couscous

couscous

paella

quinoa

gnocchi

risotto

polenta

there's about twenty solid christmas songs.

unless it's a particularly bad arrangement, usually these are all stellar christmas songs:

little drummer boy

o come emmanuel

love came down at christmas

noel

judy garland's merry little christmas

o holy night

taylor swift's santa baby

all i want for christmas is you

mary did you know

do you hear what I hear

all of andrew peterson's Behold The Lamb of God album

this past year

2010 was more of the most notable years I've had to date. Mostly, I moved a lot and spent way too much time digging through boxes. But I consciously made the decisions I did and I stick by them. I do hope there's a bit more stability in 2011, though.

Here's 2010 in review with pictures from each month.

January
I got back to the UK just before New Years, and my American roommate and I spent the holiday with some great friends in Sheffield, England.

While we were there, besides freezing (because Steph and I are both from Florida), we got to see the Peak District, York and lots of countryside. Then it was back to work in London.












February

For my birthday in February I got an awesome package from my friend, Hannah, a teacher living in Taiwan.

January and February, and even into March blend together in my memory. They were dark, cold, and short days. The outside was so cold but when underground on the tube it was hot with all the people.






March
We climbed the Fire Monument. I'd been planning to go up the monument for a while and one day we just did it.

My favorite part of being in London was just roaming the streets. The monument is right over London Bridge on the north side of the Thames. Of course, they give you a certificate for climbing all the stairs to the top.

Before I went to London, I didn't know they had a massive fire in 1666.








April
I finally understand why in books and movies people love to rave about spring. I was so glad to see color and blue skies again, even if it was still cold.

In April, I did a lot of exploring on my own around the city.






May
We went to see a play at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. If I had remembered my Shakespeare, I would have remembered how gory Macbeth is but it was fun all the same.

If you are willing to stand for the performance, you can get five pound tickets.






June
I think June was my happiest month in London. It got warm and sunny. I got a nice sunburn in Greenwich Park the first Saturday we had great weather.

In good weather, everyone comes out to lie in the sun and have picnics. It gets really crowded and you have to claim a spot of ground. It's like the beach.

I finally felt comfortable with the city and how to navigate around my favorite places... I actually had favorite places. I had found some good friends outside our little team, and there was weekly frisbee at the park.






July
July was a little more manic but cool. We had good, even hot, weather.

At the end of the month, Steph and I went to Nice.We had been planning this trip for a while. With all of Europe so close by, it was hard to decide where to go. My only stipulation was it had to be on the Mediterranean.So we went to Nice and I saw the Mediterranean for the first time!

Then one of our teammates got married. She let me make the cake - such a scary job- and she asked me to be a bridesmaid.

July was also really scary though because I was getting ready to leave some great people and a nice situation and I wasn't sure what I was going to come back to in the US.






August
In August, I travelled all over. But I was mostly in Florida.

I counted- 4 different cities in August, 9 different hosts - 7 days was my longest stay in one place. 2 weddings.

I was job searching. My friend Kristi was getting ready to go to Norway. At the end of the month, I left Florida, my home area, and went to Maryland.






September
I got offered a job in Maryland and decided to go for it. Instead of going back to the familiar Florida, I decided to take the challenge and relocate. I took the job. Besides my family, I knew no one. I spent a lot of time on skype and the phone with friends.






October
Nothing says diversion like a sibling getting married. My older brother got married to this wonderful girl. We all went down to Florida for the event.

For me, it was awesome to be back in my home state, feel the warm sun. But especially to see friends, some I hadn't seen since before London.





November
Really cold and working hard at settling into a new job. I had to get warmer shoes, especially since I had to paperclip-rig them.







December
Two of the best times I had in the fall was when I had friends come up to DC. I went down to the city twice for the weekend to see old friends from Orlando.

pointless things I do.

Keep my tea bag even though I know it will be too weak to use a second time.

Spin the hot/cold dial in my car, thinking it will make the air warm up more quickly.

Scheme for ways to not wear long sleeves in the winter.

things that happened while i was in the uk

the tea party movement

justin bieber/katy perry/lady gaga

wikileaks

those kindle things for ebooks

miss list

What I miss about London
being able to walk places.
awesome people from all sorts of countries.
St. Helens.
Tower Bridge, the South Bank, the Thames.
meatball curry.
taking the tube places.
awesome architecture everywhere.

