Death and Mere Separation

Once I wrote about death and the inability of the mind to fully comprehend it...

I think that finality is the underlying issue.

People seek closure. But how much does it really matter? The mind goes on...



It's like leaving a friend. You can't imagine that you'll never see them again, however unlikely it seems that you would meet sometime in the future.

Your mind keeps insisting that there's something between a miraculous or hard-worked for reunion and... an ending. Because such an ending is unthinkable.

The Eveny avoid the finality of farewell. Don't expect a goodbye from them... in the same way, the thought of never seeing Lucía, or Stephanie, or Liisa again... it's unthinkable. Stephanie I will see for a while, as long as we both have roots in St. Louis. And Lucía I will see at Thanksgiving. And maybe... maybe... at Winter Break. And maybe next summer too. But nothing is certain.

After that... For Lucía, for Stephanie, for Liisa... For them I will make an effort. We will probably see each other again. But of course there must be a last time. And this goes both ways. There will even be a last time we see those nearest to us. And then again, what about those lesser friends? The ones we won't fly halfway around the world to see, and must therefore never see them, but we keep believing... that of course we'll meet again, however unlikely it may be. And even the smallest people, who we wouldn't even call on the phone, but who were part of our lives...

But the dear friends are the hardest.

Because how do you close the book on relationships that keep living in hearts and minds?

It's literally, simply unthinkable.

Dobbs and Bobbs

Tim couldn't pronounce "Pause".

He said "Pows". So I said, "it's just like Laws (the name of our dorm)... but with a P. You don't spell it that way, but that's how you say it. Paws."

He says, "Yeah, that's how I remember how to say Bobbs. Because of Dobbs. (Our dining hall)."

"... Bobbs?"

"Like Dobbs, but with a B.... B. O. B. B. S."

"That's not, that's not a word."

"It's not a word? But... but... what about breasts? Titties?!"

... XD

Journalism School Update

On Wednesday I decided to become a cultural journalist. On Thursday I met with my primary academic adviser and she gave me the journalism phone number. After some bureaucratic nonsense I set up an appointment and recieved some paperwork. On Friday I turned in the paperwork and met my journalism adviser.

So now I'm in the journalism school! :D

And I'm triple majoring. :O

I spent a few long hours with the course guide last night, and I sort of have a semblance of a plan. But the fight is long from over. I now have 4 advisers - one for each major and then one for studying abroad. I need to figure out how to balance the honors college.

And I've already found a schedule conflict: I absolutely have to take Career Exploration in Journalism - a puny, 8 week, pass or fail course. Conveniently, they only offer one lecture of it. And it's the same time as the only offered lecture for Spanish Phonetics. :( I guess I could take Spanish Phonetics next year if I have to... and it looks as though that may be the case, but there was such brilliant symmetry in finishing all the normal Spanish by the end of this year, so I could start in on literature next year. :(

But alas, it's only the beginning of this kind of stuff if I am going to triple major...

Everything Is Just So Perfect

Because of what is happening now - not the noun but the verb, to remind me that it happens...

It's as if a great weight has been lifted.

And the world seems filled with an almost painful beauty.

Status Update

I like:
Anthropology
Linguistics
Languages
Writing
Photography
and Psychology...

I have decided that I would like to be an anthropological journalist.

What? It incorporates everything except for psychology. And even that if you stretch it. XD

I can still be a Spanish teacher as a back up, and a job to have after my kids are born and then... at least until they are 12 or so. At that point I can go back to the journalism... or not.

I suspect I'll have to triple major in Spanish, some form of Journalism, and then... Anthropology or something. I'll see what my academic adviser recommends. I think I can triple major. I'm willing to take a full course load every semester, and attend school for five years. I do want to study abroad a lot, but Spanish would definitely allow it (if I did a lot of my Spanish work while studying abroad, that would free up other times too)... and Journalism and Anthropology, while not really... encouraging it, would certainly see the value of such an experience.


:D I am serious about this.

On Request from Lucía XD

An Unnecessary Case of Exclusion: The Merits of Walking Alone

The sidewalk here is, on average, wide enough for three people. So if you're walking in a group of four, the logical thing would seem to me to be to walk two by two, leaving enough room on the sidewalk so that passing people wasn't so difficult.

But for some reason my friends always walk with three in a row, taking up the whole sidewalk and leaving one rather awkwardly in front or behind. Today, leaving Geography, it was quite natural to be chatting with Laura, next to me, while the other Laura and Clint were immediately behind. But Laura slowed and shifted and I followed her, and suddenly, dropping our conversation almost mid sentence, she was walking in line with them and I was walking in the street.

I finally asked the question frequently on my mind - why not walk the more logical way? Well, Laura explained, she would be missing out on the other conversation if she did that. :S Well, that's true, and it's lovely when we can all walk in a tight group, but when it's crowded or when we're on the small sidewalk, it's just not possible. So it seems to me just to be a case of unnecessary exclusion.

When I explained this, Laura got quite defensive and said that she had to walk behind just as often as I did. But I didn't feel that that made it any better! For my part, I've usually tried to walk behind if I notice someone else doing it. I won't say I always notice, but I try to. And then Laura jumped into Clint and other Laura's conversation as quickly as she could, ignoring me.

We stopped to steal a poster off of some bulletin board. They were talking about some music that I know very little about. Then we started walking again and I was in the back, letting my thoughts wander, wanting to be back in Laws, catching only the most distracting details of the conversation in front of me.

I'm okay with being alone.

I really am.

I'd prefer to be with people, but I've spent enough of my life alone that I'm quite okay with it.

I'm not okay with dragging, hanging on, being that outcast that it's clear no one wants around. I've received mixed signals from my friends here. As long as I steer very clear of anything serious, they seem great and friendly. But anytime anything serious comes up, they avoid me like the plague. I don't even think they're being hypocritical. They're just... somehow... dodging seriousness, dodging deeper relationships. I don't feel great about it but that's the way it is.

I'm okay with being alone.

I'm not okay with walking behind. I hadn't exchanged a word with them for about two minutes. The road forked and one way, the way we never take, was blanketed in sunshine. I travel faster by myself, and being outside of the conversation, I preferred to have my thoughts to myself. I doubted anyone would notice, so I turned at the fork and walked that way alone.

After several long seconds I thought I might have heard a voice, maybe.

I didn't even really mean to make a statement. I don't want to be angry at anyone or have them angry at me.

But I'm okay with being alone.

And I'm really, really not okay with walking behind. Even if, as they claim, they all have to take turns doing it. Not when it's avoidable. I don't like the feeling. I'd rather be alone.

German and Japanese

I love the sound of German. For some reason it seems so warm to me. It might be my favourite language to just hear... to just have in the ambience. I don't rightfully understand why - it's not my favourite language to speak, though it's not bad! :D It's just that hearing it makes me feel warm and cozy. At home.

On the way back from Political Science I was walking with Mayumi and the two German Phillips were behind us, deutsching away. :D I was so happy! After a moment Mayumi turns to be and says,

"Doitsu-go!" And I understood... because, when you're thinking the exact same thing, sometimes you think it in every-language.

She started laughing half a moment later and apologized, was about to translate and I said, "No, no, it's okay... I understand."

"Oh, anata wa nihonjin desu!" She said.

"Hai, soo desu. Watashi wa nihonjin desu, doitsu go kara!"

Faroese Sentences

This is the last set of sentences I'm going to make with this _____ has ____ pattern. I've pretty much exhausted the verb "Hava"... to have. I even know that the past participle version is Havt, and that the present participle is Havandi. I could use them, except it doesn't often make sense to do so, and I didn't really know enough Faroese to come up with one of the weird sentences that would allow it. :)

I am also getting fairly familiar with bending masculine nouns, though I decided not to use Class 2 in these sentences for some reason... Not really sure why as they're pretty similar to Class 1. :D Well, next time. I also tackled the most irregular feminine class, class 4. Next time I'm going to learn 2 or 3 new verbs and write some sentences using those and perhaps the other feminine classes. I should probably get Masculine Class 2 out of the way as well, and then I'll just have Neuter nouns before I conquer the world of nouns completely! Muahahah. Okay, here they are.

Practicing:

At Hava

Masculine Class 1

Masculine Class 3

Feminine Class 4

Týsdagur, 21. Oktober 2008

1. Rósan hevur broddar.

2. Presturin hevði eina syklu.

3. Bankarnir hava pengarnar.

4. Eg havi fingrar.

5. Dómarin hevur eina byrðu.

6. Læknarnir hava stivlar.

7. Danskarin hevði gávuna.

8. Onglendingurin hevur ein arm.

9. Elsuba hevði eina dukku.

10. Fíggindin hevur ein kjallara.

11. Mánan hevur eina søgu.

12. Gentur hava dukkur.

13. Konur hava byrður.

14. Lundin hevði ein hala.

15. Jødin hevur eina tungu.

16. Vikingurin hevði ein knív.

17. Føroyingurin hevur ein næmingur.

18. Ein snigil hevði ein brunn.

19. Býttlingurin hevur ein bólt.

20. Gud hevur ein buss.

21. Kirkjan hevði eina gøtu.

22. Maðurin hevur ein stól.

23. Svenskarin hevur ein ring.

24. Hundurin hevur ein gaffil.

25. Ólavur hevur ein bil.

