Geography lesson

On Friday, our mission president and his wife took us sisters from the mission out to lunch. Sisters' night! Okay, it wasn't actually nighttime, but we got the essential down: no boys (except president, of course, but you can't even tell since he took the picture!). For some reason, we only ever have mini mission reunions at the Brick Oven. I'm not complaining, especially since they messed up on my pizza and gave me an entire second one for free. Score.

Going down-up, left to right: Kalli (served in Vanuatu), Harmony, Holli (served in Fiji), me, Sari, Sister Ostler, Laurel

President started off by asking us, "So how does it feel having served in the Vanuatu Port Vila mission?" After a few confused looks, we realized what that meant: the mission finally split! It was rumored to do so about a year and a half ago as we were leaving, so I guess they finally got around to doing it. This change will take place in July. The current mission president (Pres. Klingler, who I worked with in the MTC) will stay in Fiji (even though he speaks French), and the new president will be over the Vanuatu mission. (I wonder where they'll live?) It kind of makes me sad, though, knowing that even though I can still say that I served in the Fiji Suva mission (since that will always be my mission), it's kind of not true anymore.

President asked Kalli to say the prayer on the food in Bislama, the pidgin language they speak in Vanuatu. It's just beautiful. And it makes me laugh. At their homecoming, Sister Ostler talked about how much she loves the simplicity of the language, especially the translation of "endure to the end." In Bislama, you say, "Stand Up Strong." I love that too. And I think it's a great way to describe the people and the missionaries in this new mission. And, as we said, now we'll just have to take a little trip to Vanuatu so that we can say that we've actually been there.

As if the explanation weren't confusing enough . . . (an example of how the explanation usually goes:)

Person: So where did you serve your mission?

Me: Uh . . . just this little French island in the South Pacific.

Person: (as if they have any clue of the geography down there) Oh, what's it called?

Me: New Caledonia. It's in the Fiji mission, but it's not a part of Fiji, it just happened to be included in the mission.

Person: So, it's like one of the outer islands of Fiji?

Me: No. It's in between Fiji and Australia, just north of New Zealand. The Fiji mission is made

up of three countries. So if you get called Fijian speaking, you go to Fiji; if you get called English speaking, you go to Vanuatu and learn a pidgin language when you get there; and if you get called French speaking, you go to New Caledonia.

And they get waaay more information than they wanted. And they still have no idea where New Caledonia is. (How, oh how will I explain it now?!)

So here's the new dealio with the mish:

The Fiji Suva Mission . . . before. Included Fiji Islands, New Caledonia (just ignore those islands on the left side of the New Caledonia box--they aren't really a part of New Cal), Vanuatu, Tuvalu, and Wallis & Futuna (even though there aren't any missionaries in Wallis & Futuna . . . yet.)

And here is the newly divided mission: the Fiji Suva mission and Vanuatu Port Vila mission. You'll notice that Fiji is now by itself (well, with Tuvalu), and the new mission includes New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands (taken from the Papua New Guinea mission), and Wallis & Futuna. Apparently the new mission follows the flight paths pretty well, so that'll be good for cutting down on travel time for the new pres.

Now our mission is even MORE obscure than it was before!

So hopefully this map helps you understand better what's going on down there in the South Pacific! A very sincere Good Luck ("Bon Courage!") goes out to the missionaries and the new mission president who will be affected by this change. It'll be great. One day New Cal will be its own mission, temple and all. We can hope, right?

P.S. Here's a better picture of the new mission. You can check it on the Church News here.

Hello, magical life. Welcome back?

So, remember the internship I was applying for that I was almost positive I wasn't going to get? I got it! Woot! I had an interview last Thursday for it (which I looked totally profesh for, thanks again to Lisa's Closet:),

and they sent me home with two editing tests and a writing test to be done over the weekend. I seriously love editing; weird, I know. So I turned them in on Tuesday and settled in for a long week of waiting. Imagine my surprise when, later on at work my phone rings and it's a BYU number. Contrary to what I thought, it wasn't the MTC asking if I could come volunteer for them, it was one of the people I interviewed with! She left a message asking that I give her a call in the morning. After a very anxious night, I called her back yesterday morning and she offered me the internship! I'm so excited!

