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elfina12
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Birthday: 12/12/1979
Gender: Female
Interests: Traveling, white sandy beaches, reading magazines, sleeping, running, all things Spanish, good food, acessories, long hot showers, hybrid produce, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Expertise: Productive procrastination
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
12/22/2004
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| One of the good things about relationships is that as you get closer to another person, you find yourself doing things that might have previously been outside your realm of interest or experience. Friendships are the same way - I'm sure a lot of my college friends who found themselves dragged to foreign films can relate.
That's how I ended up in a bowling league. I have to admit, committing to spending 3 hours each week feeling frustratingly uncoordinated has not ever been on my list of things to do, and in the beginning I wasn't too excited. Surprisingly, though, it hasn't been so bad. Some weeks, I even almost look forward to it.
My goal since the beginning has been to not have the lowest score in the league. Up to this point, I have not yet met my goal. Now, I liken it to coming in last place in the Olympics. Being last among the elite is not necessarily shameful.
However, last night I shattered all previous records and bowled my all-time high of 143! It was an exciting moment, and hopefully one that will skyrocket me up in the league rankings. Don't worry, Xangaland, you'll be the first to know when I accomplish my goal.
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| I spoke too soon. One more post is needed to remove the hampics, so here it is. Hasta luego, jamón!
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| Clearly, I have been somewhat ambivalent about this whole blogging thing lately. By lately, I mean for the past year or so. At least all those pictures of ham are gone now. I've even thought about just shutting the whole thing down, but the times that I did actually write, I'd like to preserve.
I came across something share-worthy today, though, so I thought I would post it. Perhaps I will post my own thoughts some other day. For now, though, enjoy reading about what today's college freshmen are like, and being reminded that you are not one. Sure, you're older. But you're wiser too. You totally remember your parents worrying if being a latchkey kid would scar you for life, and MTV had actual music videos (also potentially scar-inducing). Enjoy!
BELOIT COLLEGE'S
MINDSET LIST® FOR THE CLASS OF 2011Most of the students entering College this fall, members of the Class of
2011, were born in 1989. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton,
Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always
been dead.
- What Berlin
wall?
- Humvees, minus the artillery,
have always been available to the public.
- Rush Limbaugh and the
“Dittoheads” have always been lambasting liberals.
- They never “rolled down” a
car window.
- Michael Moore has always been
angry and funny.
- They may confuse the Keating
Five with a rock group.
- They have grown up with
bottled water.
- General Motors has always
been working on an electric car.
- Nelson Mandela has always
been free and a force in South Africa.
- Pete Rose has never played
baseball.
- Rap music has always been
mainstream.
- Religious leaders have always
been telling politicians what to do, or else!
- “Off the hook” has never had
anything to do with a telephone.
- Music has always been
“unplugged.”
- Russia
has always had a multi-party political system.
- Women have always been police
chiefs in major cities.
- They were born the year
Harvard Law Review Editor Barack Obama announced he might run for office
some day.
- The NBA season has always
gone on and on and on and on.
- Classmates could include
Michelle Wie, Jordin Sparks, and Bart Simpson.
- Half of them may have been
members of the Baby-sitters Club.
- Eastern Airlines has never
“earned their wings” in their lifetime.
- No one has ever been able to
sit down comfortably to a meal of “liver with some fava beans and a nice
Chianti.”
- Wal-Mart has always been a
larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM.
- Being “lame” has to do with
being dumb or inarticulate, not disabled.
- Wolf Blitzer has always been
serving up the news on CNN.
- Katie Couric has always had
screen cred.
- Al Gore has always been
running for president or thinking about it.
- They never found a prize in a
Coca-Cola “MagiCan.”
- They were too young to
understand Judas Priest’s subliminal messages.
- When all else fails, the
Prozac defense has always been a possibility.
- Multigrain chips have always
provided healthful junk food.
- They grew up in Wayne’s
World.
- U2 has always been more than
a spy plane.
- They were introduced to Jack
Nicholson as “The Joker.”
- Stadiums, rock tours and
sporting events have always had corporate names.
- American rock groups have
always appeared in Moscow.
- Commercial product placements
have been the norm in films and on TV.
- On Parents’ Day on campus,
their folks could be mixing it up with Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz with
daughter Zöe, or Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford with son Cody.
- Fox has always been a major
network.
- They drove their parents
crazy with the Beavis and Butt-Head laugh.
- The “Blue Man Group” has
always been everywhere.
