Apparently Native American Tribes Were In Contact With The Donner Party And Offered Them Food When They

9.2.2020

When you need to pull out notes from high school 3 years ago to decipher what your college professor is saying ... this fields and waves class is intimidating, but I thank my past self for preparing me well :)

Summer studying challenge: are you looking forward to returning to university?

As you can see in my posts this is my second week back! It’s been a whirlwind, but a familiar one. I usually hit this point a bit later in the semester, though.

‘Man shouldn’t be able to see his own face – there’s nothing more sinister. Nature gave him the gift of not being able to see it, and of not being able to stare into his own eyes.

Only in the water of rivers and ponds could he look at his face. And the very posture he had to assume was symbolic. He had to bend over, stoop down, to commit the ignominy of beholding himself.

The inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart.’

— Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (1982)

I was talking to my therapist about some anxiety symptoms --- "In my mind, I know I'm going to be perfectly okay, but my body doesn't listen and reacts anyway" --- and she recommended TIPP as strategies to keep in my toolbox of dealing with distress in the moment. I really appreciate having more than one option to try in moments of overwhelm!

Transcription below:

If you're feeling overwhelmed by anxiety or other strong emotions, TIPP is a set of techniques that use the body's natural physical responses to bring you back into balance.

TIPP stands for

temperature

intense exercise

paced breathing

progressive muscle relaxation

Temperature:

The body naturally lowers its heart rate in response to cold. If anxiety is making your heart race, try an ice pack, a cool washcloth, or a walk outside in cool weather, and it should help you calm down.

Intense exercise:

Anxiety is typically a symptom of your body going into fight/flight mode. If your body is coursing with nervous energy, burn it off with 10 minutes of jumping jacks, dancing, climbing stairs, or another cardio activity to complete the stress response cycle.

Paced breathing:

Deep, slow breathing from the belly can also help signal the body to come out of fight/flight mode. Try inhaling for a count of four and exhaling for a count of six until you feel more relaxed. (I like to hold the breath for a count of two between each inhale and exhale.)

Progressive muscle relaxation:

If anxiety makes your body tense up, try this. Start by squeezing the muscles in your toes and feet for five seconds, and then intentionally relax them. Move up to the calves, up your legs, and every region of your body to purposefully let go of extra energy.

When you're feeling overwhelmed, try one or more of these to see what works for you.

How I am planning on going from A2 to B2 Spanish in 4 months

Month 1

I am going to try and work through a massive textbook that I have (here is the link). I’m going to learn the vocabulary using anki, and do all of the exercises, though I won’t write notes to save time. 

After I have finished each chapter, I will have a conversation with my friend in Spanish, and write a page in my journal.

I will also listen to lots of Dreaming Spanish.

Months 2 - 4

I will listen to Dreaming Spanish, Intermediate Spanish Podcast, Notes in Spanish Intermediate, Españolistos and News in Slow Spanish (Spain).

I am going to shadow Easy Spanish videos.

I’ll use LingoPie to watch TV shows and films in Spanish.

I’m going to keep a daily journal in Spanish (which I will post on Journaly).

I’m going to have thrice weekly speaking sessions with my friend.

I’m going to read lots of fanfiction in Spanish.

I will also watch YouTube videos in Spanish.

I’m going to read El Mundo daily.

I’ll try to write an essay once every two weeks.

That’s my plan and I hope it’ll be enough. Wish me luck!

Flowers in Spanish & Italian

Spanish - Italian - English

la rosa - la rosa - rose

el girasol - il girasole - sunflower

la margarita - la margherita - daisy

el tulipán - il tulipano - tulip

el lirio - il giglio - lily

el jazmín - il gelsomino - jasmine

la amapola - il papavero - poppy

la azalea - l’azalea - azalea

la belladona - la belladonna - belladonna

el clavel - il garofano - carnation

el geranio - il geranio - geranium

el iris - il giaggiolo - iris

la lavanda - la lavanda - lavender

la lila - il lillà - lilac

el ave del paraíso - la strelitzia - bird of paradise

la magnolia - la magnolia - magnolia

la orquídea - l’orchidea - orchid

la peonía - la peonia - peony

la petunia - la petunia - petunia

la prímula - la primula - primrose

la violeta - la violetta - violet

Honorific verbs

These are special verbs to describe the actions of people you respect. Here i will write the verb table as:

Verb = honorific verb (with the irregular conjugation if needed)

行く・いる・来る＝いらっしゃる　(Irregular form= いらっしゃいます)

食べる・飲む＝召し上がる　ー　めしあがる

くれる＝くださる　（Irregular form= くださいます）

する＝なさる　（Irregular form= なさいます）

寝る＝お休みなる

みる＝ご覧になる　ー　ごらんになる

言う＝おっしゃる　（Irregular form= おっしゃいます）

ーている＝　ーていらっしゃる　（Irregular form= ーていらっしゃいます）

It’s important to note that this replacement applies to all compound verbs such as 勉強する＝勉強なさる

Because these are honorific verbs to show respect, you shouldn’t use them to describe yourself. Instead they may be used for a teacher or someone you do not know very well. 

Some activities do not have specific honorific verbs, so instead we use either:

1) Using ていらっしゃいます instead of ています if the sentence uses ている。

Example- 先生は電話で話していらっしゃいます= the professor is talking on the phone.

2) Using お+ verb stem +になる

先生はもうお帰りになりました= The professor has already gone home

Falling Into Jupiter

Twenty-five years ago, an object roughly the size of an oven made space history when it plunged into the clouds of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. On Dec. 7, 1995, the 750-pound Galileo probe became the first probe to enter the gas giant. Traveling at a blistering speed of 106,000 miles per hour, the probe’s protective heat shield experienced temperatures as hot as the Sun’s surface generated by friction during entry. As the probe parachuted through Jupiter’s dense atmosphere, its science instruments made measurements of the planet’s chemical and physical makeup. The probe collected data for nearly an hour before its signal was lost. Its data was transmitted to Earth via the Galileo spacecraft, an orbiter that carried the probe to Jupiter and stayed within contact during the encounter. Learn more about the mission.

The Galileo probe was launched to space aboard space shuttle Atlantis in 1989

The probe consisted of a descent module and a protective deceleration module

The probe traveled to Jupiter attached to the Galileo spacecraft

The probe was released from the spacecraft in July 1995

The probe entered Jupiter’s atmosphere five months later on Dec. 7, 1995

Parachutes were deployed to slow the probe’s descent

The probe collected science data for 58 minutes as it fell into the planet’s atmosphere

The Galileo probe was managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

How to Really Comprehend a Scientific Paper

**credit to my research advisor, she’s an amazing mentor and I aspire to be just like her someday :)

Read the abstract. Write down what the paper says it is going to be about.

Read the introduction. Write down what the paper says it is looking to accomplish and how.

Read the conclusion. Write down what the paper actually did accomplish.

Go through and find all the pictures, graphs, or diagrams. Write notes explaining these images to yourself.

Read the whole paper start to finish. Write a summary of the paper as though you are explaining it to a layperson, and then another summary as though you are explaining it to a colleague.

Throughout all of the above steps:

If there are words you don’t know google them and write down the definitions

If the paper defines a formula, law, variable, etc in a certain way write that down

If there are references to or recommendations of other literature write those down. After the last step if there’s anything you’re uncertain about or would like more information on look to that list for further reading

Collocation anon here! I was referring to phrases that use specific words that just kind of “sound right” to native speakers but they’re different from what we would say. Like “tomar una decisión” instead of “hacer una decisión” when we would say “to make a decision” in English

Ahh okay gotcha

When I hear collocation I think "verbal phrases" or "noun phrases", words that kind of become joined to form a new word or phrase like compound nouns or specific idioms but okay!

I think a lot of times it comes down to people putting their existing grammatical knowledge onto the language they're learning.

It's very common to bring our own knowledge and experiences into learning so it becomes something you have to understand and break or recognize.

I personally struggle with formality because in English "you" is all we have, regardless of formality. When I say "you" I typically use tú as my first instinct because it's taught more than usted

That's sort of what I mean by bringing our frameworks into other languages

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Though I will say "to take a decision" is sometimes used more in British English and in some more formal contexts!

Every so often an odd-sounding literal expression will have a British or older English antecedent... or ancestor is maybe a bit more accurate.

There are times when I'll be hearing something in an English drama and I'm like "ah that makes sense now" connecting something in Spanish.

