Haru Yo, Koi

This may just be my favourite song in Japanese. Although I understand only a handful of the words, it gives me such clear feelings. Somehow I feel that while there is a lot of emotion in J-Pop songs, etc, it doesn't always feel totally real and complex, but this song is very much an exception.

Awaki hikari tatsu niwakaame
Itoshi omokage no jin'chouge
Afururu namida no tsubomi kara
Hitotsu hitotsu kaori hajimeru

Sore wa sore wa sora wo koete
Yagate yagate mukae ni kuru

Haru yo tooki haru yo mabuta tojireba soko ni
Ai wo kureshi kimi no natsukashiki koe ga suru

Kimi ni azukeshi waga kokoro wa
Ima demo hen'ji wo matte imasu
Dore hodo tsukihi ga nagarete mo
Zutto zutto matte imasu

Sore wa sore wa asu wo koete
Itsuka itsuka kitto todoku

Haru yo mada minu haru mayoi tachidomaru toki
Yume wo kureshi kimi no manazashi ga kata wo daku

Yume yo asaki yume yo watashi wa koko ni imasu
Kimi wo omoinagara hitori aruite imasu
Nagaruru ame no gotoku nagaruru hana no gotoku

Haru yo tooki haru yo mabuta tojireba soko ni
Ai wo kureshi kimi no natsukashiki koe ga suru

Haru yo mada minu haru mayoi tachidomaru toki
Yume wo kureshi kimi no manazashi ga kata wo daku

- Haru yo, koi
Yumi Matsutoya

Uncertainty...

This week I'm entirely consumed with studying and reslife stuff. This morning I had to get up at 6:30 to do finals food - poor Tina had to get up way earlier to go buy the food. After all that was said and done I actually went and took an hour long nap before getting up to do more studying for Econ. Urgh... yeah, this isn't going to be my best semester. The worst of it is that most of my grades are borderline, and I'm only in four classes, so I don't really know if it's going to be about the same as next semester, or whether it's going to be bad bad bad.

Econ is the worst - I think I'll probably get a B, but a C is possible. I was very happy with the first part of the exam, it was a lot like the practice problems I did. The second part was a massacre. But, I counted how many answers I was reasonably sure of, and it came to about 72%... and I narrowed a lot of the others down and made good, educated guesses on them - so if I get even a third of those right, I'll scape a B on the final, and therefore a B in the class. There's also the 25 point, not yet graded Journalism final to add in - I usually do well (low A) on those. So a B is likely but not guaranteed. O.o

History is the one I'm most certain on, but the final essay is a third of the grade and a single essay, so I can't get too complacent. I have a low A in History as it stands (the only grades have been two essays), and I should end up with an A...

In Biological Anthropology I really deserve an A and I think my chances of getting one are very high. Assessments have been surprisingly difficult, but I've gotten mostly high B's on those, and I've done all the assignments, quizzes, labs, have perfect attendance, etc. And even with a less than stellar score on the lab final, I have an A in the lab section. Basically, I really should get an A in the class, but it's very possible for me to mess it up on the final, so I'm going to study hard tonight.

Journalism is finished - though I don't have my final grade yet I'm pretty confident I have a B - but even here the grading is 100% subjective so I don't really know.

The uncertainty is killing me.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that my classes next semester promise to be much kinder. German culture and Catalan Language and Culture should be A's, because I'll love them, Spanish Literature should be an A because I'm good at it, Anthropological Theories of Religion I think I can ace because it's interesting and I'll have Tina as a study partner, and that leaves only News which is supposedly quite hard, but if I get a B in one class I'll survive.

Hindi Update... Again...

As soon as I'd finished thinking about how many wonderful resources there were online for learning Hindi, especially in comparison to the absolute lack of materials in the bookstores here, it hit me -

Somehow, I manage to forget time and time again that I live at a University. I can check out books from a large, research library! I am happy living on a University, feeling cultured and happy, knowing that within a twenty minute walk I have dozens of cafes and restaurants and cultural events every night and a cool independant cinema and tons of cool people to hang out with, and as a backdrop to my daily activities the sophisticated facades of Jesse Hall, the J-School, and Memorial Union... one of my advising offices is even in a 200 year old building! It's all quite impressive, even more than a year in, to this little Missouri girl. But my absolute favourite part is the library, which is why I need to kick myself - hard - for not taking greater advantage of it.

I walked out with two books: Dreaming in Hindi, a sort of novel length rant about how much fun it is to learn languages, especially Hindi, and what it does to your brain to do so, and to live in India... It's fascinating to read, and even a bit educational. It is scattered with Hindi words, many of which I already recognize, and has a lot of information about India as well. And, as if I wasn't on enough of a high with learning a new language, it's full of quotes that I would like to think would make anyone feel the need to go out and study languages.

And I also got the even more appropriate book HINDI for Non-Hindi Speakers. Yep, that's me! I also want to see HINDI for Hindi Speakers, though, just for curiosity's sake. :P

Superhuman Zahra

It's snowing today, finally, and it's also wicked cold. I've still been wearing just a sweatjacket and peacoat around... today was the last straw where that's concerned. It's 16 degrees Fahrenheit today, with -3 degrees Fahreneheit windchill... (-9 and -19 in celsius) so it's time to get serious with my down coat and something to cover my ears. My last class today was in the physics building, about a half hour walk from South. On the way back I ducked into the rec center 'to go to the bathroom'. I sat down on a bench and read a book until I could feel my cheeks again, and then finished the walk home.

And in the middle of the day I run into Zahra, of all people, looking calm and composed in her grey wool still, and she tells me that she loves the snow and seems surprised that people are acting like it's so cold out. I really do think the girl is superhuman - two months ago she seemed to freeze if the temperature dropped below 50. I think if you dropped her off on the moon without a spacesuit she'd adapt.

Hindi Update - Including Some Resources

So, Zahra and my language swap is going pretty well so far. In Spanish we've covered pronunciation, extra letters and accent marks, about 12 nouns and 6 -ar verbs, as well as how to conjugate those latter in the present tense. We've discussed gender, plural, and articles, as well as using gustar to express liking something. She thinks it's very easy so far and she's right.

Hindi is going well for me too, although a bit more slowly because it's a bit harder, at least initially. At first, when I thought I knew exactly what I was looking for (lists of words written in devanagari) and had limited time in the computer lab, I felt frustrated by the lack of materials I was finding. With a bit more patience, internet time, and random wandering, I've actually found a wealth of resources.

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There's Quillpad Hindi http://quillpad.com/hindi/ which lets me type in Hindi without knowing how the Hindi keyboard words - I just write phonetically and it converts things for me. It has it's quirks and irregularities, and so does the transliteration I've learned, but nevertheless it works pretty well. Also, Quillpad lets you type in Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Bengali, and English - basically a little sample of Indian scripts, most of which are related. For comparative purposes I've sometimes selected what I've typed in Hindi and pushed the button to transliterate it into one of the other scripts. Interesting to see the similarities.

Then there's Hindi Script Tutor http://www.avashy.com/hindiscripttutor.htm which originally upset me because it's distinctly unprintable. However, it's awesome for learning Devanagari if you have internet, because it shows how to write (stroke order and all) and pronounce each letter, and shows each letter in one or two examples, which are spoken by both male and female voices. The Conjunct Engine is also nice - that's what I'll be moving onto next.

In fact, the more I look around, the more I find. There are several things I've found that will be excellent for improving my Hindi once I have a basic grip on the language.

For example, this site uses clips from real Bollywood movies to teach Hindi: http://www.cuttingchai.com/HouseFull/index.html

This website http://www.babloo.com/is great for learning all sorts of things about India (from their description: folk tales from India, nursery rhymes, significance of festivals, Indian Panorama, all about Olympics, magic tricks, safety and good manners for children, reference park, health awareness, online games for kids, puzzles, mathematical brain teasers, amazing facts... and much much more.) and is available in English and Hindi, as well as other languages of India. You have to enable pop-ups.

This website's "Kid Zone" http://www.indif.com/kids/hindi_proverbs/hindi_proverbs.aspx also has a lot of cool things in Hindi.

Although I went to the bookstore here in Columbia and was a bit disappointed to find not so much as a Hindi phrasebook, the web seems full to bursting with resources! :D What a great language to learn over the internet!

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I've almost gotten a good handle on the alphabet, which Zahra wants before she starts teaching me much grammar or vocabulary. I know all of the basic letters now, although I'm not 100% certain of my pronounciation, especially with hard and soft and aspirated and super aspirated t's and d's. (???!!) I haven't even really started with conjuncts yet, although I recognize most of them and I'm not really afraid of them - I just think I can probably get started with the language itself before I'm ready to transcribe entire novels.

Yesterday I watched two Hindi songs on Youtube, both from Bollywood films I've already seen. I actually understood a handful of words. :) Although having the English translation at the bottom helped, of course...

Kal Ho Na Ho

Life changes its beauty all the time
Sometimes it’s shadow, sometimes it's sunlight
Live every moment on Earth to your heart’s content...
Tomorrow may not come.

Taking the shadow of your eyelashes, when someone comes near
You try to reason with your crazy heart
Your heart just goes on beating
But think, that which is here now
That story may not be here tomorrow
Life changes its beauty all the time
Sometimes it’s shadow, sometimes it's sunlight

Live every moment on Earth to your heart’s content
Tomorrow may not come.

