Thoughts, shots, et al.

Right, so I have a lot on my mind and have 3 days' worth of updates, so have fun with this entry.

Let's see...Friday night I went to a one-act play called The Controversy of Valladolid. If you have some background in Latin American history, you'd be aware of the grand debate in Spain in the 16th century between Friar Bartolome de las Casas and philosopher Gines de Sepulveda, the verdict of which was to be decided by the Pope, on whether or not the indigenous beings discovered in the New World could be considered "human" or not. If not, they could be enslaved. If so, they would (ideally )be given all the rights and privileges thereof. De las Casas argued that the "Indians" were indeed human, and Gines, the opposite. The dialogue was very interesting, as the playwright cited original arguuments, but the play ran a little long. Of course to us 20th century humanists, the argument that Indians aren't people is ludicrous...but back then, even now, people of all nationalities enslaved poorer people or spoils of war in some form or another. So in that regard, a devout friar of a Catholic mission that fought for human rights was quite progressive for his time.

Afterwards Pam, Courtney, Marco and I went to a bar called Fonteria. Pam had herself a grand old time as well :)
Oh, alcohol, it works wonders for us.
Me with Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's most famous poet and playwright, in Plaza Santa Ana, a popular site for tapas. We're like "this!"

Saturday afternoon I had lunch with Nuria's parents (Hello to you both, now that I know you are devout readers!). We went to a Spanish restaurant around the corner, and it was marvelous, the menu was extensive and well-priced. They told me that the measure of the quality of Spanish food is how old the crowd is: the older the crowd, the more authentic the food. Let's just say we were the youngest people by far! :)

Saturday night we went to Kapital, Madrid's premiere 5-floor nightclub. It cost 15 euro to get in, with 1 drink. While I always have fun with my girls, I left with a sour taste in my mouth. It was extremely crowded, men are just more agressive and expect you to give out your number at the drop of a hat. Of course that's how most clubs are, but I guess I just wasn't feeling it that night. Or maybe I'm just getting tired of the meat market and superficial interactions at these types of places. Sometimes I'd just rather be in street clothes and having a real conversation. Plus I got home at 7am, which was wonderful...
The main floor of the club

Oh! and to best illustrate the latest of Spanish trends, I have here a quintessential,grievous exaggeration of even the most erroneous of Spanish hairstyles that I've seen.
A MULLET WITH DREADLOCKS! Could it get any worse?? Mullets and rattails are huge here, unfortunately. Supposedly it's a counter-culture statement that sympathizes with gypsies. Ironic, considering what it represents in the States!!

So that was essentially my weekend. Last night I had a long talk with my new RA, Angie, about just about everything. She is great, vastly different than my last one: she's 23, a bit of a tomboy, a self-professed Buddhist, and just overall very sweet. We talked about Spanish politics, society, relationships, etc. It was really informative...for example, apparently Spain has the lowest birth rate in the world (not sure if that is accurate). So as a result, the government gives more benefits to immigrants than native citizens, to boost birth rates and rake in the taxes. As a result, there are long waiting lists for healthcare, school, etc. I can see now why Spaniards might not be as friendly toward foreigners...what's more, Angie and her friends tried to go to a Bolivian bar, and were literally denied entry because they were not Bolivian. Can we say reverse discrimination??

But on the flipside, native Spaniards, I've witnessed, are also plenty ignorant, especially about Asians (DISCLAIMER: of course this is a generalization too, not directed at particular people!!). But seriously...I've gotten more "arigato's," "ni hao's," "china? japones?" than is comfortable. East Asian women are also notorious for being "easy." Yikes. It reminds me of being in Vietnam again, where people will accost you and make assumptions about you for no reason. For example, I had a woman ask me if I was Chinese or Japanese, and proceeded to say "Because of your..." and gestured toward her eyes! Yes, I get it: I have Asian features. Get over it.

In a way though, it makes me feel better about the States. Europeans always pride themselves on being less ignorant than Americans but in all honesty, any region that lacks diversity will breed ignorant people. Spain is a prime example. And I do blame the media and pop culture for a lot of this as well. How many stereotypes of foreigners do we have based on movies, music, and television? It's amazing what people will make of foreigners based on these already skewed sources of knowledge. And it's not the ignorace that bothers me, because sometimes people just don't know, and let's be honest, I don't know everything about everyone. But it's more about the willingness to learn, and in this day and age, it's not that hard...Read a book or world almanac or something, people.

Anyway, so back to Angie...she was surprised to hear that I am not in the bilingual grammar class, because she says I speak almost flawlessly, and better than some heritage speakers she's lived with. That made me really happy to hear, because I still have qualms about my Spanish. I want to be better.

Which leads me to my FINAL thought... today I realized that I have fallen in love with translating. My translation professor is incredible. She's so animated and really seems to love what she does. What's more, her English is impressive, and I hope to have that ability in Spanish someday. The challenge of finding the most culturally relevant and grammatically precise equivalent in two languages is thrilling to me. And, scarily, for the first time, it's something I could see myself doing for a living. AHHH!!

Why, you say, when you ultimately have your eye sent on a career in science? Many reasons. Translation embodies a lot of not only my passions, but also my talents: writing, languages, grammar...I've realized the only ability I feel 100% confident about is my writing. I know it sounds egotistical, but if you're still reading by now you must somewhat agree :) It is both an art, if you translate creative work, and a science, if you do technical documents. It is beneficial to others: overcoming language barries through proper translation is so, so, SO essential! Being a good translator also requires you to expand your mind and become an expert in various fields to get the most accurate equivalents. And, I imagine, it is mobilizing, so I'd get to travel. And, finally, the only way to get better at translation is to READ...something I sorely need to do more of anyway! (Speaking of reading, I read "La zapateria prodigiosa" by Lorca and I love it. Highly recommend it).

So yeah, while obviously medical school is tentatively my path, I finally feel like I have found something I could do either simultaneously, as a hobby, or maybe, as a career. Only time will make this decision clear.

Hope you enjoyed my diatribes as always. If you're bothered by them, well, too bad, they're more for me than you anyway :) Thanks for reading!