Camp Learn-a-lot nears end

Summer 2005 almost done and I haven't DONE anything except learn Serbian. Successfully? I guess I find out in October when I'm over there. Fingers crossed.

I'm really looking forward to leaving at this point. I think I'll probably sleep for 24 hours straight at least as soon as I get home. Argh...so tired all the time. But I AM glad I came. It's been a learning experience in so many different ways. Anyway, it is time for bed soooo...just in case you didn't get the most recent update - email troubles - here is.



EMAIL TRI – EMAIL THREE: Greetings from Camp Learn-a-Lot!


Howdy! Here’s your irregular update on my life in Serbian Indiana. The learning’s long, the weathers hot and the guys are even hotter. Ha. I kid, I kid. (Actually, IU has the highest population of “Greek Societies” of any university in North America SOOOOO, there are plenty of pretty faces to look at. Not that I do. Of course.)

Serbian is going well…one might even say dobro. We’ve so far learned all of our tense structures (there’s pretty much only 4 so it wasn’t that hard), all 7 cases, personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, idiomatic expressions (to eat sticks is to get your ass kicked – jedem provencije), and numbers. Our prof figures our working Serbian vocabulary is somewhere around 700 or 800 words, with a total vocabulary of close to 1200. That’s pretty impressive considering our average English working vocab is somewhere around 20,000 words acquired over 20-odd years.

Anyway, we got a new prof 2 weeks ago and he’s working out wonderfully. Quite the contrast to the Srpski Serpent. We’re all learning better, having fun, laughing in class….. He says that laughing while you’re learning is the best thing because it releases hormones in your brain that help you to memorize. Such the mladić. Ha.

Found a place in Toronto, thanks be to God. And two lovely housemates, Km and Bronwyn. We’re all going to U of T. Our house is on Ossington and Harbord, which is close to Bloor which is an amazing steal for 1300$/month split three ways. I’m super excited to move in now. Just wondering how long it will take to deal with student loan stuff, etc, etc. Gah…fingers crossed everything works out – because it all could go VERY VERY wrong. By the grace of God, right?

Did you all hear about the bombings in Priština? So much for the CIDA project being there. The Can Gov’t nixed that real fast. So now we’re going to hold the workshops in Kotor, Montenegro instead. It will work out I guess, only it would be much better in Kosovo (and we’re totally not interested in places that would be bombed anyways….) plus Montenegrins are the laziest people on earth. Booking facilities, cars, food, hotels, etc. is going to be SO much harder. Oh well, Kotor is supposed to be absolutely beautiful, even in October.

So I’m leaving Indiana on the 13th of August to go back to the Kootenays. I may go up to Prince to drop my brother off at school, but that really depends on what’s happening with UofT. If I do, you are all top priority to see (of course) and I will definitely keep you posted.

Alright, off to grab Uzbek food – I so recommend if you ever get a chance!
Ericka