Graduation + Catering = Pouring Orange Juice for an Apostle of the Lord and Moving a Twenty-Five Pound Butter Elephant

It's been a little while since I wrote, so I'll just hit the big things. First of all, general conference last week was amazing. As always! Super good. Also had a fabulous choir concert on Saturday; I really think we did well. Anyway, this week was finals and graduation and moving off campus. Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday were the last days of class and were fairly enjoyable. I finished reading my first-ever book entirely in Chinese, called "The Lady in the Painting" (Huar Shang de Mei Ren). We'd been reading little bits in class all semester, but when last Friday we were only on page 30 of 80, it suddenly became homework to finish it up if we had time. I made time and pulled it off! I'll admit I was pleased with myself. Also went to an awesome potluck at Dr. Ford's home (my peacebuilding/mediation teacher). Had a lot of great dessert (students tend to bring sweets over real dishes) and played some Rock Band with classmates and the Ford children. Ended up just kind of hanging around late talking with his family and playing their piano- it was so great to be in a family setting that I didn't want to leave. Really good day.
Thursday, I had nothing to do but everything to do. That is to say, I had nothing official like class, but I had a lot to get done- pack, study, print final papers, say goodbye to friends, go to the beach... hey, that is a need, sometimes. I hadn't been in forever. I can prove it by showing how sunburned I got after just two or three hours in medium sunshine. Yikes, I can't believe I'm still getting sunburned here. Waaay too much time spent inside. But no more! Class is over, and by the time I come home, I will be tan, blond, and generally beachy-looking. Have to take advantage of it before my mission. But yeah, a good day outside, once the work was mostly done. Then, that evening, kind Tessa Brady (aka Zaneeta Shinn from the Music Man) had me over and we made crepes and watched The Newsies. Like I said, good day.
Friday: the madness started bright and early with my first final at seven am. Terrorism. It took me just over an hour to do all the essays, then I hurried back to the Hale to get a haircut from a friend. I then studied a little more Chinese (in fact, that's pretty much what I was doing in every spare moment I had all week) before going to the library to use up my print funds printing copies of sheet music for the men's a cappella group. Of course, the printers were all broken except one, so I felt bad when I went over to pick up my stuff and realized I'd majorly stalled printer traffic by printing off 180 pages. Whoops. Oh well, we have some great music... anyway, finished that just in time to pop over to the stake center for my Book of Mormon final. Pretty sure I aced that, so I enjoyed my lunch at the caf. After that, an afternoon of, you guessed it, studying Chinese! Reviewed grammar, vocab, and how to write the 200 or so characters we might be tested on how to write. Again, finished just it time to head over for my final. It was the big one, Chinese itself. I went in slightly anxious, but feeling waaaay more prepared than I did last semester. Sure enough, I rocked it. Not to brag, but I had worked hard to be ready and I was ready. It paid off and I feel great about it. Didn't have much time to celebrate though, as I needed to head straight for work. We were doing a graduation dinner for about 750 people, but, hallelujah, it was busy but not hellish as we did buffet lines and disposable dishes and cutlery. Wise decision. I was at a drink station pouring water for an hour. I like the job, but I have to admit I almost get annoyed when people come and take cups, thus ruing the geometric formations I have tried so hard to complete. lol, oh well, what can you do? Because it was so busy, it actually went by really fast. Still, with cleanup and prep for the next day, didn't get out of there until about eleven. Straight to bed, because...
Saturday: Up and at 'em early again, with work at 7:30 am. Got a breakfast ready to go for the important people in graduation- the university president, the VP, the deans, etc. Well, the speaker for graduation this semester was Elder Quentin L. Cook, so yours truly got to man the drink station (I'm getting good at that) and pour him orange juice at his request. I did ask him about Laramie and my dad, since he was there recently, and also mentioned my mission call. He smiled and said, 'Oh yes, I think I'm the one who assigned you." I thanked him... and didn't know what else to say, so I handed him his juice. Not much, but pretty cool, all the same. Well, they enjoyed their breakfast, and then after they left, we enjoyed their breakfast... important people eat well, and so do their caterers. Once we had cleaned almost everything up, we realized that the chef had left his centerpiece on the table: a twenty-five pound butter elephant sculpted for an Indian culture night. After much deliberation, we decided to just return it to the freezer ourselves, so Katy and I each took an end of its cutting board and away we went. Disaster almost struck twice, once when we almost tripped and a second time when someone swung open a door we were trying to enter, narrowly avoiding smashing me in the face and killing the elephant. Fortunately for all, we averted danger and successfully completed the journey. Once that was done, I actually needed to leave and join the choir in singing the final number at graduation. That went well, though the ceremony was a bit long-seeming after a busy week. Finally, finished that (went super well) then dashed back to the Hale to throw the remainder of my things into boxes and bags before having a final meal at the caf. In full irony, it was terrible. The kitchen staff has been pretty swamped with things to do, so the cafeteria was neglected. I did not leave the place full of regret, I'll say that.
Last, big thing: moved out of the Hale! The Checketts, the people I'm renting from, came by about one-thirty to pick up Michael Potter (my new roommate) and I and dump off our stuff at the house before making a Costco run. I had not previously realized how much junk I have, but let's just say I made more than one trip from my room to the car. We dropped everything off, then went to the store so that we could stock up on food, as we are no officially taking care of ourselves. Once in Costco, we grabbed a cart, looked around... and I called my mom. She wasn't around, but my dad helped me think of things to by and eat. First time I've ever shopped on my own for real. Things went well, I suppose. We have a shelf full of rice, oatmeal, Ramen, pasta, and tomato sauce, so we may be malnutritioned but we won't starve! Ha ha, jk. We'll be hitting up the farmer's markets soon to get produce. We came home, unpacked, and I cooked our first 'free' meal. We are independent just in time to learn that food isn't free, lol. We are now comfortably installed in a beautiful house with an awesome family. I'm sitting on the couch right now. Delightful.