¡puedo hablar español!

My first ever oral presentation in Spanish is now DONE!

I spoke for about 2-3 minutes about Mexican Muralism, an art movement in Mexico during the late 1920s and 1930s. It began as a way for the government to rebuild a Mexican nationalist culture but eventually turned into a means by which artists and social groups protested the status quo. I was nervous...I've been practicing since the beginning of Spring Break, but I think it went really, really well!! One girl in my class came upto me later in the day to tell me that she thought that I sounded like a native speaker, which, to me, was a big deal because she is Puerto Rican and her extended family speaks Spanish fluently. YAY!

So, the reason I chose this topic was...porque este movimiento era una combinación de unos ideales bastante modernos de la sociedad del siglo XX y de los temas estéticos del indigenismo. In other words, I found it interesting that the artists used the art styles of the indigenous people of Mexico to express dissatisfaction and responses to contemporary social issues.

Here are some examples of the pieces from this movement, some pretty cool stuff:

Omniciencia (Orozco)

El Vendedor de alcatraces (Rivera)

In other news, I just applied for my third year as an Overnight Hostess for the Spring Open Campus program on our campus where all the prospective students come to visit and see if they like Wellesley enough to come here or not, hehe. It's always been really refreshing and fun to take a couple days to be really proud of Wellesley and share all the positive things about it with people who are taking a look for the first or second time. Seeing as I'm about to leave this place, I might as well take this one last chance to tell people why I decided to stay here for all four years and am now clinging to this place like nobody's business because I don't want to leave.

As challenging as it is to be a student here and to live here (this is definitely the most intense group of people that I think I'll ever be around in my whole life), I have grown and learned so much, and I wouldn't take any of it back. Even all the shitty stuff, all the tears from being homesick my first year here, the incredibly challenging academics, and I've grown to adore and admire all the people that I've met here that are the walking definitions of "Type A" personalities...much like myself ;)

Well, I've got to get going, as ANKHR is hosting a documentary screening about North Korea this afternoon, then I am attending a panel about microfinance, and then tonight we have practice indoors since we're not allowed to use the outdoor fields because of all of the rain, unfortunately. I was SO looking forward to practicing outside. *sigh*