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Ladies and gentlemen... You've waited. You've wondered. And now, the moment is finally here! That's right, Mallory has returned from her blogging hiatus! *cue raucous applause*
...
Well, I'm happy to see me again, anyway.
I'm not positive what to tell you all about, so I'll just start typing and see where I end up. That usually works, even though I normally end up writing way more than I originally intended. Meh, let's just do this.
So I'll start with the logistical stuff that isn't really that interesting but everybody wants to know about anyway. I'm living in an apartment right off the southeast corner of campus this year- it's about a ten-minute walk to get to my closest class, so not bad at all. I'm living with the same girls as last year, minus Julie who got hitched this summer. More on that later. The girl who took her spot is named Sarah and she is such a sweetie. She's a year older than me, and she's studying to be a music teacher, so she does lots of vocal performance and choir and such. She's always singing, which is great because it makes me feel justified in my own inability to stop singing. Ever. She's from St. Louis, MO and she lived in this ward duing spring/summer, so she knows everybody. Our ward is the BYU 63rd ward (haha... I know.) and we meet in the varsity theater in the Wilk (the student center), so we get to have sacrament meeting in a movie theater. It's pretty rad- very comfy seats, which makes it very hard to stay awake since it's kind of dim in there too. :)
I'm really enjoying my classes this semester, for the most part. I'm taking Math History, Spanish 206, Linear Algebra, World Literature I, and New Testament I. Math History may sound like possibly the most boring thing ever invented, but it's actually really interesting and fun, and I'm not saying that just from a math-geek point of view. Well, not completely. We've learned how to do stuff like use the number systems of ancient Babylon, the Mayans, Japan, etc., and we each have these little topics we have to research and present to the class- I have to do mine this Wednesday- which is really good practice for us future math teachers. I also learned how to make magic squares, which are these grids of numbers that add up to the same sum in any column, row, or diagonally. It's supa-cool. I was bored in my lit class once and made one that was 25x25. Yes, this is fun for me.
Linear Algebra is a bundle of contradictions.First of all, it's actually called "Elementary Linear Algebra," but they just put the word 'elementary' in there to make it sound easy when it's actually very difficult. Second, my professor is hired to teach us, but he doesn't do a whole lot of that. He attempts the whole "helping them to teach themselves so that they truly understand the concepts better" thing, but fails at it so most of the learning we do has to be from extra studying out the text- which brings me to contradiction 3: we're 'encouraged' not to study from the text, but have homework out of it using their versions of notations and certain problems we haven't even talked about in class. And finally, even though it's my least favorite class, I still actually like being in class because my professor is this old guy from England (he pronounces 'theta' 
as 'thay-ter'. This alone is enough to make my day.) who usually is off in his own little math/cricket universe and likes to give us wicked hard homework and then after we've stressed over it for two days decide to get rid of some of the problems and extend the due date. Sigh. But it's managable, and I'm getting by.
World Lit is really more of a Western Lit class because that's what my professor knows and likes, which was a little disappointing because I was anticipating reading things like "The Tale of Genji" and "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and "Arabian Nights," but whatever. I do like the class, and it's not very much work other than just the reading. Lemme tell ya, there are some very nerdy people in that class. My dad would cringe to hear some of the conversations we have and jokes we make... because they usually involve Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or Shakespeare. (Speaking of Harry Potter, just yesterday I put a post-it note on my bedroom door that says "Dumble." If you get that, gold star for you. If you get it AND think it's funny, you win a trophy. If neither, see me after class.)
Spanish is fantastic, of course. My profe is a grad student again and he's super funny and a really good teacher. I love Spanish so much. The people in my class are really great too, and I knew a few of them from my class last semester, which made things a lot nicer in the beginning.
Finally, New Testament. I have Brother Parker, from whom I took the 2nd section of Book of Mormon last year, and I'm going to be taking New Test II from him next semester as well. He's great, and Somers, Krista, and Cate are in the class with me which is super nice. That man is a veritable gold mine of memorable quotes too; I'm always writing them in the margins of our study packet. :D
As for employment, I currently have a luxurious, glamourous, and infinitely rewarding job at the Provo McDonald's. Ughhhh... well, it's actually not that bad, especially since I'm used to the craziness that comes along with McD's customers and employees. A good half of the people who work there are Mexican too, so I get a lot of practice in my Spanish comprehension, and I've had to take food orders in Spanish on more than one occasion. I've found it's actually easier to understand them in Spanish than if they try to speak English really badly. I'm planning on quitting in a couple weeks, right at the end of classes, so I can study for and take my finals and then get another job on campus for winter semester since I have to bike to work, which would be less than enjoyable in the snow.
