This may be my last entry?

So, I have graduated. I officially have a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics and Exegesis - although I won't have the diploma until the university mails it out in a few weeks. And I have moved back home, which is producing the expected mixed emotions!

The grad ceremonies (I do like that Canadian use of the word "grad"; it's very useful) were both awesome, although quite different of course. CanIL had its own celebration on Friday night, and then the seminary had theirs Sunday afternoon. In fact, the weekend was absolutely packed with various celebratory occasions, since my parents and two friends also came up to join in the parties.

And now, the promised list:

Little things I will miss:

-green left-turn arrows that flash

-buses that say “Sorry – Out of Service”
-the Canadian version of the “Emergency Parking Only” signs on the highway

-Coffee Crisps

-pirogies (they are sold here, but they are not nearly as ubiquitous)

-Nanaimo bars

-Tim Hortons donuts, especially Timbits

-Boston Pizza

-Montana's

-the Colossus (spaceship!)

-the SkyTrain

-the pronunciation of sorry, tomorrow, south, about, house, and I'm sure I'm forgetting other examples

-the spellings of honour, Saviour, and cheque

-the words eh, keener, line-up (as a noun), and grad as an abbreviation for everything relating to graduation

-bilingual French-English signs and packaging

-the opportunity to listen to the French radio station

-switching from mph to kph, and back

-classmates and friends chatting about hockey

-the ELMO projectors in the CanIL building

-feeling the building shake when the trains go by

-free food in the CanIL Common Room

-ACTS chapel snacks

-free food in the Whitehouse kitchen

-black squirrels

-loonies and toonies

-my credit union

-RCMP patrol cars

-Super Store

-the Willowbrook produce stand

-the Canadian flag

-Remembrance Day ceremonies, and poppies

-Thanksgiving in October (and then another one in November!)

-poutine

-Global TV channel

-PRAISE 106.5 (I like it better than 105.3), and 100.5 The Peak

-Starfield, and other Canadian Christian music

-driving both north and south on I-5 on sunny days

-driving through Lynden

-the Lynden/Aldergrove border crossing

Little things I will not miss:

-the pronunciation of pasta, Mazda, and bilingual (“bi-LING-gyoo-ul” - gah!)

-the word keener (sort of a love-hate relationship)

-the smell of farmland when it's fertilizer application season

-the price of gas

-the price of dairy products

-so many medians!

-sweet ketchup

-classmates and friends chatting about hockey all. The. Time.

-long waits at the border, coming from either direction

-inexplicable traffic in Lynden and/or Bellingham

Not-so-little things I will not miss:

-researching and writing papers

-getting up – and staying awake! - for three-hour 8:30 classes

-reading theology textbooks

-walking to school in the pouring rain

-spending Sunday afternoons and nights desperately finishing homework

-having several gigantic papers all due on about the same day

-paying tuition – or attempting to do so

More important things I will miss:

-Golden Ears, these mountains, and the beauty of the Fraser Valley in general

-living in the land of “X-Files” and other sci-fi TV shows/movies

-the friendliness of Canadians (not just a stereotype!)

-Vancouver

-visiting Vancouver with friends

-Fort Langley

-TWU, ACTS, and CanIL

-registering for classes and being excited about almost every option

-being a TA

-the CanIL Common Room

-sitting around talking about nerdy linguistics things, and knowing everyone at the table gets it and will laugh along with you

-M-Files

-the CanIL computer lab

-ACTS chapel

-the grad collegium

-CanIL and ACTS friends and staff

-the Whitehouse, and Whitehouse friends

-watching “House”, “Glee”, “Doctor Who”, and “Bones” with housemates

-dinner club

-conversations around the table at the Whitehouse

-my church up here

-LifeGroup, and LifeGroup friends

In two weeks...

...it will be one day until my official graduation day!