26. Hetjurnar høvdu fíggindar.

27. Hevur tú ein garð?

Don't Decline Nouns... Let Them Bend.

In Faroese, and, I suspect, Norwegian, you don't decline nouns. You bend them.

Well. Of course it's the same thing: changing a word in order to show it's case or number or whether it's definite or indefinite... all of that lovely stuff. :)

But they call it bending and no force on earth will compel them to use 'decline' instead when they speak English. And at first I resisted this. Oh, I never really pretended not to understand their talk of bending. But I considered it quaint. Foreign. Below me. I myself always said decline and made a point of saying it soon enough after they said bend that it almost stood as a correction - but not quite.

And to what purpose? Yes, decline is more correct. And who could think of bending Latin words... the very idea is ludicrous. Decline and it's lovely wife Declension are well suited to that language. They're all part of the same exclusive club. But why not bend Faroese? Declining is formal and distant. Faroese is living.

Abstract ruminations aside... it occurs to me that bend really does fit with Faroese, and decline with Latin, in a clear and incontrovertible way: namely, they're part of the same language family. And this line of thinking brings me somewhere I've been before - to the very nature of percieved linguistic superiority, and the making of compound words.

In English, compound words, especially once we move past the most basic and utilitarian of them (doorknob and bedpost seldom attract attention), are relegated to a somewhat lower level of speech than their more showy, or, shall we say, ostentatious counterparts. Firearm, for example, seems amusing if we pause to break it apart. And let no man combine two words to form anything more important, unless he doesn't intend to be taken seriously. It simply isn't done in English. The equivalent, a loquacious circumlocution, is almost as bad, though technically correct.

Which sounds more impressive, after all, which sounds better: To say something moved like a wave, or to say it undulated?

Put your finger on why. Obviously knowing the word undulated puts the speaker into a certain rank by merit of education. But is it so fundamentally superior to say undulate than to use some normal, Anglo-Saxon English counterpart? Precision, one may argue, gives it the edge - why say in four words what one can say in one? This argument holds some reason. But in this case we can simply say wave, using it as a verb.

And consider the case of the ultra sophisticated Optometrist and the utterly pedestrian Eye Doctor. Or the acceptable Dentist and the laughably ignorant Tooth Doctor. Here we only have two words instead of one, and imagine that, to further close the distance, it were acceptable in English as in German or Norwegian to form a compound word of Anglo-Saxon roots. Here: Toothdoctor.

But Dentist is only: Dent- (Tooth-), and -Ist (-Er) (Shows Agency). So with the mist pushed aside, we have only... Toother. Toothperson. Is it really so superior to Toothdoctor?

Well, yes, for two reasons - one definitively based on a long defunct hierarchy, the other merely snobbish.

The first is that French Based Words, and through them Latin based words, were brought to England by conquerers, and so through force perceived as the dialect of the more educated and higher class. Speech filled with Anglo-Saxon roots could hardly be anything but common. A lovely legacy to carry with us to this day, but there it is.

The second is that Toothdoctor or Eyedoctor would be immediately recognizable to anyone, whereas we don't speak Latin or Greek nowadays, nor even a language directly derived from them, so we don't recognize the roots behind words that are. It requires a base amount of education, and indeed, a completely separate morpheme, to learn Dentist or Optometrist, so they can serve as indicators of status.

I am not making a call towards any movement. (:D As if I could inspire such things) In my mind, as in many others, the variety that the Norman invasion, among other influences, has lent to the English language is more than payment for any strange or unfair hierarchy of roots that it may have introduced. But merely consider the reasoning, and the history, before you judge... Why force the subject, and decline a noun, when you could simply let it bend?

Eskimo Words for Snow

I've heard both sides of this argument before, but this article was really interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7671137.stm

Yup'ik Eskimo Grant Kashatok speaks about his life on ice in Newtok, Alaska

By Stephen Chittenden BBC News, Newtok, Alaska

The number of Eskimo words for snow has long been a point of debate.

In the Yup'ik Eskimo Dictionary published by the Native Language Centre at the University of Alaska, and found in schools throughout Alaska's Yukon Delta, there are 37 ways of referring to it.

When snow falls from the sky, an Eskimo can say "it's snowing" in four different ways: aniu, cellallir, ganir or qanunge.

Once the snow is on the ground, things can get more complicated. Light snow is kannevvluk, soft and deep snow is muruaneq and drifting snow is called natquik.

Crusted snow, corniced snow and fresh snow all have their own word too.

Safety

Grant Kashatok, the principal at Newtok school, explains one reason there are so many words for snow.

"When we say a word, instead of saying 'That is not safe snow!' we say one word and people know if it's safe or not."

Cold is very good because it means we will have safe conditions... to cross the rivers Grant Kashatok, Newtok School

If you are out hiking and an Eskimo shouts "Mingqutnguaq!" you should stop immediately. It means "rotten ice", and you could be about to fall through the ice.

For the same reasons, Eskimos like Grant Kashatok prefer the cold to warm weather,

"Cold is very good because it means we will have safe conditions...to cross the rivers," he says.

Autumn can be a dangerous time in Alaska. While they wait for the ice to harden, children can be tempted to play on frozen pools before it is thick enough to bear their weight.

Winter activity

Once winter takes grip on Alaska, the land, rivers and seas all freeze, opening up the interior and allowing ice roads to be built across the tundra which gives access for hunting.

Stanley Tom, the tribal leader in Newtok, says it is an essential part of their livelihood.

"We have to have ice", he says. "We are called Qaluyarmiut, the dip-net people. We do under-ice netting, catching whitefish."

The winter season has been given human characteristics and a harsh winter is male, or angun, and if it is milder it is described as arnaq, the Yup'ik word for female.

Yup'ik has three dialects: Central, Siberian and Alutiiqthere.

There are also two other Eskimo languages apart from Yup'ik: Inupiat and Aleut, and that means plenty of ways of referring to snow and ice.

Very Interesting

http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm

This ranks languages based on their prestige in the world, which takes into account number of native and secondary speakers, economic power, etc. It also organizes them by family, alphabet, etc, talks about the history of the languages prestige and makes predictions about the future. Very interesting!

New Helen Trevillion Music!

This is mostly for you, Jashen. XD

Hadn't checked in a while, but Helen Trevillion has a ton of new stuff up, and it sounds like she's selling CDs too. May buy one, one of these days. For now I've downloaded all of her new stuff.

Bit O' Faroese Conversation

I received this message on facebook today:

Halló..
Nú tá tú dugir so væl føroyskt, so tonkti eg, at eg skuldi skriva tær eitt føroyskt bræv. Eg veit ikki rættiliga, hvat eg skal skriva, men okkurt stendur her..
Nú kanst tú stríðast við orðabók og øllum.. ella tímir tú kanska ikki tað, og spyrt bara meg, hvat eg havi skrivað til tín..

Alt tað besta,
Uni Johannesen ;)

And, to my utter shock and amazement, I understood it! :O
So I intelligently replied:

Halló!

Nú kan eg skriva okkurt til tín! Eg kan skriva...

at eg havi ertrar í livurin mín. XD

His Response:
Hahahahhahaha!!!!

So tú hevur ertrar í livur tíni?
Eg veit ikki rættiliga hvat eg skal svara tær.. men.. her er rímiliga óáhugavert at vera. Lítli beiggi mín, vinur hansara, og Senita, ein genta onkra aðrastaðni frá, hon er adopterað, sita í eina horninum, og hyggja í fartelefon Ariar... Senita leitar eftir sangum á telefonini, sum eg segði, ógvuliga óáhugavert.. Men hvussu nógv ritminni og hvussu stóran gerðil hevur telda tín?

(eg havi ertrar í livur míni)**

My Response:

Tað veit eg ikki. :(

Eg har pengar í stivla mìni. Eg tonkti, at tað var týðandi, at hava pengar í stivlum sínum. ;_;

Thank you for helping me, Uni! :D

We Are What We Know

In psychology today they told us that who we were and how we saw the world was shaped about 25%-50% by genetics, and the rest of it was what we had learned...

I by no means have the perfect combination of knowledge, but it strikes me that my knowledge base is indeed very important to me, and I do feel that it sort of defines me. It's fairly well rounded, with a few quirky areas of more depth. And I'm grateful for it. :D

Today I had a big argument with Peter about gay marriage. I admit he beats me as far as knowledge of history and government go, but in this case that was less important, and I was a step ahead of him on knowledge of science in this instance and knowledge of the Bible, and I knew the fundamentals of a logical debate A LOT better than he did.

