new blog

okay, kids, this is just an informative entry: I am making a new blog! The address is http://corazonesyhuesos.blogspot.com/ and again, you can sign up using your favorite feed reader or subscribe via email to get new updates. I'm still working on it, so it will get prettier (I hope), but for now, it's there, and there's even an entry. check it out, if you wish. Otherwise, thanks for reading here, it's been fun. Hope you enjoy the new one.
Hearts and bones,
Lindsy

circles and lines

I've been avoiding writing for a bit; not sure where to start. So many endings and beginnings. Hugs and kisses and goodbye's that I don't want to be goodbye's. Hello's, too.

summary? I'll try:

- left Portugal, back to Granada
- finished my thesis/project
- went to Barcelona, visited friends, went to tournament in Roses (north, almost in France)
- back to Granada, presented thesis--and not only passed but got a good grade! yay!
- lots of hanging out with close friends, trying not to let them be goodbyes...- to Madrid, more hanging out with close friends
- flight Madrid-> D.C. , picked up by good friend and taken to hang out in Charlottesville, VA w/ cousins + friends!
- up to D.C. again to see more cousins/friends and stroll through the monuments/museums, etc.
- flight D.C. -> Denver -> Tucson, picked up by Mom and Dad
- back in NM, doing laundry and eating green chili
- being daunted by next steps, and missing people like crazy


it might be time to retire this blog...

nós

my Portuguese dental adventure

So, remember a while back when I was so proud of myself for having avoided (at least temporarily) a big expensive crown-job in the U.S. by going to a dentist in Granada and getting my filling taken out, tooth cleaned, and a new filling put in? Yeah, it wasn't actually that long ago. 'Bout two months. Well, about a month later I was chewin' on some tasty baked-in-a-wood-burning-oven bread from the paderia here and thinking to myself, 'you know, it's been a while, but I still need to be careful with this tooth, to make sure...*crunch* ...uh...don't tell me, DO NOT TELL ME...yup. broke my tooth. awesome.'

Turns out there was so little left of the tooth that it just wasn't very strong. Or something. Anyway, so I broke me tooth, and didn't really know what to do about it, being home alone and car-less at the time. "Well, does it hurt?" my parents asked when I told them about it. "Mm, no...just worried I'll break it more and will really mess things up..." "Well, keep it clean, and see a dentist as soon as you can. Maybe they can do something temporary to make sure it doesn't break more and then you can get it fixed when you get home."

So that's what I did--although the as-soon-as-you-can dentist visit was a little prolonged...due partially to valid delays and partially to what could be chalked up (or down? kind of an odd expression) to laziness.

Today I finally made it; Maria called for me earlier this week and got me an appointment. She ended up having to go to Lisboa, though, so I found me some bus routes and times and headed out to get my poor little toofy looked at. Alfarim-> Santana, no prob. I asked the bus driver to tell me where to get off, and some nice ol' lady also helped out. Then once getting off I asked in a little antique shop where the primary school was (knowing the clinic was next to it). Some other nice ol' lady was just leaving the shop in that direction and the shopkeeper told me to go with her, and thus the senhora became my guide. I explained that I actually wanted to go to the clinic, which I thought she understood (note: this should probably be, "I thought I explained" as I'm the one with limited language skills, not her) but apparently not, because she asked if I was sure it was open... "Yes, I have an appointment at 5 in the afternoon." "Oh, okay, then. There is a front and back entrance, will you be wanting the front one?" Um... yes? Then she asked if the senhora (me) would be here this year. I wasn't quite sure about that question, but I answered that I was just here for two months in the summer. Then we met someone she knew on the street and mentioned that I was going to the school, to which the other replied, its closed... "No, no," I assured them, "I want to go to Clinica do Campo, but I was told its right next to the school, so I thought it would be easier to ask for that..." Comprehension dawned on my guide and her friend waved us good-bye. "Its here, right after the school." Nice. She left me at the entrance, I thanked her three times, said good-bye twice, and then said thank you again. (They are very polite in Portugal. Sometimes the say "excuse me" before hanging up the phone.)

