9.30.2008

Brown Beauty

I was walking home from the bus last night (about 6pm) and was really amazed at how beautiful it was. Having grown up in Seattle I am extremely addicted to green. Just about any time I comment on the beauty of an area it is due to the green. Yesterday, however, the sun was coming down, not yellow and pink yet, but it was just that kind of light that made everything crisper. Like how everything looks when you just get a brand new prescription and you realize how fuzzy things were before. My house is right up near the mountains and I felt like I could see every detail. The mountains certainly don't have any green on them this time of year. The little color there is is patches of orange-yellow changing leaves. Why the beauty then? BROWN! So I just looked up the word brown on Wikipedia (the ultimate resource for everything) and found out that brown is an entirely relative color. Did you ever know that? I've been mulling that around in my brain for the last little bit and quite honestly, I still don't get it. But the announcement stands: brown is beautiful.

9.12.2008

Back to school, back to school











I realize that it's October now and mid-terms are approaching, meaning that we're reaching the mid-point in the semester where we start counting down until Winter break rather than up from summer. 6 weeks into school and I still love all my classes. I realized as I was registering this semester that I'm a little OCD about picking my classes. I get my mind set on something and I'm finicky with MyMap (the new BYU registering for classes program) until I'm happy. Somehow this year I ended up with almost entirely Monday, Wednesday classes. This makes for some very long days but luckily if I make it to Wednesday, the rest of the week is a slide. So, here's the round-up:

Geography of the Urban Environment: Understanding how cities developed and why they are the way they are. Love it. Lectures are marginal (I have to do the crossword in class to keep my focused...) but assignments are actually quite interesting and help synthesize what I'm learning.

Comparative International Development Education: Yeah, I didn't know what that meant either. Basically we examine education systems around the world and try to figure out which ones are best for which areas. My professor is this total Bad-A economist turned social developer from Nigeria, Geo-Jaja.

Grant Writing: It is what it sounds like. We learn to write grants. I hope that it will give me some practical skills to make some moolah for NGOs. So far so good.

US History to 1877: We just finished the Revolutionary War and surprisingly enough, it's fascinating. Despite the fact that the class is 2.5 hours long with no breaks I usually stay alert and interested. My professor keeps history lively while somehow condemning Whigs and cell phone addicts to burn in hell.

New Testament, the four Gospels: Yep, I still read the scriptures.

Tennis: Love it! I'm still just awful but I'm really improving my forehand, backhand and slam. My serve is really bad.


It's a fairly light load (just 13.5 credits) but I've been keeping myself busy by falling into bunches of useful extracurriculars. I accidently became a member of the Non-Profit Management Minor Student Association which has been really fun, and I just started doing research about Africa with a group going to China. Hopefully I get to go to China too. I'm also looking into grad schools and my post-graduation possibilities whenever that day comes. If anyone has any other good ideas of good things for me to do, let me know!