Study Abroad Preparations

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

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

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German Recommendation/Interview

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"After I'm admitted?"

"That's right!"

"Excellent."

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

Things are going well. :)

Chinese in the Dining Hall

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

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

Interesting.

Minors?

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

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

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

and

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

The point is that minors only require 15 credits.

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

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

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

Next Semester Courseload

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16 credits total.

Navratan Korma

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

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

Dhingri Mutter and Bhindi Masala

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

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

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

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

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

Ho Wei

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

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

Life is Crazy

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

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

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

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

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

Explore Your Environment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

School Matters

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

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

World Heritage Sites

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

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

In Greece I've seen the Acropolis in Athens.

In Germany I've seen Cologne Cathedral.

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

In Finland I've seen the Fortress of Suomenlinna.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aware of that Moment

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

My Blogs' Wordles

Vandrelyst


I Naur Celedril



Life in the Faroes

Neither Rain Nor Snow

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

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

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

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

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

Chinese Writing... Yikes!

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

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

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

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

Winter is Coming

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

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

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

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

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

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

Language Context and Rosetta Stone

I found this quote:

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Nothing is Original"

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

Miracle of Language

What's this? Mandarin?

That's right.

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

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

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

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

Murphy's Law in Action - Hayride

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

School Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Much Am I Worth?

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

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

???

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

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

What the hell?

Altid Dansk, Aldri Norsk

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

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

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

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

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

Kanye West and Finland?

I saw this and I just couldn't resist.


Immaletyoufinish.com

Words Slipping like Droplets of Sweat

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

- Page 7, Turning Japanese, David Mura

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

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

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

So it goes.

Stress and Stupidity

This morning I realized that I didn't have my jacket. Or the map I got yesterday. With a bit of mental backtracking, I realized that I left it/them either in the computer lab in Johnston or in my Economics classroom. The Econ Classroom was more likely, since I sort of dashed out right when the bell rang to get to the FIG class on time. I asked at Johnston and they knew nothing. I found my jacket in the back of the Econ room :), but no map. :(

My schedule is now officially full to bursting, and it's jumped straight from quite manageable to full of irreconcilable conflicts. For example, I am supposed to be in two small groups this year.

One, for Cross Cultural Journalism, is one of the largest 'small groups' I've ever worked in. It's about 15 people, and they decided to meet tonight and asked for times we were available. I said I was available except for from 5:30 - 7:30, since that's when I have the South Staff meeting. Guess when they scheduled the small group meeting? 6-7. Right. So it's not even possible for me to leave one early and get to the other one late, since it's a half hour walk from where I live to where they're having the meeting (almost the furthest possible point from where I live). It's not personal, of course, I just think that if you have a 'small' group expected to coordinate and meet outside of class, it should be around 8 people at the most. Because I don't know how I'm going to do this.

The other is for Biological Anthropology. I was supposed to be able to get honors credit through contract for that class by attending a discussion group every week. This would really be my only chance at staying n the honors college, since most Journalism classes don't offer honors credit, and Biological Anthropology would potentially give me 5, and I'd be all caught up. But the teacher says he can't find a time for everyone to meet, so he'll probably have to cancel the honors discussion group. I want to know what he means by everyone - couldn't we pick a time most people could come and sacrifice the others? I mean, it sucks, yeah, but I would be less frustrated if they 'sacrificed' me, than if they just canceled the whole thing. It sucks for everyone.

While trying to figure all of this out, I came back to the dorm. I had a few packages and while I was opening them a lady came with stuff for iLife, asking for a Miranda, so I actually got three packages. Feel popular. :D The problem (of course there was a problem), is that one of the packages is something I ordered from Amazon about two weeks ago, and they didn't charge my credit card until it shipped or something... so here I was thinking that had already gone through and that I had 30$ in my account, and suddenly I have 10$. I was comfortably broke and now I'm just destitute. The other problem is that I had ordered an extra small t-shirt. Yeah, extra small my ass. The thing is HUGE. I mean, insanely huge. Reslife gives out really big shirts, but this is the size of their medium, and it's an EXTRA SMALL. I brainstormed ways to use it but gave up. It's so big I think it would even be uncomfortable to sleep in, and anyway I don't pay 20$ for sleepshirts. So I actually had to email the company about it and we'll see how that turns out.

AHHHH!!!!