- Kal Ho Na Ho

<3 Everyone

Don't forget the times we had and won't have again... and that's every time, every minute, every day.

<3 Everyone.

Bad Semester >.<

I don't think I'm going to be happy with my grades this semester. Not because they're not good - well, that too - but also because I have a feeling that they're not really going to be fair - not really going to reflect my knowledge. I'm only taking four courses, and by rights two of them should be pretty easy classes, with A's - Cross Cultural Journalism and 20th Century American History. The other two, Micro and Macro Economics and Biological Anthopology Lab, should be harder. By this I mean that I should work a moderate amount in the first two and get A's, and work fairly hard in the latter two and get B's. I would be happy with that.

However, how it's ending up is that I think I'll have worked hard in Cross Cultural Journalism and gotten a B (please not C! :(), worked not hard at all in Economics and gotten a B, worked hard in Biological Anthropology and barely gotten an A (please not B! :() and worked the normal amount in 20th Century American History and gotten an... ??? (Probably an A)

Why? Because Cross Cultural Journalism is loads of work, is mostly just memorizing jargon that exists only within the class, and is graded 100% subjectively, and I apparently have the harshest TA, by far. I'll probably get a B, but in the end it's ENTIRELY up to them, and based on my understanding of the class I should be fairly comfortable with an A, not worried about the possibility, however unlikely, of a C.

I don't know how to feel about Biological Anthropology. I've put in a good amount of work and I've felt like I understood it quite well, and that's been reflected in all of my assignments, but somehow I managed to get low A's and high B's on most of the tests... and then there was the Lab Final today. The actual Final is still ahead, but the Lab Final was incredibly hard - worse than I'd dared to imagine while studying. I don't feel like we were prepared for it, and based on the shocked, horrified, frightened expressions of my classmates, I don't think they did either. Since my A wasn't super firm before, this could possibly knock me to a B. I'm going to study hard for the actual Final, though, and keep my fingers crossed...

Econ? Fair enough. If I'd worked hard, I could have gotten an A. I didn't work hard. I wasn't interested enough in the topic, and CCJ kind of sapped my life force academically this semester. A B is fine in a class some struggle for C's in.

History? If I get an A, all is forgiven. If I get a B? Bad news. The entire grade in the class is based on three essays - two in class, one take home. They're graded by TAs very quickly and no comments are written on them. I got a 93% on the first one and an 89% on the second one. So, everything depends on the last in class one... I'll study hard.

Well, now I know I can study hard for History and Bio Anthro... that's what I can do. But I feel like so much of my grades this semester is out of my control, and it's not a good feeling.

Winter Fairly

"It's cold and raw, the north winds blow
Black in the morning early
When all the hills were covered with snow
Oh then it was winter fairly."

Winter has come and startled everyone. We had a cold October, then a very mild November, and no one was sure what would follow that. But now it's quite cold, about 20 degrees fahrenheit and a good deal colder than Oslo. It's windy too, and that's worse, but it's actually bright and sunny now after weeks of rain.

I still can't tell how Zahra's going to take the true winter, now that it's really arrived. Sometimes she seems very resilient, like when she wears open shoes and sloshes through puddles when it's 50 degrees out, but other times she seems to be dying when it's about the same temperature. I want her to get a big puffy coat, for snow play if for nothing else, but for now she's still looking elegant and stylish in her grey wool.

Last night was the first snow of the year that I felt any certainty about: walking after midnight we saw just two or three flakes at a time, slowly and steadily drifting through the lamplight. They were almost impossibly small, and disappeared before they hit the ground.

Adventures with Devanagari

Today I wrote my first sentences in Devanagari (in Hindi... Devanagari being the script and Hindi being the language). They were so simple that it was hard to tell, but I think I actually understood the grammar of what I was doing and knew the letters, so it wasn't just copying. Next thing I need to do is learn how to type. :P What I did today was all along the lines of "The boy writes" "I read", etc, although I stretched myself by using the verb hesitate, which literally translates to if-but-do. Clever. I also tried one more complex sentence, "The brother takes but the sister gives". These sentences barely make sense on their own and certainly not together, but just to feel accomplished I put several of them together to make a 'paragraph'. It looked very pretty.

So, Devanagari. I call it a script. It's not an alphabet because the symbols normally represent a full syllable each, not a consonant or a vowel that have to be combined to make a syllable. But it's not a syllabary, like Japanese's hiragana or katakana, because a syllabary has different syllables like "ma" "mo" "mu" "ga" "go "gu", and devanagari instead has only "ma" and "ga" and, to differentiate between different vowels, you modify these characters. So basically, it is the love child of a syllabary and an alphabet, and there's a word to describe what it is, abugida, but I usually just use the catch all word - script - when talking about it.

This is what the letters look like, although I don't think this is ALL of them:


On the top right, in that little box, it shows the matras. These are the things you add to the normal letters to change their vowel sound from the default a to something else. My feeling about this system is that it would work fine, if it was designed for a language which uses the default a a lot, other vowels slightly less often, and generally has word composed of consonant-vowel-consonant vowel, like Japanese or Hawaiian.

But that's the problem - it doesn't. Most hindi words don't end in a vowel, to start with, and they're actually reasonably fond of consonant clusters. So, to provide for this, they have a bunch of ways you can /literally/ combine two consonants, by cutting off half of the symbol. It's rather unsettling, really, because if, for example, this symbol:

makes the 'ka' sound, that doesn't mean that you can break the symbol apart into 'k' and 'a'. But, if you want to say 'kyaa', you can't have it being read as 'kayaa', so what do you do?


You take Ka...

And you take Ya...


And you sort of smash them together. Erm... okay.

The problem is that this one is relatively straightforward, you could probably even guess it and write it without ever having seen this combination, or conjunct, before. But others aren't like that. Many can be guessed when reading, but you can't really guess when you're writing. And a few seem to be completely irregular, but I'm not far enough along to speak authoritatively yet.

As for the characters themselves: I have a firm handle on about one third of them, but they seem to be used more than the ones I don't know as well, so I only need to check on every third or fourth word when reading. Still, I think it may go more slowly from here, because I'm not 100% sure of the pronunciation of some of the ones ahead, many of them don't have precise English equivalents, they're used less often, and in some cases they look a bit trickier to write.

The letters are curvy and feel sort of insubstantial, sometimes it's hard to find things to grab onto. It's sometimes hard for me to write them all distinctly, because the stroke order isn't as rigid as in Japanese so people get confused when you ask them how you're supposed to write a different character. So sometimes I start to feel like I'm just drawing squiggles and then decorating them with vowel and nasalization dots, lines, and more squiggles. It looks lovely and mysterious but also chaotic. Sounds strange but it reminds me a little of the alphabet I was trying to make for my conlang so many years ago. I wanted this curvy chaotic ornamental mess, but imposing enough order on it to make it reasonable was far beyond my capability.

I have to say this: I /love/ the line. It pulls the alphabet together, sort of reforms the chaos. All the squiggles and madness sort of hang down from it. It's so unique, distinct, and beautiful. It's not always super easy to work with, since you have to line up the characters well enough to connect them all with the line after you finish the sentence, but it's well worth it. And at least for the time being, I look forward to finishing each sentence and drawing the line. Much more satisfying than a period.



This is Alexander Arguelles, a Youtube-famous polyglot, writing in Arabic, then Sanskirt (Devanagari), then Chinese.

In Devanagari he writes this: विनाशमुखमेतत्ते केनाख्यातं दुरात्मना

I am happy to report that my handwriting is a little bit better than his. However, he writes like 3x as fast as I do. :P

This site has tons of children's poems and stories in Hindi, so it's a mid-term goal for me... http://www.4to40.com/ :)

What a Mess

So, my study abroad plans? They were nice, weren't they? :)

....Have the summer to get my German ready and get my VISA, go to Bonn, Germany next fall, break into the study abroad experience in the country that feels more like home than the others, take mostly language and culture courses, live on campus, be centrally located to explore, be in Germany for Oktoberfest and early Christmas festivities...
.....When the cold starts getting a bit old, head to Florida for a short winter break, get my Spanish VISA, then on to Pamplona, Spain for the Spring. I won't have time to brush up on language, but I need it least for Spanish. Spend spring semester studying Journalism in the Pyrenees...
... Come back to the US for a while, maybe do an internship over the summer, go back to MU to take mostly Journalism and Spanish courses, have plenty of time to brush up on Norwegian and get my VISA...
... Go to Bergen, Norway for the next Spring, when it's getting lighter every day, I can have Syttende Mai, etc, end in the lovely Norwegian summer and maybe hop about Scandinavia for a week or two before coming home...

It was a nice plan. But it had one fatal flaw.

The Study Abroad office made a mistake, and then assured me that the mistake was correct. You can't go to Bonn in the fall. You can't go ANYWHERE in Germany in the fall - their academic calendar goes October - March. So I can say goodbye to my little plan.

This leaves me with a few different options.

1.) Go somewhere else next fall.
Pros: Doesn't mess up Pamplona or Bergen, going somewhere new is always awesome, I could go to Asia or something! (I'd love to go to Japan, Finland, Italy... or anywhere!)
Cons: I already told my German friends I'm coming to Germany, I won't be able to minor in German, I'll have to go somewhere where I don't know the language well enough to take my classes in it.

