Thursday, May 7, 2009

Eat your fruits & veggies!

Casado, con una hija y una nieta, el secreto de su casi eterna juventud está en las cinco raciones “o más” de fruta que come al día. “Todo empezó por el hambre que pasamos en la Guerra Civil y la posguerra”, recuerda: “De chavales, recorríamos la huerta y cogíamos lo que podíamos. La fruta nos salvó, y mira a mí qué bien me sienta”.
--José Blasco Llopis

A few weeks ago I read this story about an 80-year-old Spanish man who skis every single day. Part of his secret to longevity? Fruit! The quote above says:

Married, with a daughter and one granddaughter, the secret to his almost eternal youth is in the five servings "or more" of fruit which he eats daily.
"Everything started with the hunger that passed us in the Civil War and in the post-war." he remembers: "Since childhood, we would go through the orchards and take what we could. The fruit saved us, and look how good I feel."

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Joke of the day!

I found this online somewhere, I take no credit! Enjoy! ...I'm going to try to stop watching Sex & the City and study for my linguistics final...

El argentino está visitando a su amigo mexicano en Los Angeles. El argentino no sabe inglés y le pide a su amigo mexicano que le enseñe como pedir comida.
--Fácil --le dice el mexicano--. ¿Te gusta el bistec con huevos?
--Claro --le dice el argentino.
--Eso lo puedes decir así: "y usté quien es", diciéndolo bien rápido. Suena como "steik an egs", que quiere decir "bistec con huevos".
--Ah, eso es fácil…
Al otro día el argentino va solo al restaurant y el mesero le pregunta:
--May I help you?
El argentino le pregunta:
--¿Y vos quién sós?

<3

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Spanish word of the day

simón:
yes

The way my Mexican coworkers say "sí." For the first few weeks, I kept trying to figure out who was named Simon. Ha.

(David-does anyone say this in Barcelona?)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Encuentro by José Agustín Goytisolo

José Agustín Goytisolo was born in Barcelona and was a child during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). His poetry captivates me because it is incredibly conversational. An English-language equivalent might be a poet like Billy Collins.
Anyway, I've been reading through his book "Palabras para Julia" (1979). Here is a poem I'm currently falling in love with:

Alegría yo te
he buscado y buscado
por todos los lugares
por todos los caminos
que andaba y desandaba,
alguna vez oí tus pasos en el bosque
otra vez escuché
tu risa pero nunca
te tuve entre los brazos
para poder hablarte
para decirte que
mi vida iba cayendo
como una gota de agua
que hacía frío y
que te he esperado siempre
roto y amante como
me ves como me tienes
contra tu pecho amiga.

The beauty of this poem is in its pacing. I read it fast, like a desperate prayer. I love the absence of punctuation and how he chose to put pauses in the poem with each new line.

Here is a rough translation:

Happiness, I have
looked and looked for you
in all of the places
in all of the streets
that I walked and unwalked
once I heard your steps in the forest
another time I listened
to your laugh but never
have I had you in my arms
to be able to speak to you
to tell you that
my life has gone falling
like a drop of water
that was cold and
that I have waited for you forever
broken and lover like
you see me as you have me
against your chest friend.

I read this as if it were one long run-on sentence. I think the ending is purposefully more ambiguous because the emotion is stronger and the reader/writer is getting closer and closer to a sob.

Hace tiempo!

Hello again.

Yesterday Joel told me this joke (probably need to read it aloud):

¿Que dice un jaguar a otro jaguar?
Jaguar you?
(How are you?)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Zombies

My friend David posted this great short film on his blog. The intro is in Spanish but the film is in English w/ Spanish subtitles.

I've never enjoyed zombies before!

(bit of grossness/violence & language, but really nothing in comparison to what I would expect from film w/ zombies)

Ice cream plans fail, Cassidy learns to chill

Jesús and I were supposed to get ice cream on Monday, but things didn't work out. This didn't phase my easy-going (therefore, clearly non-estadounidense) friend.

"Sabes que dice el camello?" (Do you know what the camel says?)

"Aún nos queda mucho desierto para recorrer." (We still have plenty of desert left to walk over.)

Jesús' astute recognition that Sparky's isn't going anywhere.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Spanish word of the day

...another tongue twister! Thanks to Rosario & Jessi @ El Rancho:

Pepe pecas
Pica papas
con un pico
Pepe Peca
pica papas.

(I'm not quite sure what this means--any ideas David?)

Monday, March 2, 2009

Spanish word of the day

...except today it is a joke:

Si un gato muere. Say it five times fast, but not in the presence of any modest Spanish-speakers. Should sound like you are insulting someone's mom.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

True/False!

So this weekend has been the epic T/F Film Festival. I wore myself out on the first day! My lovely friend Amanda is in town from L.A.-yea! I've been catching up with her, volunteering, trying to stay up late enough to party & watching some great documentaries.

The highlights:
-Dancing at the @ction party on Friday night. The DJ played D.A.N.C.E. and Sarah and I became "those girls" who shrieked at the beginning of the song.
-Old friends:












-No Impact Man, a documentary about a family that decided to make no impact on the environment for one year. They lived in an apartment in NYC, watched reality TV and used electricity. By the end of the year, they were super excited to turn the power back on, but found they wanted to continue eating local food & riding their bikes everywhere. I decided that dancing on my laundry in the tub looks like much more fun than using a machine!

I'm off to see another movie & volunteer @ the Forrest Theatre!

Tongue twister!

Tres triste tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal! Say that 5 times fast.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Western Spaghetti

A little perspective...

My aunt Sandra sent me this Conan clip about the "good old days." Maybe we are the "crappiest generation," but I do think we could stand to be a little more amazed.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Story Corps

If you like NPR-style journalism, this site will make you happy. Oral history is so interesting! I feel lucky to live in an age where this kind of news-gathering is possible.

Toy Joy!

Austin, Tx is lovely. My dear friend Hannah lives there and I went down w/ some friends this weekend. It is a long drive, but I went with two of the silliest boys I know. They consumed a dangerous amount of B12 in energy drinks on the way down. It kept them hyper the whole weekend (and probably kept their pee orange).

One place Hannah took us to: Toy Joy. Why does Columbia not have a toy store like this? One thing I really wanted to buy:


That's right. There is an extra set of horns (rainbow & sparkly) for magical duels.

I did end up buying a book for my dad. It tells the life of Moses in Lego. This man must have the largest & most organized collection of Legos in the world.