A New Home... For Now...: Hawaii

My dear sister, Addison, says that I need to be better about keeping my blog up to date since she and I are ditching the Facebook machine tomorrow. In the spirit of New Year's resolutions, here's to weekly updates! Anyway, since I last posted in October I have not set any new records, I haven't started dating anyone (much to my parent's chagrin), I have not started any new hobbies, and I didn't get a 4.0 in my last semester at BYU-Provo. That may seem pretty boring, but let's also review some other things that I didn't do. I didn't burn down a building. I didn't get arrested. I didn't do drugs. And I don't wear socks and sandals at the same time. I'd say I'm doing pretty well in life. The most important occurrence was my departure from the mainland of the U.S. of A to the sunny state of Hawaii where I will be spending the next 2.5 academic years in the town of Laie at BYU-Hawaii.

 Pretty cool, eh? I live one block away from the Laie, Hawaii temple and four blocks from the beach. Beat that*! I spent my first Saturday hiking up Crouching Lion. It only took a couple hours, mostly because we stopped a lot to look out at the ocean. It's rather breathtaking. This past week my To Do list was packed. I had to see an adviser, find a job, register for classes, buy books, etc. Fortunately, I was successful in every endeavor except buying books because my books are going to cost a record breaking $600 this semester. I have to take out a separate loan for a set of books I'll only use once! Anyhoo, I'm living with my uncle, Spencer, who is only two years older than me and is also a student here. Hopefully I can make some friends quickly because he's getting married, and I'll need a new roommate. I don't have much else to report. I'll make sure to take some pics this week to share with all you lovely people**.

* I don't actually encourage pointless competitiveness and really don't care if you can top it because it's not that hard to top. Having said that, if you have an epic story I would love to hear it and even if you don't have an epic story and just want to talk that's fine, too. I like to listen.

**I don't pretend that my blog is read by millions. By the term "all" I mean my three faithful readers. If you're new to this blog I just want to say PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP ON ME! I'll get better at this.

China and Stuff and Such: China, Hawaii, California

Oh boy, I just don't even know where to begin! This past year has just been such a whirlwind of events. I just read through most of my previous posts and realized that I have made promises that have yet to be fulfilled. So here is the post where I catch you up on my recent adventures. I went to Hawaii nearly a year ago. It was so great that I decided to transfer from BYU-Provo to BYU-Hawaii. I will be a full-time student in Laie come January. Here are some pics:

Haunama Bay

Laie Point with my brother, Landin, and my uncle, Spencer.
(Landin is now serving an LDS mission in Mongolia. Ever had a missionary knock on your door? Well here's a link
that describes what they're teaching. The Doctrine of Christ. Invite them to come in next time you see them. They have an incredible message to share.)

I went to a friends wedding in San Diego in May. Have you ever wondered what a Mormon wedding is like? Here is a link to a site explaining why we Mormons place so much importance on families and temples. The Road to Eternity Found Here

Bryson and Diana's Wedding
Sand Diego Temple

Our little group: Me, Marcos, Matt, Bryson, Josh, and Ben.

Hawaii was fantastic. San Diego was balmy. But the culminating event of the past year was my 6 week journey through China!

Mt. Hua in Shaanxi Province

Revolving Restaurant, Nanjing

The Bund, Shanghai

The Oriental Pearl Tower, Pudong District, Shanghai

I'll post some more pics of my China adventure later. I can't get the files to cooperate currently, but there are some little morsels for you. 

From Utah To China

I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone that I haven't posted anything in months, but it is time to start anew. Much has happened since my last post. I recently traveled to Boston where I met this delightful young lady who I am now dating. Her name is Kate, but that is a story for another time because it deserves a post of its own. In the mean time I shall give you the second most thrilling bit of news. I received an internship offer in China! How freakin' awesome is that? I am super stoked. I get to go to Jiao Tong University in Shanghai and take courses in microbiology. Then once classes are over I get to take a couple of weeks to  travel to a handful of other cities to see the sites. I have a feeling that I will thoroughly enjoy this. You'd have to be crazy not to, I think.
Anyway, the downside to this whole deal is that I am broke so here comes the shameless plug. (If you're new to my blog do not fear. I don't normally ask for handouts. Usually I just talk about my most recent adventures.) I started a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo.com. It's called Shanghai Soon and it's soul purpose is to help me get to China. If you or your rich uncle want to give a guy a hand you can click on the link on the side bar to your right. There's incentives! Check it out.
Now that my shameless plug is over check out my other posts. I hope you enjoy it!