The Asian Minority

At one point, on the river, Ju and I realized that we hadn't seen Fangbai for a while. We decided to wait for her, since we didn't know what she might have gotten into. So we found a quiet part of the river and stopped paddling, just drifted and ate some more of our lunch. A long time went by and we started to think that maybe we had been mistaken, and that Fangbai had been ahead of us. At this point some other people, not from our group, were going past.

Ju: "Why don't we just ask them if Fangbai is behind us?"

Me: "But they don't know who she is?"

Ju: "Excuse me! Are there three Asian people in a boat behind us?"

Guy: "Yeah."

Ju: "See? Was that so hard?"

Haha. No, not really. But believe it or not I think I felt the effect of having been to Japan. On a river in Mid-Missouri, yes, it makes sense that an Asian canoeist would be unusual enough that someone would remember seeing them and know who we were talking about with just the one adjective. I might have come more quickly to that conclusion a year ago.

But my trip to Japan seems to have changed things a bit. I no longer take it for granted that Caucasians form the majority. In some ways, that's a good thing. But then again, this situation demonstrates the usefulness of categories, and yes, even 'stereotypes' in a sense, for efficient communication.

A Crazy Week

The last week has been insane - both in good ways and bad. This is what I did:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Monday - Flew home from Dallas, Texas.

Tuesday - South Hall had a fire drill, which I had to help conduct since I'm a P.A. Afterwards I went and played Racquetball with Ju, Prite, and Zahra for two hours. :)

Wednesday - I put up a bulletin board, had a staff meeting with my CET, then ran straight to Rollins for dinner with Tabi, and we went to see Tulpan (a Kazakh film) at the Ragtag.

Thursday - One on One Staff Meeting, then helped Kevin with Spanish a bit, and then ran to Middlebush for the year's first Alpha Mu Gamma meeting. We had great turnout actually. I walked home with Lucy and found out that we have a lot in common, and that we both live in South. Don't know how we missed that before. :P Then I made an email list for AMG.

Friday - I went to the Mosque with Zahra for Ramadan, ate yummy food, and then hung out with her and Maria, her roommate, for a while. Came back to the dorm around eleven and realized that the canoe trip on Saturday started really early in the day. So I had to make a really fast run to Schnucks for Canoe Trip Food before it closed.

Saturday - I woke up at 5:30 for the canoe trip. Do the math - I didn't get much sleep. It was really fun though. Ju and Fangbai were there. The river was low but actually the canoe that Ju and I were using was light enough that we just managed to drift over spots where other people were having to get out and drag. We skipped rocks and went swimming a bit. The water was the perfect temperature. On the way home I got to ride in a cool convertible, and I got home just in time to be on call. (First I ran to Dobbs for dinner and Carole happened to be there, so I ate with her and two of her friends) It was a football night. The stadium was packed with about 60,000 people and they were all chanting and shouting. A bit scary. Oh, and someone peed in the elevator and I got to clean it up. Charming.

Sunday - I slept until noon without even noticing. Then I got up, got dressed, and drove to Fayette. The drive was lovely with yellow wildflowers and old barns. Kristel made vegetarian lasagna and garlic bread which was very good, and then we studied Faroese with Uni for a while, interrupted for forty five minutes by an oboe recital across the street and a quick tour of CMU's campus. Then I drove straight back to campus just in time to meet Laura, Laura, and Peter for dinner at plaza. They were late, though, so first I sat with Allen, Esther, Amy, and Tina for a while, which was also nice. Then I was on call again.

Routine Flights

Today I came back home to Columbia after a weekend in Dallas. Usually I absolutely love traveling, am so filled with excitement and positive energy that even annoying things either fade completely away or become part of the epic. This time, however, the flights and drives were isolated and just felt routine. I imagine that my dad feels this way a lot, but it's new to me.

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I was amused by the airport people's expectations of me.

"Take care, dear."

"It's the second stop. God bless you."

"Are you old enough to be traveling by yourself?"

Me: "I really hope so, seeing as I've flown by myself internationally. And I am nineteen, just so you know."

If people actually see me in action, they rarely say any of these silly things. I check my gate and time on the flight monitor without slowing down, I never pause and look confused, I switch my bag from rolling to carrying and back again quicker than any but the most experience business travelers. So take that.

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On the flight from Dallas into Memphis, we were on a smallish plane. There were twenty rows, with four seats in each row. The girls sitting across from me kept freaking out about how it was the smallest plane they'd ever been on. There was pretty bad turbulence at one point, and they shrieked a bit. When we got off, I heard other passengers complaining to waiting family members in the terminal about what a small plane, what a bumpy ride it had been. I laughed.

