Grateful

I absolutely love Sundays, I think they are my favorite day of the week. Truly a day of rest. It's funny that I manage to forget how much I need that during the rest of the week. Church today was just amazing--everything I needed to hear and to be reminded of. I am so grateful for the blessings I have. This semester has been so great in so many ways--I honestly can say I've never been happier, especially in college. Just having the assurance that I'm doing exactly what God wants me to do right now is the best feeling in the world. I feel like I've finally grown into myself--I know who I am and who I want to be, and I am so so grateful for that. I've been thinking of this quote all day:

I just love the attitude that it captures. I'm optimistic about the future. I know some days will be really hard--that's life. But I also know that I am so blessed, and those blessings will only increase. Aaaah I just love life right now. I get to go home for Thanksgiving in 2 days and I can't wait. First of all I love that holiday, and I haven't seen my family since summer, and I get to go through the Portland Temple on Friday, which I've only been looking forward to for my entire life. So excited to see everybody, and it will be an awesome break from school. Oh and also I get to go shopping for missionary clothes, which will be so fun. Annica needs them too, and her mission call should get there while we are home! Which is so crazy, but awesome. 

Since I never have pictures on here anymore--I never take any during the school year--I thought I would post some pictures of the Czech Republic. They are gorgeous and it makes me so excited to live there!

Trilingual

Yesterday I looked up the masters program in Linguistics at BYU, and guess what the requirements are:

LING 330, the GRE, and 2 foreign languages, one at a 200 level, and one at 300.

I was like that's it?? Then mom reminded me that the 2 foreign languages requirement is kind of a big deal...and I got really excited, because I realized by the time I get back from my mission, I will be trilingual!! Aaaaah. I'm already at a 300 level for French, and after living in the Czech Republic for a year and a half, I will be at a 200 level in Czech (at least hopefully. I'm going to work for it). So. I'm petitioning to add a Linguistics minor, in addition to French. (Just last year I was wondering why I decided to minor in French, like that was ever going to help me get a job, but now it just might get me into grad school!). So that will give me a year to study for the GRE, try to get my thesis published, apply for grad schools and wrap up life as an undergrad. Pretty crazy. I can't believe it, but at the same time, I just want to have a job. It would be so nice to go to work and then not have to bring any of it home with me!! But that's all a couple years away, I'm sure I'll be ready by that point. Plus Linguistics is the only thing I've been excited about doing, so that's the plan for now.

Also, there are only 4 1/2 weeks left in the semester. Which is freaking me out. I have so much to do!!  The rough draft of my thesis is due on Monday. It's bittersweet. I'm so excited to go home and spend time with my family before I leave in January, but at the same time I'm having so much fun here. I absolutely love my ward and I have some pretty great friends--it will be sad to leave them because it will never be the same again. Most will probably be married by the time I get back, which is becoming more and more normal to me, strangely enough.  College is a strange transition, and I know it has to end at some point, and I want it to end. But it's still weird.

This semester has seriously been awesome though. One of the best I've ever had at BYU, honestly. It might even be THE best. I've had so much fun, I'm almost done with my major, I'm writing my senior thesis, and I'm going on a mission! So many things that make me happy. Life is good, and Thanksgiving is in 3 weeks. Also, Les Mis and the Hobbit come out next month. Get excited.

Fall, Life, and Czech

I can't believe it's already October, time flies by so fast! School is in full swing of course. And I do love autumn weather. Time to pull out my scarves and hats and boots. I think fall might be my favorite season, although it's in pretty close competition with summer. Here's what I've been up to:

• I filled out all my visa forms for the Czech Republic and sent them on their way, so glad that's done!
• Some things I've learned about Czech:
• they are very reserved until you prove yourself trustworthy, then they treat you like one of the family.
• you have to take your shoes off before entering a home
• Prague is beautiful
• My pronunciation is awful. But that's fine, I'm sure I'll get better.
• ahoj (said like ahoy) is goodbye and hello. It's going to remind of me of pirates every time. 
• also I have a French accent whenever I speak another language. So that's going to be fun. 
• oh and I really want a trenchcoat to take with me. Just saying. 
• and I'm kind of stressing out about selling my contract for winter, since I'm leaving. So hopefully that all works out. 
• I'm pretty sure I think about how I'm going to the Czech Republic every single day, wondering what my life going to be like at this time next year. It's really hard to picture. 
• Got an A on my French midterm. I was super excited about this because I studied foreeever and my grade went up A LOT. 
• I'm in a dinner group this semester which was a brilliant idea. I get a free home-cooked meal 4 days a week and only have to cook every 3 weeks. It's great. I'm cooking on Tuesday and I think I might make pumpkin apple stew. It's sooo good. 
• Speaking of pumpkin, I love anything pumpkin in the fall. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin shakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin carving...so excited. 
• I have a pretty solid group of friends, which is really fun. Oh and did I mention most of them are guys? love it.
• School's pretty hard. But I've started my thesis, so that's coming along. Progress. That's what I have to keep telling myself. Any progress is good. 
• I'm TAing again this semester, for the 4th time. But I like it--I have almost all freshmen who've never had to write a college paper before. So that's fun, and it's pretty awesome to give examples from my own fieldwork when we talk about how to do anthropology, it makes me feel so legit. 
• I also got to go to the Brigham City Temple Open House which was amazing--so beautiful and peaceful. They even had peach blossoms on the floor tiles, the detail was so pretty. We stopped at Peach City and got shakes on the way home--seriously the best shake I've ever had. And my grandparents grew up there so it was pretty cool to see it again. Also I'm so excited to go to the Portland Temple at Thanksgiving! 
• It's General Conference weekend. Which is awesome, and one of favorite weekends of the year. I'm always so uplifted and come away with more hope and a better perspective on life. If you are curious about what Mormons believe, you can watch it on lds.org for free! 

• Also, the Church just changed the age of missionaries to 18 for boys and 19 for girls, which means my sister could be serving at the same time as me now! Pretty crazy, and exciting. 
•  I can't believe I leave in January! At this rate the time is going to go by soooo quickly. 4 months! aaaaaaahh

So basically life is a little crazy, and little stressful, but that's pretty normal. But there are always the days when you laugh so hard your cheeks hurt to make it all worth it :)