Time has absolutely flown by. It's still hard for me to believe that I'm actually almost done with all of my schoolwork, forever (or at least for a long time! I won't say "never", because I've already learned that God has a funny way of responding when you tell him "never" about things...). I only have a project and a short paper left for Principles of Literacy, a short paper for Theology, and a lesson plan to polish up for the Discourse Analysis class I'm teaching on Monday. And then glorious freedom from schoolwork - mixed with sadness at the end of it.

This month has been insanely busy, what with all the final papers and projects that were all due at almost the same time, and my brother's wedding with its associated preparations and relatives visiting. The wedding was yesterday, and it went very well! My brother and his new wife looked radiant during the ceremony. My sister and I were candle-lighters, and we also each read a section of 1 Corinthians 13. I'm glad we got to be a part of it.

I guess I should get back to a few more school-related things before bed! Look for another post soon... although "soon" could be before or after graduation, which is kind of crazy to think about!

Not a lot of time left up here!

I'm making a list of little things I will miss and not miss about living up here, as well as big things in both category.

I'll publish it in April, after graduation. Writing it is making me both happy and sad.

Reading Week again

We had gorgeous weather until today, when it went back to the usual clouds with intermittent rain. That's perfectly all right, since it is after all how it's "supposed" to be this time of year.

Went home for the first three days of Reading Week, to spend time with friends and family. Also, my parents are heading out of the country for a translation consultant conference, so it was good to be able to see them off.

Tomorrow, Mackenzie and I are planning to meet up with friends and go to Vancouver, to partake in the various free activities available for Olympics tourists. It should be a lot of fun! I only hope it isn't pouring all or most of the time, because even if that is the normal weather, it's not quite as fun to walk around the city while getting drenched. And it's also harder to see the beauty of the city in those conditions, as well! Even if the weather isn't all that cooperative, though, we have at least already been to Vancouver once, on one of the lovely springish days this past weekend. This trip had a different theme, though. Some pictures can be seen starting there, if you're interested.

School is beginning to get quite intense, with various papers and projects coming due in the next couple of weeks. Thus, it would also be good if we could do some actual reading this Reading Week, too! (I've already done a fair amount, in fact - or it might become a problem.)

This final semester still seems to be passing so quickly... only two more months!

What's up with this weather?

As I write this blog entry, much of the eastern half of the US is being covered in an insanely huge amount of snow, much more than anyone is really used to dealing with. At the same time, here in the Vancouver area where people are preparing for the start of the Winter Olympics, the sun is shining, and daytime highs reach into the upper 40s to mid 50s (around 9 to 11 degrees Celsius, I think). I saw one tree nearby that is already in bloom, and there are enough birds that seem to believe it's already spring, too. Craziness! The Olympics people have said they're prepared to use snow-making machines for the events that require it, if necessary.

Meanwhile, classes are going well. I am close to on-schedule for all of my reading, which is nice, and I have so far avoided staying up past 12:30ish am to finish any assignments due the next day. I hesitate to say it, but it may be faintly possible that in my final semester of school, I have learned a little bit about not procrastinating. Maybe. (I don't want to jinx it.) The courses have continued to be quite enjoyable, too, although having three days of 8:30 class start time in a row hasn't gotten any easier.

TAing is still quite fun. Grading reading reports isn't quite as exciting the third time around, but it's still not boring. :) Also, I enjoy helping people figure out how to chart texts, as best I can. There will be quite a wide variety of languages represented for the texts they've all chosen for their final project/paper - Gullah, Spanish, French, several African languages, possibly Hebrew, etc. - so that will be fun and fascinating!

Now I suppose I should probably get back to work, on this bright sunny "winter" day.

Already at the second week!

Tomorrow is the first day of week 2 already! I still don't really feel quite back into the routine of school. I mean, I am re-used to Canada, to CanIL and ACTS people, to Ft. Langley people... but the amount of reading & other work I have to do hasn't quite sunk in yet. Maybe that's a good thing - as long as I still do it!