Here's what I'll be doing at BYU Magazine: editing and proofreading, writing news articles and profiles, fact checking, researching, and basically just learning the ropes of magazine editing. It's pretty much the perfect job for what I'm wanting to do with my life.

Lisa and I used to talk about how my life was so magical. This was back when I was getting ready to leave for my mission and everything just worked out perfectly. The perfect clothes just found me; dresses that I paid $80 for suddenly turned up for $8, etc. It was fabulous, and it just backed up my knowing that I was on the right path. So I guess that I'm on the right path again, because things are sure (looking like they're) going my way. I have to quit the job that I have right now in order to have the best summer ever, and then this internship will start exactly when I get back in the fall right before school starts. So perfect!

Oh, and this girl in one of my classes gave me an orange today--the same day I ran out of them at home. It almost made me cry it was so nice.

But, as always, there must be opposition in all things, and my day certainly didn't maintain its goodness . . . Long story short: I'm exhausted today. I guess being up until 3:30 in the morning with my new policeman friend will do that to you. (I'll give you a hint: it wasn't a date.)

Does this help?

Dear Megan,

This one's for you.

Enivrez-Vous

par Charles Baudelaire

Enivrez-Vous /--------/ Get Drunk

Il faut être toujours ivre. /--------/ You have to always be drunk.
Tout est là: /--------/ That's all there is to it:
c'est l'unique question. /--------/ that's the only way.
Pour ne pas sentir /--------/ So as to not feel
l'horrible fardeau du Temps /--------/ the horrible burden of time
qui brise vos épaules /--------/ that breaks your back
et vous penche vers la terre, /--------/ and bends you to the earth,
il faut vous enivrer sans trêve. /--------/ you have to get continually drunk.
Mais de quoi? /--------/ But on what?
De vin, de poésie, ou de vertu, à votre guise. /------/ On wine, poetry, virtue, as you wish.
Mais enivrez-vous. /--------/ But get drunk.
Et si quelquefois, /--------/ And if sometimes,
sur les marches d'un palais, /--------/ on the steps of a palace,
sur l'herbe verte d'un fossé, /--------/ on the green grass of a ditch,
dans la solitude morne de votre chambre, /----/ in the dismal solitude of your room,
vous vous réveillez, /--------/ you wake up,
l'ivresse déjà diminuée ou disparue, /---/ drunkenness already diminished or lost,
demandez au vent, /--------/ ask the wind,
à la vague, /--------/ the wave,
à l'étoile, /--------/ the star,
à l'oiseau, /--------/ the bird,
à l'horloge, /--------/ the clock,
à tout ce qui fuit, /--------/ everything that flees,
à tout ce qui gémit, /--------/ everything that groans,
à tout ce qui roule, /--------/ everything that rolls,
à tout ce qui chante, /--------/ everything that sings,
à tout ce qui parle, /--------/ everything that speaks,
demandez quelle heure il est; /--------/ ask what time it is;
et le vent, /--------/ and the wind,
la vague, /--------/ the wave,
l'étoile, /--------/ the star,
l'oiseau, /--------/ the bird,
l'horloge, /--------/ the clock,
vous répondront: /--------/ will answer:

"Il est l'heure de s'enivrer! /--------/ "It's time to get drunk!"

Pour n'être pas les esclaves martyrisés du Temps, /---/ So as to not be the martyred slaves of time,

enivrez-vous; /--------/ get drunk,
enivrez-vous sans cesse! /--------/ be constantly drunk!

De vin, de poésie ou de vertu, à votre guise." /------/ On wine, poetry, or virtue, as you wish.

Meg, may I suggest virtue?

Merci à Monsieur Baudelaire for sharing this wonderful piece of advice with us.

And may I also say how much I love French poetry? It's seriously the best ever.

The fuzzy certs.

When my friend Jenny told me that she was singing in an opera, I thought, "cool. I've never been to an opera." So I decided to go. Cool story, huh?

So. Saturday night. Provo center street. Covey Center.

La . . .

Megan was lucky enough to be my date (what a surprise, right?). She's the best date. We got all dressed up and looked very cute because Megan had stopped by our favorite store on the way down, Lisa's Closet (kind of like Plato's Closet, but with way cuter clothes). As we were getting ready, we said to each other, "are you hungry?" And as neither of us were really hungry at all, we had a quick shopping spree for shoes (found none) and then headed over to the theater.

