Odd Matches

Our audiology professor likes to say that nothing is impossible, it's just a matter of how improbable it is. He has illustrated this point in several ways, generally leading us to the conclusion that the coincidences we assign all sorts of meaning to are really just these odd matches - and are expected to happen occasionally, just due to statistical probability. All this is well and good. It's hard to argue with the numbers, especially since all speechies seem to have an inordinate fear of integers. However, my relationship God leads me to other conclusions sometimes.

I think anyone who has a personal friendship with Christ experiences times where he seems undeniably absent. I've heard story after story (including my own) of feelings of praying to the ceiling, of feeling utterly abandoned, of being hopelessly lonely... all things that are very hard to cope with at the time. But there are other times. There are times when you look back, and see clearly where God was, and what he was doing. And there are times when you are surrounded by him, and feel him in everything that's happening. This past week has been a time of connectedness, of this kind of communion for me, and I can't help but want to share it.

It all started a week or so ago, when Megs and I were discussing Christmas plans. We both are moderately disillusioned with the season, and as women who weren't originally super keen on living back in Edmonton, are ready to get away for a bit. We started joking about disappearing on a cruise, or a package deal to Cancun or some such dealy... and then I started looking into it. Prices are just way too high for us, and I was about ready to give up, when mum suggested I contact some family we have in California, to see if we could stay there. I started praying about it, talking with God about how much we wanted to get away, and would he please make it possible. I said that I would go ahead and start trying to make plans, and would he please either let things come together or fall apart, whatever was best.

My aunt got back to me quite quickly, informing me that we are welcome to stay there. The next concern was finances. Being a student loan kid, how am I going to afford this? All of a sudden, I had meetings with 3 potential students. I'm not certain yet that any of those will pan out, but I'm just continuing to pray about it. The fact that I've got meetings at all seems to me to be a blessing - I've had an ad up for ages, and heard nothing, but things really started coming together this past week.

Megs and I were still a bit concerned about finances, as we'd need to rent a car to drive from the airport to the house. Not being 25 yet, the prices would be higher, and I still wasn't confident I could swing the costs. Then mum found out her friend down in Cali isn't well again, and would really like for mum to come be with her. Mum called me, and asked if Megan and I would be interested in driving down there with her. This means that we would no longer require a rental car, and would only need to pay for one motel room on the way down, and a return flight (which is very cheap). Suddenly the pieces fell together. As such ... well, we're leaving Dec 27, and I think returning on Jan 5. It's just so incredible how all of this came to work out - and while not impossible, highly improbable. ;) I think it's a God-thing.

The other place I have been seeing God in my life recently is in the amazing people I have in my life. I've often struggled with having good, deep friendships - and it's a lacuna that has been filled to overflowing this year. One thing I've often felt I've lacked are christians, real ones, who share other things in common with me. This year I've grown deeper relationships with Megan, Al and my cousin Chris - all people who have vibrant, dynamic, personal relationships with Christ that affect how they live their lives, and who they are fundamentally - and yet are in touch with reality. They are the kind of christians that I belive bring a smile to Jesus' face - they're out there, building relationships with people, loving people, treating each person as the image of God that they are. I look up to all three of them - they love people in a way that I'm not very good at yet. They are the least judgemental, most contented, and most rooted people that I know - and I'm absolutely cherishing the time that I get to spend with them. I can't possibly express how grateful I am that they are a part of my life... and I'm enjoying every minute I have with them.

I've been struggling lately with this image of myself as a squiggly peg, for whom there is no hole. I feel like most people are fairly compact bundles of traits... their characteristics all sort of line up with each other, making them into more traditionally shaped pegs. I, on the other hand, have these random features that are all over the map. I feel like a constellation shaped peg - with dots scattered from hither to yon; like I'm so beyond complex at the moment that I have no hope of ever understanding myself, yet alone ever having anyone else understand me. And yet these three people (along with my mum and siblings) do seem to understand me. And for some reason that I don't fully understand, they love me back. And they want me to be a part of their lives, just as much as I want them in mine. I don't know if I've ever felt this way about anyone before - and it's such a wonderful feeling. Right now I'm just trying to hold it close, and to absorb it. :)

I just want to say again how happy I am. God is teaching me so much about what it means to be content where I am, and how to grow up and be responsible for my own life, and how to lean on him, and how to surround myself with people of value who cherish me. I love my life. I love every bit of it, and I am so blessed to be in this amazing place.