The clinic was probably the cutest dental office I've ever been in. Just think quaint. (Embarrassing confession: it seriously took me like 3 minutes to spell that word...jeez.) The building looked like a little cottage, with front yard and everything, and you had to go down this little curvy steps to the W.C. or the radiography room. There was an old safe-lock underneath the stairs which I had to touch, and there was a distinct basement smell down there. I don't know if that's quaint or not, but anyway, back to the story.

After nearly-successfully giving all my personal information to the receptionist (a term which here means that I didn't have my current address written down anywhere and had to just give the village name and contact info of Maria) I sat down in the waiting room and watched a boring interview of someone who knew the person recently condemned to seven years of prison. Then the assistant came in and started leading me down the anti-handicap accessible staircase for X-rays.... "Um... is it necessary?" "Yes, of course, because..." "Well, I just..." And I managed to convince her that I wasn't going to be a returning patient, had recently had X-rays done, didn't want a cleaning or anything and that I just wanted my broken tooth looked at. She went and talked to the Doctor, who agreed to take a look first, though an X-ray might be necessary later. Fine. Perfect. So I sit down and and she asks how much longer I'll be in Portugal, and if I speak Portuguese or if she should speak English. I'm learning, please speak Portuguese and if I have trouble then maybe you can use some English. So she begins giving me a brief med-history interview, and then we move on to more interesting topics like where I was living in Spain. She'd been to Granada twice to go snowboarding. Niiice.

She takes a look at my tooth, tells me she's just going to do a little something (I though put some temporary filling material?) to the side there, where its broken, and it should be okay until you get home. Awesome, thanks. She does a little grind-grind on the corner of my tooth (okay, I realize that sounds a bit funny, but after that realization, any combination of "grind" and "my tooth" sounded equally amusing, so just deal) and asks how it feels. "Oh, no pain," I say. "No, no, with your tongue, is it okay?" "What? Oh, yes, its fine." "Ok, just be careful with it so it doesn't break any more and you should be okay until you get back to your dentist." That's it? "Okay, that's all, then?" "Yep, see you later." Okey-doke... that took about 3 minutes. On my way out I waited until the receptionist was done talking to someone else to see if I had to pay something (although kind of thought I wouldn't). "That's it." "That's it, no? Okay, thank you (thank you, see you later, bye-bye, thank you)."

I even made it back to the bus stop in time to wait for the same bus I rode in on to do its loop and come back around to go the other direction. Same driver and everything. I was grouchy about not having bought the round trip ticket (which I realized after hearing to woman behind me buy it on the way there, but the driver wouldn't--and couldn't, I'm sure--let me change). But it's not every day that one goes to the dentist without spending any money OR getting at least mild pain inflicted upon oneself. Plus I'd just had some pretty complicated (well, maybe not...) conversations in Portuguese, so I was feeling pretty good about that. (Apparently I'm feeling good about my English, too, from the length of this post...next stop: SPANISH THESIS, GO!) I celebrated by buying some nectarines and little chocolate things for my trip back to Spain on Sunday. But I will not write now about that, because I might start crying again (not for a lack of wanting to go back to Spain, but rather sadness for leaving here). And its tea-time (a frase which here means that Lindsy will happily sip some Aveda deliciousness from a mug, edit some bibliography citations, pet the puppy, and then go to sleep).

love

me n' the Samster

Jano + Sami

deliciousness cooked by our Italian friend who was here for a visit last week


abandoned monastery on the top of a cliff


odd, vaguely arabic-looking sanctuary built to honor the Virgin of Cabo Espichel who saved fishermen by calming a storm from the cliffside. also, she was dressed in white and riding a burro. hmm..

walking in the steps of the ancient ones

I have a sleeping puppy on my lap. That's your cue to go *aawww*

In other news, today I walked above the clouds, above the sea. And I sat in the footprint of a dinosaur to watch the sunset.

