winding down

Well, as the semester comes to a close, I find myself becoming more and more frustrating with myself. Preparation for finals week and paper writing has taken its toll on me. I've resorted back to nearly terrible eating habits and skipping trips to the gym to "write" papers. This "writing" papers usually involved me staring at the computer screen or text book for a good hour trying to get the either the motivation or inspiration to get started. So, I feel like I let everything I worked hard for slip out of my hands. I need to get back in gear. I need to remember the bigger picture and my original motivation for my goals. As Julene just told me, my motivation for working out is temporarily out of service due to a great amount of focus on finishing the semester. Thus, I think this week will be my week off. I'll reset and reboost both my metabolism and motivation next week.

In this past couple of weeks I've gotten to see TWO people I knew from Ecuador (excluding the missionaries). I met up with Ivanova (she's the younger daughter of my bishop at La Luz) at General Conference. We got sit together. It was really nice. While we were leaving conference, we spotted Hermano Venuelza (or something along those lines) who is also in the Quito stake (a former bishop) and worked at El Centro de Empleos (Employment Center) while I volunteered there. We tried to flag him down but were unsuccessful. So, I e-mailed him that night to ask if he went to Conference. So, this past week, he came to visit Provo. Unfortunately, he came the day it decided to snow like 6 inches. It was a crazy, freak storm. I didn't get to show him too much. We went to the bookstore and he bought BYU stuff to take back to his family. Then Miriam met up with us and she helped me show him around campus a little bit. (Let's be honest, I live in Brimhall and don't know much about campus - sad, I know). Then I treated him to some food from Subway in the Wilk. It finally stopped snowing as he was getting ready to leave. I drove him up to the Provo temple and then dropped him off at the bus station. I had planned to drive him to the TRAX station in Sandy, but I wasn't about to navigate my way through that storm. It was soooo good to get to see people. He made fun of my Spanish and told me that I forgot my Spanish quickly. Personally, I was impressed that I could still communicate most of my thoughts, so.... I miss Ecuador like crazy now. I'll have to post some pics later. (Or you can see them on my Facebook).

I have other things to update people on. However, I'll do that later. I'm going to sleep early tonight. I'm exhausted.