Thursday, October 29, 2009
Flying Squirrels
Hey Everybody! So, I got out of dance a couple days ago and I was waiting at the crosswalk to cross the street. The bus was driving down the road, but it stopped for me to cross. Just as I got to the middle of the street, I heard this weird smack on the ground. It sounded to me like someone had thrown their baseball hat in the air and that it had landed in the road. When I looked around, I saw a little squirrel running over to the sidewalk. It had fallen out of the tree and landed in road! I was so shocked; I'd never seen a squirrel fall out of a tree before! I looked around to see if it was ok, and it had disappeared so I hope it made the fall safely! Scary!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Important days: An anniversary, a birthday and Christmas
This Saturday was Alexandra and my five month anniversary. We celebrated the way most couples do, by spending a large amount of time doing homework in the afternoon and talking in the evening. We did this all while connected by webcam so it wasn't too bad. Late in the evening she found an old record of our conversations from the beginning of the year. It was so cute to see how our relationship developed from friendship to love. We've been extra ever since then.
In a few weeks I'll be having my birthday. My birthday is the day after Veteran's Day which means that every few years I get my birthday off. This year I have no such luck. Not only do I have school but I have a neuroanatomy mid-term that is worth 40% of my grade. Happy birthday to me!
This Christmas my family from Idaho is coming to Port Angeles. This is very exciting as I don't usually get to see these family members, especially not during Christmas. What's more they are coming to visit Alexandra who will be staying with us as well. I wasn't expecting to get to introduce her to those family members so soon. I was very excited to find this out!
Well there you have it, three important days. I'll bring up more as they come. That's the Braunsey Blog promise
In a few weeks I'll be having my birthday. My birthday is the day after Veteran's Day which means that every few years I get my birthday off. This year I have no such luck. Not only do I have school but I have a neuroanatomy mid-term that is worth 40% of my grade. Happy birthday to me!
This Christmas my family from Idaho is coming to Port Angeles. This is very exciting as I don't usually get to see these family members, especially not during Christmas. What's more they are coming to visit Alexandra who will be staying with us as well. I wasn't expecting to get to introduce her to those family members so soon. I was very excited to find this out!
Well there you have it, three important days. I'll bring up more as they come. That's the Braunsey Blog promise
Sunday, October 25, 2009
One Week Later
Hi everyone! As promised, here is my weekly installment in the Chelsea files. A lot happens in my week, it's extremely busy, but it's usually filled with the same thing: dance, tutoring, dance, and tutoring.
Mondays I have dance from 8:30 to 10:30. Something that I really love about my apartment is that it is close everything. So, getting up and getting to class in the morning is a breeze. Mondays and Fridays I have dance 250 lecture in Gould Hall, which is only a couple blocks from my apartment so it's an easy walk. Last Monday, we read about and discussed Mexican folk dance, called ballet folklorico (with an accent over the second 'o'). After that, I have tutoring. I tutor a freshman football player in a building that's kind of in the middle of campus called Mary Gates Hall. There are constantly student athletes and tutors going in and out, which is a lot of fun. I've made friends with a couple of the other tutors, Lyndsi and Jonathan, and have met several of the students who have tutoring at the time that I am there. We have a lot of fun working together. At 2:30, I head to the dance studios where I have jazz class until about 4:00. Then I go home to shower and whatnot and I have to be back at tutoring at 6:00. In the evenings, I go to the Conibear Shellhouse which is next to the Husky Stadium, so it takes about 15 minutes to walk there (I've avoided getting in the habit of driving down there since it costs about $4.00 to park my car in the parking lot). I work with a volleyball player and two other football players.
On Tuesdays, I have to be to dance at 9:30, which is a class called Somatics Practices. The umbrella term for it is "alternative movement studies". It's kind like a mixture of yoga, pilates, and body awareness...it's interesting, I've actually learned quite a lot. I don't know if I can be considered very good at it, since I always have 8,000 things on my mind and it's going a mile a minute, but the class is pretty cool. After that I have more tutoring (freshman basketball) and then my salsa class from 2:30-4:30. On a side note, I had my rhythm exam in salsa last week and I knocked it out of the park! Yay! I have the same professor for Cross-Cultural Dance (250) and salsa, and she is pretty intense! Then I have more tutoring (more volleyball and football). This Tuesday was Kendy's birthday, so I called her on my way back from tutoring. I hope she had a fab birthday!
Wednesdays I have the same schedule for dance as Mondays, Dance 250 and Jazz, but we have practicum, so 250 is in the dance studio. Every week, we have a guest instructor. This week we learned son jarocho, a kind of Mexican folk dance, from Rubi Oseguera, who is from Veracruz, Mexico. Her dance troop is doing some kind of residency in Seattle so we are really lucky to have been able to dance with her. I have a lot of tutoring to do on Wednesdays, football and cross-country before jazz, and softball, cross-country, and baseball afterwards. I don't get done until at least 9:00.
Thursdays are just like Tuesdays, except that tutoring involves basketball, gymnastics, and cross-country. This Thursday, my friend Clane, who is a professional photographer, was featured on Evening Magazine. I was working and didn't get to see it, but he said he taped it, so I will get to watch it sometime soon. If you watched Evening Magazine, then you got to see my friend :-)
Friday, I have dance lecture, but then I pretty much have the rest of the day to catch up on whatever else I need to do. We studied tap dance for this week's lecture, and two of my classmates brought their tap shoes and had a "tap challenge" which was ridiculously fun. I had so much energy after that I had to go for a walk, so I walked down to the U Village, and then turned around and walked back so that I could meet Eric for lunch. I'm so busy, I almost never have a chance to see him! We hung out for awhile, and then he had to leave to watch Monk and I went to Mill Creek to stay with my friend Caitlin. We went to her house for dinner and then we were going to go to the movies, we decided to go out and have a drink instead.
On Saturday morning, we were supposed to get free H1N1 shots, but they decided that there were so many people that they had to give them to pregnant women and kids 6 months or younger first. I guess I'll just have to wait until they get the vaccine in at Hall Health here. I had promised to watch the UW football game this week since I missed it last week. They didn't play well and lost to Oregon by quite a bit, so that was disappointing. It's a lot of fun watching my students, but I kind of lost interest after awhile. I will probably have to deal with some cranky athletes tomorrow. Caitlin and I drove back into Seattle right after the game, and the U district was inundated with Ducks fans. At one point, Caitlin rolled down the window and yelled, "You're in the wrong city! Get out!" That evening, we met a friend of ours, Jason, and went out to a place called Flowers, then hung out at my apartment for awhile.
Sundays are usually my laundry days. I don't really have time to do my laundry on other days, but I have to change my clothes several times a day so it needs to be done. Caitlin spent the night on Saturday night so that she could go with me to the Chamber Dance Concert at the U with me today. It was a really good show, plus I had to see it for my dance class and write a paper about it which is due on Wednesday. Well, that's pretty much it This Week in the Life of Chelsea. I have some really fun stories about tutoring, but I can't tell you about them on here, they're classified.
Mondays I have dance from 8:30 to 10:30. Something that I really love about my apartment is that it is close everything. So, getting up and getting to class in the morning is a breeze. Mondays and Fridays I have dance 250 lecture in Gould Hall, which is only a couple blocks from my apartment so it's an easy walk. Last Monday, we read about and discussed Mexican folk dance, called ballet folklorico (with an accent over the second 'o'). After that, I have tutoring. I tutor a freshman football player in a building that's kind of in the middle of campus called Mary Gates Hall. There are constantly student athletes and tutors going in and out, which is a lot of fun. I've made friends with a couple of the other tutors, Lyndsi and Jonathan, and have met several of the students who have tutoring at the time that I am there. We have a lot of fun working together. At 2:30, I head to the dance studios where I have jazz class until about 4:00. Then I go home to shower and whatnot and I have to be back at tutoring at 6:00. In the evenings, I go to the Conibear Shellhouse which is next to the Husky Stadium, so it takes about 15 minutes to walk there (I've avoided getting in the habit of driving down there since it costs about $4.00 to park my car in the parking lot). I work with a volleyball player and two other football players.
