#20170704

【祝自己森日快樂】

今年的森日充滿雨水味～

Wow, was today ever busy!  It was the day of the linguistics conference hosted at the university here, organized by Peter (our prof for the research trip) and a colleague from here in Ljubljana.  There were 8 talks, and those by us and Peter made up half of them.  It was super interesting to be able to hear other topics as well as present out own!  I definitely learned a lot about Slovenian phonology but also just phonology in general.

My partner for the presentation ended up having a dental emergency and had to go to the doctor/dentist/surgeon to sort that out, so I actually did the presentation on my own!  A full 25 minute presentation!  I’ve never done anything that intense before.  I wish Deepam had been there with me but I think I made the best of it.  We found out last night that he would be missing it so I at least had an evening to prepare his half of the presentation.  Oddly enough I wasn’t that nervous?  I was a little bit leading up to the conference but I actually felt fine for the presentation itself!  I was confident, I knew the material well and spoke slowly and smoothly, and answered questions accurately.  It was a bit of a blur but I felt super good coming out of it!  It was definitely a fantastic experience, I grew a lot as an academic/student but also as a person.  I have a feeling other presentations I do will be much easier now!  Everyone else from our group also did an incredible job with their presentations!

Halfway through the conference we broke for lunch, and our group plus a couple people from the university (that were also presenting) went out to lunch at an Indian restaurant nearby.  It was really good food! And I actually took a picture this time.  I forget what it was called but I got a soup, chickpeas with fried bread, fried onions, and raita and rice pudding with a few raisins for dessert.  The raita was especially refreshing on a hot afternoon! It was good to go for a walk midway through the conference and sort of reset ourselves for the talks in the afternoon.  These were also super cool to listen to, especially Peter’s!  All in all it was a super informative day and a great learning experience.  After the conference we went out for ice cream and I had one of the tastiest ice creams ever - a super creamy and rich pistachio one.  Then we walked around the old city center for a bit, on a mission to get materials for our fieldwork tomorrow but also just to walk around a bit.

The city is super pretty! The area we were in today reminded me a bit of Strasbourg, with the architecture and the river running through it.  I’m struck by the fact that this still doesn’t feel so much like being abroad - I think that being in a group is really changing that. I absolutely love the group I’m with though, we all get along super well and every day is full of laughter and jokes and fun.  I’m glad we’re such a comprehensive team, we work well together!  

After wandering in the city we came back to our Airbnb to sort of regroup, relax a bit, and get some work done for the beginning of the fieldwork tomorrow.  We sat around at home for a bit, and Peter opened a bottle of really nice champagne he got us to celebrate finishing our presentations! He was very proud of us, which was nice to hear.  It’s one thing to feel good about something you did but another to have your supervisor approve of it and praise you too.  Then Peter and I went out to buy bread for tomorrow’s packed lunches.  The bakery was so cheap!! We got so much bread for only 13 euros!  And since it was legit 2 minutes before closing we got some free bread too. We’re going to be driving for 2 hours to the Zadrečka valley so need to bring food with us, and this was great.  Tomorrow Andrea and Rachel are starting their fieldwork, using ultrasound imaging to look for secondary palatalization in the Zadrečka valley dialect.  I’m tagging along with Wenxuan because we don’t have participants set up for tomorrow!  But Deepam will stay here in Ljubljana to work a bit on our stimuli for nasal harmony and get lots done in preparation for our fieldwork.

All in all, today was really an incredible day.  I had such a valuable experience presenting at the conference, the city is beautiful, and the group I’m here with is so pleasant and fun to be with.  It’s only two days in but I’m already having such a great time!  I can’t wait to see what the rest of the trip holds for us!