I Teach, You Learn

So apparently I'm a Spanish tutor now, I stopped tutoring ESL about 2 months ago...mostly because I hated waking up early on Saturday mornings and I didn't feel like I was being effective. But it's the experience that counts. About 2 weeks ago I recieved a random call from someone who had looked my name up in the university database looking for a Spanish tutor. I hadn't been expected to get called mostly because I figured that there must be plenty of able Spanish tutors and there was no reason why they should pick me just from looking at my name in the database. Well, it just so happens that there are only 3 people in the database for Spanish and only one has a spanish-sounding last name- mine. I have one of the most typical names, it's as common as William Smith. I've crossed the line that divides volunteers and non-volunteers. All those months I tutored ESL I did it for free because volunteering is cool. But I get paid to tutor now and I'm having a really tought time accepting money.

I got offered another Spanish tutoring job throught the Office of Indigenous Services at uni and I'm meant to meet the guy on Thursday. I don't know how much I'm getting paid since the tutoring program is government funded. The government can either go all out and spend heaps of $ or be really stingy. I think my case falls in the latter category. I don't care really. I feel better about myself if I get paid next-to-nothing for doing good things. But I feel even better if I get paid heaps to do something really crappy like answer phones or file crap. It's even better if the $ just magically appears in my account instead of in cash.

I'm in the market for a French or Portuguese tutor but can't afford to go through the database at uni because the tutors are expensive on a student budget. Post-graduate students get to charge the most for tutoring...I just thought the amount was absurd and couldn't bring myself to charge my student that much for just talking to him and elaborating on grammatical issues in his speech. Someday real soon I'll charge a proper amount. When I take my tutor training wheels off I'll do it.

Soduku, Murumbeena & Toorak

I did a whole lot of nothing this weekend so that I could have a busy week coming up. I think it may be too busy, but that's my fault for coming up with such a plan to begin with. Will has recently gotten into this number game called Sodoku, don't ask me to explain how it works because numbers are not my strong area. This weekend we did this:

Thursday: Had many martinis in our kitchen, ate lemon and cracked pepper crips and talked about how fantastic our lives have been since we crossed paths.

Friday: I had Spanish tutoring. I'm a Spanish tutor now. We saw the Island, which was pretty good. I kind of want one of those black and white track suits everyone was wearing.

Saturday: I used internet all day, literally. I'm trying to plan my 24th birthday.

Sunday: I called my parents and told them I had applied to the Peace Corps, they took it really well. It was really nice out so we took a long walk around the city, specifically to the Docklands. They are doing some serious development work in this city. The riverfront is going to be the hottest place in town in a few years. Well, it's already pretty hot.

I can't believe how fast time has flown, we've been here for a bit over 6 months and it seems like both an eternity and that we arrived last week. This is one of the best cities I've ever lived in and will definately miss it. And time will continue to fly as our stay here in Australia now has a definite end date. Between now and then a whirlwind of actitiy will have happend. Our friend Keely is coming to visit in a week and a half, summer vacation begins in November, my parents are coming to visit in December, we are going to Thailand in December, in March we begin our last semester, Will's family is coming in April and in May will be done with classes.

The gran finale is to come in June.

My Señora and I

I wish I had known about blogs when I was living in Sevilla in southern Spain. Living in a host mother was one of the more interesting experiences ever. I could write a book about my time there. She was such an unconventional Spanish woman and not the best cook I've ever met. She had this distorted concept of the period of time in which food remains suitable for human consumption. A couple of months ago I decided I was going to write a book, but didn't get very far. The excerpt below is about when I first arrived at my host mother's apartment and is in fact all I've written for this so-called book titled My Señora and I:The Tales of a Vegetarian Abroad

Chapter 1: Triana

Triana. Tri-an-na. I loved the way the word rolled off the tip of my tongue. Triana: Seville’s most famous barrio whose corners and sidewalks burst with untold stories riddled with sailors, gypsies, pirates and dance. The third floor of an apartment building on one of those lively corners of Triana belonged to my señora- my host mother for the next six months. I guessed I wouldn’t be living with a young couple after all, just a señora who, according to my study abroad student handbook, would most likely be an older woman who lived alone and rented out her extra room(s) in exchange for some friendly company during mealtimes. I would soon find out that my señora was none of those things. Little did I know that young people, let alone young married couples, are actually outnumbered by senior citizens in Seville and that I would soon find myself spending many an afternoon zigzagging at various speeds from side to side on sidewalks throughout the city in an attempt to avoid an early death caused by a low velocity collision with one of its senior citizens.