And it struck me how strange and random the sources of these knowledge bases are.

What I know of science in this case... and by that I mean the scientific evidence of homosexual activity among animals... I can attribute to wandering around Trondheim and into the University Museum there, which happened to have a special and immensely interesting exhibit on the subject. So I can prater on at some length about the homosexual practices of dolphins and giraffes and seabirds, and the way that the scientists researching some things were pressured to ignore their findings, in such cases that they themselves admitted to what they were seeing. For example, in one study of giraffes, researchers tagged every instance of a male sniffing a female as sexual interest, but categorized all intercourse between males including ejaculation as 'fighting'. :S But I digress.

What I know from the Bible comes mainly from being Catholic. I was bored to tears in mass, and was allowed only one entertainment - reading the Bible. For some reason I was fascinated by Deuteronomy, so I know that section better than almost anyone I've ever spoken to about it. On the other sections - well, I know all my cutesy 'bible stories' because I have a very good memory for such things, and I did do a Bible Study once through my church that was quite useful. I'm quick to note my limitations in this area - I would be completely hopeless at interpreting the Bible, for example, as that's really hard and requires training. XD But if you want to throw random quotes or facts around in a discussion or morals or something, I'm your girl. I'm also a master of Bible Trivia. Seriously. I won my church's competition two years in a row.

What I know about the fundamentals of logical debate comes from the month or so we spent studying it in middle school gifted education. I'll never forget Mrs. Reenstjerna and I's debate about what the statement "either a tiger is in this room or a lady is in the other room" signifies when false. :D And I always loved that sort of puzzle when I was little, too. The most important source of my knowledge on this subject, however, is the fact that we are currently studying 30 tools of critical thinking in Psychology right now, and every point I made against Peter came almost directly from these.

And all of these things, for better or for worse, make me who I am.

Walking home I realized I could identify the leaves falling at my feet. Pin Oak, Gingko, Crabapple... Why? Because my father always did love trees, and sometimes on our hikes or even our walks around the block he would point out their names...

College Planning

Plan:
Major in Spanish, Second Major in (Linguistics, Business, Anthropology, Psychology)
Minor in (German, and/or Linguistics, Business, Anthropology, Psychology)
And Graduate! ;) (Required Courses)

High School:
Spanish 1100 (Elementary Spanish 1)
Spanish 1200 (Elementary Spanish 2)
Spanish 2100 (Elementary Spanish 3)
Spanish 2160 (Intermediate Conversation and Composition)
Political Science 2700 (Comparative Political Systems)
Art History 1110 (History of Western Art 1)
Math 1100 (College Algebra)
English 1000
Humanity Elective

Freshman Year
First Semester:
Anthropology 1000 (General Anthropology)
Geography 1100 (Regions and Nations of the World 1)
Political Science 1400 (International Relations)
Spanish 3150 (Advanced Conversation)
Psychology 1000H (Intro to Psychology)

Winter Break:
Romance Languages 2001 (Introduction to Catalan)

Second Semester:
Spanish 3721 (Phonetics)
Spanish 3160 (Advanced Composition)


Sophomore Year
First Semester:
Spanish 3420 (Intro to Hisp. Lit. 1)

Second Semester:
Spanish 3430 (Into to Hisp. Lit 2)
Lab Science

Junior Year
First Semester: If Not Super Senior, then Study in Spain

Second Semester: Study in Norway


Senior Year:
First Semester: If Super Senior, then Study in Spain

Second Semester: If Super Senior, then Study in Spain (or Germany (if Minor))


Super Senior Year:
First Semester: If Super Senior!

Second Semester: If Second Semester!

I also have to take:
Five 4000-level Spanish courses
Three Credits of Writing Intensive Courses
Three Credits of Writing Intensive Courses at or above the 3000 level in Spanish or other major.
Math Reasoning Proficiency Course (Statistics?)
American History or Government (4220: U.S. Society Between the Wars 1918 - 1945?)
Nine Hours Each Of:

1. Social and Behavioral Sciences. Not a Problem
   
2. Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and/or Math Sciences. All students must include at least one laboratory science course in their program. STAT 1200 or STAT 1300 will count toward the nine hours of biological, mathematical or physical sciences required. Problem. Take Statistics... and Biology?
   
3. Humanities and/or Fine Arts. Not a Problem
   

I would really like to take:
Anthro 1060 (Human Language)
Anthro 2030 (Cultural Anthropology)
Anthro 2040 (Anthropological Linguistics)
German 1200 (Elementary German 2)
Romance Languages 4730 (Linguistic Theory and Language Acquisition)

I would like to take:
Anthro 3650 Aztec, Maya, and Inca Civilization
Anthro 3700 Cultures of Europe
German 1300 (Elementary German 3)
German 2160 (Intermediate German)
Any Other Language Courses

Faroese Progress

New Sentences:

When I get discouraged by my sometimes sporadic and almost always random practice, I remind myself that I started out my Norwegian studies with a ten word vocabulary that included 'pen', 'whalepenis', and two different words for speak. And that the first grammatical structure I mastered was *.... is better than....*

Fewer sentences this time, and I have yet to check some of them with a native speaker. But I think I'm getting a bit better. For some reason these are all grusome. I partially blame the vocabulary the book gives, and partially the fact that I only know four verbs*: has, had, saw, and is. XD

Mikudagur, 15. Oktober 2008
1.) Eg havi ein stein.
2.) Eg havi ein hund.
3.) Hevur tú ein hund?
4.) Ápostulin hevði ein húk í tumli sínum.... og nú er hann ein krypil.
5.) Fiskimaðurin hevði tuberklar.
6.) Snigilin hevði ein húk í skel síni.
7.) At hava ein bát er at vera týðandi.

1.) I have a stone.
2.) I have a dog.
3.) Do you have a dog?
4.) The apostle had a fishhook in his thumb... and now he is a cripple.
5.) The fisherman had tuberculosis.
6.) The snail had a fishhook in his shell.
7.) To have a boat is to be important.

* I'm aware I'm taking some liberties using the word like that.

Faroese Progress

So I haven't made much progress yet. :P Mostly because I've been busy, but also partly because... this stuff is hard! XD

Here are my first sentences.

Mánadagur, 13. Oktober 2008
1.) Tú ert fiskimaður.
2.) Eg eri fiskimaður.
3.) Hann er fiskimaður.
4.) Fiskimaðurin er týðandi og álítandi.
5.) Eg veit at fiskimaðurin er týðandi.
6.) Hvar i Ameriku býrt tú?
7.) Eg skilji teg.
8.) Hvat er so stuttligt?
9.) Hvat er so týðandi?
10.) Kanst tú vera ein fiskimaður?
11.) Kanst tú vera álítandi?
12.) Hvat sást tú?
13.) Eg skilji nú!
14.) Hvar i Føroyum býrt tú?
15.) Eg veit at tú býrt í Føroyum.
16.) Sást tu hundin?
17.) Eg sá hundin.
18.) Eg sá vikingin.
19.) Vikingurin sá hundin!
20.) Vikingurin sá ikki ein bát.
21.) Eg eri tín næmingur nú.
22.) Ert tú mín næmingur?
23.) Maðurin hevði ein stein.
24.) Vikingurin hevði ein bát.
25.) Hundurin sá vikingin.

1.) You are (a) fisherman.
2.) I am (a) fisherman.
3.) He is (a) fisherman.
4.) The fisherman is important and reliable.
5.) I know that the fisherman is reliable.
6.) Where do you live in America?
7.) I understand you.
8.) What is so funny?
9.) What is so important?
10.) Can you be a fisherman?
11.) Can you be reliable?
12.) What did you see?
13.) I understand now!
14.) Where in the Faroe Islands do you live?
15.) I know that you live in the Faroe Islands.
16.) Did you see the dog?
17.) I saw the dog.
18.) I saw the viking.
19.) The viking saw the dog!
20.) The viking didn't see a boat.
21.) I am your student now.
22.) Are you my student?
23.) The man had a stone.
24.) The viking had a boat.
25.) The dog saw the viking.

Better

Things are significantly improved since the last day. I actually sort of talked to people about my issues and it helped.

I'm still not going to be best friends with them and it's for the best, really. :) But I feel better now.

Translations about Trondheim

I got this book from the library that talks about Trondheim in Norwegian, English, German, and French. So I've been copying-studying-comparing those three by typing them into word, and then making a Spanish translation for them. :D

Trondheim

Trondheim er den tusenårige byen i nord.
Trondheim is the thousand year old town of the North.
Trondheim ist die tausendjährige Stadt im Norden.
Trondheim es la ciudad de los mil años en el norte.

