Welcome Home!

As many of you know, I am now back home with my wonderful and crazy family. Let me tell you, it's been a bit of a...culture shock (I guess that's the best way to put it). It's just been crazy being thrust back into family life, and not be in single student college life anymore.

For example, my siblings are still in school. Every week day morning, I get called downstairs from the warmth and comfort of my sleep for family prayer. Then I stumble back upstairs and crawl back under the covers, because it's 7:45 in the AM, which is way too early for me to even consider leaving my bed, let alone get up and get ready for the day. So I go back to sleep.

Another thing I'm not used to: I have zero personal space. In college, there was almost a dividing line between Emily's half of the room and my half. People didn't come over to my half unless I invited them over. My room was my sanctuary. At home? People are in my room all the time. When I was unpacking, there were four other people in my room besides myself. Jacob and Adam were just lounging around on my bed, Andrew was on the top bunk, and Emily was playing with her toys in the middle of the room. Now, this makes my room sound a lot bigger than it is. Trust me, it's not big enough to hold five people, yet it frequently does so. My bed gets invaded by others on a daily basis, which is never a pleasant experience.

I live with boys. Not the older 18-19 year old boys that care about girls so they try to be clean and not gross around them. I live with the kind of boys who don't care. About anything. Especially their sister. Room filthy? No big deal. Clothes being left on the bathroom floor? What? Those are supposed to go someplace else? Boxers hanging where the towels are supposed to go? Eh. At least they're not on the floor, right? Using your sister's PURPLE TOWEL, which is clearly hers because it's PURPLE, and not at all reeking of essence of boy? Oh, that was yours? Whoops. I didn't think to grab my own towel, and that was the only one in the bathroom since you're the only one responsible enough to keep it there, so too bad for you! (That towel no longer resides in the bathroom, because it is clearly not safe there anymore.)

Toys. There are so many toys, all over the floor. Now, I'm not a necessarily clean person. My room got cleaned for one week out of the month for cleaning checks. However, most of my mess was either clothes or shoes. Those don't really hurt when you step on them. Lego's however, do hurt. And littlest pet shop toys. And Hotweels. It's like a landmine. And it's even worse when lights are off!

This used to be normal for me. But after living with girls for the past eight months, I've become spoiled with my college way of life. Not that I don't like being home, because it's pretty nice. It's just going to take some getting used to. But for now, I think I'll stick to my bed. Whenever it's not getting violated by outsiders, that is.

Hilarity

Welp. I'm finally home. And let me tell you what an ordeal it was! The airport/plane was fine, if a little intimidating. I hate airports. They're actually kinda extremely terrifying. I mean, there's just so much that has to be done! Get the boarding pass, check your bags, go through security. Try not to lose anything because it feels like you're carrying a million things in your hand (boarding pass, driver's license, and anything else), and then you have to set everything down and take your shoes off. And what if you don't pass security? And spill everything on the ground? I just want to get to the terminal, ok? Please don't take me away! I didn't do anything wrong! I wanna go home! Not like this actually happened. But the thought that it could  is why I HATE airports. And why they're scary.

However, I survived. Whew. What a relief. So I get out of the airport, find my family, put my bags in the car, and hop in the front seat, and we're on our way! Sorta... Cept for this one word that my dad hates: Traffic.

My dad would do anything to avoid traffic. Take a million alternate routes, and try every trick in the book, just so we don't have to sit still in the car. I guess it's just his thing.

So we were on the road for ages. It took us so long. Well, my family on the road can sometimes be a little bit intense. Sometimes, there's lots of crying. Sometimes, it's shouting. Sometimes, it's laughing. Today, everything was funny. A small sample of what went down:

• Dad pulls off a deft maneuver after realizing that we're in the wrong lane (we're in a Suburban, mind you), involving switching lanes at the light and cutting in front of a truck. Much honking and craziness ensues.
• James: "Dad, what did you do? Why is someone honking at us?"
• Dad: "I was just being unconventional"
• Me: "You were breaking the law!"
• Dad: "Which is why it's unconventional!"
• Benjamin talks about how he's going to be rich one day.
• Mom: "Just don't forget that when you're rich, you'll be buying me a Porsche!"
• Benjamin: "I'm going to give you the exact same response that you give me when I ask for a car: 'Hahaha...funny.' "
• Trying to hold a conversation with my mom:
• Me: "How was women's conference?"
• Mom: "That was really random. Where did that come from?"
• Dad: "Honey, I need you to.... (proceeds to ask question, which spirals off into a different topic entirely) 
• ... Five minutes later...
• Mom: "Oh yeah! In answer to your question awhile back, women's conference was great!"
• Dad yet again attempts to find a way to avoid the traffic by pretending to go to the DFW airport, while also trying to avoid the $2 toll
• Me: "Dad, look, the U-turn you were talking about!"
• Mom: "Oh good, we don't have to pay the two dollars!"
• Dad: "See, I knew what I was doing. I was NOT going to pay two dollars! I never get any trust around here."
• Despite my dad's valiant efforts, we still ended up in a traffic jam. As we travel at 20 mph, we pass the speed limit sign, which indicates that we can go 60 mph
• Dad: "Well, at least we don't have to worry about going the speed limit!"
• Me: "Yeah, at least we don't have to worry about you breaking the law again!"

And that my friends and blog readers, is why I was laughing so hard that I was tearing up. Mind you, this was only a fraction of what was said and unsaid in the car ride home. It's good to be back!

Graduation

Well. It's official. I've graduated from Heritage Halls. However, the friends that I've made the past year are amazing! Everything has been wonderful, and it's hard to go. Technically, I haven't gone yet (my flight isn't until Tuesday), but sometimes that makes it harder to leave.

Things I'm going to miss:

• Friends. No contest. I'm going to miss them the most. Especially all of the boys that are going on missions. I mean, don't get me wrong. They are doing the right thing. But I'm going to miss them so much! Today, I stopped by Mike and Rob's new place after church. When I saw them, I just gave them the biggest hugs ever and couldn't stop smiling and being happy. The last time I saw them was Saturday at 10am, and it was Sunday at 1pm. So what? 26-ish hours? And that's only two of them! What about the other lots and lots? It's going to be a long summer/two years!
• My Ward. Let's face it. My ward was the best. We had a Tangled night and LAUNCHED TANGLED LANTERNS for cryin' out loud! We also had a ward activity that turned into a water fight, had multiple pick up games of Ultimate that went down, and had the best church meetings EVER. We also have the best bishopric of all time. I'm going to miss them so much!
• My roommates. They were also awesome. We never had fights or arguments or anything. I don't know what it was, but it was great. I'm also going to miss them a ton. Hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch and have good times next year too! For our last little get together, we ate dinner and then wrote down where we thought the other roommates would be in five years. The majority of them either had me married to someone from Florida, living in Florida, or both. I could live with that :)

It's always so hard to say goodbye! And change is never fun either. I'm going to miss everyone so much. I feel like I've said that a thousand times, but it can't be stressed enough of how wonderful my freshman year at BYU was.

So now that the depressing sad goodbyes are out of the way, let me tell you about my awesome weekend. I love it when I have awesome weekends.

Saturday: Moved out of Horne Hall (not awesome). Said goodbye to everyone (still not awesome). (Wow, seriously sounds pretty unawesome right now...) Helped my cousin Julie with her graduation party, because she graduated with her Master's degree this weekend. Woohoo!! Went to the giant party, where I saw four of my aunts and uncles (awesome), and my cousins (doubly awesome), and it was a beautiful day (AWESOME). I then stayed the night at Julie's

Sunday: Went to Julie's Single's Ward (Weird, but still good). SAW MIKE AND ROB AT THEIR NEW PLACE!! (AMAZING) Helped Julie with the "eat the rest of my food please" gathering (pretty good). Hung out with Mike and Rob at Julie's second gathering (Awesome^10). Made plans with Rob and Mike for tomorrow, so I will see them again (WOOHOO!) Went over to James and Taryn's (two of my cousins) and played with their baby and talked for like 3 hours (Awesome as well).

So as you can see, getting the chance to hang out with Mike and Rob was the highlight of my day. It was great to see them! And now, it's time for pictures!

Aw look at these boys. Aren't they so handsome? Miss y'all!

My family away from family. We have the best FHE parents, and the best siblings ever!

And now this is a little too much sadness for my liking. Well, most likely my next post will be back home! Have a great couple of days!

Spanish

So I work for International Services. And I absolutely love it. It's pretty much the best job ever. Everyone in the office is so nice, and we're all good friends. And it's Allyson's last day of work tomorrow, because she's graduating.

So what do I do at International Services? We help international students stay in status so that way they can keep studying in the country. We authorize them to work on campus and off campus. We extend their I-20s (the document that says they're students), reprint lost ones, and answer any questions they have regarding the above topics. (Trust me, it's a lot more complicated than this. I promise.)

