本田下上山川日国人語英一二三四五六七八九十男女子大小好時何月半百千万円高安学生先校
March 31, 2009
Details...
Stian, do you remember our most recent conversation? About looking to the details?
Last week I sat on my dorm-room floor and felt the cold linoleum fall away, revealing a deep valley, blanketed in green and weeping like the land all around Geiranger seemed to weep, all wet rocks and waterfalls and mists and impossible blue and green. For a moment I swayed, overwhelmed by the vision alone.
But it needn't be so profound, nor so imaginary. I look to the details.
I look up
See
Impossible angles
Highways
In the branches of trees.
I have been dreaming of Finland in summer. It must be the weather. Summer in Finland is some kind of paradise - the freedom of summer without it's heat, the crisp incredible perfection of spring without the scourge that keeps its joy from me.
And these few days, sandwiched between days of clouds and wind and rain, these few perfect days... they fill the air with helpless delight, and make the details shine like jewels, so that they are barely even hidden.
When the wind blows on the water,
gently,
and the sun shines through...
Can't everyone see
The world beneath the water?
There are forests, under the creek
In the middle of downtown.
The water is like a mirror, and it's coolness calls to me even on a spring day just warm enough to make you want to stretch on the rocks and smile.
I put my face in the water, staring out over its clear, mirror surface.
It embraces me, and I find another acceptable end. The one from His Dark Materials. Heretical, maybe, but nevertheless I can imagine that it might not be so bad, might not be the worst possible end... To have our consciousness drift apart, and our particles become part of everything alive again...
I think I could live with that. Die with that.
The cool wind blows and the world is filled with light, so beautiful.
Last week I sat on my dorm-room floor and felt the cold linoleum fall away, revealing a deep valley, blanketed in green and weeping like the land all around Geiranger seemed to weep, all wet rocks and waterfalls and mists and impossible blue and green. For a moment I swayed, overwhelmed by the vision alone.
But it needn't be so profound, nor so imaginary. I look to the details.
I look up
See
Impossible angles
Highways
In the branches of trees.
I have been dreaming of Finland in summer. It must be the weather. Summer in Finland is some kind of paradise - the freedom of summer without it's heat, the crisp incredible perfection of spring without the scourge that keeps its joy from me.
And these few days, sandwiched between days of clouds and wind and rain, these few perfect days... they fill the air with helpless delight, and make the details shine like jewels, so that they are barely even hidden.
When the wind blows on the water,
gently,
and the sun shines through...
Can't everyone see
The world beneath the water?
There are forests, under the creek
In the middle of downtown.
The water is like a mirror, and it's coolness calls to me even on a spring day just warm enough to make you want to stretch on the rocks and smile.
I put my face in the water, staring out over its clear, mirror surface.
It embraces me, and I find another acceptable end. The one from His Dark Materials. Heretical, maybe, but nevertheless I can imagine that it might not be so bad, might not be the worst possible end... To have our consciousness drift apart, and our particles become part of everything alive again...
I think I could live with that. Die with that.
The cool wind blows and the world is filled with light, so beautiful.
March 30, 2009
Three Funny Things about Japanese (2)
1.) If you want to say you 'love' something, as in, you 'really like it', in Japanese, you use the expression 'daisuki'. This is made of two components: Dai (Big) and Suki (Like). Big Like!
2.) Japanese uses different sets of numbers to count things with different shapes. These are called counters. For example, one is ichi, but one year - issai, one bird - ichiwa, one dog or cat or insect - ippiki, one person - hitori. Although there is a 'place holder' counter for use when the counter is unknown, and some counters are not in common use, unique counters exist for such things as: paragraphs, footsteps, nursery trees (and stocks), bows during worship at a shrine, cannons, and theatrical acts.
3.) These names themselves can be made up from two different original systems - Chinese and Japanese. The basic words for four, seven, and nine, however, are problematic. Four is Shi, a word which also means death. This is unlucky, kind of like our number 13, so they replace it with the euphemism Yon sometimes (and in some cases you HAVE to say yon, such as Yoji (four o'clock)). The same goes for Ku, which means suffering and it often switched out with Kyu. Seven is Shichi, which Japanese people sometimes worry gets lost floating around next to shi (four) and ichi (one), so they sometimes say nana instead. :)
2.) Japanese uses different sets of numbers to count things with different shapes. These are called counters. For example, one is ichi, but one year - issai, one bird - ichiwa, one dog or cat or insect - ippiki, one person - hitori. Although there is a 'place holder' counter for use when the counter is unknown, and some counters are not in common use, unique counters exist for such things as: paragraphs, footsteps, nursery trees (and stocks), bows during worship at a shrine, cannons, and theatrical acts.
3.) These names themselves can be made up from two different original systems - Chinese and Japanese. The basic words for four, seven, and nine, however, are problematic. Four is Shi, a word which also means death. This is unlucky, kind of like our number 13, so they replace it with the euphemism Yon sometimes (and in some cases you HAVE to say yon, such as Yoji (four o'clock)). The same goes for Ku, which means suffering and it often switched out with Kyu. Seven is Shichi, which Japanese people sometimes worry gets lost floating around next to shi (four) and ichi (one), so they sometimes say nana instead. :)
March 28, 2009
Three Funny Things about Japanese (1)
1.) Japanese people worry a lot about being polite, and in Japanese this includes using different words to refer to things you want to honor, and things you want to be neutral, or humble about. Sometimes these 'honourable' version of words simply add a prefix. Other times they are completely different words. And sometimes there are even more categories than this, showing different degrees of honor!
2.) One way this manifests itself is in the names for family members. Obviously, you can't use the same word to talk about your mother or your friend's mother. You want to show your friend's mother respect, but since you are talking about your mother in connection to yourself, it would be rude to honor your mother (and, by connection, yourself!). So your friend's mother is (anata no) okaasan -- (your) mother, and my mother is (watashi no) haha -- (my) mother.
3.) The Japanese word for Manufacturer is Meikaa. Sound it out. This is an import word. Television Manufacturer is Terebi Meikaa. Sound it out. :D
2.) One way this manifests itself is in the names for family members. Obviously, you can't use the same word to talk about your mother or your friend's mother. You want to show your friend's mother respect, but since you are talking about your mother in connection to yourself, it would be rude to honor your mother (and, by connection, yourself!). So your friend's mother is (anata no) okaasan -- (your) mother, and my mother is (watashi no) haha -- (my) mother.
3.) The Japanese word for Manufacturer is Meikaa. Sound it out. This is an import word. Television Manufacturer is Terebi Meikaa. Sound it out. :D
March 27, 2009
Japanese
Finnish is now open for me - a broken language, and we look each other in the eye. This doesn't mean that I have a mastery over it. Far from it. My vocabulary is laughable, my knowledge of the grammar rudimentary and mostly theory. But the language is broken, broken open, and what I mean by that is this:
When I look at a page of Finnish text, it is foreign, yes. Foreign and yet not nonsense. My mind accepts it as language, and scans over it seeing not an impenetrable wall of barely pronounceable symbols but words. Words I may not know, but which I can nevertheless look up in a dictionary or even guess from context because I know enough about the language to wrestle the words down to their searchable form, identify singular or plural and cases, and I even have possession of a surprisingly large though still modest collection of root words and components, some of which I don't fully understand but which nevertheless occasionally manifest as intuition. The words, the sentences, they fall apart in my mind - and even when the meaning is hidden to me, I am fully confident that the meaning exists and can be found. Before the language broke, they didn't, I wasn't.
Someone once said, after a week or two of intensive effort with some language or another, "I have learnt enough to continue to learn more." Perhaps I am making it sound as though the breaking of a language is some single moment, one turning point. There are more turning points than that, of course. At some point, perhaps the next big leap for me in Finnish, the language begins to yeild itself from primary sources. A little closer in there is confidence, and new words come more swiftly, attaching themselves to a growing structure in the mind which is the grasp of that language, instead of hovering weakly and tenuously in midmind.
The very first stage, the first crack, when you learn enough to continue to learn more - the language retains it's foreigness but suddenly, magically, gives up it's utterly impossible and alien quality - you look over the landscape of the language and, gasping at the breadth and depth of the challenges ahead, but accepting them, looking the language in the eye - that first crack sounds, and changes everything, opens those doors that at first seemed impenetrable and are now, startlingly, not.
Japanese broke tonight, just that first tiny crack. Yes, after years of halfheartedly circling it, coming in every once in a while for the softest and weakest of attempts: a charge at the hiragana, perhaps, as I forced the syllabary's 46 characters into my head for a brief time before letting them leak out again. I would learn to say, "I am learning" half a dozen times and each time almost magically forget it the moment it became untrue.
It has to be said that I don't really experience this breaking with the Indo-European languages. (Maybe a tiny bit with Faroese, but starting after the first crack, perhaps? :)) Finnish was the first, and a self discipline I rarely find drove me to that second stage. I had a timeline, and a long, empty summer, and every morning before temptation set in I'd pack my bag with Beginner's Finnish (hehehe), nothing else. If I failed - tossed in the newspaper, Anna Karenina, my calculus book (jk), almost anything... alongside it, then I failed. Suddenly Finnish was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to learn Finnish, but I didn't want to study it. It was hard.
Then that first layer broke, I heard that first crack, and it became a joy. The language was mine. It was broken. It didn't yet have much to show for it, but I felt it and I knew it!
Three days at Kiser's. Danny, a television, a pantry, two crazy dogs, and Colloquial Japanese... Colloquial Japanese won about 1/4th of the time. Hours passed as I fed myself phrases. But I didn't want to learn them as phrases! I wanted to learn them as words. I wanted to build that first structure in my mind that the rest of the language could build from. But it was hard. I swallowed the words, but they were alien and didn't want to mean anything, or be remembered. I told myself the langauge would crack, like Finnish. It would give me a glimpse of it's landscape so I could face the road ahead. It bent, and bent, but didn't crack...
I came home today and I had to pack for the move. I packed and packed and out of nowhere, searing hot, crimson, a hiragana character would blaze through my mind. I would suddenly feel に (ni) so strongly that I could hardly keep from calling it out. I wanted to write に, type に, paint に... then it was gone. Talking to my mom I almost said, か (ka). "That was weird," I thought for a moment, my true puzzlement stillborn as か began to emerge onto my mental field.