On Tuesdays, I have to be to dance at 9:30, which is a class called Somatics Practices. The umbrella term for it is "alternative movement studies". It's kind like a mixture of yoga, pilates, and body awareness...it's interesting, I've actually learned quite a lot. I don't know if I can be considered very good at it, since I always have 8,000 things on my mind and it's going a mile a minute, but the class is pretty cool. After that I have more tutoring (freshman basketball) and then my salsa class from 2:30-4:30. On a side note, I had my rhythm exam in salsa last week and I knocked it out of the park! Yay! I have the same professor for Cross-Cultural Dance (250) and salsa, and she is pretty intense! Then I have more tutoring (more volleyball and football). This Tuesday was Kendy's birthday, so I called her on my way back from tutoring. I hope she had a fab birthday!
Wednesdays I have the same schedule for dance as Mondays, Dance 250 and Jazz, but we have practicum, so 250 is in the dance studio. Every week, we have a guest instructor. This week we learned son jarocho, a kind of Mexican folk dance, from Rubi Oseguera, who is from Veracruz, Mexico. Her dance troop is doing some kind of residency in Seattle so we are really lucky to have been able to dance with her. I have a lot of tutoring to do on Wednesdays, football and cross-country before jazz, and softball, cross-country, and baseball afterwards. I don't get done until at least 9:00.
Thursdays are just like Tuesdays, except that tutoring involves basketball, gymnastics, and cross-country. This Thursday, my friend Clane, who is a professional photographer, was featured on Evening Magazine. I was working and didn't get to see it, but he said he taped it, so I will get to watch it sometime soon. If you watched Evening Magazine, then you got to see my friend :-)
Friday, I have dance lecture, but then I pretty much have the rest of the day to catch up on whatever else I need to do. We studied tap dance for this week's lecture, and two of my classmates brought their tap shoes and had a "tap challenge" which was ridiculously fun. I had so much energy after that I had to go for a walk, so I walked down to the U Village, and then turned around and walked back so that I could meet Eric for lunch. I'm so busy, I almost never have a chance to see him! We hung out for awhile, and then he had to leave to watch Monk and I went to Mill Creek to stay with my friend Caitlin. We went to her house for dinner and then we were going to go to the movies, we decided to go out and have a drink instead.
On Saturday morning, we were supposed to get free H1N1 shots, but they decided that there were so many people that they had to give them to pregnant women and kids 6 months or younger first. I guess I'll just have to wait until they get the vaccine in at Hall Health here. I had promised to watch the UW football game this week since I missed it last week. They didn't play well and lost to Oregon by quite a bit, so that was disappointing. It's a lot of fun watching my students, but I kind of lost interest after awhile. I will probably have to deal with some cranky athletes tomorrow. Caitlin and I drove back into Seattle right after the game, and the U district was inundated with Ducks fans. At one point, Caitlin rolled down the window and yelled, "You're in the wrong city! Get out!" That evening, we met a friend of ours, Jason, and went out to a place called Flowers, then hung out at my apartment for awhile.
Sundays are usually my laundry days. I don't really have time to do my laundry on other days, but I have to change my clothes several times a day so it needs to be done. Caitlin spent the night on Saturday night so that she could go with me to the Chamber Dance Concert at the U with me today. It was a really good show, plus I had to see it for my dance class and write a paper about it which is due on Wednesday. Well, that's pretty much it This Week in the Life of Chelsea. I have some really fun stories about tutoring, but I can't tell you about them on here, they're classified.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Strange but true facts
Here are a few interesting facts I've learned over the course of my linguistic career:
A human being and a chinchilla have almost identical auditory processing abilities
Turkish has a separate verb ending if the speaker is gossiping
As many as 10% of English speakers make their T sound differently but it's so subtle nobody notices
Swedish has nine different letters for vowels each with short and long forms
The word "so" is prnounced rougly the same in English, Japanese and Swedish
Up until the age of 9 months a child can distinguish between all language sounds
Sign language speakers use their face to express tense
The same part of your brain that activates when you move forward, when you talk about moving forward and when you talk about moving forward in a metaphorical way
Anyways there are many, many interesting things to learn about language, this was originally just going to be about the chinchilla thing, since we learned that recently in my psychology of language class but I couldn't resist sharing a few more facts.
A human being and a chinchilla have almost identical auditory processing abilities
Turkish has a separate verb ending if the speaker is gossiping
As many as 10% of English speakers make their T sound differently but it's so subtle nobody notices
Swedish has nine different letters for vowels each with short and long forms
The word "so" is prnounced rougly the same in English, Japanese and Swedish
Up until the age of 9 months a child can distinguish between all language sounds
Sign language speakers use their face to express tense
The same part of your brain that activates when you move forward, when you talk about moving forward and when you talk about moving forward in a metaphorical way
Anyways there are many, many interesting things to learn about language, this was originally just going to be about the chinchilla thing, since we learned that recently in my psychology of language class but I couldn't resist sharing a few more facts.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
A Giant Hug and Kiss for you all!
Hello everyone...this is Chelsea! SURPRISE!
Ok, so I am going to attempt to fill you in on the past...uh...4 months. Lame, lame, I know!
I think the last time I posted was when I was in London after my classes were over and before my family met up with me in Europe. I had a fabulous time with my host family for a week, and then one day I packed everything up, hit the tube, and met up with my dad and brother at the King's Cross train station. This is indeed where Harry Potter supposedly meets the famous Hogwart's Express. However, the author got this wrong. She actually meant to say that Harry meets the Hogwarts Express at Charing Cross train station. King's Cross has no platform 10...and I'm not sure it has a platform 9 either...so therefore there can be no platform 9 3/4. Yet, the City of London had one built in for the tourists ;-)
Anyways, my dad and brother were completely exhausted, but we met up at the train station and headed for Edinburgh, Scotland. It was great to see my dad and brother, and we had a fun time together. Scotland is really beautiful, particularly the highlands. It looks a lot like the Olympic Peninsula. We spent our 5 days there exploring the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle, the Scotch Whiskey Experience, Greyfriar's, Holyrood, etc. We also spent one entire day on a tour bus to Loch Ness. It was a long drive, but the Lochs are very pretty...even though we didn't get to see any of Nessie!
After that, we went back to London where we met up with my sister, mom, and grandma Lemon. We hung out in London for a couple days and then headed for Paris. There were a few things that I had saved to do with my family, such as the Tower of London and the London Eye, which were very cool. We also went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum since Eric had been wanting to go there for quite some time. One of our favorite things to do there, though, was stroll along in the parks. I can't begin to tell you how beautiful a city London is and how well-planned out. There are gorgeous, and enormous, parks built right into the city that have been there for centuries. Whoever came up with this idea was a genious! The night before we left, Eric's girlfriend Alexandra, Alexandra's sister Victoria, and Victoria's boyfriend Olaf came down to London from Birmingham so that they could spend the day with Eric. We all went out to dinner together. Yes, Alexandra is a lovely and very nice girl and we're all glad that she makes Eric so very happy :-) The next morning we got up early in the morning to make it to the Victoria station where we hopped a train that took us under the English Channel and into Paris.
