Papers, tests, piggies, ice skates and ...murder?

Well it was a full week for me here in Provo. Started out on Monday pulling together the paper on Political cleavages for my comparative politics class. Turned it in at 11 o'clock that night with an hour to spare. When I got home after work Casey said something about having lemon cake at family home evening. Well I love Megan's lemon cake so I shot a text off to mommy Daniel to see if there was any left. She answered saying that I could come and get some at the same time Selina asked me on facebook if I wanted some apple cake. Fortunately they are roommates and I was able to have both :)

Tuesday was cram day on the qualitative design for Pl Sc 200, it was due at five and since I didn't have New Testament this week, after I did laundry Hilary and I spent most of the day finishing them. What a relief it was to finally have them done. To reward myself I decided to go see Despicable Me since it was dollar night. I sent out a mass text and at first I thought there were a bunch of people coming, but gradually they flaked off until it was just me and my friend Jackie, fortunately we are the only members of the awesome club, so we just made it a club activity.

Wednesday it was back to class and work all day, trying to get in a little studying for my bio and Pl Sc 200 exams. I believe it was Wednesday that I finally did my voting but I'm not sure.

Thursday was a lot more studying during the day and then it was off to the temple with my Elders quorum. Three of us went and did baptisms which was something I haven't done in a long, long time. It was a very busy night at the Provo temple.

Friday morning on my way to the crabtree after bio I turned on the Eye of the Tiger to prepare myself for the midterm in 200. Unfortunately you cannot have orange soda in the auditorium where we have class, but I think I still did ok. Then there were more classes to go to and finally off to the testing center for Biology. This time the vending machine that sells orange soda was broken! imagine my frustration, so I got a sprite and went to work. I felt pretty good about it and got a 90% on the multiple choice, and this time I made sure I finished all the short answer, so I it should be better than the last exam. After finishing the test I ran down to Jenn's house in the elms to enlist her help in my halloween costume for work that night. We were the three little pigs and the big bad wolf, since I work with three girls I was the wolf. After work finished around 9:30 Lyndi and I had to change out of our costumes so we could go on our double date. Lyndi went with my old roommate Tyler, who picked us up from the Wilk. Then we went back to Wyview and picked up Elizabeth and then it was off to the Peaks ice arena for a wonderful ice skating time.

Saturday I allowed myself to sleep for a while to recoup from the week. We had a building halloween activity in conjuncture with building 25 around noon. Saturday night Gordy, Brooke, and I went to Erin and Sam's for a murder mystery dinner. We had a lot of fun. I ended up being the murderer. After Gordy and Brooke dropped me off I went to the Wyview halloween dance for a little bit.

And thus ends another week in the life of Ben Nielsen.

Why hello Middletown, I didn't recognize you in your BYU shirt.

Well its been one crazy busy week. Big papers to write in both poli sci classes, a test in history and one in New Testament. God must be in the testing center because I came out of History w/ an 80 on the multiple choice which isn't great but better than I expected. Most of my time has been sucked away into the qualitative research design for Poli Sci 200 which Hillary and I spent untold of hours on this week and its not done yet. Very little else happened this week, Saturday we went to an ice cream party at Jenn's and tonight Cache and I are going to home teach Kevin. In the area of academic over achievement I visited with my advisor Lori Seely to plan what I will take next semester. she has suggested that I decide on a minor, so I guess I need to think about that. Other than that not much happened. Hope everyone had a good week.

Sorry mom, no pictures.

