First week of classes!

Hello everyone. Sorry for the extreme nostalgia last week...but that kind of stuff happens every now and then. Oh - and thanks, Becca, for unwittingly allowing me to borrow (aka steal) that picture of us three. ;-)

I'm finally taking classes here at BYU! My schedule is no simple one, despite the fun I'm sure I'll be having. I have German 102, Beginning Ballroom Dance, Martial Arts (Jiu-Jitsu), Beginning Weight Training, and Flexibility. I'm hoping to be in much better shape at the end of this summer than at the beginning! Just in time to destroy the hard work on my body with a semester's worth of books and singing at FSU.

By the way, if you're the really creepy kind of sneaky person who likes to try to recreate people's school schedules from clues given in blogs, be warned - I could kill you with my pinky.

I can because I'm in a bunch of athletic classes. (Honestly, don't you read??)

So my first week of classes went by really well! It was incredibly good because I was able to learn all about myself. After all, what good is education if it can't teach you about you? So here are the eight big things I've learned this week:
1. I am woefully underprepared for my 2nd semester German class.
2. I have the tenacity to stick to a subject I'm not prepared for.
3. I'm not as good a dancer as I had previously thought.
4. I look like a ninja in my Jiu-Jitsu gi (uniform).
5. I turn very red while doing Jiu-Jitsu in the heavy, very warm gi.
6. My upper body is weaker than even I originally thought.
7. Having incredibly sore abs feels a lot like having a bad stomachache.
8. I fail at Flexibility. (Literally. I failed the pre-course test.)

My favorite class so far has to be Jiu-Jitsu. It's called Martial Arts in the BYU Catalog and on the Course Schedule, but the coach told as at the beginning that it's all Jiu-Jitsu. For those of you who don't know - and I didn't until we began the course - Jiu-Jitsu is pretty much all grappling. Grappling is like wrestling, except that the fight isn't over when someone is on their back. Rather, that's when the real fighting begins.


This is a gi. A Jiu-Jitsu gi. A Jiu-Jitsu gi that's very warm. It's a shame you can't feel it through the screen (how awesome would that be!! Could you imagine?! Just reaching through the laptop or monitor and -- woops, sorry, back on track--) If you could, you'd realize how thick and stiff the top is. I can practically hold it horizontal and it will keep it's shape. I know, I know, that's one Hefty piece of fabric.

Most of us in the class are brand new. That being said, we tend to hurt each other on accident often, mostly through trying the different moves a little too zealously.
Just to show you what I mean, I got a pretty sweet bruise on my inner arm this week! It's a shame you can't go back in time and see it the day after it happened (but oh my gosh, wouldn't that be insane?? Just imagine if--woops, sorry again--) It was a beautiful conflagration of greens, purples, reds, and yellows. It was like I had a Great Red Spot on my arm...only smaller...and seen through a weird color filter...

So that's my Martial Arts/Jiu-Jitsu class. A barrel of laughs!

The other interesting thing this week was my German class. I took the first test on Friday, and that was one of the first tests that I've ever taken that I was not prepared for. Usually I can just wing something that I haven't really studied for and do pretty well (good test-taking talent), but this was something else. Not exactly like my (Hel)LSAT experience, but even worse in a weird way. A weird, horrible way. I mean, I had actually studied and prepared for this test! And what did it profit me?

Shame. That's what it profited me. Shame. I seriously felt like drooling on my keyboard in the computer testing lab that day, then maybe mumbling to myself while shooting furtive glances around me. After all, people wouldn't blame a weird crazy person who drooled on technology. They would pity him and wonder why he was subjecting himself to something obviously beyond his menial and limited abilities.

In short: the test was way over my head.

And for your viewing pleasure, here are my instruments of self-esteem-malevolence in all their glory. Feast your eyes well, for they are expensive to obtain.

2 Editions. 1134 pages. Priceless? Nope: $300.