Paris was really incredible. Unfortunately, I was sick for the first couple of days and had to miss out on going to the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, I did get to see it close up when we took a boat tour along the Seine River a couple days later. We visited the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. It was really amazing to see the Mona Lisa and all of the other famous pieces of art that were there! The night before we left to come home, there was a magnificent thunder storm that took the power out at the Charles de Gaulle Airport. Luckily, the generator came back on and we were able to catch our connection in London and make it to Seattle without any problems.
And now, there is a big gap in my information for you. I just couldn't bring myself to post during the summer because I felt like all I did was work and wait for school to start. I was very excited to see my family when they came to visit, and I had fun with my friends from home and visited some lovely places since it was so warm and sunny. However, I just couldn't wait to get back to my life in Seattle. It's my very favorite place to be. I love Seattle and I love college. I realize that this is a lame excuse for not posting, but there it is. I didn't feel like I had anything particularly interesting to say...even though I probably did.
On September 13th, I moved into my apartment in Seattle. It's a really nice apartment on the corner of 42nd and Brooklyn in the University District. Like, a REALLY nice apartment. I'm lucky to be living with one of my roomates from last year, Lillian, who I am very good friends with and have a lot in common with. She was studying in Spain and I was studying in London last spring, so we didn't have to do any of the work finding and securing the apartment, just printing, scanning, and faxing our information. My other roomates are friends of Lillian's from marching band and we've gotten to be fast friends. It's also enjoyable to room with them because we often have a large portion of the mellophone section in our living room!
I am loving living in Seattle, and this quarter has been great so far. I have made such great friends here that I am often busy just hanging out. I've gotten to hang with some of my friends from London, which has also been wonderful. I am taking only dance classes, 4 of them to be exact. My Cross-Cultural Dance class is my favorite. We read about a differnt type of dance every week and have lecture and discussion about it, then we get to practice it. We started out with West African Dance, then we practiced Capoeira (a martial arts dance from Brazil), and this week we did Cuban Rumba and Orisha dancing. Next Wednesday, we get to learn a Mexican dance called Son Jarocho. It's so much fun! I also have jazz, salsa, and a somatic practices class. I'm getting lots of exercise and always have lots of energy! I also got my job back, tutoring student athletes for the athletics department. I have more students and hours than ever. Monday-Thursday I have dance usually starting at 8:30. Then I have tutoring for awhile, then dance again from 2:30-4:30 and then tutoring, often until 9:00 or so. I'm so busy, but so happy! I'm sure you all remember my tutoring stories from last winter. This year, things are going along in much the same way. It's already off to a great start ;-)!
I've also had the good fortune to see two great shows since I've moved in. On September 26th, my friend Caitlin and I met my mom, grandma Lemon, cousin Lexi, aunt Kim Lemon and her daughter Courtney, my friend Kaylie, her sister Marcea, and their mom and we all saw Wicked. It was very good, I'd highly recommend it. Then, my friend Caitlin and I saw Pacific Northwest Ballet's new Romeo et Juliet. It was also really great.
Well, that about catches everyone up...I'll try to be better about posting, mostly by hoping to make Sundays my blogging day...we'll see if I can keep that up!
Ok, so I am going to attempt to fill you in on the past...uh...4 months. Lame, lame, I know!
I think the last time I posted was when I was in London after my classes were over and before my family met up with me in Europe. I had a fabulous time with my host family for a week, and then one day I packed everything up, hit the tube, and met up with my dad and brother at the King's Cross train station. This is indeed where Harry Potter supposedly meets the famous Hogwart's Express. However, the author got this wrong. She actually meant to say that Harry meets the Hogwarts Express at Charing Cross train station. King's Cross has no platform 10...and I'm not sure it has a platform 9 either...so therefore there can be no platform 9 3/4. Yet, the City of London had one built in for the tourists ;-)
Anyways, my dad and brother were completely exhausted, but we met up at the train station and headed for Edinburgh, Scotland. It was great to see my dad and brother, and we had a fun time together. Scotland is really beautiful, particularly the highlands. It looks a lot like the Olympic Peninsula. We spent our 5 days there exploring the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle, the Scotch Whiskey Experience, Greyfriar's, Holyrood, etc. We also spent one entire day on a tour bus to Loch Ness. It was a long drive, but the Lochs are very pretty...even though we didn't get to see any of Nessie!
After that, we went back to London where we met up with my sister, mom, and grandma Lemon. We hung out in London for a couple days and then headed for Paris. There were a few things that I had saved to do with my family, such as the Tower of London and the London Eye, which were very cool. We also went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum since Eric had been wanting to go there for quite some time. One of our favorite things to do there, though, was stroll along in the parks. I can't begin to tell you how beautiful a city London is and how well-planned out. There are gorgeous, and enormous, parks built right into the city that have been there for centuries. Whoever came up with this idea was a genious! The night before we left, Eric's girlfriend Alexandra, Alexandra's sister Victoria, and Victoria's boyfriend Olaf came down to London from Birmingham so that they could spend the day with Eric. We all went out to dinner together. Yes, Alexandra is a lovely and very nice girl and we're all glad that she makes Eric so very happy :-) The next morning we got up early in the morning to make it to the Victoria station where we hopped a train that took us under the English Channel and into Paris.
Paris was really incredible. Unfortunately, I was sick for the first couple of days and had to miss out on going to the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, I did get to see it close up when we took a boat tour along the Seine River a couple days later. We visited the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. It was really amazing to see the Mona Lisa and all of the other famous pieces of art that were there! The night before we left to come home, there was a magnificent thunder storm that took the power out at the Charles de Gaulle Airport. Luckily, the generator came back on and we were able to catch our connection in London and make it to Seattle without any problems.
And now, there is a big gap in my information for you. I just couldn't bring myself to post during the summer because I felt like all I did was work and wait for school to start. I was very excited to see my family when they came to visit, and I had fun with my friends from home and visited some lovely places since it was so warm and sunny. However, I just couldn't wait to get back to my life in Seattle. It's my very favorite place to be. I love Seattle and I love college. I realize that this is a lame excuse for not posting, but there it is. I didn't feel like I had anything particularly interesting to say...even though I probably did.
On September 13th, I moved into my apartment in Seattle. It's a really nice apartment on the corner of 42nd and Brooklyn in the University District. Like, a REALLY nice apartment. I'm lucky to be living with one of my roomates from last year, Lillian, who I am very good friends with and have a lot in common with. She was studying in Spain and I was studying in London last spring, so we didn't have to do any of the work finding and securing the apartment, just printing, scanning, and faxing our information. My other roomates are friends of Lillian's from marching band and we've gotten to be fast friends. It's also enjoyable to room with them because we often have a large portion of the mellophone section in our living room!
I am loving living in Seattle, and this quarter has been great so far. I have made such great friends here that I am often busy just hanging out. I've gotten to hang with some of my friends from London, which has also been wonderful. I am taking only dance classes, 4 of them to be exact. My Cross-Cultural Dance class is my favorite. We read about a differnt type of dance every week and have lecture and discussion about it, then we get to practice it. We started out with West African Dance, then we practiced Capoeira (a martial arts dance from Brazil), and this week we did Cuban Rumba and Orisha dancing. Next Wednesday, we get to learn a Mexican dance called Son Jarocho. It's so much fun! I also have jazz, salsa, and a somatic practices class. I'm getting lots of exercise and always have lots of energy! I also got my job back, tutoring student athletes for the athletics department. I have more students and hours than ever. Monday-Thursday I have dance usually starting at 8:30. Then I have tutoring for awhile, then dance again from 2:30-4:30 and then tutoring, often until 9:00 or so. I'm so busy, but so happy! I'm sure you all remember my tutoring stories from last winter. This year, things are going along in much the same way. It's already off to a great start ;-)!
