Comments | nephthys224: the prodigal LJ-er returns

nephthys224

the prodigal LJ-er returns

May 15, 2007 12:25

It feels a bit strange to be posting again after having neglected this journal for more than two years... I hadn't planned on ever returning to LJ, but my thesis advisor recommended that I start keeping a journal to get back into the habit of writing in English, so here I am again. I suppose I could've just started from scratch somewhere else, but ( Read more... )

Comments 27

silly_narziss May 15 2007, 18:15:26 UTC

hi :-) good to see you still alive and happy. and i still promised you a book i just realized ;-) and if you forgot who i am, i sat next to you during a xmas dinner party in rdam once.

funny how you mention the translation trap, i just finished translating an english website to dutch, and it wasn't so much about understanding the foreign language as i had expected, but rather my talent in my native dutch that saved me :-)

hope to see more entries :)

nephthys224 May 15 2007, 22:51:37 UTC

Hey, of course I remember you! :) And I actually almost bought that book the other day, too, but Rick has taken issue with the fact that the bookstore shows up more often than the grocery store on our checking account statements, so I managed to restrain myself. At least until I get my tax return, hehe...

When did you change your LJ name, btw?

silly_narziss May 15 2007, 22:53:52 UTC

i changed it when i was in a somewhat complicated stage of a love affair that was reading over my shoulder ;-)

ghewgill May 15 2007, 20:56:06 UTC

Wow, there's a name I haven't seen in a while! Glad to hear you're getting settled in comfortably. For what it's worth, your english reads just fine in your post and I didn't see any dutch-isms jump out at me! :)

Amy and I have been living in New Zealand for just over a year, got married six weeks ago, and are really enjoying it here. Settling into a new country is easy; settling into a new country and learning a new language is certainly an order of magnitude more difficult. My friend goulo moved to Poland a year and a half ago and it's interesting to hear about his experiences too.

nephthys224 May 15 2007, 23:26:12 UTC

Wow, congratulations on getting married! :) And it's great to hear you're enjoying life in a new country. What made you guys decide to move to New Zealand, if I may ask?

And it's good to know my English sounds reasonably normal... I'm paranoid about all the prepositions since a lot of them are used very differently in Dutch. And in British English, for that matter-- something I never realized until I moved here and started getting bombarded by British media. So now I find myself saying things like, "Oh, I was planning on doing that in the weekend. I mean, at the weekend. No, on. On the weekend. This weekend. Oh hell..."

ghewgill May 16 2007, 00:01:39 UTC

Thanks! And I forgot to link to our wedding pictures. Amy (amyrtw) travelled around the world a few years ago (see http://amyrtw.com) and spent three months in New Zealand during her trip. She loved it so much that she was determined to return. After returning to the US, she asked me to come with her to NZ. After waffling for a bit (inertia is strong), I decided that I wanted to move too, so we sold all our stuff and our house, applied for residency in NZ, and moved here in March of last year ( ... )

linearb May 16 2007, 01:07:30 UTC

Hoi! Wee! Welkom terug!

I've been wondering what happened to you, and how you were doing.

The change sounds good. I came to Austin to finish my degree in Chinese -- then made a 90 degree turn -- several times.

I moved closer downtown. I now live a few blocks west of 6th and Lamar, and spend a lot of time walking around the neighborhood looking at the old houses.

UT used to have an internationally known translation studies scholar from the Nederlands -- Andre LevFevre. I still have his translation book lists -- if you're interested.

Stay in touch!

sparkofcreation May 16 2007, 04:19:43 UTC

Welcome back, and welcome to the ranks of fellow translators! Seriously, good to hear things are getting better for you.

sparkofcreation May 16 2007, 04:20:24 UTC

PS I moved to Albuquerque. Now working as interpreter at the federal court. Have a sleep disorder. Just got a puppy. I think that's all the important stuff.

flightysprite May 24 2007, 02:08:01 UTC

SISSY!!!!!! *HUG* i'm so glad to hear things are going better!

nephthys224 May 24 2007, 18:34:07 UTC

Hey! I'm really sorry I sort of dropped off the face of the earth... I know it doesn't make any sense, but I was feeling guilty for not keeping in touch better with everyone back home, and at a certain point I couldn't deal with that guilt on top of all my other weird insecurity and self-loathing and homesickness and everything, so I just sort of avoided anything that made me feel worse. This doesn't even come close to being a proper explanation and/or apology, I know, but that's basically what it all boils down to.

How've you been?

flightysprite May 27 2007, 05:31:53 UTC

actually, it makes alot of sense, i've done that a few times. i'm about to fall asleep sitting up at the moment, but i'm going to try e-mailing you tomorrow evening, i'm going to assume the e-mail on your lj info page is the right one. if not, let me know.
goodnight