singing

my favorite song to sing along to while sweeping the floor in the mornings at tattoo zoo is Malaguena Salerosa by Chingon...

I was totally busted today by Cody. I was all practicing rolling my R's (which I literally learned from singing along to this song, not from all the school in Spanish, not from the ... seven percent of my life I've spent in Mexico.) RRRRosa.


I just recently found out this is where it's from:



I want to watch this entire movie. It's effing awesome. And this scene reminds me of the one time when I was living in Colima, Mexico...

which is here you ignorant motherfuckers:
I inadvertently saw a serenade taking place. Some guy wanted to ask for a young lady's hand in marriage.
I was at my friend's host-family's house, and the mother ran into his bedroom where we were all hanging out and made us come outside to watch. There were mariachis, and the girl was all out on her balcony in the middle of the night looking super pretty in a dress and sighing dramatically...so was her mother, come to think of it.

It was totally this scene, with the man being all romantic and sort of creepy, except more outside in the night time and more bad-ass because it happened in like two thousand and three, not nineteen thirty two or whatever.

Just imagine me with all those spectators. That's what it was like.

AWESOME.

a look inside my week

This little thing called 'full-time university' called me up on Sunday and apparently it wants me to like, pay attention to it and do all this work all of a sudden and what's up with that?

There I was, minding my own business during 'reading break' which was honestly less of a break and more of a nice change of routine, but still busy as all get-out, when all of a sudden on Sunday night, BAM. Reality check.


Oh hey there Nova, said my school-work conscience who often takes extended leaves of absence, you should probably read those two ENTIRE NOVELS (in Spanish) by Monday. Oh yeah and BTW you have a presentation due, like where you get up and talk in front of the class. Yeah, um that's on Wednesday.
You had some reading due for class on Monday too, I think you were supposed to be ready to discuss something about a poem?
Right and don't forget about Thursday. You know, you have to hand in your research proposal. But first I guess you should decide what you're going to be writing that paper on and then like, find some sources...yeah, that one's pretty important.

Okay, I thought, it's gonna be a tough week, but ...

Right and also there's that transcription video thing that you're doing for money. Even though you've been working on it all week I think you have another five hours or so of work to do.

I sigh, take a step back, look at the big picture and feel okay. That's alright. If I just buckle down and put my mind to it...

Also...

Huh? There's more?

Uh yeah. I just noticed some new work came up for your Tuesday and Wednesday classes on the online forum. Just a few readings. No biggie. But don't forget that you have to work Monday and Thursday morning before class, and you have that meeting with the professor at 5:30pm after class on Tuesday...make sure you bring some kind of outline for that paper you're supposed to write...ah yeah and that three page assignment for the grammar nazi is due on Thursday. He put the readings that you're supposed to comment on on reserve in the library but it's not there ever for some reason so you'll just have to Google it or something.

Uh...wait...what meeting?

Remember, the one you put off and said you'd get to last week but then you forgot to answer that e-mail. Oh, speaking of e-mails you got another one from the dentist wondering when you're going to make that appointment with the oral surgeon to get your wisdom teeth removed.

Yeah...I don't think it's really a good week fo...

And you have an appointment on Friday to get a two dollar tattoo from your boss? Remember when you said you'd 'take one for the team' and get a two dollar tattoo, which you're totally scared of because the single needle configuration reminds you of a razor blade and it's gonna be all scary and stuff?

Yeah but that's going to be fun, right? I think. And it might heal awesomely and be super cute! You never know.

Right and you just got an e-mail from your other instructor with 75 dense pages to read and summarize by next Tuesday. Don't leave it to the last minute, it's too much reading! Oh, and that one instructor wants to see a full bibliography for that research paper by Thursday even though you don't have class with her again until Tuesday so you need to take those thirty some sources and put them into an MLA format and magically get a paper copy of that to her somehow. And your school friends have booked a study room in the library for Thursday afternoon, don't ditch them or forget because school friends can be very useful people.

...okay if I get four hours sleep each night and live on espresso beans and luck, and maybe if I get myself a time machine I can handle...hmm, wait, study room for what?

