Black people don’t write

This is the conclusion you would come if you took a look at my bookshelves [1].

Due to current events, one fellow blogger proposed July as a “Black literature month” here in Spain (the Black History Month is in February/October — if you are live either in the UK or in the US — but is not yet widespread here) to which I gladly joined, ready to immerse myself in search of black authors among my shelves… Only to realize (to my horror!) I don’t own any book written by a black person. My library as a whole is pure whiteness and a bit Asian, except for a couple of books that specifically talk about black people but written by white authors, and that, guys, makes me feel ashamed.

Like men who don’t realize there are no women among the CEOs or World Leaders pictured on the news, I wouldn’t have noticed the lack of diversity in my shelves if it hadn’t been pointed out by the protests all around the world and my social media feeds filled with fellow readers recommending antiracism books.

What’s more, my utter dismay came when I couldn’t think of any book written by a Spanish black author. A quick search on the internet gave a grand total of five books, and one is actually a photo book [2] to which, surprisingly, I leafed through last autumn visiting a museum. Being a black woman in Spain [3] is the only title available in my public library, and I already made a reservation to go and borrow it tomorrow.

I can only guess the challenges a black person must face here in my country… You see, I have grown up in a city where there was not a big black community: in my primary and high schools (both public) there were only three black children studying at the same time as me, none of them in my class and to whom I never talked. By chance, I worked with one of them for a brief period of time in our twenties but, apart from a strange surname from her father, I never even thought about asking what role her race had played in her life. Because I wouldn’t have thought there was any issue! Privileged whites don’t occupy our time with problems we didn’t know existed and, maybe, with exception of the big cities, I guess, this is the background of my country; a place where black people are thought to be either immigrants or tourists, but certainly not Spaniards.

So here I am, feeling embarrassed, but ready to learn the lesson and start paying close attention to my literary choices. After all, I just aspire to be well-read, and that requires embracing all the literary voices.

*****

[1] You can also come to the conclusion that I am a privileged white a**hole, but I was trying to emulate the “White people can’t jump” statement for the punch.

[2] It is “And you, why are you black?”, by Rubén H. Bermúdez, and it is available in English here.

[3] This is my translation; the original title is “Ser mujer negra en España”, by Desirée Bela-Lobedde.

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Am I too old to start a new degree?

It is said that you will find time for the things you really want to do, but it is clear that those who agree on this are not working eight hours a day while studying a Law degree.

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As an adult, studying is a sacrifice. It is no longer what you are supposed to be doing, and by spending the time and effort it requires you are subtracting quality time from the off-hours you would dedicate to your friends, family and hobbies otherwise. It is also unbelievably satisfying: the thrill of the new books at the beginning of the course; the mastery of your organizational skills (especially if you are enrolled in online courses),;the grades at the end of the semester that mean you are still capable of understanding and retaining new knowledge. And the process of learning itself is its own reward when the motivation comes from within.

When I started studying Law after my veterinary degree, people used to ask me if I liked it. I just couldn’t understand the question, first because one cannot like or dislike things that they don’t know yet and, second, because as a result of deepening your knowledge about a subject you deepen your interest in it. They also proclaim that, ‘I couldn’t study again at my age,’ which happens to be my age as well. And, you know, when I visit the study room at my university I always find students beyond retirement age engrossed in their books, not to mention some cases among my Law classmates of people who couldn’t afford to study when they were young and enrolled in their first degree at the age of 50. These people are my role models.

After finishing the degree, the masters’ degree, and the Examination for Access to the Legal Profession, I decided to continue studying another degree, a degree in Legal Sciences of the Public Administration, which all Law students seemed to be doing as being complementary to the Law studies, so it felt kind of mandatory.

And now, with the Public Administration degree almost finished – I have only four subjects left – I have decided to finally indulge myself with something I was looking forward to studying: English Philology.