After the rest of them went to bed, I sat at the kitchen table and wrote Kanji to the sound of the washing machine. 男 - Otoko - Man. I kept getting the stroke order wrong when I just wrote it 'naturally'. I filled a page with little 田's, determined to form some muscle memory around it. I filled a page with them. A college ruled page, with ten on each line.
I heard a crack. A long time in coming, if you count all those half hearted years. But I buckled down on Monday. And tonight I heard the first crack.
I know exactly 25 Kanji. I am on chapter 3 of a beginner's book. I'm only halfway through Katakana. And it doesn't matter one bit.
No spaces. Three writing systems. Counters. Particles.
It's not lunacy. It's not alien. It's merely foreign. Merely as-of-yet unknown. It's waiting for me. I know that now. And for the next three months, as often as I can spare a snatch of time, it shall be my pleasure to rip the secrets of the language limb from limb. And be humbled by it. Alternatively. It has begun.
When I look at a page of Finnish text, it is foreign, yes. Foreign and yet not nonsense. My mind accepts it as language, and scans over it seeing not an impenetrable wall of barely pronounceable symbols but words. Words I may not know, but which I can nevertheless look up in a dictionary or even guess from context because I know enough about the language to wrestle the words down to their searchable form, identify singular or plural and cases, and I even have possession of a surprisingly large though still modest collection of root words and components, some of which I don't fully understand but which nevertheless occasionally manifest as intuition. The words, the sentences, they fall apart in my mind - and even when the meaning is hidden to me, I am fully confident that the meaning exists and can be found. Before the language broke, they didn't, I wasn't.
Someone once said, after a week or two of intensive effort with some language or another, "I have learnt enough to continue to learn more." Perhaps I am making it sound as though the breaking of a language is some single moment, one turning point. There are more turning points than that, of course. At some point, perhaps the next big leap for me in Finnish, the language begins to yeild itself from primary sources. A little closer in there is confidence, and new words come more swiftly, attaching themselves to a growing structure in the mind which is the grasp of that language, instead of hovering weakly and tenuously in midmind.
The very first stage, the first crack, when you learn enough to continue to learn more - the language retains it's foreigness but suddenly, magically, gives up it's utterly impossible and alien quality - you look over the landscape of the language and, gasping at the breadth and depth of the challenges ahead, but accepting them, looking the language in the eye - that first crack sounds, and changes everything, opens those doors that at first seemed impenetrable and are now, startlingly, not.
Japanese broke tonight, just that first tiny crack. Yes, after years of halfheartedly circling it, coming in every once in a while for the softest and weakest of attempts: a charge at the hiragana, perhaps, as I forced the syllabary's 46 characters into my head for a brief time before letting them leak out again. I would learn to say, "I am learning" half a dozen times and each time almost magically forget it the moment it became untrue.
It has to be said that I don't really experience this breaking with the Indo-European languages. (Maybe a tiny bit with Faroese, but starting after the first crack, perhaps? :)) Finnish was the first, and a self discipline I rarely find drove me to that second stage. I had a timeline, and a long, empty summer, and every morning before temptation set in I'd pack my bag with Beginner's Finnish (hehehe), nothing else. If I failed - tossed in the newspaper, Anna Karenina, my calculus book (jk), almost anything... alongside it, then I failed. Suddenly Finnish was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to learn Finnish, but I didn't want to study it. It was hard.
Then that first layer broke, I heard that first crack, and it became a joy. The language was mine. It was broken. It didn't yet have much to show for it, but I felt it and I knew it!
Three days at Kiser's. Danny, a television, a pantry, two crazy dogs, and Colloquial Japanese... Colloquial Japanese won about 1/4th of the time. Hours passed as I fed myself phrases. But I didn't want to learn them as phrases! I wanted to learn them as words. I wanted to build that first structure in my mind that the rest of the language could build from. But it was hard. I swallowed the words, but they were alien and didn't want to mean anything, or be remembered. I told myself the langauge would crack, like Finnish. It would give me a glimpse of it's landscape so I could face the road ahead. It bent, and bent, but didn't crack...
I came home today and I had to pack for the move. I packed and packed and out of nowhere, searing hot, crimson, a hiragana character would blaze through my mind. I would suddenly feel に (ni) so strongly that I could hardly keep from calling it out. I wanted to write に, type に, paint に... then it was gone. Talking to my mom I almost said, か (ka). "That was weird," I thought for a moment, my true puzzlement stillborn as か began to emerge onto my mental field.
After the rest of them went to bed, I sat at the kitchen table and wrote Kanji to the sound of the washing machine. 男 - Otoko - Man. I kept getting the stroke order wrong when I just wrote it 'naturally'. I filled a page with little 田's, determined to form some muscle memory around it. I filled a page with them. A college ruled page, with ten on each line.
I heard a crack. A long time in coming, if you count all those half hearted years. But I buckled down on Monday. And tonight I heard the first crack.
I know exactly 25 Kanji. I am on chapter 3 of a beginner's book. I'm only halfway through Katakana. And it doesn't matter one bit.
No spaces. Three writing systems. Counters. Particles.
It's not lunacy. It's not alien. It's merely foreign. Merely as-of-yet unknown. It's waiting for me. I know that now. And for the next three months, as often as I can spare a snatch of time, it shall be my pleasure to rip the secrets of the language limb from limb. And be humbled by it. Alternatively. It has begun.
March 26, 2009
Japanese from Anime!! (Not)
"Japanese is only easy in the sense that it's actually very hard and it takes a lot of work!"
These are very funny. :D Good thing this isn't my plan for learning Japanese.
Feelings on the Move
We're moving to Florida, quite officially by now, and the house in St. Louis is on the market. My emotions about this change almost by the minute, but can be summed up fairly well just by a sense of suddenness. When people ask me how I feel and I explain it in this way, they think that I mean that it hasn't sunk in yet. Oh, it has. And sometimes I feel sad or nostalgic or something else, but mostly just distant from it, in a way. And there's no sense in trying to approach it more closely, in dwelling in memories.
Am I even really moving? I've already moved out, after all, and this move has nothing to do with me. I won't really make friends or any sort of networks in Florida. I will go there for long months with just the family and I. And yes, it will be nice to go there in winter and spring break - it is the ultimate vacation destination, after all, and it almost seems wrong to move there permanantly.
But it is what it is. I'm clearing out my room. I get to keep most of my stuff, at least, the half that means something to me. Right now about 1/4th of my room is completely sterile and no longer mine. The "Miranda's Room" sign my Grandmother painted is gone, and my pictures are replaced by some strange paintings of jazz musicians Pam gave us to cover nail holes on the wall. Some of my furniture now stands completely empty, except for a handful of dust bunnies.
The rest of my room is getting there. Bookshelves stand half empty, the books getting loaded into laundry baskets to take away. I have a collection of crates to load everything I want to keep into. Most of them are for clothing, then there is one for electronics, one for movies and music, two for nostalgia... I know we oughtn't be defined by possessions, but that last category does tell a story... I attach memories to things easily, and seeing holiday cards, correspondances, accomplishments, events, vacations, schoolwork, and more packed into these crates reinforces this growing sense of finiteness.
I remember once playing a video game, and after so much work and striving and caring I realized how small my save game file was, how few variances there really were between my save game and all the others the game was made to generate. I experience this funny creeping feeling that these crates are my save game.
My second ever Facebook status is, "Miranda is scattering her posessions to the four winds. At least, it feels that way." So I guess the way I feel is windblown. It just seems like such a radical change, even though it affects me much less than the others. I do hope it will make my mom happy. :) The weather, if nothing else, should agree with her.
But the change, especially for me, seeing it through the window of a brief spring break, seems sudden and strange, and brings me face to face with finiteness.
Am I even really moving? I've already moved out, after all, and this move has nothing to do with me. I won't really make friends or any sort of networks in Florida. I will go there for long months with just the family and I. And yes, it will be nice to go there in winter and spring break - it is the ultimate vacation destination, after all, and it almost seems wrong to move there permanantly.
But it is what it is. I'm clearing out my room. I get to keep most of my stuff, at least, the half that means something to me. Right now about 1/4th of my room is completely sterile and no longer mine. The "Miranda's Room" sign my Grandmother painted is gone, and my pictures are replaced by some strange paintings of jazz musicians Pam gave us to cover nail holes on the wall. Some of my furniture now stands completely empty, except for a handful of dust bunnies.
The rest of my room is getting there. Bookshelves stand half empty, the books getting loaded into laundry baskets to take away. I have a collection of crates to load everything I want to keep into. Most of them are for clothing, then there is one for electronics, one for movies and music, two for nostalgia... I know we oughtn't be defined by possessions, but that last category does tell a story... I attach memories to things easily, and seeing holiday cards, correspondances, accomplishments, events, vacations, schoolwork, and more packed into these crates reinforces this growing sense of finiteness.
I remember once playing a video game, and after so much work and striving and caring I realized how small my save game file was, how few variances there really were between my save game and all the others the game was made to generate. I experience this funny creeping feeling that these crates are my save game.
My second ever Facebook status is, "Miranda is scattering her posessions to the four winds. At least, it feels that way." So I guess the way I feel is windblown. It just seems like such a radical change, even though it affects me much less than the others. I do hope it will make my mom happy. :) The weather, if nothing else, should agree with her.
But the change, especially for me, seeing it through the window of a brief spring break, seems sudden and strange, and brings me face to face with finiteness.
March 18, 2009
Yahoo!!!
Dear Miranda:
Congratulations! After carefully reviewing the evaluations of your performance and the staffing needs within the halls, we are pleased to offer you a position as a Peer Advisor for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Your tentative assignment for next fall is Cross Cultural Journalism (A) in South Hall. Although it is unlikely to change, there have been times in the past where we have had to adjust staffing assignments based upon demand for Freshman Interest Groups which is why your assignment will remain tentative until the end of this term.
So, it's official. I got the job and will be a P.A. next year. I didn't get my top choice of location - Pangaea, but I also didn't know that Cross Cultural Journalism existed. And the more I think about it, there is a distinct set of advantages and disadvantages to being placed there instead.
Disadvantages:
Worse location - another year of Dobbs meals
Not living with the foreigners... :(
Advantages:
Getting involved with journalism
Being able to go to international parties
Being able to be real friends with the international students, if I can manage to meet them, since there won't be a conflict of interest.
Nicer dorm.
