Is it really possible to be this happy, all the time? I managed to be happy during so much of my life when things weren’t going nearly so well. Today is an incredible preview of a very exciting future.
As Things Are Revealed… April 14, 2008
Today I am more excited than ever. Any melancholy about my present situation, and financial worries about being able to afford graduate school have melted away. I met with Brad, the Financial Aid Director, and he explained that every grad student is eligible for the PLUS loans! I will be able to draw as much as my full expected need, which should be plenty! I will also continue to try for a part-time on campus job that has tuition reduction benefits. Overall, the situation will be very manageable, and it should even be a sustainable proposition for me to keep my car! Having just bought a 2007 Hybrid, I had hoped to work on paying it off during graduate school, and then have a paid for car again (gosh, I miss that) it by the time I graduated.
Later today I will be sitting in on a class (6:00PM – 8:30PM) entitled “Rich States, Poor States”, which is reportedly taught by a very interesting and entertaining professor. Hopefully the chapters of “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations” by David Landes will be a helpful background for me to get the most out of the three hour class. In any given quarter, there are 10 weeks, and one three hour class a week for each three credit class a student takes. Most classes are held between Monday and Thursday, so I could potentially, for example, have class from 2:00PM – 5:00PM Monday through Thursday, work a part time job from 8:00AM – 1:00PM Monday through Thursday, and use the evenings and long three day weekend to participate in colloquia and symposia, serve on committees, and of course study. With a three day weekend, trips to Seattle or Phoenix are even a possibility, especially with Jenni’s flight benefit (although she only has 44 buddy passes a year that other people in our family probably want to use too, so I should be very considerate there).
At 5:00PM today I am meeting with the landlord of an apartment complex near campus that I am very excited to see the inside of. I drove and walked around the outside, and barring the four-alarm fire in the condos next door that happened last night, they look awesome. I walked from the front door of Cherrington Hall (my graduate school’s main building on campus) to the front door of the complex, and it took me 5 minutes and 54 seconds at a leisurely pace, talking on the phone the whole way. On a bike it would be seconds. The apartments are one bedroom, but they have a little study den with a window that I am excited to see. With all the writing and studying I will be doing, I would like to have some kind of couch or easy chair in the den and a good, sturdy desk with an ergonomic chair. The bedroom will be all about sleep, and the living room will be all about friends and music (and maybe someday, a movie projector), and the dining room will be all about eating. Okay, now I might be stating the obvious a bit. My current apartment doesn’t have that level of delineation of space. I’ve considered putting up a curtain between the dining room (which has served as an office for about a year of the three years I lived there) and the living room (which also serves as a reading/studying area). My bedroom (much to Dave’s chagrin) often served as an office/study area late into the night, and I think it negatively affected my sleep. (Someone is going to have to put a tax on parentheses or I’m just going to keep doing this.)
Anyhoo, that pretty much sums up my day. I’m in the library right now, using the super fast internet connection (will I even need internet in my apartment? [yes.]) which I have been using the last few days to study, email, apply for jobs, and blog. Oh, that reminds me! I have two fairly promising (one more than the other) interviews in Seattle tomorrow, so I am flying back for one night. I fly to Austin on Wednesday morning for Jeff and Tara’s wedding. After the class tonight, I might see a movie (note to self – check movie times), and then I should put a load of laundry in an get some sleep before my flight in the morning. I can probably still get home before Manny gets off work at midnight, even if I see a movie at 9:10. That sounds nice.
Well, now I will walk around campus in the lovely 75 degree sunlight, and take pictures with my crappy camera phone. Next time I come here I need to bring Brisbin’s good camera! Here is a picture of the Mary Reed Building covered in snow that I found on du.edu…however today it is bathed in warm sunight.
Choosing a Language April 14, 2008
In my program, we are required to gain fluency in at least one language (though it is highly encouraged that we have some proficiency in several languages). I find it challenging that the languages I could choose that would be the most culturally sensitive for work in Africa, such as Hausa, Swahili, or Bantu, are difficult to find classes for. French is an obvious choice, but I am horrible at the French accent and pronunciation. That, and it has a bloody colonial heritage in Africa, and I hate to validate that in any way. In the end that probably won’t stop me, as French (see map below) seems to be one of the most widely spoken “official” languages in sub-Saharan Africa.
As far as my own linguistic interests and talents are concerned, my list of languages to learn would go in an order somewhat like this:
- Spanish – I studied Spanish for two years in college, and I think that it wouldn’t take too much effort to gain fluency. Besides, my accent is decent.
- Portuguese – I took one semester in college, but I also traveled in Brazil and had close Brazilian friends who coached me, and I did okay. It isn’t the most useful language, but it is a good specialization to have under one’s belt in the International Development arena, and it is an obvious second choice once one has gained fluency in Spanish.
- Hebrew – I have been studying biblical Hebrew on and off for years, and I have a child’s command of it. I think that I could get to some level of proficiency in modern Hebrew before too long. My accent is decicdedly Ashkenazi, but I guess join the club.
- Arabic - I just love Arabic, and some of the roots are similar to Hebrew, which creates some intuitive understanding. I can’t read Arabic script to save my life, however. With some study, Arabic could be very useful in Africa and the Middle East. It is, of course, very widely spoken worldwide.
- Chinese – I adore Chinese, and when I spoke travel Mandarin to get around Taiwan I had a blast. I have heard it said that my accent is good! That amazes me. Besides, it’s spoken by a huge percentage of the world, and would be as useful as Spanish in a global sense.
- French - I can’t stand French, at least in the sense that I have intense difficulty mastering the very basic concepts. Put frankly (no pun intended), I sound like a drunken child sporting a retainer when I try to speak French. I shrug a lot and basically give up from embarassment. I dropped French in college. However, if I could just swallow my pride and give it a shot, it might be the wisest language to truly focus on. It is also one of the UN’s required languages (the other two being English and Arabic). Also, lessons are plentiful and easy to find.
- Hindi – Coming in a distant seventh, this one probably won’t happen. I know nothing about it whatsoever. But it would be an incredible language to know, and very important within Development.
