Schoolwork?

Just an update on what my academic life entails right now. Wouldn't want you to think that all I do here is lay in the sun or eat weird fruit.

Right now I am in Latin American Women Writers. Its wonderful, since it is so similar to the familiar and much loved literature classes for my English major, but I also practice my Spanish. Perfect! Don't get me wrong, sometimes all the reading is a tough, but overall the class is good. And much easier than the last mini-term when I took two classes at once.

The class isn't like any other class I've ever taken before. All of the material comes from student presentations, usually four or so a day. So we all read all the assignments every night, but only one person is responsible for presenting information about the author and knowing the text super well. Sometimes we end up confusing ourselves more, because no one actually understands exactly what the author was getting at. Blind leading the blind...

The Blind Leading the Blind (Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1568)

 Overall, though, good class. One of my favorites so far was a short (by short, I mean tiny) story by Luisa Valenzuela called "Los Censores."   If you'd care to read it, the full translated text is here. Good story.

Luisa herself

We also just finished up reading "Como agua para chocolate" (Like Water for Chocolate). Also fantastic. It has absolutely nothing to do with chocolate really, but I like it none the less. For part of class discussion about "Como agua para chocolate" today, I showed this video. Raphael sings a fantastically dramatic 1980's love song, complete with microphone dancing. If you want a good laugh, I highly recommend it (but with the strong warning that it may get stuck in your head for quite some time).

Yum

Next up is "La casa en Mango Street", actually first written in English as "The House on Mango Street." When I came home I picked up an English copy in addition to the Spanish one that I had left in Costa Rica, and I read it on the plane. Very fun, quick read. Now I just have to go back and read it in Spanish. 

This book makes me want magos. Sweet and delicious, like I had for breakfast this morning.

And last but not least, my final project novel is by a Puerta Rican author named Rosario Ferre, "Vuelo del Cisne" (Flight of the Swan) about a Russian ballerina and her company that get stranded in Puerta Rica because of the Bolshevik revolution.

My copy doesn't look like this, but the picture was appropriately dramatic.

Side Note: Speaking of laying around in the sun, this morning I decided I would read for class outside. Two hours later, hello awkward sunburn lines. Apparently I didn't move at all in my whole time outside, because I have perfect lines indicating the length of my sleeves, the placement of my watch, and the angle at which my elbow was bent. Wonderful.