LONDON LONDON LONDON

SO... no big deal, but I'M GOING TO LIVE IN LONDON THIS SUMMER!!!!! That's right. I'm going to live in London on a study abroad from June 23rd to August 11th and I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So even though I should most definitely be doing things like, writing my speech, studying for my anatomy and o-chem midterms this week, or doing laundry... I'm dreaming about London. I wish I was there RIGHT NOW. But alas. I am doing homework and studying my brains out. I've been dreaming of going to England since I don't even know, I knew it existed?

I am so excited for this new chapter in my life. And it keeps me going when I want to throw in the towel and fail all of my classes. Failing isn't really a good idea haha. I can't wait to make new friends, tour HARRY POTTER, go to Edinburgh, PARIS, see amazing things, gain a British accent, oh, and fall in love with an attractive British who wants to marry me and move to the United States. NBD. It's gonna happen.

OH BTW... this is where I'm going to be living.. I'm in heaven a little bit right now.....

A year in review

I feel like its customary for everyone who has a blog is to write a post at the end of the year/ beginning of the new one about what happened the year before. So I'm kinda jumping on the bandwagon there buy at the same time it's neat to see how far I've come in the last year. This time last year I had just switched my education goals and plan from a history/ social science oriented field to an end goal of pharmacy. This meant science classes for the first time since high school. It was a HARD semester. But I learned a lot. At that point I was still worried that I was making the right choice and was worried about whether I'd even like pharmacy. But I had faith and hope and I persevered. I finished and did fairly well considering.
Then came summer. I got my first real job with a paycheck and taxes and a cool badge that unlocks doors. I started working as a pharmacy research assistant. I was opened up to the world of pharmacy and discovered that I really did enjoy it and found it extremely interesting. It made me excited for the future. In may one of my best friends left on his mission. He had been one of the constants in my life between school and home. It was hard, but with lots of letters we still have fun.
I also met a boy in the singles ward. We started going on dates and having lots of fun together. Summer was great. I lived with my aunt during the week and played all weekend.
Then the week before school started we culminated the summer with four of us road tripping it up to Disneyland it was a crazy fun trip and it was a wonderful end to the summer.
School started and I took some doozys. Organic and inorganic chemistry plus pd bio and five dance classes. I had a blast, which was helped by one of my good friends being in two of my classes. Summer boy and I kept in contact although we decided to not officially date. He came out and visited over conference weekend and the feelings were still there but we didn't really address it.
I had tons of fun with my roommates especially Susan.
Thanksgiving came and I got to go home!!! :) my moms entire family came and it was a glorious couple days full of family, fun, and food. Summer boy and I decided we did want to get back together and decided to try the long distance thing. Everything got more serious kinda quickly and expectations started to rise. I finished out the semester with Christmas around the world - a dance performance and finals which I did pretty well in. I came home and had a wonderful two weeks. Everything was great, summer boy and I became official and christmas was wonderful an happy. :)
Then I came back to school and summer boy skyped to say it was over. I was surprised but nevertheless have decided to learn from these events for "these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good"
Lots of things happened to me. I learned things about what I enjoy doing and learning, and that I don't mind getting through less fun stuff to get to my end goal. Also that disappointment is hard, but it will make me stronger. Additionally, that I will find someone who is perfect for me in every way, tho it may be hard and take a while and I'm sure he wont be perfect. I have faith that there's a guy out there who will love me and who will be absolute wonderful. Not perfect but perhaps better for me.
I'm looking forward to this year with optimism and gladness. I will make 2012 an amazing year. Some things I'm looking forward to this year:
living with one of my really good friends.
Staying at BYU for spring term.
Going to London (hopefully!!!!! My application is in!!!)
Passing all of my classes and doing well in them.
Increasing my spirituality.
Losing weight and becoming stronger. It's gonna happen- I'm in gymnastics haha

My Camera is my BFF

Or it would be if it decided to work. I never realized how much I use my camera and want to use my camera until it broke and I couldn't use it anymore.... It is quite distressing... That's what you get for buying a 100$ camera though. It got me through two years of college. And now it is crippled. It has bandaids of rubberbands holding the batteries in, and its stuck in video mode. Distressing? I'd say so... But this beauty is what I have my eyes on now... It's so pretty. And doesn't suck. Which is mostly want I want. Sigh. In my dreams. Or Christmas... ;) I just want to be able to document my life, in a very nice DSLR kind of way.

