What's a Pummelo? (And Other Strange Fruits)

I asked myself this very question last week as I perused the aisles of Broulims grocery store.  A large, green-yellow fruit caught my eye.  No one knew the answer.  Since they were only $0.99 per pound, I decided to buy one and give it a shot!  It kind of reminded me of Peru.  We would buy all sorts of fruits we'd never seen before and then try them.  We had hits and misses.  Sadly, some fruits I still never learned the name of.

Me and my pummelo...my pummelo and I???

Pummelos have very thick skin!

And it's pink inside!  The perfect fruit for any real girl.  It kind of tastes like a sweeter grapefruit and a hint of pomegranate...yeahhhhhh whatever it tastes like, it's good!

Peru fruit memories...on film. (Please don't judge our appearance...I apologize to Noelle and Breet for posting these without their consent.  I figured after a year we can just laugh about what we looked like....)

 What we learned to be passion fruit...but we called it the booger fruit.

Tuna...yes, it's a fruit.

The forever nameless fruit...  And even though Noelle says at the end that she really likes it, she didn't.  I don't think she ever ate it again but Breet and I would always buy them. 

This is mostly a tour of our kitchen...I find it appropriate for now.  Also, it is our first Peruvian mango.  The mangoes were DELICIOUS.  I hated mangoes before Peru and still don't love the ones that are in the states, but Peruvians know how to eat a good mango.  PLUS, we could get like 5 good size mangoes for an American dollar.  It's a steal!

I love watching these all together because twice we describe them as mushy apples and pomegranates.  Also, I just cracked up laughing at how funny we are.  Funny looking, funny sounding, funny everything.  It was all so new to us and I'm so glad it's all captured on film!

Catching Up

Why is it that I never blog when I actually have legitimate things to blog about?  And then a month has gone by and I keep putting it off because there is just wayyyyy too much to write about that I can't pick.  I think I'll have to settle for another list of sorts.  This will not be an interesting post, just informative.  For all those who care what I've been up to.

-I'm back in Idaho living at Kensington Manor, where I lived last spring and summer.  I only knew one of my roommates (from last Spring) and the rest were all random.  It's weird how I went a year and a half living with people I knew and the past year and a half I always get brand new ones.  It takes getting used to.
- I left some luggage on the shuttle coming up to Rexburg :(  Thankfully it was just a plastic bag with only a few things in it but I lost a nice pair of jeans, my favorite new sweatshirt, a dress and all my makeup (not like I wear a ton but STILL I went the first few days of the semester makeupless.
- I am working THREE jobs this semester.  First (as always), the admissions office.  I am still a coordinator there where I am in charge of hiring new students, training the current ones, putting together schedules, organizing trainings and everything else I used to do before.  There are two other coordinators with me so thankfully I don't have to do all of that on my own!
     -Job #2: The Wellness Center.  I'm only working here 7 hours a week so it's not a ton.  I do wellness assessments on the students and employees here that consist of things like blood pressure, muscle strength and endurance, cardiovascular fitness, body composition and blood cholesterol.  At the end of the semester I am also responsible to organizing an employee breakfast for BYU-Idaho.
    -Job #3: Kensington Manager's Assistant.  This is also a new job for the semester.  I do a lot of office work as far as filing, placing charges on people's accounts, helping with clean checks, cleaning the lounge and community laundry room, other office work and random things the manager needs help with.
- I have only one class.  Research Methods and Evaluation.  My professor started the first day of class by telling us she was just barely hired and hasn't written a research paper since she graduated college 20 years ago.  Perfect.  This will either be a super easy class or a super hard one...I'm not really sure yet.  I'm leaning towards easy though.
- I was called as the Relief Society President again.  This is take 2 for me in this calling and I'm determined to do a better job than I did the first time.  There are definitely things I wish I would have done better so here goes nothing!
- I am on the Student Services Council again this semester.  I did it last spring but not fall because I didn't have time.  I am the leader over the bookstore section.  We are in charge of doing surveys for the bookstore, organizing a few promotional events, maybe doing some secret shopping...I don't really know yet, I have a meeting with the bookstore tomorrow to figure out more what the heck I need to be doing.
- My roommates are pretty fantastic yet again.  Everyone at work thinks Annalise and I had some sort of falling out since I moved out of my apartment with her last semester but we most certainly did not.  They were great roommates, but I had promised a roommate from Spring, Cindy, that if I were here winter I would room with her.  So I am!
- I found my bag I lost on the shuttle!  It was at the lost and found on campus.  I love BYU-Idaho.  And I love my BYU-Idaho sweatshirt.
- I have bought and eaten wayyyyyy too many chocolate chips since being here.  They are my weakness.  But when you find your favorite brand on sale for $1.78 a bag it is hard to resist!
- I've spent more time on the phone this semester than in the last year.  Whoops.  It'll be worth it someday.
- I've missed my Peru kids...a lot.  One year ago I was there meeting them and holding them and learning their names.  Gosh, why did that have to be so great?!
- My room has managed to stay relatively clean.

I'm out of things to say.  I'll try to be better at blogging....

This Christmas...Thus Far

Here's some of what I've done thus far over the Christmas break...in pictures.

Went to Meredith and Seth's indoor soccer games.  Noah brought a piece of wood to color on.

Wrapped presents with proceeds going to The Samaritan House in Lima.

Had a little reunion at church with the guys...first time at church together in 2.5 years.

Put together a LOT of puzzles...

The Tucker Clan, Christmas Morning.