It's not a collocation but for example aquí is "here" and acá is "here", but acá is a direction word and it could be "over here" or "nearer"... in older English it is understood as "hither" like "come hither" is directly ven acá "come here / come over here"

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I think an earlier more confusing one is llamarse for names.

In English we're so used to "I am" as in soy but you hear me llamo Ana or me llamo Marco for introducing yourself.

It reads as "I call myself" literally

Another big one is when people want to use qué instead of cuál

As in "What's your name?" in Spanish is ¿Cuál es tu nombre? literally "which is your name?" ... not that qué isn't understood, but the implication is that you obviously have a name, so which one is yours?

Same thing with surnames, phone numbers, addresses (and email addresses which are "electronic addresses")

This also (to me) kind of makes more sense in an older feudalistic society. In Catholic societies people tended to take names from the Bible or the names of saints or angels. And not everyone had a last name, so it was like "Which house do you belong to (if any)?" so there's a bit of a historical aspect there too, especially when surnames could be given by place names or cities, or by geographic terms. It got a bit messy.

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People also struggle with reflexives and body parts when it comes to autonomy of body parts

As in me lavo las manos is literally "I wash myself the hands", and that makes sense in most Western languages, even German, that particular construction

In English we say "I wash my hands", we don't often use reflexives like that, so people who are learning reflexives with body parts like "I wash my face", "I shave my legs", "I brush my teeth", "I comb my hair" are very tempted to use the possessives

In Spanish the reflexives mark autonomy already, if it's "I wash myself" or "I shave myself" or "I brush/comb myself" then it couldn't be anyone else's body parts.

You could say something like "I wash her face" but that's a direct object one subject acting on another... not reflexive where the subject and object are the same. In Spanish me lavo la cara is "I wash MYSELF" so I am doing the washing and I am being washed, it's just la cara that's the thing being washed... but in Spanish grammar, your body parts ARE also you, which makes sense

But it's a little confusing for English-speakers because we phrase things differently in our grammar

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The other one that trips people up a lot is gustar in the context of "to like". We say "I like" as if it were a simple verbal construction

In Spanish with the indirect object me gusta(n) comes out as "it pleases me" or "they please me"

Don't even get me started on "I like you" which is me gustas literally "you please me"... and "you like me" te gusto literally "I please you"

That trips a lot of people up and, honestly, same. To me it feels weird and unnatural to phrase it that impersonally because I'm so used to treating it like a direct object in English

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Oh gosh let me think there are a lot, and not just idioms, but I find a lot of the main issues I personally have are prepositions:

enamorarse de alguien = to fall in love with someone [lit. "to fall in love OF someone"]

soñar con algo/alguien = to dream of something/someone [lit. "to dream WITH something/someone"]

parecerse a algo/alguien = to resemble something/someone [lit. "to look like/to appear TO something/someone]

Prepositional verbs are really difficult

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A few could be like special verbal phrases like ponerse or echar(se) when used with actions. The verb ponerse has a lot of uses but it's often "to become" or "to set to", and echar(se) literally reads as "to fling (oneself)"

But for example:

ponerse a llorar = to burst into tears

echar a perder = to waste / to go to waste

For English-speakers we would be tempted to use reventar "to burst", but literally ponerse a llorar is like "to set oneself to crying"

echar a perder comes out a bit weird because it's "to throw to loss", and we'd be tempted to just use the simpler verb forms malgastar "to waste" [lit. "to spend badly"], or desperdiciar "to waste"

echar a perder can also mean "to spoil" or "to ruin", which most English-speakers would take arruinar "to ruin"

Other times echarse comes out in like "to take a nap" or "to lie down" depending on the region, where it seems very literally "to

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Now I will say there are a few verbal phrases that translate a bit differently literally depending on your intention:

1. beber café = to drink coffee

2. tomar café = to drink coffee

Both of these are correct grammatically and linguistically, but in a conversation they come across differently

beber as "to drink" reads as more of the function

tomar as "to drink" [where it literally means "to take"]; if I read tomar café or especially tomar un café I interpret it as "to have a cup of coffee" which can include the idea of relaxation or enjoyment

The same exists with "water", "tea" or any kind of alcohol or shots. It can imply literally "ingesting", but it can and often does imply some kind of enjoyment, usually like private relaxation or public social engagement. There's a bit of an unspokenness in there.

