Visitors and visited

It's fun to have visitors. The company is great and it spurs me on to do other things, too.

Some friends of ours spent time this whole week at our place. They had a huge list of sights to see, and I think they must have seen the majority of them! They were really busy.

I was lucky enough to be able to join them on some things. Some of what I saw I have seen before and some I haven't.
I went to the "Crime and Punishment Museum" -- good but a little disturbing, too. I don't like anyone getting hurt or being taken advantage of and that's what criminals are all about, right?

We visited the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the first drafts of the first Amendments to the Constitution, and as a bonus, one of the original copies of the Magna Carta that is the beginning of the system of English Common Law upon which our system is based, (and it is almost 800 years old). The great thing about seeing these things is not the things themselves, (old pieces of paper), but it's like being in the presence of greatness. Ideas in physical form. And those ideas have endured for generations and proven to be good.
Thanks to my friends, I was able to go to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It was really interesting to see the $100 bills being made. It was a pretty amazing site but also just like any other factory I have been in. Kind of reminded me of other factories I have been in or worked in and how most of the time we just use or consume whatever it is and don't even think about what came before it came into our hands. One of the workers was having a little fun with us and tossed up to the viewing window a brick of $100 bills about the size of a large book while holding a sign asking if anyone wanted $100,000 dollars. Don't worry, he was completely closed off from us and technically it doesn't become official currency until it passes into the possession of The Fed and is authorized.
We also visited Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. It was interesting to see everything and reflect on our founding fathers. I am always amazed to walk in places where important people also walked many years ago. One of my favorite parts was walking through the woods at the estate. It was beautiful and the view over the Potomac was beautiful, too.
We also went to Jefferson Memorial and Roosevelt Memorial and walked around the Tidal Basin and saw the beginnings of the cherry blossoms. I really like some of the Jefferson quotes; I think they are really inspiring. With only a few small changes, he wrote the Declaration of Independence, which is definitely amazing. I'll end with one of the quotes at the memorial: "Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion . . . No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively."

Really warming up

It has felt so good to have warmer weather and sun!

I have tried to take advantage of the sunshine and warm, (but not hot), weather as much as I can. I have done some studying outside, I walked home some of the way from work, I walked with a co-worker during lunchtime to get some food, and other outdoor activities.

Some friends came in to town and we have had fun spending time with them. We have played games and gone out to dinner and visited the National Zoo. The picture is not me, it's the Orangutan walking on the ropes above our head over the sidewalk at the zoo. It was exciting, (and it stopped before getting to the other side and urinated down onto the sidewalk where all the people were walking). Today we visited the temple grounds and visitor's center after our stake conference. (Our stake presidency changed and our bishop is now one of the counselors.) We have had a good time so far. It is really fun to have them visit.

This past Tuesday I took a "progress test" in Indonesian. It took an hour and a half and I did okay. I still struggle a little with saying things because it's difficult to recall the words that you need quickly if you haven't used them a lot. I did fine, though. The test involves several different parts. One part is just speaking with a native for a few minutes without any kind of script. Another part is interviewing a native and reporting in English on the conversation. There is also a part where you choose a subject from among a group they give you and then speak for 5-10 minutes on the subject and answer questions. The other part of the test is reading. They give you a chance to read a shorter article for a few minutes and then report on what it is talking about. Then it is a similar format but with a longer reading. I felt better about the reading part. They tape the whole thing and analyze it. I don't know the result until this coming week, hopefully.

Still studying hard. The warm weather and sun helps the mood, but I'm not sure it will help the studying!

Moving fast

Sometimes things just move fast.


And sometimes, like this week, there is a fast move.

We moved to a different apartment this week. At the end of this week we were notified of a possibility, which I declined because it didn't seem like it was putting us in a better situation. Then we agreed to a move the next day after being told that the place was bigger than we thought. And then we were offered a bigger place on Friday if we could move in on Monday! Since we don't have any of our furniture to move and felt we could do it, we took the offer. My wife spent Friday night and some of Saturday gathering our things and packing them in a dozen medium boxes. Some of our neighbors helped us move on Monday after work. The place was even better than we expected. We have more space and our children especially have more space and privacy and actual beds! Thanks to those who helped us! We're grateful to be able to be here even though we're sad we're not closer to friends we made at our other place. The good part about that is that we are less than two miles away from our other place, still in the same ward and the same school district, and close to some other friends of our children. Since my wife is so organized and doesn't wait to get things done, the move went very fast. Everything was unboxed and put away very soon after we moved, too. Fast.

I can't believe it's been less than a week since we moved in. The weeks just seem to fly by, but also it seems like we've been here longer. Also, we are almost exactly at the halfway point of our time here in the Washington DC area. It has moved fast but also seems like it's been a long time.

My language training is going pretty fast, too. I am close to the halfway point for that training and I have a "progress test" this Tuesday. It goes for a couple of hours and they assess my current abilities in speaking, listening and reading in Indonesian. I have a long way to go, but am amazed when I look back that I can understand things when a few months ago I couldn't understand anything. I had a 45-minute one-on-one with a new teacher that was pretty exhausting, but possible.

The winter weather, thankfully, seems to be moving on fast, too. This week has been a lot warmer than the last couple of months. It was even sunny during most of the week, even though it is rainy this weekend, but the sun and warmer weather is really encouraging.