March 17, 2009
It Looks So Innocent
I finished my lovely, if unorthodox, tomato-chicken-noodle-rice soup, so it was time to cook again. The other day at the grocery store I bought mushrooms and green beans, so I knew I wanted to use those, and that was about it. I also thought it might be nice to make an Asian soup.
I came home and started working. It is beginning to astonish me that we are allowed rice cookers in our dorm rooms. For the record, anyone who thinks that it is impossible to cook things in a dorm room has not realized the potential of their rice cooker. I still haven't figured out a way to make pizza or pie here, but just about anything else is possible. :D
Today I sauteed mushrooms. In my dorm room...
This worked remarkably well. I decided to season it with some chili pepper. And I added some rice.
Juices started leaking out everywhere and it started to smell good. I was a little bit terrified because I had no idea where this was going. I haven't even really cooked mushrooms myself before.
After the mushrooms seemed sort of done (didn't know what to look for), I added water so that the rice could puff up. And I decided to use some curry and ginger.
Then I added the green beans, and a can of coconut milk that I had lying around. It tasted too creamy then, almost like dessert. I wasn't sure how much spice I would need to get it back to the pre-coconut milk flavour level. The answer - 1 Heckuvalot. I added curry, pepper, salt, sugar, red pepper, garlic, and ginger in copious amounts.
And then, it was perfect... :D
It makes me sweat all over the place, but it's really yummy. Mayumi likes it too.
I came home and started working. It is beginning to astonish me that we are allowed rice cookers in our dorm rooms. For the record, anyone who thinks that it is impossible to cook things in a dorm room has not realized the potential of their rice cooker. I still haven't figured out a way to make pizza or pie here, but just about anything else is possible. :D
Today I sauteed mushrooms. In my dorm room...
This worked remarkably well. I decided to season it with some chili pepper. And I added some rice.
Juices started leaking out everywhere and it started to smell good. I was a little bit terrified because I had no idea where this was going. I haven't even really cooked mushrooms myself before.
After the mushrooms seemed sort of done (didn't know what to look for), I added water so that the rice could puff up. And I decided to use some curry and ginger.
Then I added the green beans, and a can of coconut milk that I had lying around. It tasted too creamy then, almost like dessert. I wasn't sure how much spice I would need to get it back to the pre-coconut milk flavour level. The answer - 1 Heckuvalot. I added curry, pepper, salt, sugar, red pepper, garlic, and ginger in copious amounts.
And then, it was perfect... :DIt makes me sweat all over the place, but it's really yummy. Mayumi likes it too.
March 16, 2009
The Birth Pangs of Spring
Spring is coming! Alright, so it's mostly here, but the weather is so fickle in Missouri that one can never be certain it's here to stay. For three weeks now we've alternated between cool, very wet days, warm perfect slice of heaven days, and freezing days when it feels like we're back in the heart of winter and all the rain from the day before freezes. It's a treacherous time of year. Check the weather before you go out!
Spring break is next week, which means a lot of work for us now. I wrote no less than three essays over the weekend. Two are for a pass fail class, so I didn't put much into them. I also slacked off a bit on the Spanish one, as I gave that professor some of my best work with the last essay and he didn't appreciate it at all. Surprise, I got the same grade on this one (93%), but he docks points without any explanation and he's too scary and wrathful to ask about it. (4/5 on content... what more was he looking for? I know I was the only person to pick the harder topic, and I spent an hour or so planning the content alone!)
Oh well. Tonight I have a Statistics Exam. And a Prom. Don't ask how that is going to work out.
But today I saw some little white flowers poking out of some mulch outside of Arts and Sciences. And after the rains, all the lichen on the trees glows an almost painful green. Observe...
Coincidentally, this is my answer. Look to the details...
Spring break is next week, which means a lot of work for us now. I wrote no less than three essays over the weekend. Two are for a pass fail class, so I didn't put much into them. I also slacked off a bit on the Spanish one, as I gave that professor some of my best work with the last essay and he didn't appreciate it at all. Surprise, I got the same grade on this one (93%), but he docks points without any explanation and he's too scary and wrathful to ask about it. (4/5 on content... what more was he looking for? I know I was the only person to pick the harder topic, and I spent an hour or so planning the content alone!)
Oh well. Tonight I have a Statistics Exam. And a Prom. Don't ask how that is going to work out.
But today I saw some little white flowers poking out of some mulch outside of Arts and Sciences. And after the rains, all the lichen on the trees glows an almost painful green. Observe...
Coincidentally, this is my answer. Look to the details...
March 15, 2009
Rice Cooker Soup Adventure!
Edit: Since this post was published, I have made much better soups in my rice cooker. Almost anything I can make in a pot over a stove (noodle mixes, for example) I can make in the rice cooker with very few adjustments - perhaps a bit more time, since the temp is a bit lower. You might also be pleasantly surprised if, in a pinch, you try using your rice cooker in the capacity of a very small skillet. I've cooked eggs and mushrooms and chicken breasts in mine.
Back to the original post:
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I dropped my meal plan down to seven. This means it's time for me to get SERIOUS about dorm room cooking. My meal plan was previously 10 a week, and I do just fine on two meals a day (lots of snacks ;), so generally it would work out just right so that I'd eat out or cook something small for four meals a week. But seven meals is a bit harder. So I thought I'd experiment with the possibilities of a rice cooker. I've heard you could cook soup in them, and the other day I bought some campbells chicken noodle soup. Still, online I only found 'rice cooker soup' recipes, as if there is some magical formula to making a soup well in a rice cooker. And nowhere did anyone mention having prepared canned soup in a rice cooker.
Well, I was about to change that. :D But then I decided that I've always wanted to put rice in my chicken noodle soup, and when using a rice cooker seemed like the perfect time to try that. So first I cooked some really short grained Arabic rice.
While that was cooking I got really sad, imagining the vegetable free final product. A lot of people think I don't like fruits and vegetables. This is because I am allergic to most of them in their raw form. But vegetables cooked... as in soups... are definitely my friends. I had an intense longing for carrots. I don't happen to have any carrots lying around, (hopefully remedied by my next trip to a proper grocery store), but I do have a few cans of tomatoes (w/ basil). Better than nothing, right? :)
Right. Then I added the soup, and, because I evidently am a very hyper cook, some garlic and some Mrs. Dash, which I bought yesterday on a whim and haven't ever used before.
Nom nom nom!! :D For me, this is about 6-8 servings. Perhaps 2-4 for an ordinary person? XD I really don't know. And the whole thing was pretty easy, low maintenance, and cost about 3$.
Back to the original post:
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I dropped my meal plan down to seven. This means it's time for me to get SERIOUS about dorm room cooking. My meal plan was previously 10 a week, and I do just fine on two meals a day (lots of snacks ;), so generally it would work out just right so that I'd eat out or cook something small for four meals a week. But seven meals is a bit harder. So I thought I'd experiment with the possibilities of a rice cooker. I've heard you could cook soup in them, and the other day I bought some campbells chicken noodle soup. Still, online I only found 'rice cooker soup' recipes, as if there is some magical formula to making a soup well in a rice cooker. And nowhere did anyone mention having prepared canned soup in a rice cooker.
Well, I was about to change that. :D But then I decided that I've always wanted to put rice in my chicken noodle soup, and when using a rice cooker seemed like the perfect time to try that. So first I cooked some really short grained Arabic rice.
While that was cooking I got really sad, imagining the vegetable free final product. A lot of people think I don't like fruits and vegetables. This is because I am allergic to most of them in their raw form. But vegetables cooked... as in soups... are definitely my friends. I had an intense longing for carrots. I don't happen to have any carrots lying around, (hopefully remedied by my next trip to a proper grocery store), but I do have a few cans of tomatoes (w/ basil). Better than nothing, right? :)
Right. Then I added the soup, and, because I evidently am a very hyper cook, some garlic and some Mrs. Dash, which I bought yesterday on a whim and haven't ever used before.
Nom nom nom!! :D For me, this is about 6-8 servings. Perhaps 2-4 for an ordinary person? XD I really don't know. And the whole thing was pretty easy, low maintenance, and cost about 3$.
March 11, 2009
Tired...
In the morning I woke up begging, as if there was some higher power who held my fate in his hands, who could decide to let me out of my commitments for the day, four classes and afterwards the long walk to the elementary school to see Jo'Shawn... and today, when I was tired, still so tired, and my room was cold.
Last week it hit 26 (80 fahrenheit) degrees, and they turned the heat off for the spring, prematurely... Today it is -7 (20). The rain that fell so recently and tore through grass and mud to form rivers on sidewalks and turn gutters, briefly, into raging torrents was now frozen, I knew from long experience, like glass preserving our world for a museum.
So tired. So cold. The minutes on my microwave's clock flew away two by two, each time I closed my eyes.
Last week it hit 26 (80 fahrenheit) degrees, and they turned the heat off for the spring, prematurely... Today it is -7 (20). The rain that fell so recently and tore through grass and mud to form rivers on sidewalks and turn gutters, briefly, into raging torrents was now frozen, I knew from long experience, like glass preserving our world for a museum.
So tired. So cold. The minutes on my microwave's clock flew away two by two, each time I closed my eyes.
March 10, 2009
AMG Presentations
I spent all day at the local high school today, mostly giving presentations. 10 in all, half an hour each... and by the end of it my throat was sore, my legs felt as if they might collapse under me, my back ached, and I felt as if I was using the very last of my powers to keep a smile on my face and keep talking about why kids should study languages as if it was the first presentation, as if I was still thrilled and passionate and... ahhh...
It was a long day, but good, and those few good students have the power to encourage you as much as the sleepers discourage you.
One of the teachers actually asked me whether I had taken a speech class! She said that I did a brilliant job with the presentation. :D And the Latin students were really friendly, asking tons of questions, so I felt comfortable around them and it became less of a presentation and more of a conversation. They asked me where I was from with a sort of awe at one point, and I came down to earth a bit and laughed, saying, "Over in St. Louis".
"She seems almost like an alien, doesn't she?" Said the teacher.
But she said it like a compliment. :)
Ah, I came home tired to the bone... you're welcome, AMG!
It was a long day, but good, and those few good students have the power to encourage you as much as the sleepers discourage you.
One of the teachers actually asked me whether I had taken a speech class! She said that I did a brilliant job with the presentation. :D And the Latin students were really friendly, asking tons of questions, so I felt comfortable around them and it became less of a presentation and more of a conversation. They asked me where I was from with a sort of awe at one point, and I came down to earth a bit and laughed, saying, "Over in St. Louis".
