Getting the Hang of This

I can't tell if it seems like I've only been here for 2 weeks or I've already been here for 2 whole weeks. The days are so long, but the weeks are flying by! I miss home so much, but I love it here at the same time and I'm learning so much from how to transpose hymns into 8 different key signatures, how to make my own dinner, how to get out of a straw maze in the freezing cold, and so much more! So as I'm sure you can imagine, a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks! One of the first things that I did out here was audition for choir. I've auditioned for choir tons of times, so I thought it would be a piece of cake. Wrong. Long story short, I apparently have a LOT of improving to do...so I'm in the lowest choir, Women's Glee, this semester. And not only that, but I was the only one who made choir callbacks that didn't end up making it into the final group. When I first got this news, I was crushed. This might sound totally spoiled, but I'm just not used to being in the lowest of anything, especially anything related to music. After a lot of tears and help from awesome friends, family, and roommates, I decided to stop thinking about everything that was going wrong and remember how lucky I am to be here in the first place. I have a temple 5 minutes away from my apartment, I have professors that not only care about me and my education, but that pray about me, and so many other things. So I went to my first day of Women's Glee with a good attitude and so far I love it! The choir may not be as good as my high school choirs, but it is way better than any other non-audition choir I have ever heard and the director is so nice! I know that it will be a good learning experience for me and that even if it isn't what I have chosen for myself, there is a reason I was put there.

Last week I got a message from a friend that I went to church with at home saying that her niece, Kenz Hall, who is pretty well known in Utah and is getting more and more well known, was performing in Rexburg on Friday night. I looked her up on youtube and watched some of her videos and thought she was pretty good so I decided to go. I ended up going by myself, so I felt pretty awkward, but by the end of the night, I was so glad I went! She was AMAZING and I went to talk to her afterwards and we talked about her cousins that I used to babysit for a while. I had a blast! So when you get the chance, look up Kenz Hall! You won't regret it!

One thing I was not expecting here at all was how fast it got cold! It's only September and 50 degrees is considered a warm day. Part of the reason it's so cold is because it's super windy all the time. I also didn't think to buy an umbrella right away and that was a mistake. 40 degrees + wind + rain + class on the other side of campus = really cold Coley! Luckily I have an umbrella now and my winter coat came in the mail just in time! So for all you guys who have been complaining because it's hot in Fishers, I will trade you in a heartbeat! This is definitely going to be hard to get used to. I do not do well with the cold!

On Friday night we decided to go to a Straw Maze and we got there and they had...wait for it...CAMELS! Crazy right?! Camels...in Rexburg, Idaho! They were a little feisty though haha. One tried to bite my head and eat my phone. And one head-butted Lauren in the butt. So that was a really fun surprise. But in the maze it was a little more complicated than I thought it would be. We ended up getting split up so Lauren and I were all alone and we were about to give up when we saw this guy on top of the bales of straw and he helped us out a bit (thank goodness) but we still got lost again and somehow came out some side exit. The rest of our group said we cheated, but we were just glad to be out! Haha it was still fun though and we got hot cocoa and scones at the end (:

Also, I just need to give my girl Hilary Duff a shoutout (: Yesterday was her 26th birthday so we had a little mini Hilary Duff movie marathon. Obviously we couldn't watch all the movies, but it was a fun little flashback to the good old days (;