I just completed my most impulsive and expensive transaction ever. I booked a flight to LA to see my friend April Duvall. I'm leaving tomorrow and coming back Sunday. The plane flight looked like it would be comparable to renting a car, paying for gas, etc, and I would spend less time traveling and more time with April. The real splurge, though, was when I signed up for a shuttle to come pick me up. Of course, the cost pales in comparison to the cost of the plane ticket, but it's a lot more than the $1.75 bus fare. I just didn't know enough about the connection points on the bus trips to be confident I wouldn't get totally lost and off schedule.
The other thing is that my flight tomorrow said my 'reservation is guaranteed' but the airline isn't assigning seats right now??? Hm. April and I thought that the 'guaranteed' part was comforting, but Chris, April's husband, just squinted his eyes. Y'all can pray about that. The schedule worked out pretty well (assuming I get there). April doesn't have work tomorrow and Chris is working all weekend. Not that I don't want to see Chris, too, but this way I can have April to myself. :)
So, one of the worst things about a time difference is you can't call home when something exciting happens at 9 PM.
7.12.2007
7.11.2007
way cool
My highlighter is amazing. I marked highlighter over the typed words 'Item and process' (IP) and the words literally raised off the page! They looked like they were floating over the highlighter stuff!!!
And then I touched them and realized that the paper had actually bubbled from the moisture (like that, Meredith? maybe I should have said 'moist-ness') of the highlighter stuff.
The last few days have been easy. The schedule is routine now; we've been having some interesting lectures. In the general lectures I can usually pick up the main point, but the details are lost on me. I did have breakfast with some PhD and post-doc students who were critiquing the lectures and one of the classes I'm attending. I found listening to their critique more helpful than the class, at least for getting an idea of what the academic controversies are in the field (numeric data vs. qualitative data, for example) and what academic ideas of professionalism are.
My roommate, Kyoko, is presenting a paper at a conference in Sweden. She'll be back Sunday. Saturday I'm going to be in a workshop all day. It's called 'Ethnographic Methods in Sociocultural Linguistics.' Sounds exciting, huh? At first, I was thinking I wouldn't go to any of the workshops here, just because I'm not involved in any type of research, so what would I have to work on? Then I realized that this is my chance to get exposure to all that I can, so heck, I might as well go for it. It helped too, that the profs in one of my classes are running the workshop and handed out a flyer, so I actually knew what would be presented.
Now I'll go back to studying Item and process.
And then I touched them and realized that the paper had actually bubbled from the moisture (like that, Meredith? maybe I should have said 'moist-ness') of the highlighter stuff.
The last few days have been easy. The schedule is routine now; we've been having some interesting lectures. In the general lectures I can usually pick up the main point, but the details are lost on me. I did have breakfast with some PhD and post-doc students who were critiquing the lectures and one of the classes I'm attending. I found listening to their critique more helpful than the class, at least for getting an idea of what the academic controversies are in the field (numeric data vs. qualitative data, for example) and what academic ideas of professionalism are.
My roommate, Kyoko, is presenting a paper at a conference in Sweden. She'll be back Sunday. Saturday I'm going to be in a workshop all day. It's called 'Ethnographic Methods in Sociocultural Linguistics.' Sounds exciting, huh? At first, I was thinking I wouldn't go to any of the workshops here, just because I'm not involved in any type of research, so what would I have to work on? Then I realized that this is my chance to get exposure to all that I can, so heck, I might as well go for it. It helped too, that the profs in one of my classes are running the workshop and handed out a flyer, so I actually knew what would be presented.
Now I'll go back to studying Item and process.
7.09.2007
dark chocolate
Today I met some high school teachers who are just here for the week. They teach AP classes and are having an intensive week of classes with the teachers who grade AP exams.
This morning I sat at breakfast with Tom from San Diego. He has a daughter about my age who is apparently having a hard time deciding her niche in the world, at least a niche that will pay for her living expenses and provide health insurance. After learning that I was from Mississippi, he informed me that I have a very nice California accent. Tom teaches English literature and his demeanor reminded me of my favorite English professors at Delta State. And it made me wonder why I've never gone ahead and gotten a MA in English. English professors are so nice.
At lunch I sat with two ladies (I think one was named Christina) who were English teachers and had both tried nursing before and found it didn't suit them. Boy! Did I feel at home today! They also thought I had a very nice California accent. Is it really that bad? Does it come across in my typing?