The plane from Memphis to Columbia had 20 passengers, one flight attendant, and of course the pilots. It was a propeller plane and shook the entire trip.

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With aspirations as lofty as mine, you would think I'd prefer to call some big city home. You know, someplace cosmopolitan and famous and connected. Actually, I'm proud of being a bit provincial. And while Tokyo and Paris definitely had their charm, I also have a perhaps less common fondness for the smaller, more out of the way destinations, and regular flights on a twenty seat plane, among other things, are helping prepare me for them.

And there's something wonderful about Columbia. It's a bit of brilliant civilization surrounded by a mix of ruralness and wilderness that I love just as much. :) I'm not sure I'll be one of the many graduates who stay here after finishing their studies, but I will enjoy my two and a half remaining years in Mid Missouri.

Nativity

I'm out on the highway, feeling the engine roar as I accelerate, soaring past miles and miles of my Missouri - grasses green and golden and all the late-summer wildflowers, cresting gentle hills, passing through shadows the setting sun casts through the pines, and I feel free... ordinary... native.

It is a strange and wonderful feeling.

C'est la vie

Since I stalkerishly keep track of the Google searches people are using to get to my blog, I've noticed in recent days that a number of people have been ending up on the posts I wrote last Spring about my Spanish Composition class. Their search terms? "Latigosa translation" "Meaning of Recontrafranco" "Viboresca Spanish definition".

... Suddenly I realized. These are college students, using the same textbook I used, using Google as a Dictionary. And here I've provided them a neat little roadmap: my comments on most of the stories, my translations of a few key lines and difficult words, etc. :P

C'est la vie...

Japan - Raw Experiences

I know I keep saying, "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" about Japan. But the truth is that it was so different, so fascinating, that I don't know where to begin. I'm trying to unravel my memories and the things I brought back with me. Some days I cling to the material objects I brought home as souvenirs, because the rest of it seems too ephemeral, too far away.

The whole thing lacks cohesiveness. It exists as a whole, don't misunderstand. If I sat down now I could talk and talk and talk and show pictures and videos and cards and candies and fireworks and paper fans and prattle off words and, after a month, I could tell you about Japan. But it's tangled in my mind, and untangling it is not something that can be rushed through. I can't tell you the ten best parts, nor show you the ten best photos. It is all tied together, one giant mass of raw experiences.

That doesn't mean I'm not working with it at all. Today I thought about the video I plan to make, combining video clips I took while in Japan. I gathered those clips today, strung them all together on Windows Movie Maker, and watched. When all was said and done, I took 36 minutes of video in Japan, mostly in the form of five to ten second clips.

- Traffic
- The funicular rising to Mt. Koya
- The water flowing in and out of the Koya Dofu, like a sponge
- Crabs scuttling around Miyajima at low tide
- Flowers blowing in the wind
- Passing sunlit forests by bus
- Mists climbing Mt. Misen
- The reflection of the Golden Pavilion
- Tokyo's most crowded alley
- Waterfalls
- Windchimes in Kanazawa
- The tide coming in around Miyajima's floating shrine
- Clouds enveloping an island in the inland sea
- Miniature rivers in Kenrokuen
- Crowds in the Tokyo subway
- A tame deer attacking in search of food
- The turbulent waters under the Shogun Bridge in Nikko
- Crowds leaving Tokyo Disney Sea as it closes
- A firework festival
- Crows in a graveyard in Kyoto
- The waves on the shores of the lake of the dead
- Bubbling, sulfurous pools of Mount Fear
- Summer fireworks with Mayumi and Mitsuki
- The world's busiest intersection
- A white moth, fluttering in circles over the red earth
- Rainwater hitting the roof of shrines
- The steaming source of the hot mineral waters of Yumoto Onsen
- The Japanese bath in Sanboin
- Karaoke Boats
- The Illuminated Earth in Yokohama
- A giant mechanical spider
- Ginza from the Sky Bus
- A duck feeding in the marshes on Yumoto
- Matsuri Gion procession
- Rushing past houses and rivers and dams on the train
- City bells and strong winds in Mutsu
- The top of the waterfall in Takayama
- The Japanese river Styx
- Lavender Fields
- Looking over Yokohama from the Ferris Wheel


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"The novel looked ragged and unfinished, like the hull of a ship rotting on the beach."
- Turning Japanese, David Mura

A white moth, fluttering in circles over the red earth.

