I'd just like everyone to be aware that I ate a nut today--an almond. It was the first time in a long time that I have done such a thing. This means good things for my wisdom teeth recovery. A truly sweet moment--I imagine it feels like flying (as a bird flies) for the first time.
On the front page of today's edition of The Daily Universe, BYU's newspaper, there is an article entitled, "BYU offers mission preparation course online." The first-liner reads as follows: "Future LSD missionaries are encouraged to prepare for their missions early. . . ." To me, that is hilarious. I don't know if anyone else saw that and/or got enjoyment out of that, but I sure did.
Preach the gospel of LSD, and start early, would you?
Yesterday, I totaled my car.
Kirsten and I drove to Orem (the neighboring city to the north of Provo) to pay our rent. On the way there, a guy in a pick up truck pulled out in front of my car. He was turning left. He didn't see me and I didn't have time to stop or to swerve to avoid hitting him, so my car crashed into his car. I drew pictures on Paint. I don't claim to be an artist.
Stage 1.
Stage 2.
Stage 3.
Luckily, Kirsten had her camera with her.
1. Not driveable, methinks. 2. The other car involved. 3. The marks where we skidded into the parking lot. Hoorah. 4. "Hi, I'm holding a part of my car that came off in the parking lot and making a really weird face!"
Recently, I returned from Mexico for a week-long humanitarian trip. There, we constructed houses and other such things. I did mostly roofing, which I had not done before. But the houses aren't really constructed well there to begin with, so I wasn't too worried.
I found out about the organization from my friend Amber Naumann, who is a student at USU. So I ended up in a group of mostly Aggies, which was surprisingly...not bad. Harhar. (I've been writing "harhar" a lot lately.) Just kidding, I already had a lot of friends up at USU.
A lot of funny things happened. One time, Amber and I walked to the grocery store down the street from the hospital we were staying at. Well, it was more of a clinic, and it did not even function. The clinic is run by the Catholic Church, although that's not the reason it's not functioning (I don't think).
The grocery store is called Flash, but don't be fooled. The English name for the store does not mean anything. I was surprised, in fact, at our proximity to the US border, and yet we were completely immersed in unAmericanness. Not very many people could speak English, and although the landscape is very similar to Southern California, it couldn't be more different in some ways.
So Amber and I were in the pastry section and Amber asks me, "Amanda, what does this sign say?" There was a paper sign on a glass case that said something in Spanish. I don't know Spanish. In fact, I know less than Amber knows. (She was impressively diligent about expanding her Spanish vocabulary and using it. And although I hated the fact that I couldn't speak Spanish, I had zero motivation to actually make an effort to learn any Spanish. I am not a person that is motivated to learn languages. Russian is quite enough for me.) So the fact that she was asking me was funny, but what was funnier was that I answered her. Without hesitation, I read the sign. "Please do not touch the pastries with your hands." And we walked on. I'm not sure how I did that.
Another day, I went with a couple of people in my work group to get lunch from a taco stand on the side of the road. We ordered fish tacos. We went back to the hospital to eat them and so they gave us little baggies with colorful sauces. I didn't use the sauces very much when I was there because me and spicy food don't get along well. I was unprepared for the fire that happened in my mouth when I ate some kind of hidden chili pepper in my taco, then. And to quell the burning in my mouth, I turned to the sauces. One of them looked quite harmless. It was avocado green in color and appeared to have little or no seasoning. I wasn't thinking, but I thought it would be guacamole that was not too hot. So I downed almost the entire baggie.
It wasn't guacamole, it wasn't avocado. I'm told it was wasabi. All I know is that I nearly died. No joking.
When we left Tijuana, it was approximately 12 PM on Wednesday, January 3. It took us a long time to get across the border...
...and when we did, we just kept driving, stopping only for gas, food, and bathroom breaks. We drove through the night. By around 4 AM, we were in Fillmore area. Steve was driving and I was awake, providing the music (courtesy of iPod), while everyone else slumbered peacefully. Suddenly, the van ran out of gas. The gas gauge was broken so we had to measure the trip miles every time we filled up with gas. I guess we underestimated exactly how many miles we could get on a tank of gas, though.
There weren't very many cars on the road and no one was stopping, so we
decided to push. Within minutes, no one was sleeping anymore and eventually, every person was outside of the van (with the exception of someone to steer the car) pushing or simply walk-running alongside. The next exit with a gas station was over a mile away.
It was quite cold outside. Really an invigorating, brisk walk.
I did laundry yesterday. I have a major beef with paying for laundry, so I usually take mine to my brother's house, or just don't do it.
It's like that song by Jack's Mannequin that has the weird part, where he's speaking (from "I'm Ready")--which, by the way, you can hear only through one ear bud, interestingly:
I wake up to find it's another
four aspirin morning, and I dive in
I put on the same clothes I wore yesterday
When did society decide that we had to change
And wash a tee shirt after every individual use:
If it's not dirty, I'm gonna wear it.
What do I say to that? Молодец! Очень хорошо! Or, in other words (English words)...good work! Why should we wash our clothes unless it looks dirty or smells bad? No reason. Plus, if you do, they wear out, stretch, and fade faster.
