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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Graduation Schmajuation/Goodbye, Provo

My dad left a voice mail for me a few weeks ago. He mentioned how excited he was to be coming out to visit for my graduation from BYU and that he understood how I might have some mixed emotions about this time in my life. Thing is, I don’t really. My time has come. I am ready to move on to the next thing. I’m finished living in Provo. That said, there are some things that I will miss about my college years, and I’ve compiled a few lists to pay tribute:
(fantastic pictures from graduation are forthcoming, I promise.)


Things I will miss about BYU/utah valley

  • Really great classes like Don Quijote with Rosenberg and Hispanic Cinema with Weatherford
  • J-dawgs
  • Smart Cookie
  • Thai Ruby, even though I can only count how many times I’ve eaten there on one hand—it was the setting of one of the most hilariously hysterical nights of my life (jooj, ali, lauren, R-diggity-dog, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout)
  • The Y
  • Timpanogos (here's a view from campus)
  • Sundance—the Alpine Loop part, and the Film Festival
  • Running on the foothill trails
  • Riding my bike up Provo Canyon River trail
  • That great feeling of finishing a term paper and turning it in
  • Dancesport
  • Really awesome forums/lectures by awesome speakers like Paul Rusesebagina and Valerie Hudson.
  • views like this at the football games (goodbye, 3rd row season tickets...)
  • The Kennedy Center, one of my favorite places on campus to be.
  • The JFSB—courtyard, terrace(s), mac lab, all of it.
  • Hunger Banquet
  • international cinema
  • Holi at Spanish Fork (see previous post!)
  • Taking it too far with my roomies
  • Condo Row
  • Springtime nightgames. Actually springtime, period.
  • BYU 61st ward
  • W5. ‘nough said.
  • Long walks and talks with Amy, Rachel
  • Letters to the editor, Police Beat in the Daily Universe. In fact, here's a good one from this past month:
Criminal Mischief

April 1: BYU police responded to a call reporting a tampering with the BYU sign on University and Canyon Rd. Students had placed paper letters over the sign "Enter to learn, go forth to serve" to make it read "Enter to date and to mate."

............................

Things I will not miss about BYU
  • Really terrible classes like
Physics 105
Physics 106
Physics 107
Physics 108
  • Homework/busywork!
  • Sharing a room
  • The piano in the apartment upstairs—or at least, their song selection.
  • My crappy oven
  • The bridal fair ads
  • Everything closing at 10 pm or earlier.
  • Late nights with Harold (this is from my last night; notice Lauren peering over her laptop:)
  • The ridiculous honor-code office.
  • BYU off-campus housing and the stupid 2 mi. radius rule.
  • The creepy couple that made out in the front row of my Psych 111 lecture course. Everyday. Blech.
  • The eventfulness of seeing bearded men. (Thanks for breaking the monotony of this one, Paul and Matt. Love that scruff.)

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Holi Festival


I’m ba-aack!
How much has happened in the past three and a half years since my time in Spain! While I have heretofore reserved this blog for extra-U.S. experiences, there have been two adventures that have not graced the digital pages of this blog. Alas, my internet access in Ecuador was sporadic and in Honduras nearly nonexistent. (Maybe some day I'll get my act together enough to write some retrospective posts.) But there will be more electronic autonomy in Uganda, I’m hoping, at least. Then this blog will be truly world-wide-accessible!

The event photographed in this post appears to have taken place outside the U.S.—in India actually—since it is the Hindu celebration of Holi, also known as the Festival of Colors. In fact, upon seeing my pictures of the event on the internet last year, a high school friend of mine inquired as to whether or not I was in India at the time, where she actually happened to be. (How cool would it have been to rendezvous?!) Regrettably, I informed her that my pictures had not been taken in India, but in Spanish Fork, Utah of all places. There just so happens to be a substantial number of Hare Krishnas in the area, and a beautiful Hare Krishna temple. Holi festival has come to be known to some as the Unofficial BYU Spring Break (since we don’t get the traditional Spring Break that every other university in the nation gets. No, I’m not bitter about this at all.) and this year’s celebration was bigger than ever, thanks to spreading the word via Facebook.


In preparation for the big event, my good friend Lauren and I embarked on an errand in search of authentic Indian color in Salt Lake City, where we know for a fact that our friends have been successful in procuring the rich, vivid, brightly-colored Holi powder in past years. Lo and behold, the kind folks at India Unlimited were unable to supply us with our demand. ☹ They attempted to offer us consolation by mentioning that the Spanish Fork temple had ordered sufficient color for the anticipated crowd, but we left feeling dejected. We did not want the American-made chalky, pastel, looks-gray-when-it-mixes powder that they have sold in past years. But alas! Turns out the temple provided the real stuff this year, and it made a huge difference. I owe it to my lovely friend Vanessa for waiting in line ahead of time and purchasing it for me and the caravan that followed me down as we snaked our way through the traffic jam backed up 3 miles from the freeway exit to the temple. I managed to meet up with Vanessa just in the nick of time before the throwing of the colors commenced and plumes of indigo, hot pink, bright yellow, and forest green shot into the air.