Peppermint Peanut Butter Ice Cream.

This week at the Helaman Creamery we accidentally unveiled a new ice cream flavor: Peppermint Peanut Butter. This ice cream was somehow accidentally made by the BYU ice cream factory and then delivered to our store to be sold. Surprisingly, this ice cream is actually really good. It looks like peppermint ice cream with pieces of peanut butter cups mixed in with it. However, it tastes like peanut butter ice cream, but every once in a while it tastes kind of minty. The flavors never mix though. One second you taste just the peanut utter and the next second you taste only mint.

It has become quite a hit and we are almost completely out. I was tentative to like it in the first place for this exact reason. I knew that it was a fluke and that we would never get it again. I will miss this ice cream dearly. it was fun while it lasted. And who knows, maybe enough people will have liked it that they will have to make it a regular flavor.

German Choir.

This is the second semester that I have taken German Choir. Basically, we just get together and sing songs in German. There are no language requirements or previous singing experience necessary to take the course.

I thought that not requiring previous singing experience would make the songs easy to learn. However, this semester all of the songs have been extremely difficult. We are preparing for the Adventsingen in December. We were expecting to sing songs like Silent Night and O Christmas Tree. Instead, we are singing several Baroque pieces that nobody has ever heard of.

With such difficult music, I expected to be fully engaged in class trying to learn the notes. But for the past 3 classes, I have actually fallen asleep while singing. I don't think anybody has noticed yet. While I love to sing, I also love to nap. It's a win-win situation.

Extreme Couponing.

I would like to become an extreme couponer someday. An extreme couponer is able to buy hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for mere pennies. These people also donate tons of food to local food pantries that they got for free.

Unfortunately, I don not think I can ever actually become an extreme couponer. It takes an average of 40 hours a week to collect, cut, and plan. Who has that kind of time? Even a stay at home mom doesn't have that kind of time. Who is watching the children? But its fun to imagine how much money one could save with all of those coupons floating around.

Since I discovered extreme couponing, I have paid more attention to the coupons that I see everywhere around me. Although I still don't really use them. The one thing I have used was to get a gallon of chocolate for a dollar. But I didn't need the chocolate milk, I only bought it because I had a coupon, which is the whole point of coupons!

Procrastination at its Worst.

I am a procrastinator. I'm not really ashamed because who isn't a procrastinator is some way or another? But this year it seems like my procrastination has become worse than ever. This is because I am taking three writing classes this semester. I hate writing more than any other school task, so this semester has felt like torture.

My procrastination in the past usually involved leaving homework assignments until the night before they were due and then working on them until about 2:00 in the morning. While this situation was never desirable (especially in my senior year of high school when I got up at 5:00am for a zero period choir class), I was able to manage it.

Jump to this year. All of my assignments are now writing papers which means that I have even more motivation to procrastinate than ever. While I used to stay up and finish homework before going to bed, I have now taken to the habit of going to bed at a reasonable hour and waking up at 5:00 to complete my assignments. I have to get ready for school at 7:00 which means I complete the majority of my homework in a rushed two hour period every morning.

I used to not be ashamed of my procrastination, but now I am. There is no excuse for going to bed when I have homework. (Exhaustion is not a good excuse.) So I am hoping that by admitting that I have a problem publicly, I will be motivated to get things done a bit earlier so that I can get a full eight hours of sleep every night (Ha!).

Arches National Park.

Over Labor Day Weekend, I went with my roommate, KaeCee, and her friend, Rita, to Arches National Park. We hiked to some of the easier arches and then camped at a nearby campsite that night. Here are some highlights from our trip:

Double Arch

Turret Arch

These arches were probably the easiest to get to because there were stairs rather than steep paths. The best arches were the ones that you could stand underneath like Double Arch. I didn't want to climb up too far, so I found a nice flat rock and laid in the shade of the Double arch while Rita and KaeCee climbed up further. I was surprised by all of the German tourists there were at the park. I loved walking behind them and listening to their conversations that they thought nobody else could understand. Sometimes I thought about talking to them, but I'm not confident enough with my speaking skills yet.

