Note: This a continuation of the post here: First 10 Days Part 1
Day 5/6: June 19/20, 2012
The second day of classes was actually much easier than the first as I only had my BoM classes, and therefore didn't have to be bored in ELA for 2 hours. But in those classes we actually talked about the text in the second one, while in the first we began a series of days talking about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. After classes, and during my 2 hour break, I ended up reading and doing my ELA homework, and picking up my bike from the BYU bike share program available for Wyview residents. Though it turned out that I couldn't actually ride the bike until I got a helmet, and the cheapest helmet you can get on-campus is $40, more than I wished to spend on one. So, I ordered one from Walmart.com and waited for it to arrive. It actually just arrived today, June 27th, so I can finally use my bike to go places! Anyway, Tuesday wasn't a very exciting day, and Wednesday was much the same as Tuesday, with some non-exciting Linear algebra added. But, whenever I get bored I'm able to walk outside and shoot some hoops, as the basketball court is literally right outside my apartment. Meanwhile, on Wednesday night the Bishopric was roving around, making sure all the people were where they were told they would be, and asking them questions about their previous experiences in church, I'm assuming for possible callings. One exciting/important thing did happen on Wednesday though, as my roommate had his team's (which he is the captain of) first Intramural Ultimate game. So, I went with him and learned a bit about the game, and actually got to practice a little with them as their opponents didn't show up.
Day 7, June 21st was much more exciting than the previous two days, largely because I was finally able to get out and play some tennis after classes. But before that, during my religion classes on Thursday, we ended up getting caught up in the material, and in BoM1 ended up a day behind, so the schedule was shifted back. Meanwhile in BoM2 we ended the week about a day and a half behind, but she insisted that we keep up with the syllabus and not with where we are in class. After classes, I went and played tennis with another guy in my building, and he totally crushed me. It turns out that I need to practice more often so that I can actually return his 90-120mph serves. But that was a great experience to have, even though he was definitely holding back some. It turned out that the closest tennis courts where non-students don't have to pay are about a 30 minute walk away, over past Heritage Halls on the other side of campus, so it was nice to get to know a little more about him and how he ended up helping take care of a handicapped person. Anyway, after tennis I went home and took a nap on the couch, which by the way is exceedingly comfortable, and then ended up reading and doing homework. Such is the life of summer term though, as classes meet twice as often (or for twice as long) as during a usual semester, and therefore have twice as much homework. That evening,
Moving on to Friday, Day 8, June 22nd. Friday is definitely my easy day, as I only have ELA, and that doesn't start until 10am. So, after class on Friday I went and made some snicker-doodles, which were added to the cookie bucket that my roommate and I keep since I like to bake when I get bored. Some night during the week we watched Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, which is by far my favorite episode (I'm fairly certain it was on Friday... but it might have been Thursday). Anyway, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday all kind of blurred together, though a few distinct events did happen. One such was on Saturday I was able to make some crepes, which were super tasty, especially when topped with a mixture of nutella and frosting. Saturday evening I made a pot of chili, which tasted super tasty, especially considering I didn't actually have chili seasoning and had to improvise (for those who care I used a mixture of chili powder and taco seasoning). I had a super awesome girl come over who also happens to be on the afore-mentioned planning committee for the combined ward activity, and we planned our part of the activity. Saturday was also the day we got our home teaching assignments, which is super awesome as it gives me an excuse to dress up on a day other than sunday, as those have proven to be super packed without much time for home teaching unless it's before church, which I failed to mention before starts at noon.