In my university the degree is called English Studies, and includes culture of the English-speaking countries, English grammar per se, translation, communication in Spanish… But the subjects I am more excited about are the ones about Literature. This semester in particular I am studying Medieval literature, submerged in ancient epic poems I had never heard of.

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It is still a surprise how much I am enjoying reading about these texts: the historical context, the topics, the structure of the poems… Learning has become a source of pure pleasure again, and I am wondering if I shouldn’t have started the degree in Spanish language and literature first; I feel that I would get much more out from the classic texts now than I did in school, when you only focused on memorizing authors, dates and titles of literary work.

As a result of my new endeavor, these days you can find me walking around the room reading poems out loud so I can appreciate the alliterations on the verses, or inventing kennings following Beowulf’s example. Besides, my partner is incredibly encouraging, so much so that he looks for further readings and radio programs about the poems I have to read, and sometimes I have to catch up with him regarding the texts that he has just acquired all the knowledge about, which makes me laugh because it is supposed to be me who is studying literature!

So, if you are also too old to study, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. We will take advantage of the quietness of the hours before sunrise, or maybe we will be the last in the house to go to bed. We will turn in assignments on time while complaining there is an echo coming back from the fridge. Every single day we will wonder why the hell we are torturing ourselves like this, but no expense will be spared at the exam results’ celebrations. And we will learn. Medieval literature, Microbiology, Criminal Law, Macroeconomics. We will learn.

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HIIT your limit. Hight Intensity Interval Training for fat loss, cardio, and full body health, by Dr. Len Kravitz

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Len Kravitz

I received a copy of the book to review

Maybe you don’t know this about me, but I worked in a gym as a fitness instructor for almost nine years. Back then, in my classes, I never thought about working smarter, but harder: I was basically focused on getting my clients the sweatiest they could be within an hour of aerobics, steps, cycling, etc. That’s what they demanded, too, feeling their time was worthy by achieving that sweaty goal. Only some guys at the weight-lifting room would try different techniques to improve their muscle gain by controlling their sessions at the gym and their food intake to crazy-to-me levels.

But it turns out if you want certain results, you have to educate yourself and work smarter, right?

Back then I was working out for 20 hours per week. The time I was not exercising, I would eat insane amounts of every food available, including ice-cream, pastries and junk food. I was thin, lean, as hard as a rock. And perpetually exhausted.

That should have told me something, but there are things you can only acknowledge in retrospect. When I left that job, I couldn’t dedicate all that time to exercise anymore, so I did (and still do) what’s recommended -three to five sessions a week- while trying to eat less even though I was −and I am– hungry all the time (spoiler alert: when you stop exercising you are as hungry as before; your stomach is an independent entity altogether).

And, while all the blood and cardiovascular tests show I am an extremely healthy person, I am overweight. And it’s not that I say so; the doctor has told me I should lose some weight. But I can’t. And it’s kind of frustrating when you swim three times per week, run two times per week, go everywhere by foot, eat less than your stomach would like to… and still you don’t look good. The only thing that comes to mind is “maybe I should eat even less or run for 15 minutes more”, coming back to what I said about focusing on quantity instead of quality.

A few months ago, YouTube “recommended” me a HIIT (High Intensity Intervals Training) video. I tried it out and was amazed: I could only do half of it and I felt that my body couldn’t have been worked more intensely in those 20 minutes. That was when the book I am reviewing today (yes, all this was only the prelude of a book review) came into the picture to help me understand this kind of training better and schedule my own routines.

In my opinion, this -and a park- is all the equipment you’ll ever need to get fit

The first half of the books is dedicated to biology and physiology and includes data and research to better understand how the body works during and after exercise, focusing on HIIT in particular and what the benefits of this training are. For those of you who have already tried it, you would have noticed that you can do much more in less time, but it also helps improve cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and cardiorespiratory fitness faster than other kinds of training.