Hello?

Study for what?

um...uh...well, Friday, uh...

Come on, just say it.
Study for what?


Okay...(deep breath) youhavethreemidtermsonfridaythatyouhaventstartedstudyingfor.

~fin~

And there was a look into my stupid life right now. School is so lucky I'm super close to convocating because seriously every single day I think about quitting. Can you believe I'm paying like a hundred bucks a day for this torture too? What. The. Hell. Is. Wrong. With. This. Picture?

Anyway, everybody please keep up with the encouragement and presents because it's really keeping me going.

Don't worry, in 56 days it'll all be over and I'll turn back into a human being, with like 300% less complaining.

56 more days!

I have added a countdown to freedom thingy at the top of this blog. Exciting!

My future. Thanks UVic.

A few months ago the boss of the Spanish department at the University handed out a bunch of memos to us all titled "What can I do with a degree in ... languages?" and "Spanish: Opportunities for Students Who Graduate with a Degree in Hispanic Studies"

I thought "Hey, neato! Finally my choice in degree, validated at last!"

And I didn't read them. Just shoved them into my backpack and then pinned them onto my bulletin board underneath a bunch of IPA charts and other crap.

Today, when I was cleaning up my messy office I decided to take down some stuff off the walls as well and came across the handouts again.

And I actually read the "career opportunities" they have listed.

There are five.

1. Office Assistant for the Cuba Tourist Board
2. Flight Attendant (but only if I also have fluent French)
3. Information Clerk for Immigration Canada
4. Interpreter for Immigration Canada
5. Social & Cultural Development Officer for Warkworth Penitentiary

Um.


Yeah.



Awesome.

My dreams have come true.

Thanks UVic.

Oh, and on the back it lists the skills I will have once I graduate with a degree in languages. You know, like "oral and written skills in my language area(s) and in general" and "some degree of skill in translation" and "demonstrated ability to learn another language" and "awareness of role of language in transmitting culture" ...

wow. Totally worth the 50 thousand I paid in tuition, hey?


I think I'm just gonna stay at the tattoo shop forever. Sounds way better than any of those options.

surprise! I'm not as dumb as you think!

girl in my class (to other classmates): blablabla (insert name of girl I know)

me: did you say you know ___

girl: yeah

me: ah, I went on an exchange with her to Mexico

girl: oh, so you must know ____

me: yeah, I know her!

girl (lowers voice in conspiratorial tones): I heard that ___ and her roommate totally punked out and came home early from that exchange...

...and then it hit me that we were gossiping about me.

I wondered if I should tell her we were talking about me now, or should I just keep quiet and see where the conversation was going to lead.

I ended up going "ehh...yeah, that was me"

And now she won't talk to me.

Language classes are full of travel snobs. People always feel the need to clarify that the trip they went on was "definitely not a tourist destination" and they all have a favorite food that "you just can't find here".
The more countries you've visited, the better.

I've decided that even though I've been to 14 states* in Mexico over the past 6-ish years, I'm just going to keep quiet and pretend like I didn't. I like letting people think they're winning the contest, whatever it may be, and then one day, months later, being like "oh, by the way (insert surprise information here)".

I think that's one of the reasons why I decided to get a degree in the first place. So when someone judges me by my appearance and my slangy un-intelligent speech or my random capitalization when I type ... SURPRISE! I'm not as dumb as you think.

Do you ever do this? I wanna hear about it.

*Baja Sur, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Michoacan, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Colima, Veracruz, Puebla, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Morelos, Queretera, and of course the Federal District.

welcome to the bookstore

You know how when it's the first day of class and you're excited to go buy your text books and see what you're gonna be forced to read in excruciating detail for the next three and a half months?

And so you think "hey, maybe I should go to the bookstore and pick up my textbooks, since I'm 45 minutes early for my first class and that's obviously plenty of time. I'll probably have to go sit somewhere and wait for like half an hour afterward because there is no way that a line-up can take more than fifteen minutes."

Well guess what? You're wrong.

Dead wrong.*

*not actually dead.

