Summer and Fall Updates and Stuff

Over this summer, I worked for my campus's Conference Services.  During the summer, UAF becomes a sort of hotel for guests who are here for the landscape or for conferences.  My duties included making beds, cleaning and dusting surfaces, doing laundry, washing windows, organizing cleaning supplies, and any other jobs needed for us to do.  It wasn't my favorite job, but it was fine.  I made a friend through it (whom I already knew from the linguistics department).  Most importantly, this job covered my room.  I began this job in late May, and continued until mid-August.  Halfway through the summer, I began my class called Cultures of Native Alaska.  We learned about the cultures in Alaska which were divided into sections: Aleuts/Unangan, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq, Haida and Tlingit, Yup'ik, Athabascans, and Iñupiaq.  Our professor was a person famous for dancing and singing in Alaska.

After my job and class, I got to go home.  I hung out with my mom a lot, before she began teaching her students.  I also spent a few nights hanging out with my friends, eating and drinking unhealthful stuff and playing video games.  One of the most therapeutic parts of the break was my time spent with my cats.  I loved to love on them (perhaps more than they wanted to be hugged).  I kinda wish that I had been home for longer, but I need the money and need to take classes. 

Now I’m all settled in back at UAF.  I’m in a dorm I’ve never lived in before.  I’d be staying with friends, but most of them graduated or live in places I couldn’t make work.  I have a fine relationship with my current roommate, though, probably the best yet.  In my free time, I’ve been catching Pokémon around campus and taking over gyms from team Valor (Team Mystic for life!).

I’m taking five classes for fifteen credits: Spanish communication, introduction to Athabascan linguistics, Spanish seminar, cultures of Latin America, and theories of methods of second language teaching.  I’d actually be taking another class, introduction to TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), but the professor left us.  It’s no worries, though, I’m still set to graduate in May with a double major in Spanish and Linguistics as well as a minor in TESOL.

Yesterday, Saturday the 3^rd, some friends and I went hiking up at Wickersham Dome in the White Mountains.  It was four of us and a very hyper dog.  Here are some photos of the views:

It was a really nice day, temperature and weather-wise.  Not too many insects nor too much mud.  I really like this hike because it's not too extreme in terms of steepness.

Afterwards we stopped at Hillstop truck stop for pie.  I had a slice of peanut butter pie that was very, very delicious and decadent.  My tongue appreciated it a lot more than my stomach.

Everyone seems to want to know what my plans are after graduation.  I don’t know; I’m open to most any opportunities.  Whether that be teaching English here, Idaho, Costa Rica, South Korea, or wherever, I’m open minded.  What I do know, however, is that the Spanish Club, which I am part of (kinda), is planning on a post-graduation trip to northern Spain.  Naturally, I’d have to do quite a lot of fundraising to be able to do so.  But I think I’m at the point where what I really need to fully augment my Spanish is immersion.  Prayers and or suggestions for my future are greatly appreciated.  I’m ready to finish up my final year here at UAF.

Anchorage 2016

From Friday to Tuesday, my friends and I visited Anchorage for service, food, sightseeing, and hanging out.  We got to see a lot of cool things and had many laughs.

Friday afternoon we drove in three cars from Fairbanks to Anchorage (which takes roughly 7 ~ 7 1/2 hours).  During the Anchorage trips we stay at St Johns United Methodist Church.

On Saturday, we helped with Empty Bowl.  Artists donate bowls which people can buy.  The proceeds go to Bean's Cafe, which provides food for homeless people.  Many people volunteer to help things run smoothly, and many many more patrons come to support the cause.

Bowls.  Last year, I stood in in the rectangle taking people's tickets which were redeemed for a bowl of their choosing.  This year, however, for the first part of the event I stood by the door and greeted and directed people.  For the other half, I went around taking plates and cups from people once they were done.  There were so many people there wasn't enough space, so we had to gently encourage people to get up and keep browsing.  Also, we were at the Dena'ina center this year.

Art demonstrating Native Alaskans.

Paintings

Some were ceramic, some wooden, some fabric.

Bowl of buttons

Fish bowl

So many people.  Possibly over a thousand people came in the expo throughout the day.

They asked we wear a white top, so I thought I'd go all the way and be fancy.  For about half an hour before we left Fairbanks I watched YouTube videos detailing how to tie a tie.  Out of all my friends, I was the best dressed, but I'm still glad I got to dress up a bit.

