3 day weekends and other fun things

Last weekend was basically the closest thing BYU has to a spring break. It's the last break until April...usually. Good thing I'm making my own spring break to go to Guatemala! Only 4 weeks, I can't wait. For some reason winter semester in Provo is just hard. It's cold and long and...winter.

Anyways, my mom came down to visit for 4 days, and it was awesome. Since I don't have any class on Fridays, just work, she got to come to the class I teach and hang out. We went out to eat, loaded up on food at Costco, went to Ikea, and hung out at Annica's dorm. Super fun.

In other news it's been really sunny lately and I am so ready for spring. I can't wait until summer on Guernsey! It's going to be awesome. I got a letter from the IRB approving my research so I can officially go. That's a relief, I thought I was going to have to wait a month or two to hear back, and that proposal was a beast to fill out. But it's done!! I have my plane ticket even. It's official.

Also I've had 3 crepe parties in the last two weeks. That is the life!

My new goal for the semester is to be more social. I've been a total homebody lately, but I want to start going to more stuff and enjoy the rest of the semester, not just wait it out until May. So we'll see how that goes.

Happy Sunday!

Dear World

I love Thursdays. Today was a comfy flannel shirt and hair-in-a-braid sort of day. It's basically the start of the weekend, since I only have work tomorrow, and no class. yay!

Some of the random things I've thought today:

• why does 3:00 sound like afternoon but 4:00 like the beginning of the evening?

• don't call your TA: "Sister Cooper" in an email. Just don't do it.

• Anthropology is awesome.

• I'm really glad that all the people working on their research are just as lost as I am.

• the French lab girl today was actually from France, and so nice that I didn't feel dumb for all of my grammar errors (and there are always A LOT)

• i love unexpected friends who make you feel good. tender mercies. 

• i love talking to my dad

• i miss oregon air and the rain

• crepe parties are the best

• especially when they are accidentally scheduled for Valentines day. hehe. 

• so is a dinner with your sis and her roommate, where you end up talking for two hours

• confidence means knowing how great you are, but not bragging about it

• it's ok to to dream big. encouraged even. this is one of my new goals.

• why is your bed so much more comfortable in the morning?

• I really need to sleep more

Also, I just remembered--my mom comes to visit a week from today!!! I'm soooo excited.

Lists

Things I've done recently:

• Taught another batch of students
• bought my plane ticket for Guernsey
• lots and lots of reading (not the fun kind)
• zumba
• dreamed about Europe
• saw Sherlock Holmes 2

Classes I'm taking:

• French 362 (2nd half of history of France)
• Anthro 439 (psych anthro)
• Anthro 442 (field study prep)
• channel islands prep
• Honors film
• Mission prep

Things I'm looking forward to:

• Mom coming to visit in 2 weeks
• Guatemala in March (my fabricated spring break)
• The Hunger Games movie
• Field Study in Guernsey from May-July
• Being home in July
• Going to Montana
• The Hobbit
• Les Miserables
• not being in school anymore
• having time to read for fun

Things I've discovered recently:

• Downton Abbey
• how cool my phone is 
• pinterest
• noisetrade.com
• Thompson Square
• the gym
• some unexpected friends
• braided hairstyles
• Wensleydale cheese
• I understand a lot more spanish than I thought I did
• i have senioritis as a junior 
• I'm excited to go on a mission

Places I've been:

• France
• Canada
• Mexico
• England
• Costa Rica
• Spain
• Monaco
• Switzerland
• Italy

Places I'll go this year:

• France
• UK
• Guatemala

Things I love:

• chocolate
• a really good conversation
• good music
• clever story lines
• BBC
• comfy clothes
• rain
• beautiful photos
• laughter
• getting the mail barefoot
• summers 

January

Today is just one of those days where I feel blue. For some reason January gets to me like this, maybe it's because it's cold and dark, maybe because it's hard to get back into school, maybe because my family is far away, maybe because it's a Friday night, maybe because I can't wait until summer... Maybe it's the promise (or specter) of the coming year...Maybe it's just January. I even have a playlist called January from last year with wistful songs.