So many things this week really do seem to have moved fast. I even had one of the supervisors at my next post ask me about my training schedule since they want me to get there as soon as possible so the person I'm replacing can move to his next post sooner. A number of people in Indonesian right now are leaving very soon or have already left. Just a reminder that it is coming up fast.

And last, but not least, happy pi day! That's a picture of the chocolate pie I made to celebrate pi day today (3.14).

Affected

Have you ever been in one of those situations where someone says something to you and you can't think of anything clever to say at the time, but think of something you could have said about an hour later? I think this sort of thing has happened to me a lot.
Now imagine a similar kind of experience to that the majority of the day almost every day of the week! In some ways that is what is feels like to learn a foreign language well. When you get beyond feeling good that you know how to say hi, my name is, and count to 10, it starts to set in that there is so much to know the deeper you get.
After a few weeks of not understanding everything that is being said to you and, more critically, not being able to say what you want back, you begin to feel very slow. It takes me a minute to process what was said and then I can't say exactly what I want a lot of the time.

Try playing basketball with one hand tied behind your back. Try to speak with your tongue tied behind your back! After a while it sort of starts to weigh on you and you feel a little bit slow and not very smart. That happened to me this week. Monday was hard. I climbed out of it a bit the rest of the week but am still feeling the effects of it.
Thinking back, I hear that this sort of feeling is common among those trying to learn a new language so quickly, but that doesn't make it feel any better. I just need to keep studying, praying, and pressing forward. It'll come. I'll work hard this week to solidify what I know before I take a test at the beginning of the next week to see how my learning is coming along. Hopefully it will really start coming together. We learn at such a frenetic pace!
It's great for my tired but satisfied brain, and maybe sometimes a little damaging to my emotional sense of self, but I am so happy and feel a little like I'm in dreamland when I think that this is actually my job right now to learn a language. How cool is that!

Run Around

This week was fun and exhausting and exciting and interesting and frustrating. It was the run around.
Some of my personal highlights this week include the family and work things below.

I watched my son act in the musical, "The Music Man", which was really fun. He got to be on stage and dance and sing with the rest of them and seemed to enjoy himself.
I picked up my commission, which was exciting. It is a large certificate with the seal of the United States and signed by the President and the Secretary of State with a sharpie that officially acknowledges my nomination by the President, confirmation by the Senate, and appointment as an officer.

I was also happy this week to watch with my family the start of another series of the Amazing Race. We really enjoy watching that show. It comes on Sunday nights, but we like to watch it for our activity after Family Home Evening on Monday nights. On an interesting side note, my son pointed out that the latest episode last week was in Chile where they had a serious and terrible earthquake this weekend.
I also submitted my bids this week on any Russian-speaking posts that come open near the time my next assignment finishes in 2 years. We'll see what happens with that. It is possible I will know my assignment beyond my next one before even leaving for my next assignment.
This week I had the satisfaction of doing more of the Sunday School lesson for the Young Single Adults. Usually, my wife does more of the actual teaching part of it since she is so good at it, but since she was planning on being out of town, I was it. She helped me and it seemed to go well. It's enjoyable to teach this class.

Another cool thing I did this week was use my Google Voice number to call my parents. I go on to my account on the internet, put in my parent's number, the phone I specified rings and when I pick it up it dials their number, all for free. I love it. I can make and receive calls and text messages and voice mails on it. What an amazing technology!
I am also happy to say that despite the frustration of learning a new language it is coming little by little. I did okay in my 1/2 hour conversation with my teacher on Friday despite having little sleep the night before and am able to understand a decent amount of familiar texts like the Book of Mormon.
I titled this the "Run Around" because of all of the running around and craziness of the week with my son's musical practice and performances, my wife preparing to go out of town, sickness and redoing plans, running downtown for things, etc. It just seemed a little crazier than usual, but maybe the snowstorm of a couple weeks ago has conditioned me to feel like anything that is not standing still seems crazy. Who knows.
Still loving life and having fun.

The outline of the week:
Monday - Indonesian, Amazing Race started again
Tuesday - Indonesian, area studies on Islam, falling asleep, found out someone else is planning on doing a presentation that is similar to the one I was planning on doing, pick up son from late practice for musical at school again, Olympics, studying
Wednesday - Indonesian, Admin day, went to main state, dropped off DVD on Timor-Leste to the "desk" at headquarters, chatted with the head of the "desk", picked up my commission, submitting my bid list for my assignment 2 1/2 years from now that should be Russian speaking, preparing lesson for Sunday, wife planning on last minute flight to visit siblings for weekend, Olympics, studying.
Thursday - Indonesian, wife went to son's play, lesson for Sunday, Olympics, studying.
Friday - Crazy night because daughter sick in the middle of the night, wife didn't make it on scheduled flight to visit siblings for weekend because daughter and son couldn't go to school and I couldn't miss work, trying to reschedule all day with no luck, family going to son's play together and having fun anyway, brother texting me in Indonesian from Google translate, one-on-one conversation in Indonesian with teacher.
Saturday - family visit to temple visitor's center, went on temple session, last performance of musical and the "after-party"
Sunday - slow start, Sunday kid craziness, lesson on The Family: A Proclamation to the World to YSA's, getting beat playing Alhambra by son. Reading Book of Mormon in Indonesian and understanding a good amount, calling my parents from my Google phone number.