Linguistic surveys

I don't much talk about my research on my blog, but I am a linguist and occasionally give people surveys that make them feel uncomfortable. This is one of those times. Please take my surveys!

Survey 1

Survey 2

I've moved!

Well, at least I've moved my blog it is now here, at WordPress. Come see me there!

Address if clicking above didn't help: http://farfarawayla.wordpress.com/

One woman on a mission...

So, a few months ago I promised myself I would post about being a woman traveling by myself in France. Then life happened and I never got back to it... So, here I am, writing about my grand solo adventure. Now, I've stayed in youth hostels before last summer, but it was always with someone else, usually my boyfriend. Instant bodyguard, right? But after a year in grad school and the award money from my senior thesis burning a hole in my pocket, I decided I needed to do something unforgettable. I love France and I always had romantic ideas of biking around the Provencal countryside, baguette in hand.

I first tried to organize something with friends, but seeing as the economy had recently taken a turn for the worse, job prospects were bleak and my once adventurous friends no longer had the financial means to come with. No big deal, I'd done some "backpacking" before, why not on my own. Well, there was the slight fear of having everything stolen from me once more, as happened in Barcelona. But if I could come through that experience, who's to say I couldn't take on more? No one, that's who. As I scoured the interwebs, I kept finding women who had thrown caution to the wind and traveled on their own. Heck, there was a section of couchsurfing.org dedicated to females traveling on their own. And I knew the culture, the language, the food... If there ever was a place to go, France was it, and there's no time like the present. So off I went.

My initial idea was to fly through Paris each way, seeing as it really is the only city in France that you can hop a flight to Philadelphia, much less the US. I would stay in Paris for a few days on either end of the trip and spend most of my time in the south: Montpellier, Arles, Avignon, and Nimes. Those cities were chosen for their culture, abundance of online information, and bounty of youth hostels. And I really did get the kind of adventure I was looking for from these places: history, nightlife, family fun, culture, and time to myself. But first, the best and worst parts of solo travel:

BEST
The most liberating part of traveling on my own was that I could do whatever I wanted. If I got up at the crack of dawn, no waiting around for others; if I wanted a relaxed day, there was no itinerary to spoil. If I made some friends, I could make plans without worrying about my traveling companions' needs. At the same time, I could plan out all the activities I wanted to do, eat when and what I wanted, spend an afternoon reading or go on a 15+ mile bike ride. One day, I even had a lunch of cheese and a baguette in a field of sunflowers. I got myself lost then got myself back, no one to argue with and no one to complain to me.

WORST
But there are downsides to all of these things. If I got lost, I could only depend on myself. If I didn't make friends, I was forced into solitude. And, worst of all, if something bad happened to me (theft, rape, lost passport), no one was there to help me through it. Sure, some days didn't end up ok: one wrong train ticket and I was scrambling for a place to stay in Paris and cancelling my hostel in Nimes. No amount of French language knowledge helped me there. Add to that the added layer of being a woman and you have to watch out for overly friendly advances from men, which unfortunately did happen in Montpellier, Arles, and Paris. I did have one situation in Montpellier where I was at a club with some other backpackers from the youth hostel and two guys skirted the line between friendly and too friendly. But I made sure I was with a large group of people at all times and had couple walking escorts back to the hostel.

Fortunately, what I took away from this experience was not the sense that I could do anything, but that I could survive traveling on my own and, well, really liked it. I couldn't fly by the seat of my pants like the American guy who hitchhiked and camped out on farms, but I could travel on a budget and enjoy it.

Next post, I will detail my housing arrangements and transportation (aka how to take the wrong night train in France)...

