Friday, July 22, 2005

double shot

Could this design get more boring, what with the minimum content and appetite-dulling color? I doubt it. To make up for it, I'm going to bust out the second post of the day. Oh, the days when there was actually a readership and decent things to write for those few people.

I've been pretty computerless this summer. I think I got onto dictionary.com today for the first time this summer. I guess I had frequent computer access in Spain, but it was limited. If I ever had to look up a word, it was in Spanish anyway. Does it make me warped to find comfort in dictionary.com? That's okay.

I had this really elaborate dream last night about this semi-famous blogger that I check in on every great now and then. I dreamed I met her, and she was actually a he. He had a restaurant in his house. Okay, I guess that's all I remember. Not so elaborate after all.

I also dreamed that someone, probably a witch from Sparks Hall, decided to change our course numbers over to the four digit system. I suppose this was a discussion about classes with some of those kids from other schools while I was in Spain that was infiltrating my thoughts. A few minutes ago, I had a huge scare because I was looking over the class schedule online in search of a possible elective swap. My television/computer screen situation makes stuff cram together, and I was seeing the RacerTouch entry codes (four-digit) smashed up against the department abbreviations. The actual course numbers (three-digit) had been shoved to the wayside. All I could see was 1096 ENG and 9018 SPA instead of ENG 309 and SPA 301. I thought my worst nightmare had come true: Having to relearn all the course numbers! Pardon me if I like knowing the numerical identification of my courses and the courses around me.

If it is at all possible, let me add the geekdom reigning here. I am excited about my teaching literature class. There are bunches and bunches of young adult novels listed on the bookstore website for the class. I might have my hopes up for no reason, though, because these are Dr. Brown's books. Dr. Brown -- probably because I almost ran over him on his bike that time -- isn't teaching the class anymore. Dr. Morgan is. But something tells me that he isn't going to take the time to pick a whole new booklist.

Sounds as if it's gonna get a little bit stormy here in Murray, K-Y tonight. I enjoy some rolling thunder every now and then.

evolution

If thefacebook.com has done anything for me, it is this: People aren't frozen in the time capsule of my memory. I think we, or atleast I, forget that other people change, too. Not just us. Just because we haven't seen someone in several years doesn't mean that he or she the same as he or she was when we last met. This is a very simple, obvious idea, but it somehow slipped my mind. I guess I expected everyone that I graduated high school with would be just like they were in May 2002. It didn't occur to me that they would change, just like I have. My world keeps on spinning, but theirs stops. Their existence is contingent on my awareness. There's one of the building-blocks of self-centeredness.

Here lately, it has been blowing my mind how much I have changed since high school. I might not look all that different, and I might not even act all that different. But the way I think, the way I look at things, those have evolved I've been trying to account for this change. It's hard for me to think that I've become some higher-level thinking being because of some college courses. But somewhere between here and there, I've gained a new sight. I see things I didn't before. I understand the beauty in things that were bland. I see the absurdity in ideas and traditions that I accepted. It's when I consider these things that I realize how much my mind differs from it's former state. Not a worse state, but a simpler state. And my mind as it is now, simpler still than it will be years from now.

It's comforting to me to think that we are always growing even when we don't realize it.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

i'm baaack

Well, I'm home. Okay, I've been back for a week now. It's good to be here, though I've already missed Spain a few times...

I just got back from seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream at Playhouse in the Park. Very good. That Jacob York fellow is a great actor. I saw him in I Hate Hamlet and now this. Way to go, Shakespeare. And of course, Dr. Brown was there. I'm very disappointed that he isn't going to be teaching Teaching Literature next semester. That's what I get for almost running over him and his little bicycle.

B/F/F/ is here and she's more important than the blog.

Friday, July 01, 2005

despedida, españa

I have Spanish song in my head -- the one we sang at the farewell reception. Aye, aye, aye, aye / Canta y no llores...

Speaking of farewell, it´s almost time. I just finished my final. Class is over for me. I got my second paper back, which my professor liked very well. I´m forseeing an A in that class. If not, I´ll be a little upset since it´s the only class I´m taking here. Plus, it´s a literature class, which is my thing. It´s like English, but it´s, erm, Spanish.

I had a neat experience yesterday. In class, we all had to memorize a Spanish poem. I recited Antonio Machado´s ¨Proverbios y cantares, XXIX.¨ Fabulous poem. Well, Machado lived in Segovia for a while, so his house is now a museum. However, like everything in this country, it is closed for repairs. (See: the experience my friends and I had when we walked all over Barcelona to find Gaudí´s Palau Güell only to find when we got there a sign that said Closed until 2006.) So we just study outside Machado´s house and looked at it, then I recited my poem. It wasn´t until we were walking back to the Centro (to ¨learn¨ flamenco) that I realized what I had just done. It was like performing A Midsummer Night´s Dream in the Globe Theatre. Okay, okay. It wasn´t that big of a deal, but it was really neat.

I´ll give you a run-down on the poem. Here it is, first in Spanish:

¨Proverbios y cantares, XXIX¨
por Antonio Machado
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino, y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino:
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino,
sino estelas en el mar.


Okay, so now here´s (roughly) what it is in English:

Traveller, your footsteps are the road and nothing more. Traveller, there is no road: the road is made as you walk. As you walk, the road is made, and when you look behind you to see the path you´ve made, there will be nothing there. Traveller, there is no road -- except the wake in the sea.

A little philosophical, eh? I´m not sure I agree with the philosophy of it, but it is something to think about. Is there no path we are supposed to follow? And are there no paths left behind by those that go before us? Hmm, it would be neat to do a comparison with Frost´s ¨The Road Not Taken.

Well, this looks like the lost blogature from España. This afternoon, I´m going with my friend Eloise to Ávila because Santa Teresa de Ávila is her confirmation saint. That should be a neat experience. I hope to have a little bit of fun around Segovia tonight since it´s the last possible party night. Tomorrow, Jennean and I (read: just Jennean) are cooking la comida for our señores and their son. I guess I´ll be doing all my packing, wedging souvenirs in every free nook and cranny. And we roll out of Segovia at 6:45 in the morning from the bus station. It´s gonna be cute, Jennean and I trying to figure out how to call a taxi at 6 am after getting about three minutes sleep. We fly from Madrid to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Cincinnati. I should be busting up in the airport around 8 pm. I am very excited about coming home, seeing everyone, and doling out the gifts. Showing pictures -- there are much more than are on Flickr. Talking incessantly. It´ll be a good time. See you soon enough!