Actually I have two subjects in Summer school, but Melody has four. So with trying to balance our family I will still be very busy. I'm feeling quite chuffed that I have credit for Anthropology from previous studies as the reading for that class looks very heavy. The phonetics class will be very practical and a lot of fun. Phonetics and phonology were my favourite classes in my linguistics degree. The other major component of Summer school for me will be language learning theory and practice. The subject covers a lot of theories in learning language. These will be applied in learning a language during the course. Melody and I will either learn "Karen" a Tibeto-Burman language or Urdu the official language of Pakistan. This will then be repeated again with a different language in second semester. This should prepare us very well for learning Evenki, Ket or one of the other languages of the Krasnoyarsk Krai.
I've had a good Summer so far, playing a lot of cricket with my nephew Kaleb and attending lots of cricket. It's been fun to get to two days of the test match against South Africa (even if we did lose); and then two Twenty-20 matches to see Victoria win both easily. There have been a few interested Americans here at SIL that are students for the year. They're getting a good education from me in Australian culture.
Abigail has loved seeing the wombat again at Healesville. We were greatly encouraged to see "Florence" eating her vegetables, and we use this as bargaining power with Abigail so she will eat hers. Abigail is settling in really well and has greatly enjoyed her first two days of child care. We are encouraged that we will get through this six weeks as a family, before the more normal routine of semester sets in, in March.
3 comments:
Happy New Year! sounds as though all is well. Your classes sound really interesting - I'd love to get back to learning a new language. I originally planned to learn Spanish this past decade, but it wasn't to be - I had a baby, did and Masters and have ALMOST done a PhD instead!
Happy New Year! I haven't been here for so long. Soon I will have high speed a Cristmas gift from my family and then it will be easier to visit this page. I have been upgrading my address book and so would appreciate your mailing address and telephone #. Have been praying for Abigail and all the changes in her life, she always looks so happy in the pictures. I pray for your classes and your ability to grasp all you are wanting to learn. I enjoy all the pictures you post here.
With Melody having twice as heavy an academic load, I guess you are going to be getting more practice in the kitchen and housekeeping departments this semester. :)
It's good to hear that Abigail is settling, becoming more comfortable with your latest move and enjoying day care. That this a real answer to prayer.
Australia might be so familiar to you that it is hard to find stuff to blog about, but if Melody wasn't already busy with 4 classes, I would have suggested that she blog some of her impressions and discoveries about her adopted country. It would be interesting to see/hear what she finds new, surprising, different, wierd . . .
Heather
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