I've also had the good fortune to see two great shows since I've moved in. On September 26th, my friend Caitlin and I met my mom, grandma Lemon, cousin Lexi, aunt Kim Lemon and her daughter Courtney, my friend Kaylie, her sister Marcea, and their mom and we all saw Wicked. It was very good, I'd highly recommend it. Then, my friend Caitlin and I saw Pacific Northwest Ballet's new Romeo et Juliet. It was also really great.
Well, that about catches everyone up...I'll try to be better about posting, mostly by hoping to make Sundays my blogging day...we'll see if I can keep that up!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Simple Pleasures
Sometimes you really appreciate the simple pleasures in life. When you are a student and make little to no money that becomes mandatory. Today seems to be a simple pleasure kind of day. So here is a list some of my simple pleasures that made today much better:
1. Bagels with cream cheese and lox: This morning I had my 8:30 and due to some factors I won't go into here (okay I will, I was up late talking to my preance Alexandra) I woke up at 7:30, which gave me enough time to shower and have a little tea before rushing off. This means that I didn't have breakfast until later, more like 10:45-11:00. I went to the internet cafe where I can use my student card and they had the most delicious breakfast sandwich known to man (as someone who is not usually a fan of most breakfast foods outside cereal and toast this is quite a nice thing) a bagel with cream cheese, capers and lox. Yum!
2. Talking to my girlfriend. Being to students so far away makes communication difficult. We have managed to talk everyday since we've been apart but it is sometimes hard to get enough time in. In fact it is impossible. Today however her class was canceled and I only have my early class so we've been talking for a long time. The only reason I am writing this now is that we are taking a quick lunch break which brings me to simple pleasure number 3.
3. Lean Cuisine Swedish Meatballs. Lean Cuisine is a really nice way to get decent food if you don't have any cooking options outside a microwave, sink and electric kettle. This allows me to eat the finest in frozen dinners and oatmeal and not much else in the way of hot food unless I go out to eat. Of all the types of Lean Cuisine they have in stock my favorite is the Swedish Meatballs on pasta and today is the first day I've seen it there.
4. Library books. If they ever made a t-shirt that says "So many books, so little money" I would be tempted to buy that shirt but then not because I will have spent all my money on books. I am proud to report that outside of my textbooks, this quarter I haven't bought a single book. I've been checking them out from the library instead. They are awesome books about my future field and I am very excited about them. Reading them between meals and the love of my life.
Well there you are. A few simple pleasures from a relaxing day. Come to think of it a relaxing yet productive day can probably be considered a simple pleasure. I hope all of my blog reading public are finding equally enjoyable simple pleasures today.
1. Bagels with cream cheese and lox: This morning I had my 8:30 and due to some factors I won't go into here (okay I will, I was up late talking to my preance Alexandra) I woke up at 7:30, which gave me enough time to shower and have a little tea before rushing off. This means that I didn't have breakfast until later, more like 10:45-11:00. I went to the internet cafe where I can use my student card and they had the most delicious breakfast sandwich known to man (as someone who is not usually a fan of most breakfast foods outside cereal and toast this is quite a nice thing) a bagel with cream cheese, capers and lox. Yum!
2. Talking to my girlfriend. Being to students so far away makes communication difficult. We have managed to talk everyday since we've been apart but it is sometimes hard to get enough time in. In fact it is impossible. Today however her class was canceled and I only have my early class so we've been talking for a long time. The only reason I am writing this now is that we are taking a quick lunch break which brings me to simple pleasure number 3.
3. Lean Cuisine Swedish Meatballs. Lean Cuisine is a really nice way to get decent food if you don't have any cooking options outside a microwave, sink and electric kettle. This allows me to eat the finest in frozen dinners and oatmeal and not much else in the way of hot food unless I go out to eat. Of all the types of Lean Cuisine they have in stock my favorite is the Swedish Meatballs on pasta and today is the first day I've seen it there.
4. Library books. If they ever made a t-shirt that says "So many books, so little money" I would be tempted to buy that shirt but then not because I will have spent all my money on books. I am proud to report that outside of my textbooks, this quarter I haven't bought a single book. I've been checking them out from the library instead. They are awesome books about my future field and I am very excited about them. Reading them between meals and the love of my life.
Well there you are. A few simple pleasures from a relaxing day. Come to think of it a relaxing yet productive day can probably be considered a simple pleasure. I hope all of my blog reading public are finding equally enjoyable simple pleasures today.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
My day of language and the brain
Today I had my neuro-anatomy class and my I-LABS job. They both went pretty well.
To borrow from Charles Dickens, "It was the best of classes, it was the worst of classes; it was a class that is very interesting, it was a class that requires me to get up so early I am too sleepy to remember a lot of the things we learn; it was a class where I get to act out a neurological disorder..." wait what was that last part?
That's right since this class is a graduate level course we don't have many assignments, just two tests and one project. We talked about the project a bit today and I found out what we are doing and am very excited about it. On Thursday he will give us all neurological disorders. It could be Parkinsons, Huntingtons or any of those other nasty -tons. We'll have to do a whole project about it, doing research collecting data etc. The cool part though is that we will get to act out the disease in front of the class, mirroring movement troubles and speech problems. It sounds like so much fun! I love doing this sort of thing. I am not allowed to tell anyone what I have (although I might let my blogging public know if they promise to keep it to themselves) and the class will try to figure it out by asking me questions and seeing my symptoms. It's going to be great!
After that class I have my job at I-LABS. It's very easy and there isn't too much to do really. I mostly direct families to wait for the researchers and page people. In between I catch up on reading and today someone left the paper there and I did the Sudoku puzzle too. They are completely renovating that building though so my job will be interesting this quarter as I'll end up learning new places to send people each week. It's an easy job but I do help people quite a bit, however I have one tiny complaint and it's about the person who works after me.
One of the only things that they care about in that job is you being on time. She stressed to me during my interview/training session that the only real requirement be that I am there on time. I am always 20 minutes early, I even timed myself today and it takes me 19 minutes to get there from my class before it. I make small talk with the girl who works there before me and take over at 11:00. Hypothetically I should finish at 2:00. This wasn't the case.
Last week the girl who takes over at 2:00 wasn't there right away. Courtesy dictates I give her a few minutes and sure enough she was 5 minutes late. So today when 2:00 rolled around I decided to give her 15 minutes (which is the amount they tell you it is acceptible to be late by the way) to get there. I was into the chapter of my book and it ended up being 20 minutes. If you are late more than once you fail the course so I didn't want to get her in trouble, on the other hand she was very late and I hadn't eaten anything since 7:3o this morning. I went to talk to the woman who handles these things and told her that the girl wasn't there and I'd be leaving. I let her know when the next appointment was and left. I hope that she isn't late again and that everything is okay. Still it was a bit annoying.
Anyways that's the big stuff from my day. Now I'm going to do my homework for phonetics, it should be interesting; I have to compare data from several world languages. That's it for the Braunsey Blog more news as it happens.
To borrow from Charles Dickens, "It was the best of classes, it was the worst of classes; it was a class that is very interesting, it was a class that requires me to get up so early I am too sleepy to remember a lot of the things we learn; it was a class where I get to act out a neurological disorder..." wait what was that last part?
That's right since this class is a graduate level course we don't have many assignments, just two tests and one project. We talked about the project a bit today and I found out what we are doing and am very excited about it. On Thursday he will give us all neurological disorders. It could be Parkinsons, Huntingtons or any of those other nasty -tons. We'll have to do a whole project about it, doing research collecting data etc. The cool part though is that we will get to act out the disease in front of the class, mirroring movement troubles and speech problems. It sounds like so much fun! I love doing this sort of thing. I am not allowed to tell anyone what I have (although I might let my blogging public know if they promise to keep it to themselves) and the class will try to figure it out by asking me questions and seeing my symptoms. It's going to be great!