Kanskje skulle man ikke vente å finne en så ærverdig by i en så frodig natur på disse breddegrader.
At this latitude you would not expect to find such an impressive town in such lush surroundings.
Veilleicht sollte man nicht erwarten, auf diesen Breitegraden, eine so ehrwürdige Stadt in einer so üppigen Landschaft zu finden.
A esta latitud no esperaría encontrar una ciudad tan impresionante y con naturaleza tan exuberante.

Men byen på den lave halvøya mellom Nidelva og fjorden har fra førsta stund hatt en beundringsverdig livskraft og evne til å leve med i europeisk sammeneheng.
However, from its earliest beginnings the town, situated on the peninsula between the Nidelv river and the fjord, has shown remarkable vitality and an ability to absorb European culture and make it its own.
Aber die Stadt auf der flachen Hablinsel zwischen der Nidelva und dem Fjord besitzt seit der Gründung eine bewundernswerte Lebenskraft und die Fähigkeit, am Leben Europas teil zu haben.
Pero desde sus principios, esta ciudad en la península entre el rio Nidelva y el fiordo ha demonstrado una vitalidad excepcional y una habilidad para asimilar y ser parte de la cultura europea.


Her lever historien og minnesmerkene videre I et modern bysamfunn.
Its atmosphere is still permeated by its historic past and its many historical monuments are integrated into the modern town.
Hier leben die Geschichte und ihre Hinterlassen-schaften In einer modernen Stadt weiter.
Aquí conviven todavía la historia y los monumentos históricos en una ciudad moderna.

De hedenske Ladejarler hadde makten her i Norges mest betydningsfulle landsdeler da kristne kongesønner vendte hjem som tronkrevere.
In the days of the Vikings, the heathen Earls of Lade ruled this powerful region of Norway and tried to stem the tide of Christianity brought to the country by a succession of royal pretenders to the throne of Norway.
Die heidnischen Ladejarls besaßen in diesen damals bedeutendsten Teilen Norwegens die Macht, als die christlichen Königssöhne zurückkehrten und auf den Thron Anspurch erhoben.
En los días de los Vikingos, los condes paganos de Lade gobernaban esta poderosa región de Noruega y trataron de parar la marea del cristianismo que trajeron los que creyeron que el trono debia ser suyo.

De kom tilbake som krigsvante hødinger etter mange år i det norrøne vikingeveldet i vest.
These pretenders, though Christian, were seasoned vikings leading bands of battle scarred troops.
Sie kehrten nach vielen Jahren Aufenthalt in Wikingreiche im Westen als kriegserfahrene Häuptlinge zurück.
Despues de muchos años en los dominios de los vikingos en el oeste, regresaron como señores experimentados en la guerra.


For dem var det gunstig å sette seg fast i Trøndelags beste elvehavn der Nidelve renner ut i fjorden.
The mouth of the Nidelva river was for them strategically the most advantageous harbour in Trøndelag.
Es war für sie vorteilhaft, sich in dem besten Binnehafen des Trøndelag, an der Mündung der Nidelva eine Stadt gründete.
La desembocadura del rio Nidelva era estratégicamente el puerto más importante para ellos.

Herfra kunne de vokte jarlesetet på Lade like ved.
From here they could control the fief of the Earls of Lade.
Von hier aus konnten sie den Sitz des Jarls in dem benachbarten Ort lade überwachen.
Desde aqui podían controlar el feudo de los condes de Lade.

A Rough Spot

We're settling in and I'm starting to feel like I know everyone. In some ways, the euphoria has passed. Laura says, "Now we feel like we have the right to get pissed at each other".

There is certainly more conflict. And the lines that were drawn in sand before are beginning to fossilize. The first roommate spats have happened. The first near fight has near-broken out. We still, by all accounts, have the best community feeling on campus, but it's starting to feel worn. I think we'll settle into this too, though.

But it hurts me, because I'd like to associate the passage of time with a stronger community feeling, deeper relationships... people don't seem as interested in making those. I don't think it's exclusively with me, either. Ethan said that he didn't care anymore about what other people did - after all, college is about finding yourself.

But I want to support, and be able to depend, to be trusted, to be able to trust... We're moving from all the fun of getting to know each other to the pains of cohabitation with little of the camaraderie that should mirror it.

But there are things I enjoy. Although we haven't advanced much emotionally, we all know more about each other now, so the conversations we have are a bit deeper. And by the same token, we're less likely to stumble in forgetting who is a republican or a democrat or gay or a drunkie or a christian or a jew. (Spell check tells me Jew should be capitalized and Christian shouldn't. Um?)

And I'm getting more involved with various things, and it looks like I have a possibility at a wisp of a job (and a very appropriate one) for next year.

And cooking... I really enjoy that so far. ^^ Even the long bus rides and the crappy kitchen... I'm taking a perverse kind of pride and enjoyment in living in the most distant and rundown dorm, without a car. Jorge brings his wooden spoon and we cook random things to stave off death by Dobbs. I've stuffed the kitchen freezer with frozen pizzas for when I lack the time to cook something more elaborate, and even my spice collection is slowly and steadily growing.

And now Jorge is moving into Laws! :D And the Renaissance Festival is this weekend! And I happen to have a 96% or better in all of my classes. So things are going to be okay... ^^ Maybe this is just a rough spot...

A Don't Massage

Mimi comes in with a question. She has recieved a text message inviting her to give some guy a don't massage, and she doesn't know what that is. Unfortunately, this isn't a problem with her English - there's not such thing as a Don't Massage. ^^ Though I could make some funny guesses if it turned out to be some new slang term. I think for a moment. He means Foot, I say. How do you know? She asks, surprised. Ah, you see, he's using the T9 texting language on his phone, and the letters in don't occupy the same keys as those in foot... sometimes it guesses wrong, you have to check it. ^^

How It Happened

This is how it happened.

We escorted Mayumi to the library, laughing. And then we walked to Peace Park. We sat on those same rocks that Laura and I sat on the other day.

The reflection of the lamp in the stream could almost have been moonlight.

It happened once, and then, rewind... it happened again.

Thanks Guys

So today most of my American friends went out to hang out. They didn't invite me. I made it fairly obvious that I would be interested and there's no way they 'just forgot'. I had my fill of forcing my way in in middle school and I'm not planning to start that again any time soon, but what I'm wondering is... why?

In class they're very friendly. We walk together a lot, and talk. I know a lot about them. I do stuff with them. I take an interest in their hobbies. But I feel as if they don't think about me unless I walk straight into their paths, if that. So why?

It could be something that they generally don't like about me. I'm willing to admit that. But why, then, do they come find me as their second choice, and why are they more than happy to sit with me in class and talk and all that? And if I invite them to something, they often come. I tend to avoid people who bother me. :S

It's more like they like me, but they just don't see me as part of their group. Which is killing me. I have a personality where I like to be friends with lots of people in different groups. AND, I don't care much for hanging around doing very, very little and just every once in a while saying something, which is what they do a significant portion of the time that I see them. It is during these periods, I think, that they plan the things I miss out on.

And so I keep missing their events, and I'm falling further and further away from them. At first when I, for example, found out about their movie nights, I made an effort to come to one or two. But they haven't seen fit to tell me about any of them since. If I outright ask if I can do anything, they always let me, and fairly happily. But why am I so out of the loop?

I think two things.

1.) They're fairly exclusive. One actually said that he had found a small group of friends and was happy with that and not planning to expand it. Um... yeah, kind of conflicts radically with my view of friends. I continue interacting with people, because you never know when a cool friendship might come up. But it's not just that, because this one guy who hangs out with a lot of other people is usually included.

2.) Again, this sitting around and doing nothing. I really can't stand it. The only situation where it's even remotely bearable is if I'm studying\reading while they do that, and then I'm left out of it partly anyway, and to be honest I'd rather be in my room. See, I like to have some alone time. And when I'm with friends, I prefer it to be slightly more high intensity. Interesting conversations, etc. And by interesting conversations I don't mean making sexual jokes (unless they're actually being clever, see, being sexual does not automatically make things funny, let's grow up, kids) or planning to get drunk.


Given these two things, and their behaviour, (I'm trying really hard not to be bitter despite remembering that most of the times they invite me (not all, but most) it's as a second choice or something. Like hey, I'm going to the rec center and want company. And the fact that half the time they call\text\see me it's wanting something.), I don't think any of them are really best friend material for me. Friend material, though, should be possible. Because I do like them and I think we get along well. We laugh and have fun walking around and going to classes.

Linh told me that college friends are different from high school friends. You're not supposed to be able to count on them... just hang out with them. I'd honestly rather not have friends if that's the case. :( If that makes me not fun, then so be it. And I miss Stephanie and Lucía and even Liisa, short as was our physical time together. I trust them all and feel like I can totally be myself around them. And like they feel the same way with me.

I know I have to give things time, but why does it seem to be moving faster for everyone else? And I'm just trying to be nice. ;_; I don't know what I'm doing so wrong. Another interesting thing is that I'm getting along quite well with a large number of the foreign students. Such as my roommate, Mayumi, and Jorge. :D But they're only here for a year, so I need to branch out beyond them as well.

