It’s time the World Wide Web encounters another collection of Jen’s thoughts via Blogger. You know how in every house there is a cupboard or drawer that is full of really odd random items like playing cards, shoe laces, two dollar bills, and blue things? Yeah, I’ve kind of put my Blog in my virtual drawer of stuff like that. But worry not, I have recently looked through the drawer and am going to resurface what is in it. Well, just the Blog because I don’t know what else is in the drawer yet. But enough with the pointless analogy. Here is a summary of my life over the past few months:
MAYI went to Europe. For the entire month. Then I came back. Oh fine, details…
This was a study abroad trip with BYU-Idaho’s Humanities department. I had to take 6 credits for it so I chose History of Christianity, Humanities 201, and an Art Travel Study class. We began the month doing classes on campus. This was a very stressful time for me. The wonderful winter semester had just ended, I had said goodbye to my closest friends, I was getting ready to close my life in Rexburg and start a new chapter in Provo, and I was stuck in the dorms where I began praying that there would be people on my trip who I could be friends with that didn’t talk about Britney Spears or contacts for an hour. (The girls I had to live with on campus while we were in class were very different from me.) Luckily, Kristi Meaders, Julie Neish, and Leslie Bardsley were kind enough to take me under their wing and we had a blast tromping around Europe.
Our journey began in London, England. Actually, Salisbury and Stonehenge were first. London was the day after. I had been to London previously on a choir tour in 2001, but this experience was much different. Our schedules were great. The teachers gave us a strict enough schedule so we knew when feeding time was, but other than that and the odd museum tour we had to do as a group, we were free to go wherever we pleased. London was great, but really it was just the preparatory city.
From London we flew to Rome. Rome was everything I’ve ever dreamed of and more. We stayed at a convent with nuns who were the most wonderful people I’ve ever met, except they put coffee in my hot chocolate and it tasted really gross. But the convent was a great experience. Not to mention that it was a 30 second walk from the Piazza Navona and a 5 minute walk from the Pantheon and Trevy Fountain! We took a bus from Rome to Florence. Florence earned my love from when I climbed up the 463 steps of the Duomo and was able to look out at the entire city and hills surrounding it. It was absolutely beautiful, but surprisingly not my favorite city. All you could really do there was shop which I don’t really like in the first place, and when you have a hundred crazy Italians yelling at you to buy their things or to make their babies, you really hate shopping after that.
From Florence we drove to a little hill-top town called Orvietto to spend the afternoon, then up to Venice. We did the Venice experience in 3 hours, record time. It was amazing. After Venice came a town called Velden in Austria. This is where I discovered Austrian teenagers wear see-through swim suits, but they redeemed themselves by singing “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in English (with thick accents) on the dock. Vienna (very lovely) was next followed by Salzburg (sigh) and then to Nurnburg (very wet) and Koblenz (breathtaking), Germany.
Germany was mostly our passer-by country to get to Amsterdam! No I didn’t go to the Red Light District, yes they have Cannabis seed starter kits everywhere, no I didn’t go to Anne Frank’s house because line ups there are ridiculous so we did the Ten Boom house instead, and yes I went to the Da Vinci Code there which was a huge cultural high of the trip. Europeans have the weirdest senses of humor. Netherlands to Belgium which was gorgeous and very quaint. And then finally we ended up in Paris, France (via Chantilly). I didn't expect to like Paris as much as the other places, but 4 days there changed my view. Paris was so cool! Whew! 7 Countries in 27ish days?? Pretty good wouldn’t you say?
Highlights of the tour include:
- All of the Museums (13) and Cathedrals (25)
- The Colosseum and the Pantheon and th- oh fine, just plain Rome in general
- The Castles (19)
- Michelangelo and Bernini (I could cry just thinking about them)
- The guy who sang “Feelings” in the Metro in Paris
- The Belgian waffle lady in Gent. She deserves a really big waffle award.
- The Commercials at the beginning of the movie in Amsterdam
- Peeing my pants in Germany
- The Cheese and Shoe factory man
- The concerts and the kebabs in Vienna
- Every place we stopped in had a different way to shower and use the toilet. And what is with the Germans and having the biggest buttons for everything?
- Not having to eat Fish Schnitzel
Biggest regrets:
- Not going to the Van Gogh museum (darn me for getting sick and wanting to sleep instead)
- Losing my
Les Miserables ticket 5 minutes before the show (don’t worry, I was able to get one of the last seats left)
- Not eating more Gelato when I had the chance
JUNE
I basically spent most of June in my house in Canada recovering from jet lag, doing homework for my trip, and spending time with my family. Oh and shopping for clothes since I had like 4 shirts, 4 underwears, and 2 pants. I could only bring 30 pounds on the plane for Europe so I packed light. Yeah, nothing that exciting happened in this month, except for the end when I moved down here to Provo where I am currently residing. I’ll explain it all below.
