Trip to Utah

Three weeks ago I traveled to Utah to do some recruiting for my company, Ernst and Young. I left for Utah on Monday evening and got back Thursday morning, but went straight to and from work.

On Tuesday, I participated in the Ask EY Booth. I basically talked to students about EY and answered any questions while they got some of the free stuff we had at the tables (ice scraper, USB key chain, pens, and donuts and cookies while they lasted). It was amazing to me how few people I recognized when I was there all day. Have I really been gone that long? It'll be two years since I graduated in December, and it's almost a 1.5 since we left Provo. Crazy to think that place I love and spent so much time at is full of almost all new people. A few more years and the people there will be completely new and so young! They already seem young. 

That night I went to an EY dinner in SLC with BYU and Utah students interested in EY. After coming back from the dinner I met up with Bwood for a late evening tour of the new BYU Broadcasting facilities! I'm pretty interested in that stuff, since I love BYU sports, and watch other shows on BYUtv as well, on occasion. Plus, I have always been into film production. I took the following photos with my iPhone from parts of the tour (Bwood was the one giving me the tour.)

The main entrance

One of the control rooms when something is being filmed.

The set for one of my favorite shows, True Blue.

One of the studios--where the pre-game football shows are filmed.

Wednesday was a nice day because the only recruiting event was a dinner at night. So I worked a little bit, but was also able to reminisce by visiting some places and going around campus. I stopped by the Provo Tabernacle.

I'm very excited that this building that I have very fond memories of is going to be a new temple! I can't wait till it's finished! I performed in the Tabernacle at least ten times while in college--usually with Men's Chorus and the combined choir. It is a little sad that performances like that won't be able to happen anymore with that great organ. But turning it into a temple after the tragic fire is an amazing plan.

I also drove up the canyon hoping to see some beautiful colors--unfortunately most of the leaves had already fallen. Which is quite different from California, as the leaves just starting falling in the last two weeks--and there are still many different colors on the trees. I guess I had forgotten that about Utah. I grabbed a bite to eat at J-Dawgs, my favorite is a polish dog with secret sauce and sauerkraut. Before the dinner that evening I stopped by Men's Chorus to see the rehearsal. I was surprised to run into a friend from back home, Chris Williams, and am glad that he's in the choir. It was also great to talk to Sister Hall and see the choir. 

I'll leave you with a totally unrelated photo in case none of the above stuff interested you. Here is a picture I took this morning of Mommy and Jackson. She brought him into our bed since he was being fussy and she was really tired and wanted to sleep. 

Leaving Provo

The 5 years I have lived in Provo have been amazing. There are a lot of fun things to do here and many of my closest friends have been made while at BYU. I will miss this place and this view.

Some things have gone unanswered though while I've lived here. I will never understand/know:

• How the traffic/drivers are so bad.
• How on earth has "The Ozz" stayed open? I drive by all the time and never see anyone in it.
• Where is the BYU Info (422-INFO) call center located?
• How will we get by without a Dollar Theater?
• Why do some people go to BYU if they don't want to live the lifestyle? or the Honor Code they signed up for? Of course it's a great education, but there are a lot of great educational institutions.
• Which grocery store is cheaper in the long run, Smith's or Macey's? (I actually have a small opinion on that.)

If you know the answers to any of these questions or have questions of your own, let us know.

Intramural Sports

BYU has some of the best intramurals in the nation. Not that I've participated in any others, I've just had a good experience and I've heard that from other people. If you do a Google search for "intramurals" BYU's intramural homepage comes up as one of the first one's on the list. Here are the intramural sports that I've had a chance to participate in since being here:

-Men's Racquetball Singles
-Men's Tennis Singles
-Mixed Doubles Tennis
-Coed Soccer (full field, 11 person team)
-Coed Ultimate Frisbee
-Men's Softball
-Coed Volleyball

-Men's Volleyball

-Coed Wallyball (it's volleyball in a racquetball court. You can bounce the ball off of the side walls.)

In all of that play I have yet to get the coveted intramural t-shirt. The prize given to the champion(s)—the single player/team that wins it all. I pretty much have two more chances before leaving Provo. I am currently playing on an amazingly good men's softball team. We are in the top division for the tournament (there are three divisions) and ranked #2 overall. We haven't had our first tournament game yet. We have a good chance of winning. I am the least experienced (worst) player on the team, and just landed on a team with so many good players cause a few of them are in my ward.

The other chance will be a two-day tennis tournament in July. Unfortunately with these, it always seems that people assess themselves as worse than they actually are in order to get in lower divisions and have a better chance of winning. But I'll get some practice in before then and hope for the best.

Graduation

Last week Christina and I walked for graduation! I graduated in December and she just finished up her last semester (she was student teaching). Both of our parents came down for the big occasion. 

The commencement for the entire school was on Thursday. The Marriott Center had a lot of people in it (although a lot of people don't even go). I was worried it would be really long, but Elder Christofferson kept it short and good. Christina and I sat by each other even though we aren't in the same colleges. We were very happy with that decision after we saw that it really didn't matter where you were sitting, just that you got in an orderly manner.

With my parents afterwards.

Christina with her parents.

Christina after walking at the College of Humanities convocation. The white thing is for being in the Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi. She had forgotten to wear them for the commencement on Thursday.

Us afterward the Marriott School convocation, which was pretty long because there are A LOT of graduates. I like this picture.