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

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.

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!

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.

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!

You know what's cool?

Watching a Canadian news channel's coverage of the US presidential inauguration and seeing shots of people all over the world - especially across Canada - standing to cheer and clap when your president is sworn in. They looked just as excited as the millions of people who were actually there at the Mall to see the event in person. How cool is that?

I listened to President Obama's first speech online at about 4 this afternoon, and found it very good. I got a little bit emotional, but felt a bit disconnected due to distance and not watching live. However, tonight during dinner, when I watched GlobalTV's coverage and saw Canadians joining many of their neighbors to the south in celebration, I definitely teared up.

Though I know Obama isn't going to solve all of the world's problems, it is a very cool and different feeling to have people around the world celebrating with us as the US looks to the future.