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[orion_boreas]

Greetings, friends and strangers!

I'm at Indiana University Bloomington right now, studying first-year Pashto as part of the SWSEEL ("SWEE-zuhl") program held here every summer for the past 59 years (something like that). It's really cool! I like it very, very much

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Re: I LOVE BLOOMINGTON TOO!!!!

[orion_boreas]

I met a girl who knew her last year! Madison, was it? I know the Reedie girl had a familiar-sounding name but I didn't know her personally, I don't think. When I met this Reedie-knowing girl here, she immediately said, "Did you go to REED?!?" I was kind of shocked and said, "Yes..." A strange interaction, indeed! Everyone here is really nice, and even though my class is (predictably?) full of military-affiliated guys, there is one girl in my class who is also my roommate for the summer, and she is awesome!

I'm sad that your friend didn't like SWSEEL last year. What language did she study? What did she not like about it?

The Saturday farmer's market is definitely on my list. There was a Tuesday farmer's market, but they keep us pretty busy during the week. I have four hours of classes in the morning, followed by a "language table" lunch two days a week, and then extra practice and whatnot in the professor's office in the afternoon, and then there are optional-but-often-fascinating lectures nearly every evening. Tomorrow's lecture's topic: "What Does a CIA Agent Really Do?"

Everything in Bloomington is cool. Do you really want to move to Bloomington fo' eva-eva? I love this city enough (I say this, having been here less than a week) to feel like I would gladly stay here fo' eva-eva too. I will continue to post here on LJ, just 'cause you requested it. :)

How is Jawjaw treating you?

Oh yeah... and the Kinsey Institute is here! But I'm sure you knew that. :D I have yet to visit it, but it is on my list!

Re: I LOVE BLOOMINGTON TOO!!!!

[lordgw2314]

I definitely want to live in the B-town for-ev-er! I went up for a long weekend last year just to see the Kinsey Institute, I got access to their SEXY library, too! The goal is to get a PhD in gender studies at IU and do research with KI.

The friend was Matteson, who also did pthon for a while, but she may have been in Cairo while you were there. Dunno if you guys overlapped or not. She did Uygher (forgive the spelling) and she liked the language and culture she was studying, but from what I gathered, not so much the IU campus and the (as you mentioned) mostly military-type folks in SWSEEL. She, like you, is a major language buff.

Georgia is teh suck, but the people I've managed to attach myself to are awesome! I've got a kick-ass mentor for sex research who actually went to IU and got one of his masters degrees there. He's an excellent resource and he's essentially grooming me to get accepted there. And am I ever grateful!

Wouldn't life be crazy-fun if we both ended up in Bloomington?!

Let me know what you think of the Institute and make sure you check out their juried art show. It's supposed to be really cool. Last years was AMAZING and they had several hundred more submissions this year! Any tidbits (and/or photos!) you care to share are immensely appreciated!

~M:-)