Two movies in one week, that's some kind of record

It was a slow week at the Y, I turned in my only paper on Monday and never visited the testing center, this is probably why I had time to see two movies, which makes the record for the most movies in a week since I returned home.

here's the run down, Monday was a little crazy getting the paper in and then of course work. Disaster struck when I dropped my cell phone and the chocolate broke once more along its former crack. Fortunately it still turned on and the rest of the nice was spent looking for adhesive to make a temporary fix, it finally came in the form of packing tape supplied by my friend Gentry. Tuesday was laundry day and devotional, New Testament and home work like normal, then Tuesday evening Cyndi and I went and saw Toy Story 3 which was of course amazing, and then got ice cream from the creamery. That's movie number 1. Wednesday was uneventful school and work, my friend Bianca said at History that she might be able to find an old phone that I could use, she called me after work to let me know she had. Thursday morning it was off to the temple bright and early to do sealings which was marvelous. Then it was off on my ripstik to campus to meet Hilary to study and then meet Bianca to get the phone, thank goodness for that. I had no classes on thursday because New Testament was canceled. Thursday afternoon Selina and I went to the farmers market at the stadium on our way home. Friday was a full day of class and work after which we watched How To Train Your Dragon, which came out on video that day. It was a really good one as well, we had a bunch of people over to watch it. That's movie number 2. Saturday's big event was going to dinner at Gordy's w/ the Johnsons. I had a lot of fun playing with Aaron and Max the cutest nephews in the world. Well that's gotta be it for another week. Sorry no pictures

Home coming week and gun control

Well I'm going to try to make this a little shorter than last week. Most of my time outside of class this week was spent working on a large assignment forPoli Sci 200 finding and reading sources on gun control, a somewhat monotonous task.

The only thing I had to do in the testing center this week was a map quiz for History 201 which my friend Bianca and I studied for on Wednesday and after some searching I found a cite online which would allow me to make my own map quizzes to study, whichI then generously provided to the rest of the class. While the quiz scores have not come back yet I feel pretty confident in that.

To balance out the studying, and last weeks frantic pace this week was homecoming. Some of the highlights for me were the opening ceremonies which took the place of devotional, it included the marching band and the young ambassadors as well as several speakers;

after the opening ceremonies Hilary, Rob and I all stood in line to receive free J-dogs in Brigham Square; Tuesday night I hiked to light the Y, which is where the Y on the mountain is ringed with lights for homecoming week, with Selina and we ended up gettingleft behind by the shuttle vans so Gordy had to come rescue us from the base and take us back to campus.

Saturday was of course the football game, Cody and I had tickets behind the north endzone from which vantage point we were able to observe the improved cougars against the Aztecs. It was heartwarming to see that under Bronco's leadership we again have a defense.

I left the game, which was won by us 24-21, at half time to get everything ready for the dance that night. Rob and his friend Shay doubled with me and Selina and we went to the Discovering music through the ages dance in the Wilk ballroom, with a detour prior to that to the Angels of Philly steak shop on center street, which is owned by the son of a woman from the Widener branch where I served for six months, so the steaks were legit. The whole night was a lot of fun.

And that should put another week in the books folks, have a great one!

Politics, Bio, and General Conference

This week started out as one of the most stressful. There just wasn't going to be enough time to do everything, a test in comparative politics, a theory and hypothesis paper do in research and writing, a test in biology, and a writing assignment on early civilization writing in world history. and trying to set things up for homecoming. All this on top of the normal amount of homework in a given week. But through the grace of God who must be in the Testing Center, it turned out everything went fine.

I knew I would have to take my comparative politics test on tuesday and had no idea what to expect because my teacher is brand new just graduated from UCLA. I downloaded a flash card program to my palm pilot and franticly started studying on Monday. Dr. Preece informed us that she had removed the multiple choice section from the test, there went my only glimmer of light. Classes and studying took up all of Monday in addition to the time spent writing the poem for homecoming. Before going to work my FHE group showed up on campus going to the game center to go bowling and they had a spiritual thought with me before I ran to work. After work I ran to the library and attempted to find my way to the room where a group from my class was studying for the test, after finding them I discovered that the group wasn't getting much done and soon everyone disbanded to purse academic achievement on there own.

