I always have homework that I could be doing."

In my adolescent head I thought there has to be an end, you can't ALWAYS have homework that you can be doing. But even in this first half of a semester, I have learned quickly that I was very wrong. After you finish the assignment, there is reading or studying or some extra effort that you could put in for each class, and as time goes on you will never really be done. College definitely always keeps you busy.

Sword Play

Posted by Jeffrey S. McClellan (BS '94), Editor

One fall Tuesday night--club night at the Wilk--I tagged along with Braden and his friend Nichole Hunt for their weekly fencing club excursion.



After selecting their gear, participating in group warm ups, and having a bit of instruction, the pair began to duel. And lest you think Braden has no gallantry--attacking a girl with a sword--I can assure you it was all about self defense.

In one match I watched, Braden jumped out to an early 3-1 lead, but Nichole came back to take the lead at 4-3. Then Braden tied it up at 4. The bout point was a long round of parries, thrusts, lunges, and retreats. Finally they both struck at the same moment, and the tie required a judgment call. The club president ruled that Nichole had the right of way and won the bout 5–4.



Here are a few short video clips (combined into one) of a different match they fought; I don't recall who won this time, and I could never tell who made points, so watching the video tells me nothing, I'm afraid. But it's fun to watch nonetheless. Almost as good as Princess Bride. In just a few club meetings, Braden and Nichole had learned enough parries, thrusts, and dancing moves to be rather impressive--especially with those cool masks.

Approved Fighting at BYU

Posted by Braden

Reason #237 why I like college: fencing club

In high school, I participated in just about every activity I had even the slightest bit of interest in and time for. People used to ask me what I was going to do in college where some of those clubs no longer existed, so I looked up the BYUSA website, saw what looked fun to me, and told them, "I'm not sure--probably fencing club!" School started, and sometime during the first couple weeks of school I saw a sign with the time and place for fencing club that week. I called up a friend to go with me, and we went.

Two and a half months after the start of school, I'm a fencing fiend! No, not really...but I do have a lot of fun attending practice every Tuesday night. Typically we warm up and stretch, do some drills, suit up, learn a new skill and practice it for a bit, then free fence the last half hour or so (practice is 90 minutes long). It has been really fun for me to see just how quickly skills improve on an activity that I've never tried before in my life! And what little boy hasn't wished at some point in his life to be a really good sword fighter?

Dues were only $15, I get to use all of the equipment (mask, vest, foil, and all the equipment for electric fencing), no prior experience was required, and it's a very fun alternative to running for exercise! I have no intention of ever pursuing the sport seriously, but at what other time in my life will I have such easy access to a fencing club, instruction, and equipment? Now if only we had a nunchakus club on campus...

Phil, Please

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Sini made first chair in the Symphony Orchestra, the preparatory orchestra in the School of Music. “I really want to make Phil,” she says. Short for Philharmonic Orchestra, “Phil” is the premier orchestra in the School of Music. Few freshmen, if any, make the orchestra. The next audition is in winter semester.

An Uncertain Future

Posted by Trevor

Well, I must say that I've never written on a blog before, so I'll try my best here. Much earlier in the semester, I approached a booth outside of the library advertising for the Disney College Program. After speaking with my neighbor who had graduated from said program, I decided to gather more information about the program.

After attending the information meeting on campus, I filled out a job checklist, set up an interview time, and began the process of applying for the chance to work at the Happiest Place on Earth. I had my interview with the Disney representatives and even had an audition to be a character performer (which was WAY out of my comfort zone!). With the process completed, now all I have to do is wait for 3-5 weeks to find out if I made the final cut.

However, class registration waits for nobody. So, I stayed up until past midnight to register for winter semester classes. I couldn't help thinking, "What's the point in this? I may not even be here next semester to enjoy these classes." Now with registration done, my future for winter semester remains a mystery to me. Will it be more grinding away at the grindstone of BYU, or will it be working away the semester in warm, sunny Florida? As a guy who likes to have everything organized and laid out before me, this uncertainty places me in a very stressful and even frightening situation. With no other options, all I can do for the time being is wait, wait, wait...

What Attendance?

Posted by Braden

In some classes, you read one thing in your book, another in your supplement, learn another in recitation, and another in lecture--then you get tested over all of them. In others, you read about one thing, then read about it again, then go over it in class with a PowerPoint that uses pictures and words from the book, then test over that one thing that you've now heard 3 times!

