Sunday, September 11, 2011

Mid-term Time in Argentina: Sports Commentary Style


It's mid-term time at the Universidad Blas Pascal, and we have a striking list of contenders on our roster for the alumnos these next few weeks. 

Our first, hailing from the Revolución de Mayo al fin del Modernismo, is our first subject to be dealt with. Dubbed Los géneros literarios argentinos by our lovely Spanish speakers, this shall be a feisty battle, and I think I speak for everyone when I say this shall be one of the fights to watch this upcoming Tuesday. Gruesome, feisty, and pesada, this mid-term might result in the fall of our unwavering hero, Sara Nasab. However, if she does defeat this threatening beast of an exam, she shall be even closer to obtaining the title of campeonata. But, what we’re most interested in hearing here is her approach—what is exactly is her estrategia? She has admitted that notecards, group studying, and re-reading aren’t her forte, so what else is there? Our interns have had the “privilege” to do our dirty work, and what they’ve come back with doesn’t sound too favorable for the ‘Sabster. We haven’t seen her do a lick of studying. Nevertheless, she has proved herself time and time again that procrastination might just be her blessing in disguise. Her tweets are decreasing, her Facebook statuses are waning, shoot- we looked in her sock drawer, and she has no more clean socks, so she must be employing some sort of tactic. We shall leave it at that, and we can just hope that she comes out alive. May her pencil lead stay abundant and may her words course through her veins, up to her brain, down to her fingertips, and actually make it on paper.

But, we are not done here! No way, José. We have a second contender, assuming she climbs the ranks into quarterfinals on the 19th of September. What is the name of this mid-term? “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, and such as the case, the mid-term is not a rose, still smells bad, and is simply referred to as lingüística. The study of language- how romantic! At first sight, one would think so, but like a lustful relationship, one soon discovers that without love and only passion, one only is left with a cheap whore that only submits after given jewelry and Russell Stover chocolates. The key to victory is to attack at the main points: las barreras, las monemas, las fonemas y la redaccion.If S-Nas just focuses solely on those four points, she should come out on top swiftly unharmed and uninfected with any whorish diseases. A disease-free Sara is our goal, but beggars can’t be choosers. Even with a few scratches, we would still love the kid. We think.

However, I digress. Our third and second-to-the-last mid-term is the ever so eloquent and bombastic mid-term we call: Historia de América Latina, another huge obstacle in the way for our SN. So, what’s she going to do here, folks? We predict a night of memorizing facts on facts of the Mexican Revolution, the struggle between los federales y los unitarios, the independence followed by American intervention, and struggling economies making their way to the forefront of the modern world. By this point, she’s going to have to put her nose to the grindstone, or else. If she doesn’t go hard in the paint, well, here’s knowing ya, Nazzy. The first half of this should be a breeze. As long as she prepares adequately, we’re expecting a 10/10, but what we’re concerned about is the second-half essay portion: three open-ended essays, all in Spanish, about anything from the Reformas Borbónicas up to the end of Argentinean Yrigoyen’s reign as president. This is a tough one to call for this semi-final. The O/U is set at 8 (out of a possible 10). We expect a push, but hey, we can’t exactly tell the future here, so if I were you, I’d stay clear out of this one, but if you’re the type to live on the edge, go for it. Over is better than under in this case.

Last, but not least, we have the mid-term championship: Español. You thought learning the difference between “good” and “well” was hard, well, think again, bud. We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty, down to the carnal vestiges of grammar here. No way is this going to be an easy one. We’re down to the last minutes. All in, guns blazing—final quarter…with seconds left on the clock, it could be anybody’s game. Nuh-sobby’s going to have to be really careful and not only will she have to pay attention to what’s in front of her, she’s going to need to use her peripherals as well. Yup, you heard right. I said peripherals. She could get blindsided by a rando sustantivo if she just takes this last mid-term for granted.

We shall just have to wait and see what they have in store for good ol’ Sara. From Córdoba, Argentina, we wish you a pleasant tomorrow, and remember: “A loss is not a win. Therefore, you’re still a loser.” 