"She seems almost like an alien, doesn't she?" Said the teacher.
But she said it like a compliment. :)
Ah, I came home tired to the bone... you're welcome, AMG!
March 09, 2009
Like Nails on a Chalkboard
There's a sort of voice the females here use. Especially the sorority and sorority type girls, especially when talking to boys, or when speaking in front of class, but all of us, really, some time or another. It's horrible to me, like nails on a chalkboard. I don't know how to describe it...
It's one part whining, one part hypocritically mixed phony self doubt and confidence, one part sickly sweet.
There are times when I think that I simply can't listen to it anymore. And then, now and then, I catch myself doing it.
Surely such a habit would have been even more widespread at Parkway West? But now I notice it, now more than ever. I don't know whether it is living with foreigners, and becoming accustomed to strange accents and speech patterns as a part of people's voices, or whether it is some other unknown thing...
But when I hear someone talking like this, my stomach twists and I would prefer anything - a nice Germanic accent, a soft Mediterranean accent, a funny Asian accent, a twangy Texan accent, a hick accent like Laura and Tabi and I indulge in now and then, a striking city accent... anything but this voice...
Slightly screwed up, Jashen? Hahaha. You're right, of course. And I'm willing to bet that my dislike of this voice, whatever fancy words I try to use to turn the world against it, is initially rooted in some hurt. But there it is. And I have to get away.
It's one part whining, one part hypocritically mixed phony self doubt and confidence, one part sickly sweet.
There are times when I think that I simply can't listen to it anymore. And then, now and then, I catch myself doing it.
Surely such a habit would have been even more widespread at Parkway West? But now I notice it, now more than ever. I don't know whether it is living with foreigners, and becoming accustomed to strange accents and speech patterns as a part of people's voices, or whether it is some other unknown thing...
But when I hear someone talking like this, my stomach twists and I would prefer anything - a nice Germanic accent, a soft Mediterranean accent, a funny Asian accent, a twangy Texan accent, a hick accent like Laura and Tabi and I indulge in now and then, a striking city accent... anything but this voice...
Slightly screwed up, Jashen? Hahaha. You're right, of course. And I'm willing to bet that my dislike of this voice, whatever fancy words I try to use to turn the world against it, is initially rooted in some hurt. But there it is. And I have to get away.
Six Very Sweet Birthday Wishes
"Happy 19! I'm so glad I have such an amazing roommate like you! You like cold weather, shrimp noodle, and stupid games... and I like hot weather, beer, and staying up late! However, we love chocolates, sleeping, and talking together. <3 <3 Love you, by sweet roommate. <3"
- Mayumi
"Dear: Mira Chan
Happy Birthday *
As I often say, I really like you very much. I like many people here, but you are the most friendly person in Laws Hall, I think.
Though I am not good at talking with people, but you are always cheerful and kind, so I like to talk with you.
You always give me a lot of knowledge and vigor. Thank you for them!
Please keep being what you are now, from now on.
P.S. - Sorry for my bad English!"
- Tomomi
"Hey, and happy, happy birthday! You're 19, crazy! Anyway, this is in a
way a birthday card, I just wrote down 19 random memories we shared
last summer :P Hope it makes you smile!
Lots of love,
Liisa
1. Sitting on the floor in my room and reading the "My First 1000
Words in Finnish" kids' book and laughing at the most idiotic
pronunciations possible: hamsteri becoming [ham-ster-aye]
2. "...wanna buy an another one?" after the lovely spinach-feta
pastries at Suomenlinna.
3. The anthill. No need to say more.
4. The frustration because of the lack of public bathrooms! Shame on you, Suomi.
5. You analysing Karelian pastries: "It's funny how something
resembles cardboard so much but is still good"
6. Råg Fras.
7. The safety nets in Moominworld and comparing them with the American
ones: "Yes, you could fit a child there, we would have that covered as
well..."
8. Hemingway-picnic in the rain, on the rocks :D
9. You never got tired with playing with the fridge magnets. Sweet!
10. The ode-like praise for Maria cookies.
11. "What if we just... bought the 3-day tickets?" after some four
hours of youtubing and diplomatic "quarter of a smiley face" -ranking.
12. The beauty of the Texas accent: "'course, if I was talkin' like
this, I wouldn't even know what a diftong was..."
13. "You are such a cute new driver" when my driver's license was like
three hours old :)
14.Your affection to rocks. Naww!
15. "Flight cancelled"
16. Hullu sonni rakastaa puuroa.
17. Ordering in Finnish, ice cream in Moominworld ("Yes, I understood"
x)) and hot dog in Ruisrock. <3
18. The pretty, shiny, tiny pieces of glass at Skansen.
19. Your facial expression and high voice "Two things: Firstly, your
latrine has windows, that is really inappropriate! Secondly, THE
TOILET JUMPS!""
- Liisa
"MI-RAN-DI-TAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
HAPPY HAPPY CUMPLEAÑOS!!!!!!!
amiga d mi corazon! estas mas vieja hoy! ejejejejeje... espero que tenga un dia muy lindo.. y q a pesar d q no vas a estar tan acompañada, disfruta tu dia sea como sea!!! =D yo estare contigo en espiritu... ok?
mñn te llamo para q hablemos un rato... ok?
luv ya girly girl! take care! ^^"
- Lucia
"Happy Birthday, dearest friend! I hope it's a wonderful one! I love you and miss you :)
love,
your twin"
- Stephanie
"Bonne anniversaire, Cumpleaños feliz, grattis på födelsedagen, Felichan Naskightagon, Gute zum Geburtstag, 生日快乐, გილოცავ დაბადების დღეს, ᓇᓪᓕᐅᓂᖅᓯᐅᑦᓯᐊᕆᑦ, जन्मदिनको शुभकामना, Yumi selebretem de blong bon blong yu, Quchjaj qoSlIj, Hyvää synttäriä, Fortuna dies natalis! :P"
- Mikko
Jashen's was also very sweet! Thank you, everyone! I feel very loved today!
- Mayumi
"Dear: Mira Chan
Happy Birthday *
As I often say, I really like you very much. I like many people here, but you are the most friendly person in Laws Hall, I think.
Though I am not good at talking with people, but you are always cheerful and kind, so I like to talk with you.
You always give me a lot of knowledge and vigor. Thank you for them!
Please keep being what you are now, from now on.
P.S. - Sorry for my bad English!"
- Tomomi
"Hey, and happy, happy birthday! You're 19, crazy! Anyway, this is in a
way a birthday card, I just wrote down 19 random memories we shared
last summer :P Hope it makes you smile!
Lots of love,
Liisa
1. Sitting on the floor in my room and reading the "My First 1000
Words in Finnish" kids' book and laughing at the most idiotic
pronunciations possible: hamsteri becoming [ham-ster-aye]
2. "...wanna buy an another one?" after the lovely spinach-feta
pastries at Suomenlinna.
3. The anthill. No need to say more.
4. The frustration because of the lack of public bathrooms! Shame on you, Suomi.
5. You analysing Karelian pastries: "It's funny how something
resembles cardboard so much but is still good"
6. Råg Fras.
7. The safety nets in Moominworld and comparing them with the American
ones: "Yes, you could fit a child there, we would have that covered as
well..."
8. Hemingway-picnic in the rain, on the rocks :D
9. You never got tired with playing with the fridge magnets. Sweet!
10. The ode-like praise for Maria cookies.
11. "What if we just... bought the 3-day tickets?" after some four
hours of youtubing and diplomatic "quarter of a smiley face" -ranking.
12. The beauty of the Texas accent: "'course, if I was talkin' like
this, I wouldn't even know what a diftong was..."
13. "You are such a cute new driver" when my driver's license was like
three hours old :)
14.Your affection to rocks. Naww!
15. "Flight cancelled"
16. Hullu sonni rakastaa puuroa.
17. Ordering in Finnish, ice cream in Moominworld ("Yes, I understood"
x)) and hot dog in Ruisrock. <3
18. The pretty, shiny, tiny pieces of glass at Skansen.
19. Your facial expression and high voice "Two things: Firstly, your
latrine has windows, that is really inappropriate! Secondly, THE
TOILET JUMPS!""
- Liisa
"MI-RAN-DI-TAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
HAPPY HAPPY CUMPLEAÑOS!!!!!!!
amiga d mi corazon! estas mas vieja hoy! ejejejejeje... espero que tenga un dia muy lindo.. y q a pesar d q no vas a estar tan acompañada, disfruta tu dia sea como sea!!! =D yo estare contigo en espiritu... ok?
mñn te llamo para q hablemos un rato... ok?
luv ya girly girl! take care! ^^"
- Lucia
"Happy Birthday, dearest friend! I hope it's a wonderful one! I love you and miss you :)
love,
your twin"
- Stephanie
"Bonne anniversaire, Cumpleaños feliz, grattis på födelsedagen, Felichan Naskightagon, Gute zum Geburtstag, 生日快乐, გილოცავ დაბადების დღეს, ᓇᓪᓕᐅᓂᖅᓯᐅᑦᓯᐊᕆᑦ, जन्मदिनको शुभकामना, Yumi selebretem de blong bon blong yu, Quchjaj qoSlIj, Hyvää synttäriä, Fortuna dies natalis! :P"
- Mikko
Jashen's was also very sweet! Thank you, everyone! I feel very loved today!
Birthday Eve and Birthday
Birthday Eve:
I did not cook Singaporean food. I went to Dan and Sam's house with Aviel. They are all new friends. :D We made brownies instead of Singaporean food. Then I tried out a blow gun for the first time, and also played with a bow and arrow, and I wasn't too bad at either one! I was, however, pretty bad at nunchucks and Japanese hackeysacks, which I also tried out. We listened to some Spanish music, trying to translate it as we went. I am terrible at understanding Spanish in music! At first I figured that it would be the same for all languages, but it really isn't! XD German, Norwegian, and Japanese, for example, are usually almost as clear in a song as in speech. Ah well.
Later, we went to the potluck, which was fun. It was strange as always to eat lots of fried rice, some very spicy curry, fish in tamarind sauce, and other asian dishes alongside some good, old fashioned American food such as a western-tasting vegetable soup and corn bread. And for dessert, guava paste alongside brownies! :D I didn't know too many people there, but I find that I am getting more brave about things like that every day! Ju and Prite were there, and so was Linh.
