Testmageddon

Testmageddon. That's what they're all calling it over at BYU. The last day of finals and people waiting in line for at least 2+ hours. I was in the line for a good hour and a half before I even got my test. And I got in line around 2 PM. . Nothing says stress more than the look on these kids faces and also seeing the line that won't stop growing. Would you like an example?

This was the line after I had been standing in line for about half an hour all the way back to at least the Benson. And this was only about 3 PM! Well if you want something really crazy, check out this video. You'll just about pee your pants. This was once I finished my test and left around 6 PM and decided, "Let's see how long this crazy line is." Much longer than I expected it to be. Sorry for the shakiness of the video, it was just taken on my iPhone and I wasn't really planning on posting this for anyone to see, but hey why not. So sorry about the quality and all that jazz.

Testmageddon from Teresa Maria Mendiola on Vimeo.

But isn't that crazy?! I know. You're lucky I sped the video up. In real time it's over 4:30 minutes long from when I started recording. Well all I can say is procrastinators unite. Hope finals went great for all. 

I Told You So

Remember back to my post a few weeks ago when I made poi balls and I put the title "Sometimes I Think I'm Poly." Well I told you so felt like a good title for today's blog. I danced in Luau a few weeks ago and got in touch with my Polynesian side. My little sister asked my why I dance in Luau but I've never danced in Fiesta. Good question Cece, maybe I'll dance in Fiesta next year just for you. 

But this has been my second year dancing in Luau and even though the early 6 AM every Saturday dance practice for 4 hours is a pain, it's always worth it in the end and I later find myself missing it. 

Although even if I feel like I put in lots of hours at practice, the instructors put in even more time. Seriously this couldn't have happened with wonderful people like Keoki, Kawehi, Kamaile, Kiana and Kira. (Apparently to be a luau instructor your name has to start with a K.) Mahalos to everyone that participated or came out to watch the show. 

We Like To Party

Well we had a St Patricks party at my place a few weeks ago (I know Easter has already passed and I haven't posted this yet) so instead of trying to tell you how much fun we had, I'll just post the pictures. Thanks to everyone that came. PS: For those trying to think of a fun activity to add to a party, homemade photo booth was a hit!

Life Is A Test

Everytime I leave the testing center and I see my score, I remember this bumper sticker I saw a while ago. And it's not gonna be any better in three weeks when we have finals. Boooo. 

I guess that's just what I get for going to a private university. The overachievers of the overachievers.
I need to start remembering a quote I once heard. "A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor." Here's to life and all the tests it brings to us. 

Phantom Time

BYU put on Andrew Lloyd Weber's production of Phantom of the Opera.
I had tickets for opening night and my mom bought us family tickets for closing night. 
As much as I enjoyed it opening night, it greatly improved and was pretty amazing closing night. 

My little sister was very much impressed with everything. Right from the very begining when the strobe lights and fog starts, she started to freak. And it was pretty much like that the whole musical. When the man in stilts came out during Masquerade, she leaned in and whispered to me, "One, two, three TRIP!" Then she continued to laugh the rest of that song.
For a college production I was very much impressed and I think my whole family was. And yep we'll be singing Phantom for the next week. 
And whoever plays the Phantom has an amazing singing voice. I would totally marry him. Too bad he proposed to his girlfriend a few weeks ago. 

Also just a side note, we went to Texas Roadhouse here in Orem after the musical and who knew that it would be that crazy! I kid you not, I felt like I was back in South America where you try and see how many people you can squish into a bus or building. Or perhaps a game of sardines, only with a bunch of people you don't know. 

Cocktail, Mocktail

What do you call a bunch of BYU students gathered sipping non alcoholic cocktail drinks? A mocktail! Scooter had an end of the semester mocktail party. Everyone dressed up, gathered around the piano, sang Christmas carols and enjoyed mocktails. Scooter personally made all the drinks, ranging form peppermint twists to Shirley Temples to Bloody Mary's to margaritas. 
What was one of my personal favorite parts of the evening? Hearing a little girl around the age of 8, whom I believe was Scooter's little sister, talk about the difference between mimosas and other cocktail drinks. Oh the children of the future. 