My roomies and I have not been partying nearly as much as we did last year (hey, we were freshmen), so there's not as many crazy pictures to share. The ones I do have are in the little slideshow on the right side of the blog ===> named "And some more pictures." Creative, grammatically correct title, I know. I would suggest clicking through the slide show backward since the first gajillion pictures are from last year. Some of the things we have done are go 80s dancing, go to a haunted house with our FHE group, hang out with the boys in one of the apartments in our ward- they've become our main dudes, affectionately dubbed The Coventry Boys. One weekend Somers and I went with Mack to her hometown for "Payson Onion Days." Stupid name, but it was really fun. We had amazing snow cones and went to the parade, and got to see her and Dustin's families again. Another time Mack and I went to her sister's place for dinner and to play with her little niece Kylie, who could probably give Georgia Archibald a run for her money in smiley-ness. They bring her over here quite often, which makes me ridiculously happy. I get so baby-deprived out here. I've also been going to BYU hockey games with Julie quite often, because her hubby Alan is a goalie for the team and she gets us in free. I'd forgotten how much I love hockey, and any of you who know the laid-back, easy-going, calm and collected version of me would be in for a surprise if you saw me at those games. It unleashes a crazy person inside me. The only one there shouting louder than me is Julie. :)
Speaking of Julie, before the semester started we all went down to Salt Lake for her wedding, which was amaaaazing! She was so gorgeous and happy, and it was a great day. Between watching her come out of the temple and the reception at Alan's place we spent the day at the mall in SLC, not buying anything but enjoying ourselves in Barnes & Noble and some fun foreigny-type furniture places kind of like an even more expensive version of Pier 1. I also decided that at my reception I am NOT having those little chocolates with the imprint of the temple on them that taste like wax. Nope.
In more recent news, I got to spend Friday evening with my best lady Megan! She came down to my place for the hockey game against Utah State, in which we lost but fought valiantly, and then spent the night here. We went out to eat at the creamery, caught up on each others' lives, and strolled around campus. It was very nice.
This isn't very big or exciting, but it just happened so I have to tell everyone about it: twilightsource.com, my main place for information on Twilight (run by the people who run my 2nd home mugglenet) is doing this daily drawing on twitter for twilight prizes and I WON YESTERDAY!! I got a message from Andrew (who runs MuggleCast, by the way) this morning, and I won a limited-edition "Team Jacob" Burger King crown. Not a very great prize, and I kinda wish I had won later on when the prizes get better, but I'm still super-stoked. Really, the best part of it all was I got to talk to Andrew and my name was on the main page of twilightsource. I feel unjustifiably cool right now, I gotta tell ya. I mean, how often does anybody ever win these online drawings? Pretty much never!! Sometimes it really does pay to be hopelessly nerdy. Plus, now I get mail. Mail is the best thing ever.
Yes, mail is great. And I've been quite the diligent little missionary-writer this semester. Besides having three cousins on missions, there's also Steve Johnsen, and about a gazillion guys from our ward last year who are all gone this year, plus some of Mack's friends who I've become good friends with. I especially love writing to the guys who are in Spanish-speaking missions because we write to each other in Spanish, which makes me feel quite special. Alan Miller (aka Little Alan), who practically lived at our place last year and is our collective best pal, is in Allentown (HA!) PA, speaking Spanish, and he writes the best letters. He sends us really funny pictures too. I love having missionaries.
Halloween was really fun. I had to work Saturday night, but my awesome manager that night Deysi was dressed up as a vampire and she let me put on some zombie makeup. It was great. Friday morning I put on my marionette costume and went to classes, getting a lot of looks along the way. I was one of perhaps 5% of the people on campus who dressed up. We had a fiesta in my Spanish class- we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" in Spanish and ate traditional Dia de los Muertos food. Best class ever, hands down. The other classes were just the usual. My friend in 'spanol dressed up as Carmen Sandiego, though. I enjoyed that. That night we watched "Gremlins" over at the Coventry boys' apartment. Matt, one of said boys, just got his halo off recently from when he broke his neck this summer at Lake Powell, so there was much celebrating in the vicinity. We call him "Mattycakes," actually. :)
Well, I do believe that ought to be enough for enough. I'll try to update more often so I don't end up writing these novels, but we all know that doesn't usually happen the way I plan. I love and miss you all! If you want to write to me (nudge) or stalk me or whatever, my new address is:
760 E 820 N, Apt #306
Provo, UT 84606
Buh-bye now!