A whole bunch of other really wonderful stuff has been happening in my life this week, but it isn't stuff that I'm comfortable putting out in my blog for the world to see. As I get more into my life here in Edmonton, more of it becomes less... generally share-able, more discretion is required, and I'm starting to question how much longer I'll bother with a blog at all. I imagine I'll keep it for at least a bit longer.... but be warned - it won't be forever. :)

A quick shout out - charlea from captured me commented on my tequila post. She's a speechie in Australia, which is all too exciting. Charlea - I've been hoping for the past little while to spend a year or two in Australia upon completing my degree - so welcome! I'm very pleased to meet you. :)

And now it's terribly late, and I'm terribly tired, and I'm certain this is a terribly syrupy post. However, I believe that a 'thankful heart is a happy heart' and I just wanted to be thankful tonight.

G'night ducks.

Elizabeth

Just for mum

A link you can just click on to see me:

Click Me

The Essence of a Sound

Ahoj!

Today was a very special day. One of my thesis peeps had her lab gifted with $135 000 from the Edmonton Oilers' Community Foundation, the single largest donation that the Faculty of Rehab Med has ever received. Dr. B has 14 of us grad students (she's a VERY busy lady!!), and we all showed up to support her. :) The money is going to be used for research on the effects of intensive voice therapy for children with cerebral palsy, and little boy with CP was there. So was ALL of Edmonton's media - so check the news tonight, or the papers tomorrow. I doubt I'm in any of the pictures, but that's my lab!! I also met Ethan Moreau (and got his autograph *grin*), and Kevin Lowe touched me on the shoulder and said "excuse me." Oh the excitement. ;)

The best bit was afterwards, when Dr B. pulled all of her students back into the lab (after everyone had left) and thanked us for supporting her. She pointed to the little boy with CP who was out in the hallway, and said "when you hate your exams, when you hate me, when you hate that you have to write another draft - remember this. Remember him. Remember that your research will change his life. No matter what population you work with, remember this." And then she got a little teary-eyed, and so did most of us students as well, and then we hugged. It was amazing.

And remember my blurb? http://www.rehabmed.ualberta.ca/carolboliek/gradstudents.htm I'm on there!! It's very exciting. I have a blurb.

Other exciting things? I have a new English student who wants 4hrs of lessons a week. This is great! I think it's just about the right amount of time for me, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm also duly nervous, since - hello! - it's 4 hrs a week. I need to do some serious lesson planning sometime soon, and as finals will soon be upon me, it'd better be sooner rather than later. I'm still excited, despite the fear, since this is a real answer to prayer.

Oh, and the blog title? Dr. P used to work with a professor who loved to talk about the "essence of a sound." You know, a /k/ has "k-ness," an /l/ has "l-ness," and a /p/ has... well, sound it out. ;) (If you don't get it, email me.)

Love,
ela

Feeling Fruzzled is so not Monton

Ok. I've been putting off writing this post for a while now, mostly because life has been SO busy that I haven't had a lot of time to write. The time that I have had has been spent staring at the screen, attempting to figure out where on EARTH to start.

I last posted on Tuesday, so I guess that I should go from there. Here's hoping I actually remember what happened after that!! Tuesday was the last day of our long weekend, so heading back into school on Wednesday felt like a particularly nasty kick in the teeth. It was like 4 Mondays rolled into one. Luckily, one of our classes was cancelled, so we got to go into Steeps instead, and sit around drinking tea and attempting to study. :) After that we had a super wicked guest lecturer in our Phonology class, and we learned the zen way to do non-linear phonological therapy. Very cool, though I imagine Greek-like to the non-speechies among you. :)