Anyway, Sunday came, and unlike the first Sunday I actually slept in a bit and didn't get up at the awful hour of 5 hours before church, but a mere 3. So, I was able to chill out and take my time getting ready, eat some tasty breakfast, and read my scriptures. During sacrament meeting the Bishop and his wife spoke, along with one of the girls I am assigned to home teach with my companion. Then, during the second hour I went to Mission Prep class, which was taught by my roommate who did a phenomenal job, working from Preach My Gospel chapter 7 about the Spirit. Then in the 3rd hour we had almost the same lesson taught by the Elder's Quorum president, though with a slightly different focus. Directly after church ended, I headed home, ate a bowl of leftover chili super fast, then headed up to the planning meeting. The planning meeting was an interesting experience, because we had just found out that on the same day this activity is planned for there is an event for all of BYU housing, and so we had to shift around our plans in order to accommodate that new conflict. We ended up nixing the part that I had worked on the previous day, and I was assigned a new part in the condensed schedule, and so have to plan that before this upcoming meeting the next Sunday. right after that I headed to choir, and was only about 10 minutes late this time! We again worked on our first song which we're singing the second week of July, O My Father, and started learning a new song for Pioneer Day (which is like a legitimate holiday out here, I even get class off). After choir I went back home and worked on some homework, until building meeting at 7. At bro meeting, we discussed Fire Safety, and how we aren't allowed to shoot fireworks on campus (in preparation for Independence Day coming up), and the bros devoured the snickerdoodles I had made earlier that week. After bro meeting, we had ward prayer, and one of the girls (who also happens to be in my BoM1 class) sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" which is definitely one of my favorite songs. After ward prayer, I ended up going back home and working on my ELA assignments, and ended up getting an assignment ahead.
And Thus ended my first full week of college living, and it was a total blast!
Anyway, I probably won't be doing this Day-by-day thing every entry, as the days already seem to start running together and I've only been here 2 weeks.
Til next time,
-- Jordan L. Nielson
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The First 10 Days part 1...
Note: This is the first 4 days, as the post got a tad long for my liking and I wanted to get something up. The other 6 days will be posted once I finish typing them out.
Welcome Reader, to the inaugural post of my blog that details the good, and occasionally the bad, of what happens to me while I'm out here on my own at Brigham Young University. This blog is mainly intended for my family and therefore will be written with them in mind, but if you got here then I must consider you part of my family in some way! So to start off I'm going to let you in on my take on my first 10 days here at BYU with a day by day recollection of events, but be warned some days are not nearly as fascinating as others. First though, I'm going to explain the title I picked for this blog, because it may confuse some. Due to my choices in high school including Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual/Concurrent Enrollment I graduated high school with 72 credits. This number (since the total amount of credits transferred over to BYU) places me as a junior. But, due to the fact that this is my first term/year at BYU, and I haven't progressed at all in my major specific line I am considered a freshman by my major and those who have been at BYU for multiple semesters.
So I guess I'll start with day 1: June 15th, 2012.
I started the day at my second cousin's house, and once everyone was ready we headed down south and hiked up to Timpanogos Cave and all had a super awesome time doing it. After that, we stopped at Subway on the way to my great aunt Erma's house to pick up the things my daddy bought me while he was still here. After we had loaded up the car with all my junk, my cousins brought me up to Wyview Park, where I am currently living and helped me get it all into my apartment. Later that night I finally met my roommate, who happens to be the Resident Assistant (RA) for this building. It turns out, he's super awesome and I don't think I could have asked for a better roommate for my first term here. It also happened that the other person who was supposed to be my roommate (in the same room), was hired as an RA in Helaman Halls and therefore I still have the "shared" room all to myself.
And then there was day 2, June 16th, 2012:
I actually didn't do very much exciting today, though I did make a batch of super-awesome vanilla cookies. I also got to know my roommate a little better, and met a few people that it turns out I see fairly often. Other than that, I just kinda chilled and got settled in my room.
