47 days. That’s how many days I’ve been in grad school. 75. That’s about how many chapters and articles I’ve read. 3. That’s the number of things I’ve done that I would consider fun. (These days what I consider fun includes: sleeping in on the weekends, hanging out with a friend and her toddlers, going for a walk, and not reading. I’m very much becoming an old (illiterate) lady.)

I’ve always considered myself someone who enjoys reading and who is good at it too. Looking at words that other people have put on paper and making sense of them have always been things I win at. That was then. The problems I have with reading in grad school, aside from the quantity of readings and breadth of topics, is the very field-specific vocabulary and concepts. Yes, I know what “discursive” means and I know what “practice” means, but what do you mean by putting them together? And what about the other words that are not found in the old Merriam-Webster: Vygotskian, Englishization. I’ve also discovered new words I didn’t even know existed, perhaps because all these years I’ve been reading the wrong kinds of books and/or talking to the wrong kinds of people: hegemony, epistemology, etc.

Add to that the fact that I spent the last 2 years reading an average of 1 book a month ranging from Norwegian Wood to Heroics for Beginners. Not exactly research based writing with the annoying APA formatting.

Well, it has been more than one month and I’ve had to develop some strategies to be an efficient reader. Here are some of the things I do that have helped me:

1. Read the title and abstract (if provided) and skim through the text to get a sense of what I’m about to read.
2. Write in the margins, underline words/concepts/whatever I don’t understand or need more background on.
3. Who is the author? After reading enough articles some names will keep popping up in the citations and references and (I hope) at some point I’ll be able to tell what a specific author will talk about.
4. Think about step one in terms of the class and the topics that are being covered that week so I can better contextualize the article.
5. If my professor has given guiding/discussion questions, reading them before reading the article. This helps me pick up on certain things the first time around instead of having to skim through the article a second time.
6. Discuss with classmates – they might have a different take on the article than I do or understand something I didn’t and vice versa.
7. Take notes. Because that is how I roll. I need to paraphrase/summarize what I’m reading and so I take notes in the margins and on separate sheets of paper.
8. Pace myself. I check out the syllabus and make a list of the articles/chapters I’ll have to read for the week for each class so I can divvy them up. It makes it easier to understand the articles if I only read 2 a day instead of 5 all at once for the next day.
9. Know thyself. I can’t read electronic versions of academic writing (I need to make notes in the margins). If I read a pdf version of an article my brain will retain nothing and my eyes will twitch for weeks. And my soul will be sad.
10. Because I refuse to end on an odd number.

Feast upon my amazing note- & picture-taking skillz

I’m looking forward to next semester because I’m assuming that by then I’ll be a lot more familiar with the concepts of my field and will have developed even more grad school reading skills. Also, I’m hoping I’ll have a life by then.

G

Cameroon was on my mind today. We’ve been talking about World Englishes in my sociolinguistics class and it’s got me thinking about the green, red and yellow folk. I even called Aissatou and Bertha and we had really nice, short (very short) chats.

I found this list that I’d posted on my Facebook “notes” back in October 2010 (I was still fresh in country then!):

It is my intention to bring these things to the States and spread them like wild fire.

1. Asking for a cadeau after each and every purchase
2. Walking around with music blasting from my cell phone
3. Replying with “mmmh mmmh” or “thank you” to all greetings
4. Making hissing/whistling/kissing sounds to get someone’s attention
5. Going to a restaurant and ordering a spaghetti omelet sandwich with avocado and a whiskey black at 9am
6. Giving someone condensed milk in hot water when they ask for milk
7. Using “pay for” instead of “buy” – “what did you pay for?”
8. Sending very young children to run errands for me at a great distance from my house
9. Wait until my parents or siblings are out the front door and then yell out to them “tu me gardes!” which basically means “buy me something while you’re out”
10. A huge tub of piment powder – it is awesome and potent and I will have an ulcer by the end of my service but it will be worth it.
11. Saying “on va faire comment?” (“what are we gonna do?”) as an excuse for everything.
12. The various hand gestures meant to illustrate numbers or “too many”
13. Greeting people by saying “How?”
14. Not finishing my sentences – “c’est comment ?“, “je ne t’ai pas vu depuis”
15. Saying “que quoi?” when confused about something someone just said

I just want you all to know that I have failed on each and every single one of these. Although every time I have to pay for food I want to ask for a gift since I spent so much money buying things.

Also, I somehow managed to go 2 years without ever buying/eating a spaghetti omelet (sandwich or otherwise). Or a whiskey black. Or any alcohol. I think I had 1 beer total (2 purchased, half drunk both times) which is 1 more than necessary since I am and have been a “teetotaler.”

Grace

I am in Hawaii! I have been since Monday and after running around getting everything I need I can finally relax now. By this, I of course mean, after taking my sweet time to get the barest essentials and then forgetting some of the barest of the essentials, I decided to rest and take in the scenery.

My room – no I will refer to it as “my studio” from now on – is pretty awesome. I’m still excited at the fact that I have a fridge. As you can tell, spending 2 years without one has left me scarred. I did what I always told myself I would do if I ever got a fridge while in Cameroon: I bought yogurt and put it in there. If I accomplish nothing else during my time here I will consider this 2-year tenure a success.

Aside from the fridge and the super helpful landlord (who knew landlords could be nice!?), I also appreciate the absence of noise. No kids screaming their alphabets. No neighbor listening to annoying (at 6am) Nigerian music. Just birds and leaves rustling. I could dig this.