That's where we were at, with a poster presenting what Bean's Cafe is.

This year there was a bouncy obstacle course for kids.  Beyond that on the far right there was a face painting station for them too.

That night we ate pizza and salad with some former UCMers and parents.  Then some of us played Munchkins, some of us Phase 10.

Then on Sunday morning, we attended two services of SJUMC.  The second service was a more traditional service.  The third service was more modern.  In that one a friend and I read some scripture, while two different friends helped with music.  After the third service, we went to IHOP with former UCMers who were Peace Corp volunteers.  I ate pancakes.  That night we got to eat dinner with even more former UCMers (and their kids).

Monday we split up a bit.  Two of us went skiing at Alyeska.  The rest of us went on an Anchorage adventure.

Our first stop on Monday was Cabela's.  Some of us came to actually buy things, but most of us just windowshopped.  

Moose and Jonathon.  After Cabela's, we went to a comic shop for a bit.  Again, some shopped, some looked.  Then we met a friend for burgers at Tommy's Burger Stop.  They are the kind of burgers that taste really good but make you feel like a slug afterwords.  I got a really tasty blue cheese burger.  Yummy! But not healthful.

Then we went to Kincaid park to see the shore which faces the bay.

Most of the roads/pathways were like this still: snowy or icy.  For those with boots, this wasn't too much of an issue.  For those with tennis shoes, a bit more so.

View of the beech.

Gene the tree climber.

On the way to the shore, we saw a yearling bull grazing on grass.  Most of us stood at a good distance, taking pictures.  Two of us got danger close, which our Biology major strongly warned against.  It wasn't happy, but didn't really react to us.  We took a different path since he was right next to the pavement there.

After going around the bull and cutting through some devil's club, we came to the beech.

Really beautiful view of the water.

We stood up on the sand banks because down there was icy mud (not good to stand on).

Jeremiah and the mountains.

More view.  To the upper right there is apparently Fire Island.  No not that one.

Shore.

On the way back we came across the bull again.

After leaving Kincaid park we went to another comic shop.  Then we went to the mall.  I bought Mr. Penguino there.  Then we went to a chocolate store (shown above).  I got a chocolate mocha there.

I can turn him inside out to make a neck rest.

Then we went to Moose's Tooth.

Top: Buffalo chicken with ranch and carrots

Bottom: Pesto with tomatoes and raisins

Top: I completely forgot

Bottom: Gyro pizza

Then we went back to church and watched Megamind.  

Tuesday we packed up, cleaned up, and headed back.  The scary part was that it was snowing.  For folks down in the lower 48, snow makes driving real hard. On the way we got to help some Chinese tourists get their car towed out of a bank.  

Life updates:

I'm going to need to put some work into being able to pay for my senior year.  I have several scholarships I know about that I will pursue this break.  But I will need plenty more.  I also hope to take out more loans or increase my current loan.  For those who are curious, I don't know what I'm doing this summer, and I don't know when I'll know.  I was really hoping to go to the linguistics conference on campus, but for one, I wasn't awarded the fellowship I wrote, and for two, I need to make money this summer.  It may be that I do some kind of summer or tourism job up here, or it may be that I come back home and work wherever I can find a job.  I'd definitely prefer something related to libraries, teaching, or linguistics, but I'm probably going to have to take what I can get.

Prayers for opportunities would be greatly appreciated.  Also tips or heads up about jobs or scholarships or whatever helpful would be great.

:)

February Fun

English used to have a TV distinction.  'Thou' was informal, 'you' was formal.  Over time we lost 'thou' and kept the formal second person singular, 'you'.

Onto things you guys might find more fun, on Friday I went glow putting.  It's an indoor mini-golf course with lighting on the walls and on the sides of the lanes; everything else was black.

The entrance to Glow Putt.  It's in the same building as Fairbank's furniture store.

An overview of the golf course and also two of my golf-mates.

The balls glowed because they had LEDs in them.  Mine was pink.

Us waiting around for people to take their shot.  The starting point was at the bottom of this picture and the hole was behind the pillar there.

While the walls of the lanes were neon, the 'grass' itself was black.  This meant that we couldn't really see where the slopes or hills were because there were no shadows.