The Faroese Coincidence

So, it had been a while, pretty much all summer, since I had experienced any of the psychotic coincidences that characterized last Spring. Remember, the mutual friends I had in common with the Norwegian guy studying here, the many uncanny similarities between Danial and I, that I knew the exact area this one guy lived in Brazil, that I'd been to Elisa's Naantali, etc...

Another one just hit. And I think it will have more of a useful effect on my life than the others. You see, it turns out that I am not the only person in the world who is learning Faroese. I am not even the only American learning Faroese, or the only Midwesterner. In fact, there are two other people here in my home state of Missouri who are learning this odd but awesome language - and they live a short twenty minute drive from Columbia!

Enter Kristel and Zac. They approached Uni in Uni's Meebo chat, and Uni thought he'd put us in touch with one another, since we all live in the same state. As it turned out, we live close enough to meet weekly! Kristel even used to be an MU student, so we decided to meet at nearby Memorial Union, which we both knew well.

So far it's awesome. They're very nice and we've had fun together. We have the Lockwood text from the MU library (which they repaired over the summer - the new binding even matches the title on the cover :D), and they are planning to order the famous 'new' books any day now. What I'm trying to figure out is what's the most unlikely part of the whole situation:

A.) That I exist

B.) The they exist

C.) That despite living twenty miles away from each other, we met through Uni, who lives thousands of miles away from any of us

:)

Not only is this all fun, it is giving me the motivation to actually work on Faroese, both because I have people to be accountable to, and because I sort of take the whole thing as a sign. Faroese is not easy and it's not even always fun, but I'm starting to get there. I'm at least starting to understand the complicated framework on which everything hangs - and, once you can visualize the framework, the language becomes possible. I remember when this started to happen with Finnish.

Uni and I have put in a lot of long hours working on my pronunciation, and I'm actually starting to learn. It's a thin line, though, since I don't want to forget how to pronounce German and Norwegian on the way, so I'm trying to break it up and speak those every once in a while. The spelling doesn't seem quite as chaotic as it used to - patterns are starting to emerge. And it amuses me greatly that however I mangle a word initially, Uni always seems to say, "You sound just like people from ____oy!!"

Mini-Onigiri with Hint of Lemon

Onigiri are a traditional and delicious Japanese snack consisting of a ball of sticky rice, handrolled around a salty or sour filling, and then wrapped in a thin layer of crisp seaweed. Today I was craving the basic idea of Onigiri, especially the delightful texture, but I didn't have Japanese rice, any of the traditional fillings, good quality Onigiri seaweed, or the dedication to do things 'exactly right'. So, I played around and invented these Mini-Onigiri with a Hint of Lemon.

I found them delicious, and shared them with some friends. They were extremely apprehensive at first - I think it was their first time eating seaweed. But they were all amazed by how much they enjoyed it, and kept asking me if there was some sort of sauce in it. Nope! Just yummy sticky rice. (and a hint of lemon)

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This is what you need:

1 cup uncooked calrose rice (or Japanese rice. Just make sure it can get good and sticky)
1 teaspoon-tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon of salt
A bit of lemon (I cut four very thin slices from a real lemon. Just lemon juice or peel would be okay I'm sure - add to taste)
Some seaweed (the low quality, sesame oil covered, snack variety works fine. Just make sure it comes in at least small flat sheets, so you can use it to wrap the rice)

A Rice Cooker (or you can try cooking the rice in a pot. You're on your own)


First, you'll need to cook the rice. If you're confident in your own sticky-rice-cooking skills, feel free to skip this section - but do add the oil, salt, and lemon whenever you feel is appropriate. Otherwise stay with me. Heat the oil in your rice cooker. Add the uncooked rice and stir until the hot oil is coating each grain. Let cook like this for a minute or two.

Add the water and the salt. Stir. Turn the rice cooker to the warm setting and let sit for a few minutes, if you like to soak your rice. I did, the first time I made this recipe. After that, turn the rice cooker on and let it cook.

Most rice cooker turn themselves to the warm setting when the rice is finished. When the rice is almost finished, (there's still a bit of liquid and a lot of steaming), add the lemon. You don't have to stir it in or anything, (in fact, don't, unless you just put in peel or something else you can take out before eating) just leave it on top of the rice and shut the lid. The aroma and taste of the lemon will permeate the rice nicely.

When you're finished, let the rice cool until you can handle it easily with your bare hands. Then, take a bit (about a handful), and press it between your hands. It should hold shapes relatively easily, since it's sticky rice. Make a circle - oval -triangle - whatever, then take a strip of seaweed and fold it over the outside of your riceball. You don't need to fully wrap the onigiri, so that no rice shows, although you can if you want. Normally I just wrap a square of seaweed around one edge, so I can hold it and get a bit of salty crunch. Repeat until you've used up all your rice and seaweed, and you should have a lovely place of rice balls.