The Night I Could Have Died (but Laughed Instead): Missouri

Hello dear friends, readers, and enemies. It has been far too long since I lasted posted, and much has happened. Basically, I have stories enough to fill a library, but who wants to read all of the daily exploits of a lone man? Suffice it to say that I've been to Seattle, Kansas City, Kennewick, Salt Lake City, Independence, and Wichita. After so many travels it should be apparent that I have much to tell. I don't like sitting in front of a computer for very long and I strongly encourage others to reduce their screen time so I've taken a poll asking people what kind of stories they would like to hear. The winner is indubitably the category of "Old Memories." What constitutes an 'old memory'? I'm only twenty-two, for goodness sake. I've decided that old is relative and the story I'm going to tell is from approximately two years ago.
It happened on a cold February night (and by cold I mean my tears froze to my face.) Anyway, I was about 17 months into my mission, and I thought I had seen just about everything. I hadn't. My companion and I got a call from some sister missionaries in our zone saying that they were at the hospital and were wondering if we could come sit with them in the waiting room. This is at 11 pm, mind you. So Josh (formerly known as Elder Terrasas) and I hopped in the car and took the 40 minute drive to the hospital to rescue the poor dears. (This was all done with permission of course.) When we finally arrived we were exhausted, frustrated (we got lost more than once in the downtown Kansas City streets), and a bit peeved that the sisters had gone to one of the most dangerous hospitals in our mission boundaries. The first thing that I noticed was that I was the only white man in the whole office that wasn't wearing scurbs or a stethoscope. Now race is not an issue to me. Usually. But when it comes down to it it's just not safe for a lone white man to be alone in downtown Kansas City at night. Well, I wasn't alone. I had Josh with me, but what chance does a 5'7 Mexican and a 5'9 Jew stand against a cold metal gun. No chance at all. Anyway, the Lord was on my side that night. The only thing I became a target for were complaints. Apparently the little white man is supposed to have power. Within minutes of arrival, after having found the sisters in the ER waiting room (where they had been for 7 hours now), a man came up to me and started complaining about how the orderlies "was kickin' sick people wy (while) they down,' and he wanted to know what I was 'goin' do 'bout it.' I, of course, had no solution to his dilemma. I got the full story later. Apparently, he had been sleeping on the floor of the ER which violated fire codes and such. A nurse had come up and tapped the man with his foot and asked him to sit in a chair. The man jumped off the floor and went on a five minute rant about how wrong it was to 'kick sick people wy they down.' I was supposed to make it better. I said sorry and walked away.
Many more incredible and exceedingly funny things happened that night. We were at the hospital until 6 in the A.M. The next day was brutal, but the stories we have are certainly fun to tell. Next time I'll tell you a story that is a bit more recent. I feel that my exploits in Seattle are worth mentioning as well as my trip to Kansas City. And in 20 days I shall have tales of sunshine and beaches to warm your winter weary hearts, because I'm going to Hawaii! Then in Dec. I will share the details of my trip to Boston which is sure to be a winner in more ways than one ; ) Stay strong. Do good, be good!

To Be Productive is to Be Happy: Utah

I feel like today was one of those days that I can just sit back and be so thankful that I was alive to experience it. Really it wasn't much different than most other days, but for some reason I was much more aware of everything that was good. I have a pretty good idea as to why this day was different. It's because I decidedly made it so. I began with a prayer. This is important to me. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a devout follower of Christ. Therefore it is important to me have a strong relationship with Him and with my Heavenly Father.

Anyway, I have also been reading Stephanie Nielson's autobiography Heaven is Here. It was this huge wake up call to me. I have a very capable and healthy body, and I don't treat it at all the way I should. I am definitely more sedentary than I should be. So after finishing this truly inspirational story I got to work. After being gone on vacation for a week (details to come) I had a lot of catching up to do. This is good for me psychologically. It puts me in overdrive, and I work far more efficiently. Usually I listen to music while I work. In my opinion, the music I listen to is pretty darn awesome; Radical Face, Fleetfoxes, Regina Spektor, Noah and the Whale, etc,. Today, however, I started off with some Grieg and Holst, both classical composers, while simultaneously listening to a wonderful talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from the last General Conference. It was nice to switch things up. Even better was heading to Institute right after work. Our stake president's wife has been teaching a series on self-reliance spiritually and physically. It has been amazing, and I learned so much. Sister Mullen brought up an excellent point that me me think. She asked if we had ever been hungry or thirsty for knowledge or if maybe we had been in school so long that we had been blessed not to experience that feeling. I realized that there have been very few times that when I have literally hungered for knowledge regarding a certain subject, and each time I had diligently searched for it it had opened doors that would never have opened had I only been a passive participant in my education. I immediately resolved to always be learning.