Linh's English is still terrible! Poor girl. :D At one point I was being a bit silly and stood up on a stool so that I was as tall as an American girl I was talking to. Then later I was talking to Linh and I ended up patting her on the head. One second later I realized what I had done and said, "Ah! Linh! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have patted you on the head!" I know that it is impolite in some places to touch people on the head... and I was sure Vietnam was in that region, although I wasn't certain as to whether that custom applied to Vietnamese. She told me it wasn't a big deal, though, because we are friends. :) Okay, I guess...
I entered an eating-with-chopsticks competition with some Asians. This wasn't as bad of an idea as it sounds, because they were Thai, mostly, and therefore only used to eating noodles and such with chopsticks. We ate rice grain by grain. :D I actually won! Haha...
Later we played a game that was essentially the childhood game of Telephone, but with drawings. It was really fun, if I get a FIG next year I'm going to make them play it as an ice breaker. :) Each person takes as many slips of paper as there are people in the group. Then, on the first piece, each person draws a simple picture. Then everyone passes their stack of papers to the next person. The next person looks at the picture and describes it in three words. Then the papers are passed again, and the next person looks only at the words, not the original picture, and draws a picture based on the words. The next person looks only at this second picture, and... you get the idea. :D There were really some hilarious things that came out of this! It was exacerbated by having foreigners that didn't know some words, but even in a group of native speakers a bad artist will mess things up considerably! Plus, one can always take more time and make more complex pictures if the group is doing too well. ;)
Birthday:
I slept in, rolled out of bed, (not literally, my feet is three and a half feet (1 meter) off the ground now), and went to Dobbs at 1, expecting Brunch. No such luck! Daylight Savings Time has begun here, so I ate nothing and liked it. XD Well, actually, cereal was still out, so I ate a few bowls of frosted flakes. I didn't expect to find anyone to sit with, but I saw Pat, Clint, and Maria, and thought... why not sit with them while they finish up? Pat left after a while, but even after I had finished eating Clint and Maria and I were still talking... we ended up talking for two hours, and then it was dinner time at Dobbs! We could have eaten for free, haha. But, we weren't hungry anymore, so I just stole a bit of milk and went back home.
I got some really sweet birthday wishes via the net. :) And otherwise just mosied around. Jorge actually came to see me, which was really sweet. And it wasn't overly awkward, like normally when we see each other now. I told him about adventures from last night and then he left, saying, "Smile, be happy!" I think that might be his new motto or something. Dunno why he needs a motto, or why that should be fitting, because he's normally rather gloomy, but there it is!
Parents called. Lucia/Lydia called. Both Grandmas called. :)
Then Tabi came home, and we hung out for a bit (she made me brownies! How sweet! :D), and then just as Laura got home too we had my birthday party. :D My cake was delicious! I think it was the best birthday cake here yet! Even though it was Spongebob Squarepants themed... and, erm... I happen to hate Spongebob Squarepants. XD Certainly I never once imagined that I would have a Spongebob Squarepants themed birthday cake, and I certainly thought that the window of opportunity for that was closed by now, but surprise! I am generally the cake cutter here, I dunno why, normally because they use my knife (one of the few big chef knives that we own), and I even cut my own cake! I almost cut Spongebob in half doing so... and actually all the Japanese girls squealed and complained! XD
Both Lauras and Tabi and I went to Laura's room for a while. We played with a plastic bag, which Laura said was my Christmas present from her. Laura T. made some lovely fashion statements with it after Laura W. ripped it. :( It was such a lovely pillow before that! Then something interesting happened... Jiyoung facebook chatted Laura.
She never facebook chats us. She never /talks/ to us.
Jiyoung: Um... can I ask you favour?
Laura: Okay?
Jiyoung: This sounds weird...
Jiyoung: But I am locked in room.
Jiyoung: The door is not able to open.
I went out of the room quickly upon hearing that, even though for some reason Laura called behind me, "no, Miranda, stay here!" I went to Jiyoung's door and knocked, and asked if she was okay. She told me she was trapped and the door wouldn't open. I was playing with the door handle a bit when Laura, Laura, and Tabi joined me in the hall. After a minute, none of us could do anything with it. The handle wasn't engaging. So I ran upstairs to get Ben. Ben came down and started playing with it. I ran downstairs to tell the desk supervisor. He called some other C.A.'s and soon we had a crowd playing with old credit cards, wire clothes hangers, and screwdrivers trying to find a way in. Unfortunately the doors here are all but break in proof, from the inside or out.
Jiyoung kept shouting, "I want to pee! I want to pee!" We were worried that she would have to pee in a cup, and word arrived that we had to wait 30 minutes for anyone who knew anything to arrive. Finally they did, and they had to remove the doorknob, piece by piece, with metal cutting tools, until they could pull of the twisty part and pull the... erm... stoppy part out from the inside. A full hour after the adventure started, Jiyoung was finally free to pee! Everyone clapped. It was quite an adventure, but Laura and Tabi and I stayed for the whole thing, partly because we felt responsible, having received her cry for help, and I partly because I am hoping to 'be' Ben next year and deal with similar issues.
Back in my room, Mayumi gave me a very sweet birthday card from Mitsuki, Mimi, Richard, and herself! :D Then I wrote this blog post... XD And it wasn't my birthday anymore. What a shame. :P
Edit: Then Tomomi came in. She had hand made me a beautiful... erm... paper thing saying, "Happy Birthday Mira Chan!" She also gave me a box of Glico caramels and a tiny book in Japanese about the Zodiac animals. Since it is all written in Hiragana (which I can read, albeit very, very, very slowly), and it is a story that I am familiar with, we joked that it was at my reading level. XD Of course, I really know less than ten percent of the words, so it would take a while to read! Anyway, a really sweet gift!
I did not cook Singaporean food. I went to Dan and Sam's house with Aviel. They are all new friends. :D We made brownies instead of Singaporean food. Then I tried out a blow gun for the first time, and also played with a bow and arrow, and I wasn't too bad at either one! I was, however, pretty bad at nunchucks and Japanese hackeysacks, which I also tried out. We listened to some Spanish music, trying to translate it as we went. I am terrible at understanding Spanish in music! At first I figured that it would be the same for all languages, but it really isn't! XD German, Norwegian, and Japanese, for example, are usually almost as clear in a song as in speech. Ah well.
Later, we went to the potluck, which was fun. It was strange as always to eat lots of fried rice, some very spicy curry, fish in tamarind sauce, and other asian dishes alongside some good, old fashioned American food such as a western-tasting vegetable soup and corn bread. And for dessert, guava paste alongside brownies! :D I didn't know too many people there, but I find that I am getting more brave about things like that every day! Ju and Prite were there, and so was Linh.
Linh's English is still terrible! Poor girl. :D At one point I was being a bit silly and stood up on a stool so that I was as tall as an American girl I was talking to. Then later I was talking to Linh and I ended up patting her on the head. One second later I realized what I had done and said, "Ah! Linh! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have patted you on the head!" I know that it is impolite in some places to touch people on the head... and I was sure Vietnam was in that region, although I wasn't certain as to whether that custom applied to Vietnamese. She told me it wasn't a big deal, though, because we are friends. :) Okay, I guess...
I entered an eating-with-chopsticks competition with some Asians. This wasn't as bad of an idea as it sounds, because they were Thai, mostly, and therefore only used to eating noodles and such with chopsticks. We ate rice grain by grain. :D I actually won! Haha...
Later we played a game that was essentially the childhood game of Telephone, but with drawings. It was really fun, if I get a FIG next year I'm going to make them play it as an ice breaker. :) Each person takes as many slips of paper as there are people in the group. Then, on the first piece, each person draws a simple picture. Then everyone passes their stack of papers to the next person. The next person looks at the picture and describes it in three words. Then the papers are passed again, and the next person looks only at the words, not the original picture, and draws a picture based on the words. The next person looks only at this second picture, and... you get the idea. :D There were really some hilarious things that came out of this! It was exacerbated by having foreigners that didn't know some words, but even in a group of native speakers a bad artist will mess things up considerably! Plus, one can always take more time and make more complex pictures if the group is doing too well. ;)
Birthday:
I slept in, rolled out of bed, (not literally, my feet is three and a half feet (1 meter) off the ground now), and went to Dobbs at 1, expecting Brunch. No such luck! Daylight Savings Time has begun here, so I ate nothing and liked it. XD Well, actually, cereal was still out, so I ate a few bowls of frosted flakes. I didn't expect to find anyone to sit with, but I saw Pat, Clint, and Maria, and thought... why not sit with them while they finish up? Pat left after a while, but even after I had finished eating Clint and Maria and I were still talking... we ended up talking for two hours, and then it was dinner time at Dobbs! We could have eaten for free, haha. But, we weren't hungry anymore, so I just stole a bit of milk and went back home.
I got some really sweet birthday wishes via the net. :) And otherwise just mosied around. Jorge actually came to see me, which was really sweet. And it wasn't overly awkward, like normally when we see each other now. I told him about adventures from last night and then he left, saying, "Smile, be happy!" I think that might be his new motto or something. Dunno why he needs a motto, or why that should be fitting, because he's normally rather gloomy, but there it is!
Parents called. Lucia/Lydia called. Both Grandmas called. :)
Then Tabi came home, and we hung out for a bit (she made me brownies! How sweet! :D), and then just as Laura got home too we had my birthday party. :D My cake was delicious! I think it was the best birthday cake here yet! Even though it was Spongebob Squarepants themed... and, erm... I happen to hate Spongebob Squarepants. XD Certainly I never once imagined that I would have a Spongebob Squarepants themed birthday cake, and I certainly thought that the window of opportunity for that was closed by now, but surprise! I am generally the cake cutter here, I dunno why, normally because they use my knife (one of the few big chef knives that we own), and I even cut my own cake! I almost cut Spongebob in half doing so... and actually all the Japanese girls squealed and complained! XD
Both Lauras and Tabi and I went to Laura's room for a while. We played with a plastic bag, which Laura said was my Christmas present from her. Laura T. made some lovely fashion statements with it after Laura W. ripped it. :( It was such a lovely pillow before that! Then something interesting happened... Jiyoung facebook chatted Laura.
She never facebook chats us. She never /talks/ to us.