--------

And today is a good day to translate the poem from before:


POORNESS, Eduardo Galeano

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who have no time to waste time.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who haven't silence and cannot buy it.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who have legs that have forgotten how to walk,
like the wings of chickens who have forgotten how to fly.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who eat garbage and pay money for it as if it were food.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who have the right to breath shit,
as if it were air, without paying anything for it.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who have no more freedom than to choose between one channel and another on the television.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who live passionate dramas with machines.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who are always many and are always alone.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who know not that they are poor.

-------
translation from the original in Spanish by Lindsy Glick 2010
traducción del original por Lindsy Glick 2010

poem.

Guys this poem is awesome. I'll translate it another day, for those of you who don't follow the español. Its about those who are classified as living in poverty ("developing countries") saying that the reverse is true--"those who call us poor are the poor ones." I'll leave it at that for now.

POBREZAS, Eduardo Galeano

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que no tienen tiempo para perder el tiempo.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que no tienen silencio ni pueden comprarlo.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que tienen piernas que se han olvidado de caminar,
como las alas de las gallinas se han olvidado de volar.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que comen basura y pagan por ella como si fuese comida.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que tienen el derecho de respirar mierda,
como si fuera aire, sin pagar nada por ella.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres
son los que no tienen más libertad de elegir entre uno y otro canal de televisión.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que viven dramas pasionales con las máquinas.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que son siempre muchos y están siempre solos.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que no saben que son pobres.

philosophy of life in Spain vs. America, as narrated by John Dos Passos

These are two small excerpts from one of the books I'm analyzing for my thesis work, "Rosinante to the Road Again." Apart from being amusing, I find the mentality surprisingly similar to things I've been told by Spaniards now, some 80-odd years later: "En América, se vive para trabajar; en España, se trabaja para vivir." (In America, one lives to work; in Spain, one works to live.)

excerpt one:
For a long while the arriero walked along in silence, watching his toes bury themselves in dust at each step. Then he burst out, spacing his words with conviction: "Ca, en América no se hase na' a que trabahar y de'cansar.... Not on your life, in America they don't do anything except work and rest so's to get ready to work again. That's no life for a man. People don't enjoy themselves there. An old sailor from Malaga who used to fish for sponges told me, and he knew. It's not gold people need, but bread and wine and ... life. They don't do anything there except work and rest so they'll be ready to work again...."

excerpt two:
The tough swaggering gesture, the quavering song well sung, the couplet neatly capped, the back turned to the charging bull, the mantilla draped with exquisite provocativeness; all that was lo flamenco. "On this coast, señor inglés, we don't work much, we are dirty and uninstructed, but by God we live. Why the poor people of the towns, d'you know what they do in summer? They hire a fig-tree and go and live under it with their dogs and their cats and their babies, and they eat the figs as they ripen and drink the cold water from the mountains, and man-alive they are happy. They fear no one and they are dependent on no one; when they are young they make love and sing to the guitar, and when they are old they tell stories and bring up their children. You have travelled much; I have travelled little--Madrid, never further,--but I swear to you that nowhere in the world are the women lovelier or is the land richer or the cookery more perfect than in this vega of Almuñecar.... If only the wine weren't quite so heavy...."
"Then you don't want to go to America?"

"¡Hombre por dios! Sing us a song, Paco.... He's a Galician, you see."

The goblin driver grinned and threw back his head.

mothers and children and friends and inbetweens

So there is this change of relationships between mothers and their children, and vice-versa. It starts out with the mother being all mother, the child being all child. There is nourishment, support, love, affection (in what should be normal cases, but perhaps should be labeled "ideal"). As the child grows there are times when the mother can become a friend, talk about things not just as a mother but a peer. But she will have to return to being a mother: disciplining, teaching, sometimes being appreciated, and sometimes, perhaps, even hated. The child is part of this imperfect balance, swaying it along from one side to the other, depending on the situation, maturity, needs, wants.