One of the loop-the-loops in the course. 

Us putting.

Another loop-the-loop.  There were colorful neon animals and scenery on the walls.

David putting.

Our resident math grad Tyler tallying up the scores.

After we putted, we went over to College Town Cremery to get yogurt.  We all got to sit around a table and talk together.  We talked a lot about how American fast food restaurants are different in Japan with the Japanese exchange students.  Apparently their Subways have Calamari as an option, which made me jealous.

Saturday night, David, his wife Clarice, and I went to the UAF vs NNU womens' basketball game.  It was fun, even though it's not my choice of entertainment (and also even though we lost).  I don't care for the people who get caught up in it and disrespect the referees.  I was more worried about the players getting hurt than how calls were being made.

I've been having a hard semester so far.  To take off some of my burdens, I am no longer going to Cuba, I am no longer working on my project to go to Sitka, and I am no longer taking Aikido.  I am doing much better with things off my plate, and I have gotten largely caught back up.  As it currently stands, I am still hoping to stay here for the summer.  Whether or not that will happen still hinges on me being awarded the fellowship, but I remain optimistic.

I'm confident I'll finish this semester.  I need to be looking into scholarships so as to minimize how many loans I'll be taking my senior year.  I have no idea what will happen after graduation, but I will need to begin paying back my debt soon thereafter.  Perhaps I will get some work study job that pays for grad school.  Or perhaps I may go teach English overseas with some program that will forgive my debt.  However it goes, I really want to do something that's relevant to the education I've been getting.

(Probably) Last post of 2015

Probably.

On Friday, I found out I was awarded my URSA grant for $2,500.  From what I understand, this is great for an undergraduate to write and get a grant.  So yay me!  My professor and I will be using it both to research Alutiiq, Aleut, and nearby Athabaskan languages, as well as travel to Sitka to present our findings on a poster at the Alaska Anthropological Association conference in March.  This is great for both of us. Should be an awesome experience!

I've been having a hard time with being up here lately.  In terms of classes, this semester hasn't been the hardest.  But mentally and emotionally, it's been rough.  I really haven't been feeling well, and this condition has kept me down and isolated.  With my lexapro I hope to feel better.

I cannot wait to go home.  I really miss my mom, my friends, and my cats.  My missing them often consumes my thoughts. I just can't wait.

This morning I took my morphology final.  I think it went okay.  I didn't feel great though because I just couldn't remember lexicalization.  There was a lot of material and I didn't know what aspects of each thing should be covered.  I always feel needlessly pessimistic about my tests, though, and I probably am fine.  Thursday I have my teaching English final, and Saturday I have my math final. I'm pretty confident I'll do fine on the English one, but the math one will require a bit more studying.

On Twitter a "make 20 confessions" thing has been going around, so I thought I'd do mine here:

1) I don't care for Relient K.

2) I think Turkish is one of the coolest languages, in terms of sound and orthography and word-formation.

3) Crunch is my favorite candy bar.

4) I hate the word cribbage.  I have no problem with moist, however.

5) I cannot stand people in Santa Costumes.  Santa Costumes crawl under my skin.

6) I am freaked about by Frida Kahlo paintings.

7) For about four years now, I've had my own personal language called Tzigga (roughly pronounced Tseejaw)

8) Oskar Schindler is my favorite historical non-biblical character.

9) I've never drank nor done drugs.

10) I used to pronounce organic as gorganic, and specific as pacific.

11) I can't do roller coasters at all.

12) Apparently, I'm pretty good at skeet shooting.

13) I once tried making macaroni and cheese with adding every spice I could find in the kitchen.  I took one bite and immediately threw it away.

14) I can't stand almonds, but I love almond flavored things.

15) If I'm alone, after I eat a muffin or cupcake, I eat the liner too (if it's paper).

16) I like listening to metal that involves screaming/growling.

17) I used to have an imaginary friend from Iraq called Izma.

18) I was homeschooled for a short period.

19) I used to want to play the harmonica, but that never really came to fruition at all.

20)  During band practice in elementary school, I would alternate between Tuesdays and Thursdays playing the drums and the xylophone.