2.) Go to Germany in the spring.
Pros: I get to go to Germany, minor in German, have not lied to my German friends, etc.
Cons: It messes up Bergen and/or Pamplona, no Christmas or Octoberfest, the Spring semester in Germany eats most of the summer, so I'll have two winter months hanging out in Florida randomly and no time for an internship that summer.

Now, number 2 is really multiple options. Just as the main Study Abroad page said I could go to Germany in the fall when I couldn't, the Journalism Study Abroad page said I couldn't go to Spain in the fall when I... can? Their academic calendar, which I looked up, goes only to December, so why can't I? I went to ask, and it turns out that the change is a recent one. By Fall 2011, students will be able to go to Spain in the fall. There's also a possibility that the program will be ready by fall 2010. So...

2.a.) Go to Spain next fall, go to Germany next Spring, and go to Norway at the original time (Spring 2012)
Pros: Doesn't mess up Norway, I get to go to all three countries, VISA situation is no more difficult than originally.
Cons: Whole plan contingent on the Journalism school.

2.b.) Stay here next fall, go to Germany next Spring, go to Spain fall 2011, and then go to Norway at the original time (Spring 2012)
Pros: Doesn't mess up Norway, not contingent on the Journalism school.
Cons: VISA situation becomes insanely difficult to work with. I'll be studying abroad for a solid year and a half, probably having to come back for a few days at a time just to apply for new visas, I'll have to rearrange my academic plan for here at Mizzou, most of my friends are studying abroad next year and graduating the year after, so I won't really see them again.

2.c.) Stay here next fall, go to Spain next Spring, go to Norway fall 2011, and then go to Germany spring 2012. (Or flip Spain and Germany in this scenario)
Pros: Christmas in Norway! :) Visa situation is easier than in 2.b.
Cons: It's dark and depressing when I'm in Norway, I'll have to rearrange my academic plan for here at Mizzou, most of my friends are studying abroad next year and graduating the year after, so I won't really see them again.

2.d.) Go to Norway next fall, go to Spain or Germany next Spring, MU fall 2011, and then Germany or Spain Spring 2012.
Pros: Don't have to rearrange my academic plan at MU, I'll see my friends like I planned, Christmas in Norway! :) Visa situation is easier than in 2.b.
Cons: It's dark and depressing when I'm in Norway, I really wanted to go to Norway last - sounds silly but I just don't feel ready to go to Norway yet this fall.

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I'm crossing my fingers for 2.a. I don't like it as much as my original plan, but my original plan doesn't work, so I might as well forget about that. But, 2.a. depends on the Journalism school...

Otherwise, I'm leaning towards 2.b despite the visa madness that might ensue, as long as it's possible.

If it's /not/ possible, I'm genuinely torn between 1, 2.c and 2.d.

So I'll just have to wait and see...




There's also maybe an option 3. I could go to a program like this one: http://www.isep.org/students/Directory/member_site.asp?CSID=79&ID=189

It's not really the same as directly enrolling in a German University, and I may or may not be able to minor in German, but it's actually not very much more expensive than going through MU, it would actually be easier for me and a good way to break into study abroad, and it wouldn't upset my other plans at all.

The Morning After

Oh, what a wildly exciting life I lead. :P

The Alchemist

I just finished the book The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. I'm not sure I expected it to be so allegorical and so in-your-face about it, but it was, and actually, that was fine. Some parts of it spoke more to me than others, but I was glad that I read it nevertheless. It was a quick read and sort of makes you examine your own life. In fact, I almost feel as if it confirmed to me that I am doing an alright job with my life - I can see it affecting me more if I felt like I wasn't. It's all about doing what it is you feel the most passionate about, and seeking knowledge and understanding. But more understanding. It says other things, too, about love and so on. I'd like to read it again in several years and see whether different parts of it mean different things to me then.

Here are some quotes:

"But the sheep had taught him something even more important (than how to speak Arabic): that there was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired. Tangier was no longer a strange city, and he felt that, just as he had conquered this place, he could conquer the world."

"He still had some doubts about the decision he had made. But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision."

Movies, Movies, Movies

I knew that Ragtag had a small movie rental attachment, but I went there for the first time last night with Zahra and Allan and realized it was the same place that Mayumi went twice a week last year for her neverending supply of movies. It only cost a dollar to set up a rental account, but still we agreed it would be smarter to put the account in Zahra or my name, since Allan will be going back home soon. In the end, though, only Allan had proper ID - Zahra and I just carried our Mizzou ID's. Fail.

The selection was reasonably good. Not huge (by American standards ;)) but sufficient, and well tailored to the interests of college students. Zahra and I made pact after pact to watch various movies next semester. We're planning on Monty Python, a bunch of Indian films, a random selection of hollywood movies that only one or the other of us has seen, a few of the Scandinavian movies, the Miyazaki collection, and maybe even I, Claudius.

With Allan, Amy, and Esther leaving next semester, I think our Spring will be less crazy and fun. But it can still be nice. Maybe a nice intellectual time. :) Zahra has promised to teach me Hindi while I teach her Spanish. And we have all these movies.

The movie bonanza started with Ponyo. They were supposed to be showing Ponyo for free in Memorial Union last night, and so Amanda, Zahra, Allan and I went to see it. Unfortunately there was some sort of mix up with the rights, so we watched Howl's Moving Castle instead. That was fine - I hadn't seen the English dub of it yet, and I actually thought it was brilliant. Unusually, Studio Ghibli dubs are normally so good that I barely even care whether it's in English or Japanese, in fact, I'd like to watch both. Afterwards, though, Allan and I were talking and he was angry that I still hadn't seen Nausicaa, so that was the first movie we rented from Rag Tag.

Watching it I realized that it was the first movie I'd watched in Japanese since my trip to Japan. And wow, I understood so much of it. I would have understood less if it hadn't been for the subtitles, but it was like, the subtitles gave me an idea of what to listen for, and I continually noted the differences between what was actually said and what the subtitles said. On at least three occasions, for example, I realized that the subtitles read, "I've never ____ed before!", while a more accurate translation might have been "It's the first time I ____!". Things like that. I was pleased to be engaged in the language, however far I might have been from understanding it without the subtitles.

This made me think - I'm going to watch a lot of German movies next semester. My dad gave me the advice of listening to radio. It's good advice, it's probably very useful. But radio is just about the most difficult listening exercise there is, because the quality isn't brilliant and there are no visual cues. If I listen to the German radio, I do understand quite a bit. But a lot of times, the words I miss are the important and interesting ones - and exactly the ones that visual cues often teach you in movies or real life. And it's hard for me to continue paying attention for very long when I'm not understanding it. Listening in the car would probably be good, but I don't drive that much... Anyway, maybe for now I should listen to Spanish radio, while I'm still on the level of movies in German and Norwegian. But getting to the point where I don't need subtitles. :D That is, if I'm 100% engaged and willing to use some guesswork...

It sounds like all I do is sit around and study languages! That's so far from the truth. This semester I've probably spent an average of 10 minutes a day actively studying language. Lame, I know. But just living inside the world teaches a lot too. :P And next semester I'll be enrolled in fun language courses again.

It's The Time to Disco

Study Abroad Preparations

Study abroad preparations are stressing me out a bit, because there's simply not much I can do before winter break, and after winter break I don't have all the time in the world left to turn it in. Yes, there's plenty of time, but I'd rather get a super early start and make sure everythings going to be perfect. I need to learn how to go with the flow more. I think it's something every serious traveller has to learn, but maybe I'm starting a bit further back than others, thanks to my own family's habits of booking trips months and months in advance, et cetera. Now I'm just trying to find a middle ground. I went to see all the study abroad advisors last year and they said it was great that I was already thinking about it, but that they didn't want to see me for about 12 months. So, I came back this semester and was able to get a bit more information, and they didn't seem as surprised to see me, but it was still all very vague. I know most of the deadlines are in February, but it looks like you can't reall get started working on the paperwork and things until January. Ah well.

Anyway, in my case things are trickier than normal because I am studying abroad for three semesters in three different countries, all three exchange programs (the best type! :D But also the most work for me). Basically, in an exchange you are admitted to the host university. You apply and they accept you. Okay, so they're very likely to accept you because of the exchange agreements and stuff, but there's still a lot of paperwork involved. And, they don't let you know about their decision until pretty close to departure time, and you need their acceptance letter to get a student visa. Why is this fun for me? Well, I won't get my acceptance letter for Pamplona until next fall, since I'm planning to study in Pamplona next Spring. And next fall, I'll be studying in Bonn. It's very possible that I'll have to return to the U.S. to get my Spanish Visa, something I'm not particularly eager to do - I'd rather spend my breaks travelling Europe than dumping 2000 dollars into a round trip to go home and wait in embassy lines.

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German Recommendation/Interview

Anyway, one problem I thought I might have has more or less been solved. I've always known that I would go to Spain - I'm a Spanish major, after all. I'm doing that through the J-School and I'm pretty confident about my Spanish, there's really no issue there. Norway intimidates me even less. I can chicken out and take all my classes in English, or I can go for it and take some or even all of my classes in Norwegian. I'm going to look into how much my grades matter before I call that one. ;) I would know enough Norwegian to manage in everyday life even if no one spoke English there, and, well, everyone does.