...
Well, I'm happy to see me again, anyway.
I'm not positive what to tell you all about, so I'll just start typing and see where I end up. That usually works, even though I normally end up writing way more than I originally intended. Meh, let's just do this.
So I'll start with the logistical stuff that isn't really that interesting but everybody wants to know about anyway. I'm living in an apartment right off the southeast corner of campus this year- it's about a ten-minute walk to get to my closest class, so not bad at all. I'm living with the same girls as last year, minus Julie who got hitched this summer. More on that later. The girl who took her spot is named Sarah and she is such a sweetie. She's a year older than me, and she's studying to be a music teacher, so she does lots of vocal performance and choir and such. She's always singing, which is great because it makes me feel justified in my own inability to stop singing. Ever. She's from St. Louis, MO and she lived in this ward duing spring/summer, so she knows everybody. Our ward is the BYU 63rd ward (haha... I know.) and we meet in the varsity theater in the Wilk (the student center), so we get to have sacrament meeting in a movie theater. It's pretty rad- very comfy seats, which makes it very hard to stay awake since it's kind of dim in there too. :)
I'm really enjoying my classes this semester, for the most part. I'm taking Math History, Spanish 206, Linear Algebra, World Literature I, and New Testament I. Math History may sound like possibly the most boring thing ever invented, but it's actually really interesting and fun, and I'm not saying that just from a math-geek point of view. Well, not completely. We've learned how to do stuff like use the number systems of ancient Babylon, the Mayans, Japan, etc., and we each have these little topics we have to research and present to the class- I have to do mine this Wednesday- which is really good practice for us future math teachers. I also learned how to make magic squares, which are these grids of numbers that add up to the same sum in any column, row, or diagonally. It's supa-cool. I was bored in my lit class once and made one that was 25x25. Yes, this is fun for me.
Linear Algebra is a bundle of contradictions.
World Lit is really more of a Western Lit class because that's what my professor knows and likes, which was a little disappointing because I was anticipating reading things like "The Tale of Genji" and "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and "Arabian Nights," but whatever. I do like the class, and it's not very much work other than just the reading. Lemme tell ya, there are some very nerdy people in that class. My dad would cringe to hear some of the conversations we have and jokes we make... because they usually involve Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or Shakespeare. (Speaking of Harry Potter, just yesterday I put a post-it note on my bedroom door that says "Dumble." If you get that, gold star for you. If you get it AND think it's funny, you win a trophy. If neither, see me after class.)
Spanish is fantastic, of course. My profe is a grad student again and he's super funny and a really good teacher. I love Spanish so much. The people in my class are really great too, and I knew a few of them from my class last semester, which made things a lot nicer in the beginning.
Finally, New Testament. I have Brother Parker, from whom I took the 2nd section of Book of Mormon last year, and I'm going to be taking New Test II from him next semester as well. He's great, and Somers, Krista, and Cate are in the class with me which is super nice. That man is a veritable gold mine of memorable quotes too; I'm always writing them in the margins of our study packet. :D
As for employment, I currently have a luxurious, glamourous, and infinitely rewarding job at the Provo McDonald's. Ughhhh... well, it's actually not that bad, especially since I'm used to the craziness that comes along with McD's customers and employees. A good half of the people who work there are Mexican too, so I get a lot of practice in my Spanish comprehension, and I've had to take food orders in Spanish on more than one occasion. I've found it's actually easier to understand them in Spanish than if they try to speak English really badly. I'm planning on quitting in a couple weeks, right at the end of classes, so I can study for and take my finals and then get another job on campus for winter semester since I have to bike to work, which would be less than enjoyable in the snow.