After the taxi driver rid himself of my luggage and left me alone in front of building no. 3, I took a deep breath and pressed the buzzer to what I thought was apartment 2A. No answer. I pressed it again and still no answer. “Great,” I thought outloud, “my first day in Triana and I’m going to have to spend it out on the sidewalk with all of my luggage, waiting for a pirate with a patch over his eye to appear and steal my stuff ”. I pulled out my cell phone and decided to give her ring to make sure it wasn’t just that she hadn’t heard the doorbell. “Hello?” said the voice on the other end. She sounded too young to be the older woman I had imagined. “Hi, it’s Adrianna… the new student” I replied in Spanish, “I pressed the buzzer but I didn’t get an answer, I’m downstairs”. I had buzzed the wrong apartment apparently.

After what seemed like ages spent lugging my suitcase up two flights of stairs while she struggled with the weight and I struggled to keep myself from falling backwards under the weight of my hiking pack, we sat down in my new living room with a glass of water, exchanging awkward glances with our curious eyes. She proceeded to tell me about herself, a story which I only half remember because she told me her whole life story in 5 minutes. She had studied some form of law, had a part-time job working for the University of Seville and hadn’t the slightest idea what a vegetarian was. Even though my heart literally sank to the floor upon hearing that, I tried to give the impression that it didn’t bother me in the slightest because after all, studying abroad in one of Spain’s most historic and culturally rich cities was supposed to be a learning experience- for both of us. She even had a surprise for me, a welcome dinner complete with a seafood rice dish, a cheese plate and a hearty salad made especially for me. As we sat down to eat lunch, the biggest meal of the day in Spain, I figured now was as good as any other time to bring up the fact that being vegetarian meant that I wouldn’t be eating any cooked animals starting with her seafood rice with shrimp that still had their heads attached. She looked at me with a disheartened look across her face as she told me that no one had informed her that I was vegetarian and that she usually didn’t cook seafood rice, but had made is especially for me. Just this once, I decided to put my morals aside and spare this poor woman her dignity. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll just pick the seafood out and eat the rice. I’m sure the rice is just as delicious!” I said through a smile as my stomach prepared itself for the worst. I would just ignore those little black eyes peering at me from my heaping plate.
-end-

This is actually one of my better dinner experiences.

Hot Diggety, I'm Going Home!

As most of cyber world knows by now (becuase I've posted this news just about everyone on the internet), Will and I applied to the Peace Corps back in April/May and have been waiting since to hear whether we'd get rejected or accepted. Today we were accepted and nominated to depart for Latin America next June. If you're interested in WHY and HOW and have 10 minutes to spare, by all means please keep reading. If not, you can get smaller doses of what's been happening with our Peace Corps plans here.

How It All Began

Let me give some background information on how this little adventure of an idea came about. I like to travel, Will likes to travel, we both like living abroad because it's just so darn great. After our little Boston fiasco, we decided that we were moving abroad and we weren't sure when we'd be "coming back" (if ever". That's where grad school comes into the picture. Being US citizens and all that jazz we could have very well gone to school in America and gotten some financial aid and worked as many hours and at any job our little hearts desired while we studied. The reality of that was, being that America is the land of non-trained translators who dare call themselves translators, there was only one state that offered a really good translation program I'd go to and that was in Monterrey, California. But school is 2 years in America and costs about 30K a year, blah, blah, blah...to expensive...not exciting enough. To make a long story short out of all of the English-speaking countries in the world, we chose New Zealand and Australia because they were the most affordable and the furthest and most "exotic" countries that offered degrees in what we wanted to study.

The Realisation

Shortly after arriving in OZ, we decided that living abroad was really nice and that we hoped to keep this whole jettsetting life as a permanent feature in our lives. We decided that we wanted to go to Latin America afterwards because I'm studying to be a Spanish-English translator and Will speaks Spanish and Latin America has generation and generations worth of development work to be done as a region. Deciding where to move is easier said than done. Unless you're lucky enought to have EU citizenship, you run into the Catch-22 of that: You will not get offered a job unless you have a work visa, but you will not be offered a work visa unless you have a job offer. How you get around that, I have no idea.

Easy solution: Peace Corps
That solution was also easier said than done. You can't just decided where you want to go and have the Peace Corps send you there. You go where you are needed and if that place happens to be your first geographical preference, then great. Latin America is apparently a hotspot for volunteers...everyone wants to go because they want to become fluent in Spanish. We wanted to go because we wanted to live there. So naturally, the more interest there is in a place, the more competition there is. I was so sure we were going to Eastern Europe or Asia and that I would be an ESL teacher because I've been teaching ESL for almost a year and that's where they send ESL teachers and tutors- to Eastern Europe and Asia.

The Cosmos

We must have been in the system at the right time, with the right skills, with the right availability because we GOT LUCKY. It is very hard to place two volunteers at the same time because most places only request one volunteer. I've been wanting to move back to Latin America for ages...and now I'm finally going back.