Germany, now, is the wild card. I picked German last, impulsively, because I wanted to go one more place and I couldn't pick between Finland, Italy, Japan... really, anywhere. When I randomly and maybe even accidentally managed to ace the German placement test, I suddenly realized that if I could pass Intermediate German II, I would meet the bare minimum requirements for an exchange program in Germany. This was a deal clincher - as much as I would enjoy studying in Finland or Japan, my Finnish and Japanese are nowhere near good enough to take my classes in those languages, so I wouldn't be a true exchange student by my own feeling and definition, and I would gain only rudimentary language skills. If I went to Germany and was permitted to take my classes in German, I would come out of it fluent. It was an opportunity that I knew instantly I wouldn't be able to pass up.

But, it scares the shit out of me just the same. My German is terrible. I sort of manage with every aspect: reading, listening, speaking, writing... but I excel at none. I sort of stumble around, knowing that I'm just mocking the language with my horrible grammar. Norwegian helps me in the passive skills but hurts me in the active ones - for every time I magically understand a word thanks to Norwegian, I accidentally say 'verden' instead of Welt. This never happens with any other pair of languages that I speak - not even Italian and Spanish, which I think are even more similar. But it happens.

Still, I think I can handle it. I'm scared and I think I'm an idiot for going to Germany FIRST, instead of after having had experience in Spain and Norway, with languages I'm a bit better with. (I'm going to Germany first out of purely logistical reasons which I won't get into here... basically madness about which schools will take exchange students in fall vs. spring semester and so on). But I guess that after just jumping into it regardless, I'll be ready for anything. I know I can advance quickly, especially linguistically, when the need arises. What really terrified me was getting admitted to the program. How would I prove my language proficiency? A multiple choice test I could possible pass. An essay I could labor and deliberate over until it was perfect. I could get a recommendation - for some reason my teacher last year thought I was brilliant. None of these were especially calming options - I fervently hoped that they would just accept my German 2260 credit and call it good - but I had heard mention of an interview, and that, I knew, I would fail. Miserably. I would get nervous. I would speak Norwegian. It would be bad. (I'm actually very good at interviews normally. You know, in English).

Yesterday I met with the German head of department. I meant to ask her ab0ut getting a minor in German, since it was looking possible. Of course part of that discussion was that I would study abroad, so we chatted about that for a few minutes. And then I asked her about the recommendation letter that I'd heard about. The problem, I explained, was that I'd only taken one semester of German at Mizzou so far, and my teacher had left.

"Ah," she said. "Megan! She's in Germany."

"Yes, I know. But I'm wondering if it would be possible to contact her for such a recommendation?"

"Well, you could. But it's not a very big deal. I could write the recommendation for you myself, just based on your record. It's more about the responsibility and maturity of the student than anything else - they don't want to admit people who are just going to get drunk and blow off all their schoolwork."

"Oh! So nothing about language proficiency at all?"

"No, that's different. After you are admitted to the program, you'll just have an interview with me... or maybe with Olaf. (that made me happy, I know Olaf. :D) We'll just chat a bit in German and help you decide what level of classes you should enroll in when you get to Bonn."

"After I'm admitted?"

"That's right!"

"Excellent."

So, it's not stressful, it's not pass fail, it's honestly to help us get placed into the right level. That's such a comfort. I'll want to brush up before I go in, of course, because I haven't spoken German in a year and I don't want to be placed so low that I'll be bored in my class after one week in Germany, catching up, but if my admission isn't riding on the outcome of the interview, I won't freak out either.

Things are going well. :)

Chinese in the Dining Hall

I was waiting for my sandwich to be cut at the deli when I heard one of the dining hall workers say to the other, "We're out of cheese." Or, that was the point, that's what we would have said in English. Because, after understanding, it came to my attention that the workers had been speaking in Chinese. I blinked. Chinese is different enough that I sometimes have trouble feeling that it is a language in the same way that German or Spanish is. I didn't really believe that I had understood. I could barely even remember the words that had been used. Mei you, I think, 'there isn't'... It struck me that I remembered the meaning more clearly than the syllables. But, I thought, I'll wait and see what happens.

One of the workers hurried off. She returned with a fresh stack of pepperjack.

Interesting.

Minors?

I was looking at the classes I've taken thus far and those I'm signed up for next semester. And I realized something.

By the end of next semester, I will have taken...

11 credits of Anthropology:
General Anthropology (3)
Biological Anthropology (5)
and Anthropological Theories of Religion (3)

and

6 credits of German:
Intermediate German Language II (3)
Contemporary German Culture (3)

The point is that minors only require 15 credits.

I had already determined that I would almost certainly take Cultural Anthropology at some point, which would bring me to 14 Anthropology credits. If I take anything relating to Anthropology when I'm abroad, then, which I think is very possible, I'll end up with an Anthropology minor.

German seems more of a long shot at first glance, but think. For a German minor you need 9 credits on campus. If I just take one more German class later on, for example a folklore class or anything at all (and International Studies is super flexible :D), I'm all set for credits I need to take at MU. I'll take at least one German language class when I'm at Bonn, and almost certainly a class about Germany, history, culture, something of that nature when I'm at Bonn as well. Since that class will be taught in German, it counts.

So I think I'm going to end up with a degree in Journalism (with an emphasis in Magazine) and a degree in International Studies (with an emphasis in European Studies) and Spanish, with minors in German and Anthropology. Kind of scary looking. :D But, I think, doable without any extra time, I'll just have to use my Study Abroads wisely.

Next Semester Courseload

I know I've really neglected the blog lately, but I've been busy. I've been stressed out with classes I'm not particularly fond of, and I've also been busy having a lot of fun with wonderful new friends who aren't here to stay for very much longer. These things take precedence, understand. I'll catch up on everything, but maybe not until I'm in Florida bored out of my mind except for cooking for my family, visiting a bit, and going to writing club once in a while. For now, I want to talk about my schedule for next year. I am fantastically excited about it. You see, unless I just want to kill myself, it's going to take me five years to graduate. (So three years after this year). But, once I accept that, the five years are not especially stressful. Funny how that works out. Part of the reason is that I've taken most of the classes that I dreaded taking either this semester or the semester before this one. So I can have a lot of fun from now on out. I certainly have some challenges ahead, but most of the challenges are things I'm going to care about and be excited by, so I think I'll actually be happier with them than I am with, say, History or Econ or Cross Cultural Journalism now.

So. Next semester. I have to take News, and I have to take 1 more credit of science (Geology - it's the only 1 credit science class), and I have to take an upper level humanities in order to enter my sequence in time for Spain. So, I filled the humanities with Introduction to Catalan Language and Culture, which will be awesome and is taught by my favourite MU professor so far, Monica Marcos-Llinas. So, that's 7 credits, and registration for them went smoothly.

Then I wanted to take some German to prepare for studying abroad in Germany next fall. Unfortunately, the next German class in line is only offered at the same time as the other classes I need. Sad, but I think I'll learn so much German when I'm there anyway, I'm not particularly worried about anything except getting a language ability recommendation (I think I'll have to track down my teacher from last semester, who is off in Germany this year). Still, I browsed through the rest of the German catalogue and decided to take a class on Contemporary German Culture. I'm sure it'll go towards my International Studies major, and I can never take too many of that sort of class for what I want to do with my life.

Then I looked around at other classes, because I only had 10 credits and you need at least 12 to be a full time student. I usually take more - first semester and second I took closer to 18. But this semester has been stressful and maybe it'll be nice to take more time for reslife and preparing for study abroad, so I'm thinking probably 13 would be good - maybe 16 if I like most of the classes. If I like what I'm learning it's not really even a burden for me.

Linguistics was full and so was most of Anthropology. Language classes are pretty much out unless I try to test out of a semester of Italian or Japanese, both of which are sort of longshots, and work. When I came across one Anthropology title, though, I was intrigued. The class was called Anthropological Theories of Religion. Right away, I knew I had to take that class. It was open and it worked in my schedule, too. Right after I registered, however, I realized that it had some pre-requisites I hadn't taken yet. So I emailed the professor about the situation and got his permission to continue in the class!

This was 13 credits, and as I was twiddling my thumbs wondering if there was anything else I should be taking, something hit me like a load of bricks. I'm a Spanish major. And I didn't take any Spanish classes this semester. And I wasn't registered for any next semester. The Spanish curriculum is not very flexible, and I decided from looking at the requirements that I probably needed to take Introduction to Hispanic Literature 1, and pronto. Unfortunately, every section of the class was closed, including the two that fit into my schedule. News is at irregular hours and is messing up everything for me. It manages to spread itself over three normal class slots. So now I'm trying to get a permission number to overload one of those two classes. I have a reasonably good reason for wanting the override, but still, we'll. I also realized that Monica (again my favorite teacher) teaches two Spanish classes I'd love to take at some point, if I get the time. One is an advanced writing class about style, and I'm quite desperate to take it. The other is a phonetics class. If I can fit them into my requirements and schedule at any time, in any way, they're mine. :D

So, it looks like next semester I'm taking:

Journalism 2100 - News
Anthropological Theories of Religion
Catalan Language and Culture
Modern German Culture
Introduction to Hispanic Literature
Special Problems in Geology (1 credit)

16 credits total.