So, my other courses:

-Redemption Accomplished and Consummated (what a mouthful!): only had one meeting of it so far, but if I can just stay awake, I know it will be cool to learn more theology from this prof. I also know that when I put it like that, it sounds like it must be boring or something, but it isn't! It's just that is apparently physically impossible for me to stay totally awake for an 8:30 course. I catch myself drifting off at least a few times per hour. *sigh* It does help that chapel happens in the middle of the course, so at least a long break is guaranteed. But I really do want to stay awake - in this course, and the other two that start at 8:30.

-Greek Exegesis II: actually, I think this course might be really awesome! It will be a lot of work, but it sounds like a semester-long, in-depth Bible study of the book of Galatians. I love in-depth Bible studies, and to do one that also involves reading the original Greek just seems like it might make it better. But again, plenty of work involved.

TAing continues to be fun. The real work hasn't started yet, since people haven't turned in their first assignments yet, but it seems like a very good group.

The sermon at our church in Ft. Langley was very enjoyable today - an especially good illumination of the parable of the new wineskins. Not only do I think it's been a long time since I've heard it explained and applied so well, but I realized it really is quite a foreign metaphor for the current Western church. A good reminder that the Bible was originally written for people that did have some important things in common with us, but were very different!

And we're back!

A short version of my thoughts at the end of the first day of this, my final semester of grad school:

-Old Testament Theology should be pretty cool, if I can stay on top of the intense reading schedule. I am interested to look at the OT for itself, and not as mostly setting the stage for the NT, which is how it seems many Protestants look at it.

-Principles of Literacy should also be pretty cool. The first class was very introductory, so I don't have a lot of thoughts on it yet.

-TAing for Discourse Analysis should be pretty much the best thing ever! Even though the first day was (as I expected) mostly preparing the syllabi and handouts, and passing them out during class, it was still a lot of fun... and I do so love that course.

The end is near, once again!

The end of the semester, that is. But this time, it's more significant.

Mackenzie and I are going home for Christmas break on either the 11th or the 12th - either of which are so very close! Despite the fact that I have a lot to do still especially in my online course, I can't help but not feel too anxious, because break is so very close! I'm really looking forward to it. And also, I have been granted an extension for that online course, which definitely helps with the not-stressing thing.

Also, the first tuition payment for next semester is due tomorrow. Thanks to loans and financial aid, that will not be a problem, but the main thing is, this is the last time I will be paying tuition. Very possibly forever!

It is a weird, weird thing to contemplate the fact that this time next year, I will not be in school. In fact, I will not have been in school for quite some time. Life without school will be quite a change.

Sometimes you learn things from the strangest of places

Last night after dinner, the Americans in the house who are part of our dinner club were treated to a Canadian specialty that we'd never had before: Laura Secord chocolates. They're apparently quite famous in Canada, but can't be found (or at least not commonly) in the US. Though the chocolate I had was delicious - some kind of tasty raspberry liqueur-type thing - it seems somewhat obvious why you don't get them in the States.

See, Laura Secord was a Canadian hero during the War of 1812. (As my sister and I were reflecting last night, we hardly learned anything about that war in our history classes! Maybe because it wasn't all glorious for the US.) She's particularly remembered for a Paul Revere-like journey to warn the British about a planned American attack. Her actions, as you can read in the above link, led directly to a decisive defeat of the Americans by the British forces at the Battle of Beaver Dams. (Incidentally, is there a more Canadian-sounding name than that? Heh.) This, in turn, helped lead to the end of the war itself.

It just seemed very odd to be eating chocolates from a company named after a famous Canadian who was anti-American. Now, I still don't know much about the War of 1812 - though I think I'll read up a bit on it now - but even so, it was an interesting experience. A reminder that though we are quite similar, Canada and the US are in fact separate countries with quite distinct histories.

ETA: Interestingly, Wikipedia makes no mention of Laura Secord or that battle in its entire article on the War of 1812.

Yay, linguistics!

Over the past couple of weeks, Mackenzie and I have noticed yet another interesting difference between American and Canadian English. This difference has only occurred with a few Canadians we've heard speaking. It might have taken longer for us to pinpoint if we hadn't both taken that seminar on intonation in our last year of undergrad.