I have a class this semester which is at 8 o'clock in the morning, and all of the notes and PowerPoint presentations are online. The exam comes entirely from these two sources of material, and the lecturers each day are the authors of the chapter you read, so most of the interesting points that they have to make are already in the written copy of the notes which I have.

So I . . . don't go to class. I went up until the first exam, to make sure that I understood how the class worked and how tough the exams were. And I haven't been since. I took a second exam for the class last week, and got a decent A on it--not a 100 percent, but a high enough A that I think I'll keep on doing what I've been doing. I can read through the material faster than I can hear it spoken to me, and I can do it in my pajamas in the comfort of my home on early Monday mornings instead of walking across campus to hear it.

Ah, college--you and I are going to get along really well; I can tell.

In Love with Pumpkin Pie

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

When Sini found some free time you could smell it. One crisp afternoon, with a paper done and violin practice out of the way, she and a roommate decided to bake pies from scratch and discovered one pumpkin goes a long way in terms of baked goods. “We had way too much pumpkin, so we did two pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread and invited a lot of people over,” says Sini, who confesses: “I’ve fallen in love with pumpkin pie.”

The Greatest Snow on Earth

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

When the first flakes fell in Provo, Sini was unfazed. School was never canceled because of snow in Finland. Her dad would tie a rope to the back of their snowmobile and they'd ski behind it. However, her new roommates are "obsessed," says Sini. One from Texas and one from Arizona had never seen the white wonder. "I can't believe it," Sini says.

"They say it's the greatest snow on earth and it really is. In Finland it's very icy. Here it is so fun to have powder. The mountains are much steeper here, too." She looks forward to going downhill and cross-country skiing up at Sundance.

Mass Production

Posted by Braden

I absolutely love making and eating burritos--mostly the "eating burritos" part. I did have the problems though that:

1) they took a while to prepare by the time I got out, used, and put away all the ingredients

2) half-opened cans of beans kept on going bad on me in the fridge when I didn't finish them soon enough!

So I went into mass production. One Saturday I bought all the ingredients, came home, made 30 delicious burritos with all the ingredients I want in them, and stuck them in the freezer.

They took about 30 minutes to make, and now I have a meal in 1:30 of microwave time! Also, the burritos are absolutely scrumptious, and homemade to boot! (And therefore, probably a wee bit healthier--but only a wee bit.)

My roommates observed how good the burritos smelled and tasted, as well as how convenient they were, and two of them did the same thing for themselves! (We have approximately 75 burritos in our freezer at the moment.) They added little extras like corn, beef, and peppers to theirs.

The burittos were also way cheap! The ingredients cost about $12 total, and I have two burritos instead of one about every 5th time I have them, when I'm extra hungry. $12/25 meals = $.48/meal. My food plan, the absolute smallest one I could get, gives me $30/week, so about $1.43 per meal. Consider that breakfast is also cheaper than the other meals because a half gallon of milk and gigantic bag of cereal go a long way, and that means that I have a lot of extra money left for buying steak, snacks, and ice cream with girls on dates! And they're just so delicious, too!

The best part though: I no longer have to worry about half-opened cans of beans.

Ingredients:
1 can refried beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can chili
4 cups rice
1 jar medium salsa
4 tablespoons sour cream
lots and lots of cheese
30 tortillas

Americans Like Sweets

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Being diabetic in America is not easy. "You eat a lot of sweet things in America, like way more than in Finland," says Sini, who discovered she had type 1 diabetes when she was 12. "There's a huge gap between lunch and dinner here, and you don't want to go back home between classes. . . . I make my own snacks and sandwiches to bring with me. It's cheaper, and I'd probably just end up buying a hamburger or something bad on campus instead."

Any other ideas on how to stave off the BYU, er, freshmen sweet tooth?

Getting Around to It

Posted by Mitch

Well, I don't post much. It's been almost a month since I said anything on here. It's not that my life has nothing worth recording, but I just don't think about it. Sorry for that.

I haven't been too interested in school lately, which is not good. With the election going on right now (first results just came out as I type) I just can't seem to focus on directional selection . . . debits and credits . . . and most definitely not the economic struggles of China. Yeah, believe it or not, I feel there are more important things right now. Here's a picture of some of my own supporters . . . just kidding, they don't really know me, they just happen to like my name.

In other news, I am going get all new roommates next semester, which will be fun. I am glad that my steak buddy is still going to be around. At the bottom there is a picture of us enjoying some flesh. Thursday night is steak night. I've defied the rules of the natural college diet: I eat steak, a lot. I bring my own beef from Montana, so I don't slack when it comes to protein.