After that class I have my job at I-LABS. It's very easy and there isn't too much to do really. I mostly direct families to wait for the researchers and page people. In between I catch up on reading and today someone left the paper there and I did the Sudoku puzzle too. They are completely renovating that building though so my job will be interesting this quarter as I'll end up learning new places to send people each week. It's an easy job but I do help people quite a bit, however I have one tiny complaint and it's about the person who works after me.
One of the only things that they care about in that job is you being on time. She stressed to me during my interview/training session that the only real requirement be that I am there on time. I am always 20 minutes early, I even timed myself today and it takes me 19 minutes to get there from my class before it. I make small talk with the girl who works there before me and take over at 11:00. Hypothetically I should finish at 2:00. This wasn't the case.
Last week the girl who takes over at 2:00 wasn't there right away. Courtesy dictates I give her a few minutes and sure enough she was 5 minutes late. So today when 2:00 rolled around I decided to give her 15 minutes (which is the amount they tell you it is acceptible to be late by the way) to get there. I was into the chapter of my book and it ended up being 20 minutes. If you are late more than once you fail the course so I didn't want to get her in trouble, on the other hand she was very late and I hadn't eaten anything since 7:3o this morning. I went to talk to the woman who handles these things and told her that the girl wasn't there and I'd be leaving. I let her know when the next appointment was and left. I hope that she isn't late again and that everything is okay. Still it was a bit annoying.
Anyways that's the big stuff from my day. Now I'm going to do my homework for phonetics, it should be interesting; I have to compare data from several world languages. That's it for the Braunsey Blog more news as it happens.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Three Blog Night: The Phonetics Blog
Three blogs in one day? Wow this is sure a change from this summer when it was more like 1 blog in three months. Anyways, I couldn't resist a third blog when I thought of this title so here it goes; a blog about my phonetics class.
Phonetics in Linguistics is the study of the production of speech sounds and how to describe them. We study things like what makes vowels and consonants, how various parts of the vocal tract make sounds, how our pitch and stress affect pronunciation; things like that. One of the most interesting parts of the class is that you get to hear a wide variety of sounds from a wide variety of languages. You also get an insight into your own dialect. For example I speak a Seattle dialect and in class got to demonstrate how my pronunciation of words like "egg", "leg" and "bag" are different than the Standard American English dialect.
One of the funniest parts of that class is that each time you hear a new sound or about the position of your tongue in a particular sound you hear about half the class attempting the new sounds. Today we had a Mandarin speaker in the class prnounce a word with a voiceless velar fricative. That is the like the CH in the Scottish Loch or the J in Spanish for those of you who aren't Phoneticians. Following I could hear a lot of people making that sound. Either we were in a Phonetics class or everyone there had hairballs.
Well that's the last one for the day. Hope you've all enjoyed your triple dose of Braunsey Blog...and maybe someday I can persuade my sister to contribute...
Phonetics in Linguistics is the study of the production of speech sounds and how to describe them. We study things like what makes vowels and consonants, how various parts of the vocal tract make sounds, how our pitch and stress affect pronunciation; things like that. One of the most interesting parts of the class is that you get to hear a wide variety of sounds from a wide variety of languages. You also get an insight into your own dialect. For example I speak a Seattle dialect and in class got to demonstrate how my pronunciation of words like "egg", "leg" and "bag" are different than the Standard American English dialect.
One of the funniest parts of that class is that each time you hear a new sound or about the position of your tongue in a particular sound you hear about half the class attempting the new sounds. Today we had a Mandarin speaker in the class prnounce a word with a voiceless velar fricative. That is the like the CH in the Scottish Loch or the J in Spanish for those of you who aren't Phoneticians. Following I could hear a lot of people making that sound. Either we were in a Phonetics class or everyone there had hairballs.
Well that's the last one for the day. Hope you've all enjoyed your triple dose of Braunsey Blog...and maybe someday I can persuade my sister to contribute...
Columbus Day
Today while sitting in class before Phonetics my thoughts turned Columbus Day and just what it means to me. So I thought I'd express my feelings about it in poetry form. I give you Columbus Day:
C is canceled, which school is not
O is for Oh! That's today? I forgot
L is lame protesters all over the campus
U is for unlucky natives, from Nunavut to the Pampas
M is for MSN articles which make me remember
B is for but wasn't that in September?
U is unpopular, what can I say?
S is for Sweet! A non-holiday
C is canceled, which school is not
O is for Oh! That's today? I forgot
L is lame protesters all over the campus
U is for unlucky natives, from Nunavut to the Pampas
M is for MSN articles which make me remember
B is for but wasn't that in September?
U is unpopular, what can I say?
S is for Sweet! A non-holiday
Let's be friends
I have recently noticed that despite having the world's most amazing girlfriend, interesting classes and a wonderful blogging audience (it never hurts to butter you all up a little) that I have a recent deficit of male friends. Growing up in a close family with mostly girls in it gives you a rather unique perspective as a guy and some of my best friends in the world have been girls (my best friend in the world is the girl I'm going to marry in a few years). Now the great guy friend shortage of 2009 isn't the crisis that was predicted however. I'm mostly realizing this now due to a few events over the last few weeks.
1. My sister Chelsea, who I swear I've been pressuring to blog lately, has been having a wonderful time in Seattle. She has told me I should make friends with the guys she finds cute so I can say "by the way, my sister's available." Although from talking to my sister lately this may not be something I need to worry about too much anymore. We have a long running joke between the two of us involving the name 'the smoothenator' and she has informed me that if I make her a connection she will call me that...
2. When we've talked about getting married recently I've realized that I have less people to ask to be my groomsmen than Alexandra has to be bridesmaids. It makes me realize now that everytime I make a new male friend I'm going to ask myself: Is he groomsmen material? "I've had a great time hanging out tonight, Johnny, but if we continue being friends I'm going to need more of a commitment. I need to know that you are going to be wedding material"
3. I spend a lot of time talking to Alexandra on-line, which is as it should be. On Saturday I spent most of the afternoon working on my statement of purpose for the University of Alberta and the rest of the afternoon helping her with her homework for her classes. Then she went out to dinner with a friend of hers and I had dinner and showered. Then we talked some more, we ended up spending about 11 hours talking that day between the homeworm and the conversation in the evening. Contrast that to yesterday. It was Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday, weird I know, and she went to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Her friend is unexperienced in the ways of turkey cooking and didn't realize how much time it would talk. The dinner that was supposed to start at 5:30 didn't get going until after 9:00. We still managed to talk in the night though.
So I guess I've been thinking about friendship a lot this weekend. I do have quite a few good friends that I can think of. But if you have a good friend make sure you take the time to appreciate everything they mean to you. This weekend has been a good chance for me to reflect on how lucky I am to have all of you in my life (again with the flattery. See you read my blog and leave it feeling good)
1. My sister Chelsea, who I swear I've been pressuring to blog lately, has been having a wonderful time in Seattle. She has told me I should make friends with the guys she finds cute so I can say "by the way, my sister's available." Although from talking to my sister lately this may not be something I need to worry about too much anymore. We have a long running joke between the two of us involving the name 'the smoothenator' and she has informed me that if I make her a connection she will call me that...
