Birthday Girl

Yesterday was the day of my BIRTH! I'm 22 now. I've never heard of anything amazing for turning 22 (I even googled it), but I celebrate the fact that I'm still alive with the crazy things that I do. haha. Last week just happened to be finals so most of my friends were finishing finals, cleaning, packing, and leaving. Booo. Some of my amazing friends did come see me though.
The celebration started Thursday before my birthday for convenience to others. My roommates made me a lovely dinner and a rich CAKE. I got embarrassed when they sang the birthday song. hehe. We watched a movie but I don't remember what it was. These roommates are amazing let me just tell you. I will miss them next semester when they are home.
Friday night we decided to party a little too. Troy came over and we played some card game. I haven't played war in forever and it lasted forever. It was fun. Oh, and he brought me a big bag of reeses peanut butter eggs!! Love those. Between me, Troy, Sarah, Jaysa, and Krysten we ate the entire bag. SAD. Easter isn't over so I shall get some more soon. YUM. After cards Jaysa finished her final assignment and Sarah came over. YAY. We made some french fries and honey mustard, then watch The Proposal. It was great. Think I stayed up until 2am.
Saturday the real day! Sarah took me to Idaho Falls for shopping in her amazing JEEP. We went to the mall and I bought myself some jeans on sale at PAC SUN and I bought delish muffins at Sam's Club. After shopping we went to Deny's to eat. Since it was my birthday I got a free GRAND SLAM and hot chocolate. Amazing. It was an Idaho Falls adventure. That night I went to watch the new Red Ridding Hood movie. Look weird and not interesting but I LOVED it. Yep. To end the night I went for a drive out in the potato fields and star gazed. It was nice, RELAXING alone time. Happy birthday to ME!


And that's the show...
-Wilderness Jane

Rexburg is cold

Rexburg..nothing too exiting to say about that. It's a small farming town that usually is covered with snow and is always windy. Were it not for the university I would not be here. haha. Ah but this town has grown on me over the past three years.

I drove in last night after my week in Utah visiting friends. It's much colder in Idaho than Utah I'll tell ya that. It was only a four hour drive, which is good compared to the other drives this winter. My friend Troy was good company. We spent Saturday in Salt Lake City on temple square and went out to eat at Macaroni Grill.

The semester starts in fifteen days but I can't move into my apartment yet, so I'm staying with friends. For now I don't have too much to do but look for some sort of a job. That's always a fun time. Time to improve the resume. I'm crossing my fingers that I won't be working fast food again. It's nice to see my old friends. I'm exited for a new semester, a new church ward, and hope to make some great friends.

And that's the show...

-Wilderness Jane

Holi: Fesitival of Colors 2011

Well my travels have taken me to Orem, UT. After 11 hours in my little red car you can imagine I was reaady to get out. Of corse I took a lot of stops on the way from AZ. Driving down I-17 I exited becuase I was a sign for Bloody Basin Rd, which is part of the area I worked in (I'll discuss that adventure in another post). There were some fun dirt roads and I pulled over for a little hike up a mountain. I guess that's a rest stop, yea? I drove through some beautiful senery the whole drive to UT and stopped frequently to take pictures, especially when I drove by the Grand Canyon. I still don't know how grand it is though, I only drove by it. But I did see Glen Canyon which is up the river and free.

Now to tell you about this Festival of Colors...
The festival was yesterday and it gave me an opportunity to get dirty, jump in a mosh pit, chant in India language, and see an India temple in the middle of UT. It was at the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, UT. This festival is a tradition of the Hindu people, which has become a popular event. We chant,

"Hare Krishna Hare Krishna;

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare;

 Hare Rama Hare Rama;

Rama Rama Hare Hare"

It is a celebration of the seasons passing from winter to spring and there were thousands of people there to celebrate. That means the parking was insaine. I had to park and walk about 2 miles, maybe more to get to the temple. Why didn't I buy a shuttle ticket?? Good exercise I guess. First, I looked at the lamas. Then I went inside the Krishna temple. But the best thing is the throwing of the colors. Everyone buys this colored powder and throw it in the air after the chant, which occurs about every hour or so. And with all those people it makes a huge cloud of color. And the people involved get really dirty from all the color. Pretty sure most of my color came from people I didn't know throwing it at me. haha.

So I went to a Hindu temple,  danced to India music, and came home with a unwhite shirt. It was a really neat experience for me. I hope to go back if I am around next year. One thing I noticed in the crowd of people is that we were all covered in color and messy. There was no black, white, mexican, ect. We were all the same colors there for the same thing to celebrate and praise Krishna (God).

-Wilderness Jane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GDQltwsrp4&feature=related

http://www.utahkrishnas.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100&Itemid=190