Thursday we only had Audiology, so we headed in for that class. It was another guest lecturer, and it was also fabulous. This one was all about FM systems, both personal and sound field. The research supporting their use in the classroom is unbelievable. Without the sound being distributed via one of these systems, kids in the back corner of the classroom receive only 55% of the speech information the teacher is presenting. Now, if this is a kid who does all the readings, pays close attention, and participates in discussions, it's likely not a big deal. They're going to possess enough context to function successfully. However, let's all think back to our school days, especially the days where we go to pick our own desks. Who was sitting in the back corner? The smart kids? Or the kids who don't pay attention at all? They're incredibly disadvantaged by location alone, and a sound field system could potentially make a huge difference. FM systems also encourage teacher awareness of speech patterns. One study indicates that teachers slow their rate of speech by 10-15% simply because they're wearing a mic. By slowing down, the kids are able to absorb more of the info. Also, because they don't need to yell, teachers can be more expressive, thereby creating more student interest in what's being said. Seriously - what's not to love? I'd really like to get into some schools and do some in-services on this topic, because a few small changes can bring about some major results for kids.

Friday I wrote my A&P exam on laryngeal and cranial anatomy. I was terrified, because I hadn't really studied a lot in advance, and mostly just crammed the night before. However, I must have crammed in the most premium way possible, because I found the exam to be well within my abilities, and only had to lay my head down on the desk and mutter "oh no" once. After that I had my practical exam with Dr. V. For this exam, she pretended to be a 4 y/o and I administered a standardized test to her. When's the last time that you had to tell your very professional instructor that if she can't put her listening ears on and pay attention, then she can't hold Benny the Bunny?? Yes, that's right - I took in a prop, a small blue rabbit. I had it in my pocket, not really even intending to use it, since I figured I'd only need it if she were naughty. Well - she made the administration portions of the test very easy, so made up the challenge with behavioural issues. Benny the Bunny totally saved the day. I love Benny the Bunny - he's my Speechie Mascot now. :)

After my exams I went home to sleep for as long as I could, which wasn't very long owing to having had too much tea earlier on. Darn!! People started showing up at around eight, and we had a little pre-party at my place before going out to the Stonehouse for some dancing and hanging out. Some friends that I haven't seen in years were there, so it was very cool. I was the first to leave, heading out at around 1, and none of the guys offerred to walk me home. I noticed, but wasn't overly upset, since I don't live too far from the bar. About a block and a half into my walk, footsteps came running up behind me, and I got a little tense. It was one of our guys, apologizing because he'd forgottten that I don't drive, and had therefore not come with me right off the bat. "I'd never let you walk home alone this late!" he said. After hearing about the stabbing on Whyte the same night... well, I think I'm done being Ok with walking home alone. From now on, I want someone with me!

Saturday I went out with Robin and his friend, and we had a really great time just hanging out. I bought a new earring for my cartilage piercing, and it's sooo pretty. It looks like the one on the top left, but the silver balls have fuschia stones set into them. I love it!! That night, my cousin Chris and I went out for a beer at the Druid, and just hung out which was very cool. You know, when we were little he drove me crazy with his demands to always have the Fisher Price farm (it was SO much better than the city!!), but he's ended up being a pretty awesome guy. ;)

Sunday morning was church, which was very hard to stay awake in given my lack of sleep every other night. Then I went to Meg's for lunch, since we both had a lot to tell each other about our weekends. She ran me home, and I was doing a bit of homework when a friend called and invited me over for dinner. I've never seen the series Firefly (a Joss Whedon TV show that's got a HUGE following in smart people populations!), so he wanted me to see some of it. We watched the first three episodes, and I didn't get home til after 11. Seeing shoes at the front door, I assumed I was the last one home, and locked and u-barred the door behind me before heading to bed. At around 2, the phone rang. I was so tempted to ignore it, but knew I'd just stay awake worrying it was an emergency, so I answered.

"Hello?" I croaked groggily.

"I can't get in the door!" the voice replied.

"Who is this?" I asked, since I've had people I don't know ask me to let them in the building before, and I'm so not Ok with that.

"It's your roommate!"

"Oh..." I sleepily answered, pressing the "open door" button and crawling back into bed. Suddenly it hit me... if she wasn't in the apartment, she sure couldn't open the u-bar - I'd locked her out! I staggered back out of bed, flipped the u-bar back, and headed straight back for the snuggly comfort of my quilts. So much for assuming she was home.... Assume - it makes an ASS of U and ME.