Let's say it's just this group. (...) You don't meet people in classes... they're too big. I've met a few people I'm friendly with and partner with in my two smallest classes, but we're light years away from hanging out outside of class.

Clubs? I looked for culture clubs, language clubs, or outdoorsy clubs. None, really. And religious clubs, to be honest, make me a bit uncomfortable... religion is an intensely private thing for me, and I feel strange when my beliefs don't precisely correspond with a given doctrine.

I HAVE gotten involved with student government, which I'm sure will look good on resumes and all that. But you don't meet friends there either... it's all work so far. :S And I'm trying to get involved with a mentoring program. But there we're talking about little kids, so however good it will make me feel, it's not really a friend making opportunity. And with those two things I'm actually running out of abundant free time to try to join a social type club.

Bah humbug. How can I be failing when there are so many interesting people?

Sweatshirts and Tall, Tall Peter

Today the school was flooded with Mizzou Sweatshirts. Laura was briefly surprised that she, Peter, and I were all matching, but all things* considered, it's almost expected.

* Whereas, the weather today is quite chilly, enough that the most comfortable clothing choice for most is a sweatshirt.

Whereas, sweatshirts are bulky and most students do not have an extensive wardrobe of them.

Whereas, it's considered in good taste to advertise your school spirit, even within said school, by wearing clothing branded with the name of your university.


Laura and I were joking about Peter and how tall he is. He's significantly over 6 foot, dunno the exact figure. Anyway, Laura and I are both five foot even, and we hardly notice it talking to him. I mean, everyone is taller than us, so we almost don't notice when someone is significantly taller or just quite a bit taller. But when we see ourselves in reflections walking next to him, we realize how silly it looks. And of our main friend group, all of us except for Peter are shorter than average.

And Peter always marches straight ahead. Quickly although it isn't quick for him, with his long legs and his calves easily 6 or 7 times the width of our bedposts. So he quickly leaves Laura and I behind. We see Jorge walking past Brady Commons. I smile. And then it turns to laughter as he runs into Peter and the two of them stand and talk... and we realize that Peter turns even normal sized people into children.

If only he didn't labour under the delusion that his height, encyclopedic knowledge of the news (going back about 300 years), and guns make him a superior human being. Of the three, I actually admire the second. But it's also the one he's the most annoying about rubbing in everyone's faces.

Oh Peter... :P

Japanese

So I've been having a lot of fun with Japanese lately. :D I haven't had more than a few hours of actually studying since the year started. It's amazing how time flies when you live with all your friends, right? Still, somehow the basic structure is coming to me. The trick seems to be letting your preconception of grammar fly away, and replace it with... I don't know. It's odd. But today I managed a short something in a formula I'd never memorized, and which was utterly different from English. And Mayumi actually said it was 100% correct. :P

Kyo wa Finansu desu ka?

Lit: Today - is it finance?

Fig: So do you have Finance first today?


So here's the closest I can get to describing what I'm starting to understand about Japanese:

1.) The particals function a bit like cases. But don't try to cookie cut them to match the cases you know. They're more often about the importance a word has in expressing the meaning, or some other such, than the word's strict grammatical function.

2.) If it is implied, don't say it. Seriously. If you're not worried about being polite, one word will sometimes work fine for a sentence. Be polite and you've got two, one essentially meaningless. And this is OK. Let is go... :P

I can't wait to see Mrs. Hirayoshi and tell her about Mayumi and how much I like Miso soup now and that I can finally read about 95% of the Kana and even a few very useful Kanji and I'm putting together real original sentences and it's seeming less impossible with every minute.

And a special thanks to Finnish for proving that one can draw blood from a stone - even a seemingly impenetrable language begins to give up it's secrets. That's about where I am with Finnish - oh, it's still foreign, oh I can't read anything... maybe with pictures too I get a main idea... but it's no longer impossible. I see eye to eye with it and I could take it if I had the time and desire both. If I can get to that point with Japanese, I'll be thrilled. And I've just taken a significant step in that direction.

Closer

The Rennaissance Faire is this weekend. I'm excited about going. It will be Tabitha, Laura, and I along with Nikola, Clint, and Jorge. The girls are lucky because we can stay at Laura's mom's house for free. The boys will stay in a nearby hotel - they were welcome to pitch a tent in the backyard, but we don't really have a tent, and besides, the nights are getting colder.

But I find... the bite in the autumn air is really quite pleasant. And actually I very much enjoyed our short walk.

I felt his cheek against my ear, and his lips brush my temple. Would you believe how close that is for me? Don't think poorly of me. Actually I'm moving rather fast, and I want to move a little closer. It's just a greater distance for me...

I'm nervous but happy, too. :) Let's wait and see...

/Random

Today I went to this RHA meeting in Memorial Union. I told Ben about it. Oh yeah, I'm so cool, sometimes I study, sometimes I go to student government meetings. He agreed that I'm quite badass. Anyhow, this meeting was unusual in that it touted real live government people, but none of them were that famous, because we didn't recognize any of them. There were also little vegetable, cheese and sausage trays in the center of each table, but these were for me rendered unneeded and indeed unwanted by an utter lack of any bread or crackers. :P

Laws also had a "Cup Party" today, which was basically a mockery of alcohol and stuff. We had jello shots that were just jello and sherbert punch that was sherbert and soda, etc... if they had had some food I might have stayed but instead it was just crowded and lame. I asked Steven if he was getting steamed, as a joke, you know, because he's always walking around bragging about how steamed he is/has been/is going to be. He just looks at me like I'm the stupidest person he's ever had to explain anything to and says, "No, see, I can't get steamed because there's no alcohol here". No shite. :P

Tashlikh

Yesterday I went with Laura and Clint down to peace park. Laura brought two slices of white bread, and Clint brought one of those eternally stale 'foccaccia' monstrosities. All of this bread, was of course, stolen from Dobbs.

Laura and I arrived first and we went the length of the little stream. Laura was quite critical of it, and there was some truth to her assessment of the stream as a sewer. We could, after all, make out a red bull can and some other garbage at the bottom, and in most places it was so still and shallow that you could almost walk across with shoes on and not get your feet wet.

Still, the weather was a perfect crisp autumn with blue sky and golden sunlight filtering through the trees which have just begun to change colour. We sat and talked about love, of all things. And then Clint came and we found a deeper spot near the bridge and threw in our bread, a few crumbs at a time, saying...

Pride, Arrogance, Greed, Pettiness...

And perhaps thinking other darker things that we did not say out loud.

For a few minutes it was very peaceful. And then there was the dog.

A huge yellow lab came bounding over and started eating all the bread we had on us, catching it in the air, and then, as his owners came bounding over calling his name, he waded into the water itself and ate the bread we had tossed there. The tranquility was a bit disturbed, but we all laughed until the wet dog came bounding towards us. Laura threw her last piece of bread in a tree after the dog had gone. Later it came back for that piece as well.

What does this mean for the forgiveness of our sins, is what I'd like to know. Clint and I decided that, to be sure, we would fast with Laura next week. :) That's not going to be easy for me. But I figure that I should fast once in my life, at least.

1/24th Done

I'm about 1/24th done with University, so I'm going to evaluate my progress.

So far I have credit for: (24+)
Basic Math (Up to Calculus) - N/A
English Composition and Literature Requirements - 6?
Political Science II (Comparative Governments)- 3
Art History I (Prehistory - Rennaisance) - 3
Beginning and Intermediate Spanish - 9+
German I - 3

I am currently earning credit for: (16)
Advanced Spanish Conversation - 3
Introduction to Anthropology - 3
Introduction to Geography - 3
Introduction to Psychology (Honors) - 3
Political Science I (International Relations)- 3
FIG (Introductory Seminar - Preparation for Study Abroad)- 1


So Far: I've been taking elementary courses. I'm burning up a lot of electives, which isn't nice, but I want to be sure about my second major. I know I'm going to have one major in Spanish and one in something else, which I should know by the end of the year. At any rate, things are easy so far. I'm establishing a nice GPA that might help later. :)

Future Plans: Next semester I need to continue with Spanish. I'm also going to take an introductory course in Linguistics, one in Economics, and one in Journalism. After this I should know whether I want to have my second major in Psychology, Business, Journalism, Anthropology, or Linguistics (They're actually all possibilities). I should be left with a little more room in my schedule, so if it turns out that I need a lab science, I'll get that out of the way. Otherwise, I don't think I can get into Japanese or Chinese second semester, so I might take another German class. I'd like to at least take one or two semesters of German in college to build on what I did in High School. Italian is also a possibility. As is Russian. ;_; I love everything!
After next semester I'll have decided what I want to do. After that my schedule should become more specialized. I also need to start seriously thinking about when/where to do my study abroad. I have about three semesters to work with... and at the very least I have to go to a Spanish speaking country for a semester, and Norway for a semester. I could do a year in either one of these, and a semester in the other. Or I could do a semester in each and do one semester in a totally random country (Japan, Finland, Italy?) which is also very appealing. :) Germany is also a candidate for this third, especially if I do a business major.