Pre-Thanksgiving Update

On Friday, I sent in my grant proposal.  Since about February, I've been working on an internship with the Alaska Native Language Center.  I've been reading through dictionaries of native languages and researching their cultural terminology.  I've been putting all that information into a sheet so my mentors can read through the data to find source words.  Now that I've had more time to get used to the data and taken more linguistics classes, they're giving me more freedom to work on my own.

A long time ago, the Alutiiq people invaded the land that is in between the Aleutian islands and mainland Alaska.  Being in between the Aleuts and the mainland natives, the Alutiiq people served as a conduit of words from one people to the other.  So, I am looking through words that I've already collected from Aleut, Dena'ina, and Eyak, and comparing them to data I've been researching through in Alutiiq.  Should the board approve my request and grant me the $2500, my mentor and I will present this data.  We would go to Sitka in March to present it before an audience for the Alaska Anthropological Association.  It would be a really awesome experience.

I've been really torn about the Cuba trip.  I've been told it would be an invaluable experience and that I really need to pursue it.  However, it may or may not jeopardize my ability to graduate in or within four years.  Before I graduate, I need to take two 400 level Spanish courses for my Spanish degree as well as two writing-intensive and one oral-intensive course for my Linguistics degree.  Meeting all those requirements when I return for Spring 2017 would be a miracle.  It wouldn't necessarily be impossible, but it would be difficult to make all those requisites align.  Even if I were to find a set of classes that met those requirements, that would be a tough semester.  If going to Cuba meant knocking one of those out, it wouldn't be so bad, but the semester abroad would be purely for the experience and improvement to my Spanish.  I really want to go badly, but doing so might mean shooting myself in the foot.

I have signed up for my classes for next semester.  I am taking Intermediate Gwich'in, Spanish Reading & Comprehension, Second Language Acquisition, Semantics, Seminar, and Beginning Aikido, for a total of 16 credits.

To go over all of them:  Intermediate Gwich'in will be a continuation of my current semester, just learning more words and grammar. I hope to keep taking it, but I'm not sure about what role Gwich'in will play in my future.  There's a lot of linguistic work that needs to be done with native Alaskan languages, so part of me wants to stay up here and do research.  However, part of me wants to get out of the cold and dark and explore the world, teaching English or something.  Yet another part of me wants to help out refugees, probably also with teaching them English.  I feel like we need to do more with helping refugees survive here, and I would like to help.  So I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.  I just plan on going through whatever doors are opened for me.

Spanish Reading & Comprehension will be reading books as a class and going over the material together.

Second Language Acquisition will be learning about how people learn their second languages, which has been a topic of great interest to me lately.

Semantics is the study of word meaning, which also interests me.

Seminar is kind of the big, daunting, final linguistics class.  It's like an undergraduate thesis class.  I think I'm going to write about my internship work for it so that I already have the data.  My next semester is going to be a bit rough so I don't want to add any more work to it than I need to.

Aikido is a martial arts thing.  I wanted to continue with swimming, but it conflicts with my classes. I went through pretty much all the PE options, except dancing, and found Aikido works.  I wasn't really sure what it was at first, but after briefly googling it, it seemed cool.  It should be great, in terms of exercise, self-defense, and discipline.

There's a month-long event that will be held here in I think June called Co-Lang.  It's sort of like a linguistics convention.  There will be classes held there that I could take for credits.  I would very much like to attend this because I would love to take classes there and meet linguists from around the world.  I'm not sure what this means for going home as it is kind of awkwardly in the middle of the summer.  But we'll see.

I'm not entirely sure if my depression is getting better or not.  It feels like it's definitely not worse, but it's not much any better.  Unfortunately, all this medication I've been taking is not instantaneous, so I've still got a bit to tell if it is working.  Hopefully by the time next semester is in full force it will have had its time to work through me and I'll be better mentally.

Halfwayish

I think this semester is going by fast.  Maybe it's because my last semester lasted five months (basically).  I'm not trying to wish my life away, although sometimes I do.  I feel like time flies when my days or at least weeks have fun things to do.  It's when there are days after days of going through the motions that time drags.  So, I take it as a good thing when time's flying.

It's these fun things I do with my UCM friends that are helping me get through this semester.  I've been at one of my lowest points yet in terms of my depression lately.  These times with my friends have really improved my mood.

There should be a video of us doing our UCM things together on Facebook.

