Apartment Search, Walt Disney World, and Finals

Apartment Search
My apartment search was one sweet ordeal. I actually enjoyed myself! Women tend to have shopping addictions, well I think I have one for real estate. I noticed when I was in Brazil and responsible for all the missionary housing, I did like to see other missionaries’ apartments and compare what one had compared to another apartment. I looked at around seven different apartments on my search and I had an even larger list of other places to look at. I found really social places, the locations of partydom at BYU like King Henry, Liberty Square, etc and in all honesty, I really did not want to pay $350 or around there for a shared room and so little space, even though the social life has got to be great at those places. I noticed many apartments directly south of campus are tiny, overpriced, and really have no parking at all. But hey, if you want to practice your parallel parking skills, south of campus is a great place to be! I look at amenities, quality of locations, the apartments’ grounds, etc. It was just fun going from place to place and deciding what I like and what I did not, discovering what I wanted and the layouts that were perfect for me.

In the end I have decided on renting at Stadium Terrace. It is located just north of the stadium (who would had thunk it?). It has everything I need! Great parking locations, it is really close to the Tanner building - let’s face it, now that I have completed all of my GEs and most of my classes for my minors, it is time I actually spend time on my major, and all of my classes are going to be in the Tanner building – each apartment has two fridges, six people per apartment with three shared rooms and two bathrooms in the place, and the rooms are actually big enough to not have the bunk bed situation and still have room for all your stuff. It was strange when I found it, I had looked at a lot of places and in the end, Stadium Terrace was the only place that felt right for me. Maybe it was the really attractive girls I saw after taking a quick tour of one of the apartments . . . who knows. So get ready next Fall semester for some fun parties at my place!

Walt Disney World Internship

This summer I am in for a blast at my Walt Disney World Internship. It is a college program they offer for students to get out to the park, work in the park to learn the why behind Disney’s magic, and also enter an internship situation with a large corporation. Did I mention I get free access to the park with a lot of great discounts? I leave April 21 and I am driving there. Road trip baby! It gives me a good excuse to see the country.

I have a feeling I will be posting quite a bit about that situation experience because 1) I won’t have hours of homework to keep me from actually posting a blog, 2) I will be more excited to share what is going on, and 3) it will just be a blast!
So look out for those posts starting once I hit the road April 21. The internship goes until August 13 so I will have all summer in Florida, working at fun park and playing on the Floridian beaches.

The Relief of Finals
I am so excited that finals are here! Honestly, I like school, but sometimes I just get so overwhelmed with everything that I have to do in a semester that I just need a break (hence going to Disney World for the summer).

Today I have already completed two of my finals. What a relief it is to just leave the BYU testing center after having pumped out everything in your brain on paper! It is even better when you get some pretty decent scores!

I have come to the conclusion that finals are just a way to make all us students feel stressed out! They give us only two study days before the finals to sit down and review everything has been taught during the semester and then you are given a 100 question test where you have to regurgitate everything that you just barley pumped back in to your brain. And then they make you do that four more times on all your other tests that must be done within a five-day period. Why do you think they put us through that torture? Really, testing is no real effective way to see how much you have learned, it is just a great indicator at how well you can cram and memorize. It’s not like they actually expect us to learn and put in to practice what we learned in class right? . . . You know, come to think of it, if I would actually internalize the principles I learn in class, rather than try and memorize everything I need to for the final that I learned over 12 weeks within a two-day period, maybe the tests would be easy? Nah, that is too hard to do, I’ll just keep goofing off and partying, then cramming my head full for the finals. It makes it easier to forget all that boring, school stuff anyways.

Apartment Search

Seriously, BYU should have something similar to the reality TV show Survivor when it comes to finding an apartment. For those of you outside of the realm that is zoobieville, aka Brigham Young University, BYU has a policy that all apartments rented by students must be approved apartments by the school that promise they will obey certain guidelines and rules such as provide an environment where the honor code will be enforced, certain amenities in the apartments, etc. It is a great idea and I think it has its place, but in all reality, the desired outcome for BYU approved housing is not what a student truly gets. BYU has set up a two-mile radius around campus and has said only housing in that region would be approved, which actually sort of limits the number of apartments a student can rent and I have seen several great apartments outside of the region which are really good. Well, by the laws of supply and demand, limited housing means less supply, so rent goes up, and since students have less options to choose from, the quality in the apartments tend to be, well, really bad! This is what the typical BYU student is dealing with and it truly is a journey of survival to find a good apartment that is at a good price is not falling apart. Hence my journey on looking for an apartment! Oh the joy.

I am in a unique situation. I live in Provo, I have grown up here, I went to Provo High School (it is right across the street from BYU), and I still live at my parent’s house. I have some sweet digs, my own private room which is bigger than any of the rental rooms I have seen (that includes the Avenue private apartments), my food is made by good ol’ mom and dad, and I have a lot of space and privacy. Oh, and parking is never an issue. With that said, some would say I am crazy for wanting to move out, I mean come on, moving in to an apartment would really lower my quality of living and I would be paying for the decrease rather than live for free in a house!

But for some reason I have really been interested in just getting out and experiencing life a little bit more. While I was in Brazil, I lived in apartments, I cooked my own food (alright, we actually ate a lot of prepared meals by the church members there almost every day, I love Brazilian hospitality!), and I felt more free to make my own decisions. I was independent and I want to feel that again for at least a little while. And although I am quite the specimen and I am totally awesome, my social life tends to be non-existent since I live so far away from everybody and it is really convenient to stay at home. Getting out of the house for a little while and finding a rented apartment will let me feel more independent and just increase my social life. Plus let’s be honest, I will probably end up moving back in to my parent’s home when I kill these “needs”. I will finally realize why it is so good to live at home!

The search has been interesting. I went to Liberty Square and King Henry Apartments, hearing they have an amazing social life. I can see why with their large complexes and their hordes of immature girls which lead to the coveted sophomore fling by the crazy guys, but really the cost kind of scared me with the quality of living you get out of the apartment. I checked out the apartments around the South Side of campus and realized, I would have to park at the Provo Tabernacle just to have my car close by. Parking in that area is horrible, not to mention all the apartments I looked at were . . . run down to put it nicely. Why is that area so desired to rent from; besides the fact it is as close to campus as you can get and you get to chase awesome ducks every morning by the pond on your way up the stairs of death to campus?

My price range makes me a cheapskate at the range of $250 - $300, so most of the apartments I would find were tiny apartments with a really tiny kitchen and shared rooms with a tall bunk bed in an area with five other men and one bathroom . . . oh the insanity. Oh they all seemed to have a weird smell to them.

But hey, the apartment search is fun! It is great to get to the office and find a married lady who always seems to be pregnant who runs the place. These ladies always have the funniest stories about how the tenants are insane and all the messed up things they do. I think I’ll just go apartment searching just to hear their crazy stories so I might stay entertained. But the search continues for an adequate apartment to my liking which won’t kill my budget. Maybe I am downgrading from luxury to a small damp room called an apartment, but it will be a fun experience as I go along with it.