What else do I do? I answer variations of the questions: "Do you speak Spanish?" and "Where are you from?" a few times a day. At least. Just once, I won't get asked either of those questions. Because when I answer with "Not really" and "Texas", respectively, I get such disappointed looks from these International Students. Seriously. Just once, people will realize that Texas is a pretty cool place too, even if it isn't international. Or even better, I'll be able to answer "Soy puertorriquena" and hold a conversation with a student pertaining to what they need.

I don't know why this bothers me so much. I mean, I get asked these questions often enough that I should be used to it by now. I guess it's because it makes me feel inadequate. "Oh, you know all of the requirements and rules for CPT and OPT? Well, it doesn't matter, because you don't speak Spanish." That's what I see in their disapproving eyes. Maybe I'm just being super self conscious. I should know Spanish. And I can understand the majority of what people are saying, even when it's fast. I'm just so terrified to speak it! I know, I know. I won't get over my fear until I just suck it up and deal with the fact that I'm going to butcher the grammar. And how I think in English, so everything is just wrong. But it's more than that. When I try to hold a conversation with someone, I just forget everything. I can hold a perfect conversation with myself. It's great. I can remember how things are supposed to be said and everything.

No me gusta hablar espanol porque yo tengo miedo. Yo pienso que los hispanos se reiran a mi espanol incorrecto. Mi espanol es muy malisimo, y yo no puedo recordar las palabras correctas.

See? Not perfect, but doable. Now, put me in front of a Spanish speaker, and it all goes down the drain. Not even kidding. But I will work on it. My goal is that by the time my Spanish speaking friends come back from their missions, I'll be able to talk with them fluently. I actually have lots of goals over the next two years. Hopefully I'll be able to accomplish them all! Like going on my own my own mission. Oh, I guess that means it'll be three and a half years till I get to speak to my friends in Spanish. We'll see how that goes.

Overload

I've had so many feelings the past few days. It's like a feelings overload. I don't even know where to begin. Chronologically? Nah, that's boring. We'll start with today and go from there and see where we end up.

Today was AMAZING. Church was seriously the best. It was our last time gathering together as a Freshmen Ward, which was really, really sad. On the other hand, the Spirit was so strong throughout all four (count 'em. FOUR) hours of church. Relief Society was taught by Alysha, and what really struck me the most was about how we can go through this life going after goals that are "bubbles" and that will pop either once they're achieved, or retain little to no significance in our life to come. Some of them were the obvious: Fame, fortune, social standing. But others were less obvious. Such as the difference between getting a good grade without retaining the knowledge that we learned, or choosing between two things that seem equally good. I also learned that people are always more important than things/tasks. Listening to a roommate who needs you is more important than a paper due the next day. Building lasting relationships are better than seeing how many people one can know. Needless to say, it was awesome. Then it was Sunday School, where we learned about the scattering/gathering of Israel and the allegory of the olive tree found in Jacob ch 5. I learned so many interesting things about the history of the tribes of Israel, but one of the things that struck out was about how we can't use less desirable circumstances and trials that we face as an excuse for not following God and His commandments. 

For Sacrament, we had testimony meeting, where we got to listen to a fraction of the ward bear their testimonies of how they know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has the true gospel, that Jesus is the Christ and how He lives today, and other great things about how God answers our prayers today and other great topics. I love testimony meeting, because the Spirit is always so strong. There were so many times that I got chills, and could feel Heavenly Father's love for all of us. It was the BEST. I was just so happy that we got to have two hours of that wonderfulness, because we ran over an hour. It was so worth it.

Afterwards, I was in my room, getting a head start on nice notes, when I called a good friend of mine to see if he could give me a blessing in the super near future because I was stressing out about finals. He ended up being right at my back door, so as soon as I got off the phone with him, he was in my apartment. My FHE dad was in my kitchen at the time, so it worked out perfectly. They gave me the blessing, and again, I was just overpowered by the Spirit and Heavenly Father's love for me. It was one of the best things that had happened to me in awhile, and I totally needed it. It was such a great experience.