Two Asians and a peace sign still doesn't count as
 studying, no matter how much you wish it were so.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Monthly Progress Report

Nature-wise: Sierras at Rio Ceballos - Two weeks ago. It was an adventure, I can assure you. Three girls from school that I went with met up with two cordobeses through the CouchSurfing website. However, this is the day that I will always remember as the time that Tiffani taught me the word: mortal ("cool").


Pro: I still have friends.
Con: They love me more than I love them. (Kidding?)

Pro: There is a Wal-Mart here!
Con: Due to my indecisive nature, our Wal-Mart trip lasted three hours.

Pro: I finally got the guts to walk into the school gym!
Con: That was a few weeks ago...

Pro: I have been kissed at, honked at, winked at, and hollered at on the way to school.
Con: Most of these have been committed by men that qualify for the senior citizen discount at the movie theater.

Pro: My Spanish is improving. I can now say, I am fluent in two-year-old Spanish.
Con: I know one two-year-old, and I now have his blood on my curtains. Long story... 

Pro: We have ESPN here!
Con: This one only shows Formula 1, soccer, and rugby.
However, my dad here, Raul, has some pretty colorful commentary to go along with when we're all watching together.

Pro: They have delicious ice cream, and I shall try all the flavors while I'm here.
Con: They have delicious ice cream, and I shall try all the flavors while I'm here.

Pro: I have found true love.
Con: Ended when her boyfriend found out about us.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Córdoba, che


From the time I arrived, it's been surreal. I can't believe that I'm staying here for four months. I feel like my Spanish has improved in just the one week I've been here, and I can't even imagine how much better I'll be once I have to leave.  My family is amazing: I live with a father, mother, and two younger brothers. And every meal is like eating at a restaurant. This will be a Lean Cuisine-free semester for sure. One of my brothers, Sebastian, and I play games whenever I'm at home. We've played soccer in the backyard, almost broke the TV when had the great idea to throw the tennis ball in the living room, played video games, took turns on a bike machine...we've just got too much energy for our own good...

School has been an experience in and of itself. I've met people from the U.S., Germany, Brazil, and France. And being a foreign exchange student is the bee's knees. You're kind of like that one Japanese Pokemon card that you had in your stack when you were a kid. You made sure you took care of it because it was "rare," and you had no idea what that card even said, but it was cool anyways. Yup, so I'm that card in a stack of regular ones that are from Argentina. What can I say? I feel loved in the Dirty South.

We had a city tour the other day, and we saw so many historical monuments. Honestly, I couldn't name you a single one without looking it up, so I won't even try, but it was kind of a bonding moment for the exchange students. By the time the tour was over, we were all tired, so of course we did the Argentinian thing, we headed straight to a little restaurant to have that 5 'o'clock cerveza

But during the tour, our guide was talking about manzanas and how they were everywhere downtown, but the only definition that I ever learned for manzana was apple. So, I was looking everywhere for some apples. Seriously, where were the apples? Were they hiding them? What's the significance of the apples? Honestly, somebody tell me! I asked another student, and he was thinking the same thing. I was in the back of our little group, so I decided to shout "¿Dónde están los árboles de manzana?" (Where are the apple trees?), and our coordinator gave me this weird look. I found out later that manzana can mean "block" as well. And it hit me, the tour guide was talking about the blocks downtown. No wonder our coordinator gave me this weird look...but I had a fun time talking about those manzanas, I can assure you. It became obvious later that the tour guide wasn't talking about apples, but we just ran with it. "¿Dónde están los árboles de manzanas?"

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Seriously...another letter?!

Yes, you have to read my handwriting again. The computer was being lazy and decided to sleep in, so I was stuck with the notebook. But these are still prime thoughts. Promise.
This is when the interview with myself ended. The situation just got too out of hand. I mean...I don't even know if I can face myself again. There goes mirrors...

