Llama-fests: Why I Love College

I love college. I am so lucky to be here at BYU.

The Tetons are beautiful, but I have not been disappointed with the natural beauty of Utah Valley. BYU is a beautiful campus, and the mountains to the East leave nothing to be missed. In fact, they remind me of home. Here, the mountains can still tell me where East is.

I love my dorm. We have a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a living room between four people. I love how respectful my roommates are of each other's belongings, and it is so nice to have a standard of decency without constant nagging.

Everyone observes a place and a time for everything, from silent meditation in the chapel to partying hard till 2am.

I really don't have anything bad to say about my life right now, although a larger budget wouldn't hurt...

This weekend was great. On Friday, I got to bed at 2am after games at the girls' dorm, and then on Saturday, a few of us got up at 8 to hike Y mountain, which is a thing here. It's a really short hike, but I'm feeling a little of it today because the incline is so steep.

After the hike, we watched a movie, and then went to a Llamafest. Yes, a llamafest. A festival of llamas. It was quite the experience. There were spotted llamas, plain llamas, young llamas, old llamas, but mostly really fluffy llamas. I'm going to post pictures (I think I can do that on here). We only spent an hour there, but I would have been happy to spend much more time with the noble llamas.

The llama-fest was held at a Hindu temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, which is about a half-hour south of Provo. The temple was quite beautiful. I donned it "UTaj Mahal." The ceiling was painted in great detail, and carvings of animals and canopies were everywhere. In the front, there was an altar-like place of dark, delicately-carved wood and a canister of burning incense. A few men sat on a rug to the side of the altar, playing instruments and answering questions about the Hindu religion. There was a gift shop in the basement.

I learned a lot about hinduism in even just the few minutes that I sat and listened- Mainly that Hinduism, much like Buddhism, is more accurately described as a philosophy about religion rather than a true religion. I want to avoid making uninformed claims, so I won't say more about that. However, the whole environment of the place was aesthetically pleasing, from the coy pond outside to the majestic temple and the crane carvings inside.