Vita et Nugae

Maybe it's the fever from my cold, but I find this all very fascinating. So, I'm taking this class on teaching culture in the foreign language classroom, right? We spent most of the first few weeks talking about the definition of culture. What is it? How does it work? The stuff we read and talked about was just so cool. To quote my own reflection assignment: "Culture is dynamic, active and doing things. Culture has consequences on a larger social level and on an individual level, both affecting people while people affect it. Moran (2001) highlights culture as a lived experience made possible through interaction. He sees cultural learning as a personal encounter with difference. Spradley (1979) emphasizes the importance of point of view when looking at another culture. One’s culture is a way of viewing and interpreting the world; he uses the particularly descriptive term 'alternative realities.' It is a means of perception that initiates practice and as such, understanding culture becomes finding the meaning behind action."
End quote.
The thing that really struck a cord with me about understanding cultures is the idea of "alternative realities." It's about turning everything you know on its head, and really, really looking from someone else's point of view. Obi Wan talks about it in Return of the Jedi: "Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." And that's how we can begin to understand, begin to find the meaning behind someone's action. I also love the use of the term "alternative" implying that it could have happened to you. It could happen to anybody. All the best scifi shows have alternative reality episodes, where the world is turned upside down either because the time line is messed up or they've traveled into a different dimension, or, an alternate reality. The point of these episodes is usually to reflect on what could have been if things had turned out differently. This reflection always leads to interesting new perspectives on the characters and plot.
Another author we addressed in class, Moran, talked about culture as an iceberg. We only ever see the surface of someone's point of view. The perspectives that create products and practices are all rooted below, where no one remembers to look.
So what am I saying here? I think we all need a little more reflection- we need to bother to look for those perspectives below the surface. When you watch the news, don't judge the criminal or the politician before reflecting on their circumstances. Instead of saying that people are stupid, really reflect on their point of view, on their cultural background as a criminal, as a politician, as a terrorist. When we reflect, we might begin to understand. When we understand, we, with our own cultural baggage, can more effectively and productively interact with that person and all his/her cultural baggage.

I feel like this is really deep stuff. Metaphysical, even. It gives me the feeling that researchers in this domain are really on to something- closer to solving the mysteries of the universe and finding the secret of life.

Clearly I'm overtired and exhausted from my cold. I'm going to read this again in a few days time and wonder what was wrong with me. I haven't even taken any OTC meds today! I swear!

And now, I must ground myself in reality once again as I attempt to finish my next journal entry.

Dear World,

Every time I take a major hiatus from the LJ, I'm always afraid to go back again because I'm worried that you may have all stopped writing too! I'm quite relieved to see some recent entries, so I'll have to try to catch up with you all once again. Not to mention, I really miss writing.

Right now, I'm in the library at UB working on homework for my summer class on teaching culture in the foreign language classroom. I'll have to tell you about it. And I'll have to tell you all about my summer activities and future plans. Scary things in the future...scary things.

But right now, I have to keep working on homework.

I'll update again soon.

World,

I have a meeting at 3:30, so I'll have to make this quick.
So, when I left my house this morning, it wasn't snowing. It had snowed a bit, and there was a minor drift in the driveway. The roads were a bit slippery, but nothing that careful driving couldn't handle. The thruway, however, was disastrous. I was on the thruway for 1.5 hours! At first, I thought it was just a bad accident that backed it up, but it was a 20mph crawl all the way from where the 400 meets 90 to the 990!! When I got to the 190, I realized how bad the weather was in the north towns. Holy cow! And you know, I wasn't so stressed out about the driving through the high winds and white out conditions as I was about being late to class. (that really says something about myself, doesn't it?) I was very late. I was so late that I missed the entire class. Yes, by the time I got to campus, parked and ran up to the 6th floor of Baldy, there was only 5 minutes of class left. Dr. Woodard was mumbling something about the first man and his three sons. I was so mad. Luckily, Dr. Woodard didn't seem too upset or concerned, and Valerie will be able to lend me some notes.
But, I suppose it's good that I didn't die along the way. I was so preoccupied about being late that I didn't really have time to panic about the conditions. Well, I'm hear now.

What made me feel a bit better is that I went to a great archaeology lecture on agency theory and how archaeologists should attempt to apply new theories on time, space and human/object agency onto their research. It was truly fascinating!! Apparently one can perceive time not only as linear, but also as having depth. As points on the time line cascade down in meaning and importance, they can bounce back on the present. Maybe this is just my love of sci-fi theory coming out, but I was riveted!

So, thus far it has been a day of intense emotion. Trying and challenging times these are. It will be hard to get through my 3 hour class at 4:00, but hopefully it wont stress me out too much and hopefully the snow will have cleared up by the time I get to leave! Don't get me wrong, I still like snow, but for the first time it has drastically affected me, personally. Probably unfairly I actually don't blame the snow so much as the general state of traffic. Grr...making me miss class.... grr.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2626946073/

I'm very excited, I don't know about you. :)

World,

So, when I last updated, I will still on Christmas break. It is now mid-January and I am in the middle of my second week of my second semester of graduate school.

