So... we're not very good vegans. I think, unless you're eating this way out of an ideological viewpoint, it's really difficult to do perfectly. Like, its difficult to even care enough to do it perfectly. For example, many kinds of beer, though you'd think they would be vegan, use animal products somewhere in the refining process. (Don't ask what animal products, you don't want to know.) But so many products have these hidden animal products. It won't be mentioned on the label, because after all, you aren't actually consuming those products, but because they were used, it's not vegan. So, unless you really want to look up the entire process of making Product X, its hard to say 100 percent that it's vegan. Also, honey, because it's made by bees, is not considered vegan. I have a really hard time accepting this. So you don't want to kill the cute little sheep and cows and baby chicks. I get that. They're adorable. Also delicious, but thats beside the point. Bees on the other hand, are not adorable. They suck. I'll steal all their honey. All day long. And its better for me than sugar, after all. And cheaper than agave nectar. So I'm just gonna keep using it.
Anyway, that rant over. The point is, I just don't care to be a perfect vegan. And with some of the big changes I've been dealing with this week, I've been caring less and less lately. It was easy to contemplate being vegan when all I had to do all day was sit around and look at vegan recipes. Now though, when I have to be ready to go out the door, having eaten breakfast, with lunch in hand at 7:15 am? Its a little more difficult. And then I get home just in time to make dinner. Its like my entire life revolves around food. So, we've gone off track a bit. But today before taking a shower, I stepped on the scale, out of curiosity, and guess what? I've lost 10 pounds. I was shocked. I haven't even been eating diet food, nonetheless vegan for the last few days, and I'd about given up on the diet. But now I'm down 10 pounds! I'm back below the 200 mark! Finally! And I think this is giving me just the push I needed to get back on track. I guess it just goes to show that even small changes can add up to make a big difference.
So, maybe if you'd like to be healthier, but you don't want to go vegan. Try cutting out dairy, and see how that goes. There are milk alternatives which, in my opinion, taste even better in cereal. (Coconut milk? yum!). And the rest of dairy products (cheese, sour cream, ice cream) are just added fats that you don't need anyway!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Vegan day 1, Interviews, and Jobs, and Stuff
So, today was our first real day going vegan. I know, it was supposed to be the beginning of the month, but.. well.. we don't get food stamps till the 2nd. And the beginning of the month is always pretty tight financially. So I figured one day wouldn't hurt anything. However, it ended up being on like the busiest day I've had in ages, which never bodes well for any kind of healthy eating. I woke up thinking I had an interview at 9, but they ended up moving it to 11, so in the spare time we had, we did our grocery shopping. Then, I had just enough time to grab an apple and head out to the interview. This was the second interview at the day care I talked about before, this time with the owner. It went well, and she basically hired me on the spot. She told me the director would call me about starting my orientation soon. So after that, I went home, had a chance for breakfast/lunch. (I had both. Couldn't decide which I wanted, so I went with both) Breakfast was a mix of shredded wheat, grape nuts, old fashioned oats, lots of fruit, and some walnuts. And I mean lots of fruit. Everything sounded good, so it had bananas, strawberries, blueberries, peaches and grapes. It was pretty darn good too. Then I also made myself a veggie wrap with lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, sauteed onions and mushrooms with a little balsamic vinaigrette on top. I think it would have been better with a little hummus in there, but I haven't made my homemade hummus yet, so that'll have to wait. After eating, we had to rush across town to get the man to his interview, at a jewelry store. He thinks it went pretty well, but we won't hear back for two weeks. Fingers crossed! Then after that, we had to battle trains, power outages and slow drivers to try to get me to work on time. We didn't do so well. But my boss was understanding, so it's okay. Worked till nine and then finally got to come home and cook dinner. Which was... PIZZA! Without cheese, obviously. I made mine with a tomato/BBQ sauce and then put spinach, onion, bell pepper and fresh pineapple on top. It's definitely gonna be a repeat dinner. Pretty easy, and quite yummy. By the way, if you are not eating fresh pineapple right now, you should be. Go get some. Now.
Overall, it has been easier than I expected. Especially considering that I spent 6 hours of the day in an ice cream shop. And didn't have time to pack a healthy snack! But luckily, we had some granny smith apples laying around from a caramel apple exploit a few weeks ago. So I had one of those with some peanut butter. Yes, I know, peanut butter is high in fat. And since it was Skippy, it also had added sugar and hydrogenated oils. But I was pretty impressed with myself for not breaking down and having some ice cream. But, lesson definitely learned. Pack a snack! The other thing I noticed was how well my lunch stuck with me. Normally, around three or four I'm already starting to get hungry again, and I'm counting down till dinner time. But for lunch, I ate a smaller portion than normal, and still wasn't really hungry till about 7:30. I've always had the mindset that protein was what kept me feeling full through the day, but it turns out fiber is much more important. And fiber comes from plant sources. :) Basically, I'm feeling really optimistic about this change. It's so much easier than counting points or calories or fat or whatever.
In other news, I got that call from the director of the day care earlier today, asking if I can start tomorrow. I really like the way this job is working out. Everything has moved so quickly. I applied Wednesday, and I'm starting work Friday. I'm really excited. The job means that I'll be graduating later than I had hoped, as I'll only be taking online or night classes this year, but I think the experience will make it worth it. The owner and the director both seem really nice and supportive, so it should be a great place to start out my teaching career!
Much love. I'll be in touch again soon!
Overall, it has been easier than I expected. Especially considering that I spent 6 hours of the day in an ice cream shop. And didn't have time to pack a healthy snack! But luckily, we had some granny smith apples laying around from a caramel apple exploit a few weeks ago. So I had one of those with some peanut butter. Yes, I know, peanut butter is high in fat. And since it was Skippy, it also had added sugar and hydrogenated oils. But I was pretty impressed with myself for not breaking down and having some ice cream. But, lesson definitely learned. Pack a snack! The other thing I noticed was how well my lunch stuck with me. Normally, around three or four I'm already starting to get hungry again, and I'm counting down till dinner time. But for lunch, I ate a smaller portion than normal, and still wasn't really hungry till about 7:30. I've always had the mindset that protein was what kept me feeling full through the day, but it turns out fiber is much more important. And fiber comes from plant sources. :) Basically, I'm feeling really optimistic about this change. It's so much easier than counting points or calories or fat or whatever.
In other news, I got that call from the director of the day care earlier today, asking if I can start tomorrow. I really like the way this job is working out. Everything has moved so quickly. I applied Wednesday, and I'm starting work Friday. I'm really excited. The job means that I'll be graduating later than I had hoped, as I'll only be taking online or night classes this year, but I think the experience will make it worth it. The owner and the director both seem really nice and supportive, so it should be a great place to start out my teaching career!
Much love. I'll be in touch again soon!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
College, or the job I went to college to get?
So, I had this dream a few weeks ago. I dreamt that I was down in Medford visiting my family, and while I was there, I stopped by a new bar with a few friends. The bar was awesome. It was like a vegas casino, right in little old Medford. The service, however, was not so great. Except for the owner. So, near the end of the night, I got into a conversation with the owner, and asked if she happened to be looking to hire anyone. She said that, yes, in fact, she was, and practically promised me a management position with good pay and benefits, if I moved back to Medford and started work immediately. This put me in quite the predicament. I needed to decide whether I would rather move back to Medford and take the career opportunity, or finish out my last year of school. I woke up before I decided.
Apparently, my dream was just a little bit of foreshadowing, because here I am, in the same predicament. I applied yesterday for a teaching position in a preschool. I never thought they would really give me a second look, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try. Turns out they did give me a second look, and wanted to interview with me this morning. Unfortunately, when the subject of my class schedule was brought up, we realized that there was no way I could take the job and take my planned class schedule at the same time. The director seemed to be really bummed out by it. She promised to put my application at the top of the pile in case anything part time opened up, but it was not likely, as their business hours are pretty much my class schedule. I kept thinking while I was driving home. This doesn't make any sense. I'm going to school to be a teacher. I was just practically offered a teaching position. And I have to turn it down.. so I can go to school.. to get the job I want.. which was just offered to me? Not to mention, in light of some recent financial events, I'm fairly certain that the only way I can go to school this fall is by taking out a nice fat loan, which I'm trying to avoid. Wouldn't it make sense, then, to take this job, even if only for a year, while saving up, and getting my financial aid in line? Maybe take online classes or night classes if I can afford them, but also get to work a full-time job, in my field? I mean, that work experience is going to take me so much further in my career than whatever minimum wage part-time food service job I could find to work around my schedule. It'll ultimately make me much more competitive for the Peace Corps. And I'm not talking about dropping out of school and never looking back. If I took the job, I would still finish, just more slowly, and with less debt and more experience than otherwise. Yes, part of me just wants to plow through and finish my degree, but taking the job seems to make so much more sense. I don't know what to do here.
