Cadla

On Sunday night my program director Rebecca took me to the airport in San Jose to pick up the fam-jam. She and I sang musicals on the way there and then waited for about forty five minutes before we saw Dad's purposeful stride leading the pack through the airport. It turns out he's the same in every country. I'd been trying to describe my family to Rebecca as we waited for them, but it's hard to do them justice. I told her that Tom had mentioned that he wanted to practice his Spanish and she thought it would be fun to play with him a little and pretend she didn't speak a word of English. "Hola Tom? Como estas? Es una placer para conocerte. Su hermana me ha dicho muchas buenas cosas de ti. Estas emoniconado ... read more

"Cumpleaños, Oraciones, y Un Poco De Politica" (Birthdays, Prayers, and A Little Bit of Politics) Last month my Mama Tica celebrated her 59th birthday. She had a big party with her family, neighbors, and friends from church. She let Laura and I know that of course, her "hijas" (daughters) were invited too. While we are here, we are part of the family and we're made to feel so. I'm grateful for that. The party was fun because we got to meet a lot of new people. There are so many different contexts in which one can practice a second language. Perhaps because I am still frequently assigned to the "kids table" at family gatherings at home, I felt more comfortable starting the night off playing with Mami's grandchildren. I began by making feeble attempts to master ... read more

On top of the adventures we've been having on the weekends, our program director, Rebeca, has been organizing mini-excursions for us during the week. Our first outing was to the movies. I'll be honest, "Avatar" isn't the kind of movie I usually go to see but I'd been told over and over again that it was a cinematic experience that was not to be missed. So in early January I caught up with the rest of the world and everyone who went to see "Avatar" over Christmas break. The version I saw had Spanish subtitles but I got to wear the 3D glasses just like everyone else so I don't think I missed anything. It wasn´t hard to follow because the actors were speaking English for the majority of the movie, but those of you who've ... read more

First and foremost, I must say thank you. To all of you. It is easy to lose yourself in this wide world of ours, and I think that all of us, at one point or another need to be reassured that someone, somewhere, remembers who we are. Reading your comments at the end of the day makes my night. If anyone can inspire a 20-year-old girl to learn Spanish it's Gael García Bernal. "Ay que guapo es este muchacho". A good portion of my Friday morning intensive Spanish class was devoted to watching "The Motorcycle Diaries" a film which features the aforementioned Bernal. The movie is about the the famous/infamous Argentine Revolutionary Che Guevara, before he was....Che. While most people would recognize Che's likeness (which dawns the t-shirts of almost every moody would-be-teenage-rebel you've ever met) ... read more