Panic List :
- I have two papers, written in French, 5 pages, that must be finished by this Friday.
- I am behind in readings for a Linguistics Phonetic course by aprox. 6 chapters, and there will be a mid-term soon. Every time I start reading I fall asleep.
- I don't understand anything in my Phonetics course. Right now we are studying Sine Waves, and artificial representations of Vocal Tracts, and I have to use mathematical equations: with square roots, formulas, charts, graphics and everything! I am a Linguistics and French major. I study languages! I thought I had successfully avoided any areas that required formal math for the rest of my life. What kind of cruel joke is this?
- I am a Senior now. This means that soon I will be graduating and I have to figure out what I am going to do a) after graduation. b) with the rest of my life.

Anti-Panic tactics List:
- Washing my hair (which I probably don't do as often as I should).
- SLUgS meetings every Tuesday at 5pm in the Ling. department.
- Weekends with Alan.
- Evening walks along the beach.

What this Blog is all about !

For family and friends

Linguistics and French

Traveling, dancing, eating and ...

Well, you get the picture.

Picture Analysis

This is Maxwell. He is my younger brother. Max lives in Venezuela with mom. Even though he is only 16 years old, he already started college. I'm so proud!
I find this picture quasi-illustrative of my bro's essence because of many reasons: for example, it looks like a fish is eating his ear; and that somehow seems like it should be symbolic. Fish are good, right? Anyway, if you look carefully at the refrigerator (Yes, Venezuela does have modern electrical appliances) and you understand a bit of Spanish, you can see a handwritten biblical passage. You may also notice that the kitchen walls are pink. In fact, most of the inside of the house is painted pink.
From this picture I think we can gage what Max's opinion is concerning pink walls + mechanical fish eating his ear. Max, as usual, is wearing a soccer jersey because he LOVES soccer.

What other details does this picture contain? (hint: can you see the head behind the fish?)

Explanation of Title.

Dear all,
I have recieved various requests to explain the title of this blog: "A MORLD OF WONDER", especially concerning the word MORLD. And thus I will. There are several reasons why this title came into being:
1. As a student linguist, I have no respect what so ever for what can be called "correct spelling" or -katastrofik- orthography conventions. (-Can you tell I'm a really bad speller?)
2. Morld is the fusion of MM+ World. Or even My+World. Which leads to the form Morld. I know this may seem a little egotistical, but Ohh well. This word better represents my true sentiments towards what I regard as my surroundings than any other I can think of.
3. It sounds funny.
4. I invented a word; how cool is that!?! This is language in the making people!

Alan, Alan, Alan. Even when he makes silly faces he is cute. We met at a graduation party for a couple of my fellow SLUgS in may of 2005. Do you know what SLUgS is? (-look under Interests, in My Complete Profile.)

Although I hate pulling the "I'm so girly card", especially while in the public eye, I simply must post this: Yes, I have a knight in shining armor. Yes, he is amazing. Yes, we are going to Rome together this January 2006 to celebrate the new year and vacation a bit -you may gag now if necessary- . His name is Alan. He lives in Monterey California, and since we live exactly 110.2 miles away from each other weekends are essential to our relationship.
This picture was taken at the Black and White San Francisco Symphony Ball, 2005, in June. It was a beautiful night! I had never been to a real-live-Ball before, and I have to confess: I felt a little like Cinderella. There were thousands of people at Civic Center in there best gowns and tuxedos. There were open bars and concerts everywhere... We danced to The Village People! It was surreal to see so many well dressed people dancing to "YMCA.... YMCA".

Me. I am NOT in Havana, Cuba, overlooking the sea from the boardwalk.

Viva Venezuea mi patria querida! Que la liberto mi hermano, fue Simon Bolivar!

My mom. She really didn't want to smile for this picture, but I took it anyway. Cuidad Ojeda, Venezuela.

My Dad. He is also NOT in Havana, Cuba, wearing a communist hat in an open-air art market.

Food is a wonderful thing. Especially at this restaurant called "The 4 cats" ("Els Quatre Gats" -translated from Catalan). Established by Picasso and a few close friends in 1897, when it opened critics proclaimed "only four cats" will come to your silly restaurant (refering to the dismal amount of people that would eat there). The mockery lead Picasso and company to decide the name of the soon to become hot-spot of old-town Barcelona, Spain. Words of advice: If in this restaurant do not order cold white asparagus. And, the saussages are good.

To Grenoble or BUST!
Patty and me :) traveling together. We are so sleep deprived. This picture was taken in our first days in France. Jetlag, not sleeping for aprox. 38 hours and bad nutrition surly had something to do with it.
To make a long story short, allow me to tell what arriving to Grenoble entailed: First we drove to SF, then we took a flight to London (because it was cheaper than flying to France direct). Once in London, we had a couple of hours to find our way to the Eurostar and train into Paris. -We almost fainted in the London tube because of poor ventilation and motion sickness-. A couple of hours later we were in the City of Lights. In Paris we had just enough time to grab a bite to eat and take the metro, yet again, to get to the other train station across town where we would finally embark on the train with destinaiton Grenoble. It was a looong train ride since this particular town is in the South-East part of the country. Keep in mind that during this entire time both of us are dealing with oversized luggage and heavy backpacks.
Our mission for the summer was to spend a month traveling around France and Spain to celebrate our 20th birthdays. With only a tiny budget and eachother to keep us company 24/7, the trip resulted to be a ton-o-fun. Of France we visited all of the following cities: Grenoble, Lyon, Paris, Nice, Monaco, Marseille, Aix en Provence. Of Spain we visited Barcelona. Summer 2004. Grenoble, France.

A little plaza. Grenoble, France. 

I'm trying to ride a tricycle. It is not working. Nice, France. 

Monaco. 

Monaco. 

Don't touch my balls! Monaco. 

MM before eating a pizza. Yes, an entire pizza. Can't you see the hunger in my eyes? Marseille, France.

Park of Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain. Adjectives to describe this park: Big, Arid, (looks) Expensive. Questions one asks while sponging in all the sights: WWJD? Why don't they like irrigation systems here? Where IS the Gaudi Museum?