Today I came into school for our first lecture on swallowing, and it was very cool. The instructor started by explaining why this is important, the impact it has on quality of life, etc. A very awesome way to start a topic out. Big picture first, then fill it in. We had a long break after that, so we headed into Steeps again (man, I love Steeps), where I got my head around some potential ideas for my potential ESL students, and started reading Megs' copy of East of Eden. I hope she finishes it soon... I want to read it. I'm only about 15 pages in, and there have already been many quotable quotes. My favorite so far is "Liza had a finely tuned sense of sin." ;)

And that's it! You're up to date. I'm heading off now to work on an Audi project, eat some dinner, and go for my tennis lesson. Love it. :)

Cheers,

Ela.

PS - I want to get this slogan put on a t-shirt, or maybe a sign for my door, or maybe both, plus a bumper sticker. I feel this way more and more often...

Please don't supply any more information. I'm already too well informed.

I have a great picture of it, but it's protected, so I can't show it to you, sorry! If you're desperate to see it, let me know, and I'll email it to you. :)

PPS - New words for my dictionary:

Fruzzled (Adj.): a combination of frustrated and puzzled
That material is so confusing! I was totally fruzzled trying to get through it.

Monton (Adj): dervied from the fandangus Steeps' dessert, Monton refers to something beyond fabulous, something nigh unto fandangus.
Check that hottie out! He's so monton.

Tuesday Morning Motivation

I crawled into bed at around 11 last night, all set to sleep in this morning. I woke up a bit when I heard my roomie get up and start getting ready, but fell back asleep. When I woke up later, wide awake this time, I was convinced that it must be late (which for me would be about 9!). I smiled, thinking of how fabulous sleeping in is, rolled over, and checked my clock. 7.30. Yeah. I know, it's sad. I stayed in bed for a bit, but eventually decided I'd rather get up. I puttered into the kitchen, turned up the heat (I realize that I really am turning into my dad - every night before bed, I turn the heat down, every morning, I turn it back up), wandered into the bathroom for a shower, mosied into my room to get dressed, check email, etc.... I studied for what felt like forever, but was really about 15 minutes, and decided I was bored.

It was 9. Nine o'clock in the morning, and I was already bored. I have a to-do list as long as my arm for today, but as a friend and I say, I'm not feeling it. Apparently, my motivation rode off on my favourite steed Tangent. *sigh* I decided that I really wanted pancakes and bacon for lunch, but had none of the ingredients, so I actually got dressed (shocking! as I usually live in my PJs), and went to Safeway. I had to buy milk and flour, and there was a wicked deal on those big jars of Miracle Whip, and a good deal on boxes of mandarin oranges.... Well let's just say that staggering home through the poorly (if at all) shoveled walks with 40lbs of groceries probably provided some good entertainment for the balcony smokers along my route. ;)

I got home, put everything away, and decided to study. Another 15 minutes, and I was done with that. ;) So I made an early lunch, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Nothing says "screw school!" quite like bacon. And now, now I shall attempt my to-do list. I want to finish reading my anatomy notes. Then I want to do the 505 Zemlin reading. Then I need to do a few more slides for our audiology project. And I need to get over to the U for some more practice with the tests. I'm writing this all down here, in the hopes that it'll guilt me into actually getting some work done. Odds aren't good. :)

Laters,
E.

Love!

Tennis lesson numero uno was awesome!! :D Michael's lessons this summer totally paid off, and I wasn't the worst one there (unlike hockey!). We have a really great coach for our lessons, so I really enjoyed learning from him. And he didn't make us feel stupid when we sucked. ;) I'm really looking forward to next week's lesson. And according to their coaching system, we'll be able to play a full-on game by the end of lesson 3. Whee!

So now I'm at home, and I've put in a bit of time on our audiology project, and I finished a speech science reading. Next is some anatomy, followed by snuggling into my cozy bed for some sleep. Man, I love long weekends - but this one has just flown by. I think I need to take two! :D

So once again, life is lovely, I'm so happy, and I can't get over how blessed I am.

