(From BYU’s slogan, which finishes, "…Go forth to serve".)
I saw Song Min-hye again by chance yesterday. She didn’t really talk… I guess I’m free again.
I stayed up till 2 a.m. last night finishing my PowerPoint show for my historical linguistics class. I improved on some of the points of my paper… I finished just in time, and then had the challenge of waking up on time today, since my teacher had emphasized that I’d need to present it at the start of class (9:35) to get full credit for my paper.
It was nice to be on-time again to that class (we had treats today). I reminded the teacher about my presentation and he said we would do it after the lecture. The lecture came and went, and the assistant again reminded him of it, but he was feeling anxious by then to get out of the classroom, and he asked if it would offend me to not present it. I told him I just wanted him to know that I had it ready. He said he knew; then he offered to let me give a "one-minute" version of it right there. So the late-night effort wasn’t totally wasted: I was freed from the worry of having an incomplete assignment, and I had enough points to give there on the spot (although I left some out, and thereby sacrificed some of the consistency of my proposition. One girl, Grace, who argues things, pointed out one of the possible objections to my case, and I admitted the potential flaw without being clever enough to rebut.).
We had a review session with the assistant, then left. I saw that girl Grace in the hall. She said that she, too, had a great-aunt named Grace. She told me her grandparents had been sent to the Hong Kong mission, but then were detoured in Mongolia over visa stubbornness.
What else…
I met with Diane Strong-Krause, a professor, and she agreed to increase the enrollment limit for a class I’d wanted to add for winter semester. She talked a little with me about teaching internships…
I went to an internship orientation (I need to be a teaching intern for the TESOL minor) a couple weeks ago and learned that there were opportunities to go teach English in… Thailand, I think… Japan… Taiwan… and super-sized McChina, as well as other places. Most of them seemed to have a high price tag, and most of them don’t fit my schedule (I can only go during summer term). I hoped for Thailand, but realized that the Japan one would foot the bill. But today I found that the Japan one actually overlaps with both spring and summer terms. That was disappointing…
There’s one other place that pays the expenses that I’ll have to check the dates for: it’s in either Tonga or Samoa. It was mentioned that a donor had provided the means for interns to come, but nobody had wanted to go yet (apparently the offer was several semesters old, at least). So if the others fail, I guess I’d be happy to go to Tonga or Samoa, although it would be a bit of a change from where I’m used to. If I can’t work any of the dates, I’ll have to do a local one, or possibly put it off till after I finish all my coursework.
In reality, I could go anywhere in the world, if only I could find a school that would take me. My skill/interest set doesn’t include finding stuff like that, though. I’m better at just taking what’s given to me.
-Steve
Steve's journal 