When I was younger, I had the mistaken idea that you should change your pants every day. That's ridiculous. Especially when it comes to jeans. I'm grateful to Russia for helping me to overcome this. (No such societal implications there!) You don't need a lot of clothes, or shoes, for that matter. You just need a few essentials, and those essentials should be high-quality and things that you like so you don't mind wearing them often. You can wear them repeatedly and it's completely normal. Also, it's great if you have a lot of variety in those essentials, so you can switch around your ensemble a lot. Basically, I wear my jeans, changing the shirt, over and over and over again until they are smelly, and that takes a while. I also wear jackets repeatedly. I think I exaggerated when I said 20-25 times earlier, but it's often 10 or more. And sometimes, that's 10 times in a row, mind you. Who cares? Probably nobody. But if you do care, don't tell me, because I'm comfortable. Some people have a problem with denim stretching, but I rectify this matter simply by wearing a belt.
Can a beard be worn? Lindsey thinks not.
Enough on that:
Since I do my laundry at my brother's, and since he needed laundry detergent yesterday, I decided to buy some on my way over. That way I could use his when I was there and pay him back for the trouble and expense of having me do my laundry there. I wasn't cheap, either, because I bought the laundry detergent he had and I knew he liked. I stopped at Smith's and got the $10 Tide with 33% more.
I guess I didn't put the lid on tight in between one of my loads. It was set on the dryer and when I went to check on my clothes 40 minutes or so later, the detergent was EVERYWHERE--spilled all over the floor. I think half of the bottle spilled. Five dollars down the drain. It was a ridiculous amount of soap. I got Jon's help and we did our best to clean it up, although the floor was still sticky by the end. My hamper was pretty much ruined so I had to steal a laundry basket from Jon to put my clean clothes in. What a pain.
You know, something like that should be funny--but I'd had it with the day by that time last night, and I was mad that it had happened. Furthermore, it is quite difficult to see your money completely wasted and not know what to do or be able to do anything about it.
I just wanted to go to bed and end the day, but stuff kept happening that made me madder--like the door being locked when I got home. Not a big deal, but I was so upset that I had to put down all of the things I was carrying (a lot of things) and fish out my key and open the door and struggle inside and whatnot.
It's pretty ridiculous to think of it now, but...moments happen. Another one was this morning when I totally biffed (?) it shortly after leaving my house. I was running late but I definitely had to turn around and change my pants because they got dirty. (Dang it! I just did laundry!)
Ridiculous later, but sort of annoying in the moment.
And socks? Well, the past several times that I have worn socks, I have made bad choices about the color. You can usually see my socks through the shoes I have, so it's important that they don't clash with my pants or other outfit parts. And it's been really frustrating because I always am unsatisfied later. I'm not sure why this pattern exists or is continuing, but I have taken off my socks several times in the middle of the day lately, stuffing them into my bag, because I really can't stand it. Maybe I need some new socks, or shoes where socks are unimportant.
Today, I heard a mistake from someone who should be invincible. The very instructor of the very class, who teaches us the correct way to use these very things, used something (very) wrong. Of course, speaking and writing are two different things, so I don't blame her.
She said, "I edited a book for...the English professors, whom are very good writers."
I almost raised my hand to ask if the "whom" should actually be "who" in that sentence, but I didn't want to criticize her speaking in front of the whole class, so I held my tongue. Instead, I wrote a little note to the person in front of me (uh...that would be Julie).
Surely if you were to split the sentence into two clauses: "I edited a book for the English professors/who are very good writers," it would be clear that "who" serves as the relative pronoun for the second clause and should therefore take the subjective case.
But if you look at it in another way, then it would be an extension, or modifying "the English professors," since "the English professors" is the object of the sentence. In that case (literally), would it take the objective pronoun, which would be "whom"?
And coming from that perspective, isn't Russian that way? Then I started thinking about it, and really...I don't know. I mean, I think it would be like this:
Я читала книгу профессора, кого (or maybe которого) хороший писатель
I (nominative) read book (accusative case) professor (genitive case), who (genitive case) good (nominative) writer (nominative)
(and actually the genitive case is the object case, so it'd be whom...)
but is that even grammatically correct in Russian?
What about который?
I'm confused.
"We got here to Grimmewald sometime in the morning. We traveled here from Interlaken, a beautiful city at the base of the Alps. We took a train, then a bus, and then a gondola up here to Mountain Hostel. Around one in the afternoon, we left to go walk and hike around. We hiked up the road through the villages. There are a few hundred people and only one road. We stopped at a place where a man sells sausage, milk, and cheese. Emily bought some sausage and cheese. The sausage was from a lamb and the cheese from a cow, and it was delicious. Possibly the best cheese and sausage I have ever eaten in my life. We stopped on a bench and had a small picnic. Emily stayed on that bench but we all went on and left her behind, trusting her with the responsibility of checking into our hostel once the reception desk opened. I was an idiot and promoted hiking the Jungfrau, the highest mountain in Europe. There was snow on the top. I was feeling that crazy sense of adventure, the one that says enthusiastically, "You are only in the Swiss Alps once, blah blah blah." We opted for a more practical option, though, the Schillthorn. I was excited to summit it. It has been a long time since I have been hiking or climbing at all. We began our journey.
