moocow in the city

one cow. many pastures.

February 2007

open pasture

An update of sorts

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University

I really don’t feel like I’ve had nearly enough education. This isn’t saying that I’m not happy with my department (I love my department) or with the quality of education at UB (it’s very good) but I know that there’s so much more to learn, so much more that I want to learn, and perhaps this is the part of me that’s bitter that I’ve now reached (and am in the process of completing) the highest level of Arabic offered at UB and I’m thirsty, hungry for more and they aren’t offering it and I know what they gave me, is no where near enough.

I’ve gotten some flack and some comments for deciding not to go directly into graduate school (not from my family, but from a few peers)…but I’m 22, I’m debt free…and there’s a world out there to educate me and I think it’s time to learn from it rather than from those who experienced it and want to tell me about their experience in the halls of academia. There’s so many people I haven’t gotten the chance to meet yet and so many lessons I have to learn, and all with so little time. Life is painfully short and the clock has always been my enemy, such a sinister thing clocks are…though that’s probably why they feature so heavily and prominently into Sherlock Holmes lore (in media, anyway).

I went home last weekend (and let me tell you, flying on jetBlue was a peach), on the trip, however, I was able to work out with my parent’s how the next few years are going to go (…the best laid plans of mice and men…):

I graduate this coming Fall (and this is the most anti-climactic feeling I’ve ever experienced, for real, not that I’m not happy that I’m graduating…I just expected a different emotion than the one I have and part of the problem is that I don’t know what the emotion I expected to be different was…but I know that this isn’t it) and then I head to Israel, making Aliyah and returning to the holy land.

Currently the plan is to spend the first six or so months on a Kibbutz doing ulpan (or staying for however long the work commitment is, a few months more, a few months less) and getting acquainted with the country, the culture, and the lifestyle; I’m actually hoping to find a vegetarian type kibbutz for health reasons. Then I’m going into the IDF to do whatever commitment is required of me there. After that, the next November that rolls around, I want to enter into the Intensive Arabic Program at Givat Haviva (unless I find a better one along the way, which is always a possibility and one that I’m keeping my eyes and ears open for) and I’ve begun saving so that I can do so; all this should take up the first two, two and a half years.

Following that, I want to go to Tel Aviv University (providing that I don’t find another university in Israel that I like more or that is better suited to my interests and talents) for my Masters Degree.

The Spartan Lifestyle

I want to do my Doctoral degree at NYU. Am I the best and the brightest up and coming linguist there ever was? Certainly not, possibly if not probably, incredibly far from it. But I do think that I’m a compelling applicant. I also think that after five or so years of real world experience I would be able to bring something special, if not unique, to their academic program. And if I don’t get in there for my Ph.D., there’s numerous schools in NYC for me to choose from, but that one is the goal (at the moment and of course with the proviso that this is all subject to change).

I’ve become incredibly minimalist over the past year, I get rid of things daily, I donate, and I throw out. I chuck and I recycle and I dump and I sell. By the time that I move out in 9 months, I’ll have one box of files containing data from my long term research projects, two boxes of books that will have a place on my parent’s bookshelves and my messenger bag with what little clothes and possessions I have left. I won’t need a moving van to move out, like I did to move in because in nine months, I’ll own next to nothing – all but two pieces of furniture will be sold and those two will have a home at my parents’ house. My jalopy of a hookah will be donated to a good cause because I can just pick up another one when I get to Israel…preferably one that doesn’t require duct tape to function (I love my hookah, really I do…but damn…it’s sort of like that car that you see on the street, and go ‘how much did the dealer have to pay the owner so he’d drive it off the lot…’ I’m actually sort of embarrassed to admit I paid anything for it…but it’s my deformed hookah and I love it…even if it did take the short bus to the shook).

I’m setting myself up to live only with what I can carry on my back. Is this necessary to do what I want? Well, no, very few things in life are actually necessary and I’m sure that I could travel with a few suitcases if I wanted to; but is this the life style in which I want to live my life? Absolutely. If you have very, very few possessions you’re free. Free to travel, free to live life without worry, free from bills of apartments and houses and mortgages and car payments…no strings attached…the nomadic lifestyle is incredibly appealing to me and my daily actions are leading me into that direction, which brings a great amount of comfort to me because it means that’s one less thing I have to do: figure out where I’ll be storing all of my (soon to be non-existant) shit.

