• Walking Tall

    On Monday, January 30, I landed at JFK ready to visit a friend whom I hadn’t seen in several years. Like me, she’s from Missouri originally and went to Truman State University. Unlike me, she transferred out, translocated to New York City, and transitioned from “Mitchell” to Michelle. As it turns out, Missouri is not…

  • On the Road Again

    http://youtu.be/2LeqaIzGk5k  This is my first time taking MegaBus and other than the bus being two and a half hours late in subzero weather, it’s been pretty nice. A middle-aged woman and her seven-year-old daughter took shelter in my car while we waited for the bus, and the little girl explained Minecraft to me while excitedly…

  • This girl is on fire

    I’m not even sure where to start. I haven’t thought of a title that does the past two and a half months justice as I write this. We’ll see where I’m at by the end. I guess I could start by naming a few of my favorite moments. I swear, if everyone asks me, “How…

  • Dublin

    I’ll post details about my flight later because it was interesting but not as interesting as Dublin! We landed yesterday morning at ten til nine (over an hour earlier than we were supposed to due to tailwinds). Getting throug customs wasn’t bad– I had to fill out a card saying where I was going and…

  • The Final Countdown

    I’m literally counting down the hours until I leave. Six. Five. Currently, we’re at four. And every hour is taking its toll on my blood pressure. I spent the night with my friend Tanner in St. Louis playing video games and becoming increasingly more nervous. All I’ve got left is to print out my boarding…

  • Packing. Blah.

    I’ve always been a worrier. And subsequently, a heavy packer. When I went to Philadelphia for two weeks last year, I literally stuff my enormous suitcase to the brim and on top of that filled my backpack up with crap. Clothes, a computer, paper, pencils, batteries, gadgets and chargers, sunblock, etc etc. Lugging all that stuff…

  • Inklings

    Hey everybody. It’s been a while. There’s a lot to catch up on before I leave IN FOUR DAYS. So nine months ago I was really itching to spiral into debt. I had several options. I could buy a yacht, or lose the lottery a hundred million times like everyone else, buy all the twinkies…

  • The Last Day 🙁

    LONG DAY. Woke up, went to lecture with a heavy feeling in my stomach. This was the last day of the conference. 🙁 First lecture was stuff I already knew (about the evolution of the English auxiliary ‘do,’ not really interesting to non-linguists). Dr. Anthony Kroch was the professor giving the lecture. Next we listened…

  • And Then It Happened

    Today was the greatest day ever. Abigail planned on having the group do a talent show at 8 and we ended up actually going through with it and letting Jessica attend the event (Jessica is the IRCS activities coordinator). But first… Cognitive Control, conceptual retrieval, and creativity Sharon Thompson-Schill The front brain controls goal-directed behavior.…

  • To Be a Linguist

    Today was a major day for learning about linguisticky things. Unfortunately, though, I’m tired of typing about lectures so these are going to be kept really really short. Motor intelligence in machines and animals D. E. Koditscheck Spacial memory is thought to be held in the hippocampus. We watched a bunch of robots climbing walls…