Solo travel

I'm not sure why I didn't blog about this, but last summer I went on my first major solo trip to Europe. I was kinda nervous, being a woman in a foreign country and staying in youth hostels for the most part, but it ended up being a fantastic trip. I reaffirmed my love for the city of lights, got to do some awesome things (like dance sur le pont d'Avignon), met some great people (especially in Montpellier), and really got to follow my heart the entire time, seeing where the wind took me.
At the same time, I am thankful for the Palay family, who ended up being a real life-saver when I accidentally messed up my train tickets. I hope I got to show them a good time in my favorite city and they gave me a place to stay and some absolutely amazing meals. The Palays won for best neighbors that month!
Ok, I promise I'll put some retro-posted pictures and such up at a better time (not in the middle of a crazy week of school, oops) of both France and Greece.

EDIT: I'm also going to France in the second half of May, so I'll really have plenty to post after that...

Pictures galore (some even with blue sky)

I haven't been able to update a lot because I've been so busy with school (3-week classes are intense). Anyway, here are a couple of pictures.

The first is my street (Chungfu Lu) on a sunny day:
Starbucks! It's called "Shing ba kuh" in Chinese, although I always pronounce it wrong because they have a sound we don't have in English (a voiceless alveopalatal fricative).


I also got a picture published on the BBC. See it here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7494999.stm
(picture 8 is mine, it's of a bunch of people on stairs with umbrellas).

The weather has definitely improved recently (and by weather I mean smog), so I'm not too worried about my health yet. Anyway, I'll try to post again soon!

Edit: In case the BBC ever takes my picture down, here's a screen shot:

A truly beautiful day in Beijing + Bookworm

This weekend I was starting to become resigned to the fact that I would not directly see the sun nor blue sky for the entire month, except maybe when I left the city. However, I was pleasantly surprised when Sunday ended up being a simply gorgeous day! As soon as I can, I will upload a picture (and one with the regular sky color to contrast them). The sun was out, there was blue sky and definition between cloud and sky. I don't know what happened to make it so wonderful, but thank goodness for whatever the Chinese are doing to prepare for the games because I can only attribute it to that.

In other news, me and Kathryn went to a really cute bookshop/cafe/restaurant called Bookworm on Saturday to study. We splurged on a really nice lunch (my first fish in a long time) and spent the day there alternately reading for class and browsing their lending library of books. I've read that you need to donate 3 books to participate in the lending library aspect, which is kind of cool. We've decided that we need to get out of our district at least on the weekends and will be spending at least one of those days there.

Well, until next time...

Old Summer Palace

The newest pictures are from the Old Summer Palace, where I wandered around one afternoon. It is a very large place and I got lost a couple of times on the way there and on the way back (thank goodness a taxi ride back was only $1.50).

This picture is from a zig-zag bridge. It was really long and slippery, but I managed to get across it without any mishaps.This second picture I took after following some ooo's and ahh's from the crowd. Right off of a dock where they were taking people around in boats (you can see one in the background) were two beautiful birds. I could have asked someone what kind of bird it was, but I would probably either have gotten another Chinese word or a blank stare. But they were gorgeous.

This was another interesting bridge. It was the tallest one I saw by far.

And that concludes the Old Summer Palace. This blog took me a little under an hour to completely upload, so there won't be very many pictures in the future... But plenty of stories! Until next time.

An amusing tale...

Ni hao! I don't have much time, but I wanted to post a humorous story, or at least after a few days it seems much more humorous and Kathryn told me I had to post it...

So, I was meeting my group one afternoon/evening and was trying to catch a bus to the university around rush hour. The buses were jam packed, but a bus finally came that would take me to the right place, so I rushed to get on. I was the last one and was trying to make sure that I would get on, so I put my foot up on the step, thinking they wouldn't close the door with my foot there. Oh was I wrong... All of a sudden the doors shut close with my foot in the door. I pulled out my foot, but my sandal didn't quite make it and the bus immediately started moving with my shoe attached! Thank goodness for the crazy Beijing traffic (I will never say that again) because the bus stopped about 10 feet later to merge into traffic and I grabbed my shoe back.

That's right, a bus tried to steal my shoe. Thank goodness that is the closest I've come to anything of mine being stolen yet, which is much better than my trip to Barcelona...

Happy 4th everyone!

Some pictures!