Apparently, my dream was just a little bit of foreshadowing, because here I am, in the same predicament. I applied yesterday for a teaching position in a preschool. I never thought they would really give me a second look, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try. Turns out they did give me a second look, and wanted to interview with me this morning. Unfortunately, when the subject of my class schedule was brought up, we realized that there was no way I could take the job and take my planned class schedule at the same time. The director seemed to be really bummed out by it. She promised to put my application at the top of the pile in case anything part time opened up, but it was not likely, as their business hours are pretty much my class schedule. I kept thinking while I was driving home. This doesn't make any sense. I'm going to school to be a teacher. I was just practically offered a teaching position. And I have to turn it down.. so I can go to school.. to get the job I want.. which was just offered to me? Not to mention, in light of some recent financial events, I'm fairly certain that the only way I can go to school this fall is by taking out a nice fat loan, which I'm trying to avoid. Wouldn't it make sense, then, to take this job, even if only for a year, while saving up, and getting my financial aid in line? Maybe take online classes or night classes if I can afford them, but also get to work a full-time job, in my field? I mean, that work experience is going to take me so much further in my career than whatever minimum wage part-time food service job I could find to work around my schedule. It'll ultimately make me much more competitive for the Peace Corps. And I'm not talking about dropping out of school and never looking back. If I took the job, I would still finish, just more slowly, and with less debt and more experience than otherwise. Yes, part of me just wants to plow through and finish my degree, but taking the job seems to make so much more sense. I don't know what to do here.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Almost there....
So, tomorrow the great adventure that is veganism begins. In preparation, I've been feverishly going through my vegan cookbooks, trying to decide which recipes I'm brave enough to try. (And which ones I can trick my man into eating). The problem that I keep encountering is this. Just because a recipe is vegan, doesn't necessarily mean it's healthier than a non-vegan meal. I mean, sure, you cut out cheese and meat, but there are still cheese substitutes and meat and dairy substitutes that are still quite high in fat. Not to mention, so many times these vegan substitutes are way more processed and "fake" than the real thing! I don't want to cut one type of junk out of my diet, only to replace it with an equally bad junk. And there's also the fact that I'm a bit unsure when it comes to meat substitutes.. I know a lot of vegetarians and vegans love them, but honestly, I think I'd rather just eat grilled or roasted veggies than try to choke down tofu, tempeh, seitan, or textured vegetable protein. (Seriously, could they think of less appetizing names for these things?) So trying to find recipes has been a challenge, because most often, vegan cookbooks are chock full of normal recipes with vegan meat substitutes instead of real meat. And then there are the cooking methods. There are so many recipes that look so yummy, but they're fried! And yes, I love french fries as much as the next girl, and it's great that they're vegan but.. umm.. I'm trying to lose weight here!
I have found one book that has been super helpful, and that is the Engine 2 diet book. It's written by a former triathlete and current firefighter who eats only a plant based diet, and trust me, he's still got plenty of muscle. He's also the son of one of the scientists cited in the documentary Forks over Knives, which is what drew me to him. Not only does he advocate eating a plant based diet, but also cutting out all added oils (gasp!), refined sugars, and eating only whole grains. I actually haven't read the entire book.. cause I wasn't looking for just another diet. But in the back, he's got quite a collection of recipes. Some are also on his website, here, if you're interested. Some of these recipes look really great, and so easy to do! There are simply weekday breakfasts and lunches (you know, for those normal people who have school and jobs to go to, and don't have time to spend all day cooking) and some really good looking dinner recipes too. He uses tofu a little bit, but not too often, and hardly ever as the main dish. He also has some awesome looking recipes for oil-free, egg-free, dairy-free salad dressings! Yeah, I didn't know it was possible either. I'll definitely be reviewing some of those for you here soon! He's even got quite a collection of desserts! The book has definitely been worth the price, even if only for the recipes.
In other news, I'm still looking for a job. Which sucks. Interviewed last week at Red Robin (Ha! It'd suck to work there and be vegan), but I haven't heard back from them yet. Applied for an administrative assistant job, which pays up to 22 dollars an hour (!), and I'm hoping to hear back from them this week. The man had an interview with Target on Monday, and I have one tomorrow with a daycare, and Friday with a caregiving company. So hopefully something comes out of one of these leads. If not.. well, I guess we'll just keep plugging away. For the moment, I guess I'm off to do laundry and make myself a grocery list. Being grown up is not all its cracked up to be.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
In which our heroine goes on a rant.
You know what I hate? Well.. there's a few things. And I'm about to tell you some of them.
1) People who hold grudges. Maybe its because I'm a Sagittarius, so holding grudges is just not in my nature, but seriously, I don't get it. Get over it, or get the fuck out of my life. I don't have time to deal with your pissy pants. Sometimes, I wish I could hold a grudge, just to get back at them. Cause I want to show them how ridiculous and bratty they're being. But I can't. If you want to hold a grudge against me, you go right ahead. I'm not gonna grovel to get you back. I'll apologize once. And that's it. Then I'll leave you to throw your tantrum, and when you're over it, I'll welcome you back with open arms.
2) People who always think they know what is best for everyone else. For instance, if you've been reading, you'll know that I'm planning on going vegan in T-minus 3 days. (Really, only three days? Jeesh! I'm starting to get anxious!) Now, as I've been announcing this among my friends and family, I've gotten mixed reactions. Some of my friends and family have been really supportive, and I appreciate that support so much! I know this is going to be a tough journey, and I'll need all the encouragement I can get. But there are other friends who have been.. not so helpful. "What, oh my god, you can't do that, it's so unhealthy" "You should do the paleo diet instead, its so much better for you." "But its totally impossible to get enough protein without animal products!" My answer, in all these cases is "'Scuse me. Have you done the research? Are you a nutritionist? Do you realize that there are dissenting views about vegan nutrition even among the world's leading nutritionists? No? Then shut up. Its my body, my decision. If your opinion wasn't requested, you should probably keep it to yourself. Kthanks.
3) Job hunting. I really, really, really hate job hunting. It should not be this hard to find a dead-end minimum wage job that a retard could do. Seriously. How am I ever gonna find a GOOD job, if its this hard to get a bad one!? And job applications too. I mean.. I already went through the work of writing a resume with all the same information. Can't you just read that? Why do you want to read it twice? Doesn't it get redundant?
4) People who insist on coming to a complete stop before turning. If there is no traffic symbol there, it's unnecessary! And those people alway seem to be so old! Shouldn't they be in more of a hurry? I mean, time's running out, do you really want to spend what's left of it making that right turn?
Sorry about the rants. There are just some things that drive me crazy. And I've been experiencing too damn many of them lately. I'm sure you all know how that can go.
1) People who hold grudges. Maybe its because I'm a Sagittarius, so holding grudges is just not in my nature, but seriously, I don't get it. Get over it, or get the fuck out of my life. I don't have time to deal with your pissy pants. Sometimes, I wish I could hold a grudge, just to get back at them. Cause I want to show them how ridiculous and bratty they're being. But I can't. If you want to hold a grudge against me, you go right ahead. I'm not gonna grovel to get you back. I'll apologize once. And that's it. Then I'll leave you to throw your tantrum, and when you're over it, I'll welcome you back with open arms.
2) People who always think they know what is best for everyone else. For instance, if you've been reading, you'll know that I'm planning on going vegan in T-minus 3 days. (Really, only three days? Jeesh! I'm starting to get anxious!) Now, as I've been announcing this among my friends and family, I've gotten mixed reactions. Some of my friends and family have been really supportive, and I appreciate that support so much! I know this is going to be a tough journey, and I'll need all the encouragement I can get. But there are other friends who have been.. not so helpful. "What, oh my god, you can't do that, it's so unhealthy" "You should do the paleo diet instead, its so much better for you." "But its totally impossible to get enough protein without animal products!" My answer, in all these cases is "'Scuse me. Have you done the research? Are you a nutritionist? Do you realize that there are dissenting views about vegan nutrition even among the world's leading nutritionists? No? Then shut up. Its my body, my decision. If your opinion wasn't requested, you should probably keep it to yourself. Kthanks.
3) Job hunting. I really, really, really hate job hunting. It should not be this hard to find a dead-end minimum wage job that a retard could do. Seriously. How am I ever gonna find a GOOD job, if its this hard to get a bad one!? And job applications too. I mean.. I already went through the work of writing a resume with all the same information. Can't you just read that? Why do you want to read it twice? Doesn't it get redundant?
4) People who insist on coming to a complete stop before turning. If there is no traffic symbol there, it's unnecessary! And those people alway seem to be so old! Shouldn't they be in more of a hurry? I mean, time's running out, do you really want to spend what's left of it making that right turn?
Sorry about the rants. There are just some things that drive me crazy. And I've been experiencing too damn many of them lately. I'm sure you all know how that can go.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Prepping for the switch
So for the last few weeks, I've been spending a good deal of time compiling useful vegan tips and recipes. Hopefully, in a week, all this work will pay off by making my life much easier.
I'm actually getting pretty excited for the switch. I guess all this planning is at least helping to mentally prepare me. I had the idea in my head at first that this was all going to be about limiting what I could eat. No meat. No cheese. No ice cream! And I would sit around, trying to think about things I could cook. This is how my thought process would go.
