A Day in the Life

While mindlessly waiting for video files to compress, and given no compatible headphone jack for catching up on episodes of Arrested Development, I am left to entertain myself with blogging in the heavy and sagging air of the Harold B. Lee Library Multimedia Lab.

I'm putting together a DVD of this year's BYU Lu'au, hosted by the Multicultural Student Services. It was a lot like Fiesta, only the Polynesian version. Little did I know that it would take hours upon hours to upload, import, convert, re-convert, and re-import files. And all this on a campus computer, meaning no guarantee that my files and I will ever reunite. If only I were techno-savvy enough to own my own Mac...

So, this might be a good chance for some real, mundane, stream-of-consciousness blogging.

I'm almost done with this job. It's easy to complain about it, but I don't want to do that here. Suffice it to say that I am looking forward to moving on.

I am also looking forward to what awaits me job-wise this summer. Thanks to my heroic mother, I've got a number of options lined up back in The Dalles.

1) Work at the movie theater with my sister Kandis. We'll be running the place by mid-May.

2) Parks & Rec, where I can relive my high school  glory days.

3) OCDC (my favorite so far), where I can babysit in Spanish.

I think whatever options present themselves will allow me to actually practice Spanish. I've had Spanish classes at BYU since I've been back from Argentina, but they don't really give opportunities for me to speak it. I feel like I'm slipping more and more into a gringo oblivion with Spanish speaking. I hope this summer saves me.

I registered for fall semester last night. It's more like my immediate-post-mission semester schedule, which I'm realizing now I really miss. All my classes will be in the afternoon or evening. And, unlike that semester right after my mission, I'll fill up my mornings with an enjoyable job.

Next semester is the semester I wait to find out if I get admitted to the communications program. So I'm focusing on my two minors, Spanish and political science. I'm taking

1) Survey of Hispanic American Literature

2) Ibero-American Civilization

3) Introduction to International Politics

4) New Testament Part Deux

5) ...and, Marriage Enhancement

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. By next semester I will have a marriage to enhance.

It's a class that fulfills a requirement for Erin's minor. Plus, talking about marriage and relationships is interesting to me anyway. Why not get college credit for talking about it?

My life is divided into three parts, and "job" and "school" are far surpassed by "Erin." She never ceases to amaze me. She makes dreams come true that I didn't even know I had. I never expected to be with someone as perfect for me as Erin is.

This past weekend she had her first bridal shower. Even though I wasn't there, it was one more step toward us being married. August 21 feels a little closer now. (As Erin would say, "Hallelujah.")

Well, files are far from reconversion, but it's quittin' time.

¡Fiesta!

Now it's time to tell all of you what consumed my life for the past few weeks.

Since June 2008 I have been working as a student assistant in the BYU Multicultural Student Services office. The office does scholarships and guidance counseling for minority students. My job is basically to be an assistant to Lucky Fonoimoana, one of the counselors.

The major responsibility that this job entails is to put together the BYU Fiesta, an annual event that celebrates Latin American culture through dance. I was interested in the job because of my own love for Argentina and Latin American culture. (I was also interested in having a job.)

It was more work than I ever imagined. For every one thing that I did, there were ten that I either was forgetting to do, didn't know how to do, or was never aware that I was even supposed to do it. Not to mention the fact that the office's organization for its Celebration of Culture programs changed this year. I was not only over the Fiesta, but over advertising & DVD production for all of the office's events (Black History Month, Fiesta, Lu'au, and Pow Wow). Along with this new system came extra help. Now someone else was in charge of food for all the events, someone else in charge of decorations for all of the events, etc.

Anyway, when it came down to the night of Fiesta, it went off smoothly and without a hitch and was a success, I think. We had fifteen countries represented, all by dance instructors and dancers who had been working on their acts all semester. Don't forget, these instructors and dancers are all volunteers, and many of the dancers don't have any dance experience. They just want to show off their heritage and have fun.

The costumes were amazing. I think the dancers could have just stood on stage and the night would have been worth the ticket prices.

The crazy part is...after months and months of planning, in a couple of hours it's all over.

Now is the part where I put together the Fiesta DVD. (If you want one, by the way, call (801) 422 3065 and get your name on the list. They are $5 each.)

I'll put more Fiesta pictures up later. In the meantime, here are the posters that I designed for Lu'au and Pow Wow (I got a lot of good Photoshop experience out of these):

BYU Lu'au

Pow Wow