What I Learned My First Year of College...

My first year of college has been over for a couple weeks now so I thought I'd share with you the things I learned:

You will miss home

But you'll love not having a bedtime

Until you're so exhausted you give yourself one

7:30am college classes are not the same as 8:00am high school ones

But if it's a PE class it's totally worth it

I am exactly the right height to get elbowed in the face while playing basketball with boys

If you use garlic in your cooking and more than three ingredients, your roommates will think you are a master chef

Read the textbook

No seriously, you have to read the textbook

Breadth classes are not a waste of time

Unless it's Creative Arts in which case it's a TOTAL waste of time

You will make new friends

Lose some old ones

And figure out who's there to stay

If you're in Logan, it will snow

In May

The Bookstore is the biggest scam I've ever seen

But you'll buy stuff from there anyway

You will go on some grand adventures

And some not so grand ones

Roommates are simultaneously terrible, wonderful, and hilarious

You will call home for advice

Moving sucks

Even if it's just from apartment to apartment

 Tapatio goes with everything

You will make some of the biggest decisions of your life

And it will be an awesome ride.

A whole new world,

-McKenna

Summer!

Guess what?? I finished my first year of college! I'm not going to say it was the easiest or funnest thing ever, but I did it.

Also, I'm a Junior now. So only four semesters left.

Which is pretty neat.

And now it's summer!

But I'll be taking classes for most of the summer... 

Which is not as neat.

But I will NEVER have to live in Moen Hall again.

Which is pretty fantastic.

 

Hakuna Matata

-McKenna

Poetry & A Beverage

So a couple weekends ago Keni, Becca, and I decided to be "real college students" and go to "university activities".

Whatever that means.

Anywho, Becca's brother Steve was playing (his cello) at PoBev so we decided we needed to go watch. (PoBev stands for Poetry & a Beverage, by the way.) People recite poetry (or perform music) and there are beverages (non-alcoholic, we are in Utah after all, come on people).

It was as bizarre as it sounds.

First of all, PoBev is college students trying to be all high minded and listen to poetry and other "artistic, free-minded" stuff.

But we really know that it just becomes a mating fest (not actual mating, more like the hunting stage of mating). And they all just end up talking over the poetry.

There were entirely too many people there. I do not like the people. 

People. -_-

So after we waded through the masses, we found seats, and listened to poetry.

Here are a couple lines from one of the best poems, it was called 'Colors of My Love':

Grass is green
Bumblebees are halfway yellow
I hope someday I can be your fellow
...
Colors of my love

That was one of the better ones. On the plus side, Steve's song sounded really good.

Hah college is great.


Life's not a spectator sport

-McKenna

Sometimes I Cook

Hello everyone!

I'm back at school which means I'm back to cooking for myself!!

(....not sure how those !!! are meant....Am I angry or excited..? Maybe both...)

Anywho, food comes in entirely too large of packages for a college student to eat in a timely manner which means I have to repeat meals a lot in order to eat my food before it goes bad, and if I could eat all of it before it goes bad, I couldn't have it anyway since there is thismuch room in our kitchen. 

Yay, college. Yay, leftovers.... -_-

So in an effort to NOT have exactly the same thing every night I've been experimenting and cooking lots* of things: 

Lemon-Pepper Tilapia & Lemon Pasta

Spicy Tilapia & Vegetable Stir Fry

Fried Tilapia & Salad

*This is lots of things for me. Normally I'm either having Ramen Noodles or Spicy Ramen Noodles.

 Yeah, I realize that EVERY SINGLE ONE of those contains tilapia, but I'm not letting myself buy any other kind of meat until my pack of it is all gone.

It's taking a while....

On the plus side, these were all delicious. 

It's okay to drool a little. 


Did everyone see that? Because I will not be doing it again.

-McKenna

The Great Roommate Adventure (or RIP Bonsai)

Sorry for the long absence everyone. I've been enjoying "Dead Week", Finals Week, and Christmas Break with my family (or maybe just enduring the first two).

Anywho, after Finals Week, five out of my six roommates decided that we were going to spend Friday night at one of my roommates' cabin that is up this canyon outside of Salt Lake.

Ohhh what an idea.....

Liz (the roommate with the cabin) told us that it was a little ways to the cabin from the entrance to the canyon, and that we couldn't take a car. We arrived at the canyon around 9:30pm and it was already cold.

Like nose-hair-freezing cold.

So we get our stuff for the night out of the car (including my Christmas Bonsai tree) and it was at this point that Liz explained that the "little ways to the cabin" was actually closer to a mile. -_-

Bonsai before The Great Roommate Adventure

We put two of the duffle bags and a couple sleeping bags on the two sleds that we brought and headed up the canyon (uphill!!).

It was slow going.

We weren’t dressed for hiking and everything kept falling off of the sleds. And it was FREEZING cold. I hate winter. 

Finally, I was fed up. I handed my backpack to Keni, took her ginormous duffle bag and Bonsai (who was inside my coat trying to not freeze), and Liz and I headed up to the cabin. I was going to drop off my stuff, turn around and take the other girls up to the cabin while Liz got the heater going.

So we took off up the mountain. The bag was heavy, I was freezing, and Bonsai was dying.

Bonsai trees were not made for Utah winters. And I hate winter.

And every few minutes Liz would turn around and tell me we were almost there. Then we’d get to the next cabin, I’d ask if that was it… and she’d say no.

Every. Single. Time.

Word to the wise, do not tell me we are almost there UNLESS WE ARE ACTUALLY ALMOST THERE!!!!

When we got to this sign we were ACTUALLY almost there. 

I thought that stupid mountain would never end. After five minutes my face was frozen, after ten it was my fingers and toes, and after 15 I was so cold I couldn’t figure out if I still had toes. I hate winter.

My mind began to wonder. I wondered if Liz was really taking us out there just to kill us. I considered just sitting down in the middle of the road and freezing to death. I decided I would have been a terrible pioneer.

Eventually, finally, Liz and I made it to the cabin (which I was beginning to think was never going to happen), but I couldn’t rest yet. I dropped that cursed duffle bag, put poor Bonsai on the table, and headed back down the mountain.

After a few minutes I met up with the other three girls, grabbed some of their stuff, and headed back up the mountain. Everyone was tired and frozen. Finally we all made it to the cabin.

Over an hour later.

It was more than a mile.

We started peeling off layers (it seemed so warm in there!) and tried to restore blood flow to frozen appendages.  After a few minutes, we realized that it was cold in there too.

We checked the thermostat. It was only 20 degrees inside. I hate winter.

Coats went back on, we pushed two couches together and hunkered in together under every blanket we had.

It was still cold. I hate winter.

Liz barely got the heat on, and the water was frozen. It was a slow, cold progress.

By the time we fell asleep around 1:30am it was only 34 degrees. INSIDE. I hate winter. It was 65 when we woke up. It was a long, cold night.

The walk back down was better that morning. Especially, for Keni and Becca who got to ride the loaded sleds down.

I still think it was longer than a mile.

And Bonsai died. I’m sorry Bonsai.

And I hate winter.

That was The Great Roommate Adventure.  Can we go somewhere warm next time?

The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake,

-McKenna