Omnivore Songbird: Ooh, I could do eggplant parmesan. That's vegan right? With just a marinara sauce, not a meat sauce, obviously. -feels so proud of herself-
Herbivore Songbird: Actually... the whole.. parmesan thing kinda makes that not vegan at all.
And it just continued to spiral through my head like that, until I was starting to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Now, I know that I only agreed to this for one month, but in my head, I think of it lasting well... forever. I don't know if I really will be vegan for the rest of my life, and I won't know till after next month. But if, after this month, I feel as good as I hope I will, I don't see myself wanting to change back. Which started to freak me out even more. No pizza. Forever? No mac and cheese? For the rest of my life? And I know in my head that its only food, and as long as I'm getting enough to eat, I'm doing better than most of the world. But it's very difficult to maintain that mindset in the culture we life in. Food is so much a part of our culture. Think about it. Every holiday has it's own menu. For our birthdays, get together and eat. To catch up with friends, we get together and eat. For business meetings, we get together and eat! We live in a world where food is synonymous with pleasure. We live to eat, rather than realizing that we should eat to live. It's a very difficult mental transition to make. Moving on. After having my minor meltdown, I started looking for vegan alternatives to the foods I love. Some of them have really great alternatives, which I'm eager to try. Some.. well.. they have alternatives.. but I'm not sure I trust them. And honestly, I'd rather just eat grilled veggie sandwiches every day than try to recreate a vegan mac and cheese and have it turn out awful. Call my unadventurous, but I don't like being disappointed with things I cook.
But as I looked for alternatives, I came to another conclusion. There are a lot of awesome looking recipes here that I never would have even thought of! You ever feel like you get stuck in a rut, as far as your cooking goes? Like.. "Well, we have ground beef. We can have tacos, spaghetti or meatloaf". I always feel like my weeks go in an unending rotation of mexican, italian, american, italian, american, with maybe a sprinkling of indian or thai in there. Once you get so used to cooking a certain way, its easy to just get stuck using the same recipes over and over. And cookbooks are so often full of variations of the same old stuff! However, vegan cookbooks are different. Because of the limitations of possible ingredients, vegan cookbooks take their inspiration from all over the world. And, they find some really creative ways to use ingredients you are already familiar with. For example, a ricotta cheese substitute made from ground cashews and tofu with some spices? I don't know if I trust it, but its extremely well reviewed! Another upside of the vegan diet is the sheer variety of friuts and vegetables out there! With meat, you have beef, pork, chicken, and maybe seafood occasionally, if you roll that way. And whatever meat you choose, you're limited to building a dish around that. With vegan food though, there are so many opportunities to work with ingredients I've never used before. Like eggplant or collard greens or spaghetti squash or a pumpkin! I've never worked with a whole pumpkin, unless you count carving a face into it, and there's a pumpkin ziti recipe I'm really excited to try. =)
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, whenever you're dieting, whether cutting out animal products, or just trying to cut some calories, it is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking about everything you can't have anymore. The key is to change that mindset and focus on all the wonderful things you can have! And the other key, is to be creative! Just because you're cutting calories doesn't mean you have to eat a bowl of plain oatmeal every morning! Take note of all the ingredients at your disposal and put them together to make something better than the scrambled eggs and bacon you would be eating!
I'm actually getting pretty excited for the switch. I guess all this planning is at least helping to mentally prepare me. I had the idea in my head at first that this was all going to be about limiting what I could eat. No meat. No cheese. No ice cream! And I would sit around, trying to think about things I could cook. This is how my thought process would go.
Omnivore Songbird: Ooh, I could do eggplant parmesan. That's vegan right? With just a marinara sauce, not a meat sauce, obviously. -feels so proud of herself-
Herbivore Songbird: Actually... the whole.. parmesan thing kinda makes that not vegan at all.
And it just continued to spiral through my head like that, until I was starting to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Now, I know that I only agreed to this for one month, but in my head, I think of it lasting well... forever. I don't know if I really will be vegan for the rest of my life, and I won't know till after next month. But if, after this month, I feel as good as I hope I will, I don't see myself wanting to change back. Which started to freak me out even more. No pizza. Forever? No mac and cheese? For the rest of my life? And I know in my head that its only food, and as long as I'm getting enough to eat, I'm doing better than most of the world. But it's very difficult to maintain that mindset in the culture we life in. Food is so much a part of our culture. Think about it. Every holiday has it's own menu. For our birthdays, get together and eat. To catch up with friends, we get together and eat. For business meetings, we get together and eat! We live in a world where food is synonymous with pleasure. We live to eat, rather than realizing that we should eat to live. It's a very difficult mental transition to make. Moving on. After having my minor meltdown, I started looking for vegan alternatives to the foods I love. Some of them have really great alternatives, which I'm eager to try. Some.. well.. they have alternatives.. but I'm not sure I trust them. And honestly, I'd rather just eat grilled veggie sandwiches every day than try to recreate a vegan mac and cheese and have it turn out awful. Call my unadventurous, but I don't like being disappointed with things I cook.
But as I looked for alternatives, I came to another conclusion. There are a lot of awesome looking recipes here that I never would have even thought of! You ever feel like you get stuck in a rut, as far as your cooking goes? Like.. "Well, we have ground beef. We can have tacos, spaghetti or meatloaf". I always feel like my weeks go in an unending rotation of mexican, italian, american, italian, american, with maybe a sprinkling of indian or thai in there. Once you get so used to cooking a certain way, its easy to just get stuck using the same recipes over and over. And cookbooks are so often full of variations of the same old stuff! However, vegan cookbooks are different. Because of the limitations of possible ingredients, vegan cookbooks take their inspiration from all over the world. And, they find some really creative ways to use ingredients you are already familiar with. For example, a ricotta cheese substitute made from ground cashews and tofu with some spices? I don't know if I trust it, but its extremely well reviewed! Another upside of the vegan diet is the sheer variety of friuts and vegetables out there! With meat, you have beef, pork, chicken, and maybe seafood occasionally, if you roll that way. And whatever meat you choose, you're limited to building a dish around that. With vegan food though, there are so many opportunities to work with ingredients I've never used before. Like eggplant or collard greens or spaghetti squash or a pumpkin! I've never worked with a whole pumpkin, unless you count carving a face into it, and there's a pumpkin ziti recipe I'm really excited to try. =)
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, whenever you're dieting, whether cutting out animal products, or just trying to cut some calories, it is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking about everything you can't have anymore. The key is to change that mindset and focus on all the wonderful things you can have! And the other key, is to be creative! Just because you're cutting calories doesn't mean you have to eat a bowl of plain oatmeal every morning! Take note of all the ingredients at your disposal and put them together to make something better than the scrambled eggs and bacon you would be eating!
Friday, July 13, 2012
The omnivore is converted
For the last few years, my weight has been a real struggle for me. What with college class schedules, working two, sometimes three jobs at a time, and trying to find time for a social life and a boyfriend, life gets pretty hectic. And I know thats no excuse to not find time to work-out and eat healthy, but seriously.. I just want to sleep when I can, eat something without the invested time of shopping and cooking, and when I don't have responsibilities, I just want to veg out in front of my computer or tv. But that has to stop. Over the last few months, I've slowly been building up to a change in lifestyle. First, my friend Rachel made the decision to run a half-marathon, and she's been training her butt off to get there. So with that bit of inspiration, I started spending a bit more time on Pinterest looking at the fitness pins rather than the recipe pins. Though I still haven't actually made the changes I need to, I've slowly been storing up my willpower and inspiration. Then, Rachel made a new group on facebook for people who are trying to get fit and be healthier, which I have joined. So now I've got the support group I need and some motivation. I just needed a plan.
And I believe I found that today. My grandparents have been vegan now for a few years, and they've been begging me to read "The China Study", which is the book they base their lifestyle on. Today, I started reading it, and found some really interesting things. He details a lifetime worth of scientifically based experiments dealing with the relationship between consumption of animal proteins and the occurrence of various diseases including heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. The results are pretty compelling. For example, in one study, they took two different groups of rats and exposed both of them to equal amounts of a certain dangerous carcinogen known to cause liver cancer. To one group, they fed a diet of 20% animal protein (approximately the amount of animal protein the average American eats) and to the other, they fed a diet of only 5% animal protein. In the group consuming 20% animal protein, 100% of the rats got liver cancer or cancerous lesions. In the group consuming only 5%, none of the rats exhibited signs of cancer. Isn't that amazing? Especially in the environment we live in today!? Its nearly impossible to limit our exposure to carcinogens completely, but if we can limit our chances of actually getting cancer from those sources? By something as simple as diet? It seems worth a shot, right?
If you're interested in looking into this book, its kind of a difficult read. Very scientific, but more readable than I expected it to be. However, if you're more interested in the abbreviated version, there is a documentary on Netflix that addresses this study called "Knives over Forks"
And I'm curious to see how this kind of diet will affect my body. I don't have diabetes, or high cholesterol, or heart disease, like so many cases cited in this book, but I do have a few bothersome ailments that I'd like to see disappear. I've had headaches almost every day for longer than I care to remember. I've tried documenting them to find the root of the cause, but I can't seem to find a common thread. I have them whether I get 5 hours of sleep or 12. I have them whether I drink caffeine or not. I have them whether I read or look at a screen or not. I have them inside or outside. I just can't figure out why. But who knows? Maybe its diet related. I already addressed my complete lack of motivation and energy in my last blog, and I'm really hoping this dietary change will improve those problems as well.