Day 3, June 17th, 2012 was actually much more exciting as it was my first day at church in my new singles ward, and I must say it was absolutely awesome. The first hour I was able to help pass the sacrament, which made it feel more like home, and then we had some incredible speakers. One of them was one of the daughters of a member of the bishopric, and the other two were really inspiring. During the second hour, the entire ward went up to introduce themselves stating their name, where they are from, how many terms/semesters they've been at BYU, and mission status. Both to my roommate's and my surprise, there were a number of girls who stated that they came here planning to get married, not go on a mission. The second hour ran a little over, so during the abbreviated third hour our Elder's quorum president and one of his counselors taught about the importance of home teaching, especially for all these people who no longer have a father they can call upon for blessings whenever they need. Shortly after church ended, I attended a meeting of a volunteer committee to help plan a combined activity among the wards of Wyview that is happening in mid-July. Directly after that ended, I headed over to ward choir practice, although all those in the meeting were about half an hour late to it. That was probably the second most exciting thing about church that day. After choir practice my roommate tried to make some cookies from a mix, and they ended up sticking to the pan and not rising at all. So, for building meeting which started a couple hours after choir practice, we ended up eating the cookies I had made the day before, along with some of the chunks of cookie made that day. Building meeting was a very interesting experience, as a good majority of the building residents actually showed up, and we all crammed into our apartment. We discussed various things ranging from stud/dud stories to setting up a temple trip as a building. Right after building meeting it was time for ward prayer, where a kid with the same major as me played a nice rendition of a tune from the Lord of the Rings on the saxophone. After ward prayer, I headed back to my apartment and got ready to start classes in the morning.
And then arrived the dreaded day 4, June 18th, 2012, a.k.a. the first day of classes. I had all three of my summer term classes today, Book of Mormon 1 (hereafter abbreviated as BoM1) at 9am, Elementary linear algebra (ELA hereafter) at 10am, and Book of Mormon 2 (BoM2) at noon. BoM1 was an interesting experience, as it was my first class at BYU. I was kind of thrown off, but very excited, when the professor announced we would be singing at least 1 verse of a hymn every class period, as we did that day. We then proceeded to talk about the syllabus, and didn't actually end up talking much at all about the Book of Mormon. Then came ELA, where the professor basically handed us the syllabus and dived straight into the material after pointing out a few key things such as the homework schedule. After spending two dreadful hours talking about matrices and very basic things about them, it was time for BoM2. In BoM2 much like BoM1 we discussed the syllabus and basically the exact same thing we did in BoM1, about how the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. After classes, I took the Ryde Shuttle back home and had a job interview about a possible position at the front desk of the housing office. I passed and will be starting sometime in the middle of July, after that I went home and did some homework and some reading to get caught up on what the professors had assigned to be done by Monday, though most hadn't told the class about them. At 6:30pm, Home evening started, and it was a combined ward event. We had some tasty taco salad in a buffet-style line, and then proceeded to play some get to know you games. Afterward, we had Banana splits (or just plain ice cream if you so desired), and I went back to finish up my readings that needed to be done for class in the morning.
Part 2 coming as soon as I finish typing it...
-- Jordan L. Nielson
Edit: You can now find Part 2 here: First 10 Days part 2
Welcome Reader, to the inaugural post of my blog that details the good, and occasionally the bad, of what happens to me while I'm out here on my own at Brigham Young University. This blog is mainly intended for my family and therefore will be written with them in mind, but if you got here then I must consider you part of my family in some way! So to start off I'm going to let you in on my take on my first 10 days here at BYU with a day by day recollection of events, but be warned some days are not nearly as fascinating as others. First though, I'm going to explain the title I picked for this blog, because it may confuse some. Due to my choices in high school including Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual/Concurrent Enrollment I graduated high school with 72 credits. This number (since the total amount of credits transferred over to BYU) places me as a junior. But, due to the fact that this is my first term/year at BYU, and I haven't progressed at all in my major specific line I am considered a freshman by my major and those who have been at BYU for multiple semesters.
So I guess I'll start with day 1: June 15th, 2012.