The Animal Instinct

Suddenly something has happened to me
As I was having my cup of tea
Suddenly I was feeling depressed
I was utterly and totally stressed
Do you know you made me cry
Do you know you made me die

And the thing that gets to me
Is you'll never really see
And the thing that freaks me out
Is I'll always be in doubt
It's just a lovely thing that we have
It's just lovely thing that we
It's just a lovely thing, the animal...
The animal instinct

So take my hands and come with me
We will change reality
So take my hands and we will pray

The animal, the animal,
The animal instinct in me
Its the animal, the animal,
The animal instinct in me
Its the animal, its the animal,
Its the animal instinct in me x2

- Cranberries

Decay, Sweet as Cinnamon

I love the smell of fall leaves. So much so that, although I'm startled by the presence of such a smell, premature as it seems in this heat, I can't resist... I lean down to scoop some of the golden leaves that line the walk to the rec center. I hold them in the palm of my hand, and I breathe in deep, inhaling their scent.

It's a rich smell. Of the earth. Like smells have a tendency to do, it tugs at me inside and pulls me back to a thousand fading memories. They linger.

Mayumi thinks it smells like insects. But she's lived her whole life in the city, she can't understand the appeal of such earthy natural scents. I had a glimpse of that myself in Finland, where they worship smells such as tar and smoke. But at least here we have cedar, and some of us have the smell of leaves.

Jorge thinks it smells like rotting leaves. He's closer to the truth, I suspect. The leaves were green a week ago, after all, and now they're golden, and darkening...

But sometimes the smell of decay is the sweetest smell. He admits that the scent is a bit spicy. Myself, I think they've entombed it in pumpkin pie, mixed with a healthy dose of sugar. Laughing, I loosen my grip and let the pace of the walk, and the wind, pull each leaf from my hand.

Decay. Yes. He had the right of it. It's Autumn, though, and such a scent is nothing if not natural. There's no reason not to embrace it.

Top 25 Most Played

This is basically what I've listened to the most in the last month... because my laptop Itunes is new... :)

Stenristerna
Praan
Linger
The River
Ariadiamus
Todella Kaunis
May It Be
Nú Brennur Tú I Maer
Mies Eikä Poika Enää
Perfekte Welle
Zombie
Let's Make Love
Amaranth
Out of My Element
Red Soup
Bendik og Årolilja
Idyll
Oceano
Green Grow The Rushes Oh
O Onda
Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan
Pahempi Toistaan
Desert Rose
The Rising
The World Outside My Window

I like the list. ^^ There are a few nice, vocal-intensive and just generally inspiring beautiful pieces. (Stenristerna, Praan, Oceano...), a few metal pieces (Bendik og Årolilja, Pahempi Toistaan, Amaranth...), a few mainstream thingies (Linger, Out of My Element... maybe Desert Rose?), a few folksy pieces (The World Outside My Window, Let's Make Love, Green Grow the Rushes Oh - and note that a few Dixie Chicks songs barely missed the list), a bit of Springsteen, one instrumental (Red Soup), and of course the goddamn foreign stuff (Nú Brennur Tú I Maer,
Mies Eikä Poika Enää, Idyll, etc) It's fairly reflective of my musical interests. :D

Weekend

Todd passed the Bar, yay! We all went to his ceremony yesterday. There was some confusion, though, because they didn't keep track of those who had preregistered, and they kept telling my parents (who came later) that Todd hadn't registered, hadn't registered... they freaked out and thought that we had all died in a car accident. It was really foggy that morning, and it's eerily true that a car could have gone over the bridge and vanished in the river and no one would have ever noticed. The thought had actually gone through my mind as well as I waited for them and they were some 2 hours late. :S But perhaps I'm better at dealing with this particular kind of stress... I just told myself that it was one possibility out of a dozen, so I put it more or less otu of my mind.

In Other News...

My nausea and indecision have largely vanished. Now I have a nice long weekend and I've things to do. I have to interview Jorge for Spanish, catch up on my Anthro readings, do the Geography assignment, do laundry, buy socks, and I'd really like to cook Greek Chicken at some point, too. :D I feel cozy and warm. We're all really getting settled into this college life thing.

First Leaves Falling

It's still hot. It's really still too hot for such things as falling leaves and talk of homecoming. But here we are. Before the Geography exam Clint and I ran after Peter joking about the Blow and Suck Theory (Oh, that dirty Geography professor!) and I felt the leaves crush under my feet, and the warm wind against my arms. Ah, Vertigo...

The season is turning and it feels strange.

The Simplicity of University

So far it's going well. Almost too well. Suspiciously well. Why is it easier than high school? :P I aced my Anthropology Exam, and I suspect I did well on the Geography exam as well. And today I was bit worried about taking an essay test (Psychology)... and an honors one at that, but it went by rather painlessly. Hmm....

I'm discontent, though. I need to do something. Something needs to happen, in some direction, any direction. Because I have a growing sense of discontent... :( And this ease isn't helping any, either.

A Certain Sensitivity

I had strange dreams. And...

I woke up this morning pregnant with emotion. I don't know if it's only that I'm finally changing direction and it's only the inertia in my heart reacting to it, or what. Mayumi thinks I'm sick, but I'm not... it's just that, talking to you... it makes something inside of me tremble. I don't quite feel nauseous but it's a strange feeling. I don't know why - it's been a long, long time since I was torn up with longing for you, but I guess the closest I can get to saying it is this...

I seem to have a certain sensitivity to you.

A Lively Debate with Peter

Peter: Sowna? Sowna?

Miranda: Yes. Sauna.

Peter: Don’t you mean Sawna?

Miranda: Okay, learn some Finnish before you start correcting my pronunciation, please.

Peter: Alright, I’ll learn Finnish as long as you learn all the Afrikaans loanwords. How do you pronounce the name of the famous system of racial segregation that was used in South Africa from 1948 until the mid nineties?

Miranda: I don’t speak Afrikaans

Peter: Well, I don’t speak Finnish

Laura: He has a point

Miranda: Not so, given the fact that I am not challenging his pronunciation, but rather he is challenging mine, when in fact the Oxford English Dictionary lists both pronunciations as correct, and I have a good reason to stick to mine as I prefer the original pronunciation of the people who invented the custom.

Tom: The Oxford English Dictionary does not qualify as an acceptable reference in Texas

Miranda: Unfortunately for Peter, his presence here does not make this Texas.

Peter: So? I could call the Texas State Rangers right now and they would drive up and shoot all of you.

Miranda: …. Okay! Well, Tabitha, please knock on my door before you go to the rec center. :D

The World is Waiting

So, apparently, this was supposed to be a half page blow off assignment. I didn't know.