So yes. For the month of August, I will be vegan. Not because I'm concerned about the exploitation of animals, but out of curiosity. And if it doesn't do anything by the end of the month, I can always go back. I'll use the time between then and now to continue planning and learning more about this lifestyle. Including how to cook! Its a whole new culinary art for me. Hopefully by the first I'll be able to gather up some good vegan recipes and inspiration! If some of you are wondering, no, the carnivore I live with will not be joining me in this venture. The man loves his steak way too much. But maybe I can convince him to try a few vegan meals at least.
If anyone has some good vegan recipes that they want to share, share them in the comments! I'll need a whole month of them, and salad is gonna get old real fast!
And I believe I found that today. My grandparents have been vegan now for a few years, and they've been begging me to read "The China Study", which is the book they base their lifestyle on. Today, I started reading it, and found some really interesting things. He details a lifetime worth of scientifically based experiments dealing with the relationship between consumption of animal proteins and the occurrence of various diseases including heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. The results are pretty compelling. For example, in one study, they took two different groups of rats and exposed both of them to equal amounts of a certain dangerous carcinogen known to cause liver cancer. To one group, they fed a diet of 20% animal protein (approximately the amount of animal protein the average American eats) and to the other, they fed a diet of only 5% animal protein. In the group consuming 20% animal protein, 100% of the rats got liver cancer or cancerous lesions. In the group consuming only 5%, none of the rats exhibited signs of cancer. Isn't that amazing? Especially in the environment we live in today!? Its nearly impossible to limit our exposure to carcinogens completely, but if we can limit our chances of actually getting cancer from those sources? By something as simple as diet? It seems worth a shot, right?
If you're interested in looking into this book, its kind of a difficult read. Very scientific, but more readable than I expected it to be. However, if you're more interested in the abbreviated version, there is a documentary on Netflix that addresses this study called "Knives over Forks"
And I'm curious to see how this kind of diet will affect my body. I don't have diabetes, or high cholesterol, or heart disease, like so many cases cited in this book, but I do have a few bothersome ailments that I'd like to see disappear. I've had headaches almost every day for longer than I care to remember. I've tried documenting them to find the root of the cause, but I can't seem to find a common thread. I have them whether I get 5 hours of sleep or 12. I have them whether I drink caffeine or not. I have them whether I read or look at a screen or not. I have them inside or outside. I just can't figure out why. But who knows? Maybe its diet related. I already addressed my complete lack of motivation and energy in my last blog, and I'm really hoping this dietary change will improve those problems as well.
So yes. For the month of August, I will be vegan. Not because I'm concerned about the exploitation of animals, but out of curiosity. And if it doesn't do anything by the end of the month, I can always go back. I'll use the time between then and now to continue planning and learning more about this lifestyle. Including how to cook! Its a whole new culinary art for me. Hopefully by the first I'll be able to gather up some good vegan recipes and inspiration! If some of you are wondering, no, the carnivore I live with will not be joining me in this venture. The man loves his steak way too much. But maybe I can convince him to try a few vegan meals at least.
If anyone has some good vegan recipes that they want to share, share them in the comments! I'll need a whole month of them, and salad is gonna get old real fast!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Wow, it has been quite a while since I last blogged. So much has happened since then.... Let me get you all caught up really quickly.
Firstly, and most importantly, my wonderful boyfriend flew over here from New York in May, and moved in with me. It has been an adjustment, for sure; I had never lived with a boyfriend before this.. or with any boy who wasn't my brother. But I've loved every minute of it. He actually drove back home with me to meet the family! ( An event we had both been a little terrified of) And it went surprisingly well too. Except for the one little slip up from my lovely grandmother, when he was petting her dog ("I wasn't sure if he was gonna bite you or not. I don't think he's ever seen a black person before...") it was actually quite enjoyable.
In other news, the bar that I was working at went out of business, so I'm on the job hunt. Again. Boo. And since the bar was bankrupt, they have been unable to afford to pay my last paycheck. Double boo. So now I have to jump through all kinds of governmental hoops to try to get a lousy 200 dollar paycheck.
But on the bright side, I just had an interview at another little bar yesterday, so I'm reallllllly hoping I'll be hired there, and I can stop all this job application nonsense.
As far as everything else goes... well... it's going. I seem to be losing motivation for everything lately. Thank God it's summer, because I definitely wouldn't be able to do school right now. I think the only reason I did as well as I did last term (not very well, by the way) was because Kasheef was here pushing me through dead week and finals. And this loss of motivation is not a new thing by any means. The last year of school has just been torture. I don't know why it's been so hard. Maybe its watching other people from my high school class graduate, and knowing its not my turn yet. Maybe I just burned myself out during fall term with my three jobs and overloaded course load. Or maybe I'm just a little bit depressed. It seems weird to think that, because I don't really feel sad, necessarily. Its just that I feel completely unmotivated to do things that I used to like doing. Really, I just want to sleep, all the time. I feel tired, no matter how much caffeine I consume, no matter how many hours of sleep I get. I have headaches almost every day. I don't know, maybe there's something neurologically wrong with me, but I'm just really struggling. I am just so tired of feeling like all this work, all this striving towards a goal, just leads to more of the same. I've felt that way since my sophomore year of high school, and nothing has changed! Sure, I graduated high school. Great. I have a high school diploma, which, by the way, does next to no good in the job market. And now I'm in college, doing the same things I was doing in high school, but with maybe a little more direction. And once I finish that, I'm gonna have more college to get my Masters and start my career. And all that's even without the Peace Corps.
And all around me, I see people doing it the "wrong way". Getting knocked up out of wedlock in high school or college, moving in with their parents, or taking the other route and taking care of themselves. I see people entering into marriages that I'm sure won't work out. I see people living off of WIC and food stamps. And yet.. its hard not to be jealous of those people. At least their lives have started! It just seems like there is so little reward in this world for the people who want to work hard and take care of themselves. In a world where the government says, "what? You got pregnant, and you can't afford to take care of that child? Thats okay, here's some money. And some free pre-natal healthcare. Oh, and by the way, this is way more that you would earn working that minimum wage job, so why bother?" or a world where they say, "No, if you're a college student, you can't earn any unemployment. You have to find a way to pay for tuition and books on top of food, rent and bills, while working a minimum wage job, because that's all you're qualified to do. In fact, after you graduate school, that's still all you'll be qualified to do, because you don't have any real world experience. So now you've got 50,000+ dollars of student loan debt and you can barely pay your bills. Good luck." Not to mention the fact that its damn near impossible to find a job while you're a student, because employers don't want to work around a student's schedule, when it changes every three months. Especially not in this economy, when people with PhDs are competing with me for work at McDonalds. My mom tells me that I just need to work full time during the summer and save up so that I don't have to work during the school year, but that math just doesn't add up to me. Even if I saved every additional penny I made, I might have enough to last me through the first term of school, but definitely not the whole year. I don't mean to whine, or throw a pity party here, but its just the way society is, and it is so unfair. Call me a cynic, or say that those are only the exceptions, but you see it everywhere! The girl who came into a job interview dressed like a whore, who flirted her way into the job that you should have gotten. The family with 6 kids living off of welfare and making more than you'll probably ever see in your college educated life. You even see it on talent shows like America's Got Talent or American Idol. If a contestant has a sob story about how they screwed their own life up, on drugs, or as a single mother, or living on the streets, even if their talent is only mediocre, they will make it far. And someone who has worked hard, who has done everything they were told, they'll be cast aside, because they aren't marketable enough. Why does our society reward the screw-ups while ignoring the rest? I understand, they had a long way to come. They had to work hard to get where they are, but so did I. And I did it without messing up.
Maybe that is really the biggest contributer to my motivation problem. It's really hard to feel motivated to complete something when you know the reward is greater when you fail.
Firstly, and most importantly, my wonderful boyfriend flew over here from New York in May, and moved in with me. It has been an adjustment, for sure; I had never lived with a boyfriend before this.. or with any boy who wasn't my brother. But I've loved every minute of it. He actually drove back home with me to meet the family! ( An event we had both been a little terrified of) And it went surprisingly well too. Except for the one little slip up from my lovely grandmother, when he was petting her dog ("I wasn't sure if he was gonna bite you or not. I don't think he's ever seen a black person before...") it was actually quite enjoyable.
In other news, the bar that I was working at went out of business, so I'm on the job hunt. Again. Boo. And since the bar was bankrupt, they have been unable to afford to pay my last paycheck. Double boo. So now I have to jump through all kinds of governmental hoops to try to get a lousy 200 dollar paycheck.
But on the bright side, I just had an interview at another little bar yesterday, so I'm reallllllly hoping I'll be hired there, and I can stop all this job application nonsense.