So as background: perhaps you have noticed (perhaps faintly) that in many dialects of British English, question intonation is quite different from most dialects of American English. It would be easier to get this with graphic representation, but I'm not skilled in that area, so I'll try to describe it as clearly and as non-wordily as possible.

American yes/no questions normally have rising intonation at the very end of the sentence. Imagine (if you are American or probably if you are Canadian, as well) saying a sentence like, "Do you have a cell phone?"
The rising intonation at the end is one way we signal that it's a question rather than a statement.

For many dialects of British English, yes/no question intonation has a rise earlier in the sentence, and then it falls again, and then rises a little bit at the very end. If you can imagine a British person saying, "Do you have a mobile?" (since they wouldn't say "cell phone"), you might be able to imagine this different intonation.

The whole point is, a few people at the house where we're living - including the lady who owns the house and who actually lives in northern BC - often say yes/no questions with this same British intonation! I wonder if it is a holdover from the days of British colonization... and yet the US was a British colony in the past, and I've never heard that intonation from a native-born US citizen.

Anyway. I thought it was pretty interesting!

The rainy season has arrived

Which is to say, we have now reached that part of fall where one doesn't expect to see much more of the clear, crisp blue sky, and one does expect to see a lot of rain and wind. I bet we will still have a few more sunny days, since the leaves haven't completely turned yet, but 'tis also the season for raincoats and umbrellas.

A lot has happened since my last post. Most importantly, my grandmother has gone to be with her Lord after several days of failing health. I'm very grateful that Mackenzie and I had the chance to go home and spend some time with her and with family. I'm also going to miss her.

We also had the chance to decompress a little bit by going to see Snow Patrol in concert this past Wednesday night in Seattle. That was awesome and beyond my expectations.

Now, I should probably get down to some of the homework I haven't been doing because of all these things. Thankfully, my professors are very understanding and have given us some extra time, along with their sympathy.

I seem to like posting on Sundays

I've got my first Greek test of the semester tomorrow. It's not a major thing, I don't think - all four of the quizzes together make up 20% of the grade in the class - but still, Greek tests are stressful. I have done a somewhat decent amount of studying, but more must be done.

The service at Ft. Langley today was very good. I'm still very much enjoying the Ephesians sermon series. The pastor has recommended we all read through the entire book at least a few times every week; I can already tell that will be really cool to do, if I can just remember to do it. (Heh.)

During the worship time today, there were a few people in the row behind me who were Korean, and didn't speak or read much English. There was one guy who was very enthusiastic about trying to sing along to the worship songs, even though he didn't know them. He could get the tune reasonably well (most of the time), but he couldn't read the words on the projection screen. I thought it was pretty cool, though, that when we got to songs that said "Hallelujah" or "Hosanna," he could sing along there just fine. I wonder if those words (and others like them, such as "Amen") are transliterated and adopted into the worship lexicon of every language.

Well, I think I'm gonna go make oatmeal cookies, and then do some more studying.

Oh! I almost forgot: today I finally finished my Wycliffe application and sent it in. It's hard to describe how excited this makes me!

Sunday

The sermon series at our church up here is going to be on Ephesians. I'm excited - I've loved Ephesians especially since Urbana, and delving into it again at the same time that I'm taking theology and exegesis courses seems like it can only open up more new lessons for me to receive from God.

An interesting note/question: is it a Canada-wide thing to refer to people who get involved in a youth group, perhaps as small group leaders, as "youth sponsors"? Because Mackenzie and I have heard that term several times now, from both our church here and from people at Trinity, and it wasn't until today that I actually learned what it meant. When we asked our friends at church about it, they agreed that the name is misleading - it sounds like you give the youth money and support them so they can go to school or something. In case anyone is curious, at my home church in the States we'd call them "youth workers" or just "small group leaders."

Oh, and Mackenzie and I have joined the house dinner club at the place we're living. It's going to be fun! Everyone cooks dinner for the other club members once every two weeks (and those for whom you cook do the cleanup). There are eleven people involved. So that means free dinner every week night - well, every week night that neither Mackenzie nor I are scheduled! ;) I'm scheduled for this Thursday, and I'm pretty sure I'll be making my version of Thai peanut curry. I've never cooked for more than four people before, so that part will be an adventure.