The 'rents

Now I've just got to tell the parents that their only daughter and most academically acheived daughter is choosing to become a volunteer in a non-industrialised country for 2.25 years making $200 per month working with at-risk youth instead of getting a snazzy office job in some stuffy cubicle making $2500 per month. No, they don't know yet. I went away to grad school because I wanted to get a well-paid job, remember?

The Girl Without a Past

These past few years I've been thinking about my background and how non-existant it is. One of the most embarrassing things for me these days is when I tell people that I'm Cuban(-American), because my parents are from there, they usually ask me if I've been there. The answer is always no, of course. And the thing that bothers me the most is that:

1. Most of the world is unaware that the most (or one of the most) powerful countries in the world has an embargo on Cuba
2. The embargo is serving absolutely no purpose

How the hell does this Mr. President think he is that he can go ahead and basically tell people that they will only get to visit their family members when he says so. I bet if stinky Bush was Cuban-American he'd get to go to the island anytime he wanted- because he's the president. That's not fair because they can obviously only be one president. Now, I'm not so much angered at the fact that I'm not allowed to visit family members because it's been 20+ since my parents had any contact with family members on the island, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. I have grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins there that I've never met before.

The pain truth is that once the embargo is lifted the island will be flooded with Americans and it just won't be the same. Everyone wants a taste of the forbidden fruit. I don't want to go because its forbidden, I want to go because I have no past. I don't know what it means to have the "Cuban" attached to the "American". I would have gone there already if it weren't forbidden, probably dozens of times.

I can't just go around saying I don't know who or what I am for the rest of my life. Did you know that Cuba is so close you can see the lights of Havana from Key West? I've seen them before, I've always wondered what it'd be like to actuall have those lights shinning on my face...and some day soon I will.

Happy Tree Friends

When I graduated highschool, I didn't get a special party and we didn't go out to eat. We rode our dilapidated minivan to a pet store to buy dog food. I suppose parents never really know what to do the first time around. 3 out of 4 of my brothers have graduated high school so far (only two of them are featured on the left). My youngest brother, Oscar, just started 6th grade. What's strange is that I can remember quite clearly the year that I was in 6th grade mostly because Oscar was born and he was tiny, like a small creature with lots of black hair on his head. My step-mother no longer wobbled around like a duck. Those few days I was in the hospital, I had to cook dinner for my father and brothers. I remember making a beef stew that had to be saltier than a salt lake. To this day, I can't remember why I kept adding salt to the stew every 20 minutes.

Everyone must know that Boston and I aren't exactly the best of friends, actually, I could care less if I ever visited that filty soul-draining city every again. However, the day I graduated from the notorious Northeastern University was one of the happiest days of my life. The chain and ball relationship I'd had with that university since I arrived that unforgettable Fall of 2002 had finally been cut. I think one of the best things was having my family together and not having to listen to any bickering or witness any dirty looks. For the first time in years, and I mean over 10 years here, my family was able to sit down together and be civil. I can't believe the one year anniversary of that day in the picture is coming up on Sept 2nd.

I guess it'd be a pretty sad day if I was still working as an administrative assistant in the human resources department at the Childrens Hopsital in Boston, huh?

But I guess ending up in Australia isn't too shabby of a deal. Especially when I can do happy dances- anytime I want to.

Un-Nice People

I'd like to dedicate this post to Jenny. She thinks my new shoes are ugly and can't comphrend why anyone would want to buy them. Well, I think Uggs are ugly, but I don't go around telling people that. Uggs are Australian, so everyone wears them here. It's just rude and attaching a "sorry" on to the end of an insult doesn't make what you've just said sound any nicer or considerate.

It only makes you seem like an un-nice person.

Note: Anonymous commenting is no longer permitted on this blog

Work in Progress, Hard hats must be worn

School has ceased to be some sort of fashion show for me and most of my good shirts have all become smaller or changed colour due to Will's awesome attemps with the laundry. My obsession for pants with wides legs have done me in, I can't find big pants anywhere. What's worse is the new fashion is pencil-legged pants, the complete opposite of elephant-legged pants! My wardrobe had been reduced to a few items I wear on a regular basis: 1 pair of elephant pants with ripped leg hems because they're too long, my cotton army-green cargo pants and my high-water jeans. Geez.

I've bought 2 new pairs in the last 3 days, with the most recent ones being displayed on the left. I bought them because they were AU$23.30. Take 25% off that and you'll have the price is US$. Buying anything here is like living in a world of perpetual sales and discounts because you always get a 20-30% discount if you have US$ in your bank account, which I do. Ironically enough, apparently American expats are becoming a popular business tool because they all have a 25% off price tag, if you have € in your bank account, which I don't.

I also got my hair cut today. No, this is not one of those cases where just because I'm in a serious relationship, I've taken the liberty of "letting myself go". I guess you can say I'm in a state of rennovation. I hate getting my hair cut because they always cut too much. I'm only smiling in the picture so that I can appear to have photogenic qualities.

