A little bit of everything

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A random way to start off this entry, but it will break the ice from being so long at bay from posting. I made this entry over at MySpace and LiveJournal this morning, and thought that it could very well work in the Travel Blog as well (since it deals with language, language barriers, accents, etc.). So this is a small lesson in life with regards to words in Southern American English that differ from standard American English. In other words: see how the South bastardizes American English even further.

To me the Southern dialect is much more laid back, sloppy, and abrasive than standard American English. It allows for more mistakes with words and often a lack of care as well. I suppose this might be why Southerners have a reputation partly for being hillbillies and rednecks, other than the fact that they can do some extremely stupid things that embarrass themselves. :P In Southern accents it doesn't matter if your phrases blend, or if you push syllables together to form one big blur of a nonsensical word. Often anything ending in "-ing" becomes "-in", with the first syllable of the word exaggerated into a drawl. Such as my standard term of "darlin'"-- Saying "darling" is quite awkward for me because my entire life I've heard it pronounced as "darlin'", so the remembering where to place the stress and to enunciate the g sound feels too weird. I place a heavy stress on the "dar-" part and quickly get the "-lin" end there to finish the word. Lately I’ve switched to using “love” when I want to show endearment to people because.. well, not so sure, but it sounds a bit more caring than darlin’ to begin with. That and much more understandable.

The Southern dialect differs depending on what state of the South you are in at the time as well. For North Carolina the accent isn't terribly strong; you can often times understand most North Carolinians very well and can figure out what they mean with little problem. But say you go to certain parts of Georgia, or even North Carolina for that matter-- there are times when I myself wonder what the hell the people are saying, and I've had a Southern accent my entire life (or been around people who have one). There are different words in different places, different meanings for the same word you may use in your own state, and the accent gets thicker the further South you go. Consonants become sharper, more clearly defined, and consonants followed by vowels are ten times as bad. Though the "ac-" sound still perplexes me greatly. At times it sounds more like a "ash-" sound, and I have been confused several times by my relatives saying "Actually" and me mistaking them for saying my name. (If you're really curious to hear what I sound like with a southern accent let me know :P I'd love to speak it for you guys sometime).

Which is also why I hated my name for so many years, haha. When people actually do say my name and it is done in a Southern accent it is usually extremely abrasive, grating, and mind-numbing. The A sound is very hard, the sh is exaggerated beyond reason, and the ley part is again very hard sounding. Rather than two syllables like my name should have it becomes three, which each part equally as elongated, drawn out, and made as ridiculous as possible. If I could type it out.. I suppose the spelling would be something along the lines of “Aeh-shuh-lee” in Southernese. I’m more prone to respond to nicknames when I am back home like “sweet pea”, “shug”, “baby girl”, and so on since one, there are so many people named Ashley in America, and two I never know whether or not they are saying “Ashley” or “actually”. "Nosha" sounds a lot more eloquent in a Southern accent so it wasn't so bad being called that, and that was one reason why I preferred that name over my own. This was also the reason I detested being called "Ash" (though now I actually really love that nickname!) because it sounded terrible in a Southern accent, very harsh and unfriendly. To be honest, I really love how my non-American friends say my name. It's not quite as harsh sounding for some reason, and honestly.. sounds more caring and respectful, if you can understand that? Not sure quite how to describe what I mean, but again, if you want to hear the difference ask me sometime and I’ll speak a little Southern for you.

Some cases in word differences in the South:

Over there = O'er yonder. Now, in the South when someone uses "o'er yonder" it could mean several things. The subject which you are talking about might be several meters away, across the valley and over the hills, or right beside you. Doesn't matter; it's always o'er yonder to describe distance, or you might hear "it ain't real far" if you want to put something into the concept of kilometers distance.

You guys = Y'all. Ah, this one is really popular I've found across boundaries. I hear a lot of people say it nowadays that aren't Southern, but in the South you hear very many different ways. Again, accents vary by State and the further south you go the more exaggerated and blended things become. Sometimes you wouldn't even recognize this as "y'all".

Ain't. I.. don't really know how to describe this. It can mean several things, actually, depending on the context you place it in. It ranges from "I'm not" to "its not" to just plain "not". How do non-Southerners use it?

I guess = I (pronounced 'ah') reckon. This one is pretty straight-forward. Shrug your shoulders, quirk your lips, and pretend like you don't know a damn bit of anything.

Probably = Might could/should. Heard in instances such as "I might could come over tonight". If you have any doubts but are fairly certain you can do something this is the phrase you would use.

God damnit = Con smappit or Dag nabbit. Haha, no explanation needed.

Shouldacoulda. ...You have me on that one too. We just say it.