I got a new phone!!!!  And it actually works!

I got Noah some blank canvases for Christmas...he wasn't too excited...

And then he realized painting with me was actually fun :)

Spent a lot of time with Nathaniel (my family might say too much time...)

Went on a "double-date" with my parents to Toledo to do some errands, eat Chick-fil-A (Nathaniel's first) and see the Toledo Zoo lights.

Got my first lottery ticket as a late Christmas present!

I won $6...poor Nathaniel won nothing...

Merry Christmas!!

First Class Tours

I've been so bad at blogging this last semester and I don't know why!  There's so much I want to write about, and then just don't.  So here's an old post that needs to be posted.  Maybe I'll catch up some more this week since I'm home from school.....

As an admissions counselor, one of my jobs is to give tours of BYU-Idaho to prospective students and their families.  Tour are interesting because they can be really really good or really really bad.  Sometimes it depends on my mood and sometimes it depends on the people I'm tour-guiding.  Most of my tours are pretty similar, I say a lot of the same things, but if it's a small group I'm sometimes able to cater more towards what that student is interested in.  Anyways, my boss thought it would be fun for all of the tour guides to get a tour of the BYU-Idaho Center on campus since we take people in there on our tours.  Part of our job is to know as much as we can about BYUI so getting a tour is actually job training!

It was an AWESOME tour.  One I almost didn't go on because there was a group tutoring session for one of my classes at the same time.  But I thankfully ditched it (and still got an A on the test, no worries).

We got to walk through the tunnels under the building...there's 1.5 MILES of tunnels under just that ONE building.  They were insane.  We also got to go up on the catwalks, behind the big screens, in the holding rooms and in the teleprompter/ electronic rooms.

View from the catwalks...why are they called catwalks anyways??

Behind the screens

Up on the catwalks.

Too Good

Sometimes life just gets a little too good for my own good.  Lately I've struggled so much with having to decide between way too many fantastic options.  As soon as I decide something, another great option pops up.  It's never ending!  And yesterday ANOTHER option was presented to me.

After work I decided to stop by the office of one of my professors to thank him for the semester and let him know I really enjoyed his classes (I had two from him...Kineseology and Health Appraisal and Prescription).  Well, right there, on the spot, he offers me a job working for him next semester!  I was slightly stunned because I didn't think things like that would ever happen to me.  A professor that likes me enough to offer me a job???  How do I get so lucky?!  Sadly, I had to turn it down because I already have two jobs on campus for winter semester and the school won't let me work on campus more than 20 hours.  Lame-o rules.  He did tell me to contact him at the end of the semester and see if he's looking for someone for spring because if there's an opening he would love to work with me.

I was thisssss close to taking it and leaving my beloved Admissions Office.  It would be GREAT to have an in with a professor who has lots of connections and resources which would really help me around graduation.  At least my second job for winter is with the Wellness Center on campus (I don't even remember if I've blogged about that or not....) and he does quite a bit with them and with our training so I will still be in contact with him throughout the semester. 

On a side note, I just aced my last final.  I seriously did NOT think it went that well as I was taking it.  There were quite a few questions where I went back and forth between two answers but I guess I got lucky and picked all the right ones this time!

Now on to packing and cleaning.....gotta love the end of the semester.

Hey there, Library Chair!

I'm tired.  My stomach is growling.  I've been on-campus, in heels, for 13 hours.  I've been sitting in this plastic library chair for almost four hours.  I love finals.  I need to go home.

Burnt Toast

I don't usually have freak-outs.  I'd like to think I'm a fairly stable person who can control her emotions.  I don't really get sad or depressed, I just get slightly more stressed than usual.  I rarely cry and if I do it's for 2 minutes and then nothing else comes. 

Well, Monday was kind of a break down day.  The first in quite a long time.  I don't even know what it was.  Well, it was a lot of little things added up.  My roommate likes to call them "burnt toast" days.  A day where even burnt toast will make you cry.  Stress was just piling up on me from school and life.  Trying to figure out what to do next semester, where to live, if I should take classes, where I should work, etc etc etc.  From the moment I got to work that day I was stressed and bitter for no reason at all.  I just didn't want to talk to any more angry parents and students.  Then, I almost started crying in my sewing class because I couldn't get this stupid sample piece to look right and it was seriously not a big deal at all.  Burnt toast.  And then I had a total meltdown at home and of course, a girl from a group had to come pick some stuff off and my eyes were clearly red and puffy.  Now she probably thinks I'm a crazy emotional girl.  I'm not.  Honestly, I can't even remember the last time this happened.  I don't even think I had a freak out in Peru ever!

But now I'm done and over it.  I think I'm back to normal.......

There's a week left of school and classes are winding down.  Thankfully, two classes ended on Tuesday but I still have quite a bit of work left in the others.  I just had my lab kinesiology exam and that was....interesting.  Thankfully it was a partner test and we convinced him to pick our partners for us.  I HATE picking groups for things.  I feel like I'm picking my grade and I'm always sure I'll pick the worst person in the class.  Also, it's like picking teams for gym class and no one likes being last so it's just easier if the professor picks.  I think my partner and I did decent but definitely not my best test.  On the upside, I have a 97.3% in the class so I can afford to miss a few points :)

In a week it will all be done.  I didn't think I could do another semester but I will be back in the winter.  Yup, no China.  Don't ask me why.  Don't even talk to me about it.  I'm upset that I'm not going but it just was not responsible for me to go right now.  Maybe sometime in the future.

Peace out, boy scout.