Monday, August 1, 2011

In Transit

Start - BNA - MIA - SCL - COR - Finish

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Page Gets Me Hot and Bothered

You know that saying that says something along the lines of: "You can tell a lot about someone from their friends."  Well, in my case, I'd say that's partially true.  To people who have ever had a conversation with me, they usually leave with a sense of not knowing why or how we got to a certain topic.  Flying elephants...self-mutilation by plastic sporks...nothing is out of bounds with me.  Some say I'm awkward, but you know what I say?  Hey, at least I'm not one boring excuse of a human being.  So, my friends are definitely not boring (well, maybe I have a few to keep the friend pool diverse), and I'd say when I hang out with them, I expect to laugh.  If I didn't laugh at least once with you within the first thirty minutes, we were (a) purposefully trying to be serious, (b) I was in a bad mood, or (c) you're probably that one guy in class who decides to comment on every topic the teacher brings up, and I hate you.  I have my annoying friends, loud friends, sarcastic friends, athletic friends, quiet friends, bro friends, smelly friends, hairy friends, and the list goes on and on.

So, to stay on this topic of friends, I'd like to introduce my current roommate and the first friend that I ever made at UT who shared no mutual friends with me.  Her name is Page.  I should have known that I was going to fall under her spell.  The signs were all there.  I was a freshman; she was a freshman.  She had a polka-dotted towel; I had a Gatorade polka-dotted stained towel.  She had a Minnesotan accent; my parents had accents.  I mean, we were practically star-crossed lovers except for one little exception which was mostly my fault: I just am really not attracted to the females.  Yup, so that was a little blip right there.  But, when the first words that she said included:

  1. Hi.
  2. Would
  3. you
  4. like
  5. some 
  6. cake?
Ahh...she had me at "cake."  We bonded right there.  And I'm not talking about weak Van-der-Walls type of bonds.  I'm talking about the sharing and caring, harder to break, so-close-they-share-electrons, covalent bonds.  We were like two cramped peas in a pod.  She actually made me claustrophobic. I never experienced this type of caring that actually breathed down my back.  I choked on her friendship love every day.  It was spectacular.  I was giddy as a schoolgirl after swim practice.  She knew me like she knew her multiplication tables (all the way up to 12x12!!).  One day at practice, I yelled in agony for some roast beef.  Every one else though I was crazy, but she knew I was just Asian.  I couldn't help being a product of my almost homogeneous Asian family.  And if you know Page...she's got that yellow fever.  Shucks, she took Chinese, went to China for a robotics competition, reads Popular Science, bought a scooter from Asia (probably to aid the continent economically.  Isn't that sweet of her?  She is such a humanitarian that Page), and...she loves those Kate + 8 babies.

Page was always willing to teach me something...like how to cook rice.  (See how cultured this girl is?  I have mad love for this young woman).  Although her love is partly due to the effects of yellow fever, she has learned to truly love me for me.  She accepts that I will never reach the top shelf of the pantry and will sometimes leave potatoes on the top of the fridge for 4 months and blame it on her.  She is aware of these faults of mine. And although I might not like 16 & Pregnant, at least Page is not pregnant herself and is only living vicariously.  Why be pregnant for nine months when you can be pregnant a few times a week at 30-minute intervals (with commercial breaks in-between!).  But our differences aside, our similarities are what truly unite us.  We hate the same things and these are:

  1. Running out of toilet paper
  2. Paying for rent. I mean, is a rent-free apartment too much to ask for??
  3. The morning of December 4, 2010
  4. Stuffy apartments. Some might like their apartments with plenty of carbon dioxide to keep the plants happy, but that's not how we roll.  Ya dig?
  5. When Titus goes to the bathroom outside and later, tries to rub his behind all over our faces (okay, maybe just mine, but I'm sure if this happened to Page, she would hate it too).
  6. Bestiality 
These are just a few, but anyone reading this can just tell.  I mean, we both hate bestiality which means when animals come over (and they come over often), we know that when we are around, they are safe from certain acts that shall not be named.  Shoot, we would probably be vegetarians if it weren't for the fact that we just love our meat!  Simple as that.

But...if the situation were different, and she had her own PETA cover, and I had the opportunity to design it, this is what is would be:

I know what Bruno Mars was singing about when he said, "You're amazing just the way you are."  Evidence above.  She is photogenic in the blurriest of pictures.  

Page is wonderful  And if you haven't met her, well, you need to know her.  And I'm not talking about the saber version of "to know," I'm talking about that conocer, babe.  I just can't express it fully within a constricted form of an essay, but maybe this song can help.

She will always have my heart.

And I swear, if anyone tries to take my heart away from her, I will chop off your favorite limb and use it as a walking stick for when I go hiking.