Anything-but-weekly Update

Hey everyone!

I really have been quite bad at writing every week, just like I thought I might be.  The good news is that I have lots of new news this way, and I don't have to struggle to think of things that might be of interest.  The bad news is that I'm not sure when my last mass email was, so I don't know how far back to go.  On the other hand, I've talked to most of you in the last two months, so I don't think I've left out the important bits in our conversations in person.

I suppose the biggest thing is that I'm still in school for the spring.  I'm signed up for classes in the summer too, but I'm almost positive that I'll be dropping them to save money.  I just got a job working at the Olive Garden as a busser, and had my first two days of training already.  When I get my training done, I'll be able to earn some share of the tips.  My trainer is Jose Luis from Ecuador, and I talked to him almost all in Spanish, because it's fun, and it's actually easier for me.

I also got the best single-semester GPA of my life last semester.  I really stuck it to the man and just to spite my teachers I got Bs in biology and New Testament instead of Ds like they wanted to give me.  I even got a B+ in religion, making it probably my best religion grade yet.  I didn't quite get a 4.0 like I wanted before I started the semester, but this is the closest I've been since 4th grade.  I got a 3.73 for the semester, which raised my cumulative GPA back above 3.0, which is good.  It's nice to not be ashamed of my scholastic career anymore.  And, just to make things even cooler, I'm officially a junior now, meaning that now I can finally find open spots in PE classes before everyone else does.

This spring I am only taking three classes: Beginning racquetball, English grammar, and a class whose name I never learned.  It's IAS 360R, my prep course to help me think of and develop a research question, and become familiar with Mexico, particularly Irapuato, Guanajuato, where I will be living in the fall to gather data for my research.  I will also get a chance to do lots of research here with an amazing library and other resources before I actually get to the field.  It's a really interesting class, and we've learned a lot of basics about inter-cultural communication, and interviewing skills, et cetera.  But it's also a very difficult class.  The first day, we had 45 pages of reading and a paper due, the second day, it was only 29 pages and a paper.  They promised me before I signed up for the class that it would be the hardest three-credit class I will ever take at BYU.  So far, they have me convinced.  It is my favorite class though.  Grammar would be interesting if I didn't already know the difference between a verb and a noun.  I'm sure it will get a little more complicated soon, but for now it seems like a waste of time to get up in the morning just for grammar.  And racquetball is good too, but it's just racquetball.  I don't feel like a better person after leaving class.  I've learned a ton already in my field study course, just because I've put so much more time into it.

I'm going to South Jordan again tonight, making the third trip this week.  I'm going up for my companion's (Michael Marks) wedding reception.  This is the companion whose grandmother visit teaches my grandmother.  With connections like that, how could we have gotten along less than well?  He was one of my favorite companions, so I'm excited to see him.

That's about all I have time to write about in this semi-annual weekly newsletter.  I predict a good summer for all, and I put money on it, so don't let me down.  Just kidding, but seriously.  HAGS!  (that was for you, Julie and Scott)

Brian