I want it to come to the point, with proper saving and financial planning (thank you AmeriPrise), that I can fly back and forth between Israel and NYC at my pleasure and on a whim if I feel like it. If I’m not spending money on frivolous things and not worrying about upgrading my television, or finding a big apartment and If I’m only living in temporary housing, any money other than what I spend on food, clubbing, internet and my education can be saved for travel. I’m going to have my cake and eat it too: be a dual citizen, with equal time spent in both countries, still being able to watch my younger brother grow up into the man that he’s going to become. My family is incredibly important to me, and I won’t sacrifice them for my dreams but I also won’t sacrifice my dreams for my family; so rather than have this turn into a Catch 22 Conundrum I’ve chosen that path which will allow me to satisfy both sides of the equation…or, at the very least, balance them.

People ask me what my end game is. After I’m done with all my education (my formal education that is, learning is a life long process) I want to be a medical translator and interpreter for high risk areas working with Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations as support staff during times of conflict; providing the necessary support to both doctors and patients to see to it that those people who are injured get the treatment that they need and that those people who need psychiatric care, can communicate with a licensed mental health professional. I want to be the conduit that allows this to happen. During times of peace, I want to do translation work and I want to focus my Ph.D. research in Translatology and how poly-gendered ideas and theory can be expressed in bi-gendered languages.

Is this a long path, arduous, requiring years of studying, commitment, time, money, expenses? Absolutely. This is in no way an occupation of instant gratification and I’m well aware of the commitment that it will take…and I’m excited, that I’ll be able to get started on it soon.

I do have more to write about, but I also have to study…I have a quiz today, and it appears that sleep and I are currently not on speaking terms, which means I need to keep studying.

Peace all.

– Matan

open pasture

An update of sorts

moocowinthecity No Comments

University

I really don’t feel like I’ve had nearly enough education. This isn’t saying that I’m not happy with my department (I love my department) or with the quality of education at UB (it’s very good) but I know that there’s so much more to learn, so much more that I want to learn, and perhaps this is the part of me that’s bitter that I’ve now reached (and am in the process of completing) the highest level of Arabic offered at UB and I’m thirsty, hungry for more and they aren’t offering it and I know what they gave me, is no where near enough.

I’ve gotten some flack and some comments for deciding not to go directly into graduate school (not from my family, but from a few peers)…but I’m 22, I’m debt free…and there’s a world out there to educate me and I think it’s time to learn from it rather than from those who experienced it and want to tell me about their experience in the halls of academia. There’s so many people I haven’t gotten the chance to meet yet and so many lessons I have to learn, and all with so little time. Life is painfully short and the clock has always been my enemy, such a sinister thing clocks are…though that’s probably why they feature so heavily and prominently into Sherlock Holmes lore (in media, anyway).

I went home last weekend (and let me tell you, flying on jetBlue was a peach), on the trip, however, I was able to work out with my parent’s how the next few years are going to go (…the best laid plans of mice and men…):

I graduate this coming Fall (and this is the most anti-climactic feeling I’ve ever experienced, for real, not that I’m not happy that I’m graduating…I just expected a different emotion than the one I have and part of the problem is that I don’t know what the emotion I expected to be different was…but I know that this isn’t it) and then I head to Israel, making Aliyah and returning to the holy land.

Currently the plan is to spend the first six or so months on a Kibbutz doing ulpan (or staying for however long the work commitment is, a few months more, a few months less) and getting acquainted with the country, the culture, and the lifestyle; I’m actually hoping to find a vegetarian type kibbutz for health reasons. Then I’m going into the IDF to do whatever commitment is required of me there. After that, the next November that rolls around, I want to enter into the Intensive Arabic Program at Givat Haviva (unless I find a better one along the way, which is always a possibility and one that I’m keeping my eyes and ears open for) and I’ve begun saving so that I can do so; all this should take up the first two, two and a half years.

Following that, I want to go to Tel Aviv University (providing that I don’t find another university in Israel that I like more or that is better suited to my interests and talents) for my Masters Degree.

The Spartan Lifestyle

I want to do my Doctoral degree at NYU. Am I the best and the brightest up and coming linguist there ever was? Certainly not, possibly if not probably, incredibly far from it. But I do think that I’m a compelling applicant. I also think that after five or so years of real world experience I would be able to bring something special, if not unique, to their academic program. And if I don’t get in there for my Ph.D., there’s numerous schools in NYC for me to choose from, but that one is the goal (at the moment and of course with the proviso that this is all subject to change).

