A Lack of Language

I wish I spoke Spanish. At home, there were very very few people who spoke Spanish as their first language. If I heard it, it was a high school student speaking it to their friends with an atrocious accent. Ergo, I chose to learn French in school.

I wish I had taken both. I am glad I know some French, but 90% of my neighbors and many of my coworkers speak Spanish as their first language. Most speak English well, but prefer to speak in Spanish. Much of the time, I can hear their conversations that they have outside because my windows are open. The only people I can understand are the two girls who play double dutch in the parking lot, because their chant is in English.

One of them was very upset today, though. I would put her at 11 or 12 (that age...). I was coming back upstairs from bringing out the recycling and she came down the stairs sobbing with a bag of garbage. I'm guessing she didn't want to take it out and her mom made her. She rushed by so fast, I didn't get a chance to ask if she was all right. She's the oldest of three kids, from what I can tell. I think they live with their grandma?

I should probably just talk to them when I see them. Haha. I am sounding like a creep-o. I'm really not, I swear. If I was, I'd know where the cute man lives. I've only seen him in the laundry room.

A surprise!

Well, as I walked to Fireside to check my mail today between work shifts, I ran into my friend Mathmat (his name it Mat, he's good at math). He is a JC in in Mohn (the awkward dorm, in both name and aesthetics) this year. He somehow got the information that one of my classes had been canceled!

Thanks for letting us know, Registrar.

So, now I think I will be able to add that Statistics concentration! Golly! Am I overambitious? Or do I just like to get credit for majors that apply to me for classes I would take anyway?

If the prof allows me to add the class, I will take Statistical Modeling instead of The Arab World (my prof didn't get her work visa approved, so she is stuck at home in Jordan instead of teaching us in Minnesota). Stats 272 allows me to take Research Design next spring, and 2 other classes my senior year. I just have to talk to her and see if my AP Calc credits count toward Calc 1 in the concentration.

~~~~EDIT~~~~~
The class has a long waiting list. I guess I shall take a political science class instead: Women in Politics in Asia. Never mind, no stats concentration...

If I had a nickel for every time I changed my major, I'd have a nickel.

I am 2 weeks away from entering my Junior year at St. Olaf. I have decided on my majors (Sociology/Anthropology, Political Science and Women's Studies), and have been for well over a year. Now, however, I am thinking about what could have been. I would have worked a Statistics concentration in there. I enjoy it and am considering pursuing a career involving research.

I would drop the Women's Studies major into a concentration in order to add stats, but the only reason I am majoring in it officially is to take the Senior Seminar, which sounds like a really interesting class and is only open to majors and not concentrators. Gender studies fascinate me, although I dislike the idea of Women's Studies and Feminist Studies. I would prefer a balance of gender perspectives, which is what the seminar discusses. Ergo, I am majoring in it.

I wish I could have a statistics concentration. It would open up doors. Ah well. Maybe I can take undergrad classes while working on my masters. Speaking of which, time to start studying for my GREs! : T (that's a "trying to look excited but really scared shitless" face).

Ah, academia. : )

If wishes were fishes, I'd be dead from mercury poisoning

I finished Dubliners by James Joyce today. Not so great, but not "wtf"-worthy. I think if I had notes or an English professor to guide me through it, I could have appreciated it. In all, it was a rather dull read which I didn't really understand. I will try again later with another book of his. Hopefully I will appreciate it more. For now though, it's on to Don Quixote, which I hear is a menace. We shall see though. I do enjoy adventures.

I enjoy adventures, but not enough to go on my own. I also enjoy comfort. I would like to walk somewhere far away though. I would like to walk to the ocean (either one), I think. Maybe in Maine, I haven't been there before. Or Seattle, maybe. Or maybe take a tour of the outline of the US, you know, go all the way around the borders/coastlines? I don't know anyone crazy enough to go with me. At least, anyone who I would want to go with who is crazy enough to go with me. I'm sure there are lots of crazy beatniks or hippies out there who would go with me, but I don't want to go with a random crazy beatnik. I don't want to go by myself. That's dangerous.

I do wish I had the effort to get out more though. I guess I just don't wish it enough. I need a buddy to make me accountable who will go do random obscure slightly insane things with me. Like walk to Gooseberry Falls. Maybe next summer. : )