As we sat down, we noticed something: We were hungry. 7:30.

We also noticed something else: our neighbors. Notice the chandelier shirt. So great. Every time I would look to my left (for some reason they all changed seats in the middle of the opera and chandelier shirt ended up right next to me), it just made me happy. And then I'd look at Megan and we'd both laugh. Maybe you had to be there.

Now, like I said, this was my first opera, and I'm not really sure what I was expecting. I mean, I know what an opera is, right? It's singing. It's a story about people who are most likely in love and there's some sort of conflict and a resolution, and it's all in singing. So don't ask me why it surprised me that that's all there was: singing. Lots and lots of singing. By 8:45, hunger had gotten the best of us, and the amazing performance going on in front of us was totally lost on our stream of Gilmore Girl-related hunger jokes. Luckily Megan found some Cafe Rio mints in her bag.

But there were a lot of things that I did appreciate about my first (and let's be honest, probably my last [I don't have the right attention span for this level of culture. Maybe if I were properly fed beforehand, it'd be a different story, but how can I dare risk it?]) opera:

-Some people are just crazy talented. Seriously! I've never before thought of the voice as an instrument, but these singers can just belt it out or trill along like it's nothing. I wish my voice could do that, or anything even close to that.

-The scenes in La Traviata are set in France. Paris, to be specific. And who could not love that?

-I have played in many an orchestra, including the pit orchestra for two different musicals in high school (Cinderella and Bye Bye Birdie), and I have never (seriously never; it's never even crossed my mind) considered how difficult it would be to be a conductor and have to keep yours arms going like that for hours on end. How do they do it?

-I enjoyed trying to figure out some of the Italian words, and I was glad that to be able to decipher a few words. Sometimes, however, it just sounded like a badly mispronounced French word, and that would just make me laugh.

-You just have to appreciate sentences that take that long to get out. Why don't we all speak in song?

Anyways, it ended (our stomachs thought happily), and after telling Jenny how great she did (seriously impressive, right? Who else can say that they've been in a real live opera?), we booked it over to Texas Roadhouse, where we ate our body weight in rolls, ribs, and rrreally good fries (take that, alliteration).

Lessons learned:

1. Operas really are what they seem.

2. Don't go to an opera on an empty stomach.

3. Texas Roadhouse is open until 11:00 p.m. on Saturdays.

4. Megan is a great date. (Now as for a great speed date, I don't know. Yes, that's an inside joke. No, I don't care that you won't get it.)

If it comes down to it...

Do you think this will work? Because I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to get this job.

Oh, I've also toyed around with the idea of just saying that the Spirit told me to apply for this job, and how could they go against that? (It's BYU; it could work, right?)

Well anyway. This guy in my French class today sang a song and played his guitar for his oral presentation on a French poet. I braced myself for some lame ballad, but it was actually pretty funny. I told him so after the other French class that we have together (okay, at this point in the story, I need you to keep in mind that he is maybe like 32 and married), and he responded by saying that I have the best laugh in the whole world (his exact words). I never know how to respond to that. ". . . thanks? I, uh . . . inherited it from . . . actually my parents don't laugh very much. . . . I like funny?" I'm awkward. But I guess it's a nice thing to say anyway.

And then I had an interview today for my France internship, and the professor was telling me all the great things that Madame T. wrote about me in her letter of recommendation. So. Maybe that was the Lord trying to inspire some confidence in me today. It might have worked a little bit. At least I know that Madame thinks that I'm superior, even if my potential employer doesn't (. . . or maybe Madame IS my future employer! haha. This would be funny if you got it. Because if I don't get this job that I'm interviewing for tomorrow, then I will be applying for a different job, the hiring of which Madame has a significant amount of input on.).

Anyway. Wish me luck. And pray for me as I'm starting my interview tomorrow morning at 10:45.

P.S. At work today we played Apples to Apples, and I put in the card "silly putty" for "sensual" and thought that it was the funniest thing ever. No one else thought so.

