To-Do List, Pre-Colombia

Travel Itinerary:  Friday mid-day leave for Colombia...via Chicago.  Spend the days between appointment with consulate and receipt of visa dancing salsa and touring Chicago.

Itinerario de Viaje: el viernes, mediodía, salga para Colombia...vía Chicago.  Pasaré los días entre la cita con el consulado y el recibido de mi visa bailando salsa y pasando por la ciudad de Chicago.

(Those of you who know Chicago, I am collecting must do/see/eats in the comment section below.)




To-Dos:
Buy first dress suit of my life.
Dance.
Clean ungodly mess of a room and a little red car.
Dance.
Print contracts, letters of rec, all official documents.
Dance.
Launder every soakable cloth in my possession.
Yoga.
Pack dance and yoga clothes.  (God bless uniforms.)
Hide things around Dad's apartment for kicks.
...
Say goodbye.



Que Haceres:
Comprar primer sastre de mi vida.
Bailar. 
Limpiar el quilombo en mi cuarto y carro.
Bailar.
Imprimir contratos, cartas de recommendación, todos los documentos oficiales.
Bailar.
Lavar cada tela lavable en mi posesión.
Hacer yoga.
Empacar ropa de baile y de yoga.  (Me encanta el concepto de los uniformes.)
Esconder cositas por el apartamento de mi papá, para divertirme.
...
Despedirme. 

Dear Non-Gynecologists

Dear Urgent Care Doctor who saw me this morning,

If you are uncomfortable with vaginas, you should not give vaginal exams.  Should you be required to give vaginal exams, you should not assume that, I, who have a vagina, am uncomfortable with them as well.

I am familiar with the fact that menstruation results in discharge, or, blood, "if you will."  Yes, I will.  It is blood.  Every month.  For the last twelve years.  I am quite confident that I know this is normal, and I am unconcerned that you, a doctor, would have seen blood at some time during your practice.  Therefore, we may conclude, that touching such a red-type discharge would not phase you.

When you tell me, after every touch or swab, at neither of which have I flinched, to "hang in there," and that I am "doing a good job," I have to wonder how many children you have had to talk through vaginal exams also.  Or perhaps you work with horses?

If it were so brave to go to the doctor unaccompanied, I would gladly send my vagina by itself, lessening your discomfort, and certainly mine.  As it has yet to appreciate full autonomy, alas, I must also attend.  Be assured that, as I look up at the dots in your ceiling, that you have probably never seen, I am imagining myself at all of the other tasks I would rather spend my time doing.  I hope, however, that you, as you peer through your newfangled, warm plastic, self-lighting speculum, are not imagining the same.  I hope that you are carefully observing and quick-checking your mental reference, and that I will promptly be diagnosed and shooed out the door with some pills and/or a cream.  I would rather not wait twenty minutes, leaking your cold goo, a discharge with which I am slightly less familiar, and staring at the specks in your tile, which you have probably never seen.

If we should meet again, I will not be staying for the examination.  Here is my hand, the only thing you seem quite comfortable touching, and my nod and smile to make you feel better about your job, and here are my flip flops smacking against your hallway floor.  On my way out, I will not check in with the front desk, I did that over an hour ago, and they have had plenty of time to photo copy my license and key in a few numbers.  Next visit, I will send you a bill for wasting my time.

Very sincerely,

Your first patient of the day.

Bike to Work Day 2011

Denver's Bike to Work Day fell on Daniel's birthday this year.

I got it in my head that I would bike from my home in Littleton to my school in downtown Denver that morning.  The last time I rode my bike, read: Daniel's old mountain bike that probably outweighs a small horse, was a couple of months ago, for a couple of miles, and I spent a couple of days nursing my aching quads and those little bones that protest to being sat upon.

So, Wednesday morning dawned, and with a vague notion of the trail  along Santa Fe that would take me downtown (see map below, which I did not reference until the writing of this post), and two hours in which to get there, I set out for Auraria.

About two miles in, legs having forgotten that initial burn, and my path finally connected to the Platte River trail (I think that's the one it was), a smattering of spandex-clad, road-bike mounted, middle aged men passed with a grunted "on your left."  I say grunted because if one sounded jovial, he was more likely to bid me a "good morning!"

I suppose you all know the difference between a mountain bike and a road bike?  If bikes were dogs, road bikes would be greyhounds, and my bike would be a fifteen year old mastiff.

So it was I reached Englewood, self-conscious about my tennis shoes, my navy baseball cap and my dirt bike, picking my way through the occasional fork in the trail by the general direction of campus. Then Denver, accepting of the fact that I was a novice, out with a thousand other novices on this Bike to Work Day.  Then downtown, having resigned myself to the disappointment of never getting to call out those lovely three words--"on your left!"

There was never a question in my mind of whether I would make it all the way (not even knowing the distance to be some twelve or fourteen miles), but I wasn't as certain about whether I would be ambulatory when I finally got off the bike.  So, when I dismounted at Auraria Campus, my quads gave up the push and I nearly knelt there on the asphalt.  But the next step was steadier.  And the next.  Victory.

Happy Birthday Daniel!  You would be so proud.

Bilingualism -- Is it Possible??

Take a look at the poll to your right.  I am curious to know what you think: can a person ever be TRULY bilingual? 

Mira esta encuesta a tu derecha.  Me gustaría saber que piensan: ¿puede una persona ser REALMENTE bilingüe?

-Sí

-No

-No sé

-Hablo 8 idiomas

 

Esta encuesta viene de una conversación entre mi tutor y yo.  Hablábamos de culturas, y de la cuestión de ser bilingüe.  Él propuso que no se puede ser bilingüe de verdad.  Se puede ser más fluído en hablar, saber más vocabulario, y comunicarse bien, pero sus pensamientos más profundos siempre van a venir en su primer idioma.  Lo más valorado sería conocer lo importante de la cultura, como vive la gente, qué les importa, y cómo funciona la sociedad.  

Estoy de acuerdo.  Pero, tambien tengo algunas dudas.  Quizás, las personas como yo, quienes aprenden otro idioma poco a poco durante los años, nunca lleguen a ser bilingües.  Estoy inclinida de creer que los bebes que crezcan en familias multiculturales, cómo tener papás de distinta nacionalidad y que estén en situaciones en que necesiten hablar dos, o más, idomas distintos desde nacimiento, no solo puedan hablar en idiomas multiples, pero tambien puedan pensar en todos sin parcialidad.  

¿Que creen ustedes?

This poll comes from a discussion I had with my tutor.  We were discussing culture and acquiring language.  He put forth that one cannot ever be truly bilingual.  The most we can hope for, and what should be most valued, is learning as much as one can about the people, how they live, what's important to them, and how the society functions.

I agree.  The little I learned of Korean language, although fascinating and useful, was ultimately far less, and more easily forgotten, than what I learned of the culture.  However, regarding bilingualism, I am inclined to believe that while people such as myself learning a language bit by bit over the years will never be fully bilingual, babies who are born into families and situations in which they must utilize two or more languages will not only be able to use these languages fluently, but also think in these languages without preference for one over another.  

What do you think?