Love,
me.

The weather outside is frightful

And there are no delightful fires burning in Corbett Hall - so STOP SNOWING! Blech!

And why am I at school on this, the 3rd day of a 4 day weekend? To put it bluntly, because I have to be. We have a practical exam on Friday that involves being familiar with 7 standardized tests, and I'd only looked at 2 prior to today. So I came in at around 2, expecting it to take quite a while to get through the last 5. Alas, alack, it took me only about an hour and a half, so now I'm killing time (slowly and tortuously) until I can go have a bite to eat and head to my tennis lesson! I'm really not too concerned about these tests - I've spent enough time with kids to know how to be friendly but firm, and I read really fast, so I can burn through the instructions if I get hung up on anything. ;)

Mum and I went shopping yesterday, and it was FABULOUS. The Bay at Kingsway has this wicked sale on right now, and I got some super cute clothes. If you hear me complaining about having nothing to wear in the next few weeks, smack me. My favorite new item is a snug-fitting bomber style jean jacket; it's so cute. And I got a couple of turtleneck sweaters to wear under it; very adorable. We also went to SuperStore, which has some awesome tshirts for $12 a piece, in really pretty colours. And I didn't shop just for myself - I also did most of my Christmas shopping, which is nice. I don't usually get this much done this early!!

Last night we went and saw Adrian Plass in person. He is even funnier in real life than in his books, and I laughed til I cried at some points.

"Are there any Anglicans here tonight? Put up your hands so I can see you."

A few hands went up around the sanctuary.

"How does it feel to raise your arms in a church?" *ba dum dum* "Only joking folks, only joking."

It was wonderful!!

Ooh, on Saturday Chris and I took my nephew to the Royal Alberta Museum. The Lego exhibit was on, but it was fairly mediocre. The Bob the Builder bit was really sad. Nothing particularly educational about that; more just playground equipment. But parts of the Lego were really neat - they'd built a little underwater explorer, and had a Lego toilet, milk carton, hamburger, computer, etc. all built inside of it. We also went through Wild Alberta, which is definitely the museum's strong point: no matter how many times we go and see it, it always ends up being the bit we spend the most time in. If you haven't been recently, hop to it!!

Ok, I'm out of fun things to tell you, other than that this snow is ridiculous, and it's a good thing I brought a change of socks and shoes for tennis, because I think my feet are going to be all wet. Have a great night all, and keep warm. :)

Love,
me

Riding Off on my Favourite Steed, Tangent

Today's title courtesy of Mr. H, our audiology instructor. As I too love tangents, it seemed appropriate.

To begin with, some very good news. My SSHRC application was chosen by the department to be forwarded to be adjudicated at the university level (it was one of six forwarded out of twelve that were submitted). If it is chosen by the university to be forwarded to SSHRC, it will then be adjudicated at the SSHRC level, where a decision about the award will be made. My application is on its way, but has in no way made it there yet. My hopes are therefore a little bit up, but not too much. :)

Today in Speech Science we were looking at spectrograms of glides (/l/ and /w/), and Dr. B looked at the slightly blurry images and stated that "these are not pretty enough for me to work with." That is going to be my new answer for anything I don't really want to do.

"Ela, could you please help me with this lab?

"So sorry - that's not pretty enough for me to work with."

"Elizabeth, would you please steam clean your carpets? Your mother and I think that they need to be done."

"Sorry, dad - they're just not pretty enough for me to work with."

Excellent!

Now I'm off to have my photo taken for Dr. B's website - as her thesis student I'm now affiliated with her lab, and I get to be up there with a blurb. Me! With a blurb! I never dreamt that I'd come this far. :)

Love,
e.

I shoot my tequila with cardamom and kumquats

Ahoj!

Today's post title is from Chris' Saturday Tea Party. We were talking about how the traditional way to drink tequila is with lime and salt. Then I explained about the Mexican restaurant in Prague that serves it with orange and cinammon. Then we got pretentious and went with cardamom and kumquat. I wonder what it would taste like... ;)

Today's speech science lab was great. Having actually done the reading beforehand, I had some idea of what was going on, and had a great time. It's absolutely amazing to me that I can record you saying /i/ (like the vowel in "jeep"), and /u/ (like the vowel in "shoe") and be able to see it on a computer screen. Not only that, but just by looking at the visual, I can tell you what sound it was!