Because hey, everybody else had the same idea. I'm talking three line-ups worth of people. Not being able to get to your books on the shelf because line-ups are in the way and people are running around not looking where they're going and knocking shit out of your hands.

The line went from the cash registers, down the magazine aisle, around the half-price calendars, doubled back on itself past the people by the magazines, and then kept on going to the back of the bookstore.

I got into line waaaay at the back of the store immediately because the lineup went right past the Spanish section, which was kind of convenient for me. I could shop while I waited. And wait I did. I waited and waited for about five minutes. We didn't move that entire time.

And then I realized that one of my classes wasn't technically in the Spanish section. It was way over there in the L's.

"Damnit" I said out loud, making everybody around me give me that half disapproving half I-don't-care blank-stare look. I stormed over to the Latin section, grabbed my weird religious textbook and the book of poetry (barf and double barf) and went back to the line.

A girl barged past me when I made it back to the Spanish section, snatched up a bunch of books and apparently on the verge of tears exclaimed "Well, it looks like I'm going to be reading five novels this semester. In SPANISH!" and she stormed away. We all had our best blank stares on and I thought to myself that I was glad she wasn't me. Then I double checked that I only had to read three novels IN SPANISH. Yes. *whew*

The girl in front of me asked me if I could hold her place in line because she forgot a book. I stared at her for a good five seconds before I mumbled 'sure', not because I was considering the question exactly, but because I was pissed off at myself for not asking the person behind me to save my place the first time I was in line.

I checked the time on my phone.

She went and came back.

"we didn't move" I said, and we did that 'we're in this together now' camaraderie thing where we laugh and then studiously avoid each others' gaze for the rest of the time we have to stand by each other. Friends by proximity.

I looked at the clock on the wall.

20 minutes of slow shuffling and watching the faces of the people coming into the store and realizing that yes, this is the lineup later I was near the calendars. I was considering buying one with dolphins in it and wondering how many types of mustaches I could draw on them, and if I came out with my own Dolphins with Mustaches calendar would every page have to have a fantastic mustache or could I get away with one of those stupid like two triangles type mustaches on one because I'm not sure I could come up with 12 different styles.

Then I checked the time.

20 minutes after that I was passing the Adbusters and Macleans, and my heart was racing. I felt like I was doing something daring. It was almost my turn!

First class of the term** and I was probably going to be late.

The security fence things kept beeping. They must have had the sensitivity set to 'beep for no reason all the time' mode. I watched the security guards ignore it all, instead looking at the hundred and fifty backpacks left at the front door, making sure every person who left only left with one.
I regretted leaving my big orange bag there, even though I took everything worth anything along with me in my jacket pockets. What if somebody wanted my green umbrella or my used spiral notebook?

The girl I had let cut earlier turned around and sang "We're alllmost theeeere!" and I gave a weak "yaaay" as a response.

When it was finally my turn, when I was the chosen one, and the main line director told me which check out I should go to. I celebrated on the inside. I was gonna make it to class on time after all! All hope was not lost!

The girl was the slowest cashier on the face of the planet. I ran up and was like "whew, lucky me, I have a class starting in five minutes" and she was like "oh, looks like you're taking some interesting classes here"
***scan***
"and hmm... ahh, literature ..."
***scan***
"and oh, look at this. hm. lots of reading to do, huh? so about our return policy ..."

meanwhile I was grabbing a bag, opening it, doing the whole paying thing, throwing books into a bag and nodding and going "mmhmm" in my most frantic 'hurry up' tone. I gladly paid the extremely redonculous textbook prices including $98 dollars for a bunch of photocopies (stupid coursepacks! GRR) and got the hell out of there.

And yeah, I made it to class.

Late.

Ah whatever. All I missed was a bunch of "hi my name is" and "I'm this type of professor"

Of course my shoes were extra squeaky when I barged into the classroom. And my desk was also squeaky. And the floor was kind of slippery so my shoes slid on the floor after I had sat down and made another loud squeak sound.