Jiyoung: Um... can I ask you favour?
Laura: Okay?
Jiyoung: This sounds weird...
Jiyoung: But I am locked in room.
Jiyoung: The door is not able to open.
I went out of the room quickly upon hearing that, even though for some reason Laura called behind me, "no, Miranda, stay here!" I went to Jiyoung's door and knocked, and asked if she was okay. She told me she was trapped and the door wouldn't open. I was playing with the door handle a bit when Laura, Laura, and Tabi joined me in the hall. After a minute, none of us could do anything with it. The handle wasn't engaging. So I ran upstairs to get Ben. Ben came down and started playing with it. I ran downstairs to tell the desk supervisor. He called some other C.A.'s and soon we had a crowd playing with old credit cards, wire clothes hangers, and screwdrivers trying to find a way in. Unfortunately the doors here are all but break in proof, from the inside or out.
Jiyoung kept shouting, "I want to pee! I want to pee!" We were worried that she would have to pee in a cup, and word arrived that we had to wait 30 minutes for anyone who knew anything to arrive. Finally they did, and they had to remove the doorknob, piece by piece, with metal cutting tools, until they could pull of the twisty part and pull the... erm... stoppy part out from the inside. A full hour after the adventure started, Jiyoung was finally free to pee! Everyone clapped. It was quite an adventure, but Laura and Tabi and I stayed for the whole thing, partly because we felt responsible, having received her cry for help, and I partly because I am hoping to 'be' Ben next year and deal with similar issues.
Back in my room, Mayumi gave me a very sweet birthday card from Mitsuki, Mimi, Richard, and herself! :D Then I wrote this blog post... XD And it wasn't my birthday anymore. What a shame. :P
Edit: Then Tomomi came in. She had hand made me a beautiful... erm... paper thing saying, "Happy Birthday Mira Chan!" She also gave me a box of Glico caramels and a tiny book in Japanese about the Zodiac animals. Since it is all written in Hiragana (which I can read, albeit very, very, very slowly), and it is a story that I am familiar with, we joked that it was at my reading level. XD Of course, I really know less than ten percent of the words, so it would take a while to read! Anyway, a really sweet gift!
March 08, 2009
March 07, 2009
18
I am going to be 18 years old for approximately 15 more minutes, so I thought that I'd do my yearly progress report. I actually prefer to do this on my birthday, rather than on New Years, because the beginning of Spring seems like a better time to reflect and restart than the middle of winter. Anyways...
In the last year, I have:
- Ended my (first :D) job at the library after a year and a half
- Felt an earthquake
- Graduated from high school
- Won Parkway West's Spanish award
- Won Parkway West's Latin award
- Become the First and Only Recipient of the "Best Language Student" award at Parkway West
- Become a National Merit Scholar
- Been to San Jose, Costa Rica
- Experienced a Cow Sculpture Festival
- Gone swimming under a waterfall in the rainforest
- Visited hot springs
- Seen a volcano erupt
- Gone Ziplining
- Gone hiking in a cloud forest
- Spent a week living with a host family in Costa Rica, up in the high altitude 'mist zone'
- Taken public transportation in Costa Rica alone
- Read a poem I composed (in Spanish) to a Costa Rican elementary school for tree day
- Seen a sloth
- Seen three different kind of monkeys in the wild
- Been to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
- Made a solo trip
- Been to Stockholm, Sweden
- Taken a ferry across the baltic sea
- Eaten pickled herring
- Met my wonderful penpal, Liisa, in person
- Stayed in a hostel
- Slept on a boat
- Been to Turku, Finland
- Learned Finnish from refrigerator magnets
- Explored the ruins of six Scandinavian fortresses
- Been to a three day long heavy metal festival
- Washed potatoes in the sea
- Been initiated into Finnish sauna culture
- Eaten the best strawberries of my life
- Gone kayaking in the Archipelago sea
- Been to Helsinki, Finland
- Been to Moominworld!
- Been to Naantali, Finland
- Won a pancake competition with the odds stacked steeply against me
- Seen an anthill taller than myself
- Seen a jumping toilet
- Been to Oslo, Norway
- Seen the Viking Ships
- Seen two Stave Churches
- Been to Tønsberg, Norway
- Been to "The End of the World"
- Been to Sandefjord, Norway
- Acquired a 'Norwegian aunt'
- Experienced a Norwegian birthday party
- Learned a few words of Norwegian sign language
- Taken the train from Andebu to Trondheim
- Eaten lunch with a family of real Norwegian farmers
- Blown bubbles in Trondheim Fjord
- Been to Trondheim, Norway
- Used Norwegian in real life!
- Spoken Spanish in Norway so that the Norwegian's wouldn't understand
- Spoken Norwegian in Norway so that a Spaniard wouldn't understand
- Been to Geirangerfjord... the most beautiful place in the world, period
- Been to Trollstigen... the windiest, crazies road in the world
- Been to Trollveggen... the highest vertical rock face in Europe
- Returned home with 35 books... to say nothing of other souvenirs
- Begun attending the University of Missouri
- Discovered the Cranberries :D
- Experienced my first kiss
- Declared a Spanish major
- Been to a Renaissance Festival
- Worn a bodice. :D
- Bought a sword
- Voted in a presidential election
- Declared an International Studies major
- Been admitted to the school of Journalism
- Begun to learn Faroese
- Discovered Eivør Pálsdóttir :D
- Gone Zorbing
- Volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters
- Achieved a 3.95 GPA for my first semester in Uni
- Tested into Intermediate German 2
- Tried skiing for the first time
- Made my first curry
- Seen a flock of birds lit up like stars from flying above city lights
- Taken up cold water swimming (I have swum outdoors in Missouri in November, December, and January)
- Drank four drinks. Total. For the year. :D
- Joined the national foreign language honors society, Alpha Mu Gamma
- Learned how to cook (almost) anything with a microwave, toaster, food processor, and rice cooker
- Given in and started buying bottled water (only because the alternative tastes like the filter is probably infected with something that will kill me)
- Lived on the International floor here at Mizzou and met people from all over the world.
- Used a blow gun
- Crossed a stream on a fallen log
- Lived independently (or close to... XD) for 5 months
In the next year, I plan/hope/expect to:
- Continue to maintain reasonable (3.5 or higher?) grades here at Mizzou
- Hopefully travel this summer
- Save up some money for study abroad
- Get everything in order for study abroad
- Make more friends! :D
- Keep up with Uni and I's new blog! Learn more Faroese
- Improve my speaking abilities in Spanish
- Continue studying Norwegian
- Study some Finnish
- Finish my journals from last summer's trips
- Keep up with Liisa
- Have my family move to Florida, changing my life quite a bit! XD
- Decide my sequence in Journalism
- See Stephanie and Lucia as much as possible
- Maybe enter a relationship? :)
- Eat more vegetables!
- Drink more milk and orange juice!
- Have a job next year (hopefully the one I applied for...)
- Make the world a better place
In the last year, I have:
- Ended my (first :D) job at the library after a year and a half
- Felt an earthquake
- Graduated from high school
- Won Parkway West's Spanish award
- Won Parkway West's Latin award
- Become the First and Only Recipient of the "Best Language Student" award at Parkway West
- Become a National Merit Scholar
- Been to San Jose, Costa Rica
- Experienced a Cow Sculpture Festival
- Gone swimming under a waterfall in the rainforest
- Visited hot springs
- Seen a volcano erupt
- Gone Ziplining
- Gone hiking in a cloud forest
- Spent a week living with a host family in Costa Rica, up in the high altitude 'mist zone'
- Taken public transportation in Costa Rica alone
- Read a poem I composed (in Spanish) to a Costa Rican elementary school for tree day
- Seen a sloth
- Seen three different kind of monkeys in the wild
- Been to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
- Made a solo trip
- Been to Stockholm, Sweden
- Taken a ferry across the baltic sea
- Eaten pickled herring
- Met my wonderful penpal, Liisa, in person
- Stayed in a hostel
- Slept on a boat
- Been to Turku, Finland
- Learned Finnish from refrigerator magnets
- Explored the ruins of six Scandinavian fortresses
- Been to a three day long heavy metal festival
- Washed potatoes in the sea
- Been initiated into Finnish sauna culture
- Eaten the best strawberries of my life
- Gone kayaking in the Archipelago sea
- Been to Helsinki, Finland
- Been to Moominworld!
- Been to Naantali, Finland
- Won a pancake competition with the odds stacked steeply against me
- Seen an anthill taller than myself
- Seen a jumping toilet
- Been to Oslo, Norway
- Seen the Viking Ships
- Seen two Stave Churches
- Been to Tønsberg, Norway
- Been to "The End of the World"
- Been to Sandefjord, Norway
- Acquired a 'Norwegian aunt'
- Experienced a Norwegian birthday party
- Learned a few words of Norwegian sign language
- Taken the train from Andebu to Trondheim
- Eaten lunch with a family of real Norwegian farmers
- Blown bubbles in Trondheim Fjord
- Been to Trondheim, Norway
- Used Norwegian in real life!
- Spoken Spanish in Norway so that the Norwegian's wouldn't understand
- Spoken Norwegian in Norway so that a Spaniard wouldn't understand
- Been to Geirangerfjord... the most beautiful place in the world, period
- Been to Trollstigen... the windiest, crazies road in the world
- Been to Trollveggen... the highest vertical rock face in Europe
- Returned home with 35 books... to say nothing of other souvenirs
- Begun attending the University of Missouri
- Discovered the Cranberries :D
- Experienced my first kiss
- Declared a Spanish major
- Been to a Renaissance Festival
- Worn a bodice. :D
- Bought a sword
- Voted in a presidential election
- Declared an International Studies major
- Been admitted to the school of Journalism
- Begun to learn Faroese
- Discovered Eivør Pálsdóttir :D
- Gone Zorbing
- Volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters
- Achieved a 3.95 GPA for my first semester in Uni
- Tested into Intermediate German 2
- Tried skiing for the first time
- Made my first curry
- Seen a flock of birds lit up like stars from flying above city lights
- Taken up cold water swimming (I have swum outdoors in Missouri in November, December, and January)
- Drank four drinks. Total. For the year. :D
- Joined the national foreign language honors society, Alpha Mu Gamma
- Learned how to cook (almost) anything with a microwave, toaster, food processor, and rice cooker
- Given in and started buying bottled water (only because the alternative tastes like the filter is probably infected with something that will kill me)
- Lived on the International floor here at Mizzou and met people from all over the world.