First day of classes, part 2

So Tuesday was the first day of Hermeneutics. The professor seems pretty cool, and although it's going to be faintly annoying to have to stop class partway through every time to set up for chapel, at least it means we won't be skipping any Tuesday chapels! I've missed chapel, and it was good to be back. Another good thing about the interruption of the class is that it means it will be harder to fall asleep afterward. Even when the material is interesting and the prof isn't a really dull presenter, two days in a row of classes that start at 8:30 and go for almost three hours make it a bit hard for me to stay awake.

Today, some of the people who are in the online version of Language Program Design and Management met up for lunch on campus. It was good to meet a few more new people and chat with the prof about the course's setup. I'm looking forward to getting started with the course itself, as well.

On a linguistic note, I also got my chequebook in the mail today - for my Canadian chequing account. That "q" really makes me happy. :) I think it makes total sense for the spelling of that kind of cheque to be different from meanings involving a check mark, or checking to be sure of something - and besides, it sure makes it easy to distinguish between my American and Canadian accounts!

First day of classes, part 1

First off: all tuition-related issues are dealt with! Hooray! At least until the second payment, but still.

All right. Today was the first day of actual class meetings, starting with Believers Church Theology at 8:30am. I had no idea what to expect, really, except that the prof is the guy who taught my least favorite of my online courses this year. However, in person, he seems like he's going to be awesome - not afraid to point out the problems and failings of the evangelical church of today, and yet very enthusiastic about teaching theology and history. After only one introductory class meeting, I think this course might end up being one of my favorites.

Before I move on, in case you're wondering what "Believers Church Theology" is (and I certainly was before today), here's the working definition the prof has developed over the process of teaching this course for several years:

The Believers Church Tradition is that group of Protestant Christians who give absolute priority to the inspiration and authority of Scripture, the need for personal faith in the saving work of Christ, the call to be committed to personal maturity and the community of faith in terms of teaching, fellowship, and worship with the mandate to be engaged in mission, evangelism, and ministry, for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Pretty good stuff, I think.

Next course to meet was NT Greek Exegesis, which frankly I was not looking forward to at all. I was mostly happy to be done with Greek last year, and working on the workbook assignment for Exegesis before today's class was... not terrible, but not exactly a barrel of fun, either. After today's introductory lecture/going over the workbook, though, I think it'll be a good course. I can definitely see the value of knowing more about doing exegesis for translation purposes, for one thing. Also, the prof knows what he's talking about (and has a bit more linguistic knowledge than our Greek teacher did), and is flexible about the workbook answers.

Tomorrow, I have my first Hermeneutics class. I'll post my thoughts afterward. The fourth course I'm taking is the online version of Language Program Design and Management, which is (I think) about how to set up and complete a language project. I haven't started doing much for it yet, but I expect it will be interesting and valuable. It's taught by my Principles of Translation teacher, so that's a plus!

So far, I'm excited to be back in school and very much looking forward to the rest of the semester. And I'm also looking forward to collecting more examples of the differences between Canadian and American English, and our cultures. :)

Looking forward to a new school year

Well, it has been an eventful summer. I'll give a quick rundown of what I've been up to:

1. Mackenzie and I were able to play flute in our church's production of The Music Man in April. That was an absolute blast! We've been in the pit orchestra before, and I think each time we have more fun than the last.

2. I didn't end up getting a steady summer job, though I cannot count how many applications I sent out and I cannot tell you how tired I got of filling out my employment history, etc. ... but I did earn some money through house- and pet-sitting. I love animals, and so I had fun taking care of various dogs, cats, rats, and fish. Mackenzie was able to land a job at Regal Cinemas, so the family got to see a couple of free movies. It was pretty sweet!

3. I co-taught Sunday school with Mackenzie for 4s and 5s at our church for quite a bit of the summer. That ranged from being very fun to a little stressful, depending on how willing the kids were to calm down when it was time to stop playing!