5 of us speechies are in a Bible study together that meets Tuesdays at lunch. Today Megs brought up an event that one of her churches held in the past. They set up different stations around the room, and each station hosted a different discussion question such as "God in the Arts," "God in the Sciences," "God in Culture," etc. (I hope I got the details right!). The idea was that students from different backgrounds could go to the questions most relevant to themselves and discuss the ways in which they were seeing God. I promptly felt inspired to post this:

God in First Year Speech-Language Pathology

I can't get over how much I'm learning this year, and gobs of it makes my jaw drop, and me say "Wow, what a God-thing." For starters, just the physical mechanisms of speech, and the physical process of hearing, blow me away. It's unbelievable how many TEENY TINY bits have to work together to get normal speech and normal hearing. There are SO many teeny bits that it amazes me that any of us work at all! But we do, and that's what's so incredible. We're amazingly complex, with huge potential for glitches all over the place, yet most of us function beautifully. That's God for you. :)

There's the whole speech/audition relationship thing. Most of the frequency of our speech is between 1 and 4 kHz. "Bizarrely" enough, that's just the range that our ears are best tuned to hear. Evolution? Could be. But even if it is evolution, I still believe that God's in charge, and that it's pretty awesome that we're programmed this way. Our larynxes and pharynxes are also designed to best promote sounds in that range, so everything works together to make speech as clear and easy to hear as possible. Wow.

When you look at the spectrum of our speech sounds (their amplitude plotted against their frequency) the graphic results are beautiful. Vowels are periodic, so you get these complex waves that repeat at constant intervals, and are just so pretty. Some consonants are both periodic and aperiodic, so you get this fuzzy waveform that repeats, and is also gorgeous. It's amazing what happens when you can see sounds, and I'm feeling half-tempted to get some black and white prints of spectrograms framed up for my room. Whether you break sounds down into their amplitudes and frequencies, or build them up into songs and symphonies, poetry and novels, the sheer beauty of them is staggering.

And that's where I see God in First Year Speech-Language Pathology.

Love,
E.

For Love of my Small Animal

To start with the usual stuff, my weekend was awesome. :) Megs came over Friday night, and we watched Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and baked chocolate chip peanut butter cookies that turned out amazingly. *drool* They're all gone now. :(

Saturday, we met up again, and headed to Chris' tea party. As per usual, I hadn't met half of the people there before, so it was fun getting to know some new folks. I have to admit, Chris has the best friends ever. A guy called Derek was particularly fun, since he started bantering with Megs and I after knowing us for all of 4.34 minutes. Fabulous. I knew he had the right sense of humor when he asked me if I ever "thought before I spoke" before I even knew his name. :) The food was, per usual, exquisite: samosas, hit-the-pan-salsa and pasta, roasted butternut squash soup... *drool!* We also had loads of music. Chris has this mini-accordion that comes from China. It's called a Child Prodigy Midget 8 and the 'inteructions' for it are in beautiful Engrish. The best bit are the scores it provides: one song is "Home Sweet Home," and the other "For Love of my Small Animal." :D We got quite a few giggles out of that.

Dad picked us up from Chris' and we headed to the Pearl River for Jake's bday dinner. I love that place! The food was great. And is it only my family, or do are all families like this: We start out talking about happy things, and within half-an-hour someone's talking about the woman who gave birth to 3 babies (not triplets, separate kids), wrapped them in butcher paper like turkies, and froze them. Yeah. At my 9 y/o nephew's birthday dinner! Please tell me other families also do this!!