______QUOTES FROM CLASS_____


**"don't use the word semester. here in canada this does not apply. we use terms, which comes from the Latin trimester..."

when asked how strict he's going to be, grammar/spelling/accentuation-wise on our assignments (because it's a literature class from "origin" to 1700, aka old weird dialects and stuff and we're all anglophones first):

Prof: I expect your grammar to be impeccable. That is, without sin. Impeccable comes from the Latin 'peccare'-to sin. People used to believe that souls were like a blank slate and a sin would leave a mark on it."
me: Damnit.


prof:Tell me a verb in English that ends with -ate. They all have cognates in Spanish.
girl in class: hate
me: preambulate
prof: no, not those ones!

_______________

So yeah. I'm not ready to do this again guys!

But at least now I have exciting tales of bookstores and etymology to regale you with

So, friends, I will leave you tonight with Ryan's quote of the day:

"what's that reality show called? biggest slut in the house?"

same last name = sisters

scene: film class
what we were doing: talking about mennonites
____

prof: does anybody know what mennonites are?

girl: I do! I am a mennonite

me: me too, sort of! High five!

girl: yah!

prof: ... uh, are you sure you aren't sisters?

us: yes.

prof: well, it's just that you have the same last name.

caution: major whineage ahead

okay so yeah. it's the last week of classes. i should feel relieved, no?

no.

I thought so too, but get this: UNIVERSITY IS HARD!
I don't know if you know that.

Here are my next few weeks in painful detail:

tomorrow
-work in the morning
-class...and frantically finish all the crap for next day

due dec.4
-12 page term paper on 'latin america'
-1 page assignment
-I also have a quiz

dec 5&6 work full days

due dec.7
-4 page (in Spanish) assignment on a really boring long-winded reading I hardly understand
-Final Essay on 'something we read this year' (5 pages in Spanish)

due dec.8
-1 page assignment about a movie we watched in class

dec 9
-cram for exam, work on papers, probably procrastinate a lot

dec.10
-Final Exam on Spanish Grammar
-finish papers

dec 11
-sleep?

dec 12&13 work full days

due dec.14
-9 page paper due (in Spanish) on Mexican Film
-Take-Home final exam due (which I am suspicious of...take homes are usually way harder than regular exams)
-tattoo appointment (YAY!)

dec.15
-my good friend arrives from Calgary (YAY)

dec 16
-try not to bore my friend with all the whining?
-maybe get out of the house?

dec.17
-Final exam on Latin American culture. This is going to be the worst one because I almost failed the other exam in this course. Yikes.

then...PARTAY TIME!

So yeah, if you catch me crying in a corner or throwing up or scribbling on random papers or generally being crazy, this is why.

Also, I'm probably going to look extra ugly because who can do makeup at a time like this?

FML.

text conversation from last week. with explanations!

this is a text conversation my sister and i had this a week or so ago.


me: i just remembered when you bought tampons in tepoztlan. the present!

explanation: okay so this one time my sister and i went to tepoztlan, mexico for just over a month. we stayed with a family we sort of knew. and we had like 20934802984 adventures. (note: this was before i started really learning any spanish, and might have been the inspiration for learning more...)

one of our adventures involved her trying to buy tampons.

basically we had to find a store that sold tampons which took us hours, and then using our very limited communicative abilities we had to ask for tampons...try miming that to somebody, hahaha

and then, if that wasn't hilarious enough, it was a man working at the farmacia, and he was super embarrassed by the whole thing. and then he took some wrapping paper, like for a christmas present, and wrapped the box of tampons up like a present. we almost died of laughing when we got back to the house and saw it.


sister: hahaha i forgot about that, haha. i think next time you're home we should go through some of my pics.

explanation: duh, she wants to look at pictures next time i'm near her

me:remember taking the pics of whathername's bra and making signs that said seduction? and then losing the film?

explanation: all that thinking about pictures from that trip reminded me of this one night, when my sister and i had gone on a road trip to puebla to stay with another friend of ours in mexico, and she took us out to a few bars and got us totally wasted. my sister, who was only like 14 or 15 then was totally drinking in the bars and making out with dudes.* we were actually rockstars in that particular bar...literally the only white chicks. and both of us were platinum blonde at the time

a funny note from that, which has nothing to do with the text convo is that while she was making out with this super handsy mexican boy, another boy was trying to hit on me, and was trying out his english and after noticing me staring at my sister/random mexidude playing tonsil hockey he said