Anyway, for updates:

I still haven't gotten my internship.  However, my professor makes it sound like it will happen soon; it's just that there need to be meetings to approve funding for it.  She sounds optimistic, so I will be too.

I'm still applying for Cuba.  I've been writing essays answering questions like what are my academic and personal goals for my time there.  Also, I've been researching and applying for scholarships so that the trip won't cost an arm and a leg, but rather just an arm.  I also need to send emails to my professors so that I can use them as references.

For a few weekends now, a friend of mine and I have been meeting on Saturdays to practice our Gwich'in k'yaa together.  For those new to my blog (if there are any), Gwich'in is the native Alaskan and Canadian language I'm studying.  K'yaa means language, so I am learning and speaking Gwich'in k'yaa.  A person who speaks this language natively is a Dinjii zhuh.  If you call them an Eskimo, you will get slapped across the face.  So don't.

I've been helping him with pronunciation and vocabulary as I am a year ahead of him.  It's been great to have someone else to practice with outside of class.

Swimming's been getting better.  I'm more confident in the water than when I first started, but I'm still really struggling with breathing right next to the water.  My nostrils and mouth keep filling with water, which isn't great.  But I'll just keep practicing.  I'd kinda like to take swimming next semester, but I may be taking 18 credits next semester.  Yikes.

Prayers that I not be so depressed would be appreciated.  And also prayers for the people of Hooper Bay would be great; about a week before I published this post, four young people committed suicide there, and the village has been pretty devastated.

Here's a Bible verse:

"But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.  He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.  He provides rain for the Earth; he sends water on the countryside.  The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety"
Job 5: 8-11

September 2015 Update

Lots of updates.  I'll go over what I've done this weekend, then my hopes for the future.

Yesterday, I went on our UCM retreat.  Originally, we were going to a place called Globe Creek, but there was a ton of snow yesterday, which made driving in less-traveled roads too dangerous.  So, instead of camping at a camp, we camped at a hotel.  We hung out doing some worship and watching Nooma videos.  The next day, we hiked over to the Barnes & Noble across the street.  There, I bought the first Harry Potter book in the language it was always meant to be read in: Spanish.  We did some more hanging out and worship and Nooma, then came back home.  That was my fun retreat!

Here are some pictures I've been taking (From random times and places)

Beginnings of the snowman army

More snowmen

Mega snowman

My friend Will, at the retreat, cutting a tomato vertically rather than horizontally

My friend, Zach, eating.  I kept getting blurry images and so I had to keep awkwardly taking more.

These next images are from Starvation Gulch.  For those who want to know more about what that is, copy paste this URL: https://www.uaf.edu/woodcenter/activities/traditions/starvation/

Basically, its burning pallets that have been shaped into towers or buildings.

Fires!

One group built a firetruck out of pallets.  I suppose there's an irony in a burning firetruck set ablaze by firefighters.

Burning Eye of Sauron

It burns!

The Eye of Sauron pallet pile collapsed.

You can feel the warmth far away.

DJs playing trap music loudly.

Here's the firefighters lighting that building in the back on fire.

Stack on fire

A fair amount of people.  Maybe 400ish.

View from a distance.  There were also tens in front selling food and stuff.

I've been trying to get a job.  I'd kind of rather just not have a job so I could have plenty of time for my 16 credits, my friends, as well as retaining a little bit of my sanity, but I need the income.  I'm seeing if I can continue my internship I had last semester and summer, but I don't know yet if it will work.  The professor I worked with seemed optimistic.

One reason I'm hoping for a job (in addition to offsetting the cost of flying and textbooks) is I hope to study abroad next fall.  I'm hoping to go to la Universidad de la Habana, which is a university in Cuba. I still need to earn a couple of scholarships and work out transferring credits I earn there to UAF, but I'm optimistic.

It should be an interesting experience.  I've never lived so far south, so the heat might be tough.  It might also be a challenge that there are 2.1 million people in La Habana, which is far more than any where I'll've lived in for more than two weeks.  And, of course, I won't be speaking English.  I'm hoping for something like an English tutoring job there though; that should be fitting for me.

If I were to come back for my Spring semester 2017, I could earn a double major in Linguistics and Spanish. Financially, that'll be tough.  However, I think going through with that will pay great dividends in the future.  I'm going to do my best to get that to work, and hopefully it will all go well.