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.

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. :)

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!

Reading Week

So, we're just about done with our Reading Week break. For those of you who have never heard that term before, it's a mid-semester break, kind of "Spring" break except you're definitely supposed to still be doing schoolwork. ;)

Mackenzie and I got to spend most of the week down south at our parents' house. We caught up with friends - including some we haven't seen in months! - and got to relax with family as well. I'm glad we were already planning to come back up before the end of the week, though, as it turns out, since the weather has turned iffy again! There was significant snowfall in especially northern Washington last night, and in the Langley area as well. Fortunately, today was mostly sunny and warm enough to melt all of what was on the roads - but there's still snow in the forecast, so we'll see.

Classes are still going very well. I think we ended up with a very good combination of courses this semester. We're translating a text in Principles of Translation, which means definite overlap between what we're learning there and in Discourse Analysis, since you mostly look at texts in that class as well. Ethnography has also been quite fun - and when we learn about observing another culture, that definitely applies to our other classes as well.

The second semester of Greek is quite a bit more difficult than the previous semester. After a rocky start, I think I'm doing pretty well. And the Canadian Bible Society gave all the students in the course a free Greek New Testament, which is cool! I can read some of it (mostly the Gospels), albeit slowly and haltingly.

It's kind of amazing to think that there are only two more months of classes for this year! I'm looking forward to spring - for many reasons.

New classes

So I have now had all of my classes (except for Greek, but that's just a continuation of last semester). My thoughts:

Ethnography is quite a full class, mostly with people I had in LACA last semester, so that's cool. One of my favorite teachers is teaching it. It sounds like it will be a fair amount of work, but also fun.

Principles of Translation seems like it will be as cool as I thought it would be. However, it is at exactly the time of day when it is hardest for me to stay awake and aware, so that will be a challenge.

Discourse Analysis also seems like it will be very cool. Just the intro stuff we looked at today was pretty fascinating. The professor also seems like a very friendly, intelligent, helpful person. Always a good thing.

I also had my first shift of my new job last night. Mackenzie and I are doing the evening shift of custodial work at the CanIL building, 5 evenings a week for two hours. May not be glamorous, but it will pay much better than last semester's job, and it's not too difficult, of course.

The snow has melted almost a foot due to the all-but-constant rain. It's getting a little easier each time to get out of our neighborhood. Maybe by the end of the week, our street will be a two-way street again!

The Great White North, indeed!

So Mackenzie and I were a little nervous yesterday about the drive back up to Langley, since the last fairly heavy snowfall in Kent was very recent. But the drive up was fine: no snow other than on the grass beside the roads, and only a little bit of rain.

And then? We got to Langley. There were HUGE piles of (I assume) plowed snow beside the streets, and when we got off the main roads into our neighborhood... well, let's just say I'm very glad we have studded tires on our intrepid little Corolla. The street has clearly not been plowed, there's only one lane with cleared tracks for tires, there is no street parking (cars that were parked on the streets are half-buried), there is at least a foot of snow in everyone's yards, and the piles of snow from people's shoveled driveways are just immense. We were very grateful that our landlady's husband cleared a spot on the driveway for us. Otherwise, I have no idea what we would have done.

And of course, we have heard from many friends who live in the greater Vancouver area (including our landlady's husband) that this kind of weather is just as abnormal for the area as the less-severe but still quite heavy snow that has been hitting Seattle and most of western Washington for the past weeks. Central and eastern Canada are much more used to dealing with this. Everyone is just amazed!

On a different subject, tomorrow is the first day of the semester (assuming we do actually have class. We'll be watching that closely). I think I'm ready to tackle a new set of classes. On my schedule is Ethnography and then Principles of Translation. While both sound quite interesting, I'm most excited about the latter. I have always enjoyed translating, whether in French class or when learning a little bit of other languages, and also in Greek. It's like the best game or puzzle to me. Though I know it will be challenging, I hope the class exceeds my expectations!