"that guy is such a pulp"

i was like "what the hell are you talking about?"

then he said it in spanish. "pulpo"...octopus HAHAHA.


anyway later that evening we got back to the room we were sleeping in, and there were bras hanging everywhere. this was in a time before digital cameras and we were totally wasted and silly. i mean... my family gets FREAKING SILLY when we're together and add alcohol into the mix...it's a sight to behold.

so yeah, bras hanging everywhere...we were like "are they trying to seduce us?"

and it became a big joke. and we made paper signs that said "seduction?" and we took pictures of us with the bras and signs in various positions ... and with various hairstyles if i remember correctly

it was all fun and games and totally harmless until we got home and developed our film and realized that the girl we were staying with (who is also a photographer by trade) had kept all her film in that room and somehow we mixed up our roll of film with one of hers.

hey, at least we ended up with some sweet pictures of cows...



sister:haha and her mom the creepy massage lady who said white ppl like coffee or something? i hope they found that film! hahahaha

explanation: the mom of that house was a masseuse who was kind of racist. she kept asking us if we wanted a massage, like all the time. and we always said no because...fuck off creepy lady! but she never stopped trying.

but on the positive side they had a bowl of avocados on the kitchen table which they put on everything. even toast in the morning which was like heaven on toast, i tell ya.

me: and she kept asking us the lyrics to beatles songs, like "what means coocoo kachoo?"

explanation: well, it's pretty self explanatory. the mom was trying to learn english and really liked the beatles but she couldn't understand some of the words.

no matter how many times we told her they weren't really words she didn't get it.


sister: ya probably. remember the caves and we tried so hard to get pictures but none turned out? and they were so awesome

explanation: the caves are called "las grutas de cachuamilpa"(caution - terrible sound effects on this website) and were effing amazing. i mean...you go in and walk for miles underground in gigantic caverns.

we only had crappy cameras with us and tried so hard to take pictures.

the awesome thing is when we got then developed most of them did show...something. green somethings. not cave innards. more like...well when i first saw them i said they looked straight off a Tool album cover. somehow the lack of light produced the coolest patterns of green...it's hard to explain. accidental awesomeness.

me: and we went to that hot springs place and all the ladies went into a room with a bathtub thing in it

explanation: okay this one is weird. it was like a million degrees out one day and the massage lady and her family, plus her daughter's friend (who was in her early 20s) told us we were going to a water park.

hell yeah! we thought.

they were like "there's swimming pools and waterslides..."

"sold!" we said

so we drove and drove and drove to this national park

of hot springs

it was over 40 degrees celcius which is like 100 fahrenheit or so i think, and we went to the fucking hot springs!

and they were hot!

but they didn't lie to us. there were water slides and swimming pools. the only thing was they were hotter than the +40 air and sun!!!

what the hell

also, all the ladies we went with were like "okay this is our room" and went into this door in what looked like maybe a change room or showers or something. except the door locked.

my sister and i were invited but we were like "no, we wore our bathing suits under our clothes, we don't need a change room"

"okay, just knock if you want to find us"

after like an hour, or so of exploring we were bored and decided to see what the family was doing in the room with the locked door

we knocked

they let us in

and they were all naked in a giant bath tub together.

ummm

uhhh

my 20 year old self couldn't handle it. i played it cool but there was no way in hell i was getting naked with those ladies in a hot tub.

i guess the hot springs are good for your skin?

anyway it was really awkward.


sister: hahaha yeah it was so hot out too

explanation: none needed. it was.

me: those caves were awesome.

explanation: none needed. they were. really. if you get a chance, go see them.