- Used a blow gun
- Crossed a stream on a fallen log
- Lived independently (or close to... XD) for 5 months
In the next year, I plan/hope/expect to:
- Continue to maintain reasonable (3.5 or higher?) grades here at Mizzou
- Hopefully travel this summer
- Save up some money for study abroad
- Get everything in order for study abroad
- Make more friends! :D
- Keep up with Uni and I's new blog! Learn more Faroese
- Improve my speaking abilities in Spanish
- Continue studying Norwegian
- Study some Finnish
- Finish my journals from last summer's trips
- Keep up with Liisa
- Have my family move to Florida, changing my life quite a bit! XD
- Decide my sequence in Journalism
- See Stephanie and Lucia as much as possible
- Maybe enter a relationship? :)
- Eat more vegetables!
- Drink more milk and orange juice!
- Have a job next year (hopefully the one I applied for...)
- Make the world a better place
March 05, 2009
Intermediate Thinking Language? Maybe Not...
I was talking to Lucia recently about how I think, or don't think, in Foreign Languages. I remember that Barry Farber (I am 98% sure it was him. XD) wrote about having an 'intermediate thinking language' - which was essentially English words and such, organized in the grammar of the language he was speaking, and then, as he spoke, the words came. I was speculating that my own system was somewhat like this, if mostly subconscious. I have this theory that this 'intermediate thinking language' idea might fall somewhere in between trying to translate English thoughts as one goes and thinking in the target language in efficacy. I know that I could improve as far as thinking fully in my languages other than English! (Perhaps because, although it is impossible to know exactly how other people think, I have a few reasons to suspect that my own thought process is more language (English XD) bound and clear than many other people's - if I think in a way that leaves a thought 'sentence' incomplete, for example, it's a bit jarring.) It seems strange, that I'm not certain what language I'm thinking in a lot of the time, but I think it does change based on which language I'm speaking, with whom, at what level, anyways, a wide range of factors.
Well, I was thinking about this again today, as I was making corrections to my last German essay. On one sentence, my teacher wrote, "Sehr schön formuliert" - kind of like, "Very nicely formed". I assume she means sentence structure and grammar? So anyway, I paid more attention than normal to the sentence, and I was actually impressed. Not with myself, I swear to God above, I tell the blog when I am impressed with myself! No, I was impressed by the human brain, it's ability to come up with all these various ways of organizing thought, and of mastering different ways, and to be able to switch between them. In short, to learn languages. Although obviously German and English are laughably similar to each other in structure, compared to most languages in the world, I will still use this line as an example of how different even closely related languages can be.
"Wenn man dass glaubt, dann soll man das auch über Amerikaner denken, weil wir nicht von dieser Schwäche befreit sind."
Translated literally, this would be something like:
"If one that believes, then should one also that about Americans think, because we not from this weakness free are."
Translated... erm... more properly, it is:
"If one believes that, then he should also believe it of Americans, because we are not free from this weakness."
It's something, isn't it? Anyway, it made me revisit my little 'intermediate language theory', because I knew with absolute certainty that I hadn't at all thought about the literal translation of that line before, it would have just confused me - I know that at least in that moment, I was composing with the German sentence structure viberating in my mind. And that's something amazing!
Well, I was thinking about this again today, as I was making corrections to my last German essay. On one sentence, my teacher wrote, "Sehr schön formuliert" - kind of like, "Very nicely formed". I assume she means sentence structure and grammar? So anyway, I paid more attention than normal to the sentence, and I was actually impressed. Not with myself, I swear to God above, I tell the blog when I am impressed with myself! No, I was impressed by the human brain, it's ability to come up with all these various ways of organizing thought, and of mastering different ways, and to be able to switch between them. In short, to learn languages. Although obviously German and English are laughably similar to each other in structure, compared to most languages in the world, I will still use this line as an example of how different even closely related languages can be.
"Wenn man dass glaubt, dann soll man das auch über Amerikaner denken, weil wir nicht von dieser Schwäche befreit sind."
Translated literally, this would be something like:
"If one that believes, then should one also that about Americans think, because we not from this weakness free are."
Translated... erm... more properly, it is:
"If one believes that, then he should also believe it of Americans, because we are not free from this weakness."
It's something, isn't it? Anyway, it made me revisit my little 'intermediate language theory', because I knew with absolute certainty that I hadn't at all thought about the literal translation of that line before, it would have just confused me - I know that at least in that moment, I was composing with the German sentence structure viberating in my mind. And that's something amazing!
March 04, 2009
I am 48% Finnish!
How Finnish are you?
[ ] Both of your parents are Finnish.
[ ] You were born in Finland.
[ ] Your last name ends with either -nen or -la/-lä.
[] You know at least five people, whose names are Matti/Pekka/Juhani/Liisa/Susanna/Elina.
[ ] Both of your parents are Finnish.
[ ] You were born in Finland.
[ ] Your last name ends with either -nen or -la/-lä.
[] You know at least five people, whose names are Matti/Pekka/Juhani/Liisa/Susanna/Elina.
[ ] Your name is Matti/Pekka/Juhani/Liisa/Susanna/Elina.
[ ] You are an alcoholic.
[x] You are/have been depressed or know at least five people who are/have been depressed.
[ ] It is a huge media event when a foreign B-list celebrity mentions your homeland.
[x] To you "tan" means being a different colour than a frost of snow.
[x] You are infinetely interested in what foreigners have to say about your homeland.
Score so far: 3
[] You like pea soup and know which dessert and day of the week it should go with.
[x] You love chocolate and/or salmiakki.
[x] You love rye bread.
[x] You have bought "sausage and potato" from a fast food stand. (Arguable)
[ ] You have fought at a fast food stand queue. (Arguable. So I'll take the first one but not this one)
[ ] You drink multiple cups of coffee in a day.
[ ] You eat potato almost every day.
[ ] Independence day should be celebrated by lighting two candles and watching how the president shakes hands with celebrities for two hours.
[ ] You still reminisce the ice hockey world championship in 1995.
[x] You still reminisce how "aja hiljaa sillalla" as pronounced by Aino Ackté won the title of most beautiful sentence in the Paris World Fair in 1900.
Score so far: 7
[] You go "Nordic walking" (walking with two poles).
[x] You listen to heavy music.
[] You watch formula 1 and/or ski jumping.
[x] You pick berries and/or go mushrooming. (When I can XD)
[x] You have or your family has a summer cottage.
[x] You celebrate Midsummer. (Sometimes all by myself)
[x] You sauna bathe on a regular basis.
[] You think that hugging is for lovers.
[x] You speak English with a foreigner, even though you know that (s)he understands Finnish. Then again you speak Finnish with a foreigner, even though you know that (s)he doesn't understand it. (Nyeheheheh)
[] Most songs that aren't in minor are not good.
Score so far: 13
[x] You own something that's by Marimekko.
[x] You own a product with Marimekko's "Unikko" pattern on it. (It's free though... none of the things I actually bought there have the Unikko pattern... but I got BETTER patterns!! Nyehehehe)
[x] You have dishes/kitchen supplies by Iittala/Arabia/Hackman. (Long live my cheese cutter)
[] You read the "Donald Duck" magazine.
[x] You love Moomins.(!! XD)
[] When talking about the president, you talk about "it," when talking about a pet guinea pig you talk about "him/her."
[x] You don't find lakes to be exotic. (Not lakes in general. Some lakes, sure.)
[] You know that you're not supposed to talk in the mornings.
[x] You wait for the traffic light to turn green, even though there are no cars around. (Not in small, pedestrian run cities, (not common here) but everywhere else)
[x] You find it normal that you don't run into a single person when on a walk. (Depends where and when. But the Midwest isn't super busy.)
Score so far: 19
[] Indoors it's too cold if it's not at least 20°C.
[] Outdoors 20°C is too hot.
[x] Less than 65°C in a sauna is cold. (XD)
[x] You don't have to wear a hat outside in sub zero temperatures. (Fahrenheit, no! But I think this means celsius)
[x] You know at least five words for different types of snow.
[] If a stranger smiles at you, you expect that (s)he is either drunk or foreign.
[] To you "European" means a person who's from Western Europe but not the Nordic countries. (Erm... sort of... I would probably call Nordic people Scandinavian instead of European, but when I hear European, I think of all of them)
[x] There are supposed to be silences within conversations and they don't bother you at all.
[x] You apologise for being even a minute late.
[] You understand, that "m" means "yes," "nngg" means "no" and "mnt" means "good morning."
Final score: 24
Multiply your score by two and you'll have your Finnish percentage.
Make "I am __% Finnish!" the title of your note.
[ ] You are an alcoholic.
[x] You are/have been depressed or know at least five people who are/have been depressed.
[ ] It is a huge media event when a foreign B-list celebrity mentions your homeland.
[x] To you "tan" means being a different colour than a frost of snow.
[x] You are infinetely interested in what foreigners have to say about your homeland.
Score so far: 3
[] You like pea soup and know which dessert and day of the week it should go with.
[x] You love chocolate and/or salmiakki.
[x] You love rye bread.
[x] You have bought "sausage and potato" from a fast food stand. (Arguable)
[ ] You have fought at a fast food stand queue. (Arguable. So I'll take the first one but not this one)
[ ] You drink multiple cups of coffee in a day.
[ ] You eat potato almost every day.
[ ] Independence day should be celebrated by lighting two candles and watching how the president shakes hands with celebrities for two hours.
[ ] You still reminisce the ice hockey world championship in 1995.
[x] You still reminisce how "aja hiljaa sillalla" as pronounced by Aino Ackté won the title of most beautiful sentence in the Paris World Fair in 1900.
Score so far: 7
[] You go "Nordic walking" (walking with two poles).
[x] You listen to heavy music.
[] You watch formula 1 and/or ski jumping.
[x] You pick berries and/or go mushrooming. (When I can XD)
[x] You have or your family has a summer cottage.
[x] You celebrate Midsummer. (Sometimes all by myself)
[x] You sauna bathe on a regular basis.
[] You think that hugging is for lovers.
[x] You speak English with a foreigner, even though you know that (s)he understands Finnish. Then again you speak Finnish with a foreigner, even though you know that (s)he doesn't understand it. (Nyeheheheh)
[] Most songs that aren't in minor are not good.
