For the record.

{This is when I get to brag about my weekend} A successful BYU weekend is...

A Men's Chorus recital.

A few amazing missionary emails.

Roasting marshmallows on the bell tower lights with friends, followed by some life discussions while standing on a toasty warm campus heat vent till 2:30am.
An indoor bonfire, complete with homemade caramel corn, being hit on by a (no lie, adorable) nine year old, a game of Baby I Love You, spontaneous rap battles & an impromptu porch concert.
And then a Sunday with sunshine, wonderfully perfect testimony meeting, lessons, floor meeting and ward wrap-up.
All before a week that may well kill me! Not really. But I'm not looking forward to it. Especially after a weekend as amazing as mine was. I need to get my hands on a time machine.
23 days

Right now I'm missin a certain place. Also this week was very productive.

I miss my river. And my woods. And my dirt roads. And even those tricky little fellas you see here on aforementioned dirt roads, who cause alignment annihilation and train you in the ways of the pothole-dodging ninja when you're behind the wheel. I miss Maple Valley. And I get to be there in less than five weeks. Excited? YEAHPRETTYMUCH.

Also. It's Friday. My thinking-about-the-past-week day. And today I'm thinking about all the progress I've made in life this week. You know, the stuff I'm really proud of. The life-changing lessons. The character-building experiences. I'm speaking of the items I checked off my "Do these things if you don't want to look really smooth" list {yeah I have one, don't you?} this week. For some reason there were a whole lot of them. It was pretty great. Check it out.

1) Trying to pour dressing on my salad at lunch - right-handed. No. It just doesn't work, fellow lefties. Unless, of course, you were actually planning on decorating the counter & having your salad be 92% raspberry vinaigrette. Dee-lish-iss.

2) Letting everyone in the entire JSB lounge know that I had fallen asleep in my seat by performing a full-body twitch to wake myself up. Thanks, subconscious. Nothing better than waking up to 30 strangers staring at you.

3) Biffing it hardcore on the stairs while walking to class with some friends. Good thing I caught myself on the railing before I went down all the way! Oh that's right, I actually didn't, cause I had my stinking thumbs hooked in my backpack straps. Face-to-the-pavement self-inflicted bodyslam on the stairs ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, it's okay to be jealous.

4) Having a Korean student ask me to explain the concept of a "buffer zone" for her history assignment but totally thinking she's asking me where the "bathroom zone" is. But only for like ten seconds, then I got it, no worries! I assure you that after the initial awkwardness there was a happy ending & I felt accomplished, though she probably walked away rolling her eyes and muttering "Stupid American" or something along those lines. 

5) Catching a cute guy in the library watching me in the middle of my hugest, surely most unattractive yawn ever. Yes. I impress people that way.

Pretty productive week, if I do say so myself! On the less embarrassing side, I did beast my Environmental Biology exam on Wednesday. That felt nice. And now my bestest girl friend from home is HERE in the same CITY as me and we are about to have a girls weekend just like old times.

Life is good.

Rave green till I die!

This day is a very big day. 

Tonight is the Sounders' opening game against LA Galaxy & I want to be at that Quest Field with my fam SO BAD.

But I'll have to settle for reppin' the name on campus & supporting from afar. 

It's go time, boys. Go time.

Just taboo bustin'. nbd.

      We kids these days have a problem. Outside of the world of instant communication, a lot of us are just reallyyy stupid when it comes to initiating social interaction. I've noticed this from day 1 of class. SO MANY PEOPLE here either a) deliberately stare straight at the ground as they walk, or b) intentionally stare off into the distance as they walk, even if you and that person are the only two people on the sidewalk/ in the classroom. And then if/when the dreaded eye contact is made, the universally known "Ohmygosh-how-awkward-we-looked-at-each-other-I-want-to-curl-up-and-die-of-embarrassment" moment ensues, where they stare right back at the ground & secretly pick up the speed to get away from the horrifying situation. No comprendo. Seriously, we Facebook stalk people we don't even know, but then we can't interact with them when they're physically in our presence? You're a human, I'm a human. We at least have that in common. Let's interact! What happened to social skills? Is making eye contact with a stranger taboo in this world? This happens so often on campus. And it's really gettin to me. So lately I've been trying a little somethin fun: flat-out staring people right in the face till they do the inevitable, secretive last-minute glance and then giving them the most ginormous, brightest smile I can manage. What usually results is always interesting and commonly one of these five reactions:

•  Reaction #1: an expression of extreme awkwardness & evasion of further eye contact
•  Reaction #2: pure confusion and/or other expression that indicates the victim really has no idea what it was that just happened
•  Reaction #3: staring at me with no reaction at all. Yeah... that's always a little uncomfortable.  Jerks.  
•  Reaction #4: a small smile
•  Reaction #5: a big smile, and if they're extra cool, a "Hi!"

