by Lori Randall | Apr 21, 2022 | Reflections
German prepositions are the bane of my existence as a nonnative speaker. I know the “obvious” prepositions (the ones that function just like their American English counterparts) and the commonly used ones, such as the prepositions used to distinguish between “going...
by Lori Randall | Jan 13, 2022 | Reflections
Those of us who grew up in the United States learned about it in school. Those of us who live in the United States sometimes refer to it in conversation and occasionally see and hear snippets of it on television, the radio, newspapers, or the internet. References to...
by Lori Randall | Oct 21, 2021 | Reflections
There was a locust tree in the back yard of my parents’ house. Its spindly, feathery leaves and smooth, compact trunk seemed out of place among the rough, sprawling trunks and sturdy, angular leaves of Kansas’ cottonwoods. Moreover, something about the tree’s color...
by Lori Randall | Jul 29, 2021 | Reflections
In 1993, on a journey to Moscow, Russia, I encountered iconography in a spectacular way. Icons seemed to be everywhere. To my 19-year-old eyes, this ubiquitous spiritual art, like everything else in the former (but only just former) Soviet Union seemed mysterious,...
by Lori Randall | May 6, 2021 | Reflections
Occasionally, one of my students would accidentally call me “Mom.” This would not have been unusual, if I’d taught Kindergarten or first or second grade. But I did not teach at an elementary school. I taught at a university. Inevitably, the student who had...