Pine Tree Arch

This was my favorite arch that we saw. It was hidden down a small trail. The whole arch was emerged in shade by the time we got there and there were a lot of green plants at its base. I could have stayed here all day.

Northern Whiptail Lizard

We saw a lot of different kinds of lizards. This one was probably the most impressive because it was big and it was "dancing" in an attempt to scare us away. Other wildlife we saw in the park were ravens and bugs. But on our drive to the park we say a herd of some kind of deer. And driving home I saw a coyote hanging out with some ravens. I now think ravens are one of the scariest animals in the world.

Our Campsite

This is our campsite that we stayed at. I think it only cost $6 for the night and it was a large site. We played a few games before it got too dark to see and then we made dinner and looked at the stars. It was still pretty hot at night, so we slept with only the tent screen door up. I am generally fine with camping until it comes time to sleep. I just don't like being outside at night, ever. Especially if I have to sleep in a tent without locks where I could easily be murdered or eaten in my sleep. So when the open tent door started flapping in the wind, I got freaked out and couldn't sleep. But I was also too afraid to open the screen and zip up the door, so I sat up in the middle of the night for over an hour just staring at the door, wishing for it to stop moving.

Jiffy Pop

I made Jiffy Pop over the coals of the fire even though the instructions said not to. I also did not burn any of the popcorn, which I was told always happens when one makes Jiffy Pop. It was fun because I had never done it before. So even if it is not the most efficient way to make popcorn, it is worth the experience.

* Pictures from KaeCee Terry

Random Pictures from my Phone.

Since I got my new phone at the beginning of the summer, I have been collecting random pictures of things that I see and think are funny or memorable. But I often forget about these pictures and then they never get shown to anybody. So this will be my way of unloading the camera from my phone to finally share all of these images.

This is from a hot air balloon race on Pioneer Day. These balloons were landing in the practice field right outside of my apartment. I enjoyed sitting on the stairs on watching them that morning. I also had an interesting conversation with a guy parked in his car who was also watching the balloons.

Over the summer, the BYU duck pond was home to many ducklings. On this occasion, Steven and I were looking for the babies and I said "Maybe they are behind this tree." And they actually WERE behind the tree. They were all taking an afternoon nap in the shade.

This is what happens when you buy toilet paper at Costco. My roommate, KaeCee, and I went bowling with these rolls and a beach ball. It was a lot of fun.

This is what 60 McDonald's chicken nuggets looks like. That was after the guys had already consumed 40 of them. Gross!

I saw this license plate walking to work one day. I know the actual plural form of wife is wives, but at first glance, this looked like this was multiple wives instead of the possessive of one wife. Perfect for a Utah license plate.

These are some of my finds at Walmart. A white trash wedding cake topper and hair mayonnaise? I found it in the section of the store for black people hair products. I'm not sure what it does. My first guess was that it killed lice.

Finally, here are my pumpkins from this Halloween. In case you can't tell, that is Pacmanchasing one of the Pacman ghosts.

Fall Television.

I generally do not watch much television any given week. This is not because I don't watch any tv though. There is a multitude of shows that I watch during the fall season, but it always seems like there are only two new episodes any given week because of weird scheduling. Unfortunately, that was not the case this week. For one of the first times ever, every show I watch had a new episode this week. It has turned into quite an overload, but is somehow perfect for my night of doing absolutely nothing. Here is a list of the shows I watch with brief descriptions of each:

Glee

Glee is about a high school Glee club, which is basically a glorified show choir. I like this show because it reminds me of my days in my high school's theatre. A lot of the people on the show are relatable to people I knew in our theatre.

Bones

Bones is about a forensic anthropologist and a FBI agent who work together to solve murders by looking at the bones of the victim. This season is especially good because two very important characters have finally gotten together.

Modern Family

Modern Family is about a family and their many quirks. I love this show, but it lives on awkward situations. There are times when the awkwardness in this show is just too real for me though.

The Office

This show is about a small town paper company and the people who work there. Like Modern Family, this show also lives on awkwardness. Again, the awkwardness can be too real for me a lot of the times. (Especially in the Dinner Party episode).

