Time to start anew

Well it's been exactly a year and a week since I've written here so there's no looking back or catching up, it's time to start anew (okay I will mention that the most significant thing was going to South Africa, but that's bound to come up later). Because I've vowed never to spend more than two weeks in a row in the heat, polution and overcrowdedness of the Arizona valley where I'm constantly sick, I am spending my summer up here in Provo. I'm working as a research assistant at the Women's Research Institute on BYU campus. We're compiling a giant database on the status of women worldwide and I'm curently working on Zambia. It's amazing work becasue I get t familiarize myself with United Nations documents and international affairs concerning women. Plus I get to impress people on a regular basis with my knowledge on the average life span of Malawians and the like. It's also a great opportunity to work with some of BYu's finest people, including the amazing professor I work under, Dr. Hudson. I'm also taking summer classes, Social Psychology and Biology. Did I mention that I switched my major to Social Science Teaching with a Humanities Teaching certificate. So I pretty much get the best of everything. I can teach history, psychology, sociology, economics, geography, and humanities! Much better than my other major where I could only teach history and humanities.

So right now the plan for my life is as follows: One more year of classes at BYU, one semester of student teaching in Washingon DC, one semester where I'm not sure what to do becasue I graduate in Decemeber so maybe an internship or something, and then teaching for a year in North Carolina where I can get residence and then apply for grad school at one of the research triangle schools where I want to get a masters in Social Psychology so I can eventually become a professor. I'm pretty excited about this little plan becasue I've heard that DC is amazing from all the people that have student taught there and I'd be close to Marilyn who is going to school in Baltimore and Hediyeh might go to Med school there. And mmmm, hot, motivated, Mormon, DC grad school boys! I could dig that. It all comes down to the fact that I'm not going back to AZ when I graduate and I'm not staying here so I am free to pick up and move wherever my heat desires. Pretty liberating! I love adventure!

Next year will definately be an adventure, in a different way. Vilja, Celeste and Elisa are all in the MTC right now going on missions to Estonia, Slovania, and Hungary, and Lori and Chelsea will be going to the MTC in September for Hawaii and Alaska. Becca is getting married on Tuesday, Rachel is getting married in August, Marilyn graduated and is heading to Baltimore for dental school and I am staying behind and living with Hediyeh and Thelma while Courtney lives down the street from us. Us four are the only girls in our fantastic group of twelve left in Provo. After lliving with Thelma and Hediyeh this Fall I will have lived with all of then except for Elisa and Becca in the past three years. They are all my best friends since Freshman year where we lived on the same floor in the dorms. The amazing thing is that not only are we all close as a group, but I am individually close to every one of them. They are my sisters and I love them and will miss them terrrbily. For the first time since I came here I will have to make new girl friends. And the other wierd thing is that all the boys are coming back for their missions but I don't know if they'll want to be our firends. I guess life moves on and it's time for everyone to start anew.