There is a section dedicated to help you stick with your exercise program, for which I really recommend you read James Clear’s Atomic habits in order to better approach a change in your daily routines either to include exercise or any other new habit. There are also frequently asked questions that I found very informative –“Can I reduce the number of fat cells in my body? No.” I’m still crying over this–. And, at the end of the book, there is advice on how to cut calories with small changes – I can’t apply the majority of them, since I hardly ever eat out, I don’t drink sodas or alcohol, nor do I have sugar with my coffee, etc.

Finally, we have the HIIT workouts. I like that the author recommends reducing your normal workouts and add HIIT ones instead of increasing the total amount of weekly exercise, which was what I had in mind when I started reading the book, and had an exponential increase in anxiety because you don’t really know if you will ever find the time to do it all.

Regarding the workouts themselves, I found them very beginner-like, thought to be done only with a certain exercise mode instead of creating different exercises for every interval, which is what I have been trying lately and found more enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong – I truly believe they are good workouts, but doing running work and recovery intervals is what I have always called “Interval Training”, but not “High Intensity Interval Training”. I know you can increase the intensity, of course, but I guess I was expecting something more like this.

I think the book is primarily targeted towards people who hasn’t developed a steady habit of exercising, so they can start by including these short but effective workouts in their weekly routines and get fast results. For the rest, the book will make you aware of those intervals you only did from time to time and how it is better to focus more often on them without increasing the total amount of time devoted to exercise, in order to achieve your aimed weight and fitness level.

In any case, it is a matter of adapting your routines. I will sure change more of my steady-state running, swimming and walking workouts to intervals, and I will also keep an eye on including different high intensity exercises a couple of days per week.

And now it’s time to start exercising!

HIIT your limit. High Intensity Interval Training for fat loss, cardio, and full body health
Dr. Len Kravitz
Apollo Publishers
216 pages

Book on Goodreads
Book on Amazon

Dating in the library

Maybe I got overly excited when I chose the title for this post because I am not going to tell you a corny story about how I found Prince Charming among the shelves of the library – not that I don’t think the library is the best place to find your other half – but in truth I’m talking about dating books, which is awesome too!

Yes, I know all of you have seen on Facebook those pictures of bookshops where people can buy wrapped books to surprise themselves, but how many of you have actually seen it in reality? I have! It was this summer, in the library of the coastal village where I spend my holidays (I go so often that I have my own library card).

The librarians arranged a stand in a corner announcing “blind dates with books”, and took their time writing down inviting summaries for each book, not to mention the red hearts and ribbons:

I was delighted at the sight of it, and I carefully read every one of them to pick my perfect date. It was a romance (of course!). The librarian was really surprised someone had decided to try one of those books and when he passed the bar code, which was conveniently glued on the wrapping paper so as not to open it, he saw the title in the computer and said, with a mysterious voice, that it was a beautiful story.

I waited –with great effort – until I arrived home to open it, and… Ta-daah! I was so disappointed I had already read the book. It was “Strange weather in Tokyo“, also edited as “The briefcase“, by Hiromi Kawakami:

Blind dates don’t always turn out as we expect. I guess it was my fault: I was too naïve to think there was a romance novel I hadn’t read already! Anyway, it was so pleasant to spend the afternoon in the library, getting amazed by the wonderful idea the librarians had, reading their cute synopsis and deciding what to bring home with you.

Librarians of the world, please, do this more often!

New Year resolutions vs. Real life

Please, excuse that this post has no relation whatsoever to literature, but I have been reflecting on some issues that recently came up around here and I felt the need to write them down somewhere.

It’s just that, like everyone else, I had goals that I thought would change my life for the better, but it turned out the exact opposite was profoundly benefitial. I’m no longer assuming anything, people!