*note -if you are related to us or know this sister in real life then it isn't true. don't tell her i told you!!!!!!

what? no popcorn?

well i already posted this as my status on facebook so it's like recycled news, but today in Mexican Cinema class, prof 5, a mexican gentleman of about 50 years, told us

"don't think this is one of those fun classes that you can bring popcorn to, this is a serious class"

whaaat? no popcorn? awwwwwww.

and then we watched a film about pancho villa from the '30s, and it was AWESOME! but there were some really funny parts, like when a bunch of crazy mexican soldiers in striped pants are in a cantina and all of a sudden a guy is like

"omg! there's 13 of us at this table! one of us is going to die because it's an unlucky number!"

and another guy who might have been Villa but i'm not sure because two guys wore the same outfit and had crazy moustaches throughout the movie and i kept getting them confused said

"well, if somebody's going to die, let it be the biggest coward!"

and then they decided that the way to tell who the biggest coward was would be to sit in a circle at midnight on chairs and throw a pistol in the air and somehow it'll magically shoot itself in the air, and whoever the gun shoots deserves to die because he's a coward"

"also, we have to turn off all the lights in the bar"

come on, that's so weird it's hilarious.

and they did it! and the fat guy gets shot but he's ok, it's only a wound. in his stomach. and then he's all "oh yeah? i'll show you who's a coward!" and shoots himself in the head unexpectedly, because he was the comic relief throughout the first two thirds of the movie.

so then i was like "whaaat"

also, before the whole shooting himself thing, the fat guy (who they just call "fatty") is captured by the enemy and they bring him to be hanged. the guy who is in charge of hanging him is a young man, and the fat guy is all "whatever you say senorita" and everybody laughs because it's like the hangman is a woman!!! HAHAHA

and then he starts hanging but the rope snaps because he's so fat! HAHAHA

but this whole time i wasn't sure if i was allowed to laugh at this serious historical depiction / film art piece...

but i laughed anyway because we were sitting in the dark.

just some whining.

i really have to get a grip on my new schedule. or somehow magically turn into super magic energy girl, because at the end of every day this week i've practically fallen through the front door of our house, grouchy and "sooooooo tired".

i haven't done laundry in a week, and little things like charging my camera battery or going to the bank feel like treks through the andes to me. it's not like i'm sleeping less or getting more exercise or anything. i guess it's just the stress of starting new (all spanish) classes, plus taking the bus SO MUCH and having a weird new work schedule that the boss and i can't seem to get straight and so i keep showing up at the wrong time or when they don't even need me...

but mostly it's the bus

the bus is like a big fat killer of dreams.

okay that might be a bit dramatic, but it really does steal my soul a little bit every day.

at least i don't have to pay $74 for a month of the bus while i'm in school. does that seem high to anybody else?

ahhh at least a fine cuppppa coffee will make this morning bright. and i thought i heard a rumor that one of the guys from work was driving his truck by my house this morning......mayhaps i can glean a ride?

i dreamed that i kept overflowing the bathtub and all my family and friends were sleeping at the breakfast table until i turned on the lights, and i felt like it had some kind of significance but when i opened my eyes it all dissolved into bits and pieces that are not coherent anymore.
i read somewhere that one theory about dreams is that your brain has all these pictures inside from various thoughts and things that happened throughout the day or whatever, and it tries to make up a story that connects the images, and that is what a dream is. that's why sometimes you can be flying in an airplane that is also somehow a fancy restaurant and suddenly you're wearing a bear costume.

i think that makes sense.

first day of my last year of school

i'm sure you are all dying to know how my first day back at big-girl school went, so i won't keep you guessing. here it is, miniscule detail by miniscule detail:

it all started at 6:30am when my alarm went off.

it started again nine minutes later when my alarm went off again.

nine minutes after that i rolled my grouchy ass out of bed and made some delicious coffee. you don't want to hear about my agonizing search for matching socks, so we'll just fast forward to me running for a bus and juuuuuuust barely catching it. it's not my usual bus, mind you, but i saw it and it said "downtown" on it. also, it rocked my socks off.
first of all, it was a double decker.
secondly, everybody was all fancy, wearing ties and suits and reading newspapers. oh yeah, the bus gives out free newspapers at 7:30 in the morning! who knew?