JULY (and end of June)I moved in to my new apartment June 26th, the first day of summer semester. My original plan was to work and take one credit. When I first got accepted I called admissions and explained my entire situation: I’m foreign, I’m a transfer student, I got accepted to start in summer. I asked if it was possible to defer and start in the Fall because I only wanted to work and not take class (I’m really sick of school right now). They discussed it amongst themselves and their superiors and told me that I had to take at least 1 credit and that was it. So I signed up for Martial Arts with Jeff (my brother in-law) and Social Dance. My records didn’t transfer to BYU the day I told them to release them, so I called Idaho and they told me the guy who can only do it is away and wouldn’t be back until the end of the week. I spent the week scared, bored, not seeing my new and only roommate, and sweating from the extreme heat. Friday came around and I called Idaho and Mr. Takes-care-of-transfer-records was there and finally transferred them. I went in to admissions so they could print my visa, they discussed the implications of being international with me, and this is where I found out I had to be a full time student. Well, I had read that before I applied which is why I talked to admissions when I got accepted (the whole 1 credit only thing). They told me they had no idea who told me that and said they would have never said such a thing (whatever), so I had to quickly sign up for 6 credits before the end of the weekend. Plus it’s dumb that that rule should apply to me because it doesn’t for students who’ve been here more than 8 months. I’ve been in college for two years at BYU-Idaho! I think that should count. But whatever, I’ll stop complaining. I wound up taking World Religions and Intro to Guitar along with Social Dance and Martial Arts. Okay, so it’s all simple and easy things (except for Religion) but I was still grumpy because I didn’t even want to be in classes. So because my schedule is all over the place I can’t get a job (not to mention it has to be on-campus which limits my choices anyways) and here I am going to class and well, going to class. I’ve turned to looking at the positive side of my life and realized a cool thing. If a guy gets a little too “close” to me in Social Dance, not only can I now kick his butt with Ju Jitsu, but I can do it while discussing Hinduism and play him a tune at the same time!
So about 2 weeks ago I was studying in the Library. It was 9:00 in the morning, I had a quiz on my reading for World Religions at 12:30, and being a new and eager student to “the Great and Spacious Campus”, I decided to plop myself down on one of the main floor tables. I guess I thought my siblings’ warnings of how the Library is a very social atmosphere were mostly stupid jokes and rumors. I was very wrong. As I was reviewing some Jainism beliefs I saw out of the corner of my eye some legs walking towards me. My first thought was that is was a guy in my ward I had met at FHE the night before just wanting to say hi, but upon looking further up his body I realized I had no recollection of who this boy was. He offered me his hand and told me his name was Jake. I think it was that, I can’t really remember. I stared blankly, “Hi…?” Then he goes, “Um, I’m sorry if this is too forward, but I think you are pretty cute and I want to ask you out.” I was shocked. My first reaction was to say “NOOO!!” but instead to soften the blow I did a shifty eye, shifty eye, “suuure…” He then asked my name and where I was from and put my phone number into his cell phone. He then told me he was here as a visiting student hoping to get in permanently starting winter and that he was from Ogden and he lives in the Spanish housing. His final question was, “So I’m kind of an outdoorsy person, do you think you might want to go on a hike sometime? Yeah, get something to eating?” I told him a sort of yes-maybe answer, and then he did the “have a nice day thing” and left. WHAT THE CRUD?! I resumed studying position for 5 minutes to make sure he had left for good, texted Liz, ran out of the library to call Derek and told him I never wanted to go back there again, and then ran home where I very angrily and confusedly made some pasta. I still can’t fathom what kind of person would do that. Okay, props for courage because that takes a lot of guts, but get everything else right! It was 9:00 in the MORNING. I was STUDYING. You based if you want to go out with me because you saw me from far away and thought I was CUTE? What if I was a total mean person? What if I was a witch? What if I had a deadly disease that shot out of my eyes when I looked at boys named Jake? Unlikely, I know, but I just think it’s weird and superficial and very silly to ask someone out in the library of all places! I wasn’t even in the Periodicals section! I also think that a hike would be the scariest thing I could do with someone I didn’t know. *SHUDDER* Luckily, he hasn’t called.
The other interesting thing of the month was my calling as 2nd Counselor in the Relief Society. The Bishopric member asked me if I would be the Enrichment Counselor, so I assumed I was just one of those people that helped plan Enrichment activities or something. Not until I was being set apart with the Relief Society President and 1st Counselor did I realize I was in the Presidency.
Oh, and Martial Arts is totally kicking my butt, pardon the pun.
Well, I suppose I’ll end this really long entry. Despite the length, it was still a fairly brief summary of my summer.
