September at SVU

Friends and Family:  Thank you for reading my blog!  I hail you from Buena Vista, Virginia!  It means 'beautiful view,' and though the spelling looks Spanish, the locals insist that it is a native American language, and that it is pronounced "Boonuh Vihstuh."  There is in fact a folk-story saying that the Confederates would know whether you were a Yankee or a friend by how you pronounced it.  If you say it wrong the locals get really offended---back during the Civil War they would have killed you. Fortunately for me, times and traditions have changed, but not the lovely view.

 I fricken' love my roommates!!! A total of ten lovely ladies (including myself) reside in my house, and amongst these 9 housemates, I have one roommate.  Her name is Jasmine (I call her Jazzy,) and her best friend Kayla is our couch dweller, along with our other house-mate's fiancee Gus.  Here is a picture of Kyrsten, myself, and Emily at the first school dance.  It was a 'Stoplight' dance: red is taken, yellow is complicated, and green is single; thus we are all wearing green.  Kyrsten is a pirate, I am a Jedi, and Emily is a Ninja Turtle.  We try very hard to not bring up the topic of Pirates vs. Ninjas.  We have lots and lots of fun.  My roommate Jazzy is in half my classes with me, and so we are sharing some books.  We also have lots of fun staying up late talking about mangas, anime, and lots of other fun stuff.

 One fun thing that I've done so far was dress up like a gangster in some of Emily's clothes.  A random neighbor suddenly walked in at the most awkward moment possible (about 15 seconds after this picture was taken.) He appeared to be a little confused. Most likely because I looked like a very skinny, 14 year old boy standing in the middle of a girl's dorm.

There are lots of crickets here, at first the din they make reminded me of rattlesnakes so much that hearing one about a foot away from my ankle gave me quite a fright.

People have been asking me about what the big differences between Utah and Virginia are.  So far, it rains a very little more often, my skin is not as offensively dry, there are more insects, and I caught my first firefly in a very long time last night. I got chased by the cops for dealing drugs, and almost got hit by a car.  Just kidding.  No cops, no drugs, no cars. One rather large difference is the size of insects.  I found this huge bug in my bathroom.  I had no idea what it was and took a picture before we killed it. (Its legs were twitching for 20 minutes after we killed it.) I found out it is called a House Centipede. I learned that you are not supposed to step on these bugs with bare feet, or their guts will sting your feet.

 This building to the left is called Durham Hall, and the majority of my classes are here.  The advantage to this is that it is very close to my apartment.  The disadvantage is that I cannot always remember which classroom I am supposed in and when.  But I try, and I do alright.  It is very convenient to roll out of bed, stumble across the street and into the classroom on time.  However, I have not yet had the chance to do that, and hope to avoid it.  A very nice young man (whose name I do not remember) was kind enough to take this picture of me.

 This is my mailbox.  My very empty mailbox.  Write me.

One University Hill Drive #5044
Buena Vista, Virginia 24416

See --> I'm sad, because I have no mail!

 There is a koi pond on campus.  With some very small koi.  I guess I am spoiled by the enormous koi fish at Thanksgiving Point.  Huge fish.  Huge.

 We went on a lovely little adventure this last week, it was really hot so we went to this precious little place called Panther Falls (I saw no panthers.)  When I first got in I was expecting to have the breath sucked from my ribs by the freezing water. I was greatly surprised to find that the water was pretty warm compared to Rocky Mountain Runoff Water. It was so pleasant!  I wish I had the one of all my roommates.  It was really fun, and there are natural rock slides and such.

I took this picture on our drive home.  Kudzu.  Just mountains and curtains of Kudzu draping over everything.  It was kind of creepy, but also completely breathtaking.  It made me really excited and I thought you all might like to see this.

I love you all, and wish you all well!  Happy Birthday to Dad, Nevin, and Becca in that order!