Changé d'avis

Guys. Have you ever just changed your mind about something? Something kind of big? Probably, right?, since that's a pretty vague question and a pretty general thing. But I've just been thinking about that lately, about how stubborn I am and how the Lord works to change my mind.

Exhibit A: going on a mission. Remember how I went to BYU to get married? Haha. I recently found this 3x5 card from my sophomore year, on which my roommates and I wrote our marriage-order predictions. I was number 1 (out of 5) (granted, I think that at the time, I was engaged. Go fig). Fast forward 5 1/2 years, and I am the only one out of all those girls who's not married. Oh the irony. I was never the one who wanted to go on a mission; that was Kim. In fact, I was a whole-hearted supporter of the "sister missionaries are weirdos who can't get married" stereotype. How wrong I was (right? right?!). From one day to the next (in fact, I could probably pinpoint it down to one specific day in May 2008), I changed my mind about missions, sister missionaries, and my entire future. And come to find out, something that I thought was not for me turned out to be the best decision and greatest blessing ever.

So. I've been thinking . . .

and recently my mind has changed about some other things, and I'm hoping that there will be similar results. There have been just a few moments in the past where I can honestly say that I know that the Lord was guiding me, and I feel like that again. And it's kind of a big thing, but I'm feeling good about it and feeling good about my future in general.

Do not, however, stay tuned for details because I'm not giving any! You're just going to have to be patient. And be happy that I'm feeling good about life.

btw: bestie just got engaged. Woo-hooo!! I can officially add two weeks of crazy fun, beach, Disneyland, and wedding prep in California to my best-summer-ever itinerary. (Not to mention the fun of helping her plan the wedding for the rest of the semester.) Oh, and add the LA temple to my temples-to-visit list for this summer as well. So excited!

Thinking

Guys. Sometimes I just sit and think. Think about how I have no original thought left in me. At all. And how that's pretty sad for a 24-year-old. Didn't the quote that Prof. Lee showed today say something about how if you don't read very much, or don't read good things, then your brain is probably rotting out of your head and you're probably devoid of anything good or wholesome or worthwhile? Wasn't it something like that? Well if so, then I am definitely failing. The only clever things I think of are gleaned from a certain television show, which I now have probably 74% memorized. I should probably be making my way through the classics, Les Mis in French, anything.

Right now I'm also thinking about how it's 2 in the morning and how I was supposed to have been working on this article that has suddenly become like the most important thing in my life right now, except obviously not as important as blog stalking people who I don't know and reliving trips to exotic places. But still, I wish that I wouldn't have wasted these past two hours doing nothing instead of working on this article. I really want it to be good, but we'll see how it goes.

Lately I've been thinking, not good enough. Just in general. And then I think, there's always going to be someone who's better than me; smarter than me; prettier than me; skinnier than me; funnier than me; nicer than me; more successful than me; richer than me; younger than me; married; more responsible than me; more spiritual than me; more charitable than me; more crafty than me; more creative than me; more popular than me; more talented than me; more anything than anything I could possibly ever be. And do you know what? There's probably somebody, lots of people even, who's all of those things more than me. But I'm trying to be okay with that, and just think, I'm trying. Even though sometimes I'm not.

I'm applying for this internship. I frankly don't think that I'll get it, but it's one of those things that presses on my mind that I know I'll never be able to échappe until I do something about it. Hence the article. And the staying up until all hours of the night looking up all the current interns on Facebook and trying to check out their credentials. That's going to help me, right? Anyway, so I'm applying for this internship, that I know I'm not going to get. Really, the only reassurance I have is that I'll never have to look in the face the people who are going to read my writing samples. (Except that I will. They won't recognize me, though, so it's okay.)

And then I think, why am I never good enough. Why do I always think that. And why is it mostly true. And then this: "fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings." And I think, okay. I can do this. No. No I can't. And then this: "And forgettest thou the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth . . . ?" And so I think, okay. I can do this. Look who made me. And I guess if He says I can, then I can. But maybe I can't. And maybe I think too much, AND NOT ENOUGH. Definitely not enough.

I'm going to bed now, because when it's this late and I'm this tired, the only thing I can think of is my bowl of cereal in the morning and how amazing it is and how I'm not really sure that the soy milk is different from the 1% but it makes me feel like a hippy when I buy it so I guess I'll keep doing it.