spanish lesson: guante

I'm going to El Guante, Honduras. Out of curiosity, I looked up what it meant.

guante [goo-ahn’-tay] m ♦ glove
sentar como un guante to fit like a glove
guantes de lana/boxeo/goma woollen/boxing/rubber gloves
familiar echar el guante a alguien to catch sb
de guante blanco gentlemanly
como un guante like a lamb

hahaha.. so I'm going to be spending my summer in "the glove"!

copyright (c) 2006 Chambers Harrap Publishers Limited and 2007 Velazquez (r) Spanish and English Dictionary

give

Chapters had a 20% kids and teens books this week and I was reminded this week of my favourite book growing up: The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. Reading this book was the first time I remember being touched by a message. Sure, I had cried before, but that would be because I didn't get my way or had dropped my ice cream on the ground. The Giving Tree was my first memory of feeling something beyond myself.

spanish lesson: ánimo

My Spanish dictionary and phrasebook arrived in the mail yesterday. YAY!! I stayed up late trying to learn and absorb.
Did you know that dictionaries can be a source of encouragement (ánimo)?

There are two forms of the verb "to be": estar and ser. When conjugated, I am = estoy and soy. In general, estar is used for temporary things or moods while ser is used for permanent or definite characteristics.

So it reminded me that while in Honduras, I'm going to have a mixture of feelings.
Estoy nerviosa (I'm nervous)
Estoy avergonzada (I'm embrassed)
Estoy asustado (I'm scared).
But these will come and go, and I won't feel like this the whole time.

Then there are the other things that are really a part of me and won't change with time or the situation.
Soy de Canadá (I'm from Canada)
Soy cristiana (I'm Christian)

Moods and feelings change but my identity will not.
That was very encouraging. Thank you Oxford and Lonely Planet.

hep a, typhoid, malaria....

Those are just a couple of things my travel clinic got me vaccinated for / gave me pills for today. And it gets me to realize that I am going to Honduras.
I am really going.
The pre-trip anxiety is starting to kick in.

lights

So I was volunteering last Friday at a program for people recovering from MS/stroke. There was one station to work hand strength and one activity in it was to turn on one of those press-the-light-and-it-turns-on kind of lights. (You know, they're kind of dome-y and you press it again to turn them off.) The idea is that you practice putting pressure with your hand which may have become nonfunctional from the stroke. Most people do this by putting their stronger hand on top of the weaker one and pushing down on it.
So there was this one elderly lady who was usually quiet whenever I saw her. She was there practicing with the light a while and I was just monitoring. Next thing I know, the light is on. And she turns to the instructor with a huge grin and tears in her eyes. Apparently, she had been trying for weeks to turn on the light with just her one weak hand. To her, this proved that there was hope for her, that all her efforts were turning into visible improvement. She had to sit down and cry those tears of joy.
I was touched and couldn't help but smile about that the rest of the day. I was reminded of why I wanted to go into physiotherapy (or even just health in general). It's these little things that make my days feel bright :)

breakfast

I had this for breakfast the other day. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see this?






1) The first thing that came to my mind was 'sickle cell anemia.' hahaha My life sciences brain was up and running pretty early in the morning. But wouldn't you agree that the cheerio in the spoon was the exact shape for which the blood disease was named after? And you know the shape of the cereal resembles the biconcave feature of normal cells........
Well, this made me realize how much our background influences the way we look at things, how we interpret the things that happen to us. That's why my mind linked cereal to biological disorders. So when I'm in Honduras, I'll be in a different culture, but I will have also brought my Chinese Canadian perspective with me. That's not a bad thing. I just need to remember that I do have a certain worldview with me and it'll be interesting to see how that shows up in the way I interpret my experiences there.

2) So I tried to analyze my cereal from a less nerdy view, and I came to my next conclusion: 'stereotyping.' Why did I single this one cheerio out? Because it was different from the rest. Is that fair? Is it not still a cheerio with the same delicious fusion of whole grain oat and hint of honey? Yet, because it LOOKS different we conclude that there is something wrong. You know, it's really narrow to just study the cereal as cereal. There's the higher level: General Mills, which made it into what it is. haha I'm going to stop now or I might start ranting about structural violence ingrained in cereal (pun intended).

3) Then I realized that should just be happy that I had breakfast in the first place. I chose Honey Nut Cheerios from a variety of different cereals in the cupboard in the morning. And I had a nice glass of 2% milk with it - pasteurized. I have the opportunity of getting adequate fibre and iron and zinc and B12 to the point that sometimes overnutrition is more common here. The more I thought the more blessed I felt :)

4) And then my natural instincts took over my brain and I consumed the cereal. Yes, even the sickle shaped one.