Trip 3 - Days 22-25: From laziness to excitement in the blink of an eye

Aipiritmi /ay.pɩ.ɣɩt.m̥i/

Nothing happened Tuesday. It was raining pretty hard, so I woke up, and went back to sleep. After eventually pulling myself out of the warm sleeping bag into the cold loft, I got back into my sleeping bag and read a bit. The put on my rain coat and trudged to the school through the blistering rain and howling wind (Ha! now I've been there too and I can tell my grand-kids “You know back in my day...” that should be read with a slow creaky voice for effect by the way). I talked to J and then trudged back home so I wouldn't get locked out. Then I read and ate and played a video game and got back into my sleeping bag and went to bed.

Pingasiritmi /piƞ.az.ɩɣ.ɩt.m̥i/

So I woke up early and prepared for my day and made sure all my gear was working. I called the elder I was supposed to meet with and asked, if I could still come over, and she said yes, but be careful because its slippery out. So 10 minutes before the meeting time, I slung the video tripod over my shoulder, then put on my backpack filled with: headphones, audio recorder, video recorder, audio tripod, cords and cables, video recorder, microphone, toys, camera, field notebook, prompts, and more toys and I headed out. It had gotten cold overnight to frost over, but because of the rain from yesterday the frost was a nice thin layer of ice over all of the smooth wood planks of the boardwalks. So for every baby step I took I slid an extra three feet forward. Kind of like ice skating. Going down the bridges was a ton of fun, while going up felt like being a gold miner during the Klondike and you see those long lines of people trudging uphill hanging onto the wooden railing hoping not to slip backwards as you pull your sliding feet upwards. It took a bit of time to get there with these sliding penguin baby steps, but I only lost control once and made it on time. I arrived and she was waiting for me, but then “you know I don't actually speak Yup'ik,” oh well. And because she never let me finish the consent form before she started talking about things I couldn't turn on the recorder, or didn't. I'm full of hindsight mistakes or uncertainty this trip but I'm always learning and maturing as a field linguist. We talked for about an hour an a half about growing up, Kotlik, the “immersion program” at the school, how this dialect is different and so forth. She also introduced me to her neighbor who does speak Yup'ik and might call be in a few weeks (he just had a new grand-kid born so he's busy) and then I found out towards the end that her husband does speak Yup'ik, loves to talk, and used to me a dog-musher! So that is exciting! She said she would talk to him and to call in a few days and maybe I can hear stories about dog sledding from him! Assirpaa! Awesome! I then went around the village and then went home and called all the elders. Finally, the two elders I have been wanting to work with since last year said, “yes, Friday morning.” So, Yay persistence! I'm finally going to play with the maps J made and look at demonstratives! I then spent the rest of the day reading and talking to J from the school. So a good day and it goes to show that going with the flow and networking is the right way to go about this. Maybe.

Citamiritmi /tzit.am.ɩɣ.ɩt.m̥i/

I woke up earlier than I wanted to due to the radio being turned on excessively loud. The was needlessly reminded that after I shower I must turn the water heater off. so. I went to the store and bought some more chicken nuggets and danishes and microwaveable brussel sprouts. I spent the afternoon reading and learning. I then went to the school to hang out but couldn't talk because there were a bunch of little kids in the computer lab squirming all over the floor and being generally obnoxious. I found out towards the end that they shouldn't have even been in there and they were kicked out. But by that time for some reason my internet had cut out and neither instant messaging nor emails were working. So I went home to find the door thankfully unlocked even though my host was not there, see its not that hard. So I read a bit, found some enlightenment and cleared my writers block and started brainstorming. Ate dinner, and then continued doing some writing and analysis work. Then after making sure everything was still prepared for the mornings work I went to bed. Aaand then my host came home at midnight and turned the radio on like he was a DJ at a Las Vegas Disco and the people in the back needed to hear it. Then he started mopping the floors with clorax. Its a good thing I talked to one of the teachers today and they agreed to let me stay in their extra room starting mid-next week. I love the loft, its quaint and cozy and sometimes when I'm alone its quiet. I get to eat fun native foods which are delicious. And “I am slightly more in the community instead of apart from it, but not really.” So it will be sad to leave her with a month left to go, but I wont miss the radio, late nights, way too early mornings, and other things. Well what is, is right? So I eventually got to bed, though my sound blocking headphones didn't help at all.