Psych

Psych is about a psychic detective agency, but the "psychic" isn't really psychic, he is just very observant. This show always makes me laugh, but I think that I would get more of the jokes if I grew up in the 80's.

Whitney

The newest addition to my Fall line up is Whitney. This is about a long term couple and the things that happen after you have been dating for such a long time. This is kind of different because I feel like most shows focus either on people having one night stands or people starting new relationships. I like this show because there are some definite things that I can relate to in it that just make me laugh.

Aunt Brenda.

This morning in Klamath Falls, OR, my Aunt Brenda passed away from cancer. Her diagnosis and fight with this disease all came rather quickly. Brenda was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the beginning of October after having flu-like symptoms for over a month. Unfortunately by the time she went to the doctor, the cancer had spread throughout her body and she was too weak for treatment.

I would just like to take the time to remind everybody to go the doctor if you ever feel sick and/or have a history of cancer in your family. Cancer is easiest to cure when it is detected early. Do not let fear or money take your life away from you and your loved ones.

To my Aunt Brenda:
I am sorry that I never got to know you very well. I know that my uncle loves you very much and that you made him happy every day that you were with him. I hope you were not in too much pain. While I will miss you now, I am comforted by the fact that I will see you again after this life. I know that God has a place for you with you him and I know that you will be happy in heaven. So rather than good bye, I will just say, "Until later..."

Buying a Grade.

A few years ago if you had asked me my opinion on buying a grade, I would have strongly disapproved. What about paying for extra credit opportunities? Again the answer would be no. I would have only pursued extra credit opportunities if they were free.

However, here I am in my junior/senior year of college and I can proudly say that my opinion has changed. I am taking a statistics class this semester which has been out to get me all year. I have been stressing out about receiving a low grade (a.k.a anything less than an A-) for a while now. Lucky me that a few weeks ago my professor offered the class extra credit if we went and watched the new movie Moneyball. AS ever with paying for extra credit, I was firmly against it. I figured that I would just do really well on my future homework assignments to make up for a low homework score at the beginning of the semester.



Unfortunately I began to see that that plan was not going to work. At that moment, I decided to throw all caution to the wind and go see the movie. I did not want to go to the movie alone so I offered to take Steven as well. I knew very well how much this was all going to cost when I went into the theater, but when I looked at the ticket computer screen my heart dropped. $17.50. That was a ridiculous amount of money for a movie. As I gritted my teeth and pressed the pay button, I noticed another button that said pay with a gift card. Suddenly the I remembered that I did in fact have a long forgotten gift card. For $15! This made the price of two movie tickets only $2.50 or $1.25 each.

Happy with my purchased extra credit, I went into class the next week. That week the professor decided that we should have breakfast at the beginning of our 8:00 am class. She passed around a sign up sheet and offered additional extra credit to anybody who signed up to bring breakfast. After already breaking my code once, I decided to go for it again. What would it be, $10? But wait, there were too many students! So we all got to double up our snack day meaning that I would only have to bring half of a snack!

While looking through the local grocery store ad, I saw that Sunny D was only $1.00 a gallon. So I bought three and called that good for a snack. This morning I took in the Sunny D for breakfast, again happy with the extra credit that I received.



In the end I received 200 points of extra credit and it only cost me $5.50! I am quite happy with the way things turned out. I no longer believe that anything about paying for the extra credit was unfair (I did get some juice and a movie out of it). Would I ever do it again? I really don't know.

NaBloPoMo.

Here is my attempt at NaBloPoMo again. I tried it last year, but I think I only made it to day six before school stress took over. I can't promise that I'll make it to the end, but hopefully I can make it a little bit further.

Since my last blog post was in April, this post will be a general overview of what I have been doing in the past six months:

After Winter semester at BYU, I went home to Portland, OR to help my mom with some things. The plan was for my brother to be in Japan on a foreign exchange trip, but the big earthquake in Japan hit 10 days before he was supposed to leave, so his ten month trip got canceled. Since my brother was still home, my mother actually didn't need that much help. Some things that I did do was vacuum the stairs. Every day... I don't know how it happened, but I would vacuum and then ten minutes later, the stairs would be dirty again. I also tried to focus on my health by keeping a nutrition log of everything I ate (without counting calories) and how much I exercised. I had fun trying to find new exciting recipes that were healthy and yet still tasted good. In also enjoyed volunteering at the food pantry every week. It was nice to catch up with old friends while helping others.