 After the mocktail, we went bowling in our formal wear. It reminded me of a high school prom. You get dressed up, go to the party and then go and do an activity afterwards in your nice dresses. Mo and I looked just plain ridiculous with the bowling shoes and dresses. The guys actually didn't look too shabby, especially with their matching hats and canes.

Snow Day

My roommate Rachel loves snow. So when Provo finally got hit with its first really big snow storm, we braved the cold weather and couldn't resist doing a photo shoot. It was in the middle of finals and we needed a break. We spent about an hour outside, but I think it was time well spent. It's too bad that Katie wasn't there for pictures, we know she would have enjoyed it. But it's a good thing that it snows a thousand times during winter here in Utah so that we can do it again. 

There came a point where we turned this into a model photoshoot. I love my roommates, especially Marina for being crazy enough to take her jacket off in the 30 degrees of cold. She's from California and could handle the cold. I'm from Utah and hate the cold. There's probably a thing or two she can teach me.

These two pictures right below of the three of us were definitely my favorite pictures we took. Lacking a photographer, we became very grateful for self timers on cameras The first one was just cute and fun but for the second one we wanted to have falling snow in this picture. I pressed the timer button, grabbed some snow and counted down for when the picture would take. Only somewhere I lost count and ended up throwing the snow 3 seconds too early. So if you look closely you'll see snow all over Marina and Rachel. 

See here's the about when the modeling pictures started to happen and winter jackets taken off, like it was spring time. 

Also Marina and I decided to make snow angels. We made them on the driveway, although I'm still not quite sure why we decided to do them there. But it was great. I felt like a 10 year old kid again and completely forgot about the finals I had to take later that day and the rest of the week. Best stress relief, ever.

Anatomy part 2

So on my last post, Anatomy Pt. 1, I made anatomy seem kind of like a horrible class. Have no fear! Here I am with part 2 to my anatomy class. The short and simple compilations of the great moments in my anatomy lab.

One day, my anatomy teacher pulled out her teeth. Yes her teeth. She only has 9 of her own teeth, the rest are fake and two of them have "crowns" on them to make them bigger. I must admire her for thinking so highly of us as her students and showing them to us. Even our other TA didn't know they were fake. Oh this was a moment that I wished I had a camera with me, as the looks on the students faces (and both of the TAs) were priceless.

There's this really smart guy in my anatomy class, you know the one who always sets the curve really high. While learning about arteries in the body, we came across the gonadal artery. He asked a question to our TA.
David: Okay so I have a question. I've heard this word before but I'm not sure what it is. So what are your gonads?
Our anatomy TA then explained to him what they were (they are reproductive parts, for those who are also wondering). At this point in the class many of us were laughing, but the cherry on top was what one of the not so smart kids in the class said.
Kid I Can't Remember His Name: Dude, even I know what the gonads are. I've known probably since I was 4. 
My friend Jared refers to this story as the Bible story of David and the Gonad.

Every single food has been related to some sort of the body. I went to an open lab and there was a TA there who was telling us the story of when he first took anatomy. He said after every single one of his labs, he wanted to go eat some steak because looking at the muscle reminded him of meat.

My anatomy lecture teacher is seriously amazing. She often tells us stories about her life. She let a tree grow from under her floor and she carved it and turned it into a couch. Many people have family portraits up on their walls, but not Rachel. She took a picture of the Circle of Willis and blew it up at least 400 times its size and it hangs on her wall. She also told us a story of when she went to some foreign country (she also mentioned that she went to this country alone and didn't tell anyone where she went for about a month) and the men in a village had massive scrotums so huge that they pushed wheelbarrows to support and hold up their scrotums. 

How many people can say they've seen what a transvestite looks like on the outside and the inside? This girl can. BYU is lucky to have Bridget who was a male formerly, but then had a sex change. Bridget died of brain cancer, but donated her body to science. 

And my personal favorite. The reproductive system. I totally thought I would be an adult during this lab. Talking about things like this don't gross me out or make me laugh. My mom works at a hospital in the labor and delivery area, so for me, the sex talk was a dinner topic. But my TA was just very interesting. He's married and asked the class who was married. Only one guy raised his hand. So he decided that right then and there while teaching us all the reproductive body parts that he would give the guys some sex advice for things to do and not to do while on their honeymoon. It wasn't quite so much awkward as it was just plain weird. I guess I thought how sex works was a common sense thing. 