For the Sake of Science

Posted by Braden

I know I've said it before, but I love the research atmosphere of BYU! I haven't been around long enough to consider running/publishing my own research under a professor, but I was fortunate enough to find an experiment to take part in:

I was paid $30 to get shot in the legs with tennis balls. And it was awesome!

Let me explain: Some of the professors in the Athletic Training Education Program were doing a study on the effectiveness of various treatments for bruising. I learned through my health class that they needed 64 male subjects who were willing to promise to not exercise for two weeks (and the health class professors said we'd be excused from the exercise requirements for the class during that time!) and be shot, so I emailed the guy in charge to volunteer. Basically, they took a picture of the front of both my legs, then shot them from 18 inches away with a tennis ball launcher set to 70 mph. I next received my assigned treatment on one of my two bruises (I was randomly assigned to have my nondominant leg treated, with my dominant one being used as a control), which was just the classic "ice and compression" method. And then every other day for the next two weeks, I came in and had pictures taken again of the bruises to see how the one receiving treatment differed from the control. And at the end of it all, I got paid $30.

Why did I do it?
1) I've always wanted to be a statistic! People read about studies that are done by private companies and colleges across the country, but how often do they get to be a part of one? I think this reason alone would have been enough motivation for me.

2) $30--that's the cost of 1.5 weeks of food! I'm all over that.

Now that it's over, I'm hoping I can find another study to hop in soon. I love this college atmosphere!

Extra Motivation

POSTED BY PETER B. GARDNER (BA '98), SENIOR EDITOR

Even though Terrance was invited to participate in the 6 a.m. lifting class with hopes of walking on to the football team as an offensive lineman, he still found himself mired in relative anonymity.

Here and there, though, he'd get a chance to make an impression. "Every now and then, the coaches would stop by and watch us lift," he says. "A couple of times I'd be lifting and Coach Mendenhall would be up on a treadmill, . . . right in front of my station. I'd be like, 'Well, time to push myself harder.' "

Terrance's most memorable encounter came one morning while tying on his shoes in the weight room. The first one there, he was startled when Coach Mendenhall walked in and looked at him. The coach gave a brief greeting and walked past, only to stop, turn around, and say, "You went to Cibola High School, didn't you?" Terrance verified this, and Mendenhall said, "I remembered," before continuing on his way.

"It was really cool that he remembered me," says Terrance.

Forget the Sound of Music

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Sini hasn't seen The Sound of Music, and she doesn't care for fa-so-la-ti-do in her sight-singing class. "For me, C is C. C can’t be do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do--it's C!" Sini, exasperated, throws her hands up. "It could be only do, but it just can't be seven different things. I have perfect pitch, and it's going to be really hard for me to do those because it messes everything up!"

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Posted by Laura

This is my favorite time of the year! The campus is gorgeous with all of the different colors of leaves draped on the trees and scattered on the ground. It's like walking in an autumn picture. BYU is very diligent in keeping the landscaping flawless. I am just amazed when I walk from class to class on such a pretty campus. Along with the colorful leaves comes that time in the semester to sign up for winter classes . . . already! I think that my second semester will be full of challenging classes, but I don't think it will be such a shock compared to the very beginning, with its major transition and challenges. This time I will know what the standard is and what is expected of me. It's crazy to think that I am over halfway done with my first semester at BYU; the time has gone by so fast. College definitely keeps you busy, for sure.

Sick of Life Sciences

Posted by Braden

I'm going to be an mechanical engineer. Over the next four years of school I am going to be taking a lot of physics and math classes. Unfortunately, before I can get into the stuff I really enjoy, I need to fight my way through the jungle of GEs--general education classes required by the school of all freshmen.

I was able to take one class this semester that is in line with my mechanical engineering interests. It's called "Engineering Mechanics--Statics", and I love it to death. I'm also taking three of my GE courses this semester, however, and they are health, biology, and chemistry.

Math and physics appeal to me because there is always a right answer, it's almost always quantifiable, there are no exceptions or discrepancies due to genetics/environment, and the vast majority of it is usable and observable on all scales from microscopic to macroscopic. As I mentioned though, this semester I'm a little heavy on the life sciences. And it gets worse--they all overlap each other in content!

One day in health, we were talking about carbohydrates/lipids/proteins. We looked at what in a lipid's structure made it saturated/unsaturated, the way proteins were made up of lots of amino acids tied together with peptide bonds, how carbohydrates were often lots of little glucose rings connected to each other with such and such a chemical formula, and how each of these types of macromolecules stored different amounts of energy because of their structures and contents.