And gradually the relationship moves more and more toward friendship. The mother will still have those special maternal influences and aspects, and the child will still sometimes seek those, but more and more they will become companions. Intellectually more equal, though each have always and will always learn from the other. the mother will have less a teaching role, learning things from her child, and the child able to bring new things and ideas to the mother. But it is not always easy to know when to be part of which role. The mother sometimes being mother when she should be friend. Sometimes friend when she should be mother. The child sometimes being child when a friend is needed. Sometimes being a friend when it is better to be a child.

And after the more mutual stage has endured--perhaps the longest of the three--and the child has children, too, possibly, the mother will lose certain abilities and age and life will show their toll. The child now is turning into the mother, supporting, loving, caring for her. Instead of being taken from one place to another, getting fed... physical and emotional needs met by the mother, as was the case when birthed, the roles are completely reversed. The child is now caring for the mother, even to the most intimate of details, and simplest of things that can no longer be done independently.

And this is how one of the circles of life returns to meet its proverbial beginning, and continue on.




Happy 89th, Grandma.

mundial, work, play

And I finally took some lightpictures:

This is Tó, who I work with, fun guy. But for some reason was rooting for the Netherlands...so, obviously, we had to fight. ;)

This is the pretty sunset, seen from my bar/restaurant. :D

And these are my boys (María's kids) at the beach.

And this is someone being cooler than me.

estou em Portugal

Commence summer:

Last week I franctically packed up all my belongings of two years, got rid of several bags of clothes + other random stuff, sent a big suitcase (+other random stuff) with my flatmate to store at her house for the summer, and hopped myself on a bus, then plane, to Lisboa. Now I'm staying with my friend and her two kids in a lovely beachside village. Working long hour weekends in the fish restaurant on the beach. And on days off going to the beach (or lagoon--hello, wind surf!!)... and trying to motivate myself to work on my thesis as well... *sigh* It should be a fun two months...

pictures as soon as I take my camera with me somewhere...

numbface

Its a pleasant morning--sunny with scattered clouds and a bit of breeze. Not hot, but also not chilly or raining like a few mornings ago. (?!) So far I've done these things: some stretching, breakfast, email and news catch-up, grocery and fruit shopping (for a friend's bday party tonight and a picnic/goodbye party at my house tomorrow), and, ah, yes, the dentist. Hence the title of today's post. I got a filling removed and a new one put it. This because the old one was just temporary, or something? They wanted to do a crown? But they told me here it wasn't necessary. So I'll take a 55 euro new filling-job over a several hundred (800?) crown-job in the States... Maybe I should go to the eye doctor here, too...

Anyway, so just when I was putting on some music and settling down with a couple of Hemingway books and literary translation articles I decided I'd procrastinate a liiittle longer and write a blog post. [[Queen of Procrastination.]]

This weekend was an adventure to the Netherlands--primarily for Windmill Windup, the largest grass tournament in Europe: 82 teams, three divisions (Open, Women, Mixed). I went with the team from Madrid, Los Quijotes. I have a lot of good friends on that team, and we had a great time. (Despite the wet and chilly weather the first two days that had me cursing the country and wondering why I'd ever left Spain...Did I mention we were camping? We were camping. And there were too many of us in the tent... But I digress...) We ended up 14th (?) out of about 33 teams in our division, which isn't so bad, considering a lot of these teams are going to Worlds in a month.

After the tournament I went into Amsterdam with a friend and went to a delicious thai restaurant he knew of. Mmm. We walked about the center for a bit, then he hopped on a train to go home and I found my way to my gracious hosts' house. (A fun Canadian couple who had been at the tourney. And friends of a friend. Yay, frisbee world!) The next day I wandered about a bit then met a friend who was also in the city for the day. We went to the VanGogh museum (my main complaint: too expensive--and no student discount!). It was a small museum, which is actually kind of nice because you can see everything without rushing or getting overwhelmed. (I have that problem in big museums.) Most of the famous works are not housed there, at least not on permanent collection, which is kind of too bad. In Paris, I suppose? But it was still nice and there were some works by other artists that I also really liked.