2. When we've talked about getting married recently I've realized that I have less people to ask to be my groomsmen than Alexandra has to be bridesmaids. It makes me realize now that everytime I make a new male friend I'm going to ask myself: Is he groomsmen material? "I've had a great time hanging out tonight, Johnny, but if we continue being friends I'm going to need more of a commitment. I need to know that you are going to be wedding material"
3. I spend a lot of time talking to Alexandra on-line, which is as it should be. On Saturday I spent most of the afternoon working on my statement of purpose for the University of Alberta and the rest of the afternoon helping her with her homework for her classes. Then she went out to dinner with a friend of hers and I had dinner and showered. Then we talked some more, we ended up spending about 11 hours talking that day between the homeworm and the conversation in the evening. Contrast that to yesterday. It was Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday, weird I know, and she went to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Her friend is unexperienced in the ways of turkey cooking and didn't realize how much time it would talk. The dinner that was supposed to start at 5:30 didn't get going until after 9:00. We still managed to talk in the night though.
So I guess I've been thinking about friendship a lot this weekend. I do have quite a few good friends that I can think of. But if you have a good friend make sure you take the time to appreciate everything they mean to you. This weekend has been a good chance for me to reflect on how lucky I am to have all of you in my life (again with the flattery. See you read my blog and leave it feeling good)
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The pressure's on
When you are a college student (and pretty much anyone else in the world) you have a certain amount of pressure in your life. I was originally going to only focus on one type of pressure. But in the interest of full disclosure I'll share several sorts of the pressure I get at school.
1. Grad school applications: So you've spent the last three years figuring out what it is you want to do with your life? That's good. However the hardest part now is j through all the hoops to make it happen. I finished the on-line portion of the Alberta application a few days ago. But I am still far from done. I have to get letters of recommendation, write a statement of purpose, get transcripts from my schools, and recover the sacred Incan idol from the sun temple by the next harvest moon. One of those wasn't true, although I'm not telling which. Anyways today I hope to get my statement of purpose done. But first I want to read an article in a book which was written by the person who I hope to have be my advisor. A major part of this job will be schmoozing. And it's nice to have some schmooze fodder if you can get it.
2. Financial pressure: In Sweden grad students are paid employess of the state and get salaries and vacation days. That doesn't happen here. So far I've been searching for a job and all I've come up with is the non-paying one. It's a great job, don't get me wrong but a second great job, one which pays real money, may be better. I've looked around but still haven't found anything that fits my schedule and I am qualified for. To give you an idea of the strange lengths you have to go to to get a job here: last year I wanted a job and so looked on-line at library positions here on campus. They said to go to the library. So I went. There was nothing I could do. So I went again, and again. Finally there was an appropriate job. Success! They gave you a website to go to apply. So I went back. It was a website, through the MYUW webpage and it had all the library jobs posted but you had to jump through all those hoops to get there first. I guess it was to weed out all the non-athletic candidates who would rather toss the hoops or perhaps do a little hula dance with them instead.
3. Water pressure: Okay so it's more of a heat issue than a water pressure issue but there are two floor to ceiling pipes in my room. I learned the hard way my first few years that they get very hot during the day turning my room from a place to study to a sauna. Saunas are all right when you can get out and get in the cold pool. For a place to live it's a bit excessie. Even though we put insulation over them it still gets way too hot forcing me to open my windows, which I am trying to do less this year. Now I really shouldn't complain about bad temperatures too much seeing as how two weeks ago in Edmonton it was in the 90s and now it is below freezing and snowing during the warmest part of the day. Soon enough I'll be there and have a whole new set of issues to blog about.
And now the reason I started writing this blog in the first place
4. Pressure I am putting on my sister to get her to blog again: Yesterday I only had one class to go to. 1:00-2:20 and then I was done. I also had a punch card filled out for a free bowl of Pho. So I texted Chelsea and asked her if she had eaten yet and if she wanted to have lunch. I hadn't really seen her much this week so we took this chance to catch up a little. I can assure you all that I told her in no uncertain terms that she needs to blog again and that she has a lot to talk about. Hopefully this means that she wil start soon. She has been very busy though and hasn't even had a chance to check the blogs recently. She has been alerted though.
So there you have it. Apparently pressure plays a major part in the life of a student. And I have more to look forward to. At least I know which sort of pressure I'm choosing. One of the benefits of being in a relationship with a grad student is seeing how everything works before you start school yourself. So with that I shall end this edition of the Braunsey Blog. Hope you all have relatively pressure free days.
1. Grad school applications: So you've spent the last three years figuring out what it is you want to do with your life? That's good. However the hardest part now is j through all the hoops to make it happen. I finished the on-line portion of the Alberta application a few days ago. But I am still far from done. I have to get letters of recommendation, write a statement of purpose, get transcripts from my schools, and recover the sacred Incan idol from the sun temple by the next harvest moon. One of those wasn't true, although I'm not telling which. Anyways today I hope to get my statement of purpose done. But first I want to read an article in a book which was written by the person who I hope to have be my advisor. A major part of this job will be schmoozing. And it's nice to have some schmooze fodder if you can get it.
2. Financial pressure: In Sweden grad students are paid employess of the state and get salaries and vacation days. That doesn't happen here. So far I've been searching for a job and all I've come up with is the non-paying one. It's a great job, don't get me wrong but a second great job, one which pays real money, may be better. I've looked around but still haven't found anything that fits my schedule and I am qualified for. To give you an idea of the strange lengths you have to go to to get a job here: last year I wanted a job and so looked on-line at library positions here on campus. They said to go to the library. So I went. There was nothing I could do. So I went again, and again. Finally there was an appropriate job. Success! They gave you a website to go to apply. So I went back. It was a website, through the MYUW webpage and it had all the library jobs posted but you had to jump through all those hoops to get there first. I guess it was to weed out all the non-athletic candidates who would rather toss the hoops or perhaps do a little hula dance with them instead.
3. Water pressure: Okay so it's more of a heat issue than a water pressure issue but there are two floor to ceiling pipes in my room. I learned the hard way my first few years that they get very hot during the day turning my room from a place to study to a sauna. Saunas are all right when you can get out and get in the cold pool. For a place to live it's a bit excessie. Even though we put insulation over them it still gets way too hot forcing me to open my windows, which I am trying to do less this year. Now I really shouldn't complain about bad temperatures too much seeing as how two weeks ago in Edmonton it was in the 90s and now it is below freezing and snowing during the warmest part of the day. Soon enough I'll be there and have a whole new set of issues to blog about.
And now the reason I started writing this blog in the first place
4. Pressure I am putting on my sister to get her to blog again: Yesterday I only had one class to go to. 1:00-2:20 and then I was done. I also had a punch card filled out for a free bowl of Pho. So I texted Chelsea and asked her if she had eaten yet and if she wanted to have lunch. I hadn't really seen her much this week so we took this chance to catch up a little. I can assure you all that I told her in no uncertain terms that she needs to blog again and that she has a lot to talk about. Hopefully this means that she wil start soon. She has been very busy though and hasn't even had a chance to check the blogs recently. She has been alerted though.
So there you have it. Apparently pressure plays a major part in the life of a student. And I have more to look forward to. At least I know which sort of pressure I'm choosing. One of the benefits of being in a relationship with a grad student is seeing how everything works before you start school yourself. So with that I shall end this edition of the Braunsey Blog. Hope you all have relatively pressure free days.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
A love hate relationship
And to quickly squash all rumors, no I'm not talking about me and Alexandra; if anything we have a love-love relationship...I'm talking about technology. Specifically Skype and MSN.
Now Alexandra and I talk every day on-line. Since the day I got back from Europe we haven't missed a day. We usually average somewhere between 3 and five hours a night. This is facilitated by my webcam. Trust me, when you are separated from your preance, seeing and hearing them makes all the difference in the world. And for that I am eternally grateful to technology. However it also seems that technology is consistently conspiring against us too.