Three hours later, I was in my chemistry lecture for the day, where we discussed the energy that can be stored in the bonds between molecules, and that's why these different types of foods have different amounts of calories per gram. We also mentioned hydrogen bonds, which are different from regular ones such as peptide bonds in the following ways, etc

The next hour of my Wednesday was spent in biology, and guess what we were talking about that day? Yup--cells use glucose for energy, which looks like this. Lipids are used in cell walls, where they form a phospholipid bilayer. Proteins are used in enzymes and as transport mechanisms in the cell walls. Now the way proteins are bonded together is significant to their functions; let's take a look at that...

And that was Wednesday. Rarely do I get a triple dose of the same information, (though it's really more of a sextuple dose because of the reading that I had to do for each of the classes that morning or the night before), but overlaps of two of the classes happen all the time.

Sure, it's nice that the class "complement" each other so well . . . yes, I understand that biology and chemistry and health are all around us and need to be looked at from different perspectives in different classes . . . but I'm missing out on fluid dynamics and multivariable calculus for this!?

Maybe one day I'll be grateful for the broad background that I was forced to get--and don't get me wrong, I do understand the importance of making sure that students don't specialize too early--but it's killing me getting this "jack of all trades" experience as I fight through my GEs (which just happen to overlap in the life sciences, in which I have minimal interest), when I just want to be the master of one--mechanical engineering--but don't have room for any of its classes because I'm overflowing with ones that are busy teaching me about carbohydrates and peptide bonds instead!

Sini’s Carrot Cake Recipe

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Sini has discovered several new foods in America that she can't get enough of, particularly cinnamon raisin bagels. And cream cheese. And cheddar cheese. And the list goes on. But if there’s one thing Sini appreciates, it's a home-cooked meal. "I'm, like, the cook," she says, and her roommates love it. They call her Mom, and Sini is always planning out rounded meals and making Finnish favorites. Her culinary creations keep FHE attendance high; each week she cooks for the group, making things like carrot cake--from scratch, of course--or pecan-encrusted chicken breasts.

Try her carrot cake recipe yourself:

Sini’s Carrot Cake Recipe (courtesy of her mom)

Cake:
3 c carrots, grated
2 c flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3 t cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2 c vegetable oil
3 t vanilla
1 small can crushed pineapple

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and mix. Pour batter into a greased cake pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the cake comes out clean. Cool before frosting.

Frosting:
1 package cream cheese, softened
1 cube butter, softened
3 t vanilla
powdered sugar
chopped nuts (optional)

Mix cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Sini uses a beater to mix them. Keep mixing and add powdered sugar a little bit at a time until you get the desired consistency. Sini doesn’t know exactly how much she uses--probably about 3 cups. Spread frosting on the top of the cake. Garnish with nuts if desired. Enjoy!

Just Different

Posted by Braden

Before history class starts each day, we say a prayer.
Before every sporting event or performance--a prayer.
On Sunday nights, we get together as a ward, for ward prayer.

Sacrament meeting is eerily quiet--no whispering 10-year-olds, crying 3-year-olds, or even snoring 70-year-olds! And I almost miss the fruit snacks and squished cheerios...

I home teach people my age, and I'm not a junior companion to a high priest anymore! Our conversations aren't about my home teachees' upcoming surgeries or their kids.

Firesides don't always start at 7 p.m. at the chapel anymore . . . sometimes they happen at 11 p.m. on Tuesdays, right between classes, in just about any room that has a projector in it!

I see my school friends on Sunday; it still feels wrong most of the time, actually. I'm used to saying, "Sorry, it's on Sunday! But I'll see you at school on Monday!" But now my next-door neighbor, classmate, Sunday School teacher, and make-shift family are all the same person!

In Sunday School we're talking about the Book of Mormon. I also go twice a week to a classroom where we talk about the Book of Mormon--in my religion class. Hour long religions discussion: now not only reserved for Sundays!

The executive secretary for the ward isn't "Brother ______"--it's the guy downstairs! The ward choir director is 18. There is one RM in my ward of 150 people. The brother who sets up the ward bulletin is in my chemistry class.

None of these changes are earth-shaking or even all that unusual. But they're changes.

It's Pulla

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor


You could compare it to a cinnamon roll, but it's so much better than that. It's pulla, or at least one kind of pulla. Sini says the Finnish make it all the time, and Monday night, she instructed her FHE group in the art.