Let me explain some of my goals, and how they alone decided to take a different path altogether:

Goal 1: Be productive and organized

Yes, I am a big fan of planners and all those Instagram accounts dedicated to bullet journals and such; I enjoy being busy and crossing out tasks I need to complete, and I live accordingly to what has been written down for every day on my planner, but guess what: I got the flu just after Christmas and for eight days I was basically surviving and doing NOTHING. I even spent New Year’s morning in the emergency room at the hospital because I lost conciousness when I was about to have breakfast. What a plan!

My parents took me to their home due to my hypotension and high fever, so I was not left alone at my place, and those first days I found myself feeling guilty of being unproductive! This productivity disease we live in makes you feel this way. Fortunately, I later learned to go with the flow and enjoy my downtime as I was recovering: I would read some of the books from my parents’ library to pass the time while they were out working and, after dinner, the four of us (my sister was also staying there during her Christmas break) would watch a TV series and enjoy some time together.

Do you know when was the last time we were together like this? To be honest, I can’t even remember and, most importantly, I don’t know if and when will happen again. So thank you, Real life, for those unproductive and yet deeply satisfying days with my loved ones; they have been some of the highlights of the last months.

Goal 2: Read more books

I did want to read more books in 2018 than the previous year, of course, because I am a book blogger, right? You can only aspire to be a better blogger and a better reader if you read more than before, more than everybody else… MORE.

Well, today I am pleased to announce that I told my book club coordinator I cannot keep attending our mettings. I quitted the club.

For the last 2 months I have been unable to keep up with the reading pace, which is one book per fortnight (up to 300 pages, no more), so my strategy, in order to secure my spot, consisted on reading less than half of the book, attending the meetings and sit quiet while the rest of the group had a conversation about that book I hadn’t read. There is a long waiting list of people who want to join these book clubs due to the limited spots, so today I finally came to my senses and decided to let this activity go. It was hard because I made good friends there but, anyway, we will remain friends and I feel at ease again knowing I don’t have to read a particular book at a particular pace.

I am not reading that much this year, it seems, and now it is OK.

Goal 3: Spend more time doing what you love

While I really believe one should have her own time to do things you enjoy, I have realized that I have fallen into a spiral of selfishness: what’s important seems to be *my* goals, *my* dreams, *my* hobbies… myself.

Some weeks ago, one of those days I was devoting *my* time to *my* hobbies, I walked into the sitting room and heard my elderly neighbour crying for help through the wall that separates our apartments. The woman had fallen on the floor four hours ago and was unable to sit or get up. Shouting through her door, she gave me her daughter’s phone number (her mind is sharp as hell, thank goodness), so I called her daughter, she came with the keys, and we both got this old lady up. She later told me she thought she was going to spend the entire night on the floor and thanked me for being her “guardian angel”. While writing this, my eyes are getting wet again.

From that day I got two new habits: I call for her through the door when I go out, just to see if everything is fine, and I pay her a proper visit at least once a week. To be honest, sometimes it’s hard to stop thinking I should be doing other things (*my* things), but I feel I’m doing the *right* thing spending some time with her. Besides, she is happy to see me and she tells me she’s grateful for me to visit her, and that makes me feel useful and appreciated. I can’t ask for more.

Goal 4: Declutter your house

Yes, I have also read Marie Kondo’s book and went into a frantic tidying and decluttering marathon. This would fill an entire series of posts, but I’ll summarize the important point.

First of all, I am really glad that I did it; my home now is clean and tidy and there is no one single item that doesn’t have its own place and, more important, purpuse. But the process of decluttering have been emotionally draining and thought-provoking.

From the first days, when facing all the clothes I owned, I felt disgust towards myself. There were clothes I had never worn, with the labels and all! In the following days, I would also take out of closets presents I had never used. People have bought things for me, spending money so hard to earn, and I haven’t even looked at them. I had to face the person I had become: a hoarder and dissatisfied being who always wanted more. I mean, I could have lied to myself and told I’m not that bad, but proof was right in front of me; there is no way to scape your own flaws when they are finally revealed, you just acknowledge them and try to work little by little to build the person you really want to be.