As far as everything else goes... well... it's going. I seem to be losing motivation for everything lately. Thank God it's summer, because I definitely wouldn't be able to do school right now. I think the only reason I did as well as I did last term (not very well, by the way) was because Kasheef was here pushing me through dead week and finals. And this loss of motivation is not a new thing by any means. The last year of school has just been torture. I don't know why it's been so hard. Maybe its watching other people from my high school class graduate, and knowing its not my turn yet. Maybe I just burned myself out during fall term with my three jobs and overloaded course load. Or maybe I'm just a little bit depressed. It seems weird to think that, because I don't really feel sad, necessarily. Its just that I feel completely unmotivated to do things that I used to like doing. Really, I just want to sleep, all the time. I feel tired, no matter how much caffeine I consume, no matter how many hours of sleep I get. I have headaches almost every day. I don't know, maybe there's something neurologically wrong with me, but I'm just really struggling. I am just so tired of feeling like all this work, all this striving towards a goal, just leads to more of the same. I've felt that way since my sophomore year of high school, and nothing has changed! Sure, I graduated high school. Great. I have a high school diploma, which, by the way, does next to no good in the job market. And now I'm in college, doing the same things I was doing in high school, but with maybe a little more direction. And once I finish that, I'm gonna have more college to get my Masters and start my career. And all that's even without the Peace Corps.
And all around me, I see people doing it the "wrong way". Getting knocked up out of wedlock in high school or college, moving in with their parents, or taking the other route and taking care of themselves. I see people entering into marriages that I'm sure won't work out. I see people living off of WIC and food stamps. And yet.. its hard not to be jealous of those people. At least their lives have started! It just seems like there is so little reward in this world for the people who want to work hard and take care of themselves. In a world where the government says, "what? You got pregnant, and you can't afford to take care of that child? Thats okay, here's some money. And some free pre-natal healthcare. Oh, and by the way, this is way more that you would earn working that minimum wage job, so why bother?" or a world where they say, "No, if you're a college student, you can't earn any unemployment. You have to find a way to pay for tuition and books on top of food, rent and bills, while working a minimum wage job, because that's all you're qualified to do. In fact, after you graduate school, that's still all you'll be qualified to do, because you don't have any real world experience. So now you've got 50,000+ dollars of student loan debt and you can barely pay your bills. Good luck." Not to mention the fact that its damn near impossible to find a job while you're a student, because employers don't want to work around a student's schedule, when it changes every three months. Especially not in this economy, when people with PhDs are competing with me for work at McDonalds. My mom tells me that I just need to work full time during the summer and save up so that I don't have to work during the school year, but that math just doesn't add up to me. Even if I saved every additional penny I made, I might have enough to last me through the first term of school, but definitely not the whole year. I don't mean to whine, or throw a pity party here, but its just the way society is, and it is so unfair. Call me a cynic, or say that those are only the exceptions, but you see it everywhere! The girl who came into a job interview dressed like a whore, who flirted her way into the job that you should have gotten. The family with 6 kids living off of welfare and making more than you'll probably ever see in your college educated life. You even see it on talent shows like America's Got Talent or American Idol. If a contestant has a sob story about how they screwed their own life up, on drugs, or as a single mother, or living on the streets, even if their talent is only mediocre, they will make it far. And someone who has worked hard, who has done everything they were told, they'll be cast aside, because they aren't marketable enough. Why does our society reward the screw-ups while ignoring the rest? I understand, they had a long way to come. They had to work hard to get where they are, but so did I. And I did it without messing up.
Maybe that is really the biggest contributer to my motivation problem. It's really hard to feel motivated to complete something when you know the reward is greater when you fail.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Things I've learned in College
I apologize for my long hiatus. Last term was.. hellish at best. With a lighter course load and a new job, which I love, hopefully I'll feel a bit more human this term! Which brings me to my main point:
College is hard. And with all that money and effort that we put into an education, we certainly hope that we walk away having learned something useful. However, these lessons do not always occur in the classroom. Sure, you may learn how to read Canterbury Tales in Middle English, or the names of Jupiter's moons, however, if you are like most people, this knowledge will never be needed beyond the final exam. Unless you play Trivial Pursuit. Or Jeopardy. The really important lessons, the ones you will use for the rest of your life, almost always take place outside of the classroom. Here are a few of the lessons that I've learned so far:
1. How to parallel park. Seriously.. I was so intimidated by parallel parking before coming to college. Then I moved off campus and was told that a commuter parking permit would cost me 80 dollars per term. (seriously? For 80 dollars a term, I should be able to have valet service and a foot rub on my way to class) So, I did without the parking permit, but that means that I now have to battle with every other poor, broke, permit-less off-campus student for one of the 20 parking spaces within a block of the school. Therefore, I've learned to take what I can get. Even if I have to parallel park to get it. Trust me, when you're running late to a midterm, close parking spots are godsends.
2. To take heart, because no matter how terrible of a French/English/Grammar teacher I am in the future, I will still be better than my current French teacher. I know this because I could teach that class better in my sleep. I hate to say that, because my French teacher really is a nice lady, and she really does seem to care about her students, which counts for a lot in my opinion. She just... doesn't know how to teach. And its extremely frustrating to sit in a class everyday, knowing that your teacher is less competent in second language acquisition than you are.
3. When to compromise. As a poor college student, you learn how to cut corners to save money. Like, "I know my nose and my toes and frozen, even though I'm bundled up in blankets, but I don't want to pay to run the heater, so I'll just sit here and shiver." and "tv? Who really needs tv? I already have to pay for internet, and I can just watch everything online anyway." However, there are times when you just have to bite the bullet and pony up the dough. Like with toilet paper. I don't care how poor you are. Do not buy the cheapest brand of toilet paper. Just don't. It doesn't mean you have to buy the most expensive one either. A nice mid-range brand is good. Just trust me. Everyone deserves halfway decent toilet paper, and the cheap stuff is nowhere close to decent.
4. Spanish/French/ASL obscenities and insults. I know, some of you think that this won't be useful later in life. Suffice it to say that I beg to differ.
5. Small talk. I'm in the process of learning this one. With my new job as a bartender, chitchat is a pretty important part of the job description. I'm pretty proficient at talking about the weather now, but I've still got a bit to learn.
6. How to job hunt. It amazes me how many people come into my shop, dressed in sweats, or with a buddy and ask me if we have applications. Not to mention how many people come in unprepared. When I say we don't have applications, but I can take a resume and leave it for the owner, almost everyone I've talked to tells me they don't have a resume. You're walking around.. looking for a job.. and you didn't bother to write/print off a resume to take with you? Oh, and, just dropping off a resume or application isn't good enough. You should be asking to speak to the hiring manager. And then you should call or stop in to check on your application. Seriously. Make them so sick of seeing you that they just hire you to get you out of their hair. This job market sucks already. Don't make it worse on yourself by being ill prepared.
7. That sometimes, I will disagree with my parents. And that's okay. This one has been a tough lesson for me to learn. I love my parents very much, and relative to most of my peers, we have a great relationship. I love to make them proud, and I love when I have their approval. But I'm learning that I won't always have their approval. That we won't always agree about everything. But thats okay. It doesn't mean that I love or respect them any less. It just means that I'm forming more of my own identity, which I think is a good thing. Maybe sometimes I'll have to listen to them say "I told you so" as a result of those decisions, but I guess making your own mistakes is all part of growing up.
College is hard. And with all that money and effort that we put into an education, we certainly hope that we walk away having learned something useful. However, these lessons do not always occur in the classroom. Sure, you may learn how to read Canterbury Tales in Middle English, or the names of Jupiter's moons, however, if you are like most people, this knowledge will never be needed beyond the final exam. Unless you play Trivial Pursuit. Or Jeopardy. The really important lessons, the ones you will use for the rest of your life, almost always take place outside of the classroom. Here are a few of the lessons that I've learned so far:
1. How to parallel park. Seriously.. I was so intimidated by parallel parking before coming to college. Then I moved off campus and was told that a commuter parking permit would cost me 80 dollars per term. (seriously? For 80 dollars a term, I should be able to have valet service and a foot rub on my way to class) So, I did without the parking permit, but that means that I now have to battle with every other poor, broke, permit-less off-campus student for one of the 20 parking spaces within a block of the school. Therefore, I've learned to take what I can get. Even if I have to parallel park to get it. Trust me, when you're running late to a midterm, close parking spots are godsends.
2. To take heart, because no matter how terrible of a French/English/Grammar teacher I am in the future, I will still be better than my current French teacher. I know this because I could teach that class better in my sleep. I hate to say that, because my French teacher really is a nice lady, and she really does seem to care about her students, which counts for a lot in my opinion. She just... doesn't know how to teach. And its extremely frustrating to sit in a class everyday, knowing that your teacher is less competent in second language acquisition than you are.