Then we went to a delicious bakery! and a huge park. (Dear Spain, please increase the number of these two things in your cities... they are both awesome.) Then more wandering about the center, looking at funny lean-y buildings, pleasant canals, flowers, orange-ness, and bicycles. Lots of them. And it was a lovely day. Luck, for once. The next day I was back on a plane to Madrid and then the usual bus ride home. yippee. Nice trip.

Sunday, June 6, 2010. evening.

The cat that's been hanging out on the roof across the street all afternoon is now trying to catch a bird that just flew in under one of the tiles.

There's a beautiful sunset to the West, and beautiful mountains to the East, still snow-capped and rosé-tinted from the setting sun.

The air is perfect: cool and refreshing after a hot, sunny (beautiful) day, but still warm enough for me to be sitting on our balcony in my shorts and not much of a top...

There are swallows circling overhead and I can almost forget I'm in the middle of a city (albeit in a sweet barrio that's generally quite calm).

The cat continues to wait out its prey: I think there is a nest under there somewhere.

The reds and oranges are turning to purples and greys, and the cat waits patiently, haunched and ready.

So I ran across this picture of my sissie and I in front of a statue somewhere in Sevilla. I touched it up a bit, to make it more fun. melikes.

what are the haps my friends

(it should be noted that I totally stole that line from Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics)

So! Time for an update! Mostly there are exclamation marks there because I actually have something to update. That is, I am no longer in limbo about summer plans, sending my CV to everyone in a hotel, English academy, English summer camp, sport summer camp, etc. whose email address I can find... And I told my landlady that I was leaving the flat in July without having a job/house in another place, so that was slightly stressful... BUT! now I do! Have a job! and place to live! For July and August, anyway. Supposing nothing changes and nothing falls through, I will be going to the little beach town in Portugal just south of Lisbon to live with my Portuguese friend and her two kids (middle school, high school) whom I went to visit this Christmas. And I will be working in her friend's bar/restaurant. On the beach. Oh yeah. I will probably end up doing a lot of the dirty work, especially at first, since my Portuguese is not exactly at a fantastic level... (but most people will speak English or Spanish. Especially the tourists.) But anyway, should be great. Plus I'm totally going to learn Portuguese. That's right, in two months I'll be fluent. *ahem*


Anyway, I bought a Portuguese book+CD when I was there at Christmas and have been listening to it, doing the exercises on my way to work in the mornings. So I can say those basic things like "My name is Lindsy." "She is Japanese" "What is his profession?" and lots of other interesting things... The good news is that comprehension is pretty easy, since its so close to Spanish. Well, written, anyway. Spoken is a bit more difficult.


Um. Let me back up a week or two: I had a college friend come visit! His name is Colin. It was fun! To prove it to you I'll put up a picture. One of the fun things we did was go to a barbecue/picnic/birthday party of my friends. It was on the top of a mesa with a gooorgeous views of the Sierras, olive groves, valleys, etc. I will try to put a video here of my Canarian friends singing...it was a good time.

Um, and here is another picture of the view from our party site:


Yup. sweet. Anyway, now jumping forward: In two weeks I finish at the high school. And I have to turn in the last of my papers/projects for my masters classes. Then in June I shall be working like a squirrel or ant or something on my "thesis" research project plan thing. Then off to Portugal. Then who knows what. Then present my thesis in September. Then proooobably back to the States. (Don't ask me where or what I'll be doing...that's way too far in the future to know, yet...) ;) But let's say "southwest" in general.

Okay...that's enough for now. I feel like I just planned out so many things, I'll try not to get overwhelmed... haha. G'day to ya'll, and hugs and elbow-skin pinching to those who accept them... :D

springtime

finally..! sun and warm weather... wearing sandals and even a skirt one day. and this weekend playing ultimate here in GRANADA!! We hosted the first ever (hat) tournament in Granada, which tourned out to be a great success--people came from all over Spain, some from England, some from Germany, some from Italy. We made up teams mixing up experienced players with those who had never played before, and everyone got a t-shirt with their new team name. (theme: tapas!)
I was worried about it being hectic/crazy and not working out well (our "organizational" meeting on Tuesday was an absolute disaster...haha), but in the end it was a lot of fun, and the weather was great. People loved the tournament and of course being in Granada (especially the English...they were flipping out looking at the snow-covered mountains while playing in 75+ degree weather and plastering themselves with sunblock...hehe). Yay.


