Saturday, March 31, 2007

Decisions

As you folks know, I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about where I'm going to school next year, what kind of academic I want to be, and what I'm doing with my life in general. I've become convinced that I don't actually want to be a linguist, and perhaps not an academic at all. Neither of my options is really right for me, in any case. I've signed up for another year here. I'll probably apply to grad schools again in the fall, looking at cog-sci and psych programs. But since the sun has come out again this place has really grown on me, or I'm realizing how much I have liked it here, and I'm considering staying on long term.

In not unrelated news, I should introduce you to my fiancée. I don't have any pictures yet though, and my camera's broken. I met Quan Feili (全非丽) at one of the two bars in town, back in January, and in the time since I returned here, we've spent a lot of time together. It's clear to me she is my soulmate, and last night we agreed we should get hitched sometime or another.

[Edit: In case it wasn't clear, this is an April Fool's joke. But see this update.]

8 comments:

Vicki Carroll said...

Lucien, while it may be April Fool's in China, it is NOT here. Bad Boy!

Matthew Carroll said...

Congratulations! Can't wait to meet her! ;-)

Brian said...

CONGRATULATIONS. STOP. GIVE US A DATE. STOP. PERHAPS YOU SHOULD HOLD OFF LONG ENOUGH TO OBTAIN CHINESE CITIZENSHIP. STOP. HAVE SOLD YOUR MOTORCYCLE TO PAY FOR OUR ROUNDTRIP TICKETS. STOP. HOPE YOU AND FEA ARE HAPPY FOREVER. STOP. CAN'T FIND LI CHARACTER IN MY DICTIONARY. STOP. BUT WITHOUT IT, THE NAME SEEMS COMPLETELY WRONG. STOP. LET ME SAY IT AGAIN. STOP. STOP. STOP. STOP. STOP. STOP.

slowlane said...

Whew! I was just telling a friend the other day that I couldn't get married until all of my older sibs were married off. I guess I don't have that long to wait after all. Hey... how about a double wedding?

serapio said...

In traditional characters, her name is 全非麗.

slowlane, no need to wait for us. is there an announcement you need to make?

Brian said...

Ah, yes, I found it. This may be one of those rare cases where the Chinese is a near cognate with the Spanish: ¡Cuán Fea La! I can see what the attraction would be. It would be very hard to pass up such a linguistic anomaly.

serapio said...

Actually, the 'q' in pinyin is a palatalized affricate, something like 'chy'. Although when you're looking for cognates between Chinese and Spanish you can't let something like that stop you.

serapio said...

It has been pointed out to me that perhaps for the benefit of those who don't read Chinese, I should translate the name.

complete
not, un-
pretty

全 is a real Chinese surname, 丽 is really common in girls' names, and 非 sounds the same as a couple characters that are really common in girls' names.