Since I have had questions about it this week, I did want to make a small mention about the September 11th, 2001 one terrorist attacks here in America. I’m not too sure what the international view is on the events, but it did directly impact me; my friend Jamie was coming to visit a friend of mine in Pennsylvania the day of the attacks, and his plane was the one that crashed into the field. I didn’t learn about it until much later in the day from my friend Lina, who was positively devastated and still blames herself that she was the reason he died. I remember witnessing the fall of the Twin Towers on television, watching as the second plane crashed, being sent home early from school because there was too much at risk to be in public places that day. I do think that the event was very much a wake-up call to several Americans, though; it united national spirit and made everyone want to bond together in a way that hadn’t been seen in years. I wish that had lasted.

For the East Coast here it is Hurricane season as well; it doesn’t directly affect me much anymore now that I live in Maryland, but I have been in the middle of category one through four hurricanes for the earlier parts of my life. I’m.. not particularly fond of them to be honest, and for several reasons. The first and perhaps very childish of these is that I am still scared of thunder and lightning, haha. But the second is the memories I place with hurricanes and the damage that I have seen and personally witnessed being caused because of them. I think the two worst storms that I have been through in my lifetime were Hurricane Fran in 1996, and Hurricane Floyd in 1999. With Hurricane Fran is was the timing that made the storm so terrible. A few days short of the Hurricane making landfall my Aunt Darlene passed away of a rare genetic lung condition that runs in my family. I remember sitting on the funeral parlor floor with her two children as the storm waged on outside, watching the water creep up ever so slowly from beneath the door to begin and dampen the carpet and flood the uneven parts of the room. When we returned South for the burial chaos had already erupted: the power was out in a majority of counties; people were unable to use their well water because of the risk for contamination; some houses were left untouched while others were completely demolished by firestorms, tornadoes, and heavy hail that had battered the shoddy frame work to pieces. Most of the brick dwellings were left unscathed but wooden houses and trailers were mostly gone.

For Hurricane Floyd I know the North Carolina coastline took a severe beating. It was a category four storm (on a scale of one to five) where Fran was only a category three; I remember going with my father to check on the state of my Grandmother’s house (since she was with my Aunt and Uncle during the storm) and having to drive out of our way in to the country side because the main highway for our state was completely unusable at a certain interval. Our main river, the Neuse, had flooded within several miles of her actual banks. I remember looking out the window and seeing swaps that had flooded over, the water standing at even with bridged roads, flowing across the tar and making it very difficult and scary to drive. I consider myself lucky that Maryland isn’t so harshly hit by the effects of hurricanes, but I always worry for my friends and relatives back home when storms hit. Not to mention that a lot of the storms we’ve had this year have been incredibly severe.

But in current things I am once more on the search for a steady job. I think I might have a lead into getting an administrative assistant position again, but really, it’s been very hard to get and keep a job since I’ve been back in America. It seems every job I choose is only temporary and to satisfy a (very) short term need. Currently I am working at a bakery whose goal is to mass produce wedding cakes, and I thought that I would be very secure in my position as the kitchen manager while I was there. Come to find out they only hired me because I speak Spanish, and they wanted to see if their kitchen staff had been the ones vandalizing property. Even still, by the end of September I will have reached my goal and can purchase my ticket for January! All that remains now is settling on a date for the first part of that month and the rest of the holiday season will be spent saving up for while I am there. I’d definitely like to be there for the anime convention in Uppsala, though!

If the job market doesn’t improve here in Silver Spring and Washington D.C., though, then I have considered very strongly moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to move in with my best friend. Keely is a very unique person, and is quite possibly my “soul mate” as I like to call her. Most of the experiences we have in our lives are eerily similar to the other person’s own, to a point where it could be called uncanny and.. strange. We are also very much alike; Keely is a more outspoken, louder, and outgoing version of me, with a Philadelphia accent and the energy to match. It’s funny how close we are since normally we don’t see each other any more than once a year. But this fall we’re making plans to do as much as we can together, even if I don’t move up to Philly and take a job. I’ll get to see her at the Anime convention in a few short weeks, and I’ll be visiting her at least one weekend a month up until I leave for Sweden. She has been such a pillar of strength and love for me in the time I’ve been here, and honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without her. I know it’s cheesy for me to say it, but.. She’s pretty much some of the only family I’ve got here. I definitely love and adore her a lot.

More recently was a holiday here in America, and I was able to return to North Carolina for a few days with friends and family. Labor Day is a day celebrated for all those who work and have worked to bring America to the level it is at. Ironically enough, most laborers end up working on Labor Day (especially in those industries that require much more time, effort, and physical work.. which is wrong in my opinion, but). It was the first time since I’ve been able to see my extended family since I’ve come back from Japan; and I’m honestly very grateful for the opportunity. I think the reason I love children so much is because in my family I am the youngest grandchild, so I am often grouped in with my second cousins and expected to take care of them. The oldest in that age category is Twenty, and the youngest is my second cousin Kayla’s newborn son who is six months old right now. We carried on and played just like normally would, hooking up the karaoke machine my dad bought for the holidays to sing Disney songs to the baby, and stealing bits and pieces of the barbeque dinner well before it was prepared. I don’t like to say that I play favorites.. but in a way I do, because I’m very good friends with two of my second cousins, both of which are about thirteen years old. They don’t have a very strong mentor within their family so I like to play the role of “mother” to them when and if I can. They ask me questions about relationships, boys, high school, college, makeup tips and so on. It felt extremely good to come into the kitchen and almost be tackled in a hug by Elizabeth, who only screamed “Dear God, you’re back!! I missed you so much!”.