Directly after institute I made the impromptu decision to hike the "Y". It's not a long hike and I started soon enough that I made it to the top before it was dark. I sat at the top of the right fork of the "Y" and looked out at Utah Valley. I had forgotten how beautiful it was. The lights blinked and twinkled like a blanket of copper pennies. I looked northward and saw the mountains standing tall, but they weren't imposing or sinister. They stood as sentinels looking down on the valley. I looked westward. Of course there was a range of mountains there, too, and at the foot of these was Utah Lake. By now it was dark enough that the lake, mountains, and sky all met in, what seemed to me, a seamless veil of deep purples, blues, and grays. The lights coming from the houses on the far side of the lake were like the lighting bugs I used to catch in Kansas. At this point it was getting really dark and I needed to start my descent. (I make it sound like a big deal when really it's only 1.2 miles.) I was about to get up when a couple of teenagers appeared on the path and with them started the rapid rattling of the baby rattle snake that was no more than 8 feet away from my left hand, but had failed to see because it was so dark. I had walked right past it. We all waited for it to slither off down the face of the "Y", but it changed it's mind and started back up the mountain instead. I was certainly more observant on my way down than I had been on the way up. In fact, I was quite paranoid.
Well, I made it down without any fatal snake bites or cougar attacks, and here I sit, having showered and eaten, watching Nacho Libre and telling myself that I really should be in bed. So I will sign off and reckon that I should make every ordinary day like this one into something to be grateful for.



Books: Utah

Seeing as how I sit in the same office from 9 am to 5 pm for 5 days of the week I figured I could describe it to my dear readers. Now I know that it has been some time since I last posted, and I have had several wonderful adventures since my last post so I will endeavor to play 'catch-up' in a later post. In the mean time, let's take a walk to work, shall we?
I take the stairs up to the 6th floor of the Harold B. Lee Library each morning around 9 in the a.m. I drop my lunch off in my locker, and then I meander through the maze of cubicles and bookshelves to my cubicle on the south side of the building. I sit in my comfy blue office chair and flip on the computer. It has two monitors since a lot of the work I do requires multiple programs to be open at one time. Now I look around. To my right and left are about a thousand government documents in French and English. They are reports, lists, and questionnaires given by the League of Nations ranging in date from 1927-1945ish. I touch history when I work on that project. Behind me is a bookshelf. Usually it holds a small collection of books that are rather problematic to work with. More importantly, it holds the LP's that I am responsible for cataloging. Farther to my right is a book truck stuffed with Spanish books covering various topics. There is also a small table and another book truck both piled high with books that I have finished working on and are now waiting to be reviewed by my boss. Hidden in this jumble of books and documents and LP's are a coat-rack, a chair for any guests I may have (usually my boss), and a phone that I don't use. Oh, and I have a microfilm reader, but we haven't dealt with that antiquated stuff in months.
My office is basically filled with a random mix of books and music and documents. And I love it. My job is so great. Sometimes a huge stack of new novels will come through. Sometimes a big box of books headed for the LDS Business College will land on my desk. My favorites are the genealogical books because I know that each time one of those reaches the shelf new names can be found by eager genealogists seeking to offer the blessings of the gospel to deceased ancestors. I reckon I have one of the greatest on-campus jobs there is.
Now I just need to cover the peachy gray color of my cubicle walls with a rainbow of pigment. My office needs colors and pictures and paintings. It's boring at the moment. No one could tell it was my space just by looking at it. It needs a touch of Jens. 

Let Summer Begin: Utah

This is where summer starts. A good playlist. A grand adventure. Family, friends, and BBQ's. But even the most scintillating smells of summer must be preceded by something far more sinister. It is devoid of sunshine. It crowds out laughter. It even makes grown men cry. Some people call it 'hell.' I call it finals.
It is a sad truth, dear people, that the week of finals, no matter how sunny or bright it may appear, is actually just a raging storm of despair. Students from freshman to super seniors are crammed into every nook and cranny of campus studying until steam trails begin to drift from their ears. It all happens so quickly. One week everyone is outside enjoying the lacy pink and white blooms of various trees and shrubs, playing Frisbee, and finding love, and the next week it's all forgotten; lost in the mire of study guides and flashcards. It's over almost as soon as it began. Perhaps, dear people, you wonder how the author faired in such grotto of melancholy madness? I am pleased to inform the masses that I passed every class, even if it wasn't with flying colors. OK, in all reality I took a nose dive and managed to escape with just a few scrapes and bruises.  Joyously, however, it is over. The blossoms are still around and love can still be found, dear reader. I am here to tell say that the Lord definitely watches over His people. Without His help I would probably be on academic probation or something, but my brain was blessed, for certain.
Oh but let us not dwell on such unhappy things as finals. Let me detail just how beautiful life is now. I work at the library on campus. It's a wonderful place to work, but what makes it even better is the walk I take to get there. As I walk I pass flowering trees with branches weighed down with the most aromatic delicate pink blossoms. Some trees are drenched in white petals that rain down when the wind blows. They spin and swirl in the breeze. There is a little quad of trees with deep brown spindly limbs that are papered in rich pink flowers. They look very much like coral. I stroll past ducks and robins and families with little kids laughing. All in all this daily experience makes me sound rather sappy, but I wouldn't trade it. I love it and I reckon that I might just get used to this school after all.