The dough seemed simple enough to whip up (eggs, flour, sugar, yeast, butter . . . some other stuff). For many, the dough alone was too good to resist. Sini was slapping hands away from the bowl even before the guys  piled on heaps of butter, sugar, and cinnamon. 

After creating the little pulla pinwheels you see above, there was a special thumb press that was supposed to add aesthetics (think of making a "thumbs down" sign and then jabbing your thumb into the dough), though no one quite mastered it. Even harder was making perfectly spherical pullas—the next level of difficulty in the tiers of pulla-making (the bread comes in multiple shapes and sizes). It takes a lot of muscle--watch Sini demonstrate below.

After all was said and done, the FHE group left Sini's kitchen smelling sweeter than they found it, which is hard to do considering the smell of fresh-baked brownies wafting when they entered. She's quite the cook. One roommate was munching on Sini's homemade bread throughout the evening, another was raving about her walnut chicken, and the guys praised her weekly confections.

And did you know that Sini can sing BOTH verses  of Book of Mormon Stories in Finnish? Yep, much to the chagrin of her FHE peers, who collectively insist that there is only one. What an FHE mom.

Halfway Day

Posted by Braden

Today was halfway day!

We are halfway done with our first semester of BYU--how bizarre! On the one hand, it feels like I'm still just getting situated. My routine is a little bit flexible yet, I still don't know which names belong to which buildings, and my roommates and I still occasionally develop new "dorm policy." On the other hand, after completing two midterms for most of my classes, I should say it's about time we're halfway done!

No profound thoughts on this topic. Just wow . . . we're halfway done with our first semester. This college life ain't too rough after all!

Wearing Ice Cream

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Sini’s favorite FHE activity, at least thus far into the semester, required her group to plow through copious bowls of cereal to provide enough boxes for a cereal-box-boat relay. The competing vessels, crafted out of Honey Bunches of Oats, Life, Rice Krispies, and others, were launched in the stream by Heritage Halls. "I think Cinnamon Toast Crunch won, but I can't remember," she says. "Then we bought a lot of ice cream and just scooped it out onto the table with all of the toppings. We all sat down and started eating it off the table." A giant ice cream fight ensued, "in our apartment!" Sini cries. "It was a huge mess."

Jack-Y-Lantern

Posted by Laura

This weekend, my apartment of girls had a huge group date and carved pumpkins together. It was so much fun, and we never even got close to burning down the apartment.

Instead of doing a face, I carved a Y into mine and it reminded me of homecoming week when I was able to "light up the Y." It was a bunch of fun and it was really neat to get to know everybody even more.

Apartment Sleepover

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Living in the same apartment wasn’t enough: Sini and her roommates held a roommate sleepover in the kitchen, mattresses and all. And at 2 a.m., the setting also made them hungry. They decided to make banana pancakes. “After we had giggled, eaten delicious pancakes, spilt hot chocolate everywhere, and started a quote wall, we all slept together on the kitchen floor. But the fun didn’t end. After a while one of my roommates started praying in her sleep. And it was a long prayer. . .”

What did Confucius say to Oedipus?

Posted by Braden

I'm normally not one to enjoy learning about dead people and old wars. My History of Creativity class, however, is pretty painless as far as history classes go. We skip over all of the boring aspects of ancient civilizations, as far as I am concerned, and learn instead about what creative innovations each of those leaders or civilizations made!

We recently had our first exam. The first section listed five ancient people/places/things, and we had to uniquely identify them in terms of something creative that they had done. The second section involved matching terms--not too difficult. The third section was a take home portion with the instructions "Write a fable of your invention, in the style of Aesop, in which the subject of the fable is life at BYU." And the fourth portion was my favorite: the essay section--but not a typical essay. Instead, we were told, "Oedipus has just found out that he married his mother and killed his father. Your assignment is to write down the advice that the following four people would give to him, were they there with him at that moment in time." And the four people were Confucius, Buddha, Aristotle, and a fourth whom we got to choose--I chose Alexander the Great.

I laughed as soon as I saw the prompt...and then again throughout the rest of that section of the exam. It just felt too much like the setup for a joke--"What did Confucius say to Oedipus?" And then right after that should be some pun or play on history to make everyone listening laugh. I did well on the exam, and wrote what I believe was some very profound Confucian, Buddhist, Aristotelian, and Alexandrian advice--but what a class, to ask such things! The variety of classes and information available here at BYU is truly incredible.

