Holly

This week has gone by fast, signifying the end of Week 9!! I can't believe my first year at Evergreen is coming to an end already. It has really been a great year. Now I am working on putting together my portfolio for my Spanish contract to present to my sponsoring faculty during Evaluations week. I will present all my essays and translations to show what I've learned and how my Spanish competency has improved.

Next week I have a meeting with the Spanish advisers at the University of Washington to establish my level placement for next year. It's great that Evergreen has narrative evaluations for transcripts, rather than just a number grade point, and my portfolio is generally already prepared based on my former program requirements. I feel like I am a step ahead, which is helping to boost my confidence during this stressful time!

This weekend is going to be fun! There will be live Balkan music at the Greek restaurant where I work on Saturday night. Then, Sunday is the Evergreen Singers Choral Recital!! I'm so nervous, but very excited at the same time. But the best part is that my boyfriend is arriving tonight from California! He's an archaeologist and has been working far far away, so I'm excited to have the chance to see him... even if it is during Week 10. EEK! I should get busy... ¡Chau!

Posted by winhol13 at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Next weekend is the Evergreen Singers choral recital. I can't believe how much fun it has been to rehearse our music over this quarter, and I'm pretty sad that it's coming to an end. I will be singing a solo of Mambo Italiano, originally made famous by Rosemary Clooney in 1954. I have been singing in choirs all of my life, but I haven't ever sung a solo like this before. I'm pretty nervous but I think it will be a fun time! The recital is next Sunday, June 1 at 4:30 here on campus at Evergreen in the Communications building.

Two more weeks of class and it's crunch time! I had a meeting last week with the directors of the Consortium program from both Evergreen and the University of Washington, and I have tons of choices in International Studies next year! I am definitely going to miss Evergreen's program structure, I can tell that already. I will be meeting with one of the UW Spanish advisers to assess the appropriate placement for my language classes, and I'm considering all my options for taking Portuguese. Right now the dilemma is whether or not to take an intensive Portuguese class for Spanish speakers over the summer and then start with 201 in the fall, or take the summer off from school and work full-time to have some extra cash in the bank when school starts up again in September. I'm thinking...

This week I have to prepare a presentation in my evening Spanish class about yerba maté, a tea-like beverage consumed primarily in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The act of preparing and sharing maté is a communal experience and many people drink it instead of coffee because of its stimulating effects. I love maté and I am excited to teach my class all about it during my Spanish presentation!

Posted by winhol13 at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last weekend we had the most beautiful weather so far of 2008! I took the opportunity to enjoy the sunshine and do some shooting around Capitol Lake in downtown Olympia! ¡Qué linda!

Posted by winhol13 at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is Friday, marking the end of Week Six. I'm sort of shocked and amazed at how quickly this quarter is passing, but it's great at the same time. It means I've been busy, if not totally productive, even though there is still lots to do before the quarter and the year end in June.

I received some great news this week that I am very excited about! At the end of March I applied to study in an Evergreen consortium program with the University of Washington in Seattle at the Jackson School of International Studies. I sent an email to the program coordinator to follow up on the status of my application and he wrote back telling me I have been accepted and will be receiving a formal letter next week! This is so completely fantastic!! I am from Seattle, so I get to move back to my city and do my senior year at UW studying upper division Spanish language and Latin American Studies classes while representing Evergreen.

The main reason why this is such great news is that I have to begin studying a third language in order to meet graduate school requirements for a Masters in Spanish. My research has revealed that pretty much every graduate program in Spanish across the country requires reading and writing proficiency in a third language, preferably Portuguese or French (because apparently learning a second language isn't challenging enough). For me it makes perfect sense to start studying Portuguese with a focus on Latin America since it's the language spoken in Brazil with a population of nearly 200 million people!! There are many similarities between Spanish and Portuguese, so hopefully the transition won't be too terribly confusing.

This opportunity is going to be invaluable in helping me to prepare for post-graduate studies. I feel so fortunate to have been selected as a representative from The Evergreen State College. It's really clever how the partnership works between the two schools. I won't be graduating from UW, rather all my credits I earn in Seattle will be transferred back to Evergreen and applied towards my Bachelor of Arts degree here. ¡Felicitaciones para mi!

Posted by winhol13 at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight when my Spanish professor arrived for class he suggested we all go to an event downtown. There was a poetry reading by one of the Nicaraguan delegates visiting from Santo Tomás, a sister community in Central America that has a longstanding relationship with an organization representing Thurston County. The poet presenting was a man named Wilfredo Espinoza Lazo and José Gomez from The Evergreen State College faculty provided interpretation in English. My Spanish class met Wilfredo a couple of weeks ago when he first arrived from Nicaragua, and he recited a fantastic poem filled with onomatopoeias in Spanish. It was brilliant!

Next week is the Immigration and Border Dialogues Conference 2008 hosted at The Evergreen State College. It is May 15-18 and I am really looking forward to participating in some of the program events. The event tonight was hosted by Bridges Not Walls, an organization that is committed to addressing the human rights aspect of immigration reform. The slogan "Nobody is illegal" is poignant and true, and I think it's exciting that this organization has such a strong presence in Olympia. Their website http://oly-wa.us/bridges has all the necessary information about the conference next week.

Never a dull moment...

Posted by winhol13 at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week has been nuts. ¡NUTS! I don't regret taking 18 credits this quarter, but I'm definitely starting to feel it. This weekend marks the break between weeks five and six, and I have tons to do between my contract and my evening Spanish and choir classes. In choir we have solo auditions coming up in order to have a performance in the spring recital on June 1. I'm putting something together, but I don't want to make a huge deal of it unless I know it will be happening. In Spanish I have to prepare a presentation about the preparation and cultural traditions of drinking yerba maté. Poetry translations from Spanish to English are challenging and fun, but time-consuming for sure.

On top of all my academic work I have to balance two part-time jobs with varying schedules. Working nearly full-time while going to school full-time is a delicate balance between sanity and complete craziness, all the while trying to budget time to sleep enough so that I don't actually lose my mind. However, I have managed for enough years to be able to see the light: graduation... one more year and it's mine! I'm going into Week Six of my last quarter as a Junior, and that means I only have one year left until I earn my Bachelor's Degree! I'm definitely taking this summer off from school so that I can focus on working a ton and start the fall off with some money in the bank. Financial aid will help to pay for tuition and books, but I basically have to work enough to pay for everything else, i.e. rent.

So how am I going to balance work and school this weekend? I think after my shift ends tonight at the Greeks' in Seattle (I wait tables at The Continental Greek Food and Pastry Shop in the University District on the weekends) I'll be heading out to some Latin dancing at a Chinese restaurant with some of the other lovely Spanish-speaking ladies from Olympia. But I have to be back at the Greeks' tomorrow morning at 11AM so I'll have to remain tranquila tonight, meaning no tequila tonight. It's amazing how much culture a girl can get in just one weekend in Seattle! I guess this weekend sleep will be the sacrifice, but that's what coffee is for so I'm OK with that.

Posted by winhol13 at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)