Here's me in front of the forbidden city, just hanging with Mao. And of course some Chinese girls in the background... Oh well. And this is my vegetarian meal (imitation Peking duck and Jasmine tea - delicious!). I'll upload more pictures when I have a better internet connection.

Class time + my adventures as an English speaker in China

So, the real reason I came to Beijing wasn't to wander around the city all day but to take a linguistics class. Today was our third day of classes and it hasn't exactly been easy. I think I am the only one in the class who does not speak Chinese, so when they're trying to explain something they use Chinese because it's easier for everyone else to understand. But that tends to leave me a little clueless as to what is happening in the class. I've learned to sit there and keep busy while things are discussed in Chinese and wait until a break when I can ask what just happened. That happens to me a lot, especially with my "study group".

The class is split up in groups of 3. Each study group has one Beijing University student, one student from another university in Beijing, and one student not from Beijing. Guess which one I am. So while my group members speak English, Chinese is much easier for them, so most logistical plans are made in Chinese. I'll be involved and then all of a sudden one says something in Chinese to the other and they go off chattering while I am sitting there utterly confused and waiting until they're done. Usually they forget to tell me what has just happened so most of the time I have to ask. But I'm getting by, mostly by trying to speak slowly and pointing at things. And this way most decisions are made for me, which is rather nice considering I've only scratched the surface of this city. And one of them introduced himself, saying "My name is [insert a very Chinese name] but you can call me Larry." It took all of my energy not to laugh.

The number of things I can say and understand has vastly improved. I can now say: Hello, how are you?, 10 bucks, numbers 1-4, the name of my bus stop, thank you, Starbucks (very important), no, and the name for the Chinese dollar. I can understand the name of my school's bus stop (it's far too long to say), the Old Summer Palace, and the Summer Palace. Of course all of this took a week to learn and I've only got 3.5 weeks left. So maybe by then I'll be able to have a very short conversation, talk about the weather or money or something. My favorite translation of an English word into a conglomeration of Chinese words is the word for cell phone: literally it's "hand machine". And the word for Starbucks is the Chinese word for star + what sounds like "bucks".

Well, I shall try to post again soon (and maybe add some pictures...), but now I have to go read 100 pages about phonology and do some homework. This class definitely will not be easy...

Sightseeing

I've had a fun the last few days exploring on my own. Since my language skills don't help a ton here, I've had to do most of it with pointing and nodding, but somehow I've survived. My first full day I went wandering around the hutong, little alleyway neighborhoods that are quickly disappearing. The ones I was wandering in are northeast of the Forbidden City. The streets are barely big enough for a car, which makes it interesting when a car, a bikerider, and a pedestrian meet on the street... But anyway, I found what I think is one of the only vegetarian restaurants and had some delicious imitation Peking duck and bamboo shoots with jasmine tea. Then I walked around some more before going back to where I'm staying. Then I fell asleep at about 7pm, no joke.

The next day I decided to visit Tienamen Square and the Forbidden City. I probably should have given myself more time because after wandering around the subway station looking for the square for about half an hour, then actually walking through the square (it's not small) and walking through the first gate of the city, it was already 4pm. What I didn't realize was that it closed at 5... So I got a taste of the Forbidden City, then went home using a different subway stop. Then I tried to stay up late but went to sleep at 8.

Then came yesterday. It was absolutely beautiful outside (which in Beijing terms means that it's overcast but not gloomy), so I found a Japanese restaurant and had the cheapest sushi meal I've ever had, then hopped a bus to the Summer Palace. Knowing my luck, I accidentally went the wrong direction and had to switch buses. Then, to make matters worse, I started walking in the wrong direction and then it began to pour! I ended up huddled in a little shop for a bit while it let up, then I found the Old Summer Palace (which was probably better considering the Summer Palace closes at 5 and the Old Summer Palace doesn't close until 7). I walked around for hours and hours until I decided it was time to leave. Then began my journey to find the exit, which took at least another hour. Once I got there, I couldn't for the life of me find the bus stop, so I took a taxi back, which ended up being less than $2. Again I tried to stay awake, especially because Kathryn (another student I'm rooming with here) was arriving that night, but I fell asleep at about 9.