Right now, I'm taking a break from some homework. I just read a really dense article about 2nd language acquisition theory, specifically the role of interlanguage. I'm confused.

This semester consists of 5 classes, plus two-thirds of a Greek course that I'm auditing. (Only two-thirds because I have to be a half hour late every time.)
I have one class every day at 4:00 (3 on tuesdays) except for Friday, and one class at 9:00am every MWF. That schedule leaves me with a large span of time between 11:00-4:00 in which to do homework and otherwise whittle away the hours. I have now made the secret computer lab in Baldy Hall my home-away-from-home. The only problem with this set up, is that I cannot seem to access the printer. I have e-mailed an all-powerful IT person, but he has yet to resolve the problem. I shall have to follow up with him at at some point.

Much to my disappointment and frustration, I will be unable to attend Grex this semester. Dr. Coffee has decided to run it at 5:00 on Wednesdays, right in the middle of one of my classes. This is frustrating not only from a mere nerdy recreational standpoint, but also from an academic one. I don't know if I explained this many moons ago already, but I will outline my situation here, again, and then segue into some further issues relating spoken Latin to my possible summer exploits. Ahem.
Last year, before graduation, Dr. Coffee had sent me an e-mail out of the blue and of his own volition. He had this idea that for my graduate work I could write a masters thesis on spoken Latin, immersion programs and workshops, and its pedagogical implications. He really wanted me to direct it towards and include a comparison between his, now two year running, annual spoken Latin workshop and other immersion programs around the country, such as the most popular one in Boston. First, I began jumping up and down, feeling important, and happy that I had a sense of purpose as I bounded into the new universe of graduate studies in education. The implications of this proposal, however, included my continued participation in spoken Latin both at Grex and his summer workshops (no problem there) as well as the participation in another program around the country. Over the past several months, I began researching programs. Unfortunately, the one in Boston is on hiatus this summer. This is most unfortunate, as I had my heart set on it. So, I turned to the Rusticatio through SALVI. This one would be one full week of immersion in the middle of July, in, I believe, West Virginia. No problem there- apply for the program, apply for funding, and before I know it I'll be traveling off to speak Latin in the country side!

That was all well and good--

Last week, I got this e-mail from my department about a possible job opportunity through the Institute of Reading Development. It would basically be a full time job for the entirety of the summer. They need teachers (anyone with a bachelors degree) to act as tutors for pre-college students of all grade levels in reading. They put you through an extensive training program, all paid, and even pay for traveling expensive since it may require some commuting around the city and/or between Rochester. (http://instituteofreadingdevelopmentteachingjobs.com/) This sounds like a great summer job! It really peaked my interest. It even pays very well. Plus, I've been ready for something different to do during the summer for a long time. I am very grateful to have been working part time at the Drs Office and UB survey, but I've been looking for an out. This would not only be something different, but it would be full time, related to my field, look great on a resume and give me lots of good experience.
That said, they don't let you take more than three consecutive days off. The Rusicatio is a full week, right in the middle of the teaching months.

My question for you is this: What do I do?!
I've talked to Dr. Coffee about this, but he didn't have any magic solutions. He thought that the Reading Institute was a really great summer job idea, but he also wants me to participate in the Rusticatio. I haven't talked to my education adviser yet, but I will at the next opportunity I can. What I can also do is e-mail the institute of reading development and explain my situation. It's not as if I'm taking a vacation; this is for school and academic research, so they may have a solution for me also.

If you were me, what would you do?

Phew, that was lots of writing and explaining. I should probably get back to reading or something class-related now. I'll keep you posted on this new dilemma.

World,

So, I finished the last of my coursework on Wednesday night. I stayed up until 3:00am doing it, and had consumed so much caffeine that I wouldn't have been able to go to sleep after that even if I wanted to. I went down stairs and watched more Stargate, and then forced myself to get some sleep around 5:00am.

After some minor fiascoes with handing the project in, and not being able to visit my old cleaning lady from my dorms for a second time :( , Friday night was spent doing very girly things. I went over to Stephanie's apartment, and she and Becky and I just hung out, packed and then decided to have an impromptu sleep over. I loved it. I'm really going to miss Stephanie. She has a way of probing you, asking you really deep questions and being truly interested in your answers. She taught me not to fear make up, and to take pride in enhancing my features- looking like I take care of myself. In some ways, she also taught me not to fear the possibilities of love (although it's still a great mystery to me and will probably never happen for me. I still don't even think I ever want it). With her leaving, another part of my undergraduate life fades into memories. She won't read this, but I wish her success and happiness in her future endeavors. She has great plans and she's well on her way to carving out a great life for herself. Thanks for your friendship.

(I just accidentally added a misspelled word to the spell-checker dictionary and I don't know how to fix it!)