You know, I had always read articles about consumerism and I agreed I had enough with the things I already owned. However, and I don’t really know how to explain this, I had never “felt it in my bones” like these past weeks while going in and out from my apartment to the dumpster, throwing what seemed an infinite number of garbage bags containing my things.

So the goal was to declutter, but the outcome was totally unexpected.

*****

And this is it. Most of my resolutions have followed their own rules, and honestly, it is totally fine with me. I have come to the conclusion that I prefer real life rather than that unrealistic idea of the things you should do, which makes you lose sight of what’s actually relevant.

So tell me, how are your resolutions going? Has someone done major changes like I’ve been forced to do? Maybe I hope so 😉

When opening the letter box: Reasons to write letters

Some time ago I wrote about my small collection of typewriters (here), and the fact is that the machines themselves have made me began to write more letters to friends, a hobby that I’m particularly enjoying lately. I don’t know if it’s part of this new trend of liking things of the past –hats, beards, spending less time online, etc.– but I find myself constantly seeing people on social networks writing on paper, either on journals, planners and, of course, writing letters to pen pals, and it’s making me be part of the trend.

I have always loved to send cards in Christmas and birthdays, or postcards when I am on holidays, and I have also received this discontinuous mail from other people, especially from my friends of my University years and the book bloggers I’ve got to know from all over my country, and now from abroad as well. It has slowly turned now into a habit: I write letters often, and the big difference is that I expect – and I usually get – a response from my correspondents. I love it!

So here I am, talking to the hidden correspondent you have inside, encouraging him to take a piece of paper and tell a friend how was your day, or just picking a card to say you were thinking of them.

Five reasons to write more letters

1. Letters make the person who receives them happy. Imagine: you are waking up today and, in another part of the world (why not?), someone’s day has been brightened thanks to you. And you don’t even have to write an eight-page letter; it’s fine if you begin by sending a greeting card or a postcard. Isn’t that awesome?

2. It is a way to disconnect. Not only do you have to write letters away from the computer or TV, disconnecting from the online world, but it also makes you stay away of the daily routine and stress as well.

The act of writing a letter requires calm and concentration, so you mentally spare a length of time in your schedule to devote to writing, thinking about the recipient and what you want to tell them. It is so intimate that I also like to light a candle and maybe listen to music while writing; I usually write my letters on Sunday evenings as a way to relax before starting the next week.

3. It improves your language skills. This is very different from writing an email because you have to actually think what you want to say before writing it down, or you’ll have to cross out half of your letter (no no no!).

My best friend confessed that she first writes a draft and then the real letter, to make sure she doesn’t make mistakes; that’s how elusive our self-confidence has become! Here is where I see the real value of sitting down, thinking about what you want to say and how, saying it in your head, and finally writing it on paper: it is a process that requires effort, like some kind of training and, with time, words began to flow in your head and it becomes easier.

If you think about it, as adults we only write things down on paper and without drafts when we take exams of some sort, if we take them, so our brains have lost some of their languages abilities since school/university, and it’s up to us bring them back again.

Needless to say, when you write letters in another language your language skills improve as well and, believe me, this sometimes is kind of a painful process, but totally worth it!

4. It is a creative activity. The act of writing itself is creative, but the culture around letter writing has evolved profoundly, as I have the opportunity of see every day on social networks.

• There are people who put special effort in choosing their stationery and use their best calligraphy in order to write long letters that are a joy to behold (like Lizzelle’s letters).
• Other people have transferred the art of scrapbooking to their letters, creating a totally new concept of mail: they don’t send letters, but create cards, books and other paper inventions to put together with their letters. Take a glimpse of this video (among thousands).
• Finally, decorating envelopes has become a mandatory task in order to send cute mail, and there is also a wide range of examples, so to pick just one, look at this.