3. When to compromise. As a poor college student, you learn how to cut corners to save money. Like, "I know my nose and my toes and frozen, even though I'm bundled up in blankets, but I don't want to pay to run the heater, so I'll just sit here and shiver." and "tv? Who really needs tv? I already have to pay for internet, and I can just watch everything online anyway." However, there are times when you just have to bite the bullet and pony up the dough. Like with toilet paper. I don't care how poor you are. Do not buy the cheapest brand of toilet paper. Just don't. It doesn't mean you have to buy the most expensive one either. A nice mid-range brand is good. Just trust me. Everyone deserves halfway decent toilet paper, and the cheap stuff is nowhere close to decent.
4. Spanish/French/ASL obscenities and insults. I know, some of you think that this won't be useful later in life. Suffice it to say that I beg to differ.
5. Small talk. I'm in the process of learning this one. With my new job as a bartender, chitchat is a pretty important part of the job description. I'm pretty proficient at talking about the weather now, but I've still got a bit to learn.
6. How to job hunt. It amazes me how many people come into my shop, dressed in sweats, or with a buddy and ask me if we have applications. Not to mention how many people come in unprepared. When I say we don't have applications, but I can take a resume and leave it for the owner, almost everyone I've talked to tells me they don't have a resume. You're walking around.. looking for a job.. and you didn't bother to write/print off a resume to take with you? Oh, and, just dropping off a resume or application isn't good enough. You should be asking to speak to the hiring manager. And then you should call or stop in to check on your application. Seriously. Make them so sick of seeing you that they just hire you to get you out of their hair. This job market sucks already. Don't make it worse on yourself by being ill prepared.
7. That sometimes, I will disagree with my parents. And that's okay. This one has been a tough lesson for me to learn. I love my parents very much, and relative to most of my peers, we have a great relationship. I love to make them proud, and I love when I have their approval. But I'm learning that I won't always have their approval. That we won't always agree about everything. But thats okay. It doesn't mean that I love or respect them any less. It just means that I'm forming more of my own identity, which I think is a good thing. Maybe sometimes I'll have to listen to them say "I told you so" as a result of those decisions, but I guess making your own mistakes is all part of growing up.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
My Life as a Linguist
So, for those of you who don't know, I'm majoring in Linguistics at my university. Because this is such a little known field, I thought I should address a few common questions and explain a little bit of what it is that I actually do.
So, jumping right in:
A. Well, its the study of language. It includes the study of language acquisition, morphology, syntax, phonology, semantics, historical linguistics, etc. There are research linguists who work in different ways. Some study historical linguistics, tracing back modern languages to their common ancestors, and trying to recreate lost languages. Others travel to remote parts of the globe and document previously undocumented languages. Other linguists work as speech therapists, language teachers, translators, or even forensic linguists. (I just heard about the latest one. Apparently there are linguists working for some police departments who analyze language in connection with possible crimes. This could apply to suicide notes, ransom letters, recorded speech, etc. Cool, huh?)
Q. Linguistics, huh? Are you a cunning linguist?
A. Ha.Ha. No.
Q. Oh? A linguist? How many languages do you speak?
A. This is a common misconception about linguists. Many linguists only speak their mother tongue. You don't have to be fluent in a foreign language to be able to describe its syntax and morphology (Don't worry. I'll explain these terms later). Also, if your focus was on first language acquisition, or how children learn language, you wouldn't need to know a foreign language at all.
Q. What attracted you to linguistics?
A. Well, I took my first linguistics class while I was an English Education major, and it just clicked with me. One of the first things we discussed was how children learn language. Now, if you ask the average person on the street how it is that young children learn language, they would tell you that kids hear things and repeat them. When they make correct utterances, they are rewarded by being understood, and when they make incorrect utterances, they are corrected, kind of like training a dog. However, if that were the case, children would not every be able to create original sentences. It would be based completely on repetition. Also, if that were the case, why do children almost universally make errors like "feets" and "teached". They certainly don't hear these words used. So where do they come from? The child is applying a fairly complex system of rules to the language that he or she knows. Which, for a 2-3 year old, is highly impressive. It is argued in linguistics that children are born with an innate ability to learn language. Their brain is hard-wired to make sense of an extremely confusing system. The specific language they learn obviously depends on the input they are exposed to, which is why children born in Boston speak English, while children in Tokyo speak Japanese.
So, jumping right in:
FAQ's
Q. So.. what exactly is Linguistics? And what can you do with it?A. Well, its the study of language. It includes the study of language acquisition, morphology, syntax, phonology, semantics, historical linguistics, etc. There are research linguists who work in different ways. Some study historical linguistics, tracing back modern languages to their common ancestors, and trying to recreate lost languages. Others travel to remote parts of the globe and document previously undocumented languages. Other linguists work as speech therapists, language teachers, translators, or even forensic linguists. (I just heard about the latest one. Apparently there are linguists working for some police departments who analyze language in connection with possible crimes. This could apply to suicide notes, ransom letters, recorded speech, etc. Cool, huh?)
Q. Linguistics, huh? Are you a cunning linguist?
A. Ha.Ha. No.
Q. Oh? A linguist? How many languages do you speak?
A. This is a common misconception about linguists. Many linguists only speak their mother tongue. You don't have to be fluent in a foreign language to be able to describe its syntax and morphology (Don't worry. I'll explain these terms later). Also, if your focus was on first language acquisition, or how children learn language, you wouldn't need to know a foreign language at all.
Q. What attracted you to linguistics?
A. Well, I took my first linguistics class while I was an English Education major, and it just clicked with me. One of the first things we discussed was how children learn language. Now, if you ask the average person on the street how it is that young children learn language, they would tell you that kids hear things and repeat them. When they make correct utterances, they are rewarded by being understood, and when they make incorrect utterances, they are corrected, kind of like training a dog. However, if that were the case, children would not every be able to create original sentences. It would be based completely on repetition. Also, if that were the case, why do children almost universally make errors like "feets" and "teached". They certainly don't hear these words used. So where do they come from? The child is applying a fairly complex system of rules to the language that he or she knows. Which, for a 2-3 year old, is highly impressive. It is argued in linguistics that children are born with an innate ability to learn language. Their brain is hard-wired to make sense of an extremely confusing system. The specific language they learn obviously depends on the input they are exposed to, which is why children born in Boston speak English, while children in Tokyo speak Japanese.
The point is, there is something about humans that makes us hard-wired to communicate, and that is just amazing to me.
Also, linguistics radically changed the way I looked at grammar. I had always found grammar to be confusing in school, but as soon as it was explained by a linguist, it was like, suddenly everything was clear. Thats part of the reason that I want to teach English. Students deserve to know that grammar doesn't have to be this big scary intimidating thing. (Also, linguists are "descriptive grammarians", meaning that they don't abide by all those stupid rules you learned growing up. You wanna end a sentence with a preposition? You wanna use a double negative? Go for it. The only ungrammatical sentence is one that a native speaker wouldn't understand the intent of. So, a sentence like "I ain't got none" might hurt your ears, but from a linguist's standpoint, its completely grammatical.)
Q. What are you gonna do with that?
A. Well, I'm getting my certificate in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and then I'm going to go into the Peace Corps to teach English abroad with them. Afterwards, I will probably come back and get my Masters in Teaching and teach high school English (and probably French too) here in the states.
Okay.. and now for the things that I actually study:
Phonology- the study of the sounds of a language. Studies the way we make sounds, why sounds change over time a certain way, etc. For example, if you are a native speaker of English, you know that to form the plural of a word, you add an -s or -es. However, you probably didn't notice that you pronounce that plural in three different ways. Don't believe me? Say "pigs", "picks" and "pieces". Catch the difference? The first was a -z sound, then an -s, and then a -iz or -uz. Why is it that all native speakers will do that without ever having to be instructed in it? Any its not just repetition either, because we apply the same rules to made-up words!
Here, I also get to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet, which makes so much more sense than English spelling. There is a letter for each sound made in a work. So, in the word phone, the "ph" would be represented by [f], because that is that sound it makes. Also, the "sh" sound is represented by [ʃ] and the "th" in "thin" would look different than the "th" in "this", because they are different sounds. The problem with writing everything in IPA, because trust me, I would love to, is that IPA transcribes accents and pronunciation differences. For example, my friend Rachel and I would have different spelling of the word "button" because we say it differently. And who is to say that one accent is superior to another?
Morphology- is actually cooler than it sounds. It has to do with morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful parts of words. So, the word speakers has three. speak-er-s. The first is this root verb. The second part turns that verb into a noun. and the last morpheme marks it as a plural noun. Its because of morphology like this that we can play with language like we do. Its why I can say a made up word like "verbify" and you know that it means to turn something into a verb. And we all do this without even thinking about it!
There's a lot more to it, but I'll leave you with that for now. I could talk forever about language, but I don't want to bore you all to tears!
-D
Monday, January 23, 2012
Deluges of Books and Water-- A.K.A Welcome to Winter Term
Hello, all. Its Monday. The beginning of the third week of winter term, and I am completely overloaded with assignments. And we all know what that means! A new blog from me to you while I procrastinate. (I'm doing laundry while I write, so that makes it okay, right? Right? Guys?) Not to mention, I needed a coffee cure to the monday blues, so I'll be up all night anyway. And trust me when I say I needed the coffee.. it wasn't a desire, it was a need. You try sitting through six solid hours of 400 level linguistics classes and let me know how your brain feels. Moral of the story- Mondays suck.