I’ve become incredibly minimalist over the past year, I get rid of things daily, I donate, and I throw out. I chuck and I recycle and I dump and I sell. By the time that I move out in 9 months, I’ll have one box of files containing data from my long term research projects, two boxes of books that will have a place on my parent’s bookshelves and my messenger bag with what little clothes and possessions I have left. I won’t need a moving van to move out, like I did to move in because in nine months, I’ll own next to nothing – all but two pieces of furniture will be sold and those two will have a home at my parents’ house. My jalopy of a hookah will be donated to a good cause because I can just pick up another one when I get to Israel…preferably one that doesn’t require duct tape to function (I love my hookah, really I do…but damn…it’s sort of like that car that you see on the street, and go ‘how much did the dealer have to pay the owner so he’d drive it off the lot…’ I’m actually sort of embarrassed to admit I paid anything for it…but it’s my deformed hookah and I love it…even if it did take the short bus to the shook).

I’m setting myself up to live only with what I can carry on my back. Is this necessary to do what I want? Well, no, very few things in life are actually necessary and I’m sure that I could travel with a few suitcases if I wanted to; but is this the life style in which I want to live my life? Absolutely. If you have very, very few possessions you’re free. Free to travel, free to live life without worry, free from bills of apartments and houses and mortgages and car payments…no strings attached…the nomadic lifestyle is incredibly appealing to me and my daily actions are leading me into that direction, which brings a great amount of comfort to me because it means that’s one less thing I have to do: figure out where I’ll be storing all of my (soon to be non-existant) shit.

I want it to come to the point, with proper saving and financial planning (thank you AmeriPrise), that I can fly back and forth between Israel and NYC at my pleasure and on a whim if I feel like it. If I’m not spending money on frivolous things and not worrying about upgrading my television, or finding a big apartment and If I’m only living in temporary housing, any money other than what I spend on food, clubbing, internet and my education can be saved for travel. I’m going to have my cake and eat it too: be a dual citizen, with equal time spent in both countries, still being able to watch my younger brother grow up into the man that he’s going to become. My family is incredibly important to me, and I won’t sacrifice them for my dreams but I also won’t sacrifice my dreams for my family; so rather than have this turn into a Catch 22 Conundrum I’ve chosen that path which will allow me to satisfy both sides of the equation…or, at the very least, balance them.

People ask me what my end game is. After I’m done with all my education (my formal education that is, learning is a life long process) I want to be a medical translator and interpreter for high risk areas working with Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations as support staff during times of conflict; providing the necessary support to both doctors and patients to see to it that those people who are injured get the treatment that they need and that those people who need psychiatric care, can communicate with a licensed mental health professional. I want to be the conduit that allows this to happen. During times of peace, I want to do translation work and I want to focus my Ph.D. research in Translatology and how poly-gendered ideas and theory can be expressed in bi-gendered languages.

Is this a long path, arduous, requiring years of studying, commitment, time, money, expenses? Absolutely. This is in no way an occupation of instant gratification and I’m well aware of the commitment that it will take…and I’m excited, that I’ll be able to get started on it soon.

I do have more to write about, but I also have to study…I have a quiz today, and it appears that sleep and I are currently not on speaking terms, which means I need to keep studying.

Peace all.

– Matan

open pasture

Tonight’s Game Plan

moocowinthecity No Comments

1. Make Dinner (really basic: pasta, sauce, toast)
2. Laundry & Study for the quiz in my Structure of English Sound System Course
3. Write letter of proposal for Wolf Wölk so I can hand it into him tomorrow and have him (hopefully) sign off on it by next Tuesday’s class.
4. Send letter to my Rabbi @ Temple Or-Elohim
5. UBULS filing
6. Design Bar/Table for UBULS Lounge (I’ll talk more on this in the next entry)
7. Write and actual entry.
8. Bubble Bath (with rubber duckies)
9. Read Briefing for LinAnt…(Candie, you can have my copy of it to copy whenever you want, unless ‘Resa picked hers up already then you can just snag it from her).