Everyday we go through a little routine. We'll log onto Skype, type a few messages back and forth and after a few minutes I'll press the video call button. That will start a process which scares my computer into freezing up but still allows me to hear my love on the other end. We'll say helloooooooooooooooooo to each other and soon enough my computer will calm down and we'll see and hear each other as well. But that is not the end of our happy little story. At some point, some days after 3 hours and others, like today, after 3 minutes the quality of the picture will start to get worse. Sometimes it freezes, sometimes the color changes to make it look like the negatives for film, some days it randomly moves parts around to end up looking like a Picasso painting. Often it will be all three at once. Usually when this happens we'll have about 30 seconds before the picture will freeze and the sound will stop as well. Then it will randomly disconnect. Occasionally this will be due to a computer error in my laptop that is only fixable through restarting it. This usually takes 10-15 minutes.
We have recently been trying MSN which has a video chat feature as well. This usually works well with one slight problem. Roughly half the time one of us will be unable to hear or see (or both) the other one. We can both send messages but not see or hear the other person.
These make it very interesting to communicate. It really makes you appreciate when technology works well. Alexandra has no classes tomorrow and I have only one that starts at 1:00 tomorrow so we were able to talk late tonight. Still the first few hours were mostly a lot of trying to get the technology to work. The last few were pretty good...
So that is my love hate relationship with technology. I depend on it quite a lot in my day to day life and it likes to pull pranks on me, often failing at critical moments in the conversation. The one solice I can take in this is that soon Alexandra will be coming to Seattle and I won't depend on Skype or MSN to talk with her anymore. And for those of you planning on coming to Port Angeles this Christmas you will all get a chance to meet her. I am very excited to introduce her to you; and she has learned most of your names and relations pretty well by now which as any person in my enormous family can attest to is no mean feat.
Now Alexandra and I talk every day on-line. Since the day I got back from Europe we haven't missed a day. We usually average somewhere between 3 and five hours a night. This is facilitated by my webcam. Trust me, when you are separated from your preance, seeing and hearing them makes all the difference in the world. And for that I am eternally grateful to technology. However it also seems that technology is consistently conspiring against us too.
Everyday we go through a little routine. We'll log onto Skype, type a few messages back and forth and after a few minutes I'll press the video call button. That will start a process which scares my computer into freezing up but still allows me to hear my love on the other end. We'll say helloooooooooooooooooo to each other and soon enough my computer will calm down and we'll see and hear each other as well. But that is not the end of our happy little story. At some point, some days after 3 hours and others, like today, after 3 minutes the quality of the picture will start to get worse. Sometimes it freezes, sometimes the color changes to make it look like the negatives for film, some days it randomly moves parts around to end up looking like a Picasso painting. Often it will be all three at once. Usually when this happens we'll have about 30 seconds before the picture will freeze and the sound will stop as well. Then it will randomly disconnect. Occasionally this will be due to a computer error in my laptop that is only fixable through restarting it. This usually takes 10-15 minutes.
We have recently been trying MSN which has a video chat feature as well. This usually works well with one slight problem. Roughly half the time one of us will be unable to hear or see (or both) the other one. We can both send messages but not see or hear the other person.
These make it very interesting to communicate. It really makes you appreciate when technology works well. Alexandra has no classes tomorrow and I have only one that starts at 1:00 tomorrow so we were able to talk late tonight. Still the first few hours were mostly a lot of trying to get the technology to work. The last few were pretty good...
So that is my love hate relationship with technology. I depend on it quite a lot in my day to day life and it likes to pull pranks on me, often failing at critical moments in the conversation. The one solice I can take in this is that soon Alexandra will be coming to Seattle and I won't depend on Skype or MSN to talk with her anymore. And for those of you planning on coming to Port Angeles this Christmas you will all get a chance to meet her. I am very excited to introduce her to you; and she has learned most of your names and relations pretty well by now which as any person in my enormous family can attest to is no mean feat.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Grad Schools, and I-LABS and GREs, Oh My!
Life moves quickly at the University of Washington to the point where you go to blog anf realize that in order to mention everything you'll need a series of novels to discuss it and short of getting J.K. Rowling to do an Erie Potter and the Chamber of Syntax book for me I'll just have to suck it up and do a long post. Well you guys asked for it so here goes:
Chelsea moved back to Seattle a week before Eric in mid September because she has an apartment she shares with several room mates. To know more about Chelsea's quarter after this point please consult the Chelsea section of your local library as I haven't seen much of her this quarter although I will pressure her into blogging again next time I see her... Let's hope it works this time.
Anyways I moved in a week later in part because we didn't realize until the week before that I was scheduled to move in Friday before 9:30. Now the drive from Port Angeles is 3 hours on a good day and my dad had to work that day so the prospects were looking bleak. Thinking quickly I logged in and changed my time. The only other available day was Thursday. No better luck there although I moved my time to between 10:30 and 12:30 so at least I could sleep. No I was left with the question of how to get me and a dorm's worth of stuff to Seattle without a car...
I also was applying for a for credit position at a place called I-LABS which stands for Institute for Learning And Brain Science. My girlfriend Alexandra worked there for two quarters last year and her linguistic heros, Patricia Kuhl and Andrew Meltzoff (Pat and Andy to their friends) are the co-runners of the institute. They were looking to hire and I was looking for something interesting to do; it seemed like a good fit. Except she told me to come in Monday or Tuesday for an interview as positions would fill up quickly. Thinking quickly again (I'm quite good at that it seems) I asked my wonderful aunt Chukkie (Laura to anyone outside the family) if I could stay with them for a few days. I lived with them last summer and for a few days this summer (see my last blog for details on that if you don't remember) and so I am starting to feel like the fourth member of their household, 6th counting their cats. I came over that weekend with Chelsea who was kind enough to give me a ride there with enough stuff so that I could live for a few days. I set up my computer and got an e-mail saying that they had filled up all their jobs. I wasn't too surprised but later I got an email about an opening they had...which was exactly when I have another class of mine. SO I had to turn it down. Right after I moved into school I got a third e-mail saying last chance, there is one more position...and this one acutally worked somehow, I had my interview and orientation last week and had my first day today (it's a one day a week three hour job for one college credit) but more one that later.
I moved in on Thursday, Chelsea was also kind enough to give me and my meager posessions a ride and I was all set up. My girlfriend is very organized and I happy to say that is rubbing off on me. My room has never been so organized and I made labels for my drawers. They kind of sound like Jeopardy categories: Entertainment and Stationery, Toiletries, Useful Miscellany, Papers Letter Etc., Tea & Tea Accesories and "Kitchen" Stuff. In case you are wondering "kitchen" is in "quotes"
because we get a "kitchenette" here which is a microwave and a sink. High class digs, I know. And just to make you even more jealous we have a garbage can too (although we cannot have toasters, a small price to pay for such fabulous cooking ability. After I was settled in I met Chelsea and her friend for some tea and hanging out. But first I went to the library and got some awesome books. Cognitive Linguistics is pretty obscure and you'd have to go out of your way to find any books on it which is why university libraries are so nice. Any place with books about Indonesian Coffee sales in 1964 (An acutal book I've seen) is bound to have a few books of interest lying around. I've been having a field day with these books and no end in sight. I've almost finished Ronald Langacker's Foundations of Cognitive Grammar Volume 1. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways in all the spare time that comes with being a college student I've been applying to grad schools. If all goes as planned I will be done with school here by March of 2010 and want to go to grad school ASAP. I've been narrowing it down all summer although I pretty much know where I want to go. It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads our blog that my top (and really only choice) is the universtiy of Alberta. There is a lot to recommend this school including a program I really want, the fact that Alberta hasn't been hit by the recession at all and is pouring their millions of Canadian surpluss dollars into the university, which is supposed to become one of the best in the world in a few years. However I'd say the best part is the people or rather person. And I don't mean the people on staff who were students of Ronald Langacker (although that is awesome) but rather to be with my girlfriend Alexandra. For those of you who don't know we both study linguistics and both want to become professors. In August I flew up to Edmonton to stay with her for a few weeks. I got back one month ago today (the 6th) and it seems like it was at least a year. We're planning on getting an apartment together when I go up there (should I get accepted). And you can say you read it here first folks, we plan to get married in a few years. Since the famous analogy "rich as a grad student" turned out to flagrantly false we decided we were "pre-engaged" and now she is my preance( Like fiance but with pre) We talk on-line for hours each night. Prior to writing this we just finished talking for five hours. I am very grateful for the webcam technology it makes a big difference. So going to Edmonton is the right choice for oh so many reasons but that is the biggest one. Our current goal is to be married before 2013.