Navratan Korma

I tried another SWAD microcurry today. It was Navratan Korma, and I think it is my favourite yet. The official description is: Mixed Vegetable in Cashew Sauce with Pineapple. When you heat it, the finished product doesn't quite look like what's shown on the cover. It is more liquid and a darker colour. However, it is delicious. It is heavy on cauliflower, but I never enjoyed cauliflower so much. The pineapple, which I think exists only to flavour the dish, adds a certain welcome sweetness.

The dish tastes so rich that I assumed it would be less healthy than the other two SWAD microcurries I've written about. When am I going to learn? It is actually the healthiest yet! One serving contains 6.3% of your daily fat intake, and 7.9% of your total sodium. Amazing for microwaveable yumminess!

Dhingri Mutter and Bhindi Masala

I tried two new SWAD micro-curries today: Dhingri Mutter and Bhindi Masala. First I ate Dhingri Mutter, and I was thinking about it all day, so I decided to make another microcurry for dinner. The only one of my selection that Zahra hadn't tried before was Bhindi Masala, so that's what I ended up making.

The SWAD Dhingri Mutter was amazing. I think it may be my favourite microcurry yet, of any brand. The official description is: Mushroom and Peas in Onion, Tomato and Cream Sauce. It has huge plump mushrooms and peas. It's very full and you almost forget that it's completely vegetarian. It had some spice but not enough to overcome the basic flavour. I will definitely be buying it in bulk next time I make it down to the middle eastern store.

I start my review of SWAD Bhindi Masala by saying that I actually do like it. So consider how good the flavour must be that I can actually tolerate it in the face of the many complaints I have about it. The official description is: Okra in Exotic Mild Curry Sauce. First off, mild? Really? It is the spiciest micro curry I have had so far. It wasn't so spicy that it wasn't worth eating, but it was spicy enough that I enjoyed eating it cold better than eating it hot, because the rice was less painful. So yeah, sort of spicy. The texture wasn't very appealing either - it was very slimy. I'm not sure what else I expected from packaged okra, but yeah, I wouldn't be able to tolerate eating it without rice. The worst, though, was that the Bhindi Masala had a quite bitter aftertaste. But the primary taste was somehow good enough to make up for the rest. I probably won't buy it again, but only because the other micro curries are so good.

When I compared the two packages I found some interesting things. Firsly, the picture on the front of Dhingri Mutter looks exactly like what's in the package. The cover picture of Bhindi Masala frankly looks nothing like what's in the package, though I can't say I blame them. (The contents are brown and slimy). In fact, I can't say that the picture on the front could even be a dressed-up version of what's in the box, using some toppings and other ingredients. It's a stretch to even imagine it as a restaurant version of the same dish. But ah well.

Also, since I loved the Dhingri Mutter so much, and since it lists cream in it's description, I assumed right off the bat that it would be higher in fat and other no-no's than Bhindi Masala. I was surprised to find that the opposite is true. The Bhindi Masala provides 25.8% of your daily fat - not bad for convenience food, but much higher than Dhingri Mutter's 13% of daily fat! The serving sizes are the same. (Also, the sodium, at 10.6% and 13.9% respectively, is much lower than most convenience foods such as ramen or canned soup). The seemingly surprising fat descrepency is explained by the ingredient lists: Bhindi Masala lists vegetable oil as it's third ingredient, in Dhingri Mutter the fat comes after the mushrooms, green peas, and onions that make up an overwhelming percentage of it's volume.

Ho Wei

"Eventually I came to see myself as two people, Ho Wei and Peter Hessler... Ho Wei was completely different than my American self: he was friendlier, he was eager to talk with anybody, and he took great pleasure in even the most inane conversations. In a simple way he was funny; by saying a few words in the local dialect he could be endlessly entertaining to the people in Fuling. Also Ho Wei was stupid, which was what I liked the most about him. He spoke with an accent; he had lousy grammar; and he laughed at the simple mistakes that he made. People were comfortable with someone who was stupid, and they found it easy to talk with Ho Wei, even though they often had to say things twice or write new words in his notebook. Ho Wei always carried his notebook in his pocket, using it to study the new words, as well as jot down notes from conversations. And when Ho Wei returned home he left the notebook on the desk of Peter Hessler, who typed everything into his computer."

- River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze, Peter Hessler

Life is Crazy

It's fall. It's much warmer than a few weeks ago - we might not have a freakishly cold winter, after all. The last weeks it's been mostly raining and cloudy, and last night the sky looked red at midnight, the way it does when it's cloudy here. It's somewhat eerie. But today the sky was blue and it almost threw me off. I'm too busy for a blue sky at the moment. In the evening the light was long and golden and the air felt perfect.

It's a stressful time. It's not a bad time, I've had a lot of fun. But it's very stressful. There have been job stresses like iLife and the flood. I am worried about some family stuff. There are so many things I need to take care of right now - tests, projects, registration, changing the oil. I'm out of money again, or close enough, and angry at myself for it. That's what I get for taking two weekend trips and eating out all the time, though. My grades could be better, and I hate most of my classes.

I owe Liisa an email quite badly. I have written three cards I haven't yet had the chance to send out. I promised some of my residents a pumpkin carving party that I'm going to try to squeeze in tomorrow. I've got four parties to attend this weekend. I desperately need sleep but I'm not really going to get it until tomorrow.

I have travel rabies. I expected to take a bit longer to recover from Japan. Sometimes I feel that travelling only makes my wanderlust worse. I'm also very upset by the fact that I'm not really learning any languages right now. I'm so tempted to overcompensate and sign up for two or three next semester.

Life is good, but life is crazy. :( I am blogging so that I can ease myself into concentration.

Explore Your Environment

Some of the best advice my dad has ever given me is "Wherever you are, take the time to explore your environment". Now, last year that environment was Uni. Just being in college, in general. Campus. Pangaea. The sheer wonder of being far, far away from home. I can also chalk some of my hesitance to wander away up to the company I kept and my lack of wheels. Now, suddenly, I have friends who like to walk, car keys, and an eye on the horizon. And it's awesome.

Last weekend I went to St. Louis on a day trip. I know, crazy, right? Nineteen hours from start to finish, as we left at 7 am and finally got home at 2 am the next morning. The morning was cold and beautiful as we raced the dawn through mid-Missouri. The fall leaves were beautiful and we hit a valley filled with bright white fog. The grass there was soaking wet and glittered like diamonds as the soft, low lying rays of the morning sun hit them.

We grabbed Lucia in St. Louis and my, it was nice to see her. From there we went downtown, went through the courthouse in a rush, took pictures in front of the arch when the sky was grey and the monument seemed to gleam like liquid silver, and then did the mandatory ride to the top. I've gone up the arch about once every three years in my life. Any more and it would drive me insane - but this much is just about right. We rode the tiny capsule elevators all the way up and took laughing, silly, high altitude and crowded spaces pictures.

Zahra needed to pray, so we found her a spot on the arch grounds, in dappled sun and shade, and the rest of us ran to the nearby hillside which was blanketed in the yellow and gold leaves of two beautiful trees. Allan and I rolled down the hillside in a 'roly-poly contest', I believed he called it. Lucia took pictures of us rolling, collapsed in heaps, laughing.

Afterwards, a quick lunch at Hardee's behind the courthouse, and a few minutes running about the fountains there - one dyed blood red, the other cascading like a modernist waterfall down a series of steps. I made my way out to the center of it, trying not to get my feet wet. The weather by then was beautiful, absolutely ideal for October.

We went on to Forest Park, got in the zoo a few minutes before it was due to close. The zoo is free, so we didn't care much. At first it seemed that none of the animals were out but the birds - although there were no shortage of those, from the peacocks that wander the zoo grounds freely, to flamingos in the bird cage, to ostriches strutting around in open air safari exhibits. As the clock hit five, closing time, we made it to Big Cat Country, where we found a last enclave of late to leave zoo guests and a variety of beautiful tigers, pumas, leopards, and lions. We felt so silly, being there when the zoo was supposed to be closed, listening to the cats get impatient for their dinner. The hill was decorated with huge faux boulders, and it felt somewhat like a fortress as the sun sunk lower in the sky and bathed us all in golden light.

At length we headed for the exit, found one more animal in the form of a restless bear. We watched his fruitless attempts to climb to the top of his tree with his feed buckets and rubber ropes. We had him to ourselves. He was aware of our presence, looked at us. Once he stared straight at us and the hot air from his nostrils turned into white steam in the cooling air. The way his fur moved was very interesting. It was so thick, so tight. At times the bear stood on his hind legs and his movements seemed almost human.

We finally left, just in time to avoid the groups of workers who were heading out in search of lost and 'lost' zoo guests. As the sun set we took pictures in front of the art museum and it's proud statue of St. Louis himself.

The last item on our itenerary was the City Museum. Amy and Esther still seemed to think it would be an actual museum. I hastened to correct them. "It really doesn't merit the title 'museum'," I said. "It's more like a giant playground." I could tell, though, that my words didn't really sink in until we arrived, until they saw the sheer expanses of twisted metal and plaster that formed slides, ballpits, rope climbs, tunnels made of 'trees', castles, a series of caves and caverns that twisted far below our feet, a network of madness that brings out the best feelings of childhood. It's impossible to look at it all and not think, "If only I'd found this as a child!" And to that I reply, "Who said anything about being a child?"