Fall Update

As sucky as  my last post was... life went on, got better, got worse, and mostly, got SUPER BUSY.
I'm taking 9 classes this semester. NINE. Five of them are dance classes. Lets just say I have beastly thighs.
I am also taking Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, PDBio 120, and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It has been a wonderful semester. I went on a trip to Idaho this past weekend, my good friend got back from his mission, I was in the BYU homecoming parade and lots of other crazy things. Life has mostly been good. I've replanned my life again. And now, I'm hoping to go to London. So summary? Life is going.. and I'm gonna see where it takes me and try to have a good attitude about everything, the good and bad alike.

How does it feel when your dreams are shattered into a million pieces?

It feels like CRAP!!!  I've pretty much been looking forward to going to Jerusalem for I don't know, at least three years. I finally have the money, I fill out the application and I get everything turned in, and I got the rejection letter today. I didn't even make the waiting list. I have been convinced that I was gonna go to Jerusalem, and now to be so close and not make it.. ugh... It's just hard. I know everything will be fine, everything happens for a reason, but that's hard to remember when all you want to do is throw something at the wall and cry into your pillow. DANG IT. Instead I'll just rant/cry about it on the internet... Much better use of my feelings I'd say... :P Or wallow into some ice cream... The excitement I had when I saw the letter in the mailbox, I was convinced I was getting in, I was just looking for the "Congratulations..." But no.. I got the "Unfortunately". That is a mean little word, unfortunately. Staring at you, haunting you, ruining your wonderful mood.. Throwing you into an awful spiral of sadness and depression and angst. But who knows, this may be for the better. It means I don't have to take O-Chem during the summer... That's good, right? lol... Well, I'm not giving up without a fight.. I'll just reapply in October, and everything will work out... I'm hoping anyways.

First Week of Work

Well I finished my first week of work at Kaiser Permanente. I worked 30.5 hours which isn't too shabby for my first week I'd say. Subtracting tithing and what I'm guessing for taxes, which was just 10%, it could be more, I'm not really sure, I made 463 dollars. YAY!!! I work for the Clinical Pharmacy department, and I've done a heck of a lot of training. Personally, I think the coolest part is I have a badge that unlocks doors when you wave it front of the red light, but that's just me ;) I work in a cubicle, and besides training, I've filled out a spreadsheet, by looking at medical records and recording the answers given. It's been an interesting week. I'm living down in Aurora with my Aunt Shanny, and we are having a lot of fun haha ;) We like to party... at home. :) But it's all good, and I can't wait to keep working hard and learning lots, and making money.
Interesting facts about kaiser Permanente:

• They were the first real health insurance plan in the nation, when Dr. Sidney Garfield worked with Henry Kaiser to have workers pay first 5 cents out of their wages to cover all work related accidents, and then 5 more cents for any illness, non-work related. 
• Is a non-profit health care company, so everything they make goes back into communities and towards providing great service and care. 
• They have all electronic medical records, so they can catch anomalies or patterns more quickly than other doctors or health care facilities. 
• They are only located in California, Colorado, Georgia, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. 
• They like to give out free stuff to their new employees, like books, coffee mugs, lunch boxes, and band-aids. 

Overall, it looks like Kaiser Permanente is gonna be a great place to work, and I'm gonna learn a lot. If i do decide to pursue pharmacy (which is still the plan) I definitely would not mind working for Kaiser when I finish school. 

To learn more, click this link.

Update on my life

I posted only once in May, and now we're halfway through June, and this is my first post... I have a thing about not posting unless I have pictures, and I don't post pictures unless I edit them first.. So between not taking pictures and not editing the ones I DID take.. Let's just say I haven't posted. But since May, I have actually gotten a job! Unless of course I don't pass my background check... I sincerely hope I do haha But assuming that I do, I start New Employee Orientation at Kaiser Permanente on June 27th. I'm pretty excited. This is like a dream summer job, and I get to find out whether I really do like pharmacy or not :) I'm REALLY hoping that I do like it haha
Besides that, I have been hanging out a lot with friends I've made in the Singles ward, seeing as my best friend Nathan left on his mission to the UKRAINE a month ago. we've done lots of fun things, like go rafting, and today I'm going camping up in Frisco, so hopefully  I'll take a ton of pictures when I go. I got a calling, I am a ward missionary. Exciting, I know.
My Aunt Ashley moved out here this week from Georgia, and it's gonna be so much fun hanging out with her and her babies :)
Most exciting to me tho, is that I'm applying to go on a study abroad to Jerusalem in exactly one month. I am beyond excited. In my mind, I'm already in, but I haven't actually applied, so I don't really know anything, but I'm hoping for the best and *hopefully* I'll be in Jerusalem next January.