My name is Daniel Pfaff and welcome to this blog! (If you are confused about the title of the blog, or the first line, go read the P.S. section at the end of this post.)
Here is my bland college introduction: I am a Junior majoring in Biochemistry and Linguistics. I am from Kansas City, MO. And my favorite style of potatoes is some nice thin french fries (Think McDonalds but like better).
Me halfway into an eight hour hike in Northern Italy: Personal Photo.
For a little more in-depth about my studies, I would eventually like to go on to study neurolinguistics in grad school (which is the study of how the brain processes language), but that is very long term. In the near term, I love learning languages! Besides random little phrases in various languages, I have studied Latin for many years, I speak Italian at an almost conversational level, and I am just starting to learn ASL!
Adjacent to my love for languages, and a drive for me to learn other languages, is my love of traveling. I was lucky enough that my family could travel around the United States as a kid, but my focus in the last few years has been international. I have done a bit of traveling throughout the Caribbean, and I studied abroad at OU in Arezzo, Italy last spring semester. I had the amazing opportunity to work as an English teaching assistant for an Italian high school, and my students probably taught me about their slang, hobbies, and customs just as much as I taught them (I even taught them a bit about Ultimate frisbee, which I play here at OU!). My love for travel is actually the inspiration for my blog name! (Scroll down to the bottom of this post for further explanation). I traveled throughout a lot of Europe while I was there, and I will continue my world traveling throughout my life!!
Heres some more fun facts about me:
- I have visited 12 countries
- I collect national flags at the country's capital and I have seven flags so far.
- I have driven a steamboat down the Mississippi River.
- I biked 50 miles in one day (but I am not a biking guy at all. It was rough.)
- I can recite 100 digits of pi.
- I am the 2011 State Fence Painting Champion in Missouri.
Me overlooking the Florence skyline last spring: Personal Photo.
P.S. - Vagabond (noun) [vag·a·bond | ˈva-gə-ˌbänd] : a person who wanders from place to place without a fixed home; one leading a vagabond life. (Merriam Webster)
Yes, I am going all in on vagabond puns. Go big or go home right? Actually vagabonds don't have a home haha jokes.
P.P.S. - I will admit I did kind of maybe steal the word Vagabuddies from a travel YouTube channel called the VagaBrothers, so go check them out. They did a great 6 month travel around the world challenge video series a few years ago, so I highly recommend that!
Hi Daniel! It is always so great to meet linguistic majors in this class... and a big YES to neurolinguistics. Such an amazing field! I'll make a book recommendation too: Terence Deacon's Symbolic Species. Yes, it's old. But it's still a really good book about such an important topic; for sure it was one of the most eye-opening books I read in grad school.
ReplyDeleteAnd yay for Latin! That's my own academic background (I originally came to OU in the Classics dept. a gazillion years ago). Before there were the Mindset cats there were... Latin LOLCats. :-)
And doing ASL will be such a mind-expanding experience for linguistics; what a great learning adventure!
The whole topic of language and linguistics is huge in India (they had serious linguistics back in ancient times; even the alphabet is arranged on phonological principles). If you're curious to learn more about that, Pāṇini is the place to start.
The images weren't coming through in your post; that happens sometimes, especially if you try to copy and paste. If you download the image you want to use, and then use the upload option in Blogger to put the image in the post, that will work... and since people will be visiting your Intro all semester long, you can edit the post to include the images. (That's a great thing about blog posts: they can always be edited... unlike the printed page!)
Hey P.faff, (Please put tons of emphasis of the P)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like Arezzo was a phenomenal time. If I’m not mistaken, you also did some teaching of a certain sport while you were there? I bet it was a great experience and I look forward to reading more about your time there. I really hope your ASL classes go well, it's such a great skill to have because of the growing popularity. I hope that you enjoy the rest of your semester and ill see you at praccy.
Best,
Bluth.
Hey Daniel! It"s always cool to meet someone who also studied abroad in Arezzo. I was studying finance and accounting last semester and had a great time. I probably know the exact school you taught at if its the one next to the monastery. Well good luck with the rest of your semester and the 100 digits of pi is very impressive!
ReplyDeleteHello, Daniel!
ReplyDeleteI think your mix of biochemistry and linguistics is super interesting. As someone who very much favors humanities over STEM, it is always impressive to see someone who can handle both sides of the scale. I plan on studying in Arezzo over the summer, so it was nice to hear a bit about your experience! I too studied abroad last spring, but I was in the UK. I look forward to reading more from you this semester!
Hello Daniel,
ReplyDeleteThat's cool that you studied Latin; I studied Latin for five years in elementary/middle school. I barely remember the verb endings for the present tense conjugation no, but oh well. My family is from Caravilla, a small town in East Tuscany, and I love going back home and visiting my relatives. I can recite 10 digits of pi, is that still impressive?
