Laughing until you cry, toilets, front row seats, classes....

Today was the first day of classes for me.

My break was amazing though.

It’s funny. Back when I was in Virginia and I would come back I would tell a million stories about what I did with my friends. This time the highlights of my breaks were the times I spent with my family. Maybe it was because Greg leaves next month to go to Japan for two years so it was the last time we would be together as a family for a while. As I grow older, my priority is to see my family, not my friends.

For Christmas, I got a ton of awesome things for my apartment: a handful of movies, a fondue pot, a griddle, and some new games! The games are probably my favorite part, especially Bohnanza! The whole plot of the game is that you plant beans, trade beans and harvest beans. It is currently my favorite game (yes, it did surpass Ticket to Ride and Nertz!).

However, the best game to play with my family was Pit. Pit is kind of like Spoons but different. You try and collect all nine of a certain card and when you do you ring the bell and get points. We played one game with Sean, Greg, my Mom and me. My Mom collected all nine and threw her cards on the table and started screaming as she went for a two-handed bell hit. As my mom was screaming and her hands were going down towards the bell, Sean snuck in and rang the bell a second before my mom reached it. It was hilarious. We all laughed so hard that tears streamed down our faces.

It was nice to be home and see old friends and catch up. I made a gingerbread house with Rachel and Kyle showed up and watched. It was fun. I have determined that gingerbread house icing is disgusting though. It was thicker than paste and these things are supposed to be edible? At least ours looked cute. 

Another highlight was going to a new burger place, Crave Burger, with Marie. This place is definitely interesting. For starters, they have alcoholic milkshakes. I don't know much about alcohol since I don't drink it but I feel like milkshakes would not be a drink of choice if I did drink alcohol. What an odd consistency. Then we look at the menu... 

A burger with cheese whiz....

A burger with... peanut butter?

A burger with two glazed donuts instead of buns?!?!

It was an interesting experience.

The highlight of my break though was going to Vegas with my siblings. We have some cousins that live out there so we went out to visit for New Year’s. Did you know Vegas is the second most popular tourist destination for New Year's? We accounted for four of the 314,000 estimated visitors to Vegas.  We brought in the New Year on my Aunt's roof and watched the firework show.

Pretty cool, eh? Truth be told, the fireworks were my least favorite part of the trip.

We flew in on the night of the 29th. The six of us crammed into a car built for five. Chauntelle laid across our laps in the backseat. It definitely started the trip out on a fun note! 

The next day Wendy, Sean and I went to explore the strip. We had two main goals: show Wendy the replica of Michelangelo's Statue of David and ride the roller coaster in Circus Circus. 

Our first adventure was trying to find the exit to the parking garage. 

Should be easy right? Well we walked past this little red sign since there were still two more flights of stairs. As we continued down speakers began blaring, "THIS IS NOT AN EXIT. IT IS ONLY TO BE USED IN EMERGENCIES!" Eventually we got back up to the right place... but it took a bit. :)

The first goal was easy to accomplish. Sean had recently been told by a guy that he looks like a Greek statue...

I can see the resemblance. Can't you?

Then we went on the Circus Circus Roller Coaster! Totally fantastic! This is a video of two random strangers riding it.

After riding the roller coaster, we had no desire to walk the 2.7 miles back to where the car was parked. We didn't realize how far away it was when we walked there. It was kind of exhausting. :) So we decided to take the bus back. We bought our tickets and sat on a bench that was probably five inches in length. We decided it was super skinny so people couldn't sleep on it. We wait and eventually a bus finally comes. The first bus fills up right before we are able to get on. We eventually get on the second bus. All in all, waiting for the bus and riding the bus was about a thirty minute process. It was definitely evidence of how many people were truly there!

After our adventure on the strip we went to Town Square Mall, an outdoor shopping mall. Apart from shopping at H&M (practically one of my favorite stores ever), there was a cute park for little kids. It had a mini hedge maze! The best part though was when I dropped in to use the restroom and found this!

A big toilet for adults and a little toilet for kids! I found it way cute... if bathrooms can be cute...

Anyway, that was day two.

Day three we went and saw the Muppets! That movie was amazing!!! I can't wait to see it again. The funny part was we went with two of our younger cousins and I think my siblings & I enjoyed it more than they did. 

But then things just got better.

Sean got us tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show of The Beatles Love!

Now in case that trailer doesn't capture how awesome it was, let me tell you a story.

When we arrived, we were told to go see the lady at the entrance to the balcony where our seats were located. 

"Hi. Since we didn't sell enough tickets we are closing the balcony for this performance. How does the front row sound?"

I got front row seats to a Cirque du Soleil show!

I had one of the main dancers jump off the stage and stand right in front of me.

I had an acrobat dressed as a blackbird fly right over my head.

It was breathtakingly amazing.

Vegas was simply wonderful.

Now I'm back in good old Utah. 

I apply to the journalism major next week! I'm excited and terrified all at the same time.

My classes look great so far.

My BIO 100 (General Biology) professor is hilarious. Two quotes from him from today:

•   This class isn't necessarily for biology majors. You know, once I saw a student rating comment saying, "This guy doesn't know anything about biology!" Hmmm. Yeah that's really credible coming from a theater major. That's like me saying, "Yeah well, I don't like your plie either."
• Everyone kept telling me I had to go to BYU, the land of milk and honeys.

My General Psychology professor made a really good point today. He was talking about how his class did have some group work. He mentioned that he knew that most people hated group work (myself included). He then asked those of us who cared about our grade in the class to raise our hands. 
Every hand was raised.
He then asked us to raise our hand if we cared about the grade of the people sitting next to us.
No hands were raised.
He then went in and talked about the differences between egoism and altruism. Christ was not an egoist. He did not go through the atonement to be on the right hand of God on a throne of glory. He went through it for us.
Conclusion: I am going to love this class.


I also had my Living Prophets class today. The professor seems amazing! I am way excited. I'm also doing University Chorale this semester. 


I'm excited for what this semester holds. It is going to be great. :)