And one day in our lecture, Rachel brought in baby cadavers for people to hold. One of these cadavers was a Siamese twin conjoined together at the neck. She had split the Siamese twins apart so you could see each distinct organ for each of the twins. Also this same day, she brought in breast implants. 

Oh anatomy how I won't really miss you that much. 

Anatomy pt. 1

This fall semester I was able to take an anatomy class with a cadaver lab. I've never been more intrigued and more grossed out at a single moment than in this class. First two labs I thought, I'm gonna love this class. It was so interesting learning about all the different parts of the bones in the body and even though it was a lot of hard work, I really enjoyed it.

Until the third week. That's when we had our first lab with the cadavers. The smell? I didn't mind so much. I've been on tours of hospital laboratories where they have literally every stinky smelly bacteria and bodily fluid you can imagine. But what I couldn't handle in my anatomy lab was the fact that these were humans. I saw body worlds when I was in my freshman year of high school. I remember thinking these are pretty cool. I wasn't bothered with the fact that the cadavers were humans, they looked like plastic. But the cadavers in the lab didn't look like plastic. They looked like humans. Real humans. The first lab I was so unprepared for the cadavers that I thought I was going to pass out all class. Class finally ended, I washed my hands in the lab room, left for the bathroom to wash my hands again and then...

I puked.
My body literally could not handle it. For the next several weeks it took a lot of self control to not pass out or puke. I finally thought that I was getting used to seeing cadavers. Until the one week when we pulled out the hearts, the most central part of the body. My anatomy TA just plopped the heart and pair of lungs on her lap. I don't think I've ever felt so sick in my life. Even worse than the first anatomy cadaver lab.

So I've switched my major. Goodbye science, hello geography. More specifically tourism studies.

Wedding Dress Shopping

So almost a year ago I was having a very bad day due to broken hearts and such. My dear dear friend Josh, (also someone who I had dated previously to this and which also makes this story ten times funnier knew about my hard time and decided to take me to the mall to cheer me up because he knew that I love shopping. (Lately my love for shopping has turned into more of an obsession)
We were walking up and down the mall and we almost reach the very end, but in the corner there is a wedding dress store. I stop and look for a minute and comment about how I liked certain ones on display and couldn't believe people would actually wear the other ones.
I told Josh I was just going to walk into the store to get a better look at one dress that I thought was pretty. He walked in with me. We were in the store for less than 35 seconds when one of the ladies came up to us and asked us if she could help us. I replied very quickly no we are just looking. Then she asked if we were looking for anything special. Josh couldn't keep quiet and quickly replied YES SHE IS. I look at him and my eyes were giving him this message of I am going to kill you. The lady asked what I was looking for and after a few seconds I replied I like lace. Her eyes got wide with excitement as she lead us down an aisle of lace dresses. 
She asked me about certain styles and other questions and I answered them all the while turning back looking at Josh just stand there laughing. I motioned to him to come with me, so that I wasn't fed to the hyenas all alone. He finally followed and the lady pulled out several dresses.
The lady asked if I liked a certain one, and I answered honestly to the questions until she said okay should we get you a dressing room. At that point, I froze. This just got real. I tried to insist that I was fine and that I was just looking and that I didn't want to try on any of the dresses. Josh of course had to speak up and what did he say? "Oh don't listen to her, she wants to try on the dress." I shot a dirty look at Josh as I tried to laugh and play it cool in front of the wedding dress ladies. The lady then asked us how we met and I said I dance in Living Legends and he does the Lighting. She was so excited for us and then asked us when the big date was. I looked at Josh and he stayed quiet. I decided to get back at him for this whole wedding dress shopping trip. "Oh he hasn't asked me yet," I replied. The store workers were kind of shocked and mad at Josh for not taking advantage of the opportunity yet.
The girls teased him and then we were off into the dressing room. Yes I did try on this gorgeous wedding dress. Let's say it was dream wedding dress material. Only about 1400 dollars plus the money for a veil. Pocket change, honey, pocket change.
I came out and Josh had his little phone camera ready to take some pictures.