Further adventures

Today was our last Language & Culture Acquisition elicitation session. We made chicken adobo under Esther's guidance (oh my goodness, extremely delicious!), and then were evaluated on our ability to have an actual conversation in Ilocano. That was... fun, though I felt like I stumbled on almost every word, and I don't know how good of a grade I'm going to get. But Esther was pleased with our ability to speak, which is encouraging, even if she's just being polite. ;)

About halfway done with the 10-page culture paper that's due tomorrow at midnight. I think I'll finish it, if I can just make myself focus for long enough. (Writing this is only a small diversion, really!) Then there are a few more Field Methods assignments, a revision of my Syntax Language Data Project, two finals, and... am I forgetting anything?

Then a much-needed break!

Oh, and this weekend will help in that department. American Thanksgiving! And a real celebration of Mackenzie's and my birthday!

The end is drawing near

The last weeks of the semester are going to be crazy busy. I have a group presentation tomorrow, several final papers to write, several more that I have to edit and put together, a Greek test and the final to study for, the last few weeks of elicitation sessions that have to be prepared for somewhere in there, and a final in Syntax.

In order to stay sane, I will have to use my time well (obvious, I know, but not easy), but also leave room for important non-school things like Mackenzie's and my birthday, and (American) Thanksgiving.

*deep breath* Back to work, so that I don't fall behind...

Time for a school update

Mackenzie and I have now had our first LACA (Lang. & Culture Acquisition) elicitation session. Those are quite different than the Field Methods sessions - you have to have a concrete lesson plan with an overall topic relating to more than just generating vocab. Our topic for our first session was actions and describing pictures. It went pretty well, though Mackenzie and I were quite tired from staying up late doing homework (and the session is already in the mid-afternoon), so it wasn't quite as energetic of a session as others have been.

Before that, we also had our first group elicitation session (for Field Methods), with the married couple who is also learning Ilocano. It was a lot of fun! Our FM teacher helped us out, since it was the first group session. He did a kind of monolingual demonstration, holding up a rock or a flower or a bigger rock and saying the name of the object in a language that no one else in the room knew, and then our LRP said the word in Ilocano. Then we all started combining the words with simple actions like "give", and trying to figure out how to say "bigger rock" or "two rocks", etc. Our LRP also enjoyed watching us all act out words or actions. Hee!

There was also the first relatively big test in Greek. Despite studying a fair amount I hadn't quite memorized all the forms of the definite article - Biblical Greek has a different form of "the" for feminine, masculine, singular/plural, and four different cases! - so I knew I wasn't going to get a perfect score. But I did manage to remember more than I thought I would, especially when I got to the translation part of the test. At the end of the class period (it's long enough that the TA has enough time to grade everything during class, which is kind of nice), it turned out that I got a pretty good grade. And I am getting all the cases and paradigms memorized, so that's good!

Today's regular Field Method elicitation session went very well. Not only did we have a good time acting out simple words like "push," "pull," "eat," and "drink" (and I think our LRP enjoyed guessing what word we were acting out, too!), we had a fun conversation - in English, not Ilocano yet - about snakes and spiders, and whether or not we found those particular animals scary.

Unfortunately, after the session, Mackenzie and I found out that not all of the words we tried to record ended up actually being recorded. Sigh. The little MP3 recorder that we used is apparently quite tricky, even though we really tried to make sure it was working correctly. Oh, well - at least we have transcriptions for all of the words.

Sorry for the somewhat jargon-y post! Hope it wasn't too boring.

First elicitation session!

Today was the first session with the LRP (Language Resource Person) for Mackenzie and me. We had been feeling relatively okay about the whole thing before LACA this morning (man, I feel like I should have a key with all the acronyms I'll be using - that's Language & Culture Acquisition), in which we delved into what was expected in each session more deeply. That was, ironically, what made Mackenzie and me start to feel like panicking. I felt so unprepared and like I was going to freeze up and not be able to gather the data we need - and Mackenzie felt the same way. Fortunately, we had several hours between the class and the elicitation session. So we spent almost all that time preparing, and could feel much less nervous when the time actually came.