got off downtown, caught a university bus, made it to the school at 9:20. i forgot what a zoo the uni is on the first day in the fall.

i swear there were like 800 eighteen-year-olds all lost and scared, but somehow there with five of their closest high-school friends.
they all had matching skinny jeans tucked into either rain boots or converse high tops (it was raining) and plaid workshirts on.
that's the style now, i guess? plaid?

oh, wait. i forgot i live in canada. we are all lumberjacks here. please discount the previous confusion over the plaid.

so on the way to class i thought to myself "pardon me, self, but did you remember to bring any paper or notebooks, on which to write?" (i'm very formal with myself apparently)

and then i was all "of course i did, it's right...no, wait, i must have put it...i wouldn't have forgotten..."

duuuuuuuh

there was NO TIME TO BUY ANY PAPER. i had to climb the 3409850348 flights of stairs (actually three) to class and, you know, have some before-class-begins schmoozing time...make some school friends.

luckily for me, somebody asked me "um, is this class, like, taught, like, in english or, um, like, spanish?"

and i would totally make fun of her here, except it was a valid question because it changes from year to year, and also, i think i answered with "uuuuuuh...hmm. i don't know. i totally looked it up but i forgot HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" (a little too much laughing for a first conversation)

then i borrowed some paper from her.
we're totally gonna be BFFs. i can just tell.

the professor for this class shall henceforth be known as PROF1. she is happy and even though she said the class is all english and you don't need to know spanish, she spoke in espanglish the entire hour.

she gave us a chilling speech on the H1N1 virus! eeek! there are hand sanitizer stations located at the end of every hallway and maybe you should bring one of those paper masks to class like they gave out in the airports in buenos aires...

then she asked us questions, trying to trip us up and bust us out of our stupid northern heads, like "is brazil in iberoamerica?" and "is quebec part of latin america?" and "is mexico in south america?) haha. no, seriously. she was like "don't be like george bush, after he took a vacation in mexico he said he enjoyed his time in south america".

i had an hour break after that, which consisted of coffee, a brie croissant and tetris on my phone. and listening to the hustle and bustle of ONE MILLION LOST SOULS ... one jackass came over to the little table i was sitting at when i was playing tetris and POKED ME IN THE SHOULDER.
i hit pause, and looked up expectantly, because, you know, usually when you poke someone in the shoulder you KNOW THEM...this was not the case.
just some jackass.
"hey. what's your tattoo?"
WTF does that even mean? it's a tattoo. that's all.
also, WHICH ONE?
anyway i just said "mumble mumble tattoozoo" and he went away.

then i was off to class 2. in a dimly lit room with all the shades drawn over the windows, so we were all in sort of a pit of dim yellow hell.
the professor for this class was in india for some undetermined reason, and had her T.A. teach us. when the prof comes back i'll call her PROF2

we got another swine flu warning. "if you're sick, stay home. do not come to class. the computer labs are especially germy"

other than that, it was boring. homework tonight was reading a long-ass diary entry by christopher colombus about pineapples. yay? (no) (although i did learn the word for "palate" and the word for "irrigate" and also a word that doesn't really translate but kind of means "meticulous-ed", like "made something meticulously")

the next class was taught by PROF3, an italian lady who is fluent in every language on earth, maybe. she's funny. she's cute.
she gave us the swine flu speech and told us we better not e-mail her because we're sick and then come to her office hours to get our homework. "if you're sick, i don't want to see you. i have kids."

...noticing a trend here?

in this class was a guy i went on that mexican exchange with in 2007. i have only run into him once since then, so that's kind of exciting. he annoyed the hell out of me when i first met him ... now he seems normal enough. so that's something.
the rest of the class practically is all one group of students who went on the exact same exchange last year. weird. i bet we have some of the same mexi-friends.

then i came home.

the end.

*note* don't worry, not every school post shall be so long-winded and boring

creepy awesome movie alert!

OMG you guys!

you have to watch the move the Orphanage.
it has the same director as Pan's Labyrinth.
which automatically guarantees greatness.

but you can also take my word for it.
it's good stuff.

the subtitles are totally worth it!!