My roomies and I have not been partying nearly as much as we did last year (hey, we were freshmen), so there's not as many crazy pictures to share. The ones I do have are in the little slideshow on the right side of the blog ===> named "And some more pictures." Creative, grammatically correct title, I know. I would suggest clicking through the slide show backward since the first gajillion pictures are from last year. Some of the things we have done are go 80s dancing, go to a haunted house with our FHE group, hang out with the boys in one of the apartments in our ward- they've become our main dudes, affectionately dubbed The Coventry Boys. One weekend Somers and I went with Mack to her hometown for "Payson Onion Days." Stupid name, but it was really fun. We had amazing snow cones and went to the parade, and got to see her and Dustin's families again. Another time Mack and I went to her sister's place for dinner and to play with her little niece Kylie, who could probably give Georgia Archibald a run for her money in smiley-ness. They bring her over here quite often, which makes me ridiculously happy. I get so baby-deprived out here. I've also been going to BYU hockey games with Julie quite often, because her hubby Alan is a goalie for the team and she gets us in free. I'd forgotten how much I love hockey, and any of you who know the laid-back, easy-going, calm and collected version of me would be in for a surprise if you saw me at those games. It unleashes a crazy person inside me. The only one there shouting louder than me is Julie. :)
Speaking of Julie, before the semester started we all went down to Salt Lake for her wedding, which was amaaaazing! She was so gorgeous and happy, and it was a great day. Between watching her come out of the temple and the reception at Alan's place we spent the day at the mall in SLC, not buying anything but enjoying ourselves in Barnes & Noble and some fun foreigny-type furniture places kind of like an even more expensive version of Pier 1. I also decided that at my reception I am NOT having those little chocolates with the imprint of the temple on them that taste like wax. Nope.
In more recent news, I got to spend Friday evening with my best lady Megan! She came down to my place for the hockey game against Utah State, in which we lost but fought valiantly, and then spent the night here. We went out to eat at the creamery, caught up on each others' lives, and strolled around campus. It was very nice.
This isn't very big or exciting, but it just happened so I have to tell everyone about it: twilightsource.com, my main place for information on Twilight (run by the people who run my 2nd home mugglenet) is doing this daily drawing on twitter for twilight prizes and I WON YESTERDAY!! I got a message from Andrew (who runs MuggleCast, by the way) this morning, and I won a limited-edition "Team Jacob" Burger King crown. Not a very great prize, and I kinda wish I had won later on when the prizes get better, but I'm still super-stoked. Really, the best part of it all was I got to talk to Andrew and my name was on the main page of twilightsource. I feel unjustifiably cool right now, I gotta tell ya. I mean, how often does anybody ever win these online drawings? Pretty much never!! Sometimes it really does pay to be hopelessly nerdy. Plus, now I get mail. Mail is the best thing ever.
Yes, mail is great. And I've been quite the diligent little missionary-writer this semester. Besides having three cousins on missions, there's also Steve Johnsen, and about a gazillion guys from our ward last year who are all gone this year, plus some of Mack's friends who I've become good friends with. I especially love writing to the guys who are in Spanish-speaking missions because we write to each other in Spanish, which makes me feel quite special. Alan Miller (aka Little Alan), who practically lived at our place last year and is our collective best pal, is in Allentown (HA!) PA, speaking Spanish, and he writes the best letters. He sends us really funny pictures too. I love having missionaries.
Halloween was really fun. I had to work Saturday night, but my awesome manager that night Deysi was dressed up as a vampire and she let me put on some zombie makeup. It was great. Friday morning I put on my marionette costume and went to classes, getting a lot of looks along the way. I was one of perhaps 5% of the people on campus who dressed up. We had a fiesta in my Spanish class- we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" in Spanish and ate traditional Dia de los Muertos food. Best class ever, hands down. The other classes were just the usual. My friend in 'spanol dressed up as Carmen Sandiego, though. I enjoyed that. That night we watched "Gremlins" over at the Coventry boys' apartment. Matt, one of said boys, just got his halo off recently from when he broke his neck this summer at Lake Powell, so there was much celebrating in the vicinity. We call him "Mattycakes," actually. :)
Well, I do believe that ought to be enough for enough. I'll try to update more often so I don't end up writing these novels, but we all know that doesn't usually happen the way I plan. I love and miss you all! If you want to write to me (nudge) or stalk me or whatever, my new address is:
760 E 820 N, Apt #306
Provo, UT 84606
Buh-bye now!
