Social damsel flies

The week seemed to whiz by. Classes have been mostly sociolinguistic theory with a dash of language program planning towards the end. BTW, there is only one class, per se. The course is VMS (vernacular media specialist) training. It just has a bunch of sections of related materials, like most courses. Much lecturing, so far. Rob gets to do most of the technical, hands-on stuff in 3 weeks. I'm only doing the program planning portion with him. It's all been a form of review so far. I did a course in sociolinguistics in the summer of 1999 (as Rob did last fall) and a course in language program planning in spring 2001.

(from the JAARS website) "The purpose of the VMS training is to develop personnel especially equipped to produce high quality vernacular media tools for use in language communities. Specialized training is essential for recording with nonreaders in village settings for the production of vernacular audio cassettes, radio programs, and audio sound tracks for video."

Here's a quiz: Who can tell me what JAARS stands for?

We've had a very social week. Class is from 8:30AM to 4:30PM but, after that ...
Wednesday: Lenten soup supper at Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in Weddington (where Rob got bit by a damsel fly)
Thursday: dinner with the Hydes and a bunch of people from JAARS/VMS department
Friday: potluck with the VMS department and all the students and their families, followed by a get together with a small group that we were invited to by a next-door neighbor.
Saturday morning: I jammed (playing bongos) in the attic of the Crossroads coffeehouse with some local jazz musicians while Rob worked on his VMS project (due Monday)

Tonight, we'll either drag some classmates back to the coffeehouse to hear a local artist or go over to a classmate's place for some birthday gaming (Outburst, Cranium, etc.). I'm trying to whine Rob into going for a free square dancing lesson at Spirit of Joy tomorrow afternoon.

In other news; I'm trying to figure out possible activities for myself while Rob takes the last 10 weeks without me. Looking at local seminaries for Greek and Hebrew courses, etc.