In June, my family drove me back to Provo for Summer semester. I had never attended a spring or summer semester before so I was kind of nervous. I was also taking difficult classes (Economics and 2nd year Humanities). But it turned out to be a lot of fun. I balanced my busy academic schedule by taking Beginner Tennis and Flexibility. I can't forget that I went to see Harry Potter 7.2 on the night that it came out! Summer semester turned out to be a lot of fun. I would love to attend another summer semester in the future.

In between Summer and Fall semesters I went home again to actually see my brother off to Japan. His trip which had previously been canceled got shortened into a six month trip. Michael is currently in japan and will return to America to finish his senior year of high school in February.

Fall semester started in late August. Immediately after getting back to Provo I started working at the Heleman Creamery as a grocery cashier. It's not my dream job, but it will do for now. I also went with my roommate on a trip to Arches National Park. (I will talk more about that in a later post.) I am now almost half way through what has turned into the hardest semester of my college career. I am taking three writing classes, which are all trying to kill me at the moment.

Some things to look forward to this month are:
- Working the last two football games which both start after 7pm in the middle of November.
- Thanksgiving Break, during which I will attempt to work 40 hours.
- Black Friday. My roommate has never been Black Friday shopping before so she and I are going to wake up at 4:00 am and see what's out there. As usual I will admire how amazing all of the sales are, but will buy almost nothing. (Last year I bought a scarf).
- New York City. At the end of the month, Steven and I are going to go visit my sister who lives in Queens. Things we plan to do are see Van Gogh's "Starry Night" (one of my life goals), play with my sister's cats, and take the water taxi to IKEA.

I can already tell that NaBloPoMo is going to be hard. Here's hoping I can keep it up! Ready, Set, Go!

German 302 Final Film Project.

My German 302 class required us to make a 10 minute video for our final project. The requirements included several different grammar pieces and the incorporation of themes we spoke about in class. My group decided to mix the themes of fairy tales and German-Turkish relations. The German-Turkish theme came from the controversial arguments by Thilo Sarrazin on German immigration. We tried to attack these issues respectfully, while still keeping it funny.

Here's the text (in English) in case you wanted to know what was being said:

Scene 1:

Isra: Yes, I'm taking that class next semester. Are you training this summer? Cool. I have to study for this exam. See ya’ tomorrow. Bye!

Dad: Who was that?

Isra: What?

Father: Your friend speaks Turkish, right?

Isra: Yes ...

Mother: Why did you speak German together? You are a Turk! You should speak Turkish! What a mistake!

Isra: But mom-

Father: Our heritage is in danger!

Isra: But it is easier to speak German. I speak only Turkish at home, but I speak German with my friends at school.

Father: It may be easier but our culture is more important! It's hard, but we have to do it. Always remember your identity, your people.

Mother: You're not German. You are Turkish.

Isra: I may be both, right?

Mother & Father: NO.

Scene 2:

Integrationsfee: Little girl, what's going on?

Isra: My parents are mad at me because I talk to my Turkish friends in German. They say that I am not a German but Turkish. My family came from Turkey, not Germany. My dad says I will forget my language and culture. I'm confused. But who are you?

Integrationsfee: I am the Integration Fairy! I help people who have problems with cultural conflicts.

Isra: Can you help me please? I do not know what to do. I am Turkish but I live in Germany but ... Am I really German or Turkish? What should I do?

Integrationsfee: Yes, yes; I want to help you! Hmmm ... your parents say it is bad to speak German? Why? You were born in Germany, you live here in Germany, you have German friends and go to a German school. Therefore it's good that you speak German.

Isra: But my parents -

Integrationsfee: No, speaking two languages ​​is totally cool. German will help at work and at university and in life here in Germany. Do you speak German?

Integrationsfee: I'll enchant you all your life to speak German well!

Isra: Thank you, Integration Fairy! I think that this will help. Yes ... why I'm worried? I can speak both Turkish and German without any problems. Thank you!