open pasture

Tonight’s Game Plan

moocowinthecity No Comments

1. Make Dinner (really basic: pasta, sauce, toast)
2. Laundry & Study for the quiz in my Structure of English Sound System Course
3. Write letter of proposal for Wolf Wölk so I can hand it into him tomorrow and have him (hopefully) sign off on it by next Tuesday’s class.
4. Send letter to my Rabbi @ Temple Or-Elohim
5. UBULS filing
6. Design Bar/Table for UBULS Lounge (I’ll talk more on this in the next entry)
7. Write and actual entry.
8. Bubble Bath (with rubber duckies)
9. Read Briefing for LinAnt…(Candie, you can have my copy of it to copy whenever you want, unless ‘Resa picked hers up already then you can just snag it from her).

open pasture

Quick Update/To Do List

moocowinthecity No Comments

1. I’m back in Buffalo, safe and sound and about to head to bed.
2. Full post tomorrow
3. I’ll read/respond to comments and comment on entries tomorrow
4. To Do List (for my reference):
a) Study for 301 Quiz
b) email wolf wölk and setup appointment during his office hours
c) Flash Card Arabic
d) LinAnt Homework
e) E-Mail S.F.C. office with details of living the boho/one bag life (for article)?
f) Laundry
g) Profile & Resume to Marla
h) patch hunting
i) quilt pattern making
j) bank deposits
k) get credit report
l) re-write bio 2a and 3c
m) foodshopping
n) schwa-tat
o) budget

open pasture

Quick Update/To Do List

moocowinthecity No Comments

1. I’m back in Buffalo, safe and sound and about to head to bed.
2. Full post tomorrow
3. I’ll read/respond to comments and comment on entries tomorrow
4. To Do List (for my reference):
a) Study for 301 Quiz
b) email wolf wölk and setup appointment during his office hours
c) Flash Card Arabic
d) LinAnt Homework
e) E-Mail S.F.C. office with details of living the boho/one bag life (for article)?
f) Laundry
g) Profile & Resume to Marla
h) patch hunting
i) quilt pattern making
j) bank deposits
k) get credit report
l) re-write bio 2a and 3c
m) foodshopping
n) schwa-tat
o) budget

open pasture

Long Island, Israel, Future Plans & School, Mad Cow Disease

moocowinthecity No Comments

Long Island

Getting home to Long Island was certainly an experience, after hours of delays at the airport, there was a good two hours of traffic. As my father described to me the terrors that lay waiting for us on the road, the snow, the ice and the tundra which we would no doubt have to brave in the spirit of the explorers who traversed the arctic, I was beginning to expect the worst…and then as we got onto the road and I saw the conditions that lay for us ahead, I breathed in a sigh of relief and relaxed. Because, as Buffalonians would call this, it was “a dusting.”

Any Buffalo native would have been going around 80mph, with the stereo on, talking on their cell phone and been just fine…the Long Islanders saw half an inch of ice and veered into trees and each other in a mass panic the likes of which I’ve never seen before. This in turn, caused large delays which then caused more accidents because people were getting frustrated and began to drive recklessly as they let out their road rage which they coupled with their intense fear of the non-existant snow.

Because of all the airport Delays, I missed my doctors appointment and now have to come back in two weeks or so and try again. Life happens, get a mop, what you gunna do?

Israel, Future Plans & School

I booked my ticket’s to Israel Yesterday!

I’m incredibly excited. I decided to only go for close to one month rather than for two months, varying slightly from my original plan. My primary reasoning behind this was because I didn’t want to miss out on a lot of the summer festivities because this will be the last summer I’ll be in the United States for quite awhile and I sort of wanted to get everything in (including Fourth of July in Vermont).

The other reason being that if we are having a summit (which is up in the air at the moment, but which I want to plan for in case we are actually having one) in Montreal for the Harry Potter Book 7 release, I’d never give up a chance to see my HP Crew (I get to see them so rarely, and it’s such a gift when I do get the chance to see them, that I’d hate to give up the chance to do so for the final Harry Potter book release). If it turns out that we aren’t having a summit, maybe Carrie, Stephen and I will hold a mini one in Boston? I booked that week as “Harry Potter Week” and wrote “Summit” on my calendar, so really now it’s just a matter of figuring out where it’s going to be and who’s going to go where :o)

However, I’m fairly sure that I’ll have more than enough time to see a lot, get acquainted with the layout of everything and do some really neat stuff.

I started my list of things that I want to see and do:

 

    • Yad V’Shem.

 

    • The Wailing Wall.