      The people who perform the latter reaction are officially dubbed awesome. There needs to be more of them. In fact they should probably just create a club and start teaching people about being human. There are some pretty nice smiles out there, I have to say, but I do appreciate the Reaction #1 and #2 people nonetheless; it gives me a sort of confidence boost to know I can scare the pants off someone just by smiling at them and I find their discomfort thoroughly amusing. So a few of them should stay the same. But who knows, maybe in a few weeks I'll upgrade to a cross-eyed, tongue-out approach & see what happens. We'll see how it goes.

Lessons in the life of a BYU freshman

One of the things I love about college is that it pushes me, often beyond the limits I thought I had. Just when you think you've had the hands-down, 100% hardest week/day/just single afternoon of the semester here, another one follows close behind to prove you wrong. When I first came to BYU, I hated it. I mean I've always loved challenging myself (I climbed a mountain last summer for heaven's sake), but I sure as heck didn't like being pushed so hard every day. I'm definitely more of a "go with the flow" kind of person who likes to just chill in their comfort zone for the majority of the time. But I'm seeing that that's changed over the past 6 months. I feel like I'm mentally tougher than I was before; when a challenge comes up in my path, I wanna tackle it! Show it who's boss instead of sidestepping it like before. And I'm having to do plenty of that tackling business; usually on the daily. I'm thinkin I should just try out for the rugby team. At the beginning of fall semester I just wanted to go home or transfer to Idaho where the atmosphere is smaller and more personal. But as I payed my second to last payment for my living & dining plan yesterday, I got to thinking - I'm almost done with my first year of college. I've learned so many things about myself by coming here. I see why my prayers were always answered with an impression to stay here. I needed to be stretched beyond what I was comfortable with. I needed to grow.

That being said, the past two weeks have definitely been the hardest of my semester (knock on wood). Midterms just came at a bad time & were pretty rough. One of my best friends is now only reachable by weekly letters. We just passed the halfway mark in the semester, and things are really starting to pick up in my classes. And for the first time ever, I am really truly homesick. But despite all that, as I look back, I can see I learned some pretty important lessons through all the rough times. I wrote an enormous list in my journal, and I've decided to share a handful of 'em on here. 

Life lesson #1: The ipod is an extension of the soul. Not only does it allow Sting and Norah Jones to soothe my stressin' self, but I found a marvelous app that plays all sorts of ambient noises includingggg (drumroll please...) RAIN! Excited Hannah, right here. Pop those earbuds in my head and I'm right back in woods of my good ol' MV with that Washington rain drumming on the roof.

Heaven.

Life lesson #2: Having a roommate who finds the fun in any task is very valuable indeed!

Life lesson #3: Forget about Gossip Girl and The Secret Life; I can't get enough of BYU 

TV's archive of past devotionals and firesides. The perfect boost when I'm in need of some spiritual food. [: 

Life lesson #4: Any lecture instantly becomes amazing when your notes are taken with these bad boys. 

Life lesson #5: It is important to take time outside of school to hone other skills. With Tasha as official FroYo-coning tutor, my 

"pile-de-la-creme" effect has never looked better.  

Life lesson #6: When the going gets tough, sometimes all you can do is pull a face and just keep pushin forward. 

Life lesson #7: The library is... kinda huge. But a certain sense of confidence comes when one successfully learns how to navigate through those five floors & millions of books to check out four of them for her Humanities essay. 

Life lesson #8: Nothing puts a spring in your step (literally) like new running shoes can!

Thank you, Mommy. [:

Life lesson #9: Up at 7am to run, eat a square breakfast, shower and do a half hour of scripture study before class is the best way to start the day, no questions asked. The difference that daily scripture study makes in my life is indescribable. I may be turning into a morning person just because I enjoy my running route and morning routine so much. 

Weird.

Life lesson #10: We miss Brandon Davies. But, Jimmer is superhuman. That is all.

Life lesson #11: L. Tom Perry is the man. He came and spoke to us on Sunday evening and all I can say is... that felt good. [:

Life lesson #12: You'd think after three years on my high school cross-country team I'd remember how important it is keep the toenails trimmed when you're running every day. Yeahh about that... Ow.

Life lesson #13: Missionary mail is my favorite. Hearing about the amazing experiences my friends have as they do the Lord's work all over the world is so inspiring to me, and never fails to put a smile on my face.