It's sad to think how things are going to change at the end of next semester too- another one of my friends will be leaving. I'll really miss her too! Another vestige of undergraduate life unraveling, fading, flying into the winds. *sigh*

Well, when I came home this morning from my brief stay in middle school land after our sleepover, R and A had dropped the kids off for babysitting. Poor Mom was feeling sick and stressed out, so I tried to help as much as I could. The trouble, of course, is that Mom can't let go. I was perfectly capable of watching the kids on my own, but it's almost like she doesn't trust anybody to do her jobs or something- she hovers and is constantly ready to criticize and take over. And she does it in so subtle a way, that you almost can't prevent it from happening. She wouldn't even let me seal the envelops on her Christmas cards by myself today- she had to take over and show me how she does it, because it was better. It was better, doing it her way, but still. It gets quite frustrating sometimes.
After that, I helped her get Christmas presents ready for her students, then cook dinner. We made a "stone soup" of sorts, starting with small ideas and adding more and more ingredients until we had an amazing minestrone soup. I think we deserve to pat ourselves on the back for that endeavor.

After dinner, we headed on over to visit Chris and Beth. It was just a lovely visit! We took a stroll though their main street to see the Christmas lights, and then we went back to the house to have hot chocolate, cookies and roasted chestnuts! It was very Christmassy. Chris' house is always so warm and inviting. His house and decorations look like a magazine picture- right out of Martha Stewart or something. Candles were burning, the lights were low, the fireplace was on; and he had lovely Christmas music playing- the Charlie Brown soundtrack and Anonymous 4 with their lovely vocals floating through the speakers like angel voices. As usual, Beth and I had some great conversation too. When we get going, we have so much fun talking about anthropology, traveling, academics, lots of stuff. It was really a lovely evening.

Amy had originally planned on coming home tonight, but she had a snow dump down in PA and just couldn't make it out. But I do think that she'll be home for Christmas. I'm very relieved by that, because I hate being an only child on Christmas morning. I really, really miss all of us being home and taking turns opening Santa's piles of presents for each of us. When those piles were exhausted, we continued the process with the family gifts under the tree. The last gifts to be opened were usually Aunt Rose's and Aunt Cathie's. Aunt Cathie's was always special: brown paper packages tied up in string strait from the old country- Scotland. She would send each of us a gift and lots of British candy! You know what else I miss? Decorating the Christmas tree. When we were all home, we would get a real Christmas tree. We decorated it as a family. Amy was always the one who crawled behind the tree to hang the icicle ornaments on the back side and the hard to reach places. It was really quite a process.
Despite loosing all of our old traditions, one of our new traditions is to go to R and A's house for Christmas eve dinner and present exchanges. Even though we can't all be together on Christmas Day, we do all meet on Christmas Eve. I'm very grateful for that.

You know what I'm missing this year? Dad hasn't played his Gene Autry Christmas music yet. I hope he gets it out soon.


Merry Christmas everyone!

You know a really nice thing about living at home? In the morning, before my mom heads for work, sometimes she stops in my bedroom, if I'm still sleeping, and gives me a kiss.

This may seem so silly, but something just occurred to me. My best teachers, Mrs. Curran, Ms. Zaw, etc., didn't necessarily teach to the test, but I scored highest on those regents subject tests. They taught whole-heatedly, enthusiastically and deeply what they felt was most important about their subjects, what they were passionate about. But, what separates them from other teachers who disregarded the regents exams, is that they didn't stop there. Separately, and deliberately they taught us how to to take the regents exam. Those were my most memorable classes, and most successful all-around.

I know this doesn't sound like a particularly epic conclusion, but it kind of is for me. Sometimes I feel so dense about this whole teaching thing. I hope I do it right... I also hope I'm making the right career decision for myself (see earlier entries!).

So, I'm trying to find summer things to do. It turns out that Conventiculum Bostoniense is on hiatus for 2010. This makes me very sad. It means that I won't get to meet Terrence Tunburg, one of the foremost modern speakers of ancient Latin. This also means that I won't get class credit and I won't get to go to Boston. However, there is a similar 1 week program in West Virginia. It's cheaper, but I won't get class credit. I suppose it's better than nothing. It takes place in a mansion built by one of George Washington's nephews. That's pretty cool.

And, while trying to look for summer options, I also found a scholarship that I should apply for. I'm not sure, though, because I'm just not sure about continuing my teaching career- one of the requirements.

How does one find out about museum work? I had an internship- it wasn't my cup of tea, but I know that it didn't represent all facets of the career.

Why is life so complicated? Gah! So frustrated!

Do you ever get frustrated when people can't enjoy a good thing without complaining about something else? Examples: some cannot enjoy a Tasty Cake's cupcake without complaining about how Hostess cupcakes used to taste before they changed their recipe. Or, one cannot enjoy a good comedian today without lamenting the fall of American comedy after the Golden Days of Dean Martin, Red Skelton and Carol Burnett. Perhaps those aren't the best examples, but hopefully you get the idea.
It's very frustrating and depressing.