Today is looking kinda gloomy, so we'll see what happens. I'll update again )hopefully with pictures) when I can

I made it!

Hello from Beijing! I got here yesterday and I have to say I don't think I've ever gotten more sleep in one day in my life. I think the key to getting time change right is to get no sleep so all you want to do is sleep and eventually it'll work itself out. But I could be wrong... Well, I haven't done much outside of the youth hostel I'm staying at. I tried walking around last night, but could not get my bearings, so I just came back and read. Today hopefully I'll do some sightseeing, but if I can't navigate the subway system in Chinese, that might not happen until Kathryn comes in on Saturday. Well, I'll update again soon!

Here I go again on my own...

The time has finally come for my trip to Beijing. I will be taking a course in phonology at the Michigan-Peking University Joint Institute. That is PHONology, not PHRENology - that is, I will be studying sounds, not the bumps on people's skulls. (I've had to explain that more than once...) Anyway, I'm packed and ready to get on my over 13 hour flight direct from Chicago to Beijing. Hopefully I'll be able to make it to the youth hostel I'm staying at without any trouble before immediately passing out.
Anyway, I'll try to update this periodically in China, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to access the site there... If not, I will figure out some way of keeping in touch with everyone and telling you all about my month in Beijing. Talk to you all soon!

Lauren

Belated Barcelona post

I was just going back through my blog and realized I never put up pictures from my time in Barcelona. Of course, those who know what happened to me (I had my purse stolen, including my camera...) might understand this, but it's about time I put something up. My friend Supraja was also there and took these pictures (I had disposable cameras, which should have some additional pictures, come to think of it...). So, here's the view from Katherine's place (where we were staying):
And I was staying like 5 feet from the Boquería (the most incredible market I've ever been to):

We were starved for bagels (Paris has none, I swear), so for 3 euro, we got bagels with cream cheese:After our first chocolate and churro dessert, me and Supraja have decided to form a religion based on their fattening goodness:


No trip to Barcelona would be complete without some Gaudi buildings, so here's one we happened upon:
Next was the Gaudi Park, which is the trippiest park you'll ever go to. I felt like I was in the Hansel and Gretel fairytale:



Those Barcelonans really know their chocolate! We had to stop by the chocolate museum, which was filled with statues made of chocolate of various things, like famous Barcelona buildings and Disney characters:



We found our way to the water and walked along the boardwalk:


And then we headed to Portugal... (to be continued)

Aussieland

Sorry it's been a while. For those of you who don't know, after returning home for all of two weeks, I visited Tom in the land down under. Australia was amazing and I recommend anyone going if they've got the time (and probably the resources...) to really appreciate it. My journey started after over 20 hours in transit in Sydney. This is me waiting for a bus, which is not only on the wrong side of the street, but I have to hail because otherwise they won't stop. And things only got stranger...


Next, the airline lost my luggage (great for 2 weeks in a foreign country), so I went shopping. Considering it rained for most of the rest of the time I was there, I had plenty of time for that. So, I had to get a pretty new dress for the opera! Here's a picture of me and Tom all dressed up for the Sydney Opera House (we heard the Sydney orchestra playing Beethoven):

Then, since there was pretty bad weather for that whole week, the next time we really took pictures was the one beautiful day, when we took the Manly fairy. We got some great views of Sydney Harbor:





Then, there was Manly Beach which, despite being a bit chilly was beautiful. We even got to see a few surfers.

After Manly, we did the walk from Bondi to Tom's beach, Coogee. It was quite the hike, but we made it. Here are some pictures from the view between the two:

Then, finally, we went to the Blue Mountains for our last day in Sydney. They really are beautiful, and here are some pictures so you can see how beautiful they were too.



To be continued in Cairns in my next post...