What I don’t miss about London
being cold outside and hot inside the tube.
no sun.
the five hour time difference.
health and safety (seriously a class to use a ladder?).
no water fountains.

this week's to do

go to work.

get sick.

take a sick day. oh wait, I did that.

go to big brother's wedding!

a list of ninteen.

I am trying to figure out what to do next year. Well, where to go and what job it get, starting in August.

In order to aid myself, I stooped to the geekiness of making a pro/con list of my obvious possibilities.

Then in order to interpret the grid better, I decided I needed to verbalize my priorities to myself, get them out in a more visible, coherent way.

So I made a list my priorities, or, put another way, what I want out of life.

I got 19 things.

That seemed like a short list to me. But I can't think of anything imperative to add. Does that seem short?

Geeky, like I said.

missionary myths dispelled, pt 1

1. Sending care packages to missionaries abroad is so 1970.

So not true. I got a package from a friend last week. It made my day. Possibly my week. What she gave me was incredibly awesome and thoughtful, but the mere fact of getting a pudgy envelope in the mail from someone who was thinking of me was of surpassing encouragement.

Plus, she’s abroad herself, and I’ve never gotten mail from Taiwan before.

I remember sending jolly ranchers to someone in deep Africa or Central Europe when I was young. I personally think Jolly Ranchers are gross, but I know now what it must have been like to get the comforts of home.

In fact, if you have any of the following (and have a deal with Fed Ex), feel free to send it on:


- Yellow rice
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Hazelnut creamer
- White running socks from Target

And if you happen to have access to any of my stuff:

- That green skirt I really like
- the blue dress that I took home at Christmas and never should have left there
- My black zip-up “jumper”

in praise of the men i know.

D. he is faithful

N. he is hardworking

R. worldly things don't entice him

P. he is disciplined

J. for he will do right

A. he knows laughter

2010 in review

Usually, I review my year in February (my birth month). I used to write letters to myself annually, to review my past year and muse about the future. If I did this last year, it is probably sitting next to my bath towels and cds in a box in my parents' basement. So the New Year will have to suffice.

The year has had about as much circumstantial change as I have experienced yet to date. But check it out for yourself.

January
I was living in Florida, finishing my senior year of university. Had already applied to the gap year program here in London and was waiting to hear about an interview. I was also looking into an au pair job in Italy.

February
I turned twenty-two. I was working for an organization which I grew to really respect, and I loved my job and co-workers.

March
I had midterms and thought little about school. I grieved that my days as a student-athlete tutor would soon end. I got accepted to my gap year program and had to decide between that and the au pair position in Italy.

April
I did a lot of work for getting ready to graduate. My car started having mechanical problems. Sometime in here, I arranged where I would live for the summer.

May
Marking the end of four years of undergraduate studies, I graduated with my bachelor's degree . I acutely felt that it was the end of an era and I was already off the precipice to the great unfamiliar.

It was one of the saddest things I've done, leaving my de facto home and roommates. After three long years, I turned in my keys to 1720.
I left the coziness, sold my bed, lost my Bethany room-sharer and lost some of my favorite things to the abyss of storage boxes.

So I kissed my four roommates farewell, and drove my hobbling little car down to my summer home in the country with the best benefactress I could ask for, MB.

June
A very hot month, emphasized by having no air conditioning in my car. I spent the entire summer running around in a continuous cycle of cotton tank tops, shorts and skirts. Seriously. I only wore jeans once in a three month span.

My Saudi friend, her husband, and four children left America to return to Saudi

July
The one where my car broke down. I got it fixed, triumphantly chirped the news to my friends just before I drove it and the engine quit on me. I was friends with security at work and they saved me from my stranded state. I willed the car to back into working again.

August
I spent the first half the month going slowly crazy with the stress of a breaking down car, finishing up working for my organization (so sad to leave!), packing, and trying to make sure I could get my visa. I hit the one year mark of my job, and left my job.

September
I arrived in London on September 7th and began my gap year with trepidation and gusto. I now lived a scant ten minutes from the Tower Bridge.

October
I started to settle into the rhythm of life and work in London, but was still mostly dazed and confused in how to best adapt to my new surroundings.

November
On the 5th, I got to genuinely observe Guy Fawkes Day. I started going to a biblestudy with a friend and started making new friends in the city. Hoorah!