Integrationsfee: Isra, be brave!

Isra: You know my name?

Integrationsfee: Uh ... I got to go, bye!

Scene 3:

Mother: I cannot believe it! You want to go to another church?

Isra: Yes! But-

Father: That's silly! This is worrying!

Mother: Why?

Isra: A friend of mine goes to this church. He invited me. And why not? We went to the mosque on Friday, today is Sunday. Can’t I go to both?

Father: But you know these crazy Christians! They-they-they drink beer!

Isra: No, no, Dad, my friend is Mormon. He doesn’t drink beer. And he is very nice!

Father: The Christians are all the same!

Mother: Soon you'll forget to go to the mosque!

Father: You're becoming Christian!

Isra: May I go to the other church just once?

Scene 4:
Integrationsfee: Isra! Iiissssssssrrrraaaaaaaaaaa ...

Isra: Integration Fairy, you called me?

Integrationsfee: Yes! What is wrong?

Isra: A German Mormon invited me to his church. I want to go with him, but my parents say that I can only go to the mosque. What do you think Integration Fairy?

Integrationsfee: Islam and the Mormonism have more in common than your parents think, Isra. If you attended the Mormon Church with your German friend on Sunday, you can feel and understand his faith better. And next week you can tell him about your church or invite him to the mosque.

Isra: Yes, we can share our cultures.

Integrationsfee: It is important to be tolerant, that is a good German virtue.

Isra: Thank you Integration Fairy. This helped me a lot. I will visit his church on Sunday.

Integrationsfee: I'm glad. Uh ... Isra .... can you help me with something? Do you have 500 euros?

Isra: Uh ... no. My family digs like silly [a funny idiomatic phrase, meaning works hard, that we learned in our class from this video], but we do not have much. Why?

Integrationsfee: I ... uh ... I simply need it. No problem, until later.

Isra: ... ok ... Good night!

Scene 5:

Mother: Ayda’s mother called me. Do you know what she said?

Isra: No ...?

Father: You know what we’re talking about!

Isra: I do not know!

Mother: You have a German boyfriend! The boy with whom you went to church!

Father: He is Mormon! There are so many nice Turkish boys!

Mother: I had the perfect Turkish suitor picked out for you! Now he won’t want to marry you! You will never marry!

Isra: But I like him! You would like him too if you met him.

Father: That will never happen!

Mother: You will end up dead. Or worse, pregnant! Oh, what will the neighbors think!

Father: Now look what you did to your poor mother! You have shamed our family.

Isra: Why can you not trust me? He is very nice and has good morals! I will not do anything stupid. I'm sorry, but I will not break up with him just because he does not fit your idea of ​​the perfect man for me. Life is not merely about one’s heritage. I am my own person and must be my own decisions.

Scene 6:

Isra: Integration Fairy! Integration Fairy! Where are you? I listened to you! I am myself, but I will not forget my Turkish culture. Integration Fairy...?

Integrationsfee: Well done!

Isra: Where are you? I cannot see you!

Integrationsfee: Shhhhhh! Quiet!

Police: Franz Grübermeier! You are arrested for trespassing, stalking, loitering, harassment, frequent corruption of minors, and resisting arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

Winter 2011.

I've made it through my first week of the new semester. So far so good, but I'm hoping I can keep this up for the next four months! Here's an overview of my classes.

Analysis of Variance:

Pro: I'm actually starting my my stats major.

Con: It's at 9am.

Cultural History of Germany:

Pro: My first German class that is not purely the language.

Con: There's going to be soooo many papers.

Advanced German Language 1:

Pro: This class looks like it might actually be easier than last semester's German class.

Con: The teacher is too stylish.

Calculus 2:

Pro: I know and understand the grading process, unlike Calc 1 (stupid A-!).

Con: iClicker Quizzes and weekly essays.

Book of Mormon:

Pro: . . . .

Con: The professor is the rudest, most self righteous person I have ever met.I'll be surprised if I don't walk out of class in frustration at some point.

That totals up to 15 credit hours. I'm seeing a lot of all-nighters and tears. But I guess it will be worth it.