WOMEN...

...ARE EVERYWHERE!!!  BYU campus is teeming with women, like a swarm of flies drawn to a dead antelope carcass.  Did you know more BYU Signature Mint Brownies are sold during the two days of Women's Conference than are sold ALL YEAR???  BYU is smart for jacking the price of a brownie to $4.  These women are voracious.

Mrs. Thornton

Currently, I am relishing in a free one-month Netflicks trial.  What's new, right?  Well, since this is a fleeting luxury, I feel the need to take full advantage.  I watch a movie every night before I go to bed. Probably not the best use of my time, but come the end of the free trial, I will most certainly go back to occupying my free time with pleasure reading, cooking, gardening, needlework, and brushing up on Latin......yeeeaaah....

The other night, I watched North and South.  What a great movie.  Filled with intrigue, darkness, romance, and child labor.  How is it that the BBC can make soooo many movies set in 19th-century England about the Industrial Revolution and marrying for love vs. money????  There's gotta be like 800 of them.  And they're ALL FANTASTIC and they ALL HAVE THE HOTTEST, MOST DASHING BRITISH ACTORS!  Where do they find these people???  I never considered English men very attractive.  Sure they have the charming accent, but more often than not they are pasty and scrawny and have hideous teeth.  I think the BBC has it's own test tube laboratory for producing hot male actors.  Either that or they import them from Ireland and make them adjust their accent.

While I am in England this summer, I will be viewing the sights and countryside with the secret wish that Mr. Thornton will pop out from behind a majestic oak tree or the corner of a sweatshop and ask me to marry him (without wasting any time on dating or the frivolities that those British conveniently skip before getting right to the point and proposing).

Hristos a inviat!

This past weekend I attempted to relive the Romanian Easter I spent with Annie a year ago in Pitesti.  We went to the Greek Orthodox cathedral in Salt Lake City for the midnight mass.  I had very high hopes and even got giddy when I saw several middle-aged women with the oh-so-trendy "Romanian Red" hair.  Well, it wasn't all that great.  Nothing compared to the little Orthodox monastery we went to last year in the woods.  The priest wasn't that believable.  Maybe because he looked way too American and didn't sport the Paul Bunyan beard.  They did the "Hristos a inviat...adevarat a inviat!" thing ("Christ resurrected...True dat, he resurrected!") but it was in Greek so it didn't have it's full effect.  It's the greeting that everyone uses everywhere on Easter and the 40 days that follow.

                                 Easter in Pitesti, Romania 2010.

                                      I sure do miss creepy Romanian men.

                                 Easter in SLC, Utah 2011.  Close, but no cigar.

        I spent Easter Sunday with the Annie and her family.  He we are in our pretty Easter dresses.

Good News

As a European Studies major (I know, I hear it every day...what the heck do you do with that?), my focus is on racial/ethnic minorities and the demographics of Europe (yeah...what the heck do you do with THAT?).  I don't KNOW what I'm going to do with that.  But what I DO know is that I am not racist.  As I was walking home from taking my Jews and the Holocaust final, I caught myself thinking, "am I racist?  I probably have, like, 2 black friends out of 400+ friends on Facebook.  HOW DO I EVEN KNOW???"  And then I remembered that my first Hollywood crush was Will Smith.  So the answer is definitely no.  

The Cupcake Revolution

While I was on my mission, it appears that two fads have swept the country:  iPads and cupcakes.  I'd say that's excellent progress, America!  Well done!  I don't really understand either of the fads.  The former, because I am a techno-tard and never catch on to anything technologically advanced.  I think my mom thought I had a sort of syndrome, because she bought me my first iPod when I got back from Romania.  I didn't ask for it.  I think she was just confused as to why her only daughter was so astonishingly far behind.  As far as cupcakes go, this is a fad I REALLY don't get, but which I promote anyway.  I would be a fool not to.  I feel like cupcakes are the cucumber sandwich of the early-21st Century.  Since when did a slice of cucumber smashed between white bread embody class and sophistry?  You're better off not asking questions.  It did in Jane Austen's day.  Likewise, don't ask why cupcakes are the new way to express how refined you are.  Just accept it, like every fleeting fad that comes and goes.  Remember pizza bagels?  Baby Bottle Pops?  Now those are two trends in the food industry that moved mountains.    

 This is Annie.  She is the dirty culprit who has gotten me hooked on every cupcake cafe in Utah Valley.

This winner is a Mexican chocolate cupcake, found at the Cocoa Bean Cafe.  The cinnamon is the key.  And the fact that the chocolate chips are glittery.

Cupcake Rob

I had a Friday-afternoon hankering for a cupcake (more on cupcake cravings later).  So my dear friend John Romney Evans and I hit up The Chocolate--a cute, Victorian-style bakery in Orem.  The display cases hosted an array of sweets: vanilla, German chocolate, caramel cupcakes; mint brownies, lemon bars, slices of velvet cake. But the tastiest selection of them all was standing behind the display cases.  His name was Rob.  A cupcake personified.  In the words of Romney, "the most attractive man on the face of the planet."  There was no way Romney and I were gonna stand there and obediently accept the fact that our baker was a Greek god.  No.  It was all too perplexing.  What on earth is Adonis doing working at a bakery?  In Orem?  So we asked Rob a few simple questions.  Turns out he's from Long Island.  He's a Recreation Management major at BYU.  A super senior.  And his favorite cookie is chocolate peanut butter (so that is exactly what Romney ordered).  Below is a likeness of Rob.  His hair wasn't that curly.  Everything else is accurate. 

I Miss Jimmer...

...wo is me.

Watch This Video

I wasn't aware that anyone from Germany or Ireland or the Ukraine is reading my blog, but according to blogger stats, YOU ARE...which is GREAT because I need you to watch this video! It's entered into a competition and the video with the most views wins. EXTRA points if it's viewed from other countries/states. It'll take like 3 minutes. Enjoy!

Click to watch!

PS: This is an idea a few of us developed to use social networking for language-learning. RAD.

Me Rike Study Rong Time!

Sitting in the library. Saturday night. Chin to my left, Chong to my right. It's just me and the Asians tonight. I am literally the only white person in the entire LRC. I knew I joined BYU Asians freshman year for a reason!

I love these guys. They know the meaning of true work and sacrifice. Here they are, blowing everyone's GPA out of the water when they could be at, say, the Nickelcade. Or Demae Sushi restaurant. Which is where I ate lunch today, oddly enough. What a very Oriental day this is.

Review my history of Asian association and fascination:

In Sitges, Spain with Emily and Eurah
Katie and Curtis at the Rex E. Lee Run
In Sienna, Italy with the Asian Invasion
My dear cousin Tony
We Asian!