Hopefully the team here will pick up more force and maybe people will get excited enough to keep it going even next year when none of us "americans" are here, nor my friend Felipe who has gotten quite hooked on the sport and did most of the organization for the tournament...hope so!

semana santa, and other things

So this week is don't-try-to-go-anywhere-in-the-city-center week, due to about 50 million processions every day (slight exaggeration). I've been mostly avoiding leaving the house at all, except to run by the river. Last night, though, I braved the streets (SO full) to see the gypsy procession. I've been told its really special. So even though I'm not into these things, I thought I'd check it out. After fighting our way through the tiny streets packed with people (drinking, smoking, singing, sitting by fires, etc.) we found a nice place up high by the caves where we could see the road below. Perfect. Except it was really cold. And past my bedtime. :) And we waited a long time and could still not hear the procession approaching. My friend had seen it last year, and I was really excited about the prospect of going home, making some hot chocolate and going to bed... so we decided to give up our prime viewing spot and walk down the street to meet up with the procession where we could, let it pass and then head home. Which is what we did. It was kind of neat to see people singing and clapping as it went by, but there was also a huge population of merely spectators like me, and it was really crowded and not overly impressive. Interesting that they yell "gitano, guapo!!" a lot, though. "gypsy, handsome!" ? I'll let you decide what you will, here's a video. (Pictures didn't come out too well.)

Also, I love the names of the associations responsible for the processions... Like this one for example:HERMANDAD DE NUESTRO PADRE JESUS DE LAS TRES CAIDAS Y NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL ROSARIO EN SUS MISTERIOS DOLOROSOS DE LA MUY ANTIGUA, PONTIFICIA, REAL E ILUSTRE ARCHICOFRADÍA DE NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL ROSARIO. ("Brotherhood of our Father Jesus of the three fallen ones (?) and our Lady of the Rosary in her painful mysteries of the ancient, pontificial (?), royal and ilustrious arch-brotherhood of our Lady of the Rosary." more or less.)

Anyway, it's Semana Santa, and I'm basically hiding at home, trying to get some class work done, revise my resumé, search for and apply for summer employment (in Spain), and relax a bit after another fun tournament. :) This time in Girona (Catalunya), on the beach. I played with a team from Santander (in the north) and had a blast. Lots of friends there, and good play. My team ended up getting 4th of 24 teams, which is pretty good. Teams came from all over Europe--France, Latvia, England, Germany, Belgium and more. I'm going to miss this.

wow. long time no blog.

In the past month and a half I've probably been complaining a lot about the weather, so it's in your, dear reader's, best interest that I've not written. :) Lots of rain, and cold--not compared to some of the places you live--but for Andalucía it broke a bunch of records. The bad kind. Too much precip., lots of floods, ruined crops, etc. But here now, I'm complaining again and we've just hopped into Spring, finally! So the last week has been rather delightful and my mood has been about 7x better. happier? better? yeah. The almond trees are bloomooming, along with some irises and even some tulips I saw the other day... also the weeds on the roof across the street from me--little yellow flowers that look really pollen-y. Allergy-sensative people, beware!)

Last Sunday I went to riding arena/school (horse) to watch my friend compete in her second-ever competition. It was fun, she did well (no faults or anything) and I was outside all day, yay! hay! (is for horses...)

A few weeks ago I went again to the island of Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco, part of Spain) for, yep, an ultimate tournament. I went with my "American team" --about half of which consisted of people from our team last year when we went to a beach tournament in Italy (and won). Did I mention our team name is "Manifest Destiny?" Haha.. Anyway, take 2 was not quite as successful in ranking, but we had a good time and dressed-up really obnoxiously as over-patriotic American cowboys... awesome. We also gave ourselves/each other permanent-marker tattoos.

