Up to now...

It has been a very long time since we've posted anything. We know that everybody out there has been craving more Braunsey in their diet. There has been a lot going on these last few months. This is a lame attempt to make up for not blogging about them when they actually happened. And this is just an Eric post today. I can already hear you asking "Oh sure Eric, he is super cool but what happened to Chelsea?" Read on and you'll find out...
This has been a very good year for me. Like most people in college I have been bouncing around trying to figure out just what it is that I want to do with the rest of my life. I started out doing Asian Studies which was nice enough but not for me. I ended up going into Linguistics which I am very passionate about but always seems to raise the eternal question from my parents "Okay so how can you make a living at it?" Taking those words to heart I applied for and succeeded in becoming a double major between Linguistics and Speech and Hearing Sciences which would allow me to work on treating speech disorders and make money to end up going back to school later. The problem is that I'd also have to go to grad school to do this and after two quarters in the SPHSC department I began to feel dissatisfied with it. It's very interesting but it's just not what I care about. And so I began to wonder if it was right for me.
All through this I was still taking linguistics classes and loving it. It's just such an interesting topic to me. As many know asking me to talk about Linguistics is a dangerous proposition. But I've been going to linguistics club and taking linguistics classes and meeting other people who share my interests and passion. I made a number of good friends there and in my classes. In Syntax in particular my study group was kind of like the cool kids of the class. There was me, Alexandra, Sarah and in the second quarter to a lesser extent Grace. A number of other people also would talk with us or ask for our thoughts about problems from the homework. Being the cool kids in syntax is kind of like being the good smelling fish in a fish truck to most people but we were pretty awesome none-the-less. Near the end of winter quarter I began hanging out with my friend Alexandra a lot. At first we'd meet once or twice a week outside of class and pretty soon it was everyday. She is also a linguistics major and a very cool girl so we got along great. I even introduced her to such wonderful family games as mad libs and to anyone from my family reading this she can do mad libs with the best of them. This is all the more impressive when you know that she is Spanish and better with word games than most English speakers I know. One day we were hanging out in my dorm room having tea and I mentioned my doubts about sphsc. She looked at me and gave me the look she gives when she is concentrating and said the words I'll never forget "That's not for you. You should do this" And she showed me a field of linguistics that I had barely heard of called Cognitive Linguistics. I'm pretty sure that a light from heaven did not come down and that angels did not erupt in song but that is how I remember it now. It was exactly everything I was interested in in one field. The more I read up on it the better it seems. I could go into a long description of this field but rather than bore you here is a link you can chose to view or not: http://www.cogling.org/cl.shtml. I was so amazed that I gave her a spontaneous hug, which I am not known to do very often. This should have told me something right there because a few weeks later we ended up dating and are still couple. She is a smart, funny. beautiful, wonderful and quirky girl who I am hoping to introduce to everybody who reads this blog. There would be plenty of pictures but I am doing this on my aunt Chukkie's (Laura) computer.
And now for why this is not being done on my computer back in Port Angeles. The hardest part about two scholars dating is distance. We both want to be linguistics professors;although her field is language acquisition and bilingualism (a good field for her since she speaks Spanish, English and Catalan fluently). The life of a professor is pretty much bound to whatever school you are going to and she graduated from the UW and will be going to grad school in Edmonton. Not to mention she has been in Spain all summer. However we took a family trip to Europe to pick up Chelsea who had been studying abroad in London. Alexandra's sister Victoria had been doing the same in Birmingham so Alexandra, Victoria and Victoria's boyfriend Olaf all came to London for a day and we got to be together then. We managed to communicate by e-mail everyday while I was in Europe which is no mean feat. Ever since I got back we have talked at least once a day usually twice through this wonderful program called Skype. Which allows me to use a webcam to see her as well as hear her. It's free to use and better quality than a cell phone which would be free to use anyways. We'll do a post later on Europe and have some pictures up for you as well as some of me and Alexandra.
So why am I using Chukkie's computer? I am on my way to Edmonton and I leave tomorrow to fly up from Seattle. So I am staying with them for a few days. And for everyone who wants to meet her she'll be coming down to Seattle and then Port Angeles for Christmas. I hope everyone can meet her. I like to say I've found my two great loves this year: my field or Cognitive Linguistics and my amazing girlfriend Alexandra.
So that is my major news up to this point. I hope this more than atones for my lameness these last several months. Hope everybody is enjoying their summers.I know I will.