Lauren Learns Luganda

I am not a morning person. As a night owl, I often get into a working groove between about 7 and 11 PM. Getting out of bed is usually my least favorite part of any day. So it's a sign of my love of Luganda and prioritization of language learning that I am voluntarily meeting with my language mentor twice a week at 8 AM, from my office on campus. Which means that I need to be showered and dressed and (welp!) a functional human being well before then so I can get there on time. I wish I were one of those people for whom an early start is no big deal and the beginning of a glorious day, but alas, for me it's just painful. While I could have moved my schedule around in order to have a later start, I realized that my Luganda meeting is one of the only things I'll willingly put myself through this for. So I've gotta take advantage of that kind of motivation when I can! In any case, our meetings started this week, on Monday and Wednesday. It was nice to get back into thing

Past I had planned to do some blogging about my Luganda learning experience while I was in Uganda this summer -- after all, I really enjoyed the opportunity to reflect and take stock of my progress when I blogged last summer. But somehow time just whizzed on by, and the next thing I knew, I was on a plane bound for the United States. However, there are a couple highlights from the summer I want to capture here, partially as reflection and partially to set the stage for my language learning this year. Deepening my relationship with Simon I was unsure if my language school would place me with the teacher I worked with last year or with another teacher, and I was sort of surprised to find myself matched with Simon. Simon is my language mentor during the school year, via Skype, but not someone I'd ever worked with in person. I wasn't quite sure how it would go, but he did a great job of checking in with me about my  goals for the summer and designing our time together based o