summer time

Well...it's summer. That usually means things slow down and I have much more free time. Not this summer. Here's what's been going on:

I finished my spring term a few weeks ago, which was magical. I still have an internship to do, but I am officially done with my undergraduate coursework! Taking those last two finals was absolutely exhilarating. Well, the finals themselves were actually quite boring. But the being done part was fabulous. No more homework for me!

To celebrate, my friend Jaime and I went on a short week-long roadtrip (because vacations in my mind should last no shorter than two weeks) to all of the LDS temples in Utah. I'll post more about that in a separate post. It was really fun, though, and so so nice to not have to go to work.

Just in time for the vacation, I got sick. Jaime had a sore throat and a cough before, and she ever so kindly passed it along to me. On Sunday my throat was hurting pretty badly, I was achy all over, and I was just feeling miserable. I knew I'd never get through the trip feeling that way. So I asked two of my friends to give me a Priesthood blessing. If you don't know what that is, or even if you do, you can find a fabulous speech about what Priesthood blessings are and how they can help us here. I'm so grateful to live in a place where I am surrounded by good, respectful men who recognize their Priesthood responsibility and live worthy to act in God's name for the benefit of God's children. The next morning, I woke up and the achiness was gone. I was still really tired and still had a little bit of pain in my throat, but I felt good enough to go on the trip. For me, that was a miracle, and I'm grateful to have a Heavenly Father who knows me, cares about me, and answers my prayers. The sickness continued throughout the week but was mild enough that I was still able to do everything we'd planned. I'm still rockin' a legit cough, but I'm doing ok.

Last weekend, Jaime and I started our temple trip by going to Bountiful and Logan. Since it was only a two-day trip (we came back for Sunday so Jaime could teach), I drove. I'd had some problems with my car before but my mechanic assured me it wasn't a big deal and even though we were having a hard time finding a part that I needed, it wouldn't affect the rest of the car. If any of you have ever been to Bountiful or Logan, you know there are some pretty intense hills up there. My poor little car just didn't have what it took. About halfway up to Logan, the check engine light came on. Then my overdrive light started blinking. The shifting was getting pretty hard and the wheezing noise from the engine was getting pretty intense as well. We made it all the way back to Provo, miraculously, and just as we got off the freeway, something in the transmission died and even though the engine was still running, we weren't going anywhere. I somehow managed to milk it enough to get it off the main street and off to the side of the road where I left it. I had to work that night so we called a friend to come get us, then Jaime took me to work in her car. Later that night, my fabulous and very manly friend Cody towed me to the mechanic's shop. It was pretty good timing since I was going out of town and wouldn't need my car anyway. On Thursday, though, I got the dreaded phone call: the whole transmission needs replaced. My car's not even worth as much as the cost of a new transmission, so my time with Sylvia has come to an end. Now I have to figure out a way to get her back to my apartment and hope I can sell her to some aspiring garage mechanic who wants to replace the transmission. In the meantime, I am accepting any offers for rides to and from work. =)

In the end, it's probably better that this happened now, since I was planning on driving my car across the country from Utah to Indiana in August. It would've been a lot less pleasant to have my car die somewhere in the middle of Nowhereville, Wyoming.

I don't have homework anymore, but my now full-time homework is figuring out stuff to get myself to Spain in two months. The visa application requirements are ridiculous and everything costs money. I had no idea it'd be this much work just to get myself to Spain. I'm trying to remind myself every day that on the other side of this crap is eight months in Europe. It'll all be worth it, right? Right.