Wow. I have never been so relieved to be in Orem, Utah. Overall, I did enjoy my semester at BYU-I. But this past week was more stress and work than the entire rest of the semester combined. In addition to 6 finals (4 tests and 2 papers), I had to say goodbye to some friends that I would not see for a LONG time, clean my apartment for a "white glove" clean check, and somehow manage to sleep... sometimes.
It all started on Friday, as soon as we got out of classes for the weekend. It was not going to be a weekend of relaxation, that's for sure. However, I blew it off to watch "Up!" twice in a row. By the way, one of the cutest movies I've seen in a long time. But anyway. Saturday was a day of studying in the library, which I did for 6 or 7 hours. I took Sunday off, because I have this entire semester. Which could probably explain why I had to hit the ground running Monday. After 4 classes and a few hours at the library, most of us from apt 424 went to "Gringo's" to celebrate the beginning of the worst week of our lives.
Tuesday was essentially one of the most stressful days of my life. I had to prepare 13 homework assignments to turn in, create a podcast (which meant I had to learn how to do it), start my clean check assignment, and begin packing. In addition to studying for 4 more tests and one more paper. Not a big deal, right? Wrong. I finally figured out how to make the podcast, but I needed to convert it to an mp3 file. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. By the time the deadline had come around, my file was still converting itself. This is where going to BYUI comes in handy. I emailed my teacher, telling him exactly what had happened, and asked if I could just email my podcast to him instead of turning it in online. He said yes. So i didn't fail my final project. In addition, Riley came over to say goodbye before he left. And introduced us to the "Happy Aquarium" application on Facebook. Glad to know we have that to keep in touch.
Wednesday was game time. I had to clean my room/the kitchen then, in addition to begin studying for 3 more finals and write one final paper, as I had taken one during class that day. Same old story, went to the library, wrote out a page long as to why I thought a hypothetical couple shouldn't get in vitro fertilization (I don't really have a stance on this, I just needed to write a page on it). After reading through 4 homework assignments for International Relations, I hit the wall. Dealing with the stresses of living in an apartment with 5 other girls (all of whom were starting to get edgy... or maybe that was just me) was not my idea of having a fun night. Fortunately, my friend texted me to watch Star Trek. I was out of there so fast. While it was good to get out of the house for a while, it totally put me behind on everything. I had to get home, clean up the disaster zone that had become my room (I couldn't even get the door open all the way), and keep reading for my 3 finals. Needless to say, sleep did not come for a long time.
I also had to reschedule my clean check appointment, because it was set for Saturday I believe. That would not fly. When I went to the Tuscany office Thursday morning (on the way to the library, after insufficient sleep), Tami got mad at me for having to come to the apartment at different times to check different people out. Really? It's called your JOB. And she didn't even do it, one of her girls did. I honestly could not care less about what you want, I'm not working around YOUR schedule on MY finals week. But I digress. She rescheduled me for 7 that night, which was pretty bad. As that's when my religion final got out. So, I had to hurry in the library so that I could get home and clean before 5:30, AND walk back to take my final. The nice train had LONG since left that station. In addition, i got $1 (!) for one of my textbooks. And didn't have time to return any of the other textbooks, so $1 was all I got. That's not even enough to pay for washing one load of laundry! Ugh. The good news was I passed my clean check, and just in the nick of time. About 4 minutes after the girl left (i got marked off for not mopping the floor under the fridge...), I was laying on the couch motivating myself to go study, and the power went out. Instantly, everyone around me started screaming. I just pulled my legs up closer to me, and waited to see if it would come back on. After 10 minutes, we realized it wasn't just some random "oops!" moment. I couldn't call or text people very easily. And, it wasn't just our apartment complex. The entire surrounding area was out of power. I didn't realize what a problem this was (besides interrupting my studying and being kind of creepy) until I got a hold of my mom and she asked, "What are you going to do about heat?" .......... Umm. Oh yeah, it's 15 degrees outside. So Lauren and I booked it to our math teacher's house (it's her boyfriend's cousin, we're not creepy), and hung out with him and his family while we waited for the lights to come on. About an hour and a half after they went off, the lights all suddenly turned on. Lauren and I decided to then leave, to finish our studying. However, the worst happened. As we rounded the corner to return home, we noticed the lights had gone out again. Instead of retreating again to our teacher's house, we decided to just stick it out with the one candle and one flashlight we had in our apartment. Fortunately, we remembered that our laptops run on battery power, so we kept those on some of the time, and danced to the music. At about 10:30, the power came back on. I then had a choice to make. I could either pull an all-nighter and study my brains out for my two finals tomorrow (at 7 AM and 8:45 AM), or sleep and just pray that "after all I can do" will come into effect. I chose the second option, and set my alarm for the unholy Rexburg hour of 6:30.
Throughout the night I was so afraid of sleeping through my finals that I got up and got ready before I realized it was 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30 in the morning. Walking to class at quarter to 7 in the morning was a thoroughly miserable experience. However, the two finals went well and I booked it out of Rexburg at approximately 10:15 in the morning. Which leads me to now. I am sitting wrapped in a down comforter with my toes freezing off, but I'm not in Rexburg. That is all that matters. And tomorrow I will be home for Christmas! It's been a good day today indeed.
whohoo! welcome home!
ReplyDelete