These are the days when I go back and look over all of my pictures from France and remember how happy I was. Europe really is the best. The freedom of roaming the streets of Paris--I can't even describe how happy that made me. The history, the language, the culture, the accordions playing on the streets, the sounds of cafés, the metro, the food, the lights, the friends....it's definitely not overrated. I really can't say enough about it. While I was there I tried so hard to soak it up, to appreciate each moment. I could honestly go to France every year and never tire of it. And there are so many parts I haven't seen yet! I don't know what it is about France--I've been to other countries that were really cool, and I loved visiting them. But France trumps them all.

Sometimes I just get tired of everyday life. But everyday life is life. These mundane days...they are the bread-and-butter of a life. Sometimes not too exciting, not too memorable. But character is built on these days, not the ones where everything is easy. The adventures--they are once-in-a-lifetime, and I get 2! How lucky am I!? It's just hard to prepare and wait for them to come, like everything I suppose. Patience is a virtue, and I am getting plenty of practice! I'm reading all about the history of the Channel Islands, and it's just making me want to be there right now. To be distracted, doing something I love, in a place so beautiful. It's 43 degrees there right now and cloudy (yes I looked up the weather) it sounds exactly like Eugene, and I want to be there. It's mockingly beautiful here--sunny and freezing. A mon avis, winter shouldn't camouflage as summer. It should be cloudy and grey, and cold. Maybe that's just my love for home influencing me...I miss it already. But I don't really believe in self-pity (that's probably my mom's influence coming out :) It's okay to be sad, but then you have to pick yourself up and find all of the reasons why life is worth living.

I'm even going to Guatemala in March! My professors have all been so gracious in letting me skip a week and a half of school--they all said go for it, we can make arrangements. I love being an upperclassman. And my major is amazing. It's a little stressful trying to narrow my topic, but soooo INTERESTING. I'm reading these books about how to do research, and it makes me so excited! And they are so helpful. I'm sure my students are probably going to hear more about the Channel Islands than they want to, but hey, they'll live. And hopefully my enthusiasm will teach them something about anthropology that they can't get from reading books.

I still haven't made peace with Utah...I definitely love BYU, but Utah in general? Not so much. I just can't get over the lack of trees. I miss GREEN. At least Arizona's landscape is beautiful in a desert sort-of way. But Utah is just brown. No cactus, no sequoia, no creosote to smell when it finally rains. The things that make Arizona beautiful. It probably helps that I have family there. Utah is lonely.

That's not quite fair. I have really good friends. The kind that become almost family. The kind that will drop everything to make sure you are ok. The kind that bring you ice cream or leave notes of encouragement. The kind that I'm comfortable saying anything around and it doesn't matter. The kind I can laugh with for hours. The kind that like me anyway, no matter what. The kind that want to hang out just because.

Take that January!

I only have 3 semesters left....what?

Wow I haven't blogged in forever...I guess I just got really caught up in the busy-ness of life!
This week was finals week, which is crazy. It was actually the least stressful finals week I've ever had, which was soooo nice. I can't believe the semester is over already! And I only have 3 left...so weird.

A quick update on life:

• I went home for Thanksgiving, which was so so nice. I got to catch up with some really good friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, and I really didn't want to come back to Provo. But the last couple of weeks have been unexpectedly fun, so it worked out. In fact for the first time I have a reason to want to stay in Utah longer...

• I go home for Christmas tomorrow morning!! We have to be at the airport way too early, because we forgot to book our flight until a couple of weeks ago...oops. But it's all good because we will be home by noon. My brother's skipping school so he can come get us--he's so cute. I can't wait!

•  My lovely roommate Miriam just got engaged last weekend, they are adorable together, I'm so happy for them. Totally called it, but that's probably because I live with her :)

• I'm really excited to go down to Arizona for New Years and see all my family. Our last family reunion was so fun! I can't wait to see everybody.  

