Fall Semester '10 in fucking rainbow vision
Four weeks and I have not skipped one class! It's a record! Here is a summary of how the semester has been so far.
New school, new apartment, new job... new city? Well, kind of. I have always told people that I live in Pittsburgh to avoid confusion. If clarification was necessary it was always done later, and I would explain that I lived in a medium-sized town named after a fruit.
The campus is just lovely. I haven't seen all of it, but I like what I have seen. At least it's not situated on a mountain. The only time I walk up a slope is when I'm climbing stairs or going to work.
Speaking of work, it's been pretty good. I make copies, scan things, file things, and download the documents I scan on a really super slow Mac. My boss is REALLY nice and let me have Mondays off since I have a night class that day. She also offered me tea and said I could listen to my iPod when I'm doing repetitive tasks. I've been wearing jeans and business casual tops. I really hate tucking my septum ring in during work because it's kind of uncomfortable, but I feel I probably shouldn't be asking permission to let it hang when I'm so new. Working three hours a day four days a week might not sound so hard, but it can be exhausting. There are times when I just want to go home after class and maybe get some shit done - but alas, money must be made.
Portuguese! I really like the class because the teacher, Lilly, is really happy and smiley and asks to be called by her first name. She's from Brazil so she really knows what she's talking about. I'm so glad I have this class five days a week. Even though that can be kind of annoying, what with less time to get homework done, it's so beneficial. Hearing her speak every day is taking care of the pronunciation problems I'm bound to have, since I have the inevitable tendency to read Portuguese text with Spanish pronunciation.
Linguistics! I love intro to linguistics even though it's a huge class. The teacher, Na-Rae, is from Korea. It's not necessarily a good thing for a non-native English speaker to teach linguistics because some of her pronunciations are a little off... fortunately, I keep up with my reading and I already know a thing or two about linguistics, so I understand her. I'm getting really into solving phonology problems and I'm so pumped for the first exam next week.
Algebra! Our prof refers to himself as the Captain. Cap'n Crock is a really good teacher and he's actually pretty funny in a Mr. Solomon kind of way. (If you didn't go to Plum, Mr. Solomon was a science teacher who insisted that his students pronounce fish as [fiʃ] and who was obsessed with the state of Oklahoma) The Captain always pronounces things weird too, and it's so juvenile but so amusing at the same time. The amazing thing? I CAN WRITE OUT THE FUCKING PHONOLOGICAL RULE FOR HOW HE PRONOUNCES THINGS.
[æ] -> [a] in the following in environments
orthography
transcription
environment
fancy
[fænsi][f_n]
graph
[gɹæf][ɹ_f]Thus, [æ] -> [a] / wherever the fuck the Captain fucking feels like it
Theatre! The theatre teacher lets us call her Claire. This is the first time in my life I have not had to refer to any of my professors as "doctor." I suspect that some of them aren't doctors, but whatever. Theatre is fucking easy. Our first assignment was a two page paper worth 10% of your grade, and you got all the points if you turned it in. Reading the textbook isn't even really necessary. We hardly do a damn thing, and I'm getting credit for it. Weeoo.
Spanish civilization! I couldn't get into this class. Blah. So now I only have four classes.
Things aren't perfect. I'm still concerned about my major and stuff, but whatever. Life is fab.
New school, new apartment, new job... new city? Well, kind of. I have always told people that I live in Pittsburgh to avoid confusion. If clarification was necessary it was always done later, and I would explain that I lived in a medium-sized town named after a fruit.
The campus is just lovely. I haven't seen all of it, but I like what I have seen. At least it's not situated on a mountain. The only time I walk up a slope is when I'm climbing stairs or going to work.
Speaking of work, it's been pretty good. I make copies, scan things, file things, and download the documents I scan on a really super slow Mac. My boss is REALLY nice and let me have Mondays off since I have a night class that day. She also offered me tea and said I could listen to my iPod when I'm doing repetitive tasks. I've been wearing jeans and business casual tops. I really hate tucking my septum ring in during work because it's kind of uncomfortable, but I feel I probably shouldn't be asking permission to let it hang when I'm so new. Working three hours a day four days a week might not sound so hard, but it can be exhausting. There are times when I just want to go home after class and maybe get some shit done - but alas, money must be made.
Portuguese! I really like the class because the teacher, Lilly, is really happy and smiley and asks to be called by her first name. She's from Brazil so she really knows what she's talking about. I'm so glad I have this class five days a week. Even though that can be kind of annoying, what with less time to get homework done, it's so beneficial. Hearing her speak every day is taking care of the pronunciation problems I'm bound to have, since I have the inevitable tendency to read Portuguese text with Spanish pronunciation.
Linguistics! I love intro to linguistics even though it's a huge class. The teacher, Na-Rae, is from Korea. It's not necessarily a good thing for a non-native English speaker to teach linguistics because some of her pronunciations are a little off... fortunately, I keep up with my reading and I already know a thing or two about linguistics, so I understand her. I'm getting really into solving phonology problems and I'm so pumped for the first exam next week.
Algebra! Our prof refers to himself as the Captain. Cap'n Crock is a really good teacher and he's actually pretty funny in a Mr. Solomon kind of way. (If you didn't go to Plum, Mr. Solomon was a science teacher who insisted that his students pronounce fish as [fiʃ] and who was obsessed with the state of Oklahoma) The Captain always pronounces things weird too, and it's so juvenile but so amusing at the same time. The amazing thing? I CAN WRITE OUT THE FUCKING PHONOLOGICAL RULE FOR HOW HE PRONOUNCES THINGS.
[æ] -> [a] in the following in environments
orthography
transcription
environment
fancy
[fænsi][f_n]
graph
[gɹæf][ɹ_f]Thus, [æ] -> [a] / wherever the fuck the Captain fucking feels like it
Theatre! The theatre teacher lets us call her Claire. This is the first time in my life I have not had to refer to any of my professors as "doctor." I suspect that some of them aren't doctors, but whatever. Theatre is fucking easy. Our first assignment was a two page paper worth 10% of your grade, and you got all the points if you turned it in. Reading the textbook isn't even really necessary. We hardly do a damn thing, and I'm getting credit for it. Weeoo.
Spanish civilization! I couldn't get into this class. Blah. So now I only have four classes.
Things aren't perfect. I'm still concerned about my major and stuff, but whatever. Life is fab.