keep Spanish in my life

A friend in Bolivia & I have recently taken to chatting in the late evenings. He is a Colombian friend from my teenage years. It’s not a romantic relationship, just a friendship that is very precious to us because we’ve known each other so long but hadn’t been in touch for about 10 years.

He’s also pretty fluent in English, so if I can’t think of a word in Spanish I can use English. But I haven’t had to do that very often. It’s so delicious to use Spanish every day again! And our conversations make me laugh out loud pretty regularly too.

On Friday I had a long dinner with one Colombian friend, tonight another, & both friends have urged me to stay in touch so we can meet again soon.

In July 2011 I hope to travel to Colombia with one of my sisters—& to attend the annual international poetry festival there! I just e-mailed the organizers to introduce myself & express interest in participating by doing a reading! The festival includes poets from around the world, & the readings are attended by large, enthusiastic audiences. It will be a privilege to attend a few readings during our visit, & I’ll be over the moon if they say they’d like me to read too!

The friend I mentioned in an earlier post did come over for dinner, bringing lilies as a belated expression of sympathy for the loss of my dad. We had a good talk, & she agreed to make a list of some Spanish-language novels that I should read.

Today another friend e-mailed to say she’d like to get together. She lives near my workplace, so it will be easy for us to meet some evening after work.

On my Netflix queue I have added a whole bunch of movies in Spanish, some recent & some classics. I find time to see a movie only once every week or two, so this list will do me for a LONG time.

may do a translation project: collect poems in Spanish & translate them, & make a book!

She’s a Spanish language/literature prof, so her vocabulary is greater than mine. She can clarify the precise meanings of words & phrases. And then I can turn the literal translations into poems that sing in English.

This will take time, & it may not fly. But it will be fun to try!

Speaking Spanish is one of the essential ingredients in a “feeling most truly myself” life for me.

One way I’m staying immersed in Spanish: I’ve decided to alternate books in Spanish with the English-language novels & memoirs I check out regularly from the library. I just finished a novel by Hector Abad Faciolince, & I have requested a library hold on his tribute to his father.

Last week I had a good phone chat with a local Colombian friend, & I just left her a message about possible times to get together in the next few weeks.

Down the road I’m hoping to participate in U.S. Poets in Mexico! And I want to take a vacation trip to Colombia with my siblings. But first I’ll have to make more progress on getting finances in order.