I am a newbie in this burst of creativity around the letter writing community, so what I try to do is copy the masters, try this washi-tape or that calligraphy, see if a typed letter looks good in this kind of paper, etc. I’m not any good, but I enjoy trying! (you can see some of my attempts on my Instagram)

5. It helps you to let go of the addiction to immediacy, because there is no room for rush when it comes to write a letter. There are unwritten rules about the maximum amount of time to wait for a reply to an email, whatsapp, tweet, etc., and in none of them is acceptable to delay your response more than a few hours.

That doesn’t work with letters. There are simply no rules: for a start, you don’t even know when your recipient receives the letter and, second, you don’t expect them to leave whatever they are doing and write you back right after reading it. Letters take time, time to reach their destinations and time to be created; and you want for your correspondent to find a serene moment to sit down, think about you, and devote herself to communicate with you. Because this, my dear, is the beauty and comfort of correspondence: when two people who are far away keep their appreciation for each other alive in the distance and time.

*****

So tell me, do you write letters? If not, do you feel more inspired to do so now?

Sweetness

I have no books to review, so let me tell you what happened today…

I attend to an activity for adults where, recently, a girl with Down syndrome is attending too. I guess her mother couldn’t schedule another hour for her, because she is very young (about 13 years old) and should be in school. Anyway, she is now in class with us – me and other women above 50 years old – but we hardly see her because the instructors make her do different exercises than what we do, so we only see each other at the beginning and the end of the class.

Thanks to my job, I have been in contact with other boys and girls with Down syndrome and I see everybody talks to them as if they are little kids, but that’s difficult to me because I have what I think is a disability to interact with children: I never know what to say, and I certainly can’t speak with that “voice” people use to talk to them, so I end up speaking in my normal tone and I simply ask questions in order to find something in common.

Anyway, everybody in the class seems to talk to this girl like she is a little kid as well, trying to tease her a little (in the good way), and I just smile to her, say hello and talk very little about what I would say to whoever else. She is not very talkative and, as I told you, we don’t see her very much.

But today, as we were arranging our stuff to go home (she is the fastest of all), she came to where I was and said me goodbye. She said, “Isa, goodbye.” Only to me. She even made my name hers, since people there call me Isabel. This girl made me feel so special and appreciated that lightened my day, and I thought that perhaps you would like to hear this little story.

It’s so simple to touch another heart…

How to survive a sleepless night

Last night I couldn’t sleep, and here we are.

I don’t consider myself a particularly stressed person, but from time to time I find myself concerned about everyday issues (exams, for instance) that prevent me for getting enough sleep. And, according to the last book I have read, I think I must  have the brain of a teenager because I need my 7-8 hours of sleep every night to be a functional person.

I have recently read a couple of articles on what to do when you have trouble sleeping (not about sleeping disorders, which should be treated by a doctor), and I’m not going to talk about sleeping habits, but about how to fight insomnia in situ: the night in question and the day after, having tried all the methods myself over the past weeks  😉

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The night in question

Let’s start at the beginning: it’s 3 am and you are staring at the ceiling from your bed, thinking about the ton of things you have to do tomorrow.

a) First of all, get out of bed. To me, there’s nothing more counterproductive that trying to sleep when you are awake – I just can’t do it.

b) Make a cup of tile and/or valerian. According to my own experience, this isn’t likely to help until it’s five minutes to get up – that’s the moment when the tile really kicks in, hard. So, why do I still try it? Simply because it gives me hope it will work, if only this time…

c) Then take your cup of hope and do something productive. Keep in mind that the next day you’ll accomplish fewer things than scheduled, so try to get ahead of it tonight. Besides, there is nothing else to do at this hour, and you should know that watching TV or surfing the internet will make you feel guilty in the morning, so get stuff done.

I either study or organize papers. In those sleepless nights is when I realized studying taxes doesn’t always have the effect of a sleeping pill…  This should be a new field of research.

