Wednesday, July 22, 2009

First Day of Class

Two classes this morning: Phonetics and Grammar
They both sound really interesting, although I'm told that most are good at one or the other.
Phonetics is a class on sounds that the human mouth can make.
Grammar is on the stucture of phrases, sentences, and words.
I'm really excited about this session (which goes until 8/19 and then another session starts). I think I'll learn a great deal.
It's assumed in the classes (I feel) that the students will pick an area to focus in on. For example, I hear "if this interests you and come see me and we'll get you more..." I feel as though we're just waiting until we see what we'll specialize in and then that will steal our hearts. (I'm t saying this is a bad thing) I think I know what I'll find my interest in. I like morphology a lot (the study of the meaningful units of a word). But I wonder, too, if there's something else that will grab my eye.
Well, there's no telling until the session gets underway.
I've completed my homework for tonight so I think I'm going to go treat myself to some ice cream!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Orientation is over

Orientation for GIAL was Monday and today. It went well and I got to meet many people in my class. Tomorrow starts classes at 8 am. I have Grammar and Phonetics. I think I'll enjoy both of them greatly.
Sunday, I went to Northwood church, the church that got my home church, Forefront onto a new field where the Mein are located. It was a nice church. That afternoon I went to Deliverance Bible Church and that church was a church of radicals. Lots of fire and passion can be found in the hearts of those who attend that church.
I'm actually about to go to a Tuesday night bible study there now. So, I'll sign off to go and do that. I think I'll stop at Starbucks on the way and take some time to flip through my Grammar book.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Adjusting

I'm getting used to this place. I'm so used to it that getting lost in downtown Dallas is no longer frustrating and stressful, it's merely a part of my day, multiple times a day. Driving in Texas is survival of the fittest.
I found a nice coffee shop that I like, although it is in Downtown Dallas so a bit of a drive. I went to a Dr. Suess exhibit at the Storyopolis Museum. I went to the mall and saw the Harry Potter movie. I've been grocery shopping and to the post office. I burned a meal and made some good ones. I filled up my gas tank. Sometimes it strikes me as crazy that I'm living life in Dallas. Like, I live here, this is home. That is crazy, I think.

My humorous story for the day. (Only one I'm going to tell) Let me preface what I’m about to say with, I’m not afraid of rats. I go to a pet store, a clerk with a sense of humor who's trying to get me attention thrusts one in my face. Cool, whatever, I’ll freakin pet it. Not afraid of rats. Today I was walking on the sidewalk which ran between two bushes. Apparently animals are stupid, (because this same thing happened with a lizard yesterday) when animals get scared, Instead of staying put or running away as any half-wit would do. They run across your path. The huge rat the size of a large guinea pig, raced from one bush to another almost over my feet! It’s not the rat that freaked me out and made this story more noteworthy, it’s that in 1340s 1/3 – 2/3 of Europe was wiped out by these disease-ridden vermin! They carry the plague!

Well, let's see what tomorrow has in store, shall we?

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Events of Today

Ahh, today. Interesting day and it's not even noon. I think I'll leave this open all day and just add to it as the craziness of my life continues.

9:15 - I wake up and it all floods back where I am. Awesome.
9:30 - I go to get in the shower and there's this decorative iron chair chillin in the tub! Danielle's advice is, don't sit on it. Thanks a lot. I go to try to move it. It's plastic and only looks ridiculously heavy.
10:45 - I go to eat some breakfast. Ms. Blood offers me a fresh fig, I accept. Bite, eat, bite again, enjoy it, look into it's center, find two ants, throw the rest away.
11:00 - go to unpack my car more, forgot to put on shoes because I never put on shoes. Note: In Dallas, TX put on shoes. My feet were about to blister just standing at my car!
11:02 - opened my trunk to find a black spider with a red hourglass on it. All I wanted was to grab my crap but this Widow tried to kill me (a battle to the death followed, I won)
11:28 - trying to unpack. I hate clutter. Loathe and despise it. the rest of the house is absurdly cluttered. My room has no dresser, so my clothes are going into the desk drawers. Luckily it's filing cabinet meets desk so the drawers are wicked long, but they're still desk drawers and I have a lot of clothes!
12:28 - went into the most insane Walmart ever, I should have known as the greeter welcomed me with a tune on a hamonica.
12:39 - after 5 mins, I discovered that this Walmart doesn't sort Shampoo and Conditioner by manufactorer but by whether its shampoo or conditioner. (and the sections are not side by side.)
12:41 - fire alarm went off in Walmart... 3 times
12:49 - standing in line, two guys came to check out with a cartful of nothing but bananas.
1:12 - I thought I saw Mr. Alligood walking on the campus grounds, the things you find yourself missing.
3:47 - ooo! So glad I don't have leather seats, wish I didn't have leather steering wheel. Don't want to touch it, don't want to hit mailbox!
4:22 - Entered an Indie coffeeshop, eavesdropped in some conversations, enjoyed myself (I should go back there some time, become a regular, join conversations)
6:47 - only an hour and 15 minutes to get home. I hate Dallas interstates and poor signage and inconsiderate drivers!

Ahh. Day 1 in Dallas

Woo! Dallas, TX

Today is my first full day of my 3.5 month stay in Dallas. I've been here a few times for a week or two stay but never so long as this.
Yesterday, we got in at 3. It was 100 degrees. We stopped at the International Service Center (ISC) and then I went to go move into my new home. I walk in with my first load of luggage and pull up my laptop as I go for the second. Ms. Blood didn't know which wi-fi was her's nor did she know her password. I looked on to her desktop, and, although the woman swears that she has wireless internet, she does not. And the modem she has only has one ethernet jack so I can't just plug in. So not only am I hot, sleep-deprived (as we did not spend the night in Johnson), and in a new place where people don't know how to drive, but I have 3/5 mths looming ahead of me where I have no internet.
On the verge of tears from how overwhelming this all feels, I ask for directions to Panera Bread. 10 minutes later (she's old, it takes her longer) I'm on my way. As I go, I pass a Best Buy and do what any person about to cry because she has no way to connect to the internet does, I stop. I buy what I need to be able to plug into her modem, go home, and it doesn't work. I go back (after realizing that I spent more money on all I'd need to plug in than it would have taken to buy a wireless modem) and bought a wireless modem. I went home, it worked, took back the other stuff and found that I went to Best Buy three times in the first four hours that I has arrived in Dallas.
So my first day was stressful and tiring and I wanted to pull into the parking lot of something familiar and cry, but I couldn't find a Bank of America!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Saturday Events

Today is a big day! Tonight is the Dessert Night Partnership Development event hosted by KT. A group of people, who KT knows but I do not (or at least do not know very well) will be coming over to listen to me present what God is doing thru me and Pioneer Bible Translators.
All of that starts at 7 and I'm really excited. So excited, in fact, that I have a continuous babbling of grocery lists and speech points and to-do lists running through me head.
After the dessert night, I need to head down to Columbia, NC, for, in the morning, I will be doing a sunday school there.
It's a big day.
Keep today and tomorrow in your prayers.