Venezuelan Trouble

Problems are increasing between Venezuela and Columbia. The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez is upset at the threat of a military attack from Columbia. Columbia is convinced that Venezuela harbors terrorists from the group FARC and has attempted to negotiate with Venezuela on the issue. Chavez has broken all negotiation ties with Columbia and now is urging the US to interfere. He says that Venezuela will no longer sell oil to the US if Colombia takes military action. Chavez stated, "The Yankee empire has no limit to its manipulation." which is ironic considering his own use of manipulation in the past and his threat of manipulation in the press if war happens. He also said of this action, "That would be a response of dignity and high caliber." I'd like to know why he thinks he can use words like "dignity" and "high caliber." As seen from past actions, the man seems to have no dignity. Venezuela is apparently the fifth largest supplier of crude oil to the US. The opinions stated here were formed after reading the article found on the following website. They may not be the opinions expressed in the article itself. http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/25/venezuela.chavez.us/index.html?npt=NP1

Ballet Folklórico de México

Este es Ballet Forklorico de Mexico de Amalia Hernandez es una muy importante forma de cultura en Mexico. En 1952 Ballet Forklorico fundo. En 53 anos hago 15000 presentaciones. La Ballet Forklorico es un gran compania en el mundo ballet.

Last full week

This week in Spanish, I learned that the more you learn of a foreign language, the easier it becomes. I also learned that it's easier for me to teach myself with some guidance. Since I was gone for two days this week for a funeral, I did all of the WEBSAM for this week last week. Going over the material and doing trial and error helped me to understand what was going on in class that much better. I can't believe this next week is the last week of class or that this set of blogs is our last, but I'm glad for what I have learned! Hasta la vista bebe!!!

Mass Graves in Mexico

Mexican Authorities have recently found 38 bodies buried in 9 mass graves. Authorities believe that not only are the mass graves related to the ongoing drug wars in Mexico, but that some of the bodies had been dumped within the last 15 days. Similar grave sites have been found in other states besides Nuevo Leon. So many horrible deaths as a result of drugs. Drugs destroy lives everywhere including the United States. It should be stopped but I'm sure there will be much more blood spilled before that day comes.

Este Semana

Este semana en la clase de espanol, aprendamos el tenso de imperfecto. En ingles, no era un tenso simular. Es muy confuso para mi pero el conjugaciones son muy sencillo. El imperfecto me dolo mi cabeza.

Lope De Vega

Lope De Vega was a Spanish playwright. He lived from 1562 to 1635. He was a contemporary of Shakespeare although the two playwrights cannot be compared due to the difference in the theatrical world in England and Spain. Lope De Vega was the first Spanish dramatist to make his living as a playwright. He had a flamboyant life until he "settled down" as a priest in 1614. He is said to have written approximately 800 plays, but only 331 have survived. His most famous works include, The Sheep Well (Fuente Ovejuna, c. 1614), The Dong in the Manger (El pero del hortelano, 1613-1615), and many others. No other playwright has completely dominated his field of any time period.

Columbia y Venezuela

Un artiocula dice Venezuelans retiraron sus embajador de Columbia. Columbia acuso Venezuela porque Venezuela alberga terroristas. Los terroristas llamaron el FARC. El presidente de Venezuela es Hugo Chavez. Es un presidente malisimo. Pero el presidente de Columbia es Alvaro Uribe. Uribe es un presidente es un luchador de terrorismo. El artiocula es en http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/16/venezuela.colombia.farc/index.html

Sonador

I have learned much about Spanish. Much more than I thought I had in fact. I had a dream entirely in Spanish the other night. I don't really remember what the dream was about but I do remember thinking: I shouldn't know what that word or phrase means, but I do, and somehow I knew I was right. Maybe I was just dreaming in gibberish and thought I was dreaming in Spanish, but I do know most of it was stuff I do know. Another friend of mine who incidentally knows way more Spanish than I said she had a similar experience, except she knew some of her words were incorrect. For instance she kept using the word for turtle when referring to a boat. I think the dream was my brain's way of letting me know that a four week Spanish class is enough to drive anyone bonkers. :)

Antonio Banderas

Being a theatre major of course I'm most interested in the stage and film. So naturally my cultural post this week would be about an actor I have always enjoyed. (Not to mention one that's this good-looking) Jose Antonio Dominguez Banderas is a native of Spain who originally wanted to become a professional soccer player. When he broke his foot however, he knew that was not a possibility. So, Banderas decided to start studying theatre after being inspired by a production of "Hair." One thing I found out about Antonio Banderas was that he was actually arrested in Spain for his performance in a play by Bertolt Brecht. Brecht tends to have political overtones which didn't go over well with the government under Fransisco Franco. I think that is rather interesting especially since we just finished doing a Brecht show at WT. It didn't mention which Brecht play Banderas was in, but knowing what I know of the show we did, "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," I'm not surprised that Banderas did jail time. My respect for him has risen in learning more about him.

Mexico

I read an online article from the Los Angeles Times about the recent local and regional elections there. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-0706-mexico-elections-20100706,0,2543169.story. The elections were troubled by violence, threats and fear. Bodies were hung from bridges in Chihuahua, and polls in Tamaulipas did not open because the poll workers were too scared to show up. This reminds me of recent elections in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the army has to be deployed just so people can have a chance to vote.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - 'Tamacun'

Mi esposo tiene musica de Rodrigo y Gabriela. Rodrigo y Gabriela son de Mexico pero viven en Europa. Ellos tocan los guitarras. Me gusta bailar cuando escucho la musica de Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Understanding

I spent quite bit of time in line at the pharmacy in Wal-Mart on Grand today and I just happened to be in line in front of two native speakers. I thought I'd be an overachiever and attempt to understand their conversation. It was what I like to call educational eavesdropping. I figured I understood everything in class so I should be able to pick up the gist of their conversation right? Boy was I wrong! I maybe caught five words before I gave up. (It was starting to make my head spin) They were talking so fast I could barely distinguish one word from another. I was discussing this with my husband who has studied French. We talked about the fact that romance languages are meant to run together in a musical fashion making it difficult for English speakers since English is more choppy. He said in French there are even gramatical rules that make the words flow better. I wonder if the same applies to Spanish. I guess it's something I will find out :)