Also: does anyone have the problem of blurring languages together? I find it funny that every time I want to speak Japanese I end up thinking in Spanish instead, and vice versa. When I’ve been at work these past two weeks there have been several times when I’ll speak in Japanese rather than Spanish to the ladies that work there. Conversely, I’ve also started speaking in Swedish when I mean to speak in English to friends and family. It makes things interesting to say the least. :P

According to my sister, my dad and step mom moved to Fayetteville today. It's a bit sad to know that when I come back to North Carolina from here on out I won't be able to go "home"; I'll stay with friends, possibly with my sister, or snag a hotel room. I think the biggest part of it all is that I won't be able to see my dog anymore. That really is the only part about it that kills me. Fayetteville is too far for me to travel on the weekends.

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Photos

Keisuke
Most recent picture I have of myself from a few days ago, taken with.. my apparently really terrible webcam. :P You think this look works?

No, no, no!
When it was my turn to take care of baby Aaron he kept trying to crawl across the table. The only way I could make him stop was by saying "No, no, no, you'll die, baby!" in a panic. He only laughed, haha.

Llamas?
Nothing wrong with them, you know.

My girls
Heaven Lane on the left, and Elizabeth on the right :)

Pandas!
On the way to the National Zoo here in DC you see all these panda statues, painted up differently to reflect different parts of cultural DC. There is something very similarly done on the campus of the University of Maryland, where they paint and decorate Terrapins (a large turtle) as a reflection of their mascot.

Double Trouble
April and Kerri up to no good as usual

CHASS
Or the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State. Everything at NC State.. is made of brick. -Everything-.

Mr Wulf
North Carolina universities have some very interesting mascots. Ours is "the NC State Wolfpack", characterized by this one cartoon wolf. Others include "the UNC Tarheels" (a ram), "the Duke Blue Devils", and "the Wake Forest Demon Deacons". I think I like the Demon Deacons the best just because it's so random.

Downtown
Picture taken from Glenwood Avenue of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina

Japanese feast
My sister wanted Japanese food for her birthday dinner, so I went all out one evening by making some of my favorite things from Japan :D

Beulaville, North Carolina
My hometown. It has a population of maybe 3,000 people, and consists of two grocery stores, three fast food restaurants, three gas stations, and two intersections. It's small, it's charming, and I love it.

The Kids
The part of my biological family that I remain the closest to. These are all my second cousins, ranging in age from twenty to six months.

Southern Gourmet
Outside cooking a Southern favorite called "chicken and dumplings" -- slow cooked chicken that eventually comes off the bone, served with flat, wide pastry noodles in a stew fashion.

Welcome to the South
We have good food, and a hell of a lot of it.

Omoidasu
To remember. In order to commemorate my experiences in Japan I chose to do this when my sister and I went to this pottery store. There are four sides to the bowl: one side has a picture for Hanami and my birthday, one for Japan, one for Sweden, and one of blue butterflies.

Woodley Park Zoo
Pandas are almost as awesome as orcas, walruses, and seals. And penguins too, but this was too cute.

Hello, Cupcake!
My friend Sarah goes by the nickname "Cupcake", and I go by the nickname "Creampuff". Every time I see something with Cupcakes on it I take a picture of it for her. I also bought this book and it was really interesting! I'll have to bring it with me when I go to Sweden. Too damn cute some of the things.. I mean, shark cupcakes!

Karl-Ojiisan
A familiar face from Kansai Gaidai! Oddly enough his name in katakana is "Kaaru" and he actually does look like the mascot for "Kaaru" chips in Japan.

We aren't the smartest
NC State kids are obviously not very smart, so we have a reminder to make sure we know where we are.

Doc Holiday
My dog :D He's five years old this year and every bit still my baby. We named him after the character in the movie "Tombstone" who was a portrayal of the historical cowboy Doc Holiday. I only see him once a month anymore because I can't have him here in DC. Really, I didn't imagine how much I would miss him.

You come here often?
Haha, I love having artists for friends. This is a picture Kerri drew of me getting drunk with a moose. I don't know why, but I love it :D

Keely
My partner in crime, my soul mate, my best friend. Keely is a one of a kind person and I feel very fortunate to have her in my life.