Then I'm off, leading them through the tunnels, up slopes that seem too steep, through tunnels that seem too tight, up to platforms that seem unreachable. Esther is afraid of heights, but step by step she makes it to the two real airplanes that hang suspended in the sky above the city museum, the only passage defined by a tunnel made of wire and full of gaps large enough for arm or leg. The night air is cold but it seems right for such a place. Our adrenaline and energy is racing and our skin is warm and red. The metal is freezing cold under our hands as we fly further and further through the darkness. Below us, bonfires are lit and burn, tossing up sparks that disappear somewhere in the air between us and the ground.

When we've exhausted ourselves - when it's already late enough - we head to The Loop for dinner at the Melting Pot. The directions Google gave us are wrong and we spend twenty minutes searching for an address that doesn't exist, like Platform 9 3/4. When we find it at last it is late, past ten, but when we step inside it is warm and we are engulfed in the smells of rich fondue. We laugh, unwind, relax, eat bread dipped in swiss cheese fondue, mushroom caps stuffed with 'green goddess', filet mignon and duck cooked in coq au vin, and, for desert, a yinyang of dark and milk chocolate fondue with cheesecake, oreo covered marshmallows, strawberries, and brownies...

We head back through Missouri in the pitch black of the early morning. But it's the weekend, we can sleep as late as we want once we reach home, and, most importantly, we are free to do whatever the hell we want. It feels good.

School Matters

I went to see my adviser yesterday. I have a bona-fide graduation plan now, and things are looking good. It turns out that I have taken or am now taking almost all the classes that I am dreading, which means the ones that are hardest for me. Even if the curriculum gets harder, I will do better in classes that I enjoy. The ones I am in now are making me miserable - it was nice to see on paper that that trend is ending. In particular, next semester all I have to do is get into my Journalism sequence. So I have to take a really easy one credit geology class, a news class (yikes!!), and that's... about it. The rest of the classes for next semester are completely up to me. I need one humanity, but I would take one humanity anyway. I'm so tempted to go insane and take a bunch of cool classes, but I know I shouldn't, because News is apparently like a six hour class, and I'll still be a C.A. I'll probably end up taking a humanity (hopefully that Catalan class?), a Spanish class, and a German class, to get ready for next year. That's only 13 credits altogether, a very light semester.

I'm not saying that my GPA is going to be terrible this year, but I would not be particularly surprised if it was as low as 3.1. Cross Cultural Journalism and Econ are both classes in which there's no shame in getting B's. In History I should get an A, and I should get an A in Biological Anthropology too, but it's not a sure thing. This combination would give me a 3.5. We'll see. Still, if I take 13 hours next semester, and most of them classes that I like, there's no reason why I shouldn't get a great GPA to sort of balance this one out. In retrospect it was maybe not a good idea to take mostly classes I disliked this semester, but that's that.

World Heritage Sites

I'm afraid Japan has spoiled Laura. Me, too, but especially Laura since it was her first destination. Everywhere we went in Japan seemed to be a World Heritage site. It was almost difficult to maintain a perspective of how few there really are worldwide - 890. Split across the entire world, and adjusting for the fact that Europe has a few more than it's share of them - there's really not so many to go around. So I decided it might be interesting to see which ones I had been to.

In the United States I've managed to see precious few of them. Most of them are on my top ten list of things to see in America, however. :) Of the U.S. sites, I've seen Everglades National Park, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico, and Yosemite National Park.

In Greece I've seen the Acropolis in Athens.

In Germany I've seen Cologne Cathedral.

In France I've seen the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, and Paris Banks of the Seine.

In Finland I've seen the Fortress of Suomenlinna.

In Belgium I've seen La Grand-Place, Brussels.

Of Norway's sites, I'm kicking myself for not seeing Røros. Maybe next time. I'll be studying right next to Bryggen, so that's a given for the near future. As it is, I've seen 'only' Geirangerfjord.

I didn't see any of the World Heritage sites in Sweden or in Costa Rica.

I didn't see any of the World Heritage sites in the Netherlands proper, although after my German class I feel like I've been to the Wadden sea, but I did see the Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour, Netherland Antilles in Curacao.

For Mexico I've seen the Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza.

For Italy, which is positively overflowing with these things, I've seen Villa Adriana, Costiera Amalfitana, Historic Center of Naples, and Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura. Yes, that is one name. I'm trying to figure out why the Forum, the Colosseum, Pompeii, and Herculaneum aren't on the list. Seems a bit weird. But then again, that's the hardest list to read. Also, the Vatican City, listed separately...

For Japan I've seen the Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area, Himeji-jo, Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Itsukushima Shinto Shrine, Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, and Shrines and Temples of Nikko. (I also got close enough to Shirakawa-go that if I was less impressed by the area, I wouldn't feel the need to go back. But I loved it, so I probably will. :))

So, in all, I've seen 25 World Heritage Sites. Of these, 6 were in Japan, and 6 were in Italy.

Aware of that Moment

We were all posing on the big statue of St. Louis outside of the Art Museum. Lucia was taking our picture, her back to a wide expanse of Forest Park in fall colours. She looked lovely. There was laughter. I was incredibly aware of that moment - it wasn't simply a sensation of taking a snapshot, or a memory. I was incredibly aware of being right there, right then. Of how in two months Esther and Amy will leave. Of how the six of us shall never meet again by the statue of St. Louis. Of how Allan will leave soon, too. Of how beautiful the fall colours were, of how they change with every day. Of how even Lucia and my time together, which once seemed limitless, will not last forever. Lucia was taking our picture, but I was taking hers, I was taking a picture of all of us, I was thinking about the wide expanse of time before and after, how strange, how arbitrary that I was living this now and soon wouldn't be. And Lucia lowered the camera and started walking towards us, and I fell back into time.

My Blogs' Wordles

Vandrelyst


I Naur Celedril



Life in the Faroes

Neither Rain Nor Snow

It's neither rain now snow, but something in between. It reminds me of a poem we had to read once, one that has come into my head again and again in the years since.

Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle
That while you watched turned into pieces of snow
Riding a gradient invisible
From silver aslant to random, white, and slow. There came a moment that you couldn't tell.
And then they clearly flew instead of fell.

- Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry, by Howard Nemerov.

Everyone keeps saying that we didn't have autumn this year, that Missouri went from Summer into Winter without a pause. I'm not so certain of that. No, we haven't had the sort of Indian Summer we've gotten so used to, but still, there were crisp cool days, warm afternoons, long shadows and golden light, and when I drove Anlan to KOMU today, the fall colours were lovely, even surrounded in the cool grey not-quite-rain.

But you're right. Now it's too cold to smell the roses.

Chinese Writing... Yikes!

"One could say that Chinese is phonetic in the way that sex is aerobic: technically so, but in practical use not the most salient thing about it. Furthermore, this phonetic aspect of the language doesn't really become very useful until you've learned a few hundred characters, and even when you've learned two thousand, the feeble phoneticity of Chinese will never provide you with the constant memory prod that the phonetic quality of English does.

Which means that often you just completely forget how to write a character. Period. If there is no obvious semantic clue in the radical, and no helpful phonetic component somewhere in the character, you're just sunk. And you're sunk whether your native language is Chinese or not; contrary to popular myth, Chinese people are not born with the ability to memorize arbitrary squiggles. In fact, one of the most gratifying experiences a foreign student of Chinese can have is to see a native speaker come up a complete blank when called upon to write the characters for some relatively common word. You feel an enormous sense of vindication and relief to see a native speaker experience the exact same difficulty you experience every day.

This is such a gratifying experience, in fact, that I have actually kept a list of characters that I have observed Chinese people forget how to write. (A sick, obsessive activity, I know.) I have seen highly literate Chinese people forget how to write certain characters in common words like "tin can", "knee", "screwdriver", "snap" (as in "to snap one's fingers"), "elbow", "ginger", "cushion", "firecracker", and so on. And when I say "forget", I mean that they often cannot even put the first stroke down on the paper. Can you imagine a well-educated native English speaker totally forgetting how to write a word like "knee" or "tin can"? Or even a rarely-seen word like "scabbard" or "ragamuffin"? I was once at a luncheon with three Ph.D. students in the Chinese Department at Peking University, all native Chinese (one from Hong Kong). I happened to have a cold that day, and was trying to write a brief note to a friend canceling an appointment that day. I found that I couldn't remember how to write the character 嚔, as in da penti 打喷嚔 "to sneeze". I asked my three friends how to write the character, and to my surprise, all three of them simply shrugged in sheepish embarrassment. Not one of them could correctly produce the character. Now, Peking University is usually considered the "Harvard of China". Can you imagine three Ph.D. students in English at Harvard forgetting how to write the English word "sneeze"?? Yet this state of affairs is by no means uncommon in China. English is simply orders of magnitude easier to write and remember. No matter how low-frequency the word is, or how unorthodox the spelling, the English speaker can always come up with something, simply because there has to be some correspondence between sound and spelling. One might forget whether "abracadabra" is hyphenated or not, or get the last few letters wrong on "rhinoceros", but even the poorest of spellers can make a reasonable stab at almost anything. By contrast, often even the most well-educated Chinese have no recourse but to throw up their hands and ask someone else in the room how to write some particularly elusive character."