We left the trail rather early on and decided to follow the creek, or river, up the slope. Unfortunately, I had the idea to cross the river. I discovered my lack of adventure and ability to leap across rivers easily. I took my shoes off and wondered for a long time how I would cross. Finally, I decided a place. As I was crossing, my camera dropped out into the river. I realized it immediately but didn´t do much. I said, "Crap, I just dropped my camera," to Rachel and she bolted into action while I just stood there, watching all of it play out. I did not have much hope. We saw the camera case and they got it out for me but the camera itself was long gone. I threw the case into the river. I did not want it anymore. I had been carrying the camera by holding it with my cardigan, tied around my waist. It was a rather ingenious way, I thought, but the river crossing could have used a bit more preparation. The cardigan was a little loose and the initial big step was not at all conducive to security as far as holding it was concerned.
We continued to climb. Then the mountain started getting steeper and steeper, and the grass turning into more and more rock. It was almost a vertical climb and we were not sure what to expect. There was a place at the top where we could see the grass ended but we were not sure if it wound around another side or just transformed into imposing cliffs. Rachel went ahead a little bit to explore. I was starting to feel really stupid and bad about the whole thing. I did not see any way to get down and was not sure there was a way to get up, either. Going down on that kind of terrain seemed suicidal to me. It was very steep and slippery, and rocky. It looked from where we were like Rachel was giving the thumbs up so we climbed up after her. When we got to her, it was clearly impossible. She said she was thinking it would be okay to attempt to climb some rocks (pure rock climbing without any gear) but when she tried, the rock was so eroded and came off in her hand every time she grabbed a hold. Rachel´s terror began at that moment. Apparently she is morbidly scared of heights. We were pretty high up and to all appearances, simply stuck on a rock. I felt horrible and hopeless. We saw a gondola going up to the station at the summit of the peak not too far away. It was odd to know that they probably saw us, and that we needed help, but what could they do? I started to imagine a helicopter coming to get us after being stuck on the mountainside for so long. I wondered how long we would have to be stuck on the mountainside. Dallin was confident he could get us down, though. I looked at him and placed all of my trust in him. I did not have any confidence in my own ability to get myself off the mountain, so I told Dallin that if he would help me down, I would follow him. And he did help me down. He was rather optimistic and encouraging. My confidence was building. He was telling me where to put every foot, pretty much. It was ridiculous, actually, but he was patient with me. Then I slipped and started to slide and that is when we had our slide for a few feet. Dallin started to slide with me and put his arm out to stop me and we were all right. But it killed any confidence I had gained and I was quite nervous and scared. Rachel and Dan were pretty far behind us and we saw that Rachel kept stopping, completely immobilized for long periods of time. The mountain was evening out and I started sliding on my butt instead of climbing down. Eventually, I told Dallin to go back for Rachel. He said she would refuse any help. That much was certain, that much was clear. I said he did not have to help her, simply make sure she kept moving. I made my way toward Christina who had been at the bottom earlier because she turned around ealier than we did. I fell once in making my way to her and it hurt for a while, but I got over it. Christina and I kept walking further and it started to rain. We found a huge rock that provided an overhang of shelter on one side and waited there. We were there for a long time and Dallin and Rachel´s progress was slow. They looked very small. I felt like I was watching something on the news about a rescue mission or something. When it started raining harder, though, we sought the shelter of the inside of the rock again and could not watch our friends. At one point there was a massive rumble of thunder. It was the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life. It was absolutely terrifying. Lightning quickly followed. The lightning was very close and our situation seemed more dire by the second. It was getting dark, too. We needed to get off that mountain.
Eventually, they made it and we made our way down in the rain with absolutely soaking shoes. Finally, we got back to the hostel, and it was glorious when we did. Dallin was not so enthusiastic as he had been. His continual and indomitable optimism on the climb itself were invaluable, even ridiculous almost, to me. He remained absolutely positive the entire time. But in the end, we were all exhausted."
What adventures! No wonder I'm scared of mountain climbing these days.
I got an e-mail from my friend who is in Ukraine, Andrea. I wrote her in Russian, and apparently my Russian is really bad, because this is what she wrote back:
(Andrea, if you read this, I'm assuming it was all a joke...but I'm not sure...but it was funny anyway.)
Hey Amanda-
It’s so good to hear from you. I think I understood most of your email, but I was in a hurry and I didn’t have my dictionary handy so I had to guess on some and I may have missed some, my Russian is still really bad and not nearly as good as it should be. Anyways congratulations on the engagement, he sounds like quite the guy, although I can’t really see you with a bald midget, but I wish you the best. And I can’t believe you’re moving to Siberia with him next month after the wedding, that’s so fast and sounds insane, but I guess your Russian will be put to good use. I’m sad that I won’t be home in time to come to the reception, but good luck with everything. And I’m so sorry to hear about your hamster, I didn’t quite get what happened, something about a pot of soup or maybe it was cake batter, I don’t know but it sounded messy.