I’ve been walking around the neighborhood every day and jotting down some of the areas of interest and value to me. So far, at my nausea inducing pace of mosey, everything I’ve seen takes me about 15-30 minutes to get to. Except of course on my first walk where I set out to find my school but ended up way out on the way to Manoa Falls and then backtracked to Starbucks and then eventually by the Grace of God himself (and because Landlord showed me around a bit) found my way back home 2 hours later. When I mapped it out, I’d only walked 3 miles. That’s how fast I roll. This time frame also includes a stop at Starbucks, mind you. But like I told my mom, I was not lost, just wandering, but not fully aware of where I was or where I was going.

The scenery is beautiful, the bus system easy to navigate and the temperature and occasional liquid sunshine makes walking everywhere really nice. I just need to get shoes that are comfortable to walk in.

View from street in my neighborhood

I wish I could hug those mountains!

Grace

We left Weiser for the airport at 1:58 this morning which is absurd. Heading towards Boise there were signs on the road that read “be mindful of the other driver” (or something similar. “Mindful” was there though). In my groggy state I thought ‘yo, even the official highway signs are polite.’

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like Floridians are rude or anything but, you know, we’re not Weiser, ID nice. Even though I’ve only been to the airport, a store in Boise and parts of Weiser, I’ve decided that everyone and their mother is super nice in Idaho and I will spread that news like wildfire. Maybe I should never go back or ask rude people where they’re from so this image stays with me until death. Anytime someone does something that hurts my soul I can just mutter to myself that it never would have happened in Weiser.

So anyway, I’m sitting at the Salt Lake City airport waiting for my flight to Honolulu which leaves in 4ish hours. I like to get flights with ridiculous layover times so I can test my patience and become a better person. It’s my way of achieving a Zen-like status without all the annoying yoga and meditation. This whole post started because I got all situated at the gate and took out my laptop and started getting annoyed at the fact that this airport didn’t have free wi-fi access. But since I’d never been to this airport and I like my anger to be based on fact, I had to log-on so I could see the screen that would ask me to pay $9 + my sister’s first born for 30 minutes of Google time. I have a different definition of Zen than most people? Well guess what? SLC totes has free wi-fi, yo! So I thought I’d blog about it. (I started using “totes” to mock a friend who used it all the time and now it has become a habit – la mater was right, l’habitude est une seconde nature for real).

I’ve only been to 3 airports that had free wi-fi, which is pathetic airports of the world because I’ve been with quite a few of you: Orlando International Airport (represent!), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and now you, Salt Lake City International Airport. You guys are awesome and I hope you influence your brethren.

I Googled LAX and SFO, because I can, and apparently they offer free wi-fi now which was not the case when I was there. I’m not about to look up every airport I’ve ever been to but I might start assuming all airports offer free wi-fi now. Yes. This is what I’m going to take away from this experience and it is exactly how I will remember and talk about this whole situation.

Or if you choose to live in the real world, you can go to the following link and check out the airports that offer free wi-fi. Because whenever you think something would be useful, some gentle soul (probably from Idaho) has taken the time to do it for you. Sadly, Haiti didn’t make the list. Next time.

Grace

I left my parents’ house for the -nth time earlier this week to head off to Hawaii with a pit stop in Weiser, ID (pronounced Weezer). The entire family (nuclear that is. I don’t believe Weiser is big enough to contain my extended family) headed there for my little brother’s wedding. The baby of the family is the first one to get married. I’m guessing he’s glad we don’t have any traditions involving the older siblings getting married first because aside from the little sister who is engaged the oldest three don’t seem to be in any hurry to get hitched.

Weiser is such a cute little town. Not to be condescending or anything. According to my brother’s mother in law, everything is about ½ mile away from everything. If you need to buy clothes or anything not available in Weiser, you have to head into Boise (71 miles away) or to Ontario, Oregon (19 miles away). We had the rehearsal dinner in Oregon since it was closer than the nearest city.

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much to do in Weiser. My brother’s godfather and his wife scoped out an old car show going on at the church and there seems to be a lot of hiking and camping possibilities. As you can recall from The Incident, I do not climb mountains. We were busy with wedding preparations anyway so I don’t think we would have found the time to do anything much. The brother’s future wife’s (sheesh) grandmother offered to take us to her farm out in the country but there was no time. I would have loved to go. She gave us (my mother, but really, who are we kidding?) jars of strawberry preserves she made so I’m excited to try that out.

I also got to rest at the motel. We stayed at the Indianhead Motel and it’s really nice. The motel only has 8 really spacious rooms and a nicely sized garden area. There is free wi-fi access in all the rooms and the owners clean and take care of the property so it’s really nice. Everything is really clean and well maintained and as with everyone else I’ve met in ID so far*, they are really kind and helpful. The motel’s right next to a delicious family owned restaurant/diner. It’s closed on Sunday though! The food there is delicious – mind you I only had breakfast – but they give you so much food for so little money. I wish Florida had those prices. There’s also a produce/farmer’s market situation right across from the motel so that’s convenient. The only thing missing from the room is a small fridge. If I’m ever back in Weiser (or if you’re ever there) I’d recommend the Indianhead Motel.

I get to wake up at 2am tomorrow morning to drive down to Boise and catch a 6 o’clock flight to Honolulu! Peace out mainland. It’s been real.

And now, pictures!

Grace

*Funny story – we went to the mall in Boise to pick up my dad’s tux and this little blonde girl who couldn’t have been more than 4 years old held the door open for us and just shrieked with such a huge smile on her face “oh wow! black people!” It was very much a “I’ve read about you guys!” moment.