Yes, after a long hiatus, I'm back! Martin left today, which absolutely sucks, but one of the bonuses is that I can once again be on the computer whenever I want to and take my time with things, instead of having to worry about being 'antisocial'. Among the other bonuses are: not having to drive long distances to 'do something fun' whenever I have free time, not having to spend obscene amounts of money on aforementioned 'fun things', being able to lounge around and read instead of having to be people-focused 24/7, and being able to take time to meet people in my apartment complex and do things at my own pace, instead of having to accommodate another person, too.
That being said, we did have a great three weeks. MGM, a visit from Christine, Wet & Wild, M's first taco experience, Silver Springs, a purchase of a racing bike, Sea World, an airboat ride (today), Wild Adventures, a hurricane, the world's largest McDonalds, a Jaguars game... and, of course, lots and lots of shrimp. (He's addicted.) And yes, we both cried at the airport tonight... it's a long time till Christmas.
Speaking of which, I've had another thought about next year, and I don't know why I didn't think of it until now. I'm going to be done with all my requirements, so I'd been planning to graduate a year early (in May 2005) and go over to the Netherlands again for a masters' program in Utrecht. But I've had a better thought. What if I were to simply study abroad in NL again? As far as I know, there's no law that you can't do the same program twice. It's the best of all worlds - I'd take my fourth year of undergrad after all, I'd get my scholarship money, I'd have an extra year to brush up my Dutch a little more before I dive into a masters, I'd be able to take whatever classes I wanted - maybe Spanish at Boswell! - without worrying about transfer credit... plus, since I've already been there once, I'd have a much better idea of how to go about things. For instance, live with Dutch students (it's always cheaper) and put a letter in my application saying that I will NOT under any circumstances live in Park Rheyngaerde again, haha! Even better, send my friends out searching for rooms. :) Anyway, I've got to do a lot of checking up on things to see if that's even possible, but it's an option that occurred to me yesterday morning in TESL class while talking about various abroad programs and seemed to have a lot of positive points to it. What do you guys think?
While I'm on the subject: I'm also thinking about going abroad to a different country with a summer program. I don't think that's going to be financially possible, but I'm checking into it anyway because I'd like to see another country besides NL. Call me crazy, but I'm sort of toying with the idea of Africa... maybe Kenya. When would I ever get the chance again?
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. :)
As for other things: my classes are really cool and so is work. Classes are:
LIN 3201 Sounds of Human Language
LIN 3460 Structure of Human Language
TSL 3370 Teaching English as a Second Language
AST 1002 Discovering the Universe
ANT 2000 General Anthropology
PEN 1122 Swimming II
The two linguistics courses are required, of course, but they're all right. They're trying to squeeze a drill session into that first one, which is really @#$%ing with my schedule, but I like the second one a lot. They're both rather like my Phonology and Syntax classes from Utrecht, so no sweat. TESL is all right too; the teacher has the demeanor of an elementary-school teacher, but she's very sweet and approachable, so it's all good. As for anthropology, well, I had a drop-add fiasco and ended up not taking Marriage and the Family. But anthropology's a better fit for me anyway - language, culture, evolution from apes... fascinating stuff. And the teacher is really cool - like a mix of Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Wiesike. I had a 3000-level anthro course in my first semester here, which really went into detail about the evolution stuff - memorizing features of early primate skeletons and stuff - so this course should be no problem. Same thing with astronomy - I took a 2000-level course in my second semester, and this course is (so far) following the exact same pattern... in theory, I don't even have to go. (FYI: I'm taking both those classes to fulfill specific requirements, not because I'm specifically trying to repeat stuff I've already had.) And swimming... what is there to say about swimming? Except that it's very early in the morning?
As for work, I like it too. I'm working at A Child's Academy, up on the northern side of town, in the infant room. It's basically just playing with babies all afternoon (15.20 till 18.00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays) but it's sort of a posh place - expensive - and so we have to be really professional. Like, we fill out reports for each child - what and when they eat, when and how long they sleep, what they do in their diapers and when... oh well, but I guess as a parent I would appreciate that too.