4. I took Intro to Theology and Intro to Bible online. Both were fascinating and extremely useful (not only because they're required prerequisites for this upcoming year's seminary courses), but involved a LOT of writing. I've decided I'm not a huge fan of distance online courses. I need more structure and more in-person interaction overall. But I learned a lot, and feel more able to articulate what I believe - which is an important thing.

5. We're also both in the process of officially applying to Wycliffe. The application process is very detailed, but having taken those summer courses has already been helpful, since it involves plenty of writing about what I believe about various theological and biblical topics.

Mackenzie and I will be heading back up to CanIL this Monday. I'm really, really looking forward to seeing everyone up there again! There are still a few wrinkles we need to work out regarding financial aid and registration, which is the main damper on my enthusiasm at the moment. But I know that worrying about it won't be helpful. Instead, I'll try to just be excited about what we'll be learning this semester!

More later.

DONE!

Yesterday, I turned in my last final paper of the semester. So that means... I am DONE with school for the year!

(I guess I still have two summer courses to get through, but they're the online distance courses that I'll be doing from home. From looking at the syllabi, it shouldn't be too bad.)

It is such a huge relief to have no more assignments hanging over me right now. I'm excited to go home, though I'll miss many parts of living up here. I'm going to try to get pictures of all the beautiful scenery in the Langley area before Mackenzie and I head home on Saturday, and I'm glad there are still a few days to hang out and spend time with other CanIL folks.

So this may be my last blog entry for a while!

One more day?

Well, the Greek final is done, and I got a pretty decent grade on the test and in the course (he asked us to wait around after we finished if we wanted our grade right away - other grades have not been posted and won't be for a while). That was a major relief.

Tonight (or early this morning, I guess), I have just about finished with my Discourse final paper. I only have to print out one part of it at school tomorrow. And I finished my Translation final project last week, and have my notes all ready for the open-notes final tomorrow.

The only thing I'm still worried about is finishing my Ethnography paper. It's supposed to be done by tomorrow if I want detailed comments on it. I don't think that's going to happen. Hopefully I'll be able to get it done by the next day, so I can still get some comments on it. I don't know, though... it's not going very easily.

But anyway! I think I'll make it. And then, done until the online summer courses start!

Speaking of which, it was an amazing blessing that those courses are now paid for, in full. CanIL gave Mackenzie and me very generous scholarships, even though they aren't linguistic courses (they're our theology prerequisites that we wouldn't have to take if we'd gone to Bible college) - so they had no reason to 'have' to give us financial aid for them at all. But they did! A real answer to prayer.

If I can just get past this coming Monday...

...I think I'll be able to make it through the rest of what I need to get done in the semester just fine. I mean, with a few days of staying up really late, but that's normal.

The Greek final is on Monday. Your prayers would be appreciated. As of now, I am trying to get some good studying for it done.

After the Greek final, I have to finish my paper for Discourse. And then after that, I have the rest of my Translation final project, which should be pretty fun, a Translation final, and an Ethnography paper. And then I'll be done!

Once again, the end approaches

It's crazy to think that the semester is almost over. Just a few more weeks! Of course, that means I have a lot of final papers, projects, and two exams to prepare for. Trying not to think about that too much, lest I panic.

Winter finally seems to be fading. The huge piles of plowed snow in the TWU parking lots are almost gone - helped by the steady rain we've been getting for the past week. There are crocuses blooming in the yards of the houses in the neighborhood, and robins and Canada geese on the campus lawns. (I prefer the robins.) Today, it happens to be partly sunny outside.

Classes continue to go pretty well. I had to do interviews with three people from the library, which is where I have been doing my Ethnography observations. I had been nervous about them, but they were actually pretty fun. And we read through 1 John 1 and 2 in the original Greek as a class, which was really cool.

Anyway, on to Greek homework. When I finish this workbook assignment, I'll be working on memorizing the Lord's Prayer in Greek. I've got about half of it down so far.