California here I come!

I made it!!! Well, it wasn't really an option not to survive, but I'm grateful it happened anyway. Finals finished on Wednesday and as a reward to myself I went to the bookstore and bought three new books. I'm so excited to read something other than textbooks in the coming months. But the end of finals certainly didn't mean the end of being busy-- now I'm just busy with different things. The past few days have been filled with moving home, starting up work, and a whole lot of fun with the rugby girls! I have spent practically every waking moment either with them or planning on what to do next with them, which I couldn't be happier about. We decided there was no better way start summer than with a little camping, so Wednesday night we went up Hobble Creek Canyon and pitched our tent. It was a beautiful night, not too cold, and the stars were beautiful. We roasted up mallows, starbursts, made banana boats, and even roasted up some corn. DE-LISH. While the night was beautiful, we woke up to a whole lotta snow. Oops, forgot to check the weather. No worries, though. It wouldn't have been right if there wasn't a little adventure. Thursday night we watched "The Interpreter" which I had never seen and I loved it! Last night we had a little fire in my parents' driveway and made smores, played the guitar, and just talked until the wee hours of the morning. We discovered a new, better way to make smores. It includes putting peanut butter on it. I mean, peanut butter is amazing by itself, but when you mix it with the graham, the chocolate, and the mallow... dang. Incredible. You should try it! In between all our bigger adventures we've been playing lots of touch rugby, going hiking, and hangin' out. While I'm not sad that school is done, I'm sad the semester is over because it means that people are leaving and going their various directions, rugby is done, and change is happening. I wish we could all be in the same spot, just not going to school.... wishful thinking I suppose. But I'm grateful I've been able to spend lots of time with my friends these past few days.

You're not supposed to have food in the library. But we figure we spend so much time there, we're allowed a bit of lee-way. Here we have roast and potatoes that Krystal gratefully brought to us as we studied till our minds melted. Hey, if you're going to break the rule, really break it. Go big or go home.

Banana Boats... yum.

We can do a whole lot more than play rugby!

The adventures don't stop there, though. In about 4 hours I will be on a plane headed to California for a week. Woo-hoo!!! I'm excited to get out for a little bit and spend more time with friends and family. My friend Jaimie is from Danville, which is by Oakland, and she heads to the MTC this Wednesday. Her farewell is tomorrow so I'm glad I'll be there for that. In case you were wondering, she's going to the Richmond, VA Spanish-speaking mission. Cool. My aunt and uncle live right next to Danville, so I'll be able to spend some time with them as well. There are a few things I'm particularly looking forward to, along with Jaimie farewell. On Monday, Ela, Talya, Ofa, and Krystal (rugby girls) are driving to Fremont where Krystal is from, which is about 40 minutes from where I'll be. On Tuesday, we're going to be heading out to Yosemite and camping there for the night and then on Wednesday, we're hiking this! Hooray! Hopefully Rachel, the captain of the team, who's from Palo Alto, will be able to come as well! Party! On Friday and Saturday, the NCAA rugby final four is going down in Palo Alto and while it will hurt a little bit because I know we're good enough to be there, it will be fun to watch. The men and the women are both playing that weekend and then BYU mens team, who's ranked #2 in the country, will hopefully win a championship. Hey, I guess if our team can't be there at least we can root for our fellow Cougars. Of course, intermixed with all these happenings will be beach parties and other fun-filled activities. Needless to say, I'm really excited to go to California!

Keep on keepin' on...

Two finals down, three more to go... why anyone would think that having students take tests at 7:00 in the morning is a good idea is beyond me, but that's what I have to look forward to tomorrow morning. This past week has been one of many hours in the library, but a significant number of hours hanging out with great people too. As the semester comes to an end, I frequently reflect on the great people I am surrounded by and how much I'll miss them as they all go their separate ways.

Wednesday night was the rugby closing social. I think you already know what I think about the girls on the team, but in case you forgot, they're the greatest people in the world. This closing social was particularly... I wouldn't say depressing, but it was certainly a mixture of emotions. We are sending five of our starting players on missions in the next few months with another one graduating. Our coach jokes with us that he needs to get us boyfriends so we all won't go on missions, but as it is, we will have five girls out serving by the end of the summer with another finishing up her master's program. These six are some of my closest friends. I started playing with some of them, some of them have been on th team longer than I have, but all of them are amazing people. We have all been through quite a bit together.... wins, only a few loses, and some of my fondest memories to date involve these girls. It will be weird coming back next year and not having them there, but they'll be out doing a more important work. So here's a shout out to Rachel, Krystal, Ela, Talya, Aubrey, and Jessica! You girls are incredible!

