Aceptame Tal Como Soy

I always thought this phrase was funny when I learned it in Spanish class, and it seemed like a suitable topic for this post.

Last week, I went to Cancun, Mexico with my best friend, her family, and another friend. It was seriously life-changing just because I feel like the world has been opened up to me. I'm not much of a "resort lifestyle" type of girl-- I secretly hated my massage-- but it was very interesting. I met a lot of cool people. Two are from the U.S.-- Alessandra, a 17-year old Italian girl from Chicago, and Eric, a sweet but hurting 18-year old from Virginia, right outside D.C. I enjoyed hanging out with them and we all became comfortable (Julie and Eric more than anyone!) very quickly. We also met a family from Mexico City. They were Carlos (17), Luis (15), and Alex (14). I suspect that they are probably pretty wealthy, but that doesn't really matter. Their English and my Spanish were about equal, so we were all able to talk with moderate ease. Being the linguistic nerd that I am, I brought my ever-handy $2.93 WalMart Spanish-to-English dictionary. It got a good amount of use in our conversations. Luis really loved it and kept looking at it, so on a bus on the way back from the Mayan Ruins, Courtney, Julie, and I drew pictures and left notes for them.

I have to go walk with my mom. More later, I promise!

Partial Anonymity

I am pretty sure that even though I have a picture of myself, I am generally untraceable to those who already know me. It's kind of a relief! I doubt that anyone will ever read this, but it is kind of relieving as well. I also like the mystery of the idea that someone I will never know could be reading it as well. Anyway, a few (non-traceable, non-locale-revealing) facts about myself:

1. I desperately desire to develop my skills in the Spanish language (but thus far have not succeeded tremendously)

2. I graduated in May and am heading off to college in the fall.

3. I am a Christian and love Jesus. I go to a Bible church. Most of my posts will probably revolve around or at least involve this fact.

On the topic of literature:
The last few months, I dropped into a literature abyss. I stopped reading as regularly as usual. I don't know what my deal is! I have a bookshelf full of books that I have purported to read before beginning college. Obviously, there is not much of a dent in the shelf because of the last few months, but I decided to buy Jane Austen's novels and try to tempt myself back into reading. I figured they would be light, fluffy, and somewhat unfulfilling. I am surprised at how much I am enjoying Pride and Prejudice. It really is interesting and well-written.

Anyway, here are some of the books from my shelf that I have already read:
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I can't remember any more at the moment, but you get the idea. I am trying to read all the "important" books. :-) If you would like to discuss them with me, I would be thrilled. There was not a lot of eagerness for discussion of books at my high school on the part of the students.

This post is probably way too long already, so I will abandon!