Monster Nebo

About a month ago Blake, Stephen, and I took on the monstrous Nebo. It was a beautiful summer Saturday morning following a light rainstorm the night before.


The drive brought us almost to the top it seemed, so we had our doubts about how difficult the hike was actually going to be. The tall peak on the left was our destination.


I kept myself busy with a new found hobby of mine on the way up: picking wildflowers. I loved the red clay.







After an hour or so we made it to the ridge. The hike to this point wasn't too challenging. The ridge offered some fantastic views. That's Mt. Timpanogas in the distance. Yes, Mt. Nebo is taller than Timpanogas.






It was a pleasant stroll on the top of the world, until we got to this:



I was sucking wind within 2 minutes, dripping like a wet towel.


We made it to one peak, but had one more to go after that. The last quarter mile was climbing over loose rock along the ridge to the very top. By that time I had to stop every 15 steps for a few seconds to rest my exhausted quads.




At last we made it!


Jumping over 11928 ft (3635.7 m).


Someone had a little too much fun in the glorious sunshine!


Some friendly local folks from Utah county showed up as we were eating lunch at the peak. I kept overhearing them talk about "Spanish." Saying Spanish is this, and Spanish is that. That confused me because they didn't seem to be the type to know a foreign language. But then Blake explained to me that they mean Spanish Fork! That's local talk, that is!

On a scale of 1 to 10 for amateur hikes, I would rate this hike as a 9.5. It stretched me that much! The incredibly steep climb at the high elevation just about did me in. The wildlife and the extensive stretch along the ridge though make this hike far worth the effort. It was definitely a highlight of my summer.

World Cup Fever and Such

The games are on! The World Cup has definitely taken me by storm over the past week and a half. I'm particularly emotionally invested in Team USA, although I've really enjoyed watching the powerful European teams lose and tie to all of the underdogs. I love the World Cup! The last USA match left me feeling robbed, but relieved at the same time. And though I hated the goals we allowed, I couldn't help but laugh at the way the Slovenians celebrated their goals. Take a look at the highlights if you don't know what I'm talking about. Hilarious!! A win this week is what we need. Go USA! I've got a fever and the only prescription is more World Cup. USA, unfortunately, does not have a realistic chance of winning the whole thing, but luckily I can cheer for Brasil in that regard. I watched their opening game with the BYU Brazilian Association. It just made me laugh. Brazilian spontaneity is priceless.

The mundial did not effect my grades thankfully. I pulled A's in both classes this spring and enjoyed a brief 3-day respite. Tomorrow I'll be back in the trenches with an advanced writing course (dreadful) and a statistics class. My goal is to start strong and never let off. It's a definite plus that after this term I'll have finished all of the classes I don't want to take but have to anyway. Graduation se aproxima.

I took a fun little hike yesterday with Jose Carlos, my El Salvadorian friend. Jose e gente fina. We went to the top of Y mountain. Jose really knows how to enjoy the moment. We got to the top and we stayed there not for 20 or 30 minutes, but for an entire hour. I owe the little bit of sunburn above my knees to him. Hablamos bastante. Unfortunately my memory card was not in my camera and Jose left his phone in my car, so we had zero pictures. Well we actually had one that we asked a stranger at the top of the Y to take with his camera and send to us later. The hike was beautiful and hot. I made a collection of wildflowers as I went along, and now they're sitting in my kitchen in a tupperware.

The flowers adorned the table today while we ate dinner. I made a deal with Dallan, my roommate, a few weeks back: we eat well every Sunday, and we take turns on cooking duty. It was my turn today, so last night I decided to make Orange Chicken. I found this really simple recipe online that only asks for chicken, salt and pepper, onion soup, and a can of OJ concentrate. I put the meal together this afternoon, with rice and a pan of stir fry thrown in as well. The food turned out rather delicious. It's likely to be a sort of last supper with John. He's leaving this week. I enjoyed the meal, but at the same time I couldn't help but think, "Man, they're eating a ton!" I myself didn't hold back either. I guess that's a compliment when they eat my food, but I can't help but be jealous of what I make sometimes. Thankfully I've got two lunches worth of leftovers for this week.