Tallimiritmi /ta.ɬi.mɩɣ.ɩt.m̥i/

I woke up earlier than expected, and unexpectedly happy, awake, excited, and ready to go. So I spent some time writing a rough introduction paragraph and outlining my plans for the rest of the paper. I then checked my elicitation sentences and pulled out some clay to mold a berry patch looking thing. I packed up my stuff. And vengefully went the ladder and turned on the water heater and took a shower even though he was still asleep. (Ok I did it as respectfully as possible, and I tip-toed and took a short shower, and in all fairness I had things to do, places to be, and things to elicit. Its not my fault he sleeps on the floor next to the bathroom or that he stayed up all night rocking out to the news, and mopping.) I packed my gear and in the rain and heavy winds which have canceled every flight in the region for the day (I learned that on the news last night! ((I can be happy and cynically passive aggressive simultaneously, Quyana cakneq))) I headed out. My coat and hood on tightly fighting the wind I made to m consultants house and the cutest little reddish-brown wolf colored husky puppy curled up on a box by the door. He's in that stage where he is supper soft and fluffy and teething on everything. Basically he is the puppy I want. I knocked, after petting the little one for a bit, a got worried, so I knocked again. They eventually answered and I went in. I got a cup of coffee and helped clean off the table so we could talk. She showed me the seal oil from the ribbon seals and mukluk she has recently made and is still making. Her two grand-kids who unbeknownst to her didn't have preschool today ran around. So I went over consent and talked to her and her husband. I turned on the recorder, even though cartoons were playing loudly in the background. And became the grand-kids best friend when I started to pull out toys. So they stuck around and commented on all the toys and laughed with every mispronunciation of mine. But I got to use the maps J made for me and test out methodology. And it worked! Mostly. I found a couple of words that I haven't seen before which are Kotlik specific forms. I tested and proved (at least to myself, if not completely with the data yet) that my hypothesis from last night is on the right track and I've just been too dense for the past 3 years to see it. After about an hour (40 minutes of recording) I got to a point where I could keep going but I kind of needed to sit down and see what I just got and how to proceed in my questioning. So I ended and we talked for a bit. I probably could have stuck around and worked for another hour or so but he was clearly over it, but this is why I enjoy working with her when I can. So perhaps I should've stayed longer but I didn't. She agreed to work with me more on Tuesday morning when its quieter around the house, and to meet me (hopefully) at the school on Thursday afternoon to teach me some nursery rhymes and accompanying hand motions that her father taught her when she was young, so both of those meetings will be super exciting. I left and hungout on the porch for a bit with the little one. Went and purchased a microwaveable lunch (there is no restaurant in town, and no oven at home). I uploaded the recording to my hard drive and meta-data'd it out (I input the mata-data for the recording into my records). Then I typed this. The plan for the rest of the day: Call the dog-musher, excitedly work on my new data, read because that seems the right path, go to the school and hopefully talk to J, have J print out my ballot for me so I can have him honestly vote in my stead and submit it, since the Colorado residents abroad voting site is blocked at the school. Ridiculous. Then I shall return, work with my data enthusiastically, and read and dinner and read I guess. See, if I have data I really, truly enjoy and am excited about I don't procrastinate. I like fieldwork, analysis of fun data, and answering my own questions. Analysis of not fun or monotonous data, networking, socializing, and writing papers about the answers I procrastinate on. Similarly, when I get to do what I like I'm happy and excited and smiley, but when I'm not doing what I like I get depressed, anxious, and passive-aggressive. Yep, so that is my day. Its been a great day so far. I'm now looking forward to the next 4 weeks if this keeps up.

Tangerciqamken atataku!

(Good words for the day: /kwkwkw/ “The sound a swan makes” /nupllituq/ “it is really loud”)