I wonder who I'll sit with tonight.
This morning I sat at breakfast with Tom from San Diego. He has a daughter about my age who is apparently having a hard time deciding her niche in the world, at least a niche that will pay for her living expenses and provide health insurance. After learning that I was from Mississippi, he informed me that I have a very nice California accent. Tom teaches English literature and his demeanor reminded me of my favorite English professors at Delta State. And it made me wonder why I've never gone ahead and gotten a MA in English. English professors are so nice.
At lunch I sat with two ladies (I think one was named Christina) who were English teachers and had both tried nursing before and found it didn't suit them. Boy! Did I feel at home today! They also thought I had a very nice California accent. Is it really that bad? Does it come across in my typing?
I wonder who I'll sit with tonight.
7.08.2007
70th post
Things I've learned at linguistics camp:
^ is at the middle of everything. I'm often tempted to ask, what is ^? just because everybody refers to it like a person. ^ requires no article.
The meaning of life is ║life ║
Thank you.
^ is at the middle of everything. I'm often tempted to ask, what is ^? just because everybody refers to it like a person. ^ requires no article.
The meaning of life is ║life ║
Thank you.
7.06.2007
Language and . . . Everything!
Today I had my language and identity and language and thought classes. They are both located in a basement classroom. The ceiling is high, the walls are gray, and the desks look very institutional. The hallway leading to the classroom is even depressing---it is wide, vacuous, and totally uninspiring. Funny that it's in an art building.
Anyway, the language and identity class turned out to be not so interesting, at least at first. We were discussing "identity" and the various ways language is used in constructing identity. A student from Greece brought up the point that the Latin root of the word "identity" refers to a being or essence, not something constructed, but something that is. I thought that might have led to an interesting subject if people had wanted to discuss the Creator/creation distinction, but instead the instructors said, oh, that's a very good critique and other people have tried to come up with different terms to define "identity" blah blah blah. At that point I wanted to pull a Bertie Wooster "Right, ho!" and beetle right out of the classroom. Instead I remained constrained to my seat by potential guilt. By the end of the class, we were listening to an interview recording and analyzing the way the interviewee's word choice and elocution reflected possible thought patterns. Anything with analysis is pretty fun for me.
Language and thought, I think will be more interesting. We're looking at such questions as, do people who speak different languages think differently? does language structure the way we think? (it does, but how and to what extent, etc.) are there things that are unthinkable in some languages? can language and thought be defined apart from each other? fun stuff like that.
In other news, I'm trying not to spend hours a day looking for bridesmaids dresses. I don't think I ever imagined it would be this difficult to find something I liked. Maybe I can just tell them to all wear their favorite dresses. I think that would be fun. And they would be comfortable and happy, so I would, too. The only problem would be making sure the flowers matched everything. Maybe I can just have them hold one of those balls. Remember when those flower-balls on a ribbon were in fashion? I could do the balls on a ribbon, but make them with pine cones instead. It is an October wedding.
Anyway, the language and identity class turned out to be not so interesting, at least at first. We were discussing "identity" and the various ways language is used in constructing identity. A student from Greece brought up the point that the Latin root of the word "identity" refers to a being or essence, not something constructed, but something that is. I thought that might have led to an interesting subject if people had wanted to discuss the Creator/creation distinction, but instead the instructors said, oh, that's a very good critique and other people have tried to come up with different terms to define "identity" blah blah blah. At that point I wanted to pull a Bertie Wooster "Right, ho!" and beetle right out of the classroom. Instead I remained constrained to my seat by potential guilt. By the end of the class, we were listening to an interview recording and analyzing the way the interviewee's word choice and elocution reflected possible thought patterns. Anything with analysis is pretty fun for me.
Language and thought, I think will be more interesting. We're looking at such questions as, do people who speak different languages think differently? does language structure the way we think? (it does, but how and to what extent, etc.) are there things that are unthinkable in some languages? can language and thought be defined apart from each other? fun stuff like that.
In other news, I'm trying not to spend hours a day looking for bridesmaids dresses. I don't think I ever imagined it would be this difficult to find something I liked. Maybe I can just tell them to all wear their favorite dresses. I think that would be fun. And they would be comfortable and happy, so I would, too. The only problem would be making sure the flowers matched everything. Maybe I can just have them hold one of those balls. Remember when those flower-balls on a ribbon were in fashion? I could do the balls on a ribbon, but make them with pine cones instead. It is an October wedding.
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