I started the day at my second cousin's house, and once everyone was ready we headed down south and hiked up to Timpanogos Cave and all had a super awesome time doing it. After that, we stopped at Subway on the way to my great aunt Erma's house to pick up the things my daddy bought me while he was still here. After we had loaded up the car with all my junk, my cousins brought me up to Wyview Park, where I am currently living and helped me get it all into my apartment. Later that night I finally met my roommate, who happens to be the Resident Assistant (RA) for this building. It turns out, he's super awesome and I don't think I could have asked for a better roommate for my first term here. It also happened that the other person who was supposed to be my roommate (in the same room), was hired as an RA in Helaman Halls and therefore I still have the "shared" room all to myself.
And then there was day 2, June 16th, 2012:
I actually didn't do very much exciting today, though I did make a batch of super-awesome vanilla cookies. I also got to know my roommate a little better, and met a few people that it turns out I see fairly often. Other than that, I just kinda chilled and got settled in my room.
Day 3, June 17th, 2012 was actually much more exciting as it was my first day at church in my new singles ward, and I must say it was absolutely awesome. The first hour I was able to help pass the sacrament, which made it feel more like home, and then we had some incredible speakers. One of them was one of the daughters of a member of the bishopric, and the other two were really inspiring. During the second hour, the entire ward went up to introduce themselves stating their name, where they are from, how many terms/semesters they've been at BYU, and mission status. Both to my roommate's and my surprise, there were a number of girls who stated that they came here planning to get married, not go on a mission. The second hour ran a little over, so during the abbreviated third hour our Elder's quorum president and one of his counselors taught about the importance of home teaching, especially for all these people who no longer have a father they can call upon for blessings whenever they need. Shortly after church ended, I attended a meeting of a volunteer committee to help plan a combined activity among the wards of Wyview that is happening in mid-July. Directly after that ended, I headed over to ward choir practice, although all those in the meeting were about half an hour late to it. That was probably the second most exciting thing about church that day. After choir practice my roommate tried to make some cookies from a mix, and they ended up sticking to the pan and not rising at all. So, for building meeting which started a couple hours after choir practice, we ended up eating the cookies I had made the day before, along with some of the chunks of cookie made that day. Building meeting was a very interesting experience, as a good majority of the building residents actually showed up, and we all crammed into our apartment. We discussed various things ranging from stud/dud stories to setting up a temple trip as a building. Right after building meeting it was time for ward prayer, where a kid with the same major as me played a nice rendition of a tune from the Lord of the Rings on the saxophone. After ward prayer, I headed back to my apartment and got ready to start classes in the morning.
And then arrived the dreaded day 4, June 18th, 2012, a.k.a. the first day of classes. I had all three of my summer term classes today, Book of Mormon 1 (hereafter abbreviated as BoM1) at 9am, Elementary linear algebra (ELA hereafter) at 10am, and Book of Mormon 2 (BoM2) at noon. BoM1 was an interesting experience, as it was my first class at BYU. I was kind of thrown off, but very excited, when the professor announced we would be singing at least 1 verse of a hymn every class period, as we did that day. We then proceeded to talk about the syllabus, and didn't actually end up talking much at all about the Book of Mormon. Then came ELA, where the professor basically handed us the syllabus and dived straight into the material after pointing out a few key things such as the homework schedule. After spending two dreadful hours talking about matrices and very basic things about them, it was time for BoM2. In BoM2 much like BoM1 we discussed the syllabus and basically the exact same thing we did in BoM1, about how the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. After classes, I took the Ryde Shuttle back home and had a job interview about a possible position at the front desk of the housing office. I passed and will be starting sometime in the middle of July, after that I went home and did some homework and some reading to get caught up on what the professors had assigned to be done by Monday, though most hadn't told the class about them. At 6:30pm, Home evening started, and it was a combined ward event. We had some tasty taco salad in a buffet-style line, and then proceeded to play some get to know you games. Afterward, we had Banana splits (or just plain ice cream if you so desired), and I went back to finish up my readings that needed to be done for class in the morning.
Part 2 coming as soon as I finish typing it...
-- Jordan L. Nielson
Edit: You can now find Part 2 here: First 10 Days part 2
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