Classes

So I'll really try not to sound like the teachers on Charlie Brown this time. I just thought I'd write about my classes. Overall, they're going well, but this is a semester of absolutes. I have my absolute favorite class that I've had so far, and I also have two classes that are probably some of my least favorites.
I guess I can start with the least favorites. I have one class that's Masterpieces of World Literature. It's for a general requirement, and the professor teaches in a way that's the exact opposite of my learning style. Also, I've already studied half the stuff that we're studying, so it's kind of boring. My way of learning is usually to quietly analyze the literature (by myself) and come up with a really cool response to it in papers. In this class, we're expected to get into groups and discuss our feelings about the literature. There's almost no analysis involved. It drives me crazy.
The other least favorite is my French class, Advanced French Composition. I would like the subject, but yet again, I don't really like the way the professor teaches. She gives a lot of really repetitive work that I would consider to be busy work. It uses just enough of the brain that I can't really do anything else, but not enough of the brain for me to actually learn what we're supposed to be learning. So I've decided that for the rest of the semester, I'm just going to do the busy work, since she gets mad when we don't, but then after that go back and devise my own lesson that actually will allow me to learn. I'll probably write little paragraphs or really short stories that use the vocabulary words and rules that we're learning, and that kind of thing. I'm hoping that that will help.
Then there's British Literature from 1950 to the Present. That class is pretty good. It's mostly just the typical English class, but I like it. It's interesting and keeps my attention, for the most part.
I'm also taking Mission Prep, and I'm learning a lot from that class. I'm mostly taking it because the professor is known throughout campus as being the best, and I'm glad that I took the class.
And now for the all-time favorite class - Creative Writing. This class is perfect for me. It pushes me to write and it allows me to do one of my favorite hobbies and call it homework. It's great.
So those are the classes that I'm taking this semester. I just hope that it goes well!

Computers and Web Browsers

I'll apologize in advance if I go way too in-depth about my computer. My roommates commonly think that I'm speaking a foreign language when I talk about my computers, so I know that I have a tendency to not make any sense. But oh well . . . Over Christmas, I got to upgrade my computer to the most up-to-date operating system (software) for Mac (commonly known as Lion). It was a long and painful process (which was my own fault) and we had to erase my entire hard drive to get to that point (also my fault), but I was really excited about it, because I was using really old, out-of-date software.
There are certain things that I like about Lion, compared to Leopard, which was the software that I had before, but there are also certain things that are a pain. For example, my computer runs really slowly on Lion - a problem that I didn't have before. I'm almost positive that I know exactly what the problem is, but it would cost a lot of money to fix it. So that's a little bit annoying. And I've also been playing a game of trying to figure out the best web browser to use, since those behave differently now than they did before. I started with just Safari (the web browser that comes with Mac), but every time I open Safari, I get the rainbow beach ball (the equivalent of the hourglass, for any Windows/PC people). And the rainbow beach ball has to be there for at least 10 seconds before I can do anything. And then I get it every time I have to go to a different page, or open a new tab, etc. It's really slow.
So I decided to try Google Chrome instead, since I like Google Earth, and Chrome comes with Google Earth. Chrome runs a lot faster, usually without the rainbow beach ball. However, it uses up pretty much all of the CPU on my computer and heats the whole thing up. And then my fans start running really fast, and it can get kind of loud. One of my roommates has even commented that it sounds like my computer is dying. I've checked to see what the problem is, and I'm about 100% sure that Chrome is the problem. Everything goes back to normal and my computer gets quiet again when I quit Chrome. Also, Chrome refuses to open my Yahoo email, which is kind of annoying. I have to run that through Safari.
So today I decided that I would try Firefox and see if that's any better. I just reached this decision about five minutes ago, so we'll see how the results are. So far, though, there haven't been any rainbow beach balls, and my computer is fairly quiet. It also opens my Yahoo email, which is a plus. We'll see if that lasts. If it does, then I'll probably get rid of Chrome and just make Firefox my default browser so that I don't have to deal with the annoyances of the other two. So I'm hoping that Firefox will work better.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Okay, so for those who don't know, I am freezing all the time. Seriously, it's so bad that I wanted a jacket even when I was outside in hundred degree, humid weather. I freeze whenever the air conditioning is on at all. Needless to say, the cold winter here is not easy for me. Even with a coat, I can't feel my legs or hands or face by the time I get to class every day. Our highs have been in the twenties for the past several days, and our lows have been below ten degrees. In the past few days, I have developed a deep gratitude for heaters. You see, the heater in my apartment hasn't been working for the past few days. It wasn't too noticeable at first, because we're on the second floor and heat rises, but now our apartment is freezing. We've let management know, and they're planning on fixing it hopefully tomorrow morning but no later than Thursday, but I am certainly looking forward to having heat again.