I have never tried to clean, even though I have considered it many times, but I’m confused: I don’t know if cleaning, considered as a soft exercise, might activate your brain even more, making it totally impossible to fall asleep again that night or, on the contrary, it might leave you exhausted and ready for bed. If you have tried it, I’m willing to hear about it.

d) When you begin to feel sleepy, leave whatever you are doing and go to bed. Apparently, we have sleeping circles, and once one of them arrives, the next won’t come until an hour and a half later, so don’t play with fire.

 

The morning after

Today will be all about willpower, believe me.

a) I’m sure you have reset your alarm for a later hour to skip all the healthy morning routines you wanted to do. Getting more sleep, if possible, is a great thing, but I would never-ever skip my breakfast. In fact, I wouldn’t even bother getting up if I’m not going to drink my chocolate milk and eat a toast with butter and jam. Fig jam. Oh God.  😀

b) The last day I suffered from sleep deprivation I did something remarkable I want to share: I woke up and exercised a little bit. I know, I KNOW. Those who do exercise regularly already know that a workout makes the difference between a great morning and a morning in which you just go through, but the effect when you haven’t sleep properly is multiplied by 100. I mean, you won’t do The Workout because this is not the day for that, but I’m talking about no more than 20-30 minutes in order to activate your brain a little. Trust me.

c) Drink as much coffee as you need before 5 pm. We need to get going but we don’t want to be awake when it’s finally time to go to bed.

d) Don’t wear sunglasses. I read this tip in an article talking about how to survive if you partied all night and you have to work the next day, but it applies here too for the same reason: your brain gets activated by the light caught by the eye, so we want all that brightness. It is going to hurt, but it’s necessary.

e) Then, rearrange your tasks in order to do the things that require concentration and/or quietness first. You might feel almost dying, but these first hours of the morning are in fact your best of this particular day, so be ready. If possible, leave errands for later in the day, when you’ll be really tired – you’ll shake off sleepiness by going here and there and it won’t require concentration.

f) When you get home (in my case is for lunch, because in Spain we have lunch very late), don’t nap. I repeat: DON’T NAP. In my own experience, this is the hardest part, but I know I can’t nap for a few minutes – when I haven’t rest well at night it’s impossible for me to wake up from a nap until a couple of hours later and, therefore, that night I’ll go to bed late and the circle of insomnia will continue forever. We don’t want that to happen, so it’s better if you just go for a short walk (remember: without sunglasses!).

g) At around 6 pm you’ll experience a burst of energy. Take advantage of it to do whatever requires your concentration, but keep in mind it won’t last more than 1-2 hours.

h) And finally, go-to-bed. Can there be anything more pleasant? When you began feeling sleepy in the evening, don’t fight it, just embrace your bed early, get advantage of that sleeping circle that just came to you from the heavens, and get the rest you deserve. After all, you survived!

*****

Do you have any survival tips for these occassions? Please, share them!

My umpteenth problem with English: syllabification

I am aware that this post is not about books, but a few days ago I was so annoyed with this issue that I was about to scream it out loud in the middle of the street, until I remembered that a) I wouldn’t like to live in a psychiatric hospital, and b) I have a blog! I can complain here if I need to, right?
If you are reading this, I hope you don’t mind.

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Even though learning a new language is a rewarding activity, sometimes one just reach a point in which she can’t take in any more. I didn’t think I knew it all already, far from it, but I liked to tell myself that what was left were little things I could easily absorb by reading and listening to books and films; a new word here, a new expression there… Until I realized I had an unbeatable enemy: syllabification.

I had never come across syllabification while studying English, but I can’t blame my teachers: first, because they had it hard enough trying to make English sound acceptable in our disabled tongues to even think about introducing us to this whole new nightmare, and second, because they really couldn’t have imagined that someday this would be an issue in our future lives – They were almost right.