- http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html

Winter is Coming

I wasn't really around, but I heard tell that it was a cool summer here in Missouri. No one minded, I'm sure! But fall seems to be coming hard and fast, and now I'm thinking that this year might be a cold one all around, with a long winter ahead. Last year I wore a tanktop to renfest. This year, renfest is next weekend. For Halloween last year, I wore a bodice and a very skimpy sort of undershirt thing underneath, and I spent all night in it until we walked two or three miles back to Laws in the wee hours of the morning. It was chilly, yes, but it was bearable, and that's the point. This is Missouri, so things can still change, but so far we're looking at a cold year.

In the mornings we can see our breath. The green leaves still on the trees look silly. When I walk outside, I see first sunlight and green, and the unmistakable smell of winter is startling. Yes, winter already. Now and then I catch a whiff of autumn too, but already I smell winter. And it's only October. Poor Zahra, her first winter and it's promising to be a hard one! I myself, being from the "Heart of Winter", (as I call Missouri to mess with foreigners from more summery lands), will be fine, of course.

Yesterday Allan, Yannick, Esther, Amy, and I went to Baja Grill. Yannick was only wearing a thin jacket and he was complaining bitterly about how cold it was. Not wanting to hear that, I finally took off my jacket and threw it at him. I figured that he must really be cold if he was desperate enough to wear a small girl's jacket. He zipped it up all the way.

Baja was yummy and afterward we went still further, towards the agricultural buildings, a part of campus I like to refer to as the ends of the earth. On the way back everyone complained about the cold except for Allan and I, although they were all in pants, shoes, and jackets, while Allan was wearing shorts and flip flops and I was wearing sandals and only a medium-sleeved shirt. We reveled in a sudden sense of Scottish Superiority.

And I really wasn't even too cold. I felt the cool air, certainly, but I didn't feel in a rush to get into the buildings or anything like that. My fingers did lose a bit of their dexterity, though, so I kept my fists together to keep them a bit warmer. It would have all been fine and good, if Yannick hadn't gone off and smoked a cigarette while still wearing my jacket.

This is a major fail. I don't have my winter clothes yet and I'm going to need that jacket for a while. And now it smells... indescribable... X(

Language Context and Rosetta Stone

I found this quote:

"If the only time you make use of your language is when you are studying, should you need to use that language you may well be stuck because you'll be in the wrong context for retrieving it."

on this site: http://gbarto.com/multilingua/confessions/

It's interesting. I hadn't thought about the situation from exactly that angle, but it does seem to make sense. For example, my spoken Spanish isn't terrible, but my written Spanish is much better. On the other hand, my written Norwegian is okay, and so is my spoken Norwegian - there is not nearly as much of a difference between them. Comparatively, my spoken Norwegian is actually better than my spoken Spanish, because I am more comfortable with it, and more rarely am frustrated because I hear my own mistakes.

I'm wondering now about whether or not Rosetta Stone gives you the right context. I tend to think it does, more than studying from a book or flash cards. Whatever I may think about the learn as a child situation, Rosetta Stone does help me to start associating the language very directly with real life. Just as I start to think of the new words when I see the RS pictures, when I go about my day later, the words echo back into my head when I see objects, actions, situations that remind me of what I learned.

This really does not happen as much when I learn a language through reading. I might remember the words fine, but they don't usually just present themselves in my mind in response to visual and aural stimuli. It might take me a bit longer to mentally access them, as well.

I think Mandarin will help me understand this process more. With Japanese, I learned a lot from Rosetta Stone, and I did pretty well with Japanese when I was in Japan. But I went into Rosetta Stone with a lot of Japanese experience, however scrambled it was. Mandarin is a fresh start that will let me look more purely at the Rosetta Stone method.

"Nothing is Original"

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."
— Jim Jarmusch

Miracle of Language

What's this? Mandarin?

That's right.

I more or less flipped a coin among the Rosetta Stone languages and this is what I came up with. I have nothing at all to push me along other than my own joy and curiosity, and that, I knew, would be enough to at least match my very few phrases of Cantonese with a very few phrases of Mandarin. I have enough friends that if I want to practice, or need help, I can get it. At the same time I am accountable to no one. This is not connected with any grade or any measurement. I am free to love it for it's own sake.

And, although I am only two days in, I am loving it so far. It's the first tonal language I've done really anything with (tones in Norwegian and Japanese are optional unless you need to sound native). It's entirely foreign, and the only thing I know going in is Ni Hao. I sort of know that goodbye is something like Di Tien, and Xie Xie is thank you, but I have no idea how to pronounce Xie Xie and two minutes into Unit 1 I learn that my pronunciation of Di Tien was WAY off.

So it goes. This is the miracle of language acquisition in it's rawest form. It sends little happy tickles down my spine when I step back for a second and think, two minutes ago this sentence would have sounded like absolute gibberish. Now I know that it means "The adults are not cooking, they are eating." Miracle.

I have no plans to advertise this to anyone until I get a bit further along, if I do get a bit further along. Still, I was thinking to myself, "I wonder when the first time I'll actually understand something in Chinese will be." Now, I'm not sure whether this counts, but later the same day that I started using Rosetta Stone, so about a half hour in, I was at the dining hall and I heard Di Tien, the correct way to say it, that I had just learned, and I couldn't help turning around and feeling very pleased with myself for even understanding such a rudimentary phrase. The girls I turned to look at all noticed that I had a bit of a funny smile on my face, but I don't think they thought too much of it. If only they knew... Muahahahahahaha... XD

Murphy's Law in Action - Hayride

Zahra and I were supposed to leave for the potluck just after the UP group did, at 6:00. Things didn't quite go according to plan. I had invited three residents from my hall - Allan, Haruka, and Reika. Since I am a P.A. and am not allowed to drive them anywhere, I asked them to go to UP, where the carpooling was to be arranged.

Zahra and I went to Walgreens to get our flu shots first. The process took longer than anticipated because there were essentially four stages - declaring our intent, turning in paperwork, paying, and actually recieving the shot. There were 5-10 minutes between each of these sections, including the ten minutes we had to wait at the end to make sure we didn't have bad reactions.

Anyway, this whole time I was on the phone with everyone. Allan called to say that he hadn't met with Haruka and Reika, and he was lost. I directed him to UP and gave him a phone number to call if my instructions were crap. I tried to call Reika to see if they were okay. No response. Meanwhile I needed the address to the potluck myself, so I called my friend Sam, who was an organizer. He gave me another number, Callie's, which I called, and Callie told me that she'd call me back when she knew. She called and gave me the address and directions, which I wrote down on a piece of paper. Sam called to ask how things were going, and I said fine, but had he recieved a call from Allan? He hadn't, and I was worried, wondering whether any of the three I had invited would make it to the Potluck. Reika still wasn't answering. Soon afterwards Prite called. I hadn't expected to have to worry about him at all, but he appartently got to UP too late, and didn't know how to get to the potluck. He suggested that he just come with us instead of my trying to give him directions. We agreed, but said we would be there in several minutes, as we were finishing up at Walgreens but had to get warmer clothes from home before we left. Prite told us that by the time he had arrived, there was no one at UP. He didn't say "No one except for a strange Scottish guy", so I thought that perhaps Allan had found his way there on time.

On the way home Zahra and I thought we'd be clever and take a Rollins road, assuming it would get us to campus. It didn't and this detour delayed us by five minutes and formed our second major delay after the flu shots. From here we went to my dorm and I quickly ran in and grabbed my warmest shirt, a turtleneck. Finally Reika called and said that she, Haruka, and Allan were all fine and on their way to the potluck. :D :D Then we thought we better get Prite, since he would be expecting us. So we went to UP and picked Prite up, and then went to Zahra's so that she could put on real shoes (she had flip flops on). We waited a long time for Zahra and I tried to call her to see what was up. There was no response and Prite and I were like... ??? After several minutes she called and said that the answer to both riddles was that she had left her cell phone upstairs and had to go back for it. She really needed the phone because we were relying on it's GPS to tell us how to get to the potluck. This was our third major delay.

When we finally got going it was 6:40. The GPS told us to go a slightly different way than we remembered from the written instructions, but we started following it. Zahra kept talking about how far it was, and finally I asked if it had an estimate for how long it would take to get there. Suddenly Zahra said, "Stop, stop! The instructions are wrong! It's taking us five hours to get there!" (This was our fourth major delay) I laughed, stopped, we decided to follow the written instructions. But it turned out that Zahra had left them at home. I remembered two things - to get on highway 70 and to take exit 117... no, later emended to 121. Prite called Sam to confirm this, and Sam told him to call back when we had taken the exit.

I missed the exit. (Fifth major delay). We decided to go ahead and take 117, because that was the next exit and I couldn't turn around before then anyway. So we called for alternative directions. We had to look for Rocheport Gravel Road. We got off on J at 117 and drove for a little while, about four miles. We had to cross a busy road at one point without a light, which was fine but it took a while as we waited. I kept feeling that we should keep going, because it should be far if we hadn't taken the recommended exit, and I remembered something of the written instructions that said to keep going and going. But Prite and Zahra said that a long time ago we had passed a road called Rocheport, so finally I turned back.