Score so far: 13
[x] You own something that's by Marimekko.
[x] You own a product with Marimekko's "Unikko" pattern on it. (It's free though... none of the things I actually bought there have the Unikko pattern... but I got BETTER patterns!! Nyehehehe)
[x] You have dishes/kitchen supplies by Iittala/Arabia/Hackman. (Long live my cheese cutter)
[] You read the "Donald Duck" magazine.
[x] You love Moomins.(!! XD)
[] When talking about the president, you talk about "it," when talking about a pet guinea pig you talk about "him/her."
[x] You don't find lakes to be exotic. (Not lakes in general. Some lakes, sure.)
[] You know that you're not supposed to talk in the mornings.
[x] You wait for the traffic light to turn green, even though there are no cars around. (Not in small, pedestrian run cities, (not common here) but everywhere else)
[x] You find it normal that you don't run into a single person when on a walk. (Depends where and when. But the Midwest isn't super busy.)
Score so far: 19
[] Indoors it's too cold if it's not at least 20°C.
[] Outdoors 20°C is too hot.
[x] Less than 65°C in a sauna is cold. (XD)
[x] You don't have to wear a hat outside in sub zero temperatures. (Fahrenheit, no! But I think this means celsius)
[x] You know at least five words for different types of snow.
[] If a stranger smiles at you, you expect that (s)he is either drunk or foreign.
[] To you "European" means a person who's from Western Europe but not the Nordic countries. (Erm... sort of... I would probably call Nordic people Scandinavian instead of European, but when I hear European, I think of all of them)
[x] There are supposed to be silences within conversations and they don't bother you at all.
[x] You apologise for being even a minute late.
[] You understand, that "m" means "yes," "nngg" means "no" and "mnt" means "good morning."
Final score: 24
Multiply your score by two and you'll have your Finnish percentage.
Make "I am __% Finnish!" the title of your note.
Sayuri
I understand, a little bit, how Sayuri felt when she let go of his handkerchief.
That was my moment. I let go.
This changes everything - ambiguously.
University Update
I am starting to feel less 'grey'. I'm getting more involved in things, being less bored and less borderline depressed. But whether as a result of the slump, or of trying to entertain myself as I crept out of it, I have not been doing as well as I could be in school.
I have an A in both of my Journalism classes as of now, but I haven't done hardly any of the 'assignments' which I need to do by the end of the year or by spring break. That means I'll be busy this weekend catching up.
Statistics? I have a high B. But what is frustrating is that I assumed I would get a B because the subject matter would be difficult. So far it is easy. But I have been stupid - I have forgotten to take two of the online quizzes, and I was only semi-happy with my test score.
Spanish and German? They're okay, I guess. I have a solid A in German and it's the only class that I am 100% not worried about. My Spanish teacher eats my soul and despite some of my best work on essays, etc, he seems completely displeased. I BARELY have an A in there, but I can't complain because it seems to be the best, or at least in the top three, of my classmates. (All the people I talked to failed the test I got an 85% on) I have heard that his class is tough, but that he curves at the end. We'll see...
Government? Ugh. This is the worst. The test was really unfair, at least for me personally. It surprise played on all of my weaknesses and none of my strengths - all "Federalist paper ____ was about fajldjfoaiejflajfkdljz". I don't do numbers. I don't do them. They are hard enough for me if I know specifically that I must memorize them. I didn't. I thought that class would be an annoying, but fairly painless A. Surprise. I think I'll have to work (not kill myself, but work) to get a B.
Essentially: I accept a B in Government. I am willing to accept a B in Statistics. In Language and Journalism, I must not allow it to happen. It is early on in the semester and I have plenty of time to take ahold of the situation, but I need to start doing so...
On another note, I'm pretty much failing at all of my correspondances. I owe a lot of people letters and emails.
I have an A in both of my Journalism classes as of now, but I haven't done hardly any of the 'assignments' which I need to do by the end of the year or by spring break. That means I'll be busy this weekend catching up.
Statistics? I have a high B. But what is frustrating is that I assumed I would get a B because the subject matter would be difficult. So far it is easy. But I have been stupid - I have forgotten to take two of the online quizzes, and I was only semi-happy with my test score.
Spanish and German? They're okay, I guess. I have a solid A in German and it's the only class that I am 100% not worried about. My Spanish teacher eats my soul and despite some of my best work on essays, etc, he seems completely displeased. I BARELY have an A in there, but I can't complain because it seems to be the best, or at least in the top three, of my classmates. (All the people I talked to failed the test I got an 85% on) I have heard that his class is tough, but that he curves at the end. We'll see...
Government? Ugh. This is the worst. The test was really unfair, at least for me personally. It surprise played on all of my weaknesses and none of my strengths - all "Federalist paper ____ was about fajldjfoaiejflajfkdljz". I don't do numbers. I don't do them. They are hard enough for me if I know specifically that I must memorize them. I didn't. I thought that class would be an annoying, but fairly painless A. Surprise. I think I'll have to work (not kill myself, but work) to get a B.
Essentially: I accept a B in Government. I am willing to accept a B in Statistics. In Language and Journalism, I must not allow it to happen. It is early on in the semester and I have plenty of time to take ahold of the situation, but I need to start doing so...
On another note, I'm pretty much failing at all of my correspondances. I owe a lot of people letters and emails.
March 02, 2009
Random Language Exercise
I was bored in Statistics, so I decided to write "I have a dog" in as many languages as I could. I'm pretty confident about them, except Nynorsk (which I don't study, I'm just sort of guessing and extrapolating) and Japanese, but I think I would be understood in those as well. :D
English: I have a dog.
Faroese: Eg havi ein hund.
Norwegian Bokmål: Jeg har en hund.
Norwegian Nynorsk: Eg har ei bikkje.
German: Ich habe einen Hund.
Spanish: Yo tengo un perro.
Italian: Io ho un cane.
Latin: Ego habeo canem.
Finnish: Minulla on koira.
Japanese: Watashi wa inu ga imasu.
It made me feel really lazy when I realized that the word order and everything lines up perfectly, even the articles, for the first 7 languages. Latin's only change is the lack of an article, and only with Finnish and Japanese do we get weird.
English: I have a dog.
Faroese: Eg havi ein hund.
Norwegian Bokmål: Jeg har en hund.
Norwegian Nynorsk: Eg har ei bikkje.
German: Ich habe einen Hund.
Spanish: Yo tengo un perro.
Italian: Io ho un cane.
Latin: Ego habeo canem.
Finnish: Minulla on koira.
Japanese: Watashi wa inu ga imasu.
It made me feel really lazy when I realized that the word order and everything lines up perfectly, even the articles, for the first 7 languages. Latin's only change is the lack of an article, and only with Finnish and Japanese do we get weird.
Thai Thai Thai
Today I went over to Kanchana and Chaowalit's (called, inexplicably, Ju and Prite). They are really nice. :D
We made Pad Thai, which was delicious, and then we sat around and talked for a while. It turns out that, mostly through video games, Prite and I have a lot in common. They also tried to teach me a little bit of Thai.
I have no real idea why, but I've decided to eschew learning random phrases in favour of learning the bona fide basics of the language, which is usually a bad choice, because I'll end up knowing (theoretically) quite a bit about the grammar, history, etc of the language, without really being able to use hardly any of it. Which will make me frustrated, because people will assume I just know a few phrases, when really I know so much more that can't easily be expressed!
But I pick my own poison.
The first tricky thing is tones. I can feel that I'm about halfway (and it hasn't all been smiles and giggles, either) to understanding tones in a very basic, textbook sense. Once I get that, then I can start trying to put them in words. And then in sentences. Oh, god.
If someone says a word to me with a tone, I can parrot it back at them pretty well. But then, ask me to say a word they said earlier, and I've forgotten the tone. My brain just isn't hard wired to consider the tone as a fundamental element of the word meaning.
I guess the good news is that if I ever get the hang of this, it will be much easier to deal with other tone languages. Which is, of course, why I'm putting myself through this.
I like this website:
http://www.fonetiks.org/sou7th.html
Somehow having each tone said twice, with two different words, helps to reinforce it. Still, it's hard... and even just practicing the tones in isolation makes it's own difficulties.
For example, I am using 'maa' to work with. Maa with high tone means horse, with rising tone means dog. So not only do I have to recognize what someone says as (or produce) one of those two tones, I have to remember whether that tone is the rising or the high tone, and which one of those two corresponds with horse and which one corresponds with dog. If I falter at any one of these steps, I am wrong wrong wrong, as wrong as if I had failed at all three. (But terribly, not if I had failed at two. Let's not talk about that. ;))
We made Pad Thai, which was delicious, and then we sat around and talked for a while. It turns out that, mostly through video games, Prite and I have a lot in common. They also tried to teach me a little bit of Thai.
I have no real idea why, but I've decided to eschew learning random phrases in favour of learning the bona fide basics of the language, which is usually a bad choice, because I'll end up knowing (theoretically) quite a bit about the grammar, history, etc of the language, without really being able to use hardly any of it. Which will make me frustrated, because people will assume I just know a few phrases, when really I know so much more that can't easily be expressed!
But I pick my own poison.
The first tricky thing is tones. I can feel that I'm about halfway (and it hasn't all been smiles and giggles, either) to understanding tones in a very basic, textbook sense. Once I get that, then I can start trying to put them in words. And then in sentences. Oh, god.
If someone says a word to me with a tone, I can parrot it back at them pretty well. But then, ask me to say a word they said earlier, and I've forgotten the tone. My brain just isn't hard wired to consider the tone as a fundamental element of the word meaning.
I guess the good news is that if I ever get the hang of this, it will be much easier to deal with other tone languages. Which is, of course, why I'm putting myself through this.
I like this website:
http://www.fonetiks.org/sou7th.html
Somehow having each tone said twice, with two different words, helps to reinforce it. Still, it's hard... and even just practicing the tones in isolation makes it's own difficulties.
For example, I am using 'maa' to work with. Maa with high tone means horse, with rising tone means dog. So not only do I have to recognize what someone says as (or produce) one of those two tones, I have to remember whether that tone is the rising or the high tone, and which one of those two corresponds with horse and which one corresponds with dog. If I falter at any one of these steps, I am wrong wrong wrong, as wrong as if I had failed at all three. (But terribly, not if I had failed at two. Let's not talk about that. ;))
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