Halloween

Oh how I love Halloween and wish it came more often. Too bad I didn't do much when it came to festivities. But Alex and I did carve pumpkins! He made this awesome Buzz Lightyear. I made a very special looking Hello Kitty. But it was probably the best pumpkin I've ever carved, so I was actually very proud of my pumpkin. I love carving pumpkins with this kid. The last time I carved pumpkins was with him also. And that was two years ago! Why on earth didn't I carve pumpkins last year? I don't know. 

We took forever deciding what we wanted to carve for our pumpkins. 

I almost thought about doing something simple, like a Nike swish logo. But I wanted to look like I was more creative than that. But my creativeness idea and inspiration came from a picture I saw on Google. So I still have to work on being creative. 

The roomies and I all dressed up. Marina went as a hitwoman, but I like to call her Laura Croft: Tomb Raider. She bought actual airsoft guns and I shot one! Yes, I held and shot my very first gun. I went as Snow White. And my personal favorite? Katie went as Bon Qui Qui. Yes bad hair extensions, crazy killer nails, ghetto fab earrings and all. Unfortunately, she used actual nail glue to stick on her Bon Qui Qui nails and they're still on, just a shorter version of them. 

The Lord Will Magnify You

Today my mission prep teacher, Brother Brad Wilcox, was late to class. But I was perfectly fine with it when I saw who he brought with him. It was President Russel T. Osguthorpe, the LDS General Sunday School President. Yes it was this man: 

He talked to us about missionary work and how it was "the most rewarding time" of his life. He began to talk about how it is not an easy job to do but that "If you reach out and do everything you can, then the Lord will be willing to magnify you." He mentioned examples of how we can do this in our lives. "It does not matter your personality...He will magnify you." Osguthorpe then mentioned examples from the Book of Mormon, more specifically the example from Alma 26-27 with Ammon. It is a great story where the people are magnified and strengthened for their efforts and their faith in Jesus Christ. President Osguthorpe then related this to our lives telling us that "The Lord will give unto you success. In no matter what it is that you are trying to do. Missionary work, school, carreers, families. He will give unto you success." 

Oh how blessed we are to be able to listen to the wise counsel of modern day prophets, seers and revelators. 

To read President Osguthorpe's talk from the latest General Conference click here

Building A Bookshelf

Once upon a time, I bought a bookshelf. I brought it home and decided I would wait a few days until I had time to put it together. Finally Sunday rolls around and after church, I decided to put it together. I pulled all the pieces out of the box and then I realized...I don't have any tools. I asked my roommates if we had any and we pulled out a very sad looking hammer. 
Luckily Richard was over at the house and he came to the rescue. He (being a BYU graduate with a major in construction management) has plenty of tools. 5 minutes later, we started on the bookshelf. 

About an hour later, we finished the bookshelf. Richard turns to me and says, "I don't think you're gonna like me very much." I asked him why but turned around and saw the bookshelf. It looked like this:

I didn't really want a bookshelf that had crooked shelves. So we took another 20 minutes to finish it. But in the end it was beautiful. And that ladies and gentlemen is the story of what happens when you ask a construction management major to help you build a Walmart bookshelf.

Dancing Through Life

School may be over, but that doesn't keep us from still dancing. A few members of Living Legends all got together for a Latin celebration where we ate delicious food, danced and sang. 

Sarah, Katie, me and Eli 

Finals

Can the semester just be over already? One more final...

End Of Semester Funk

My first final for this winter semester here at BYU is next Thursday! Can you believe it? The semester sure went by fast! In a little over two weeks time, I'll be back at home for the summer and working. It will sure be so nice to have some extra time where I can just relax and not have to worry about school or homework or anything related to it.

You know when you're running a marathon (or just running in general), and you've passed the halfway mark but you can't see the finish line and you want to just walk the rest of the way? The point where you want to just lay down in the middle of the road and continue later? That's where I am with school this year, I've got the end of semester funk. I need one last push. One last thing to work towards. Hopefully I'll find it soon. 

At the same time, it's been a great semester. I took off for a weekend with some friends and we went to Vegas.  It was definitely needed. It was the two girls I went with first time in Vegas, ever. So we made sure we walked the Strip for as long as possible and did as much as we could in the 72 hours we were there. 

I finally fulfilled my lifelong desire of going to Festival of Colors at the Krishna Temple. I seriously had a blast. Think modern day Woodstock. 

this=semester in a nutshell.