And now I've just finished my "last" class for my masters program! Which means not-a-whole-lot, unfortunately... Still a test and several final projects/papers to do. And seminars and conferences that start Monday. And then the final final paper--research plan... yick. Anyway. Its Friday, and I'm off to the thrift-store and the rock wall, hurrah!
Happy Spanish Father's Day, Papá, love you! mwah.

some thoughts on translating/interpreting/life/films and their relations

So. The other day in one of my [masters] classes on "text and discourse," the professor was explaining her research project (doctoral, I presume) about analyzing film transcriptions and comparing the conversations with actual, real-time speech patterns. This is done using a huge "corpus" of recorded speech (then transcribed) and comparing word patterns, spacers, pauses, etc. to see how "realistic" these screen interactions actually are. And then there are arguments about different inter-semiotic translations/adaptations (i.e. book to film script, film script to what actually is said in films, film to subtitles or dubbing, etc.). Some researchers say that film conversation is not actually like real-time. Others say it is quite similar, because the actors change the script somewhat in their "interpretations" and tend to use more natural patterns. ETC.

My point is this: I was listening to these different arguments, occasionally adding comments, discussing with the class on this topic and suddenly thought: Oh my goodness. This is the most worthless thing in the world, right now! (A little exaggeration for dramatic purposes.) I suppose that studying these things will eventually mean that the area in general has more credibility which may eventually lead to a higher level of professionality (inventing words) in translation and interpreting in general. Which will have effects also on those people who actually need such services (immigrants, deaf/hard of hearing people, indigenous language speakers in countries with other official languages...) supposing there is a better network and qualification standards and pay and actual interpreters available. But that's kind of a stretch from studying movie transcriptions. And I cringe at the thought of spending hours and hours transcribing the speeches and then comparing them with pre-collected material. Clearly I'm not meant for the research department. And I suppose, also, that this comes more highly contrasted because of the recent earthquake in Haiti and thinking of so many practical needs that are not getting met in a timely or well-organized manner. INCLUDING the need for interpreters, which in such situations is often left to anyone with vaguely bilingual capabilities--quite often children. Not that this hasn't been going on for centuries... but. There is so much room for improvement. But no, I'm in class talking about which elements impede the realistic qualities of oral interaction in popular films...

On a related and more uplifting (?) note, in another class (Audiovisual/Audio-description) we were talking about the audio-description process of films, in order to make them more accessible to those with poor eyesight/blind people. I'd never watched a movie with audio-description. We watched segments (with our eyes closed) to experience and critique it. On the one hand, its an excellent step in the right direction--universal access. On the other hand, so much content is lost that I think I personally would prefer to listen to books on tape (or CD, or whatever...). Which is a obviously a dumb statement because If I were blind, I would still want to be able to experience aspects of popular culture (selectively, of course) and be able to talk about the same things as my friends, even if our experiences were different. And it also leaves a lot of room for creative imagination and self-development of characters and settings. It was just a shocking experience to hear everything that happened in the movies with intermittent comments like "Daytime. A tall man, dressed in ___ is walking through a field towards a small house. He is interpreted by __[actor's name]." and know that they cannot possibly describe everything in a few phrases that we take in with our eyes in a few seconds... Both frustrating and incredibly cool.

The "ONCE" (assoc. of "disabled" people in Spain) has done a lot to increase accessibility in the country. (And, interestingly, is largely/almost entirely--okay, I don't know the statistics!--funded by the lottery, tickets of which are sold by people with disabilities (sorry about the un-politically correctness of these terms) in little cabins (?) on the streets. So, simultaneously 1. employing someone who is physically or mentally unable to do many other types of work 2. earning money towards the development of institutions and organizations to help said people be more integrated in society, access proper medical/pschological attention when needed, etc... like. Um, but I still haven't bought a lottery ticket. hmm...