Sunday was church, and then home to do some chores and homework. Al called in the middle of the afternoon, and came over after dinner so we could watch Seasons 2 and 3 of Black Books an absolutely hysterical British TV show that I LOVE. We laughed til we cried, ate at least a kilo (no hyperbole!) of Rockets, were on a brutal sugar high, and our salivary glands spasmed from the combination of sucrose and the giggles. So much fun. I love that girl. :)

Today was a very... blah day, I guess. I didn't sleep well (hmmm - Rockets, anyone?), and was not excited for it to be Monday. I dozed off in a couple of my classes. *blush* But we did some neat stuff in anatomy (our current prof is wicked), and also for our phonology lab. I picked up some groceries on my way home, since I'm making dinner for Chris tomorrow, and now I'm in my room, procrastinating.

So that's the usual. Behind the usual has been running my bizarre conversations with myself in my head. They're less intense now than they were during the summer because, I think, I actually have to use my brains in my current location. :) But they're still there, and I'm still debating some of my age-old issues.

1) I'm still undecided on what a Christian woman's attitude toward dating in general should be. Megs and I talk about this quite a bit. I'm all about being content where I am, and I have a fantastic life (I really can't get over how happy I am right now), but I still don't know if I should just focus 100% on being single or not. *sigh* And there really aren't any answers out there! I think this is one of those things that everyone has to figure out for themselves, but I wouldn't mind an email from God that says: Dear Elizabeth, I would like to do: a), b), c).... :) I wonder what my parents think about arranged marriages?? ;)

2) Since starting school I've been thinking a lot about just how much of our lives we can 'blame' on God. I firmly believe that God's in control of the universe, and I also believe that he answers prayer. But I also know far too many people who use God as a cop-out. They don't try particularly hard at an endeavour, and it when it doesn't pan out, they say "oh well, God must not have wanted me to do that." Did he not want you to do it, or did you just not put in the effort required? God made me an intelligent woman, he gave me access to HUGE resources, and he gave me free will. To me, that indicates that he expects me to use my skills to accomplish the things that he and I both want for me. Yet I also know that there are times when he intervenes; like when he made it so, so clear to me that I was meant to be here in Edmonton and not at Dalhousie. Can I 'blame' things on him when I've done my best and they don't work? What's my best? What about when I go ahead and pursue something that he doesn't particularly want me to do, and I succeed at it? I don't think it's fair to say "well, I got here, so it MUST be where God wants me."

I know, I know. This is verbose and random. But I feel that it's something I need to work through. And yes mum - I do pray about it (my mother's response to everything is "have you prayed about it?"). I'm still not sure what the next step in answering the question is, though. Ideas?


Ok. This was long, and I hear Speech-Science calling me. Since tomorrow's lab is a topic related to my thesis, and it's a topic I really don't understand yet, I should probably get reading. :)

Loves you,
e.

Oooh, I LOVE my life!

Hello mes amis!

I was totally right about time speeding right back up. Wow, did the end of this week fly by! I finished an audiology lab, a speech-science lab, and most of a phonology lab (the last bit's for Sunday). Go me!

Wednesday night I went to the concert at the Blue Chair. It was so amazing. Wendy reminded me a bit of Lisa Loeb and a teeny tiny bit of Feist. She plays the guitar and the accordion (not simultaneously!) and it was very cool to watch her persona change when she switched instruments. She also did very funky things with her vowels when she sang. I realize I'm a speech geek for noticing, but it was cool. If I only heard her sing, I'd guess she had an accent, but such was not the case. :) I strolled in the house shortly at 11 - late nights are back, baby!

Thursday I worked in the library on my phonology lab with Megan til we both became bored to utter tears, and decided dinner at Wendy's was a much better plan. ;) Then we headed to the IVCF worship night, which was nice, though neither of us felt like mingling. We were non-minglers. We tried - we talked to TWO whole different people. But then we just stuck together. :) I snuck out early, so that I could go to my hockey game. Where, sadly, we lost again, 5-2. It was awesome that we got a couple goals, though! I got my head mashed into the boards a couple times, and saw stars once. I didn't know that actually happened! Very exciting! I'm feeling rather sore this morning. :) Funny thing: We are SUCH girls on the ice. One of the girls on the other team tripped me accidentally, and turned around and yelled "sorry!"

"That's Ok," I yelled back "all part of the game!"