We drove J all the way back to the highway's exit. The very first left after the highway was indeed called Rocheport... Old Rocheport, to be precise, and it was a gravel road. We started down it and Prite called to see if it was the right road. It wasn't - they were confused about where it was. When I explained, they said that we had to go much further, about four miles down J. We turned around and started back down J. We ended up having to cross the one road, with the delay, three times. This confusion definitely made our Sixth Major Delay.

Rocheport Gravel Road ended up being the very next left from where I had finally turned around. If we had driven even 100 meters further, we would have seen it. This irony was just too much. I had to laugh a bit hysterically. Sam stayed on the phone from this point on as we made our way through the 'neighborhood', past a fork in the road and down a long, narrow, tree encircled road. Finally we saw Sam in the very last of the light of the setting sun. We had arrived.

The food was all gone, so Zahra ate the remainders of what few vegetarian dishes there had been to begin with, and Prite and I ate the omelette Prite had made, and all three of us ate more than the Food Pyramid's recommended amount of my Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies. But it didn't really matter - we had arrived in time for the real fun.

Zahra had her first campfire and s'mores. She really charmed the owner of the farm, and the nice lady took us on a tour of the barn (including a baby calf! :D) and her home. Zahra really enjoyed it and kept saying how much the whole place seemed like out of a movie.

Soon was the hayride itself. Allan, Zahra, Reika, Haruka and I all rode together. (Prite was on the other side of the wagon, so we didn't see much of him) It was so dusty and I was a bit jaded from having been mostly on Haunted Hayrides, but I still enjoyed it, especially because Zahra, Reika, and Haruka enjoyed it so much.

Allan said that when we had been so late he thought to himself that it had been a trap, that I had never planned on coming but had instead lured him there with false promises. I told him that it was true, the whole thing was a sex slave operation that I got a 10% cut of for my role in luring unsuspecting exchange students there. He said then that he wanted that job, and I said that he might be convinced to join the operation, since he would probably be rejected as a sex slave. He's never going to let anyone forget that I have essentially called him an Ugly Sex Slave.

After the potluck we went back to the barn and the man of the farm told me that I could go into the baby cows pen and play with it. I did and it sort of liked me. It was very friendly and approached slowly and licked my hand. However, there were a lot of people who had followed me and were just outside the pen, so it was a bit nervous. When Prite came in that was too much, and he retreated. I blamed Prite. Afterwards Haruka came in and the calf absolutely adored her. It wouldn't stop licking her everywhere. She was thrilled and wouldn't stop giggling. I tried to take pictures but it wasn't so easy in the small dust filled pen. :P

We also swung about on rope swings in the barn - well, mostly Prite and I. Prite and I often speak Japanese to each other, since we are about equally bad at it and it is fun for us. So I was saying most of the things we normally say to each other, like, "You are a monkey" and he was saying similar things, like, "You are too." and Reika and Haruka thought it was very funny, so pretty soon my entire rope swinging performances included short announcements in Japanese directed at the three of them.

The rope swing was the only thing Zahra didn't try. She said that she was too cold. :P It is her first winter, after all.

Despite all the difficulties I think it ended up being a really fun evening for everyone involved. :D

School Update

I don't particularly love any of my classes this year. Okay, that's a lie. I enjoy Biological Anthropology. And I don't mind teaching my FIG class, either, although sometimes I wish I could have done it last year, or do it at least separated from the C.A. aspects of being a P.A., so that I could give it more energy. But Macro-Micro Economics, Cross Cultural Journalism (not my FIG), and Twentieth Century American History... they're just okay.

Last week I had tests in three out of four of my classes, which was lots of fun. Things didn't go as bad as they might have. I am not the best Journalism test taker (the peculiar mixture of specifics and 'understanding' sometimes trips me up), so I probably got a B on the test - will get a B in the class.

In Econ I surprised myself by getting an A in both the regular class test and the Journalism class test. This is supposed to be one of Journalism's hardest classes - everyone rants and raves about it except for fellow C.A. Kevin. So the idea of getting an A honestly didn't occur to me before I got these results back. Now I'm somewhat torn. Factoring in the weekly online quizzes, which I have had rather mixed results on, I think I have a low A now, but classes get harder as they go along. It's a five credit hour class and an A would be GREAT. On the other hand I'd have to drastically change my study habits and work hard to actually get one, whereas I could probably be fairly lazy and get a B. :S Oh, the choices...

History was kind of a wild card before the test. On one hand, I knew it was a totally normal class - not in the honors college, not in the J-school, not preceded by a reputation for impossibility. But you never know how these things are going to go. It's history - you can't have it memorized, so much depends on the whims of the professor. The test ended up being very merciful. I will be greatly surprised if I didn't ace it, and the whole grade in the class is two tests and an out of class essay. That's an A right there.

Biological Anthropology is lovely. It almost makes up for not having a Foreign Language class. ... Okay, so it doesn't. But it's still nice. I'll have an A unless something goes horribly, horribly wrong. And the best part is that it's a five credit hour course. :D

So basically, my goal for the semester was a 3.5. I am directly on course to receive that without much effort. However, if I work hard in Econ, a 3.8 is not out of reach. I honestly can't decide if the possibility is encouraging or annoying. It's tantalizing, that's for sure.

How Much Am I Worth?

The website is actually very interesting. After you take the quiz it breaks down your value and explains it. It's part lightweight fun and part thinking about how much people are 'worth' - can you put a price tag on a human being? And not even in a more abstract sense, but even in a practical sense?

Once I read that the human body would be worth about 5$ if you sold it for scrap...

???

I've had a sore throat since Sunday morning. At first it was very mild, and I had no other symptoms (except being tired, which may have been completely unrelated). After a while it got worse, and since I had been dealing with it for four days, on Wednesday I called the Student Health Center and made an appointment. So today I went to the doctor and she looked and said it didn't look like strep, and I said that I had noticed the same thing (looking for spots, you know). She conjectured that it might be an allergy thing, so I bought some Sudafed. And she said it wasn't contagious.

Then, suddenly, after dinner today, the sore throat went away completely. And I just looked at my tongue in the mirror and it is bright red with white spots. Looks pretty weird.

What the hell?

Altid Dansk, Aldri Norsk

Det var to danskere på festen i natt, og vi pratet litt hyggelig sammen. Og så må jeg spøre: Hvorfor er de altid danske og aldri norske? Jeg hadde ikke virkelig snakket norsk siden jeg snakket med Eva, den danske jenta jeg møtte på en annen fest siste år - bare pratet litt med Uni på Skandinavisk. Og jeg synes at Uni har ikke hjulpet norsken min. Nei, når jeg prater med ham snakker jeg mer og mer nynosk og mindre og mindre bokmål. For eksempel sier jeg nesten aldri 'en pike' nå, aldri, 'ei jente'... og av og til sier jeg 'ikkje'! Og det var to av dem og en av meg, og jeg kunne ikke høre så bra... vi forstod hverandre ikke så bra som Eva og jeg hadde kunne forstå hverandre.

Men de likte det likevel!! Jeg er så glad i skandinavisker. :P

Jeg måtte selvfølgelig si "rød grød med fløde." Først sa jeg det som norske ord, og de sa at det var veldig godt. Da sa jeg det som norske ord og med en innbilt potet in munnen min. Det var ende bedre, sa de. Da måtte jeg si det igjen og igjen i en mikrofon. "En amerikaner som kan dansk!!"Ja, ja. Men jeg kan ikke dansk, jeg kan norsk. NORSK! Men jeg finner aldri nordmenn.

Jeg kunne kanskje snakke med nordmenn. Istedenfor kan jeg bare prate litt med dansker og si "rød grød med fløde" igjen og igjen. Vi forstår hverandre ikke nok til å diskutere mye mer, særlig når det er musikk og så videre. Jeg forstår godt at jeg er en nysgjerrighet. De reiser nok tilbake til Danmark og sier, "jeg fant en amerikaner som kan et skandinavisk språk!"

Haha, okay. Jeg vet ikke hvorfor jeg følte at jeg måtte skrive dette her. Å praktisere norsken min, kanskje. Før det kommer å bli dansk! ;)

Kanye West and Finland?

I saw this and I just couldn't resist.


Immaletyoufinish.com

Words Slipping like Droplets of Sweat

"I could feel the Japanese words slipping like droplets of sweat from my brow."

- Page 7, Turning Japanese, David Mura

The Japanese words, yes, and the German, the Finnish, the Spanish, the Norwegian, the Faroese, the Italian, the Latin... isn't it startling how quickly it abandons you, especially right after a trip? When you go from living and breathing a language to forgetting it ever happened? Eventually the rate of evaporation does slow down, leaving you a sort of thick, sludge like remainder of words that, you think, you are unlikely to forget as long as you know your own language. Still, the speed of the disintegration, the helplessness of it, is striking...

A month ago I could identify close to 200 Kanji. Two months ago the number was about 100, and I could write nearly all of those. Yeah, during my three intense and in-Japan weeks, the rate was too rapid to be sustained, and even in the weeks of preparation I was half learning and half cramming.

How many Kanji can I recognize now? Perhaps one hundred. Perhaps less. How many could I write? Perhaps fifty.

So it goes.