The EMT class ends this week. It will be ending without me. I've attended pretty much every night I have been supposed to be there, but I have not made hardly any effort on assessments (100 required, I've done 30) or the readings and quizzes. I just did not want to do it I found out. I did have some time and I likely could have pulled it off, but I really lost my respect for the class about a week into it. I made myself continue attending for the learning experience, but honestly I would hardly feel qualified with the training I received to be an actual EMT. For example, the day they taught CPR they showed us how to do it, had us practice with a partner, take a quiz as a group, and put us in line so they could hand us our certificates. It was bogus. No one at any time actually observed me to see if I was performing CPR correctly. Not that I think I learned it incorrectly, but when the training is done that way over and over again it does not build any confidence in me. So the 700+ dollars I've put into the class will be mostly for naught. I have learned some significant things, such as taking vitals and the essentials in an emergency situation, so it wasn't a complete waste. I finally gave up on any idea of finishing the course some time last week, and the truth set me free. I'm glad I can move on.

June

Monday was Memorial Day, the one holiday of spring term. I went hiking with Laura and Korance. I read up on a trail in Springville Canyon. It wasn't much of a canyon, but it was fun to see a new trail and climb a new mountain. I pushed them until we got to the top of this peak. We had a great view from up there and even saw this hawk or eagle diving and cruising along about 50 meters ahead of us. It was a good event.






I scored a 95 on biochem. One more test to go and no final for me.

It's hard for me to remember what I did during the week. I conquered Zelda, the old NES version. It's great fun. I downloaded this emulator so now I can download all the old games I want and have at it. I played it so much on Friday that it got me thinking about how I need to govern my life again. Some things never seem to change! I did take a break to watch Everything is Illuminated, directed by Liev Schreiber. It was very artistic and a good film. Frodo was in it (Elijah Wood).

Saturday morning I played some killer sand volleyball. The weather has turned pretty warm all of a sudden, so it was perfect to be outside and in the sand. The only thing missing was some water. We also had an In-An-Out Burger escapade yesterday for dinner. Michaela, Andy and I had this long conversation on Catie's facebook page, and we concluded we would go a few hours later. Lo and behold when the time came to go eat there were about 15 others who came as well.

Something similar happened today. I thought it would be fun to have a little break the fast with people in the ward. I started off with those I home teach. Laura already had planned with some other girls, so we decided to do it at the Campbell House. I invited a few other people, and an extra 15 or so showed up once again. The ward is just so social in the Spring! A week ago Sunday I had this excellent Brazilian grub done by my neighbors across the hall – Bobby and Seth. Bobby cooked. They both served in Manaus. I've had some good time reminiscing with them this week and last. And Andy too. There's just so much good to Brazil that we could probably talk forever.

I've made progress on my application to med school, but at this point I'm not in any hurry to get it done. I'm still waiting for a couple of letters of recommendation. I think I'll give them another week and then start pressing for them. One is done, so I was told, but just needs to be turned in.

Green Spring Warming

Last night my roommate John and I spontaneously decided to go for a hike. We invited some friends in the ward and took off. We went to Stewart Falls. The hike is about 2 miles and you start from the parking lot at the trailhead for Mt. Timpanogas just above Sundance. It was nice to get back to nature. Spring is just barely arriving in the mountains. I plan to go on a more extensive hike tomorrow for Memorial Day. It's sort of become a Memorial Day tradition.

I had a pleasant surprise on Tuesday. That was the day I finally got my MCAT scores back. I had been anxiously waiting for them to be released for a month and I really did not know what to expect. The last hour of my cell biology class was really just wasted time. I could hardly pay attention to a thing my professor was saying. When I finally got home and saw the score - 37P - I was startled but very pleased. In all of my practice tests I had never scored higher than 32-33. No more studying for the MCAT. I honestly didn't study as well as I should have, so maybe I got a little bit lucky. I'm grateful for my luck and that I can move on with my medical school application. Acceptance rates for my score and GPA are around 30%, so by no means is getting into medical school a done deal.

Speaking of which, I really have no clue where I want to go. While talking with my doctor this week, he said with my MCAT I should apply to a few of my dream schools, other good schools, and then to a few backups. I was thinking, "And what are my dream schools?" The only factors that I currently use to differentiate between schools is location, tuition, and rankings. I know rankings often misrepresent or fail to represent things that matter most to me however.

Friday evening was the night for night games. The ward played capture the flag. I enjoyed it until no one could find the flags. Then we tried some other games and they were a bust. I met up with Jimmy and Nicole's posse later to play Commando. It was all right. I don't think I liked it too much because it's a game that makes you run like a maniac and hide like a frightened animal. It was a little too frantic for me. Plus I injured myself earlier in the night and I kept on making it worse through the evening. At one point I fell to my face on the ground, but my fist was under my chest. It sent pain up and down my trachea and made my breathing sensitive for a few minutes.