Today, I got home at 10.30, yay! Our cadaver lab was excellent; all about swallowing and dysphagias (swallowing disorders). I didn't like the bit where we watched a video of an elderly man almost choking to death though, it was very stressful. Then we took almonds and kids' candies (you know, like Scooby-Doo snacks), and wedged them into our cadaver's pharynx, so we could see how choking really works, and what it looks like. It was a bit surreal, but also very cool.

I came home, did all of my laundry (well sort of - it's sitting in a lump in a laundry basket now. I hate folding it and putting it away!!), made some lunch, wrote some emails, and made some phonecalls.

One of these phonecalls was particularly exciting. A woman left a message for me yesterday re: my services as an ESL tutor. Turns out she's been recruited to find a lektorka for two Czech women who just recently moved to Canada! What are the odds?? Since my ad states that I lived in Prague for 8 months, she chose to call me. :) Unfortunately, these two ladies speak VERY little English, and I speak right around the same amount of Czech. The recruit was hoping I was fluent. :) I put a bit of thought into it, and realized that I've still got my Czech textbook from my language lessons. I think that I can work backwards from those, and create lessons that have Czech translations for most, if not all, of the English in them. As I sorted through my papers tonight, I believe I've got at least 6 lessons, which would at least be a start. Of course, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself (Ela, get ahead of herself? No, never!!) given that I've never even met these women yet. But we've tentatively set a date for a first meeting, I've arranged a great place for lessons (thanks to being part of a very generous congregation of believers!), and I've got some good ideas for where to start. So now I'm praying that it all comes together!!

After returning all my calls, I crawled into my freshly made bed (is there a better feeling??) and slept for 3 hours. I REALLY didn't want to get up, but figured I'd better. ;) So I crawled out of bed, and made biscuits for dinner. My grandma Huebert used to make biscuits when there wasn't much else to make, and then my dad used to make them Sundays after church. They're total comfort food for me, and I hadn't made them in well over a year. So delicious! Eaten fresh from the oven with butter and jam? Wonderful. Add a mug of tea and a glass of milk, and I was set. Mine were especially special because I cut them with a cookie cutter, so they were heart shaped. Sweet, I know. :)

Meg's coming over in a bit, and we're going to watch a movie and commiserate over how we did no schoolwork today. Love it! Tomorrow we're going to Chris' tea party, which is very exciting. Then it's family dinner! Sunday is church and skating, and then I will have to finally do some homework. I need to be particularly prepared for my speech-science lab this week; it's the resonance lab, which is one aspect of my thesis, so I want to make sure I really get it. :)

Ok, I'm off! Hope you're all well!!!

Love,
E

Convinced it's Friday...

Hey guys,

well, it's Wednesday, but it feels like it should be Friday! After the insane pace of the last 2 weeks, studying for and writing 6 midterms in 10 days while putting together a massive scholarship application, time seems to have suddenly ground to a halt. Once I wrap my mind around how far behind I am right now, and how much homework I should be doing, it should speed right back up again. :)

Tonight Chris is taking me to a Wendy MacNeill (hope I spelled that right) concert a club just off Whyte. I'm very excited! He's mentioned dessert, too - mmmm. I'll let you know how it goes. Then tomorrow (at midnight in Copenhagen) I have my 2nd hockey game. To be honest, I'm really nervous. For some reason we got stuck in the 2nd highest tier in the league, and suddenly my suckiness is seeming like more of an issue. But I liked playing last time, so I'm going to be brave, and go again. Hopefully my teammates don't hate me for my awfulness. :D

No big plans for Friday, so as sad as it seems, I'll probably stay in and try to get ahead on all of my homework. I could also go for baking some bread, which I haven't done in a while. Oh, I hope something better comes up!

Saturday is Chris' tea party, and his parties always rule. He's making this insane vegan menu, and I shall have to be rolled out the door. Meg's coming with me, which will be wonderful, since I know she and Chris will like each other, and it's always nice to connect your friends with each other! :D Then my dad (or someone) is picking us up, and it's family dinner (my family always adopts a few of my friends!) for Jake's bday at the Pearl River, our favorite family dining establishment. Very exciting!!

Sunday is church and skating, followed by the frantic cramming in of homework. The excitement!!

Love,
me who is late for class