The World is Waiting
Three Reasons to Study Abroad

In recent years it has been stated to exhaustion that knowledge of foreign cultures is particularly important to maximize the financial earnings of business dealings abroad as globalization speeds up. This point is not to be discarded. However, I would urge anyone who is considering studying abroad on such terms alone, or who has rejected the idea because such terms are not in his case applicable, to reconsider all of the positive effects that such an experience can have on a person’s life.
In the movie Pocahontas, the title character says, “If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew you never knew.” This quote is very true about studying abroad. Students who study abroad overwhelmingly report that they gain a new and more global worldview, learn more about themselves, and develop as people; even as they increase their career skills and marketability.
Spending a good length of time in a foreign country, particularly as an ordinary inhabitant (in this case, a student) develops an undeniable connection with that place. A student who has studied abroad will carry their memories and experiences their whole lives. They will immediately be set apart from the stereotypical American who can hardly find his own country on the map – they will be able to find both of theirs. By spending time in a second culture, and often a second language, they have learned a lot about what is universal and what can vary across the world, and why.
If getting to know only one additional way of life was not enough, in most situations, students studying abroad have the opportunity to live with other foreign students, therefore immersing themselves not only in the culture of the host countries but of their new classmates as well. As they go through their daily lives in such an environment, they learn far more about these other countries and cultures than they ever would in a classroom.
Anyone who has ever had a close friend from another country knows how much even one personal relationship can reshape one’s mental map of the world. My experiences with foreigners both in America and abroad have put a face on Mexico, Chile, Iraq, Finland, China, Japan, Costa Rica, Norway, Iran, and many other countries; faces that help me to understand that the interactions between nations affect real people, whose hopes, dreams, and beliefs are not mindlessly and definitively altered by national boundary lines, but are unique to each individual the world over.
Ask most adults whether they studied abroad in college. Most will sigh wistfully as they admit, “I wish that I had.” Perhaps they have learned in the years since that such an experience would have broadened their horizons or helped them adapt to globalization. If you let them continue, however, they will speak of friends who did study abroad, and came back different. Studying abroad changes people, and, according to a survey from IES, overwhelmingly for the better.
The voluntary survey of students who studied abroad (including semester, year, and summer programs), reports that 96% of such students believed that the experience increased their self confidence, 97% believe that it served as a catalyst for increased maturity, and 95% believe it had a lasting impact on their world view. I can say from personal experience that even a shorter experience abroad can change your life.
When someone travels, they take a break from their ordinary routine, and their minds expand. In another place, they are so far removed from everything they know… including those things that held them back from reaching their full potential. . If you had asked me, from my safe St. Louis home or even from my comfy dorm room, how I would react to sitting in a room heated to 195 degrees, and then jumping into the fifty degree waters of the Baltic sea, or to being dropped off at a rural Norwegian house to wait six hours for a lady I had never met, or to taking a Costa Rican bus alone in a community with no addresses... I wouldn’t have been able to imagine it. But these things happened, I survived, and I grew.
Studying abroad affords many opportunities unknown to the average tourist. Another thing which differentiates the experience from common tourism is that it can also be immensely beneficial to the student’s career. Many interviewers for jobs are particularly interested in any time a student has spent abroad. This is because such an experience gives capable students the chance to flourish under unusual and often more difficult situations – a skill that is richly rewarded in most career tracks.
If the study abroad experience involves a language other than English, then it also serves as an excellent chance to become fluent in a second language. In today’s job market, applicants with more than one language are a top commodity. Learning a foreign language in your home university is certainly worth the effort, but your ability to use the language in normal situations and conversations will improve drastically if you give yourself the chance to be immersed in it.
It’s also worth mentioning that not only is the general study abroad experience extremely beneficial, but that valuable lessons can also be gleaned from the ordinary classes attended at the host university. Their way of teaching American history, for example, may give an aspiring journalist an entirely different perspective. And perhaps they will show a young artist a fresh new way of looking at the world.
Some students study abroad to learn valuable lessons about the world they live in. Others hope to find themselves in a place far away from home, or to increase their career prospects. I would suggest that any study abroad experience would inevitably incorporate all three of these legitimate motives. Regardless of their initial motives, all of them will have stories for a lifetime.

My Purse (Sad Story)

I got back to Laws today and realized that I didn't have my purse. O.O So I told my friends, and they told me to run back to see if I could find it. I was certain someone had stolen it, or almost worse, that I would have to barge into a huge lecture hall to try to find it. I ran all the way to Middlebush (a mile, more or less) to look for it. The lecture hall was empty ^^... and empty :O.

I ran about the building asking janitors, etc to email me if they found anything.

Then I went outside... and found Peter. Who had apparently run all the way after me in order to tell me that I hadn't lost the purse at all, I had been more or less sitting on it...

;_;

I feel loved. And like an idiot.

Chinese Food and Dorm Life

We had our Chinese food party today. Half of it was made by the Chinese students, and half of it we ordered in. All was delicious. It was fun to try different Chinese dishes than the few I've gotten into the trap of always ordering. And we received offers to be taken care of if we ever visit China. Anywhere in China. Quite an offer, if you think about it.

Tabby and I talked about where we would stay the rest of our college career, after the thought that after four years in Laws (International Dorm) we would be able to travel through the whole world staying with people we met. The whole thing became a bit of a headache... It's a bit pointless to think about it though, really. We are here now and we should enjoy this for what it is. :D And it's lovely. We're all living together, it's an adorable little community... ^^

Mayumi writes up a few vocabulary words each week and puts them on the back of her desk, so that it's the first thing she sees when she wakes up in the morning and the last thing she sees when she goes to bed at night. I'm thinking about imitating it. But for what language? :S Last week she had Flier, Razor, Get a Tan, Sunburn, Arrange, Put in Order, and a few others. This week she has Adorable, Underarm Hair, Seaweed, Squid, Gross, Disgusting, Mole, Firefly, Lightening Bug, and Ambulance. ^^
If I was a bit better at Japanese I could use her list and learn in reverse. Alas.

Still, Laura's studying Japanese and it's a bit funny, because she took it for a year in high school and I've never studied it formally. Still, my vocabulary is a bit higher than hers, although I'm willing to bet she has a more solid grip on the grammar and she's a MUCH faster reader. She has a quiz tomorrow so I helped her study, reading the words to her in Japanese. It was interesting because I had trouble reading them, whereas she seemed to interpret the symbols almost as easily as the Roman alphabet. However, we came out even because I was quicker with the vocabulary. :P

It was such a nice community feeling as we sat together studying and making up mnemonics. For example:

Shigoto: Job = What does Tabitha do on Fridays? She go to job.

Isha: Apple = "Isha" apple each day and you don't have to go to the doctor.

Gogo: PM = You sleep all morning so you can GO GO in the afternoon

Bengoshi: Lawyer = Ben (our P.A.) gets caught with alcohol, so... Ben Go "Shi" A Lawyer.

Weekend Slacking

I have done absolutely nothing all weekend. I went swimming once, had a few meals, including an outstanding one at the Indian restaurant nearby, I spent some lazy hours with friends, I caught up on my sleep, and typed about 16 pages of Anthropology notes. Which is all fine and good, but I also wanted to do laundry, type my Geography and Political Science notes, and figure out my finals schedule. :( I guess I can still do that last (and most important) tonight, but while I think I've done well with time management during the week, I've definitely slacked off this weekend. :(

Trip Journal Project

I officially started my trip journal project today. I'm having a lot of fun remembering everything that happened and securing it in written form. I'm also putting it up on my writing community so that they can help me with it, because I want to make the final draft wonderful and exercise my writing skills too. :P

Will any of it trickle down onto the blog. Yes, some of it will. And I'll probably backdate it and make some sort of announcement when I add significant portions so that readers who care can go back to June/July and see the posts. But they will be signficantly edited, of course, because, although I try not to delude myself about the number of readers I get, the blog is still public, and I don't want to change people's names. (I'm not using last names, though :P).

Also, probably the people who would be most interested are the people who were part of the story... and while I don't really have anything negative to say about them that I wouldn't say to anyone else, I tried to be objective. If they have a funny habit I talk about it. It's not meant to be hurtful but I maybe wouldn't want them reading about it. So the public doesn't get those details, just my private files and my little pass-work protected writing community who doesn't know any of the other people anyway.

We'll see when I get around to posting the stuff, but June/July do look awfully bare considering all that happened. :P

P.S. - If you'd like some of the non-pared down drafts, email me... knowing the people who read the blog, I'll probably send them to you. ;)

One Last Library Rant and some Random Stuff About Japanese Roommates

Went back to the library today to check out the Finnish and Synesthesia books. The Finno-Ugric language section blew me away. I'll be honest - I was expecting a display half the size of the Scandinavian one. Instead, it was easily twice as large. For a few minutes, I'll admit, I kept my hand on it as if I was touching earth, I almost couldn't bear to take my hand away and not touch them, afraid they would stop being real. They even had a few very, very poor books (by poor I mean very small and falling apart) on Sami. One was a sort of dictionary arranged in some non-alphabetical way that translated Finnish into four dialects of Sami. One would have to be really desperate to work with that.

But the Finnish books were much nicer. I picked a big huge volume, fully half the size of my Unabridged English Dictionary back home. It barely fit in my backpack. It's called a Basic Course in Finnish, but it's absolutely humongous. I giggled a bit to see that I could flip to the end of the book and still get the main idea of many of the readings. That's what even the tiniest slice of immersion does to language acquisition, I suppose. Still, I can learn A LOT from it, I can already tell.

Another surprise - I went looking for books on Sami culture and I found a big section and, here's the kicker, on the way through the eastern stacks I realized that I was staring at a whole block of encyclopedias in Scandinavian languages. ENCYCLOPEDIAS! That's the most glorious thing, which I haven't even begun to tap yet... the fact that here the books in foreign language extend far out of the foreign language section and into the main stacks! Oh, the awaiting fun! :D

And it occurs to me that the tight fear I've lived with for a while, that I would run out of materials, that I had to ration myself... all of that is over now. I no longer need to grasp at fragments, at anything. A few years ago I would carefully fold and save a candy wrapper if it listed the instructions in anything less common than Spanish. Of course in todays world it was always a little silly, because there's so much content available online in different languages, but there was something oddly respectful... almost venerating about it... a sort of waste not, want not attitude, that even this wrapping paper had worth... I could use it to learn perhaps two or three new words... like corn syrup or hazelnut.

It would be lovely if I could keep this sense of desperation, as ludicrous as it is now and has ever been, and apply it to the almost guilty excess suddenly available to me. I would tear through that library like no one has before. :D I seriously feel my mouth water a bit just thinking about it. I'm such a lazy little child polyglot, though... if I had more discipline I wouldn't even be taking the time to sit here and salivate and fantasize about it, I would be eating the books right now.

