Henry Update

Hello family!  I feel like it is high time that I write something on here, seeing as many other family members whom I love and respect and admire have done so with the result of great enjoyment and satisfaction on my part.

Something I picked up at Amoeba

I am doing very very well back in my P-town home.  I'm at BYU, and I have decided to double major in Sociology and German.  School is going wonderfully, and I am loving all of my classes (surprisingly).  I had a bit of apprehension before coming to BYU that I would be surrounded by closed-mindedness and bigotry, but I have been pleasantly surprised, and I am glad to report that BYU seems to be at least a marginally open-minded community of students and faculty.  There are some very good and very intelligent people here, and I am not drowned out by a wave of conservative opinions in my classes.  My favorite class right now is probably my HONRS American Government and Society class.  It is taught by a humanities professor named Dr. Karl Sederholm, and he is an amazing professor.  He has such an incredible passion for the material he teaches, and we can always have a wonderful laugh over early Puritan literature together.  His specialty in his research is actually horror literature and film and heavy metal music.  And he's a devout and open-minded Mormon.  Suffice it to say, we have a lot in common, and I went on a little class field trip to American Fork's "Haunted Forest" with him and enjoyed it immensely.  He knew every reference to every horror film in the place, and it was awesome.

This baby will be coming in the mail in a few days!

Aside from school, I am doing some other fun things.  One new hobby of mine (which has sufficiently freaked out my parents) is online shopping!  So far I have bought a kilt, a latex ape mask, a bunch of throwing knives, some CDs, some shoes, and some musical instruments (worth every penny).  When I'm getting paid like $6,000/semester to go to school, I don't see why I shouldn't buy wonderful things like kilts and guitars...  Ah well, my parents are smart about these things, I suppose, but I have absolutely zero regrets so far.
My return from my mission has stopped weighing so heavily on my mind (which should be a huge relief to anyone who had to endure that time in Alaska with me...)  By the way, I apologize that I was horribly anti-social and depressed on that trip... I was just kind of overwhelmed, and now things are going a lot better.  My medication is pretty good, and after a slight hypo-manic episode (still on-going, and it's wonderful!) I'm back in the driver's seat.

The Homeless Boys at Velour (I'm the kilted monkey...)

I will be going on study abroad to Berlin this summer (with Gwen and Peter Everett and his family).  The study abroad is for visual art, so I will be learning some painting and drawing skills to boot!  I'm incredibly excited for this, and some of my good friends may be coming as well.  I also hope that I can see some friends who are serving missions in Berlin and possibly some of the people I met and taught on my mission who are great friends of mine.
I have also started a punk/hard blues/jam band with my friend Timmy (bongo and djembe drums), Skratch (a 61-year-old, homeless instrumentalist and vocalist) and myself (bass, occasional vocals and occasional guitar, and very occasional keyboards (not yet)).  We have played two open mic shows at Provo's Velour Live Music Gallery, and we will be competing in Muse Music's battle of the bands which starts on Will's birthday (Oct. 24th) with a show at Muse at 8 o'clock.  I am getting a good friend of mine, Noah Jackson, to paint us a flyer that we will be distributing to advertise the show, and it's going to be a lot of fun (especially after we have won!!  Although some sucky, adorable indie band will certainly beat us out...  C'est la vie in Provo...)
Anyway, my life is going great!  I don't have a job, but I am earning some gold going to school; I have no girlfriend, and I went through a wonderful mutually agreeing break-up with Mimi with no resulting hurt feelings!  Miracle possibly...  I'm going on awesome dates and listening to a lot of music.  Last weekend I took a road trip with four friends to Los Angeles to see Philip Glass' famous minimalist opera, "Einstein on the Beach," and it was marvelous.  I then spent upwards of $320 at Amoeba Music in LA (not a penny of which I regret).  I'm also planning on doing a research project to earn a $1500 for Berlin, and I will be researching German punk music through Christian Asplund of the music faculty.  I also plan on learning first-year Arabic and then starting to learn Turkish next fall, and I can get an amazing scholarship from the government for that (full tuition+$5000/semester!!)
Life is good; I love Jesus; I hope you are all doing so well

Love, Peace, and Joy from this strange land of milk and honey, Provo, UT...
--Henry (Hal)

I'm going to use this for a Magical Mystery Tour

P.S. I thought about getting a job as an actor at a haunted house in Orem called Castle of Chaos, but they weren't going to pay anything so I decided against it...
P.P.S. My parents finally caved in to their lustful desires and bought a sky blue, manual transmission '88 BMW 325i  for $4000.  I haven't driven it yet, but it will soon become the mega-date-machine.
P.P.S. (I know this is gratuitous... Sorry) You should all like my band's FB page, "The Homeless Boys," and I would also love it if you followed our blog!  Thanks!  It is almost always I that does the typing on our FB and blog haha.  I'm the publicity guy :).
http://thehomelessboys.blogspot.com/