Hi Daniel!
ReplyDeleteI think it's so cool that you have such an interest in different languages. I wish I had the patience to try and learn other languages (or the first 100 digits of pi)! It's also amazing that you have gotten to travel so much. What is the next place you hope to visit? Also I am very curious about how one becomes a fence painting champion. Is an artistic or speed based type of competition involved? Good luck with the rest of your semester!
Hello Daniel,
ReplyDeleteWow biochem + linguistics double major sounds really cool! I don't think I have ever met anyone that combined those two before. I also enjoy traveling too but I haven't been to nearly as many different countries as you have. Since you're a veteran in the game, how do you handle jet lag? I also love all the fun facts about you. 100 digits of pi is super impressive and you biking 50 miles but not being a biking guy made me laugh! It was fun reading a little about you, good luck with the semester!
Daniel, linguistics sounds like a fascinating area of study– I also study latin here at OU. I hope you took Mr. Hansen; he's so cool! I'm glad you've had an opportunity to travel throughout college; it's so important to have those types of experiences while they can affect your life moving forward. And also, you can't just drop the fact that you're a fence painting champion without giving a bit more description! Here's hoping you incorporate that into a story somehow.
ReplyDeleteHowdy again Daniel,
ReplyDeleteI didn't know fence painting championships were a thing, but I am pretty excited to know now. Linguistics is a super cool area of study; I haven't done much academically there, but I do research natural language processing as a reference for coding. I'm glad you've done some riding, Oklahoma has some rough road cycling, but some really good mountain biking iffin you're ever interested.
Pfaff,
ReplyDeleteVisiting that many countries is incredible, traveling is something I'm extremely passionate about so you'll have to give me your takes on where you think I should go. Also, state fence painting championship? What? You need to explain that. Also, why 100 digits of pi? Did you have to do that for a competition of some sort or was that just for fun? Regardless, that's impressive. I'll see ya around!
Dylan
Hello Mr. Vagablond!
ReplyDeleteI thought you're usage of the word was well utilized and I learned a new word today so thanks for sharing the information. I've always wanted to travel to other countries and hopefully I'll be able to fulfill that within the near future. I think it's awesome that you know Italian and it's actually on my list of languages that I most definitively want to learn. I'm honestly not sure what to say about how you can single out 100 digits of pi...that's too many numbers! Thank you for sharing a little bit about yourself!
Hi Daniel!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you made a great choice for a major because it is very evident that you're very passionate about it. On the topic of traveling, I also have had the opportunity to visit 12 different countries, but I try to get unique keychains from each instead of flags. I understand the struggles of being a biochem major with the aspiration to attend grad school after. Good luck with the semester!
Hey Daniel! I am super jealous that you have gotten to study abroad and go to so many different places around the world. While I have traveled a lot around the United States, I have never gotten the chance to leave the county. I am planning on taking a trip to Europe this summer after I graduate with some buddies of mine though. Best of luck this semester!
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel,
ReplyDeleteIt was an unusual experience to read the post script so early in an introduction. For thin fries, I like shoestring fries with garlic and parmesan with ranch. In general, I like cheese bacon and chives on thicker-than-McDonalds fries with ranch and ketchup. I think linguistics is pretty cool in general, but I’m not a fan of learning languages in the traditional way. I don’t know if I don’t like it because I’m bad at it, but that may be possible.
Hey Daniel! It sounds like you thought out your studies really well. At first, I thought the Biochemistry and Linguistics were pretty separate areas, but your explanation makes sense. I am glad you are pursuing something you are passionate about, and that you have been able to take advantage of the study abroad opportunities at OU. I did honors at Oxford the summer after my freshman year, but since then have stayed stateside - maybe you'll inspire me to travel more.
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel! First off, one of the things that definitely caught my eye was, in fact, the play on words of the title of your website. "Vaga-blond," who could've thought of that! Anyways, I'm very much intrigued by your path and the majors you've chosen. Biochemistry AND linguistics? What made you ever come up with such a combination? Personally, I'm a microbiology major and taking biochemistry was one of the most gut-wrenching experiences of my college career and I can't even begin to imagine the mindset of someone majoring in that alongside another major. I'll give you props on that.
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel,
ReplyDeleteIt is really cool how adept you are at learning different languages. I wish that I could speak another language other than English fluently. It is really interesting to study the language side of the brain, I cannot imagine all the inner-workings that go on in our brains just for us to be able to communicate in the way that we do.
Hi Daniel! It is great to meet you (even if we are approaching the end of the semester)! As many people have said, I am amazed by the number of languages you can speak. Personally, I was born in another country but I cannot speak that language with confidence. The fact that you are trying and succeeding in learning new languages is amazing!
ReplyDelete