Unfortunately my brain does have it's limits and I spent 3 hours in class today, 4 hours studying stuff from class, 1 hour learning Arabic letters, 30 minutes smashing my head against the Faroese pronunciation guide, and 20 minutes chatting in Swedish-Norwegian. And at the Arabic lesson today Ashley seemed to have some sort of emotional bond with every letter... she couldn't let us move on without saying it again and again and cuddling it in her mouth like it was something precious or something sweet or occasionally (take Ain) something deliciously dirty. Given my reading material lately I almost felt like she had some sort of personality synestesia about the whole thing. Mah interdisciplinary erosion!!! But soon to bed, soon to bed. ^^ I am happy now and it's almost too much, it's too good for me and makes me feel a bit desperate. Let's be honest, I can't have all of them, ah, life is so finite...

Enough with that. Not that again. XD

In other news I love the Japanese roommates and how they constantly feel like they have to apologize and not only that but they are always asking me for help translating these bizarre apology phrases. Such as the traditional Japanese thing to say when, for example, you are at a friends house and the friend's husband or wife comes home and you say something bizarre to him/her like "I am sorry and grateful for intruding".

And I'm still trying to help them figure out the difference between a tan and a sunburn. I thought I made it clear but they keep arguing that both are bad for you, which is true but it's about the connotation and denotation damnit! :P

Funny Mispronunciations: Room - Loom, Rice - Lice.

I have too much imagination, see, I keep imagining Mayumi and I sharing a loom or they all eating lice out of each other's hair when they say the obvious things. :P There are a few others too... it's the kind of thing you can never think of when you want to but every time you hear it you giggle again. ;)

I totally <3 living with foreigners. And books. So far other than feeling slightly like a loser for really, truly, madly, and deeply not giving a shit about parties/drinking, I'm loving University.


P.S. - It was a strange feeling to find that they had an entire WALL in the library devoted to books about poultry. There was one huge shelf easily the size of the Scandinavian and Finno-Ugric shelves combined, perhaps even as much as 50% bigger, devoted to a series called "Poultry Science". And there were more "Poultry Nutrition" books than Icelandic, Faroese, Old Icelandic, and Old Norse combined.

It's none of my business, of course, why should I begrudge the poor student who is obsessed with feeding chickens as I am with languages his jollies? I shouldn't, of course, that's the easy answer, and of course agricultural science and stuff are actually majors here unlike all but the most famous of European languages, so they really have more of a right to be on the shelves, but it's also at once hilarious and a bit sad. :P

Teach Yourself Series

This guy kills me. XD

I can't believe he has so many of these. Wait a few seconds and you'll see that he has three times as many books as it originally looks like he has.

I do agree with him about the varying quality of the books in the series.... but he's so critical of the switch from the strict grammatical books.

A First Glimpse Into Dorm Life

It's been nice, especially these last few days, to start breaking the surface with a few classmates. Here's an example of the music some of them have turned me onto.

It's both wonderful and a little disarming to be with so many people of like intelligence without it being some sort of gifted group where that's all we think and talk about. And of course, there are those who are much smarter than I...

A Note To the Side: So far, I'm very curious as to how the first exam will turn out. I haven't been a studying maniac, but I've devoted a significant portion of each day to the readings... and all the while the common room is filled with the same people, usually past midnight. They either don't sleep or they don't study...

There are a number of possibilities for how this will turn out. Best case scenario is that I find out I've been doing too much work and can relax a bit. :D Short of that, it could be that they have superhuman intelligence/study skills I'm lacking, they don't need sleep, they will do poorly on the next exam, we will all do poorly on the next exam, ..... :S I am a big geek.

More About the Faroe Islands

We have to research study abroad options for our seminar thingy. On a whim, I decided to research two somewhat obscure places that I'm interested in on the microscopic chance that they have exchange programs. That's right: Bhutan and the Faroe Islands.

Apparently if you want to study in Bhutan you have the unlimited possibilities inherent in having to study Himalayan and Buddhist studies for a year at some Indian University and then being permitted to take a week long field trip in Bhutan. Interesting, but yeah, not really plausible. ;_;

After about half an hour of research, the Faroe Islands look a little more promising. They have a summer program (Wikipedia says it's annual, but some more official site said biannual) that accepts a small number of foreign students to study linguistic and cultural stuff. ^^ Which is actually kind of nice, because I probably wouldn't want to spend more than two months there anyways.

Next summer they have one, and then, if the one website is to be trusted, the next will be in 2011. Which is probably a decent thing to shoot for. Knowledge of Faroese is not necessary, but on the form you can check "none" or "some", so I figure it will give me a leg up (I might almost draw even with the normal Scandinavians XD) if I can honestly say that I've introduced myself to the phonetics and grammar and read a few texts.

I had the brilliant idea of using the Faroese Wikipedia to practice. I knew I was in trouble when I saw that they recommend going to the Faroese postal service website and reading their history of the stamp collection for practice. Sure enough, there were only a few articles on the Faroese Wikipedia long enough to merit 10 cents a page to print them out. I snagged the 8 page article on the Faroe Islands themselves, which in all honesty will last me a while. After that I can always combine a few articles to make a page. I've also found a dictionary for reading help... good old Freelang. :D We'll see how comprehensive it is.

Little Faroese Grammar

Today was a good day. :D I won 150 dollars from the Costa Rica photo contest (1st place! :D) and I had a Japanese feast with Mayumi, Mitsuki, and Linh. ^^

I also was able to introduce a few people to couchsurfing.com, which is lovely because I had such good experiences with it.

But this was the highlight of the day:

I checked out the Mizzou Library.

A few months ago (it seems like longer :P) I went with Lucia to the Wash U library for Smith research. I was amazed by the concept of a University Library. They had shelves that moved and foreign language books in every section! It was paradise. I totally geeked out about it with Mrs. McFarland when I went back to school. And since then I've been waiting, nervously, to see how the Mizzou library compares. I'd heard repeatedly that it wasn't as nice. But it was bound to be better than the Public County Library, right? Right?

It was. :D I went in to see if they had any material on Synesthesia. They did. About 6 books worth, plus some studies and stuff I didn't get into. This was just on the database search, btw. Then, although I had seen from a websearch at home that they didn't even have many NORWEGIAN books, I decided on an optimistic whim to see if they had anything about Faroese. And they did. A grammar book, and a few others. A GRAMMAR BOOK.

Just as in the Wash U. library, I found myself initially incapable of finding anything by myself, except the reference section. So I asked and asked and was redirected until they told me, ah, this number is on the second a floor... which is between the second and the third floors. Ah, perfect, so fitting... that such a book would be on a magic floor! :D To access it I went in a small door to the left, and up...

"It's in an old part of the building," they told me. "It's a bit dark up there". I went to the left and it was already very still and dimly lit. I was the only person in the entire wing. I climbed. After four flights of rickety stairs, I reached the magical floor 2a, where it was even darker near the books but by the windows that strange yellow and dusty light flowed in. I felt like I was in the secret garden or the beast's west wing.

Then I found what I was looking for. One entire shelf, from ceiling to floor, dedicated to that part of the world where I have spent half my heart though only a single month of my lifetime. They had an entire encyclopedic looking series called "Scandinavian Studies". It looked like it hadn't been checked out in a lifetime and I knew in a moment that I wanted to read them. All of them. And the History of Scandinavian Languages. And the thick book called, "How to Pronounce Norwegian". And the Icelandic Dictionary. All of them...

The old familiar image of an edible book came to my mind, like the book was soaked through in syrup and was in consistency not unlike a heart of palm, but with a taste as varied and fantastic as durian with none of the characteristic rotting-corpse smell. In its place would be that smell old books have, simultaneously clean and dusty.

I pulled myself back into reality and searched for that most rare of all the rare books before me... my little Faroese Grammar. I had to scan the shelf three times, I missed it at first. It was a small, grey volume titled simply, "An Introduction to Modern Faroese". I couldn't believe I was actually allowed to check it out. I looked all over the book for some indication that I could not. I flipped through it to make sure it was not, by some trick of whatever evil power exists, a mutant blank copy. But people were waiting for me, and I had to leave.

The weather was a wonderful cool and rainy and windy. No one, I am certain, has ever made the twenty minute walk from Ellis to Laws in such weather with a malfunctioning umbrella and such high spirits over a little grey book. :) I am very content.

Faroese

I didn't make this video, but I enjoyed it very much. :) Firstly it was interesting to learn a bit about Faroese, and the text chosen was so appropriate. The last line really affected me. Of course, for Americans as well as for Englishmen, our vernacular seems very safe. But in a way I've made it one of the points of my life to understand these people with the fading languages. I've taken the easy way out, in a way, or at least a moderate approach... those languages with 3 or 4 or even 100 speakers I don't think much about.

Those I do concern myself with are the languages with a good chance to survive (some printed material, a few thousand speakers), but are still in danger of falling off the face of the planet. :(