• I survived another semester TA-ing!! I really like it for the most part, although the grading does get old (I'm looking at the huge stack I have to do over the break as I write this.) For the most part my students seem to like me--I really hope I make a difference in some of their lives, and that they aren't bored out of their mind. If they remember anything I really hope that they come away with a deeper appreciation for other cultures, and that they will have more of an open mind in learning about other cultures' ways of life. 

• Things I'm excited about for the break: Home cooking, sleeping in, having time to read books for fun, family, friends and Christmas of course.  Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. 

Also: 

I figured out how to do this the other day--well actually Jake showed me. But it's awesome!!! This is our front door in Paris! cue nostalgia....  I miss it so much!

And, because it's Christmas time: 

I love this painting. I think I saw it for the first time when I was 12, and for some reason it really resonated with me. The lighting is just beautiful. 

Well I'm off to help Annica move into the new dorms....

Happy Christmas!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

Have you read this book? If you haven't you should, because it's absolutely adorable and hilarious. If you have, then you know how awesome it is, and this makes my announcement that more exciting:

I'm going to the Channel Islands for my field study!!!!

No, they are not in the South Pacific. They are in the English Channel, hence the name. I'm going to be specifically on Guernsey = the same place as the book. (If they are really this pretty that makes me even more excited)







This also means....I'M GOING BACK TO EUROPE!!!!! Obviously I'm excited. The Channel Islands are only 32 km from Normandy, France and only 60-something km from England which means I will almost certainly be visiting at least France! How did I get so lucky??

Somehow everything has fallen into place in the last couple weeks--I would say it's a coincidence, but I think it's more of a blessing--I was really worried about what to do with my life this summer, and had been praying about it.

If you've talked to me about my major at all, you know that I've had absolutely no idea what to do for my field study and it was sort of freaking me out. I had pretty much decided I wasn't going to do it this summer because I didn't have any ideas. I'm kind of unusual for an anthropology major--I had no desire to do my fieldwork in Africa or India, which is where most people go. I wanted to study a culture like my own, because I think it's super interesting to look at it from a different perspective. But there were no field studies for Europe.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. As I was walking out of one of my Anthro classes, one of my fellow TA's mentioned that she had figured out her field study. And then she mentioned in passing that they were changing the field study program, and the options were now: India, Africa, Thailand, and the Channel Islands. I think I literally stopped in my tracks. Channel Islands?? She didn't know too much about it, because she was going to Thailand, but I was super excited. I haven't ever been excited about a field study, so that was a big deal. And she mentioned that the Channel Islands one would be mentored by one of my favorite professors.

A couple days later: we spent half of our anthro of religion class discussing/arguing about the changes to the program. I learned more about it: they are changing it so that you have to go with a professor and a group to a specific location that is offered for that year, instead of doing individual ones. Some people were really upset, but I thought it was awesome. I didn't really like the idea of going to a city all alone and trying to figure out how to do ethnography with only email to communicate with your mentor. Having a professor there, who has lots of experience and contacts in the area you will be working in will be soooo nice.

The next day, I went and talked to Professor Bibb. She is awesome, and British (which is so cool), and super helpful. I only had a couple questions, but she gave me a ton of ideas and direction and everything I needed to get started, even though I didn't know what I was doing. I'm so excited to be working with her.

So the last 2 weeks, I have been doing background research for my ORCA grant proposal, which is due this Friday. If I get funded, it will pay for my plane ticket! This means I have been reading everything I can find as background and figuring out how to describe what I will be studying. I'm loving it! Everything I've read makes me more excited and fascinated by their culture.

My project as of now will be studying their cultural identity through the native language, guernésiais. But that means that I pretty much get to tie everything I read and learn about into it, because identity is made up of so many things. My emphasis might change when I get there (it almost definitely will) as I learn more about it, but that's okay!