I kind of think of it similar to how comer with food can read as mechanical like "to eat/feed", while comerse with food is often what native speakers use for something you are eating for more than just nutrition. In English we kind of say "to have" for this, like "have some cake" instead of "eat some cake"

tomar also gets used in other contexts where it can be "to take in"

tomar (el) aire = to get some air, to get some fresh air

tomar (el) sol = to sunbathe, to bask in the sun

In these cases, specifically tomar el aire I would say there's a bit more of an emotional component where it's not just "to breathe" like "to take in air"

It's similar to tomar un respiro which is "to take a breath" but it could also come out like "to take a break". If I read tomar el aire I kind of get the impression that someone is either just enjoying some time by themselves, or they're overwhelmed and need a break but it's more of a translation thing I suppose

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The most confusing collocations are the expressions with hacer, tener, and dar because they're so common:

tener hambre = to be hungry

tener sed = to be thirsty

tener X años = to be X years old

tener gracia = (for something) to be funny

tener suerte = to be lucky

tener miedo = to be afraid/scared

tener razón = to be right

tener que (hacer algo) = to have to (do something)

tener calor = to be hot (internal feeling)

tener frío = to be cold (internal feeling)

tener sueño = to be sleepy [lit. "to have sleepiness" where el sueño could be "dream" or "sleepiness" or "drowsiness", and in some cases could be understood as a noun "sleep"]

Especially because tener means "to have", and we interpret ser as "to be". Age is a big confusing one for English-speakers obviously.

But again, older English, tener razón sounds a whole lot like "to have the right of it", though it literally is "to have reason" so you can make some connections here and there

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hacer is probably the most idiomatic of these in that it can be extremely confusing when you're first starting out to see "to do/make" used with weather

hacer calor = to be hot (weather)

hacer frío = to be cold (weather)

hacer viento = to be windy

hacer fresco = to be chilly

hacer sol = to be sunny

Not to mention when hace/hacía can be used as "ago"... like hace dos años que no te veo "it's been two years since I've seen you" / "I haven't seen you for "two years"

Literally that's "two years it makes that I don't see you"

The idea of "ago" trips people up a lot

Also connected is llevar in the context of "to spend time"... llevo muchos años estudiando español "I've been studying Spanish for many years"... Literally "I carry/spend many years studying Spanish"

You could use he estado estudiando español por/durante muchos años but it's a little wordier

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dar can be difficult because it means "to give" but in some cases can be "to strike" or "to hit (against)"

dar pena = to make someone feel bad/ashamed [lit. "to give pain/sorrow/shame"]

dar miedo = to be scary [lit. "to give fear"]

dar asco = to disgust, to repulse [lit. "to cause revulsion"]

dar a luz = to give birth [lit. "to give to light"]

darse prisa = to hurry, to rush [lit. "to give oneself haste/hurry"]

dar las 12 (doce) = "for the clock to strike 12"

If you're reading Cenicienta "Cinderella" al dar las doce is like "at the stroke of midnight"; we have to remember that dar here is likely referring to the action of "hitting" a bell which would ring out the hour. When a clock "strikes" or "chimes", that can be done with dar but we tend not to think of a physical strike

dar en el clavo = "to hit the nail on the head"

darse con alguien = "to run into someone", to meet someone (often by chance), to encounter [lit. "to hit against (with) someone"; it carries a literal meaning like "to run into", and darse con algo might mean "to hit up against" or "to run into (a thing)" often a wall or an obstacle]

dar en el blanco / dar en la diana = to hit the bullseye [lit. el blanco here is not "the white" it means "the target"; and la diana is "a bullseye", most likely related to Diana, goddess of the hunt in Roman mythology; just like in English it could be to literally hit a bullseye like archery, or it could be "to be right" or "to get it right"]

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This one I think does make some sense but nos vemos is often translated in the future tense; it comes out like "see you" or "we'll see each other soon", but literally it's "we see each other"

It can be a bit hard to explain but present tense can be short-term future

Secondly, nos vemos gets translated a bunch of different ways as a default goodbye - "see you", "see you later", "see you soon", "bye" etc. so that also doesn't help

But many languages have this kind of reflexive notion, sort of like Italian arrivederci where literally that ci is an "us/we" marker for reflexives in Italian

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And there are others I could list and probably will when I think of some to put in a list as a reply