And it was fantastic! Our LRP is extremely nice, friendly, and very sharp. She also has experience doing this, which is always helpful. :) We got a lot more data than we'd thought, and although the recorder ended up having some issues such that we didn't record one of the short lists of vocab, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Also, I think my first data notebook entry is quite messy, but that will get better with time and experience. Ilocano seems like a really cool language (but aren't they all??), and I'm really excited to keep learning it and learning about the culture - as well as getting to know our LRP better! We did get a chance to chat a bit while we were taking a break from our actual data gathering, and I look forward to that kind of thing for next time, too.

Oh, and by the way... Mackenzie and I have jobs now! We both will be working on campus, helping set up & take down for conferences & meetings as needed. All I have to do is get a Social Insurance Number card (sort of like a Social Security card) and turn in some paperwork, and it's official. Yay!

"Life Tastes Different in Canada"

Elise came up to visit this weekend, which was a lot of fun. We caught up, chatted, laughed, went swimming, ate Canadian Oreos (excitement!), and watched The Princess Bride for the millionth time. We also caught a bit of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel, which none of us had ever seen before. Seems like a fun show! It's clear that the guys on it take any excuse possible to blow stuff up - naturally. ;)

The title of the blog entry (very deep, isn't it?) is in reference to the fact that Mackenzie and I have tried two different varieties of Life cereal while we've been here, and even the one that looks the most like the normal version in the States doesn't taste the same. It sounded like a good title to us all this weekend, so I said I'd use it on my blog. Hee.

It was a very, very good way to start off the week, all in all... though of course too short.

The second week of Greek was much, much less draining than the first. I'm sure it helped hugely that Mackenzie and I were fully prepared for class this time. This time, it ended up more like the feeling after you finish exercising: tired, but only an appropriate amount for how much effort you just expended on a fun activity. I know it might sound crazy, but I love learning languages in a classroom environment. While things like paradigms and declensions, and how they tie into case, seemed more than slightly confusing when I just read about them in the textbook, the way it was laid out in class was very clear. (Now I just need to memorize it all!) And it is just so cool whenever one of the exercises in the workbook or that we work on in class is translating a verse directly from Greek.

Yep, I love Bible translation.

One week down

So today marks the end of my first complete week of grad school. Right now, I still feel excited and energetic, in general (that last part might be because I took a nap yesterday), and I think I can do well if I can just keep on top of all the various things I have to do. Another lingering worry is that I haven't heard back about any of the jobs I applied for, even though I have kept in contact with the job offer-ers as best as I can. I bet there are still positions open in food services, but I more than kind of wanted to move away from that. I guess we'll see.

Anyway, things to do: begin the first Syntax language data project, finish Greek assignment for Monday (memorize vocab, do workbook, read chapters), read the rest of the LACA (Lang. & Culture Acquisition) readings, mentally prepare for the first meeting with Language Resource Person(!!!!), physically prepare by doing tutorials for the sound editing programs we'll be using.

Oh, by the way, I ended up choosing to do Ilocano, which is the Philippines language that I mentioned before. It helped that some second-year students said that they really enjoyed doing it, and that the LRP is really nice. I think she actually works at CanIL.

Still been really awesome to eat lunch in the CanIL common room. We met a bunch of our Norwegian classmates today, and chatted with them. They seem to be a friendly and intelligent lot.

Notes about Canada, and where Mackenzie & I are living in particular:
1. When we go back to Washington to visit and for the semester break, it's going to seem like speed limits are insanely fast. Our neighborhood and all the roads in the Walnut Grove area (at least the parts we frequent so far, and of course not including Highway 1) never have higher speed limits than 60 kph, which is less than 45 mph. Most are under 50 kph, which is around 35 mph. So slow!
2. Macaroni & cheese (the kind that comes in a box) is mostly known as Kraft Dinner here. Even the non-Kraft brand has to have the word "dinner" in the name. But apparently that's how Kraft originally marketed it in the US, too - according to Wikipedia. Weird!