(From L-R) Rachel, Krystal, Jessica, Talya, and Ela, not pictured: Aubrey

Eating sushi with the girls...

Team before Stanford game

Team after killing University of Nevada-Reno

The team: Love 'em

An old friend

I just went swimming for the first time in more than a few months and loved it. I can think of few feelings that are better than knowing its just you and the water. Time seems to pause as I swim rhythmically across the pool, stroke by stroke, back and forth. Life becomes much more simple and I forget about everything going on around me as I concentrate only on the next stroke and the next breath. Exercise has always been my form of therapy and while I was never an amazing swimmer, I am convinced that the sport saved me during some rough patches in my youth, especially in high school. Without it, I would have been a lot more screwed up than I already was, and am. :) But swimming was an outlet for my frustrations and my heartache. It has always been there for me and has never let me down when other people have. Sometimes it was the only thing I felt like I could control. I couldn't control friends or family or anything else, but the water... I had complete control over how I moved through it. So while I certainly love rugby, and all other sports for that matter, swimming has always been my first love. And I know that even though I may desert it for awhile, swimming will always be there whenever I decide I need to go back.

Finished!

It's official. I'm done with classes until who knows when. It may be a lot longer than I realize if a mission is in the near future, though I don't think it will be in the NEAR future. Perhaps in a year. It feels good to be done with class, even if finals are looming. Though I have to admit, todays wrap-up of various subjects was unsatisfying, especially in my Political Science classes. The subject matters are such that there are not black and white, cut and dry answers or explanations for anything. I mean, we ended my international terrorism class with the "terrorism will never go away, you can only attempt to control it" conclusion and my civil wars and ethnic conflicts class with "no matter how much you try to prevent or mediate civil wars, there are some things you will never understand and your remedies may never work." BAH! However, this doesn't mean they aren't fascinating to study and at least try to provide policy options that can try to fix the world.

The weather was amazing today. It finally felt like spring. I decided to celebrate the end of class with two solid hours of playing touch rugby and it was a par-tay. I am still trying to deal with what happened at Stanford two weeks ago, and the fact that the sweet 16 starts on Friday is certainly bittersweet. But it's getting easier, though sometimes the hurt still comes back. It certainly has motivated me to work harder even though the season is over. Usually summer is a time to kick back and relax (well not really, I just work over 40 hours a week and get out of shape), but this summer's going to be different! I will be working hard to get stronger and faster so next year the same thing doesn't happen. Now I just gotta make it through finals.... dun dun dun.

Heartbreak

Here's what happened this weekend. It's still too difficult to really talk about, so I'll let you read about it. The guy who wrote this article is the main writer for rugby in the US:

Heartbkreak for Brave BYU Women

Friday Apr 4, 2008 in Women Colleges
April 4, 2008, Stanford, Calif. - The game everyone said should have been played later in the season was played Friday afternoon, as Pacific Coast #1 women's college seed Stanford edged #8 seed BYU 26-17. BYU was seeded #8 because this was the first time that a Utah school had been in the playoffs in some years. But BYU has been very, very strong for some years and few felt the seeding made any sense. With the vaunted Stanford team pushed to the limit - down 17-12 with 20 minutes to go - it was clear the seedings were off.

Stanford struggled mightily to really get going, as center Brett Baldry and flanker Kirsten Siebach caused problems for the Cardinal defense. Tries from flanker Emmelie Shaner and wing Robyn Lindley helped pace the Women's Cougar Rugby (their official name) team to a 17-12 lead. But in the closing minutes Stanford hit another gear. Led by the play of Diana Peng at hooker and No. 8 Erin Kobashigawa, Stanford did what they had to do. "I was delighted with the game," said Stanford Coach Jonathan Griffin. "BYU are very. very good. They are without question the best college team we've played in the last two years bar Penn State. It was the game we needed, the game we wanted, to play a final four level team so early put us into the playoffs in a very sound mind."

Stung by the early ouster, BYU coach Tom Waqa still was pleased with how his team did. "It was more like a collegiate final," said Waqa, who also singled out referee Paul Bretz for having an outstanding game. "Our girls gave their all. I couldn't be more proud of them." Stanford now takes on UC Davis, 43-5 winners over Reno, for the top seed out of the Pacific Coast. Cal defeated Oregon 34-0 and will play Chico (forfeit over no-shows Oregon State) for the 3rd and 4th seeds.