Well, there you are. A nice little introduction to some recent class discussions and my reactions to them. I complain about the lack of practical things that I am doing in my masters (i.e. NOT actually learning to translate/interpret) but occasionally we get through some theory and history to interesting things, and I *am* learning things, so I suppose all is well. :)

Have a great day, and appreciate the physical and mental capacities that you have.

the Sierras, nevadas

So the last...oh, entire month? has been really rainy. Its been rather gross and the other day coming home from work and going to the bank, my pants got wet up to mid thigh. AND I was using an umbrella. Ridiculous. Anyway, rain here generally means snow in the mountains, and then last night it decided to get muy cold . Which meant that in the morning the clouds lifted for a bit, the sun came out, and even this winter-grinch thought it was beautiful. =) Do love the mountains with snow. (Apparently there are 3 meters in parts of the ski slopes!) Um, and then the clouds came back, and it even snowed in the city, though didn't stick, of course.

So yeah, this is the view from my roof.

And then a little zoom zoom.

And then ... well, you can dry your clothes on the roof, and I kind of liked the image. So there you have it.

Anyway, so these are all pretty pictures, but the amount of rain has actually been really bad for most parts of the country... lots of flooding, houses destroyed, people getting trapped, crops ruined, olives falling prematurely off the trees, etc. So for selfish AND non-selfish reasons, it would be nice if it dried up a bit.

Um... and to end on a happy note, I'm drinking some delicious rooibus+orange tea. mmm

year new

hola!
It's been a while since I've written... now I'm not sure where to start. I think I will just summarize my holiday adventures.

I headed out on the 23rd to Madrid on a bus. It was cold and rainy.
Got to the airport with several hours of "koosh" time. Then my flight was delayed, because everything was delayed... bad weather in much of Europe = airports a mess. 2 or 3 of the several gates that my flight was supposed to leave from were right next to the smoking room (i.e. glass box) and I didn't like breathing there. I'll save the smoking rant for another blog post, though. Anyway, got to Lisboa after a very rough fligh, the majority of which I slept through (I took my pillow, of course). [note: travel time with bus + wait + plane is about equal to going all the way in bus or train, but slightly cheaper and supposedly more comfortable.] I was picked up by my Portuguese friend and her youngest (13) son, who I hadn't met. Off to her house in a little pueblo beach town.

Time there = relax and lots of good food. Also on the one day it didn't rain we took a lovely walk along the dunes/forest by the beach. yay!

I also went to a Christmas dinner at her ex-husband's aunt and uncle's house. Without her. yup, a little odd. But then the last 3 days I stayed with him (and their sons) and got to tour Lisboa. It also rained there. I only got really wet twice. I liked walking around Lisboa, took a zillion photos and decided it would have been more fun with a touring buddy. Alternately I could limit all my traveling to visits and ultimate tournaments. Oh, wait, that's already true/what I was doing. :) My point is that while I like cool buildings and famous statues, I tire of the general touristy-ness.

Anyway, after Lisboa, I hopped on a night train (though I didn't pay for a bed...) and slept-ish the 10 hours it took to get back to Madrid (It takes about 4 in a car!) and got in to the station at 9ish am on my birthday. Went to breakfast with my friend, walked around a bit and then went to her work. That night we went out with some other friends (all these are frisbee friends, mind you) to the main plaza to do the New Year's thing, eat 12 grapes, etc. Then we wandered about the city, went in some bars/clubs, ate churros con chocolate and then waited in the cold for the metro to start up again in the morning. Oh, and at one point we were asked if we were from Australia (?) to which we, of course, said, "yes!" And later Kika and I became sisters. So by the end of the night we were sisters from Sydney. =)
Slept till late and then we saw Avatar 3-D (in ORIGINAL VERSION!!! This is impossible in Granada, btw, so that's why its so exciting). Then the next morning I hopped back on the Madrid-Granada bus. Since then I've not been doing too much of anything, and its back to work tomorrow, and a group project for class...
The end! Hope you enjoyed this edition of "un poco de mi vida" and had lovely holidays all! Happy New Year, best wishes, and Spanish besos to all... :)