While I still have your attention, I'll apologize for the inordinately long previous post. Obviously, I get a little excited about the Peace Corps. Long story short: I finally got to start my application, I still won't even know if I'm accepted for about another year, and, oh yeah.. I'm really freaking excited. Thats pretty much it. =)
So, the last few weeks have been a blur. I can only hope the rest of winter term goes by this fast. Unfortunately, this has resulted in my room looking like a class five tornado just ripped through it. There is laundry everywhere (though hopefully that gets taken care of tonight), jewelry and shoes scattered everywhere, and books covering every conceivable surface. I kid you not. You remember this scene from the Beauty and the Beast?
Yeah. My room is like that. But less organized. And with more clothes on the floor.
Now, I'm not above admitting that I always dreamed of one day having a library like that. I just had always imagined that the books would be... ones I actually enjoyed reading. I mean, like the ones that you go back and read again and again. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Diary of Anne Frank. And sure, maybe I would throw in Paradise Lost or Dante's Inferno just to be pedantic, (I love that word, by the way. I also love pairing it with "pontificate" and "prodigious". Alliteration is the shit, and words are fascinating) but it wouldn't matter, because I wouldn't actually have to spend hours trudging through it unless I wanted to.
Finally, it has stopped raining. The river is receding, and so far as I've heard the damage was really pretty minimal. But living across the street from a river during a flood is.. a little terrifying. Especially when you hear about nearby towns evacuating. But no worries. We're all fine here. Unless you count the 20 extra minutes that it takes me to get to Salem until all the roads open back up.
Anyway.. just a short update for you all. Time to get back to work. =( I've got the start of another blog in my head, so I'm sure I'll be back here before long.
-D
While I still have your attention, I'll apologize for the inordinately long previous post. Obviously, I get a little excited about the Peace Corps. Long story short: I finally got to start my application, I still won't even know if I'm accepted for about another year, and, oh yeah.. I'm really freaking excited. Thats pretty much it. =)
So, the last few weeks have been a blur. I can only hope the rest of winter term goes by this fast. Unfortunately, this has resulted in my room looking like a class five tornado just ripped through it. There is laundry everywhere (though hopefully that gets taken care of tonight), jewelry and shoes scattered everywhere, and books covering every conceivable surface. I kid you not. You remember this scene from the Beauty and the Beast?
Now, I'm not above admitting that I always dreamed of one day having a library like that. I just had always imagined that the books would be... ones I actually enjoyed reading. I mean, like the ones that you go back and read again and again. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Diary of Anne Frank. And sure, maybe I would throw in Paradise Lost or Dante's Inferno just to be pedantic, (I love that word, by the way. I also love pairing it with "pontificate" and "prodigious". Alliteration is the shit, and words are fascinating) but it wouldn't matter, because I wouldn't actually have to spend hours trudging through it unless I wanted to.
In other news, I almost died a couple days ago. Okay, so I didn't really almost die.. but my town did flood.
.
Finally, it has stopped raining. The river is receding, and so far as I've heard the damage was really pretty minimal. But living across the street from a river during a flood is.. a little terrifying. Especially when you hear about nearby towns evacuating. But no worries. We're all fine here. Unless you count the 20 extra minutes that it takes me to get to Salem until all the roads open back up.
Anyway.. just a short update for you all. Time to get back to work. =( I've got the start of another blog in my head, so I'm sure I'll be back here before long.
-D
Friday, January 13, 2012
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Peace Corps, and then some
I've been waiting for this day for years. And it has finally arrived. What's so special about January 13th, 2012, you ask? Well, I will tell you. Today, I begin my application to the Peace Corps. =D
When you begin your application process (which should last around 9 months to a year) one of the first things you are asked is what date you are available to begin your service. After that question, they have a nifty little drop down box which gives you options of months. Unfortunately, the options only extend a year and a half in advance. So, until now, exactly a year and a half (hopefully!) before my departure date, I was unable to start my application.
What on earth, you may be asking, would cause the application to take a whole year? Well, let me give you a little overview of the application process:
1) I fill out the application itself, which is no small task. It will probably take at least a few week to get my references together, write my essays, and give an account of every relevant class, job, or hobby that could help me out. Not to mention gathering up all my financial information, health status review, and college transcripts.
2) Roughly two weeks after my application is received, I should hear from my regional Peace Corps recruiter to set up an interview time. The interview could be conducted in person or over the phone. (More likely over the phone since the nearest Peace Corps office is in Seattle)
3) If the recruiter determines that the Peace Corps will be a good fit for me, and all of my application materials have been received, I will be nominated. This means I will be told in general what region of the world I will be working in, general type of work and an approximate departure date. Nothing is set in stone at this point.
4) After nomination, I will be required to complete a medical review to make completely sure that I'm not dying.
5) If I'm not dying, they will do a legal review, to make sure I'm not secretly a felon, or married, or skipping out on loans, etc.
6) Then, I'll be evaluated on the basis of my skills. They call this a competitive review, where basically they take stock of what I have to offer, compared with other candidates.
7) Finally, if I survive all of that, and there is a position that I qualify for, I will receive an invitation letter. This letter contains the specific country I will be serving in and a detailed job description, and the specific date of departure. You usually receive your letter about 2 or 3 months in advance. It also comes with the "welcome book" for that country. These are actually really cool.. I've found some PDFs online of welcome books for different countries, and there is a lot of information in them. There's a map of the country, a brief history, overview of politics, religion, culture. Information about the climate, the food, the language. A description of what your training will be like. Packing lists specified to that country (so useful! You're only allowed to pack 80 pounds so its nice to know what you'll be able to find there and what you'll need to bring with you). There's also a pretty detailed section on safety in that country and what you need to do to stay protected and safe. Oh, and there're letters from past volunteers to that country! I think this is really cool. The letters will often tell you about challenges that volunteer experienced and how they overcame them, or give you advice or warnings, and they all give a ton of encouragement.
8) After receiving my invitation, I can choose to accept it or I can wait for another invitation. However, its important to be flexible. Just because a country isn't the one you initially hoped for doesn't mean you should reject the invitation. The Peace Corps prizes flexibility in their volunteers, and if you come across as unwilling to compromise, you are not going to be seen as as competitive of an applicant.
9) After I accept an invitation, the Peace Corps will buy me a ticket to my "pre-service orientation site" also called staging. I think this is usually in DC, but I'm not sure. This is short, basically just a chance for the volunteers to meet before leaving the US. Then, we'll all fly out together, and the real training begins in country!
10) I'll have 11 weeks of in cAountry training in the country's capital city, which includes language and cultural training, as well as technical training for your field. Volunteers usually live with host families during their training. After that, I'll receive my official site assignment and off I go to begin my two years!
As you can see.. its going to be quite the process. But I am so excited! I feel like I've waited forever to begin the process, and now that its here, I'm actually a little bit nervous. I mean.. what if I don't make it? What if all the anticipation, all the hours of lost sleep, all the planning isn't enough? I suppose I'll have to cross that bridge if and when I come to it.
While I'm on the subject of the Peace Corps, I think I should probably answer a few questions that I am always asked:
Q: What is the Peace Corps?
A. The Peace Corps is a US Government agency. They send Americans overseas to work in developing countries for 27 months. They only send volunteers to countries who have requested volunteers. The Peace Corps is not about invading and Americanizing the developing world, but providing trained workers for interested countries while promoting cross cultural understanding, both on the part of the people being served and on the part of the volunteers.
Q: Do you get paid for this?
A: Yes. In a few different ways. During my service, I will receive a stipend that allows me to live comfortably at the level of the locals. This means, yes, I will have enough to eat. No, I won't be living in the embassy. Peace corps also pays for my plane tickets to and from my country of service. In addition, some student loans are eligible for deferment or even cancellation, I'll receive $7,425 (before taxes) upon completion of my service, and I'll have free medical and dental care during my service. Also, if I should choose to go to graduate school after my service, I can earn college credit for my service, and in that way, save myself some money!
Q: What will you do?
A: The Peace Corps has a few different program areas. These are: Education, Agriculture, Business and Information Tech, Youth and Community Development, HIV and AIDS, Health, and Environment. Since I will have my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification, its a pretty good bet I will be teaching English.
Q: Where will you go?
A: The short answer is... wherever they send me. I don't get to choose my country of service, although I can indicate if I have a region I prefer. But, there are some ways to try to determine where you're gonna go. For me, because I have a background in French, and TEFL, its a pretty good bet (though not set in stone) that I'll end up in a French speaking country that also has an Education program set up today. Because so many people ask me this, and I was a little curious myself, I looked through all the peace corps countries to figure out which ones I was most likely to end up in. Here's a list of the French speaking education countries (the numbers next to them indicate how many volunteers are currently there, which can help determine the likelihood that I will get that place. More volunteers now means more open positions for me!) Cameroon: 221, Burkina Faso: 155, Madagascar: 148,Togo: 118, Benin: 112, Vanuatu: 68, Guinea: 31, and Niger, where the program has currently been suspended. Now, these are the countries where my skills fit the best, but its just as likely that the Peace Corps will see that I know French, and take that to mean that I could just as easily learn Spanish or Portuguese or Kiswahili or Wolof. Basically, it could be one of the countries I mentioned, but it could also be the Philippines or Albania or Kazakhstan or Samoa. I just won't know till I get my invitation. And that's all part of the adventure. =)
Q: Will you have running water (or electricity, or internet, or phone)?