Is It Just Me? Or Is Marriage Being Shoved Down My Throat?

Posted by Elise

All week, every time I turned around, someone was telling me to get married! Or at least talking about it like it should be a prominent part of my life right now. From the chastity lesson in Sunday school to the childbirth video in Human Development, it's starting to make me sick--and that's not just an expression! It's even seeping into my dreams--no joke! Don't get me wrong--marriage is great! It's a fabulous stage of life, but I am nowhere near that stage right now! I've been on five dates in my whole life; I am not ready to choose an eternal companion.

Sorry to all of you who had to read this. I'm sure the rants of a frustrated freshman are pretty boring. But everyone's allowed their rant every once in a while, right?

They Did! They Did Call Me on a Mission!

Posted by Braden

Our ward had its first mission call opening today!

A boy came knocking on our door, and my roommate answered.

"Hey, it's almost 6:30--make sure you get downstairs in time!"

"For what?"

"Eric is opening his mission call."

"Guys! Guys! We gotta go downstairs! Eric's opening his mission call!"

And so it went throughout both halls in our ward. There were probably about 75 kids in our lobby by the time Eric opened the letter. He had both sets of grandparents on cell phones, his family at home on another phone, and the kid next to him had Eric's camera, turned to "video."

He opened it up and read those lines we've all heard but a lot of us have never heard in context as it's happening...

"Dear Elder Smith, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to serve in the Charlotte, North Carolina Mission."

And then nobody can hear anything after that because of the cheers, whoops, hollers, clapping, squealing, etc.

It was extremely exciting! It's so fun to think that we're going to get to have dozens more of those moments before the school year is over! It really made at least me want to say, "School can wait--I'm turning in my papers tomorrow!" But then reason kicks in and I remember all the reasons why I have to wait a few more months yet. It was still fun to watch. :)

Research Journals

Posted by Braden

I have to write a 7-8 page research paper for biology--that's not so bad. We have to cite at least 6 "primary sources" in it--that struck me at first as kinda bad.

By "primary source," he means basically that we need to get our information from peer-reviewed research journal articles. The problem is, these journals aren't really in English. They use the same pronouns, articles, and punctuation as us, but they don't actually use English. For example, one of the sentences that I quote in my paper is, "There is evidence that impaired glucose regulation is associated with impaired cognition, particularly episodic memory." There are many statements made in these articles that are a lot less decipherable than the one given, but you get the idea.

So, after hunting down eight articles from the library research journal database (which is amazing, by the way) on the topic on which I am doing my paper--the possibility of improving one's ability to memorize information by physiological, emotional, or circumstantial means--I sat down at home with a highlighter, a pen, and a long night ahead of me, with the intent to hack my way through them in one sitting and have the necessary material for writing a thesis statement by the end of it. I got started, and...

...2.5 hours later...

...this is awesome! It's a shame I only have a couple articles left. Did you know that being in the same setting where you learned information won't necessarily help you recall that information any better, but it will make you more likely to overwrite that memory with later episodes that take place in that setting? Or that early sleep (SWS) and late sleep (REM) have different effects on what your brain converts to long term memory or consolidates? Or that getting extra glucose to the brain--eating a candy bar--actually does aid in short term memory retention?

I found myself really intrigued by the experiments explained by these researchers and wishing that I had something equally interesting to test, write up, and present to the academic world.

I've always planned on eventually taking part in research in my field of study--this expected-to-be-painful but actually enjoyable experience gave me one more confirmation that I really wouldn't mind doing that sort of work for the next 40 years of my life. Thank you, biology research paper!

Sunday Dinner Disaster

Posted by Ashley

I'm not quite sure why but my roommates and I have never had a meal together or prepared one together. So we decided that we wanted to start having dinner together on Sundays. Yesterday was our first one. We made pizza . . . sort of.

We had the dough and the sauce and the cheese all ready on the pan to go into the oven. We made two pizzas. When we went to put them in the oven, the pans didn't fit. Our oven is a lot smaller than what we are use to at home. So we didn't know what to do other than try to move them to smaller pans . . . this just destroyed our pizza. But we cooked it anyway. We left the second pizza on the large pan and cooked it with the oven door partially open.

Luckily we were all hungry and would eat anything. The one pizza that we left on the big pan was still a bit doughy and the other did not look to pleasant but actually wasnt too bad. It was more of a casserole pizza. But we all enjoyed the laughs we had from this experience. Hopefully next time we will remember our oven is a lot smaller than what we are use to.