If you look really hard you can see right above the phone, Will and I have displayed our OZ Pride.

We love Australia and Australia loves us.

Chiang Mai from above

If you look really closely you can see a train of lovely elephants in the distance with people riding on their backs. Have you ever riddent through a lush forrest atop an elepants back in Thailand? Me either, but as soon as we get there I'm booking the first elephant ride I can find.

You might be thinking, "Riding an elephant? A person who feels compassion for all animals is going to subject a poor creature to such things for the pure entertainment of a stupid tourist?"

The answer to that is yes and no. It really depends. I won't ride in one of those carriages they have around Melbourne where the horses just look miserable carting around stupid tourists who can't walk around the city for themselves. If these elephants were to carry people around the city on asphalt and then roasted to a crisp for tourists to eat on skewers then I'd have a problem. I'm not going to eat the elephant, just ride on its back through a rive. Afterwards I'll give it what ever sort of treat it wants. I don't know what elephants eat. Sugar cubes maybe? I don't know I'll find out when I get to Thailand.

Thai for Travellers

I got over my Bali obsession and have gotten back to thinking about Thailand. I signed up for a class called Thai for Travellers which starts in October and am pretty excited about that...I've been meaning to sign up for a language class since February, but it was meant to be in either French or Portuguese. Not Thai!

I thought Thailand was place that only my friend Keely would go to. Keely, the lovely girl to the left, is a friend we met when we stuidied in Sevilla. She's was a religion studies major at Yale who spent last summer in Thailand in a Budhist monastary doing research and has big red curly hair and is from South Carolina. Those of you who were adventurous enough to come to our fabulous GATAG (going away to australia and graduation) had the pleaseure of meeting her, ahem. Anyhow, she is moving to Chiang Mai in September, which is the whole reason we're even going to Thailand- the land of smiles apparently. I've never been to Asia before so this trip should be interesting at least.

I've been looking for serviced apartments we can stay in for the 2 months we will be in Chiang Mai and I've found a few and they are really, really nice. Well nice is an inappropriate word to use. You can stay in a luxurious condo for about $400 per month. Just imagine what you could pay if you stay in a non-serviced student-style apartment with crappy, but decent furniture.

I wish we could go to Thailand tomorrow. (sigh)

Time With Wings

The thought just occurred to me that time is officially flying. Ashley moved to Peru last September to being her adventure in the Peace Corps. That was almost a year ago. Last September I had just graduated from stinky Northeastern and as a mere 6 months away from moving to Australia. We've been here for 6 months on the 20th of this month. Sometimes I still can't believe that I live in Australia. Australia! (Un)fortunately it doesn't seem that amazing to me. Once you live anywhere for a few months, it just becomes normal. When I lived in Panama, going to the Panama Canal on field trips just seemed normal. Seeing giant iguanas creeping around in the palm tree outside my window just seemed normal. Seeing toucans flying around on my way to school was normal. I really miss Panama. Next to my 2+ years in Spain, I had the best time of my life during those 4 years. Why did they have to give the Panama Canal back? What were they thinking? So many people lost jobs by having the US military leave the country for good. It was such an interesting time in my life. I moved there the summer after 5th grade and left the summer after 9th grade. Between 3rd and 4th grade in Mexico and gradess 6 through 9 in Panama, I grew up. I went through puberty, became interested in stinky boys, went through a stage where I though wearing lipstick was cool, fell in 'love', had my sweet 15's party...so much.

I'm only 23 but have lived in so many countries and visited many more. I've even accomplished that one thing many people struggle to accomplish well into their 30's-- found a mate for life. Is anyone aware how much more energy I can put into other areas of my life now that I don't have to worry about finding someone to be a father to my children? I remember 'giving up' on find a proper guy when I was just 19. I've basically been a loser magnet for my whole life. I don't know who I ended up with such an amazing person like William Smith. I thought I'd end up with someone named like Pedro Menendez or something. I must have had some sticker on my forehead that said "I heart losers--come to me". Geez.

But I've never been on a cruise or even been to a baseball game (I really hate baseball by the way...I think I like cricket more). Or eaten chopped liver.

Almost Famous

state libarary brochure
Originally uploaded by dirtyflamingo.

Some months ago, I mentioned how Will and I were approached by a photographer doing some promotional work for the state library. Well, the brochures are out and somehow we got our pretty little faces on the front page of the brochure. Our faces are all over Melbourne now- but unfortunately no one has reconized us yet.

It must be my lucky red coat.

I Heart Cheap Websites

These cheap 'websites' you can build for free are so great. Especially when they look really cheesy. I'm going to start a series of cheap websites documenting my fabulous life here, in hopes to take up more space on the internet.

You can take a look at my best piece of work ever by clicking here.

Cheers sans the beers.