Tuesday morning was absorbed in studying until I rolled up to campus on my ripstik for devotional. At the Marriot I talked w/ Casey for a while at portal H where he holds down the fort as event staff, I then claimed a set of seats w/ my ripstik and backpack and waited for my friends to arrive while reviewing flash cards on the palm. After Devo I grabbed lunch w/ a couple friends, Robbie and Emily and then, after grabbing a blue book, it was off to New testament where we finished the temptations of Jesus and began the sermon on the mount. New Testament is always an interesting time. Well from the JSB I just went over to the testing center and after receiving my orange soda from the vending machine in the entry way I stood in line to face my doom. Once out of line and with the ominous document in hand I made my way upstairs to the music room. I settled down in my desk, arranged test, scratch paper, blue book and orange soda, and bowed my head in prayer. Now because it was short answer, long answer, and essay, I don't know what score I received, but as I went page by page I was relieved as concepts flowed to my mind and onto the paper. I feel very confident in the answers I gave and left a huge load in the testing center that day. Later on my companion Cache and I home taught our FHE mom Danielle outside the HFAC before she went to work. She and I also confirmed plans for the next day for how and when I would get into her apartment to get things ready for homecoming. Then there was more studying to do, this time with Bianca for History 201's map quiz. Tuesday night was spent trying to gather numbers on home teaching from my district and talking to roomates. I finally dropped into bed at about 1:00, but only after setting my trustee alarm for 6:00. 

Wednesday found me up at six and running like crazy to get ready for school, at seven I was at the creamery. The guy behind the counter greeted me and then came my question "You sell balloons here right?" He sadly shook his head, "Not anymore he responded." I felt everything falling apart. A desperate text left my phone to Danielle's telling her I was riding to Buy Low to see what I could find. the response came back before my bike was unlocked "Hurry" I was off like a shot. Arriving at the grocery store I locked my bike to a cart rack and ran inside, going up to the first cashier I again implored for balloons, I was informed that there were no helium balloons but that there were packages of balloons in isle 10. I looked quickly for what my new readjusted plan called for only to find that not only were there no packs of purple balloons, but there were no purple balloons in any pack. Tough go, I grabbed what I could get and after a run through the check out I was back on the bike to wyview. I stopped at my place and grabbed the poem and then I was down the hill to Danielle and Selina's apartment. Once Danielle had let me in the bag of balloons was open amidst a petition for tape, which I had foolishly left in Pennsylvania. Tape was produced and balloons were blown up and quickly constructed into a pyramid which was placed on the table and the folded poem displaying her name on the outside was taped too. And then we were off to the bus, barely making it on time. School and work slowly absorbed the rest of the day, and my paper got into the box on time. Smoothies were made, the last bus was caught and I dropped exhausted into the chair in the living room while David played the piano. and there on the table was a piece of paper, tapped onto it were popped balloons, artfully arranged to spell the word YES.

Thursday morning found me stabilizing my life once again at the Provo temple, this time doing a inititories with a group of brand new missionaries from the MTC. Then there was preperation for Bio, another class on the sermon on the mount. And a phone study session with my good friend from PA Ashley Gillette, who is majoring in bio. That night I went to a review with my biology TA to get more preped.

Friday was a busy day, fortunately I had found someone to cover my shift friday night so I could attend both my mission reunions that night, but before that could happen the major obstacle of a biology midterm reared its monstrous head. I went to class all day and then after getting my orange soda of course I settled down in the music room again with bowed head. I was very pleased with the way I felt about the test as I left the music room and dropped my bubble sheet of at the counter. In the lobby I located my ID on the screen and felt a huge relief as the word Awesome flashed across the screen. That evening I met up with Cody, Bryan and Sean and we headed for Highland and the Philadelphia reunion, complete with Cheese steaks! After a visit there we were off for Holiday for the HBG reunion. It was fantastic to see so many good friends again. Especially my mission presidents and there wives. 

Saturday marked the beginning of General Conference which just concluded, it was amazing and I truly enjoyed it. Saturday night the three of us went and got some frozen yogurt at a favorite place of mine and Casey's, The frozen spoon, w/ Selina and Danielle.

Sunday was excellent, breakfast and conference at Selina and Danielle's apartment w/ some of the FHE people. Two more great sessions of conference, and a lot to think about during the next six months.

Well that's it for this week, tune in next week folks.