I first noticed about syllables while reading books in English. From time to time I would see a word broken in two lines that caught my attention for the simplest reason: I couldn’t figure out why it was broken in that particular way that made no sense to me. Then I would find other words in the same awkward fashion until I finally came up with the only possible conclusion: in English you divide the words into syllables at random.

(They should have called me for assistance when they made the rules for written English, don’t you think?)

I had easily avoided syllables in my writings by writing the last word of a line tinier than the rest if I was writing by hand, or by writing my assignments on the computer – the easiest way. But what do you do when you are writing with a typewriter? (I know: this is not a question you are asked every day). I thought the right answer was to follow the my rule: separate the letters at random! I still can’t understand what went wrong…

I was writing a letter with my new Hermes baby and I wanted to make sure my correspondent wasn’t going to think I am stupid, so I asked my friend Jennine to see if there were any rules for this. She, apart from being an angel, suggested two tips:

1) Clap your hands while you say the word out loud. Great, this was going to be easy, indeed! Let’s try it:

2) Check the word with a dictionary.

*epic fail* 😥

Alright, this was also my second option and, for the moment, my only way to know the syllables in a word. Jennine says that, eventually, I’ll start to recognize patterns, and I really want to believe her, but this seems like a whole new business to me.

Due to English pronunciation, which is so different from the Spanish rules on the matter, I just can’t figure out what the syllables are in the words. For example, I know that you pronounce “gaged” like a single sound in the word “engaged”, but in Spanish a single syllable is often composed only of a consonant followed by a vowel, so my brain needs to think I can separate “ga–ged”. Another option just seems too wrong!

As I result, I use my typewriters with the computer beside me, dictionary.com open in the screen. It’s funny, I know, but for now is the only way I have not to make mistakes in my writings. I guess that the goal is not to give up!

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Do you also find new problems with your second language almost every day, or it’s only me?

PS: for those English native speakers who are studying Spanish, I want to tell you something: you deserve all our verb tenses!

#ReadersWorkouts: summary of 2015 and goals for the new year

I follow this section on Joy’s blog even though I don’t write a weekly post about exercising, but I feel like it now that the new year has just started.

2015

In 2015 I’ve been using my Polar watch (Polar V800), and I’m in love with it. It has everything I need (GPS, water resistant, etc.) and much more. I wear it 24/7 because it even tells me the quality of my sleep, but what motivates me more is seeing on the web the monthly agenda and statistics.

The last month on the web that Polar provides has been like this:

I’ve been exercising 4-5 days per week, mainly swimming and running, but I also do some strength and walking sessions from time to time.

The blue lines with the percentage are the “daily activity”: the watch knows when you are standing, walking or sitting and everything counts for the activity at the end of the day, not just the workouts. I’m tutoring a girl whose house is 4 kilometers far away from mine, and the days I haven’t exercised or I’ve made a low activity, I leave the car at home and go to her house by walking.

I’m also very happy because running has finally become a routine, and two months ago I even ran my first 10K race 🙂

The hardest thing when running has been the timetable: I like to exercise in the morning, but in winter it’s very dark outside until 8.15 am – at that hour it’s too late for me to go for a run and get to the office on time, and before that hour I can’t go to the park because it’s dark and I’m scared to be alone. So I began running through the city instead of in the park, and it turned out to be a great idea: I see the path, I’m not scared to death because there are always people in the street, and I can go as early as I want. So I’ll be a city runner until summer comes again!

2016

This year I want to continue exercising 5 times per week, at least for the first three months of the year. Then, I want to increase the amount, either more minutes when running, or more workouts; we’ll see.

I also want to achieve the 100% of the daily activity daily – It’s hard on weekends because I sometimes don’t leave home, but I have to try. It’s for my own good!

I have other two 10K races in mind this year, one in Spring and the other in Autumn and, in general, I want to keep on feeling healthy, active and full of energy.

Let’s go!

Anyone out there with exercising goals for 2016?