Ali’s Life

As I was cleaning out my messy messy work computer, I came across 3 sets of videos that I had been meaning to post on the site for a long time. The videos are pretty cool. One is the video that was made of my Tianjin Seminar trip out to Datong and Inner Mongolia. It is really neat, although quite long for an internet video. I’m in the process of uploading it to YouTube (in 3 separate parts) as well. Another video is from the first GTS paintball outing. It was super fun, and the video is neat because it shows Ethan, the sole survivor on his team, getting taken out by somebody who Dave seems convinced is me. I don’t think it is, but whatever. The third thing is actually two short videos from my J-term Chinese course. I invited my college professor, Qiguang Zhao, to come talk to the class and teach them a little taijiquan. The videos are of the taijiquan. I also uploaded a windows media file version of my wedding video, since I know some people have been unable to watch the quicktime versions.

Whew, that was a lot of uploading. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them. There are more updates I would like to make to the page soon, but it’s time for me to head out for the day. Also, there are some things in the works in my life, that I would love to share, but have to wait a while yet. ^_^ Anyway, have a good day!

Hello. I recently returned from the IALLT (international association for language learning technology) conference at Tufts University in MA. The content of the conference was very good. I just to see what other colleges are doing, and get some new ideas for my own school (as well as a few good ego-strokes when I saw something we were doing better than others). Unfortunately the organization of the conference was terrible. The hotel we were at was supposed to be a mile from campus, but ot was more like 2 1/2 miles, which is a bit much for a pregnant woman to do in late June. And there were a few other things that made me frustrated. But overall it was a good conference. I hope to go to the IALLT conf in 2009 in Georgia.

Anyway, now I’m home and back at work. Ethan and I are getting started on some summer projects. I am now 21 weeks pregnant with my very active little girl. Hmm, I think that’s about it for now, this was a short update. Take care!

I have not been good about updating. Hmm. Well, it is summer now, which means the campus is quiet and big projects can be done. For my center, this means tearing down a wall and expanding the international tv and movie viewing room. It will be pretty awesome once it’s done, and I hope it will encourage students to hang out and watch foreign language tv more. I know that the comfy couches and relaxing space in the Asian Languages Lounge at Carleton got lots of students to sit and watch Japanese and Chinese TV and discuss language, so I guess I’m trying to duplicate that here at Gustavus.

In non-work-land life is going well. We found out a few weeks ago that we are having a GIRL!! There are some more ultra-sound pictures up in the baby part of the page, and the 16 week ultra-sound video is available on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d25WWUneoY

We are thrilled to be having a little girl. We are still doing the room in blues and greens with a dinosaur theme. It will be so cute. We have a name picked out, but you’ll have to ask me in person, because I’m not sharing it with teh internets yet.

At the end of May Ethan and I took a nice, long, and action-packed vacation. First we flew out to L.A. for the Star Wars Celebration IV convention, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars film. It was pretty awesome. There were something like 40,000 - 60,000 people there each day,  but the center was big and there were lots of things to do, so the lines weren’t as bad as at Celebration III. I got to see and meet Carrie Fischer (Princess Leia) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO). And we bought a 2+ foot tall Yoda doll for Baby.

After 4 days of the convention, we took the 5th day in L.A. to visit with my friend Amy, who had been my roommate first term senior year. We went to Rodeo Drive (spelling??) and then to the beach. It was really fun, despite the sunburn and 3 blisters I got. Her family had us over for dinner and then took us to the airport for our red-eye to Boston.

In Boston we spent 3 days hanging out with another good college friend of mine, Josh (http://www.joshourisman.com) and his girlfriend Jessi. That was fun too. We got lots of good food, although it’s hard to be in a good Irish pub in Boston when you can’t have a beer. We left Boston on Friday to head up to New Hampshire for my cousin’s wedding. (I told you it was a long trip.) The wedding was nice, although my favorite part was going swimming at Connie and Nick’s lake home.

Anyway, that’s the vacation. I’ve been back at work for about a week now. We’re actually leaving again soon for a conference, but I’ll tell you about that once I’ve gone. In the mean time, take a look around the baby part of the page, as it is the most up-dated at the moment. Bye.

I haven’t mentioned it here yet, so here’s the official announcement post. I am pregnant! I am due November 5th, that means I am currently 12 weeks pregnant. The morning sickness is finally dropping off and my clothes are getting uncomfortable. The whole thing is very exciting. I already had my first ultra-sound, but it was too early to tell the gender. Hopefully we’ll find that out at my 16 week appointment in 4 weeks.

Ethan and I are very happy. We already have lots of plans for the bedroom that will become the baby’s nursery. My family is also excited, which is really fun to see. I can’t wait for my little baby to grow up and pop out. Right now baby is only about 2 1/2 inches long, but is growing rapidly. November feels like forever away, I can’t wait to meet my little baby!

Once the baby does get here I am planning on taking the full 6 weeks of paid maternity leave offered by Gustavus. That will basically take me from the middle of fall term through to the end. I will start work again in January. And I am still planning on accompanying the Gustavus orchestra to China in January. There are lots of other plans that need to be made between now and November, but we’ve got time. ^_^

I will definitely be updating this blog as the pregnancy progresses! So keep coming back! In the mean time here’s the first ultra sound pic!

Well, the state tournament did not go well for my team. We ended up with a record of 0-2-1, which tied us for last place with Synergy (the team we tied). It was unfortunate and sad, but there’s always next year. Hopefully I will get to see my teammates for a golf and bbq party in May. Now that the hockey season is over my weekends seem suddenly very free. This weekend I am going to Matt & Kelly’s for a little party, but that’s all I have planned. It’s kind of relaxing. It’s good that I have free time this weekend, because I haven’t started on my Chinese homework for Monday yet. heh.

Last week Ethan and I went to Chicago. Ethan was doing a poster session at the EduCause conference and I was tagging along. I had never really been to Chicago before. I have driven through it, and I went to the out-skirts of Chicago for an orchestra trip in 9th grade, but this was my first time downtown. It is a pretty nice city. We had wonderful weather and a beautiful hotel, so it was overall very nice and relaxing. I got to see Yi, my good friend and roommate from college, and that was great. I hadn’t seen her since my wedding. We had a nice steak dinner then got drinks at this place with an amazing view of the city. That was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Now I’m back at work. Gustavus is approaching midterms, so things are a little busier than normal this week and next. The first week of April is spring break for students, but i still am working every day but Friday, which I am taking off so I can have an extra day at MiniCon (Minneapolis’s longest-running sci-fi convention). Last year Ethan and I took spring break off to travel to Japan, but this year we’re doing our main “vacation” after school is out, to go to the Star Wars Celebration IV in L.A. and then to Boston to visit friends, and New Hampshire for my cousin’s wedding. It should be a fun trip. I’m hoping to get a costume sewn for the Star Wars convention, but we’ll see if I have the time, what with work and class (I am still taking Chinese).

Well, that’s enough for now. Have a good weekend!