- Women’s studies majors have
always been offered on campus.
- Being a latchkey kid has
never been a big deal.
- Thanks to MySpace and Facebook,
autobiography can happen in real time.
- They learned about JFK from
Oliver Stone and Malcolm X from Spike Lee.
- Most phone calls have never
been private.
- High definition television
has always been available.
- Microbreweries have always
been ubiquitous.
- Virtual reality has always
been available when the real thing failed.
- Smoking has never been
allowed in public spaces in France.
- China
has always been more interested in making money than in reeducation.
- Time has always worked with
Warner.
- Tiananmen Square
is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
- The purchase of ivory has
always been banned.
- MTV has never featured music
videos.
- The space program has never
really caught their attention except in disasters.
- Jerry Springer has always
been lowering the level of discourse on TV.
- They get much more
information from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert than from the newspaper.
- They’re always texting 1 n
other.
- They will encounter roughly
equal numbers of female and male professors in the classroom.
- They never saw Johnny Carson
live on television.
- They have no idea who Rusty
Jones was or why he said “goodbye to rusty cars.”
- Avatars have nothing to do
with Hindu deities.
- Chavez has nothing to do with
iceberg lettuce and everything to do with oil.
- Illinois
has been trying to ban smoking since the year they were born.
- The World Wide Web has been
an online tool since they were born.
- Chronic fatigue syndrome has
always been debilitating and controversial.
- Burma
has always been Myanmar.
- Dilbert has always been
ridiculing cubicle culture.
- Food packaging has always
included nutritional labeling.
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| I have to admit, I'm not sure how I'm feeling about this whole blogging thing. Sometimes, I'm just not sure if there's much I'm feeling the need to blog about. Or, I swing to the opposite extreme and the day is filled with blogworthy moments, but I never get around to writing them all down, and then I feel like a bad blogger. But I'll give it a shot.
Judging by the mass chaos at the grocery store on Sunday night, the kiddies that suddenly appeared at the track this morning (it happens to be at a middle school), and the ridiculous traffic on the way to work, it seems to be back-to-school time. La vuelta al cole, if you will. Ah, Corte Ingles. Weird. Anyway, I realized this morning as I dodged the kiddies at the track that this is the first year ever that back-to-school hasn't affected me. Since about age 4, this time of year has either meant going to school, teaching school, or figuring out what to do now that I'm no longer doing one of those things. This year, it's just another week. With more traffic.
At first, I felt sad to realize that summer was ending and that since I am now just a normal working girl, summers aren't even that summery. But then I remembered that I did spend a few months on the coast of Spain, albeit working, and that I have even had a real live vacation or two thrown in there. Here in Austin, in spite of the rain, I have done my share of summertime things. I was even in the US for the 4th of July! And even though it wasn't the carefree summertime of my youth, it's been a pretty good summer. The best ever, in some ways.
Then I realized that the best thing about not being a student or a teacher, and not having a "real" summer, is that it doesn't have to end! Living in Austin helps too, since it is pretty much summer for most of the year. I can go swimming or kayaking or barbecuing or picnicking or hiking or frolicking in the warm evening breeze anytime. I can take a vacation at the end of September. In fact, I think I will. I'm going to Vegas! Take that, academic year.
By the way, by the end of September, I will officially, really, really live in Austin. No more being on the road for weeks at a time, and no more creepy hotel rooms. Of course, that means less inspiration for Xanga ramblings. But I will trade that for more inspiration for a happy life! It's going to be a big change, and one that I am really excited about.
I'm trying my hand at this stability thing. This will be the first year since high school that I have lived in the same place for over a year. And worked at the same place, although I'm kind of changing jobs. So far, I think I like it!
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| As it usually goes when I have been away from Xanga for a
while, I have been wanting to make a triumphant return, complete with photos
and a detailed update of what I’ve been up to. That’s a daunting task, and one
that generally keeps me from posting. Maybe I’ll get there, but for now I think I’ll just share
the phone call I just got, which just might be my favorite phone call from a
student, ever.
Me: Good afternoon, this is Elfina.
Student: Hi, I was just wondering, do you have to take
classes in order to study abroad with your program?
Me: Excuse me?
Student: Um, if I want to study abroad on your programs, do
I have to, like, take classes?
Me: Take classes?
Student: Yeah.
Me: Yes, yes you do. They are study abroad programs.
Student: Oh, okay. Thanks! | | |
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