Breaking Dawn, Thanksgiving, and Finals Prep

Again, I've been terrible about blogging. School is just so crazy that I don't have as much time as I would like to do fun things to blog about and then to actually blog about those things. So here's yet another update that includes several events that I should have probably blogged about a while ago. I guess that I'll start with Breaking Dawn. I had a lot of fun going to see it with Carrie and Brittany. Overall, I liked the movie much better than the other ones. I loved the way that they incorporated some of the music from previous movies. That was cute. I also liked the fact that Bella actually showed emotion. That was a definite improvement. My main complaint is that I passed out during one scene towards the very end of the movie. Someday I will figure out how to stop passing out so easily, because it really is a rather annoying problem. But despite the passing out, it was a lot of fun. Then this year, I actually got to go home for Thanksgiving. It was great to get to see the family. I got to catch up with them, eat some delicious food, and actually relax. I even got to sleep a little bit, which I don't seem to do as much when I'm at school. It was awesome to get to actually help put up Christmas decorations and to just hang out with everyone. And, of course, I didn't mind the 65 degree weather. Coming from the cold 30 and 40 degree weather here, that was definitely a nice change. Unfortunately, however, Thanksgiving Break is over, and I'm back to school for the final stretch of the semester, which means a lot of papers and projects and then, of course, the dreaded finals week. And, to top it all off, I picked now of all times to go and get sick. I've been in bed for a few days with a bad cold. I'm starting to feel better now that I've gotten so much rest and taken medicine. I'm just hoping that I kick this quickly so I can be fully functional for finals, since that's coming up in the next few weeks. I am way excited for finals to be over and to get back home for Christmas!

Fall Already?!?

Okay, I really will try to do better about blogging this time. I know I'm bad about it. So here's what's happened since the last time I blogged. I went to the beach with my parents and siblings, which was pretty amazing. Oh, the days of warmth and sunshine! I miss them already. That was a lot of fun.

Oh, how I miss the beach! Maybe someday I'll just move to someplace warm and sunny with a beach nearby. I know that probably won't happen, but it doesn't hurt to dream, does it? Anyways, after that, I started watching 24, and I discovered that I absolutely love that show. That pretty much took up the rest of my summer. I got through six seasons in not very much time, because I was so anxious to discover what Jack Bauer would do next to save America. Of course, I had to stop watching TV so much because it was time for me to come back out to school. I'm in a new apartment this year, and I love it. We have a washer/drying in the apartment, which is way nice, and we're slightly closer to campus than we were last year, which is also a plus. And we have a ton of space. Apparently the bedrooms were originally built to hold three people each, but fortunately, they decided that there should only be two to a room, which gives us a lot of space, which is great. My sister wants me to eventually take pictures, so I suppose that I'll get around to doing that at some point in time. My classes are all going really well. I love my English classes, as usual. My French class is a little difficult, since we're learning really obscure concepts in French grammar that we never even knew existed in previous French classes, but it's all good. I've also been going to all of the home football games. I actually had front row seats for the Utah game, so that was pretty fun, except for the fact that BYU lost. But I could see where President Uchtdorf was standing when he came for part of the game, because that wasn't way too far away, and Jimmer Fredette was within about 5 yards of me. And, of course, I had a great view of the slaughter taking place on the field, especially as quite a bit of Utah's scoring came during the quarters in which they were coming toward the end zone in which I was sitting.

Other than that, I've been studying like crazy! And fall kind of snuck up on me. One day it was late summer kind of weather, and then we had a week of winter (yes, including snow, although that didn't stick, thank goodness!) and now it's actually fall!

Harry Potter

I finally just saw the last Harry Potter movie. It was good, but it was kind of a bittersweet thing to see the end. I've been reading those books and watching those movies for forever. When I was in first grade, my Grandma sent me a paperback copy of the first book. This was before the books were really popular; I think she just said that she'd heard that it was a good book. It took me a while to read it, until right after the third book came out. I read those quickly as well, and then the waiting began. I had to wait for the fourth book, the fifth book, then the sixth, and finally the seventh. I was really sad to see the books end. But at least there were still the movies. The first movie came out when I was in fifth grade, right before I turned eleven, the same age that Harry is at the beginning of the series. I watched all of the movies, and it was always my job to answer whatever questions anyone else had, since I'd read the books so many times. But I guess that this is the end of the Harry Potter series. So all I can say is, "Mischief managed!"

New York

A few weeks ago I got to go to New York with my family. It was awesome. Our parents have been to New York several times before, but for Savannah, Zachary, and me, it was the first time. I'll be honest, I was a little intimidated by the idea of going to a huge city that seemed so rushed, but I loved New York. It was so much fun.
One of the first things we did was go to Gray's Papaya. I now fully sympathize with the guy from "Fools Rush In." He obsesses over Gray's Papaya, and I always wondered why. Well, now I know why. It is amazing. I usually don't like hot dogs, but I liked Gray's Papaya.

We also got to take the Staten Island Ferry, which went right by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Then we went to see Trinity Church and Wall Street, and the spot where the World Trade Centers were.
Then there was Times Square. We got to see the M&M Store, which was amazing. With the way that I love chocolate, being in a store with that much chocolate was awesome.

We also went to a Yankees game. Of course, the Yankees lost 1-0, but it was still fun to get to go.
We also went to the Top of the Rock. With my fear of heights, that was kind of scary, but it had a really good view of the city. On one side, there was Central Park, and on the other side, there was the Empire State Building. It was really cool, despite the heights involved.


We also got to go see where the Temple is, and that was kind of cool.

Then we went to some of the sites from "You've Got Mail." There was Cafe Lalo, and then we went and saw where they say "Hello New Jersey," and then we went into Riverside Park and found the place where they meet at the end of the movie.


Then we went to Central Park. We got to see Bethesda Fountain, where it started to rain on us.

Then there's a section of Central Park called Shakespeare Garden, which was really cool for me. There were lots of plaques with quotes from Shakespeare, surrounded by the flowers and plants mentioned in the quote. It was really neat, at least for me.

Anyways, it was a really fun trip. I loved getting to take the subway and go see some of the stuff that's in New York. It was lots of fun.