This also means I'll be graduating next April, after completing my thesis on my research from my field study. Kind of freaky, but still over a year away. I know something will work out though, it always does. 3 weeks ago, I didn't even know this field study was an option, and now I'm getting ready for it. I'll keep you all updated, I can't wait!

On a side note, aaaah I just realized I sign up for next semester's classes at midnight tonight!!! I probably should figure out my schedule...

Also, we took pictures in the leaves today, I love fall! Perfect weather. And I'm making pumpkin pancakes with some friends tonight yummm.

This was right when we almost dropped her haha. 

In front of our apartment :)

Anthropology (no not the store)

Although I do love that store (I'm going to the one in Salt Lake on Saturday! Purely for browsing purposes of course), I am actually talking about my major. Lately things have been up and down with me and good old Anthro. Certain days I absolutely love it and am so glad it's my major. And others...well, you can only discuss the social construction of reality for too long before going a little crazy.

But, for the most part, it's been super interesting. Which is good, because not only do almost all of my classes have to do with it (even French lately), but my job does too. So I thought I would list the fascinating things I've had on my mind lately:

• Field work is so cool. I have to do a mini-field research project for my Anthro of religion class this semester, which basically consists of going to a Lutheran church (we got to pick a religion we wanted to study--my ancestors were Lutheran so I thought I'd try that) and observing/talking to them/learning about their rituals and beliefs. 

• It's been great so far! I've only been there once so far, but everyone was so friendly and helpful. I definitely had to draw on all of my reserves of courage to show up--I really don't like being among strangers and didn't want to come across as disrespectful or anything. But of course everything was fine. Better than fine, really.
• It was really interesting to look at a religion from an anthropological perspective, it's making me think about my life in a different way. For example, I was looking at the way the Lutheran faith incorporates rites of passage to bridge transitions and how symbols have a functional meaning.  Cool stuff.
• So overall I am slightly less terrified to do my field work. (Only slightly though.)

• I love learning about different cultures.
• I find it fascinating. It really broadens your approach to life to be aware of the way other people do things. It's not that they are wrong, just different.
• It allows you to look at your own life differently. For example, we read a study on middle-school girls in my 430 class. It argued that they are rowdy and harder to handle than elementary schoolers because they lack a rite of passage. They are no longer "kids" because they are in middle school now. But they aren't quite teenagers yet either. So they are in a sort of limbo, and all they can do is to act the opposite of what they were before. It's the same sort of thing with college freshmen. You are an "adult" but not really. No car, still sort of dependent on your parents but not living with them, so it's a time to go a little crazy.
• That's a super condensed explanation, but having a sister in both middle school and a college freshmen it made total sense to me. 

• Helvetica is EVERYWHERE

• We've been talking about fonts and writing in my French history class, and how most fonts connect back to the Romans--pretty much everything in Euro-American culture goes back to the Romans and Greeks. Anyways, we watched this trailer for a documentary called Helvetica, and it's all about the font.
• Apparently after WWII they (not sure who exactly) decided that fonts had become too nationalized (Times New Roman for America, Gothic for Germany, etc.) and that the world should have a neutral, global font. So who better to create it? Switzerland. And now EVERYTHING is Helvetica. The logos for almost all companies, signs and even the new Blogger = Helvetica. I'm seeing it everywhere now. Apparently the whole movie is on Netflix, so I'm thinking about signing up for my free month, cause it's fascinating.

• I miss Paris. A lot. 
• Luckily most of my friends are in Provo, so I still get to hang out with them. But I do miss Europe. Badly.

• Internet is essential to life. 
• sounds pathetic doesn't it? 
• But it really is nowadays. I didn't have it at home for the first couple of weeks, and I couldn't do anything. 
• No work, no homework, no talking to people, no tv....it was pretty sad.
• Needless to say, I appreciate it a lot more now.

• Also, I'm really enjoying learning again. 
• It is a lot of reading, and sometimes it gets tedious...
• But I love it.