Disneyland (pronounced Dis-nay-lahnd)

Here's another small picture update. During the second part of spring break, I went to Disneyland Paris with a few friends. If anyone has been to Disneyworld or Disneyland in Florida or California, those have nothing on this Disney park. There are actual rollercoasters (both Indiana Jones and Space Mountain have loops) and on top of that the animatronics speak French! Of course C3PO was a little hard to understand and I didn't get everything at the Haunted Mansion, but it was amazing nonetheless. So, without further ado, here are some pictures from that day. The first is me and my friend Lauren S in front of a sign that says "la ou les reves deviennent realite", which means roughly "where dreams come true":


Next is me after a makeover in the Pirates of the Caribbean giftshop:

Spring break and my "dossiers"

Hi Everyone,
Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I got back from spring break about 2 weeks ago, but I have been writing final papers like mad. I am right now in the middle of a 5-page "dossier" on the new 24-hour French news network, France24, and finished another on the train terminals of Paris on Sunday. I'll post again when I get a chance, but here's two pictures for now of my spring break (where I went to Barcelona, Porto, and Lisbon). It's me looking out onto Porto from the top of the Torre dos Clerigos:

And another one just for good measure of me at the Oceanarium in Lisbon:

Normandy

We went to Normandy this weekend (well, two days and one night) and saw pretty much everything related to D-Day as possible. So, although most of the history went straight over my head, I still enjoyed myself. Of course, it wasn't encouraging when I woke up on the way over and it was snowing... But when the teacher explained that we went through Bayeux on the way over, I almost jumped out of my seat (it's the resting place of the Bayeux tapestry, one of the most important pieces in English history, of the Norman conquest of 1066, around the same time Old English disappeared from the records). Anyway, here's that snow:


Next we went to Arromanches, where the Allied forces built an artificial port following the D-Day disembarkment (Debarquement in French):

Here's some of my friends enjoying their crepes on the way back to the bus (from the left, Lisa, Supraja, and Lauren S):


Here's me and Lauren S at the American cemetery in Normandy for the Americans killed as a result of D-Day:


Next is the "palate cleanser" from our French meal. It's ice cream floating in a very strong brandy popular in Normandy between courses of very long meals:

Finally, we arrive at Mont St. Michel, one of the most beautiful sights you'll see in France. If you get the chance to go, please do. It's on an island surrounded by the English Channel, where tides change dramatically (8 meters), and quicksand, which a couple kids on our trip decided to go running in. It might be hard to get to, but it's an amazing place:


And finally, our tourguide of the abby on the mountain. He was very interesting and engaging, and I found myself hanging onto every word despite the fact it was all in French. We even learned that the word "bibliotheque " (library) came about because the first places where students were taught were in monestaries and the root is the same as "bible". The Sorbonne, arguably the most famous university in France, actually came from "soeur bonne", which means "good sister" or "good nun", another link to the abby.


That was the end of our trip, and the end of my important pictures thus far. This Thursday I am off to Barcelona for a week, followed by Porto and Lisbon in Portugal, and Amsterdam the following week (where I'll be on the look out for the famed 3-wheeled cars). A bientot!

Whitney's trip!

Here is finally Whitney's trip to Paris. Unfortunately, she got sick starting the first day, but here's some pictures of the stuff we managed to do.

First, this is the Musee de l'Homme, an anthropological museum at Trocadero, which has one of the nicest views of the Eiffel Tower in all of Paris. So, here's Whitney taking a break inside the museum in front of the Tour d'Eiffel:

Next is the Salon de l'Agriculture. It is a huge thing in Paris, even the politicians attend it. When we were there Segolene Royal, one of the candidates for the elections in a few days, was there with her entourage. Here's a girl riding one of the ponies at the Salon (unfortunately we were a little too old to do the same):


Here is the Musee du Vin, which is right in my backyard. We learned the history of wine in the Passy area (my area) and in France in general. The tour ended with a glass of wine in their restaurant:

This is the basque restaurant we went to, Au Dernier Metro. Delicious food:


Next is Whitney and the Tour d'Eiffel again. This was at the end of our boat ride on the Seine, and the end of Whitney's trip in Paris.