 

    • Party at Club TLV on their Gay Night.

 

    • Tour the Tel-Aviv University Campus.

 

    • Jerusalem (in Jerusalem there’s a hostel where you can sleep on the roof and see the sun rise over Dome of the Rock, I want to stay there, I have to find the name of it).

 

    • Walk on Water (or do my best) at Nazareth.

 

    • Ride the Subway in Tel Aviv (I get the tickets from the random subways I ride and paste them in my date book, it’s my goal to ride every subway in the world at least once).

 

    • The Salt Caves.

 

    • Swim in the Sea of Salt.

 

    • Visit Jordy at Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land (I’m told that he’s friendly).

 

    • Hiking, lots and lots of hiking.

 

    • Tour Givat Haviva’s facilities, get information on their programs.

 

    • Prayer Services, wherever and whenever, I really just want to ground myself and reconnect to my faith.

 

    • Meet with my contact at Nefesh B’Nefesh and say hello…I’ve harassed her often enough, the least I can do is buy her a cup of coffee.

 

    • Meet Itai (nir1) and put a body to the name and the face, and hug Shirah (stoicdaydreamer) because I haven’t seen her in months and I miss her terribly and say hi to Tova because if I don’t, Shulamit will kill me.

 

    • Pick up some Arabic & Hebrew Club/Rave/Trance CDs because you’d be amazed how little you can find pirated on the net and there’s almost nothing for purchase on iTunes or at Borders.

 

    • Play Shesh Besh, Smoke Hookah, Drink Coffee and Relax

 
Future Plans & School

I opened up another Savings account to start saving for Givat Haviva’s Arabic Program (NIS21,000.00 which is currently around 5,000.00US) and also for Grad School and the ATAs professional exams (which aren’t cheap). Though it looks like I’ll have enough to cover Givat Haviva in about a years time with some extra padding for unforeseen expenses. I’m also opening a third savings account when I get back to Buffalo to start saving for future travel expenses. I would like to start saving now so that I can have the luxury later of traveling at my convenience in the future, rather than traveling at the convenience of my bank account.

The other day I gave Mom (munchkinqueen54) a video tour of my apartment (which has rapidly become minimalist) and she gave me permission to sell Dranny’s antique dresser set that’s in my bedroom (Dranny was my Great Grandma) so that I can put the money into the education account I just created, which is exciting.

School

I have to say, I’m a little sad…well, perhaps nostalgic is more accurate, or maybe annoyed, I’m honestly not sure. We’ve been given essentially the final word on whether or not there will be an Arabic V. The answer is no. The University won’t fund it. They will fund Sanskrit (I know, I took the course), they will fund Irish Gaelic, they will fund Latin to fluency…but they won’t fund more than Arabic I – IV and it kills me. The only way to ever make a difference is through cross cultural and cross-lingual communication and The University is doing themselves and their students a disservice by not providing adequate Arabic Language Instruction. This means that the courses I’m taking in my final semester are:

 

    • Phonetics with Dr. Jeri J. Jaeger.

 

    • A TA-Ship

 

    • CSE111 (Math Requirement)

 

    • the second half of Nutrition.

 
It all seems rather anti-climactic actually. Four classes and…I’m done…it’s not like I expected to walk out of my last class and have streamers go off and a marching band begin to play, I think it’s just that college life gets so much hype in the media you expect to feel slightly different when you’re at the last lap. I graduate at the end of the Fall Semester 2007 though my diploma will read Matthew L. Schwartz, B.A. Linguistics, February 1, 2008 because it takes them two months to verify that you’ve actually done everything that you have to do.

This semester’s research paper is exciting though, because Dr. Wölk is going to do his best to let this paper count for two courses (his course as well as Linguistic Anthropology). The paper is on AAVE and it’s a dialectical translation of AAVE into SE and then an analysis of the musical works.

I also get to fill out my application to Make Aliyah after this summer which is also incredibly exciting. As far as future plans go, I’m looking long term, but sticking to vocalizing the short term which is: finish this semester, go to Israel this summer, finish my fall semester, and make Aliyah and we’ll take it from there.

Mad Cow Disease

My brother bought me Mad Cow Disease….no, for real:

 

(Image Courtesy of giantmicrobes.com)

Does he know me, or what!? Dude…it’s so cool!

Okay, time to get some sleep, my grandparents are coming over today for brunch. G’night all!

~ me

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