The Hotpots

Last night I got invited to go to the hot springs with a bunch of friends. I invited Emma to come along with us. The drive was 40 minutes to get there, but it was so much fun. I'll post some pictures of the car ride there and the car ride back. The other people you'll see in the pictures besides me and Emma are named Rose and Josh (the same one who came snowmobiling.)


These are the BEFORE pictures:








These are the AFTER pictures:






I wish we had gotten pictures of our feet and clothes. They were so muddy!! I also wish I had taken pictures of the actual hot springs. Next time!!

My Map

Yesterday I had an appointment with one of the advisers for the "Life Sciences" college. I was planning on talking to her about my ideas about majoring in either Microbiology or Physiology. I was hoping that she could help me decide which would be best for me to take based on my goals and fears concerning the future.

When I met her, she was very kind and helpful. I explained my dilemma---that I was interested in both aspects of science and that my goals are to go to medical school and become a doctor. I also told her about my overall interest in working inside of the medical field and that I have had some experience in most sections of health care. (As far as observing and understanding the positions goes.)

After I finished talking she just looked at me and said, "I'm going to confuse you even more."

She then opened up her binder of "Major Academic Plans" and showed me one that was called "Clinical Lab Science."

"The CLS major combines both Physiology and Microbiology, along with other medical-related sciences, and adds an element of 'hands-on' experience."

She told me that nearly all of the classes that I'd be taking for the CLS major would correspond to both the Microbiology and Physiology majors, so if I decided that I really would rather do either one of them instead, I could easily switch majors and finish at around the same time.

She also said that with a CLS degree and certification I could go straight to work in the lab of a hospital or clinic doing diagnostic laboratory work and pathology if I ended up deciding later on that medical school isn't for me.

I really liked the prospect of being able to keep all of those options open, so I went for it. I am now a Clinical Lab Science major!

Mondays Always Suck

Okay so today isn't really Monday... but it feels like it was. Probably since today was the first day of classes for the week.

My first class starts at 8 so it's pretty painful to get up early enough to get ready and make it there in time. All of my classes are well worth the trouble, though. I love learning!

My neck has been hurting like crazy today from the whiplash I got yesterday when I went sledding. I still want to go again. Flying 12 feet above the ground is so much fun!!


Here is my excited face at the prospect of more ground-defiance. 8D




Not much else has really happened today except for studying and classes.

Tomorrow I have a French test and I have two more tests this weekend. Other than that I won't be too terribly busy if anyone wants to play!

<3

Daredevil

This is me right when I woke up this morning. Okay not RIGHT when I woke up but pretty close. I was soooo so tired. I didn't actually end up falling asleep last night until around 2am. This was taken at around 7:30 this morning. The reason I got up so early was because last night I got invited to go snowmobiling with one of my friends. I almost didn't go because I was just so tired... but then I decided that I would probably have a lot of fun... even if I was dead tired the whole time.




Well, the car ride up to my friend's buddy's cabin took around an hour I think. I wasn't really paying too close of attention to the clock. Those kids are a lot of fun to just hang out and semi-road trip with. Bwahahaha.

We finally got to the cabin neighborhood entrance thingy which was gated... we had to wait for the kid to come down and let us in. We parked in a little parking lot that was covered in snow because we had to snowmobile the rest of the way up to the cabin. There were 7 snowmobiles... 6 of which seated 2 people. I think every snowmobile was full.

I took these pictures before we snowmobiled up to the dude's cabin.


















The guy in those pictures is my friend Craig Whitaker. He was an Elder in our ward in Liverpool about a year and a half ago. Something like that.

I actually rode behind Whitaker's friend Josh on the way up to the cabin. I wish I had gotten more pictures of the people who were there. Someone took a group picture and I'll try to get my hands on it... but I'm not sure what the girl's name was. I guess I'll have to ask Whitaker about it.

Since I forgot to bring my coat or anything resembling snow pants, boots, or gloves, I ended up borrowing all of the above from the guy whose family owned the cabin and snowmobiles. Oh and I borrowed that hat from another kid in the group named Cameron.

I got to drive the snowmobile from the cabin to the "sledding" spot. Here is a picture of the view from the top (well actually probably like... 1/5 of the way up) of the hill.




At the bottom you can kind of see the road that we took to get there... it's covered in snow. Just past the road is the top of another much steeper hill that was covered in untouched snow and sloped down into some scraggly Utah Valley trees.

I was the second person to go down (behind Craig) and I caught SO much air when I went over the "cliff" after the road. Apparently I was going super fast and everyone thought that I was going to die and kill Craig/Whitaker in the process. After I rolled off the sled it kept going until it ran into the trees some 15-or-so yards down. It took me forever to go all the way down and back up with the sled because of how deep and unpacked the snow was.

I had a little cut on my finger that was dripping blood by the time I got up to the top because my heart was beating so strongly. I took a picture of it but it wasn't a very good picture so I won't put it up. Here's one of someone else hitting the jump though.




That's a view from the road. I kept going pretty far after that jump. Hahaha. It was SO much fun. I hadn't been sledding in over a year. Very much worth the soreness. :)

After we got done sledding we snowmobiled up to a field that was sort of in the shape of a racetrack. I got to drive the snowmobiles a lot and I even raced against a few guys. We got up to like 70 miles an hour a couple times. So much fun!!!

I didn't end up getting back to Provo until around 4pm. And by the time we were done I was EXHAUSTED. I'm also a little bit sunburned on my face. Also worth it!

Tomorrow school starts back up again. But today was a good day.

Coming Down From the Y

No, I haven't been stuck up on the mountain for all this time. But I have been stuck on top of a pile of studying and homework since the beginning of the semester.

So here's a little free time to update my life. I have decided to return to my original pursuits of going to medical school and becoming a doctor. Since I made that decision I have been increasingly happy. It's good to have goals.

Basically now I'm trying to decide between majors. Do I want to major in Physiology and Developmental Biology? Or would I enjoy a Microbiology major more? Should I major in Public Health because it would give me an ahead in hospital administration or should I major in what interests me the most?

I'm also trying to decide on whether or not I want to get a job or just try to find a service opportunity that somehow relates to what I want to end up doing with my life. I've already made an attempt to sign up at various hospitals and medical centers in the area as a volunteer, but I haven't gotten any calls or emails saying that I actually got a volunteer position. Probably because so many Nursing students take precedent and are planted by the school in volunteer spots. Maybe I'll just get a job and save up some money so that I can try and take classes over Spring and Summer.

Another thing I have been thinking about doing is qualifying as an EMS worker. That would give me a ton of really great experience, and even though the BYU EMS is all volunteer work... when I'm not at BYU I could save up a little money as an EMT. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, but I still haven't decided yet. It's a relatively large time commitment to take classes and training to get certified as an EMT.

I'm going to try to get some pictures up here sometime of recent activities soon.

À bientôt!