Important things in my life (in no particular order)

[readingredhead]

It was great to be back in Berkeley, and terrible at the same time, because after five days I had to leave. I love the city, and I find out new things about it every time I visit (for example, this time I made my first visit to gourmet ice cream parlor Ici). It'll be good to leave it for a year -- but I have a feeling it'll be just as good to return.

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The seventeenth gets closer and closer each day. It's almost officially September. That's crazy...but also good. I'm starting to prepare for London in earnest. It's so weird because it's like being a freshman all over again, but with the benefit of hindsight upon the whole college freshman experience. I think I'm going to like 'freshman' year 2.0 even better than I liked the first iteration.

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Dinner tonight was definitely cinnamon pecan waffles with peanut butter and syrup and milk and bacon. Yum. Life rocks.

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I'm teaching myself Italian (conversationally, using CDs borrowed from a neighbor) and finding it pretty easy. I've always wanted to learn more languages; the whole grad school language requirement thing is just the incentive I need to start picking them up! Frankly, the real list starts with refreshing my Spanish and then learning French, followed by Italian (and then Latin if I'm not dead yet), but I figure there's no harm in learning some conversational Italian even if I can't actually spell most of the words. Apparently I remember more Spanish than I thought -- sometimes when asked how to say a basic phrase in Italian, I can only remember it in Spanish! In my defense, the languages are remarkably similar. If Italian is spoken slowly enough, I can understand two out of three words.

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While I'm studying abroad, I will be keeping up with this journal, though it's quite possible I'm (finally) going to make it friends-only. I'm also going to be keeping a public blog that will consist pretty much of condensed and edited LJ posts. I'll still post randomness and rants and hopes and fears on here...but the study abroad blog will be kept free of anything I wouldn't want to share with my distant relatives, parents, and former schoolteachers. Still, if you're itching for someone else to follow on tumblr, my journal is When In London.

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I got my first check in the mail from DemiDec today! Yes, guys, they're legit, and I'm $700 richer -- and that's only the first of four checks that I'm due. Some of them may be for even larger installments (I confess I don't know exactly). Also, aside from making requested revisions on the three projects that haven't been completed yet (which takes little to no time compared to actually producing the content to begin with), I'm no longer working. This gives me ample and abundant free time. I hadn't realized how much I missed that. I'm looking forward to getting in some beach time, some reading time, some writing time, and some general time to relax.

Comments

[i-wear-wellies.livejournal.com]

woot for money!!

What cd program is the Italian? I've been thinking of getting one to keep up with my Spanish, but want to make sure it's a good one first.

We need to have some hanging out/relax time too before you go.

[readingredhead.livejournal.com]

I'm using a program called Pimsleur, but it's really beginner. So far I can say things like "I am American" and "How are you?" and "You understand English very well"...although to be fair I'm only on the second or third audio lesson and I've always picked up on language quickly. I find it pretty effective. I'd check out the library -- I was there the other day and they had at least ten different CD options for Italian alone -- I have a feeling they'd have even more for Spanish. Just burn yourself copies of the disks and voila!

[transientrain.livejournal.com]

What in the world is DemiDec?

I wish I had kept up my French-- someday, you may need to reteach me the language.

How did the day with Rick go, or did it not yet occur?

[readingredhead.livejournal.com]

DemiDec is a company that writes supplemental prep material for students competing in Academic Decathlon. I helped write review stuff for their literature guide -- this year's theme was romanticism, so right up my alley.

I wish I had kept up my Spanish -- now, I'll have to re-learn it! I don't know if I'll ever be good enough at French to teach you -- maybe we'll have to visit Paris together and teach each other? :)

And the meeting with Rick went well...it was maybe a week ago. It was understandably awkward at first, and it's not like we're going to become good friends, but it cleared the water for me. Overall a good thing, I think. I had meant to write about it on here, but it didn't happen.

Slightly related question: have you seen the film 500 Days of Summer?

[transientrain.livejournal.com]

I have not, but I've heard of it-- it sounds so up my ally...

[hodgetopodge.livejournal.com]

Are you familiar with Stuff White People Like? I was reading it today, and they give an entry on promising to learn a foreign language. I thought of you when I read it, but I too have conversational CDs for summer review (in Greek). My copy of the Divine Comedy is dual language, and I can understand about 2/3 as well (from Spanish and also the Latin I have picked up God knows where). Librivox has an audiobook copy of the Comedy -- yes, the whole thing -- in Italian. I had planned to listen to it while I don't sleep, but I'm still working out the logistics. Freerice.com has an Italian quiz that I have been using. I can make it up to level 10 but can only maintain level 8, without any formal training, though I am picking up new vocabulary through only two or three days of usage.

[readingredhead.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes, I am a white person. But I will stop being one when I actually learn the language I promised to learn?

Here's a joke: If someone who speaks two languages is bilingual, and someone who speaks three is trilingual, what's someone who only speaks one? An American.

I'm hoping to have good enough Italian for Dante. I confess I've never actually read the Divine Comedy, but this will shortly be remedied. Perhaps I will use Dante to help me learn Italian? Originally my plan was to find the first Harry Potter book in Italian and read it side-by-side with my English version, but that fell through.

Thanks for the freerice tip -- the audio thing I'm using is good for giving me conversationally useful phrases, but I'm short on actual everyday words (although I do know how to say "cat" because my childhood bedsheets had little blue cats cavorting on a field of "cat" written in multiple different languages).

[hodgetopodge.livejournal.com]

The thing about being a white person is, you will probably give up your Italian CDs after next week, try a software program the week after that, and claim it was no good. Sorry.

I found reading the dual language version of Siddhartha did wonders for my German. The copy of the Comedy I have has Dante's Italian on one side and English on the other. I sought out the Mendelbaum translation because I loved his version of the Metamorphoses. His Comedy is equally compelling. Dante's "Italian" is a little like Joyce's English, so you'd have to proceed with caution if you want to use your language in conversation. I don't think lumos and expelliarmus are Italian. Harry Potter has too many made up words in it. You're right about the similarity with Spanish. I can understand at least a little of any romance language other than French, which I find odd given the amount of French that leaked into and poisoned our own language. Poisoned how?, you might ask. Do you remember the last time you declined a noun? It's bad, but not as bad as Creole.

As far as the English version of Purgatorio goes, I find it to be inferior to Joyce's reworking of it in the second half of Ulysses (though I make no claim to the FW reworking of Purgatorio). This is partly because Joyce's characters have more depth and are in more realistic settings. However, the flow of Mendelbaum's poetry makes for easier reading than Ulysses. Fewer (to no) laughs, but very comforting in its rhythm and elegance in form and content. If you don't have any 13th century Italian music, I suggest Indian classical music, where you go round and round until you are purged of illusion. Speaking of which, I must get back to just that.