One of the best ways to get into grad schools is to do well on a test called the GRE. Up until today I didn't know that that stands for Graduate Records Examination. It is scored in a similar manner to the SAT with a written, verbal and quantitative reasoning portion. I took it last Saturday and got 720 in verbal and 750 in QR. Those are very good scores. The U of A doesn't require you to have taken it but it definitely looks impressive and helps to tip the scales in my favor.
Beyond that I have been taking classes and doing homework. I'm taking linguistic phonetics (more interesting than it sounds), psychology of language (I'm fairly certain I'm the oldest student in that class) and a graduate level Neuroanatomy of Specch class which is early in the morning. Early for me anyways, as I'm sure the mom's reading this blog will tell me waking up at 7:00 twice a week isn't such a bad way to go. We had our second meeting today as spent 2 hours on terminology. I hope we start something else soon.
Okay so as far as I know now that is everything major. Just life altering decisions and school work... I will try to post more things whenn they acutally happen and get my sister to start posting as well. I know she has a lot to say. Anyways I guess I can say welcome back to the Braunsey Blog and we'll try to post more things as they happen.
Chelsea moved back to Seattle a week before Eric in mid September because she has an apartment she shares with several room mates. To know more about Chelsea's quarter after this point please consult the Chelsea section of your local library as I haven't seen much of her this quarter although I will pressure her into blogging again next time I see her... Let's hope it works this time.
Anyways I moved in a week later in part because we didn't realize until the week before that I was scheduled to move in Friday before 9:30. Now the drive from Port Angeles is 3 hours on a good day and my dad had to work that day so the prospects were looking bleak. Thinking quickly I logged in and changed my time. The only other available day was Thursday. No better luck there although I moved my time to between 10:30 and 12:30 so at least I could sleep. No I was left with the question of how to get me and a dorm's worth of stuff to Seattle without a car...
I also was applying for a for credit position at a place called I-LABS which stands for Institute for Learning And Brain Science. My girlfriend Alexandra worked there for two quarters last year and her linguistic heros, Patricia Kuhl and Andrew Meltzoff (Pat and Andy to their friends) are the co-runners of the institute. They were looking to hire and I was looking for something interesting to do; it seemed like a good fit. Except she told me to come in Monday or Tuesday for an interview as positions would fill up quickly. Thinking quickly again (I'm quite good at that it seems) I asked my wonderful aunt Chukkie (Laura to anyone outside the family) if I could stay with them for a few days. I lived with them last summer and for a few days this summer (see my last blog for details on that if you don't remember) and so I am starting to feel like the fourth member of their household, 6th counting their cats. I came over that weekend with Chelsea who was kind enough to give me a ride there with enough stuff so that I could live for a few days. I set up my computer and got an e-mail saying that they had filled up all their jobs. I wasn't too surprised but later I got an email about an opening they had...which was exactly when I have another class of mine. SO I had to turn it down. Right after I moved into school I got a third e-mail saying last chance, there is one more position...and this one acutally worked somehow, I had my interview and orientation last week and had my first day today (it's a one day a week three hour job for one college credit) but more one that later.
I moved in on Thursday, Chelsea was also kind enough to give me and my meager posessions a ride and I was all set up. My girlfriend is very organized and I happy to say that is rubbing off on me. My room has never been so organized and I made labels for my drawers. They kind of sound like Jeopardy categories: Entertainment and Stationery, Toiletries, Useful Miscellany, Papers Letter Etc., Tea & Tea Accesories and "Kitchen" Stuff. In case you are wondering "kitchen" is in "quotes"
because we get a "kitchenette" here which is a microwave and a sink. High class digs, I know. And just to make you even more jealous we have a garbage can too (although we cannot have toasters, a small price to pay for such fabulous cooking ability. After I was settled in I met Chelsea and her friend for some tea and hanging out. But first I went to the library and got some awesome books. Cognitive Linguistics is pretty obscure and you'd have to go out of your way to find any books on it which is why university libraries are so nice. Any place with books about Indonesian Coffee sales in 1964 (An acutal book I've seen) is bound to have a few books of interest lying around. I've been having a field day with these books and no end in sight. I've almost finished Ronald Langacker's Foundations of Cognitive Grammar Volume 1. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways in all the spare time that comes with being a college student I've been applying to grad schools. If all goes as planned I will be done with school here by March of 2010 and want to go to grad school ASAP. I've been narrowing it down all summer although I pretty much know where I want to go. It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads our blog that my top (and really only choice) is the universtiy of Alberta. There is a lot to recommend this school including a program I really want, the fact that Alberta hasn't been hit by the recession at all and is pouring their millions of Canadian surpluss dollars into the university, which is supposed to become one of the best in the world in a few years. However I'd say the best part is the people or rather person. And I don't mean the people on staff who were students of Ronald Langacker (although that is awesome) but rather to be with my girlfriend Alexandra. For those of you who don't know we both study linguistics and both want to become professors. In August I flew up to Edmonton to stay with her for a few weeks. I got back one month ago today (the 6th) and it seems like it was at least a year. We're planning on getting an apartment together when I go up there (should I get accepted). And you can say you read it here first folks, we plan to get married in a few years. Since the famous analogy "rich as a grad student" turned out to flagrantly false we decided we were "pre-engaged" and now she is my preance( Like fiance but with pre) We talk on-line for hours each night. Prior to writing this we just finished talking for five hours. I am very grateful for the webcam technology it makes a big difference. So going to Edmonton is the right choice for oh so many reasons but that is the biggest one. Our current goal is to be married before 2013.
One of the best ways to get into grad schools is to do well on a test called the GRE. Up until today I didn't know that that stands for Graduate Records Examination. It is scored in a similar manner to the SAT with a written, verbal and quantitative reasoning portion. I took it last Saturday and got 720 in verbal and 750 in QR. Those are very good scores. The U of A doesn't require you to have taken it but it definitely looks impressive and helps to tip the scales in my favor.
Beyond that I have been taking classes and doing homework. I'm taking linguistic phonetics (more interesting than it sounds), psychology of language (I'm fairly certain I'm the oldest student in that class) and a graduate level Neuroanatomy of Specch class which is early in the morning. Early for me anyways, as I'm sure the mom's reading this blog will tell me waking up at 7:00 twice a week isn't such a bad way to go. We had our second meeting today as spent 2 hours on terminology. I hope we start something else soon.
Okay so as far as I know now that is everything major. Just life altering decisions and school work... I will try to post more things whenn they acutally happen and get my sister to start posting as well. I know she has a lot to say. Anyways I guess I can say welcome back to the Braunsey Blog and we'll try to post more things as they happen.
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