Blah Week

Another week of classes has passed and I am glad to say that I survived. Nothing too eventful happened this week, which is sort of depressing.
We had our first Family Home Evening with our entire ward (church congregation) on Monday night. I am so excited to be in a community where I am able to attend those types of activities. It was a lot of fun and a great way to meet people in my ward. Pretty soon, we get assigned to our “families” and learn who our “parents” are. I’m excited for activities and lessons that we’ll have. For those who don’t know what Family Home Evenings are, they are a time set aside every week (traditionally on Monday evenings) for families to spend time together. Often, there is a scripture study/lesson, family prayer and then an activity that brings the family together. In college, since all of us are away from our families, the Church organizes the students into small “families.” There are “moms” and “dads” who organize the evenings.
On Friday night, I went to the Institute (this is a place/organization for college-aged students to take religion classes. They also host activities for students pretty much every week.) They had a Jello slide on Friday afternoon. Then at night, they had a mechanical bull and another dance and stuff. It was pretty sweet. Here are some pictures from the night. It had a big “Giddy Up/Western” theme.

This is me riding a mechanical bull!

Saturday I went to the USU women’s soccer game. I miss being able to watch athletic events and knowing the athletes. At college games/matches, I don’t know anyone so it changes how much I pay attention to the game. It would be more fun if I actually knew the people playing. But the good news is that we won! We played a team from Colorado and we won 3-0! But the sad news of the weekend is that our football team lost AGAIN. The score was 24 to 66. It is really depressing to come here and have a team that stinks at football. I honestly think the Everest Evergreens could dominate the Aggies.
And here are some more pictures of my campus, as I promised.

This is the Quad that is on campus. The University declared that they will never build upon this grassy area. It is quite nice. Often, there are people playing ultimate frisbee and other sports. And there seems to always be something interesting going on here too.

This is the institute building where I have religion class twice a week. It is also where our meetings/church service are on Sundays.

This is Old Main Building. I have one class in there. The A on top signifies Aggies. When the light is white, that means we lost at a sporting event, however when it is blue, that means we won. It is rarely blue. It will be more when Basketball starts though, I guarantee that!

Some kids on campus tried to break a world record this week. I don’t know if they broke it but I have a hunch that they did. These two kids had to teeter-totter for 100 straight hours. They had their set up (with a tent, food and all) outside one of my classes so I got to see it up front and personal. It was pretty exciting!
For those of you concerned, my ulcers are better. This week, I was able to eat a little more. And I run my marathon on September 20th (yikes, in less than two weeks!) so I am training like crazy for that. This week includes our first football game and we play University of Utah! Even though we’re guaranteed to lose, it will still be fun!