Wash your hands, since they'll be sticky. Onigiri are finger food, and you're supposed to hold them with the seaweed wrapper. Enjoy!!! ^^

Universität Bonn

I have been date and prerequisite checking like mad. It looks as if my crazy plan of studying abroad in German, Spain, and Norway is actually going to work. Last Friday I went to the Journalism School to ask some questions about my sequence, and I also met with the Study Abroad Adviser for Journalism. None of it's going to be easy, but she said it would probably work out. The main problem is going to be applying for my Spanish Visa when I'm in Germany. :S I really don't want to be passport-less for a month in central Europe. But I'll do what I have to do.

Today I went and talked to the adviser for Germany. It's come to my attention that it may not be the easiest thing in the world to prove that I've fulfilled the prerequisites for studying in Germany, thanks to the whole class skipping thing. Also, my German teacher last semester, who was awesome and would totally write me a letter of recommendation, is IN Germany this year, so it may be hard for me to get a hold of her if I need such a letter.

But those are relatively minor issues. Otherwise it looks pretty good. The German adviser is nice, although I got the feeling that she deals with a lot of students who don't know what they're getting themselves in for with Study Abroad. (Probably a direct result of strongly encouraging everyone to do so. They'll learn a lot, yes, but they'll probably have some rough times adjusting to doing things by themselves, meeting deadlines, etc)

Also, she doesn't speak German, which means that it's very much up to me to figure out all the fancy German on the University of Bonn's websites. Probably a good thing - I can't hope to pass a class if I can't even decipher it's name. Still, they pretty much use the fanciest words they can, which makes it an interesting exercise in breaking down compound words.

https://basis.uni-bonn.de/qisserver/rds?state=wtree&search=1&category=veranstaltung.browse&topitem=lectures&subitem=lectureindex&breadcrumb=lectureindex&k_semester.semid=20092&idcol=k_semester.semid&idval=20092&purge=n&getglobal=semester&text=Wintersemester+2009%2F09

When I am in Pamplona, I will be studying Journalism. I should have a class or two of availability left after I max out my Journalism abroad credits, though, and I'm filling those with Spanish. On the other hand, in Germany and Norway, I really can't take any classes for Journalism or Spanish. If I see an opportunity to knock out a Spanish credit, I'll take it, regardless of the weirdness of studying Spanish in Norway, but still, it's only one credit.

Which means I'm pretty much free to drool at the other course offerings. This is my chance to take Anthropology, Art History, Psychology, even... OTHER LANGUAGES!!

This wildly exciting thought first occurred to me when, still trying to get my bearings, I stumbled upon an Italian class. I've always wanted to actually study Italian, I thought! And Russian too! I also clicked on the Asian studies section to look into that Japanese class I've always wanted to actually take. And... Wow.

Just Wow.

Arabisch

Chinesisch

Hindi

Indonesisch

Japanisch

Koreanisch

Mongolisch

Persisch

Sanskrit

Tibetisch

Türkisch

Urdu

Want want want want.

Especially Tibetan. I mean come on.

And suddenly I have this image of myself in Bonn, the former capital of Germany, eating Brötchen every day, and studying German (natürlig) alongside Art History, Italian, and Tibetan. It could happen.


Five Other Reasons why Universität Bonn is awesome:


1.) It Saves my Eurocentric Dignity

By some awful twist of fate, University of Navarra (Pamplona) and University of Bergen are both very young schools. Disturbingly young, actually, for European countries. After all, they're supposed to be thousands of years old, the site of dozens of historical events, and the alma mater of all of history's greats, right?

Add to that the interesting fact that University of Missouri Columbia is the oldest University this side of the Mississippi, and you have the threat of an irony that just cannot be allowed to happen. "Yes, I've studied in three European Universities, and my Midwestern University was older than any of them! Plus Brad Pitt went there!"

But lo! The day is saved by Bonn! Founded in 1818, it is a whole 21 years older than my University of Missouri-Columbia.

And Forget about Brad Pitt - he didn't even graduate!

Let's talk real notable alumni:

2.) Nietzsche

The Famous Philosopher!

3.) Goebbels

The Famous Nazi!

4.) Karl Marx

The Famous Communist!

5.) The Pope

Enough Said.