A: Well, that's all dependent on my placement. Not only on the country itself, but also my location within the country. For example, if I'm in Cameroon, but I'm in the capital I might have access to a lot more than if I were in Romania, but living in the rural countryside. Chances are, I will probably have a cell phone. Even the least developed countries usually have cell phones, though service may be iffy, (Though that's not a big change from my AT&T service now!) and phone calls to the states will be expensive. Even if I don't have internet in my home, many larger cities have internet cafes, but the prices vary and so does internet speed. If nothing else, the peace corps office in my country should have internet, and when I make trips into the capital city, I'll be able to use it.
Q: Is it safe?
A: Well.. again, thats dependent on the individual assignment. Some countries are safer than other, some volunteers safer than others. Medically speaking, each peace corps office maintains medical staff for care of volunteers. If for some reason, a volunteer cannot be adequately treated within the country, they can be medivacked (on the Peace Corps dollar) to the states. Also, the Peace Corps has evacuation plans in place in every country, in case of some revolution or natural disaster. The Peace Corps works very closely with the Embassy to be sure that in case of emergency, all volunteers can be safely evacuated. As far as other safety issues such as theft or assault, common sense reigns supreme. There is a lot you can do to keep yourself safe. Don't go out alone after dark. Lock your doors. Don't keep valuables where they are easily seen. The Peace Corps does everything in its power to keep volunteers safe, but accidents do happen.
When you begin your application process (which should last around 9 months to a year) one of the first things you are asked is what date you are available to begin your service. After that question, they have a nifty little drop down box which gives you options of months. Unfortunately, the options only extend a year and a half in advance. So, until now, exactly a year and a half (hopefully!) before my departure date, I was unable to start my application.
What on earth, you may be asking, would cause the application to take a whole year? Well, let me give you a little overview of the application process:
1) I fill out the application itself, which is no small task. It will probably take at least a few week to get my references together, write my essays, and give an account of every relevant class, job, or hobby that could help me out. Not to mention gathering up all my financial information, health status review, and college transcripts.
2) Roughly two weeks after my application is received, I should hear from my regional Peace Corps recruiter to set up an interview time. The interview could be conducted in person or over the phone. (More likely over the phone since the nearest Peace Corps office is in Seattle)
3) If the recruiter determines that the Peace Corps will be a good fit for me, and all of my application materials have been received, I will be nominated. This means I will be told in general what region of the world I will be working in, general type of work and an approximate departure date. Nothing is set in stone at this point.
4) After nomination, I will be required to complete a medical review to make completely sure that I'm not dying.
5) If I'm not dying, they will do a legal review, to make sure I'm not secretly a felon, or married, or skipping out on loans, etc.
6) Then, I'll be evaluated on the basis of my skills. They call this a competitive review, where basically they take stock of what I have to offer, compared with other candidates.
7) Finally, if I survive all of that, and there is a position that I qualify for, I will receive an invitation letter. This letter contains the specific country I will be serving in and a detailed job description, and the specific date of departure. You usually receive your letter about 2 or 3 months in advance. It also comes with the "welcome book" for that country. These are actually really cool.. I've found some PDFs online of welcome books for different countries, and there is a lot of information in them. There's a map of the country, a brief history, overview of politics, religion, culture. Information about the climate, the food, the language. A description of what your training will be like. Packing lists specified to that country (so useful! You're only allowed to pack 80 pounds so its nice to know what you'll be able to find there and what you'll need to bring with you). There's also a pretty detailed section on safety in that country and what you need to do to stay protected and safe. Oh, and there're letters from past volunteers to that country! I think this is really cool. The letters will often tell you about challenges that volunteer experienced and how they overcame them, or give you advice or warnings, and they all give a ton of encouragement.
8) After receiving my invitation, I can choose to accept it or I can wait for another invitation. However, its important to be flexible. Just because a country isn't the one you initially hoped for doesn't mean you should reject the invitation. The Peace Corps prizes flexibility in their volunteers, and if you come across as unwilling to compromise, you are not going to be seen as as competitive of an applicant.
9) After I accept an invitation, the Peace Corps will buy me a ticket to my "pre-service orientation site" also called staging. I think this is usually in DC, but I'm not sure. This is short, basically just a chance for the volunteers to meet before leaving the US. Then, we'll all fly out together, and the real training begins in country!
10) I'll have 11 weeks of in cAountry training in the country's capital city, which includes language and cultural training, as well as technical training for your field. Volunteers usually live with host families during their training. After that, I'll receive my official site assignment and off I go to begin my two years!
As you can see.. its going to be quite the process. But I am so excited! I feel like I've waited forever to begin the process, and now that its here, I'm actually a little bit nervous. I mean.. what if I don't make it? What if all the anticipation, all the hours of lost sleep, all the planning isn't enough? I suppose I'll have to cross that bridge if and when I come to it.
While I'm on the subject of the Peace Corps, I think I should probably answer a few questions that I am always asked:
Q: What is the Peace Corps?
A. The Peace Corps is a US Government agency. They send Americans overseas to work in developing countries for 27 months. They only send volunteers to countries who have requested volunteers. The Peace Corps is not about invading and Americanizing the developing world, but providing trained workers for interested countries while promoting cross cultural understanding, both on the part of the people being served and on the part of the volunteers.
Q: Do you get paid for this?
A: Yes. In a few different ways. During my service, I will receive a stipend that allows me to live comfortably at the level of the locals. This means, yes, I will have enough to eat. No, I won't be living in the embassy. Peace corps also pays for my plane tickets to and from my country of service. In addition, some student loans are eligible for deferment or even cancellation, I'll receive $7,425 (before taxes) upon completion of my service, and I'll have free medical and dental care during my service. Also, if I should choose to go to graduate school after my service, I can earn college credit for my service, and in that way, save myself some money!
Q: What will you do?
A: The Peace Corps has a few different program areas. These are: Education, Agriculture, Business and Information Tech, Youth and Community Development, HIV and AIDS, Health, and Environment. Since I will have my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification, its a pretty good bet I will be teaching English.
Q: Where will you go?
A: The short answer is... wherever they send me. I don't get to choose my country of service, although I can indicate if I have a region I prefer. But, there are some ways to try to determine where you're gonna go. For me, because I have a background in French, and TEFL, its a pretty good bet (though not set in stone) that I'll end up in a French speaking country that also has an Education program set up today. Because so many people ask me this, and I was a little curious myself, I looked through all the peace corps countries to figure out which ones I was most likely to end up in. Here's a list of the French speaking education countries (the numbers next to them indicate how many volunteers are currently there, which can help determine the likelihood that I will get that place. More volunteers now means more open positions for me!) Cameroon: 221, Burkina Faso: 155, Madagascar: 148,Togo: 118, Benin: 112, Vanuatu: 68, Guinea: 31, and Niger, where the program has currently been suspended. Now, these are the countries where my skills fit the best, but its just as likely that the Peace Corps will see that I know French, and take that to mean that I could just as easily learn Spanish or Portuguese or Kiswahili or Wolof. Basically, it could be one of the countries I mentioned, but it could also be the Philippines or Albania or Kazakhstan or Samoa. I just won't know till I get my invitation. And that's all part of the adventure. =)
Q: Will you have running water (or electricity, or internet, or phone)?
A: Well, that's all dependent on my placement. Not only on the country itself, but also my location within the country. For example, if I'm in Cameroon, but I'm in the capital I might have access to a lot more than if I were in Romania, but living in the rural countryside. Chances are, I will probably have a cell phone. Even the least developed countries usually have cell phones, though service may be iffy, (Though that's not a big change from my AT&T service now!) and phone calls to the states will be expensive. Even if I don't have internet in my home, many larger cities have internet cafes, but the prices vary and so does internet speed. If nothing else, the peace corps office in my country should have internet, and when I make trips into the capital city, I'll be able to use it.
Q: Is it safe?
A: Well.. again, thats dependent on the individual assignment. Some countries are safer than other, some volunteers safer than others. Medically speaking, each peace corps office maintains medical staff for care of volunteers. If for some reason, a volunteer cannot be adequately treated within the country, they can be medivacked (on the Peace Corps dollar) to the states. Also, the Peace Corps has evacuation plans in place in every country, in case of some revolution or natural disaster. The Peace Corps works very closely with the Embassy to be sure that in case of emergency, all volunteers can be safely evacuated. As far as other safety issues such as theft or assault, common sense reigns supreme. There is a lot you can do to keep yourself safe. Don't go out alone after dark. Lock your doors. Don't keep valuables where they are easily seen. The Peace Corps does everything in its power to keep volunteers safe, but accidents do happen.
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