Life lesson #14: Subway has joined forces with Satan. Check out that strategy.

Life lesson #15: Having a long-term somethin to look forward to is quite the incentive. My best girlie comes to visit me in... FIVE DAYS. 

[: [: [: 

Life lesson #16: This is easily one of the best Christmas presents I have ever received. I have it right above my bed and, along with the pictures of my family & friends I've got on my walls, it's the perfect thing to look to when I need a reminder of what's really important, and that I've got people who love me & are rootin for me.

Life lesson #17: Something about hot soup just makes life slowww down for a minute. I'm talking bliss in a styrofoam cup, ladies and gentlemen. Don't get me wrong, the Cannon feeds us well, but I still keep a precious stockpile of one cup just for that one day where hot chicken broth and noodles are very needed.

Life lesson #18: Forget diamonds. A planner is a girl's best friend. Especially a girl as scatterbrained as this one.

Life lesson #19: Any challenge becomes conquerable when you face it with um... a smile. [:

Life lesson #20: Roasting marshmallows on the (blinding) bell tower lights does actually work. I went on a date Friday night and after seeing Tangled in the dollar theater (still my favorite movie; it's even better the second time), we enjoyed an evening of smores & marshmallow volleyball. So worth the fact that we couldn't see anything but colorful spots in front of us on the walk back home. [:

And then last but not least... I get to be with my family in 38 DAYS.

Of course those aren't the only things I learned here, but the rest of the list doesn't need to

be shown to the world haha. One thing I know for certain; life is tough sometimes, but it also is good.

Very, very good. [: Always.

Sometimes my mind has to... give me a piece of my mind.

Some people take life way too seriously.

Including myself, I think. No, I know.

Of course some people really deserve to take themselves that seriously but honestly, me? No.

I dunno. Sometimes I feel like I need to mentally lighten up a bit. Ya know?

There'll be times where my conscience goes, Hey down there. You're getting way too wrapped up in yourself.

Too wrapped up in what you need to do, what you need to be, what you need to not be. 

You're just a person. Granted, a cool person. But a person just the same. Just like anybody else here. 

What's that? Oh, you didn't know? Yes, there are other people here. Expand your point of view for just a sec. Noticed 'em lately?
Gave any thought to that little fact? Uh huh. Thought so. It's really not that hard. You should try it sometime.  

Did it ever occur to you that there's more to life than school? Than getting things done?

Ever heard of stopping to smell the roses? "Joy is in the journey?" Any of this ringin a bell?

Slow down. Remember what's important & just do your best. Lighten up & live in the moment once in awhile. 

It's not the end of the world if things don't go perfectly. Pete's sake, lady. Being here is a gift. 

It's really that simple.

Duh. Thank you, conscience. I'm glad we're together.

Regarding the parentals

I love long phone calls & I love my mom and daddy.
Put those all together and you have a happy girl right here.

 Fairly sure I have the best pair of parents ever. All this week I've been missing people, experiencing my first-ever infection of real homesickness, feeling academically overwhelmed and just having a rough time in general and the cure was right there in front of my face. I love these two people so much and I really, truly take them for granted too often. I owe them so much and am so thankful for them. A goal: call my parents more.

That is all.

Changed for good

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn. And we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them, and we help them in return. And who can say if I've been changed for the better, but because I knew you, I have been changed for good."

       I know, corny right? But I'm in love with musicals, be it Broadway or high school shows, and I fell in love with this song the moment I heard the Wicked soundtrack. And it applies here. I've been thinking about this day for a long time. Nothing I could really say would sum up the effect this boy has had on me and the part he's played in my life. When I first met my Davie Jay the first week of junior year in high school, I had no that anything special would happen. But it did. He became the first guy I seriously dated. He knew who I was, who I wasn't, and who I wanted to be. I learned so much from all the time spent with him; emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. And thanks to him I have some of the best memories in my life to date. So this is to one of the sweetest, funniest, most thoughtful guys on the planet, one of my most precious friends, who tomorrow goes into the MTC before serving in Brazil for the next two years. I'm kind of a mess. But I am also so, so unbelievably excited for him to go serve the people of Recife and share with them the peace & happiness that the gospel brings into our lives. I absolutely love this guy & I'm positive that he will be one of the most dedicated missionaries Brazil has seen. I've seen proof of his inspiring testimony and incredible capacity to love & accept people during every moment that I've spent with him. I definitely look forward to hearing about his experience via cyberspace and snail mail, but holy crud I am gonna miss my best friend during these next two years.

Good luck, Elder Batschi. Because I know you, I have definitely been changed for good.