December
I spent the first half in London, working at the cafe, then went to Maryland for Christmas and back to England to spend New Years in Sheffield. I couldn't wait to get back to London.

dear diary...

Yesterday, I had so many thoughts jumbled up in my head that I had to get them out. I just put down the key words so I'd remember them to think about later.

real Need.
home.
middling
120
blast it!
Martha Stewart job
nailclippers
lifestyle art
French Revolution
Little Women
J.J. Heller
photoshop
novels
call mom
art
haircut
cook for dinner
jo.

Little Resolves

• To wear a braid at least once a week
  
  
• To find someone to take the canoe out with while I still can use a canoe
  
  
• To buy a sweet little dress I can wear in London without freezing
  
  
• To scour down the house before my benefactress returns
  
  
• Finally get a picture of the sandhills cranes

blog list

simply breakfast

Cup of Jo

Rockstar Diaries

Fly Through Our Window

Smarten!

Soulemama

Life as an Artistpreneur

behind the gate

coast to coast blog

Glossary of everything- linguistics

During my undergrad career, I took Introduction to Linguistics. It was fascinating. I never had realized how much about language one could study. I couldn't believe that I got to learn this stuff. I couldn't believe how unbelievably difficult it was to understand.

Seriously, we studied syntax, sematics, morphology, phonetics, phonemics, and I think one other one. The only one I could understand a little was semantics. I made it through the class respectablely enough, and scraped out with a B+, mostly thanks to a friend in the class who had been through a similar class and had a better grasp on things.

I still think linguistics rocks.

If you have never heard of the International Phonetic Alphabet, stop reading this post right now and run over and look at this chart. IPA is a chart that represents every known sound in every known language. Each symbol represents an language-sound. It's so cool.

When I was especially obsessed with my major, I started compiling all the interesting terms and concepts into this master glossary, divided up by subject matter. I made such a file for linguistics.

My computer is dead right now, and I had commandeered my out-of-town roommate's for the week (thanks, Katie! hope you don't mind!). But I stumbled across a printed out copy of my linguistic file. As a reward for reading such a long introduction here's a sampling:

Code switching- the way people change their way of speaking depending on different environments

Dialect- variation of a language (we all speak dialects)

Phonetics- the study of speech sounds; studies raw sound

Phonology- the interaction of speech sounds in an environment

Phoneme- word

Okay, that was pretty easy. Here are some of the crazier concepts.

Fricative- with friction

Diphthong- two sounds standing together as one, but is a single sound "(ex. "I")

Flap- the name of the "r" sound in the word "water"

Voiceless- vocal folds relaxed; buzzing at base of larynx, (ex. "s")

Africate- begins with complete closed vocal tract and ends with vocal turbulence, i.e. friction (ex. "judge")


Yup, linguistics for you.

percentages

I read this somewhere. I'm not sure if it's true or if it has been scientifically verified. But what do you think?
Does it sound kind of accurate?

We remember:

10% of what we read.

20% of what we hear.

30% of what we see.

40% of what we do.

100% of what we feel.

"Animal Farm" and the rest

These are the newest books on my to-read list:

Animal Farm

Heart of Darkness

As I Lay Dying

Atlas Shrugged

Ulysses

Probably stuff I should have read already, but hey, it’s a busy world.

Twenty-two blessings

Yesterday was my birthday; I'm now twenty-two. Does that qualify me as a twenty-something now? Anyway, in view of my birthday, and in the spirit of my previous post, I took the time to record twenty-two things that I am particularly thankful for recently.

Twenty-two blessings

1. It looks like I'll graduate in May

2. I am not in debt for my undergraduate degree

3. My car works reliably

4. My sister and I call each other to confide

5. My older brother calls me to discuss things

6. My little brother really likes his school and friends

7. Bethany being my rooommate

8. Kristi offering to plan me a party

9. My dad calling me the other morning

10. A good friend who moved away called me last week

11. Another good friend called me Sunday

12. I have a brand-new book to read!

13. Going to either London or Italy is looking possible

14. I have too many good options to choose from for the fall

15. My job

16. My down comforter for cold nights

17. My early mornings in the quiet

18. A four year old falling asleep on my lap on Sunday morning

19. Taking the four little kids to church

20. My two runs in the country last week

21. My Summit small group

22. My blogs :)