My stay-cation was good. I lodged one application to a Spanish graduate program, in Barcelona. As for the rest that I might apply to for now all I can do is prepare and wait. In Spain it is not uncommon for universities to do the same in March or April. One does not open until May. Talk about laid-back.
I have had the privilege of having a number of dear family and friends look over my materials and give me feedback. Some of the most valuable feedback I got was from a friend in Israel--she went through the whole essay I wrote for the school in Barcelona and cut out every instance of "I", "me" and "my" she possibly could--and there were quite a few. The end product was more meaningful, striking and to the point. Makes me shudder to think about going back and reading some of my previous blog entries.
In that vein, I have a friend, Sahar, who has been kind enough to lend me the netbook I am tapping out this entry on, who has a blog, saharsblog.wordpress.com. The title is in effect ironic, because the blog is about everything but Sahar herself--and that tells you a whole lot about her. She asks plainly on her blog's "About" page: "Let me start off by say that Sahar’s Blog is definitely NOT a day-to-day diary description of what I am up to – not only it might bore you to death, but what’s the point of everyone knowing what I am up to?"
It's a good question for anyone to ask. I write "Hacer el camino al andar" to keep my friends and family posted on what I'm doing on this side of the world, but wouldn't you come to know more about me, plus some other interesting and useful stuff too, if I used this blog to show you not so much the filter itself as the world through it?
With that I'll share with you another fruit of the labor I put in during my stay-cation: thefaithfultranslator.wordpress.com
The heart of it is a blog about translation issues. My intention is that the top row of links might become part of a web presence as a freelance translator; and the bottom row of links, when the time to professionalize comes, might be split off into a different forum. I began it before these reflections on ego had taken root in my head, so I'm still working on purging it of self and keeping the focus on translation. Any and all feedback is appreciated. I don't know what will become of this blog, but the title itself leaves the door wide open. It comes from this poem by Spanish poet Antonio Machado:
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino, y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino,
sino estelas en la mar.
Soon I'll post a translation on my translation blog :)
