Wandering Wonders

Here’s an update on North Dakota:

I am enjoying my studies here, but I am having a rough time.  In Phonetics I just received a C on a phonetics assignment, albeit a C+, but a mortifying C nevertheless. Please pray for me. You have to write what they say down in IPA format and sometimes it is hard for me to distinguish orI draw a huge blank or in my nervousness. Sometimes I even imagine sounds which weren’t actually there. In my Phonetics Articulation assignment (where you have to  produce IPA sounds upon request) I didn’t start crying, but I was tearing up so bad out of nervousness that my TA  told me that I shouldn’t be afraid because he wasn’t going to jump on me.

 I am finding that I am a very slow, but thorough learner. And I am still disoriented. Please pray. I feel substandard and a little bit stupid… even though I know this is not the case.

Jessica Skarda

SIL

2901 University Ave. Stop 8217

Grand Forks, ND 58202-8217

 So, I am in North Dakota now and it is cold and lovely, but before I tell you about ND I should tell you about the Greyhound trip up here.

We first start with the sketchiest stop on the stretch: Hotlanta.  As soon as we park, there are hustlers ready to greet us and charge us for the supposedly free parking— a seven dollar premium for the 45 minutes we were to be parked there, because of the strip club we were near. It doesn’t matter, we paid it, because the two hustlers were workin’ us by surrounding our car. My mother’s boyfriend offered the hustler we settled on beer, which he gladly hid.  Meanwhile, cops watched on right across the street.

The Atlanta to Chicago stretch is probably the “complainiest stretch” I have ever taken.  On this bus you will hear how Greyhound does everyone wrong.  Many are exaggerating to others about their city of choice… if you’re from Chicago, you’re mad that the bus driver is taking you downtown and not to 95th. If you’re coming from Opelika (one girl was.. I refrained), you talk about how nice the projects are there. There’s something wrong with your throat, and you of all people on that bus deserve a refund. You don’t like the bus driver for some reason or another, and you say all this out loud, but then you offer praise when he gets you there on time.

The most interesting part of this leg, however, was getting to butcher Mandarin. It just so happened that there was I Chinese woman on the bus who did not speak a lick of English (her daughter told us as she boarded.)  So I started talking to her in Mandarin (what little I remembered… not much) and she started translating sentences into English by her dictionary. I did the same, only vice versa. And so did the Mexican guy sitting next to her… the dictionary had Spanish, too.  When we arrived at the station in Chicago, the woman handed the phone to me as someone on the other line rattled off more than I understood in Chinese.  But I just said “Chicago, downtown”, and something clicked. The woman on the phone had understood me. She repeated me, and I heard it in her voice. Something clicked.  So she came and picked up the woman as me and the Mexican guy flowed in and out of Spanish and English.  He was fluent in English, but preferred Spanish.

Chicago was noteworthy. First, I befriended some Russian guys… all college-aged. After I got a locker to put my luggage in (it didn’t get lost in ATL this time!), I went out to see the city. The last two times I’ve been to Chicago, it has been extremely rainy and a little cold, but yesterday was sunny and perfect. I explored parts of the city I had not seen

 yet and waited until eight for the sun to set. Seeing Chicago sunny put me in a cheery mood. The boats afloat were dazzling.  The water was emerald green. All was good for the next five hours.

The bus from Chicago to Minneapolis was waaayyy overbooked to the point where they checked everyone’s ticket and only picked the people who either had no luggage or were going the farthest.  Luckily, I was going all the way to North Dakota, and so were three other SIL-ers.

I am really excited about the campus and it’s quite larger,  a good bit older, and far more beautiful than I expected. The Campus meanders around beautiful parkland with a stream and bridges and vibrant grass and planted annuals.  I was surprised that we walked for two hours and still had not seen the entire campus (although we were walking at a leisurely pace.) The cafeteria, in my opinion, is state-of-the-art, but I might be a little too easy to impress!   I’ll post pictures and you can decide. The campus is beautiful, and as soon as I take more pictures I’ll post.