Did PCRFU get it wrong? In the men's playoff bracket, a no-show from Washington State meant the highest seed, St. Mary's, got the bye. In the women's bracket, this wasn't the case. Stanford still had to play BYU, while Chico State, with no game to play, is automatically in the playoffs. This should not have happened. What should have happened would be to bump all the seeds up:

Today's games should have been:
Stanford bye
UC Davis v. BYU
Chico v. Nevada Reno
Cal v. Oregon

Then we all would have seen how good BYU is.
- Alex Goff

Am I angry? Yes. Heartbroken? That's an understatement. I have never wanted anything so much in my entire life. But I have to say, I am so proud for our team and for the way we played this past weekend. Eventhough we lost, we dominated that game minus 2 long runs made by Stanford. We have overcome incredible obstacles like lacking of funding, recognition, injuries, and weather to get to where we are. My team is an amazing group of people and I can't even express what a privilege it is to be a part of. It will certainly be a rough couple of weeks as we try and cope with the loss and end of our season. But I have to believe that it will only make us better and the thos teams that come after us will benefit from the way we represented ourselves this past weekend. Hopefully now we'll get the respect we have deserved for so long. That doesn't make it hurt any less though...

Happenings

Homework break! I figure that because the library is now open until 2:00 AM from now until the end of finals, I don't have to worry about spending a little bit of time blogging because I have 2 extra hours at the library to get studying done. Hopefully I won't have to use them. :) The last few weeks have been quite the blur with so much to do and so little time to do it all in. I want to believe that someday I won't have so much to do, but I just have this gut feeling that won't be the case. Here's what's been taking up my time:

1) School school school school and more school! Papers, tests, assignments, readings, the list goes on... No matter how much time I spend doing homework, I feel like I'm barely hanging on. I don't like that feeling. I very much like to be in control of my life, so when I feel out of control, I just don't like it! That must be the red personality in me or something.

2) Rugby:
With the little time I have left, I usually spend it on fulfilling my duties as president of the rugby club I'm part of. This weekend we're going to Stanford out in California for the first round of the NCAA tournament, so I've been busy with practices and other things of the administrative nature. We're playing #5 Stanford on Friday and if we beat them, we automatically go to the Sweet 16. This is the first year we've been able to go to the NCAA tournament because all the rounds except for the Final Four have been held on Saturdays and Sundays in years past and we don't play on Sundays, even though we technically could because we're not an official BYU sport. But this year is our time. They changed the tournaments to Friday and Saturday just for us, so I'm excited we get the chance to prove ourselves. I wish I had more time to go into the details of why this game is so important, but if you've ever seen "Miracle", it's kind of like we're the USA and Stanford is the Russians. They've been on top of the rugby world for the past as they have either won the championship or been in the finals for the past 5 years or so. I don't want to say it's quite a David vs. Goliath scenario, but I think people underestimate us. But my team is good. Really good. National champions good. Hopefully we'll be able to show that this weekend. Wish us luck!

The fabulous rugby team!

3) I've been having a little bit of fun as well. Gotta keep life balanced, right? Saturday was Holi a.k.a. The Festival of Colors down at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. After our rugby game, a few teammates and I decided we all wanted to throw colored flour on each other to usher in spring... we and about 10,000 other people. It was fantastic!!! The place was completely packed and as soon as they lit the bonfire to burn the evil witch, the sky was filled with a could of colored powder that I swear blocked out the sun for a good couple minutes. I still have color in my hair despite 6 washings and color under my fingernails, but it was so worth it. We met this group of guys there that were from Nepal and barely spoke English, but they were great to dance with!!!! I joked with my teammates that even though we can't get boys at BYU, at least we know we can get the international ones!!! Here are a couple pictures of the mayhem. Nothing like a good color fight to help you have fun!

Witch, pre-burning

Witch, mid-burning

Funny Nepalese Boys

'da Girls

So there are just some of the things that have been keeping me rather occupied. Perhaps more occupied than I would like, but such is life. Summer is quickly approaching and I can't wait for some warm weather and the chance I'll have to read books other than those I'm assigned to read. But first, I just gotta get through finals. Dun dun dunnnn...

In further news, the handicap pass for my car officially expired on the 28th of March. A moment of silence please...... I can't really complain too much because I had it for a month longer than I really needed it. I hurt my knee the middle of January and was only on crutches for about a week and a half and was fully recovered in 4 weeks. But I have to say, if your doctor ever gives you the option of getting handicap pass for your car, take it! It was so nice to be able to drive up onto campus and park right next to my classes. As for now I'm back to walking, which I'm okay with.