Anyway, I'm going to go to bed now... and sleep... for a very long time. I was on the phone with Mom tonight on the way home and she asked if I could sleep in tomorrow. I said, "Yeah, tomorrow's my first free day since... like... uh..."
"2003?" she offered.
"Yeah, something like that."
That being said, we did have a great three weeks. MGM, a visit from Christine, Wet & Wild, M's first taco experience, Silver Springs, a purchase of a racing bike, Sea World, an airboat ride (today), Wild Adventures, a hurricane, the world's largest McDonalds, a Jaguars game... and, of course, lots and lots of shrimp. (He's addicted.) And yes, we both cried at the airport tonight... it's a long time till Christmas.
Speaking of which, I've had another thought about next year, and I don't know why I didn't think of it until now. I'm going to be done with all my requirements, so I'd been planning to graduate a year early (in May 2005) and go over to the Netherlands again for a masters' program in Utrecht. But I've had a better thought. What if I were to simply study abroad in NL again? As far as I know, there's no law that you can't do the same program twice. It's the best of all worlds - I'd take my fourth year of undergrad after all, I'd get my scholarship money, I'd have an extra year to brush up my Dutch a little more before I dive into a masters, I'd be able to take whatever classes I wanted - maybe Spanish at Boswell! - without worrying about transfer credit... plus, since I've already been there once, I'd have a much better idea of how to go about things. For instance, live with Dutch students (it's always cheaper) and put a letter in my application saying that I will NOT under any circumstances live in Park Rheyngaerde again, haha! Even better, send my friends out searching for rooms. :) Anyway, I've got to do a lot of checking up on things to see if that's even possible, but it's an option that occurred to me yesterday morning in TESL class while talking about various abroad programs and seemed to have a lot of positive points to it. What do you guys think?
While I'm on the subject: I'm also thinking about going abroad to a different country with a summer program. I don't think that's going to be financially possible, but I'm checking into it anyway because I'd like to see another country besides NL. Call me crazy, but I'm sort of toying with the idea of Africa... maybe Kenya. When would I ever get the chance again?
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. :)
As for other things: my classes are really cool and so is work. Classes are:
LIN 3201 Sounds of Human Language
LIN 3460 Structure of Human Language
TSL 3370 Teaching English as a Second Language
AST 1002 Discovering the Universe
ANT 2000 General Anthropology
PEN 1122 Swimming II
The two linguistics courses are required, of course, but they're all right. They're trying to squeeze a drill session into that first one, which is really @#$%ing with my schedule, but I like the second one a lot. They're both rather like my Phonology and Syntax classes from Utrecht, so no sweat. TESL is all right too; the teacher has the demeanor of an elementary-school teacher, but she's very sweet and approachable, so it's all good. As for anthropology, well, I had a drop-add fiasco and ended up not taking Marriage and the Family. But anthropology's a better fit for me anyway - language, culture, evolution from apes... fascinating stuff. And the teacher is really cool - like a mix of Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Wiesike. I had a 3000-level anthro course in my first semester here, which really went into detail about the evolution stuff - memorizing features of early primate skeletons and stuff - so this course should be no problem. Same thing with astronomy - I took a 2000-level course in my second semester, and this course is (so far) following the exact same pattern... in theory, I don't even have to go. (FYI: I'm taking both those classes to fulfill specific requirements, not because I'm specifically trying to repeat stuff I've already had.) And swimming... what is there to say about swimming? Except that it's very early in the morning?
As for work, I like it too. I'm working at A Child's Academy, up on the northern side of town, in the infant room. It's basically just playing with babies all afternoon (15.20 till 18.00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays) but it's sort of a posh place - expensive - and so we have to be really professional. Like, we fill out reports for each child - what and when they eat, when and how long they sleep, what they do in their diapers and when... oh well, but I guess as a parent I would appreciate that too.
Anyway, I'm going to go to bed now... and sleep... for a very long time. I was on the phone with Mom tonight on the way home and she asked if I could sleep in tomorrow. I said, "Yeah, tomorrow's my first free day since... like... uh..."
"2003?" she offered.
"Yeah, something like that."
stormed at 00:49
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