We had our last Ward Prayer today, where the Bishopric left us with some advice. The gist of it was that Heavenly Father loves us and that he puts people in our path that we can not only serve, but be served by them. We then went to set off floating lanterns. Like the ones that are in Tangled. We'd been planning to do this for awhile, but because of bad weather, we couldn't do it till tonight. And it was seriously the best night to do it! It was so much fun! Afterwards, we went back to Braodbent (the boys' dorm) and wrote nice notes. And wrote nice notes. And wrote nice notes. It was great. Then a friend and I just went on a little walk around campus for a few minutes. And I decided that I'm going to the temple tomorrow (today?) with friends, so that's also going to be awesome.

So basically, I learned today that Heavenly Father loves me, He has a plan for me, and He is willing to help me out when I need it, but I need to humble myself and ask for His help before He can help me. Heavenly Father lives, and so does his son, Jesus Christ. They love us, and will help us all they can. "...Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Luke 11:9) Today, I gained a testimony of this scripture, and I felt the Spirit so strongly. It's such a wonderful feeling!

Oops

So I guess Em and I are a tad slow on the uptake. Oops. I mean, who knew, right? I guess without connection to the outside world (including no radio), we end up missing life changing events. Like figuring out that the band One Direction is FREAKING AMAZING. Seriously. Even though their songs are so predictable and fairly simple, they're still awesome. I mean, four British boys and one Irish boy singing about how you're beautiful is awesome. And did I mention that they were British? And have the cute accents? And the cute faces?

I mean, we found out about them a few weeks ago. We're not totally slow. We just didn't realize how awesome they were. Until the boys I hang out with started playing their songs All. The. Time. Just the past couple of days. And they don't typically listen to it. I was joking about it with one of them, and was like "Why do listen to them? They're not your type!" And he looked at me with 100% seriousness and told me that he listens to it "Because what they sing is true". Here's a glimpse of the truth that they sing:

"Don't need makeup to cover up. Being the way you are is enough... You don't know you're beautiful!" There's just something so simple and pure about their lyrics. I mean, it's one thing for Selena Gomez to sing "Who says you're not perfect" but it's something else entirely to hear the boys from One Direction sing it.

Anyway, so it's between the hours of 2 and 3 am, and we're just sitting at the table, watching all of their music videos. And the iCarly episode. And just listening to their fabulous music. And that was my night last night. Homework and One Direction. Hooray!

Aren't they just the cutest?! :)

The Void

So it begins. That long dreadful time between the end of college basketball and the start of college football. I mean, there's only about 5 more months till the first Florida game! Or 21 weeks. Or 148 days. It's ok. I can do this, right? *Deep Breath* And before I know it, college football will start! Yippee! And Emily will disappear each Saturday, because apparently I become difficult to handle during football season, and she can't tolerate it. Oh well. To each their own.

Now, there's not a complete and total sports hole. I mean, if there was ever an actual gap, then people would probably cease to function. There's the NBA. But seriously I mean, there's just so much of it! And then the playoffs last for-freaking-ever. I mean, seven games to determine a victor? That just sucks all of the fun out it! That, and I don't really care too much about the NBA. It was cool when the Mavs won last year because they're close to home. And that's about it when it comes to loyalties for me.

My FHE father also mentioned baseball. I just gave him a look. As in: No. The only time I ever watch baseball is the College World Series. And that's because Florida is usually in them, so my family watches them play. Also, because we're desperate for sports entertainment by mid-Summer. We'll watch Florida play anything. Last summer, when we were in Florida, the softball team was in the championship. Did we watch it? You bet. Also, we were watching a Florida swimmer compete for an Olympic qualifying time. And a few summers ago, we watched Florida in the Ultimate Frisbee tournament. In Texas. Because we're not the only ones who are grasping at straws.

Guess what I just remembered?! The Olympics are this summer! Whew, we just avoided a long August. Thank goodness. I love the Olympics. It's gonna be great!

My current coping mechanism is watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix. I've never seen it before, and it's surprising how accurate their portrayal of the atmosphere is (for the first 3 episodes anyway). Although I lived in the city, high school football was still a pretty big deal, and our football team wasn't even that good (they won 10 games in the 4 years I was there). However, the stadium would still fill up every Friday night. As we traveled to smaller towns with good football teams, it's incredible how important high school football is in Texas. I mean, our high school has a tiny stadium compared to most 5A high schools, but it's huge to other high schools out of the state! And the fan base is insane in the smaller towns. It's been fun watching Friday Night Lights and being like "Yes. This is exactly what happened during football games!"

And so the journey through The Void begins. I'll be watching ESPN and searching the internet, hunting for any scrap of college football information. Because kick off is coming, and it's sooner than you know it!