Hey guys!

Long time no see! I want to write, truly, but I've just been so busy, and my Internet connection at home is like the APC song, "Weak and Powerless". So I can only erally comment at the university, and usually when I'm in the University, I'm working, or else being worked on. It's a vicious circle, really. But I will make the effort to be consistent, and hopefully I will write more, soon. Wilmarie out!

Eeeek! (Imagine the big crescendo of Carmina Burana)

Alas! Gasp! Fear and terror! My grandma is here!

Nah, I love her to pieces, but she's just . . . Grandma. She's my dad's mom, and she's just so much against everything I am, it's ridiculous. She's closed-minded, chauvinistic and delightfully ignorant, like she can't be held accountable for anything, simply because she's - ah! - a woman!

But I'm being unfair. She can't help it; she was born in a whole different era. Her Grandmother was actually one of the last taíno natives in town. And Grandma is really smart and funny, it's just this weird circumstance she's always acting out.

Sigh

But, that's Grandma. A near-chain-smoker all her life, she causes me allergies and annoyances, but then she always makes me laugh and have a good time (mostly). I'm always kicked out of my room . . . Boo!

Anyhoo, see you later. Ciao, baby!

Yaaay! Oh, no, wait. Booo!!

The ambivalence referring, of course, to the blog itself. I'd rather see it as a tool of self-expression, and not as something I simply have to write in, every single day. Proof of this: This blog was created almost a week ago, and this would be my first posting. As such, I think you're entitled to know more of me. I'm earning my Masters in English Education, and I was also granted a TA assistantship. Which means, in a nutshell, that I am busier than a one-legged girl in an ass-kicking contest.

But for the most part, the classes are good, really interesting.

Yes, even the Second Language Acquisition one, the one with all the linguistics. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but here in Puerto Rico, in the University I study in, there has always been a type of rivalry between the Literature and the linguistics major in the English Department. Which is utter nonsense, in my point of view. I think it stems from that attitude of, "Hey, I'm a Lit major, I'm so smart! I can analyze a text and digest it and make it my own!" versus the attitude, "Screw you punks! The Linguistics students may be few, but we're the underdogs!"

Still, I have a good time in the Linguistics class. Even as a Lit major, I always took more classes than the minimum required for a Lit major in Linguistics. I'm OK with them. But then the other classes, those are much more Lit related. I'm taking one that focuses solely on poetry, its study, criticism, contexts, etc. That class is soooo interesting! I love it! I am finding out so much stuff I didn't know about poetry, a whole different way of reading it. Even after having graduated, there were still schools of criticism I never even heard about, much less apply.

And the final one is a class that's supposed to teach us how to teach literature, whenever we graduate and get a job in the Puerto Rico (or whichever,really) Department of Education. But the professor is an evil subversive mastermind! I love him, he's a complete and utter sweetie! I took as many classes as I could with him as an undergrad. So, rather than learning how to make students into obedient little automatons who can't think for themselves and must be fed the "correct" answers, we are actually learning how we perceive ourselves as teachers, as well as how we perceive ourselves as students.

We also get to watch Rage Against the Machine videos and have arguments over what the media wants to feed us as "Truth", as "What we should know". And its funny, because there are two girls, two ladies from the States, one's from Ohio and the other's from, I dunno, California or something. The topic in class, and this was just about an hour and a half ago, shifted towards politics, pop culture and the effect these have over educational situation. How one may have his or her own ideology, but by having access to the media that no one else has, finds a way to make said ideology into propaganda, a type of brainwashing, or perhaps subliminal messaging.

So I make this random comment on how President Bush went on the news when he first declared war on the Middle East. My exact words were, I believe, "And there goes President Bush, saying he's gonna rid the world of evil, like he's some sort of Holy Knight, a Crusader or something!" The Ohio girl was pretty OK with it, but the California (or wherever the hell she's from) was giving me such a mean look!

I was acting all "Whatever!" and such, but it really annoyed me. I mean, let the North Americans say whatever they want, Puerto Rico is a colony. Not a state, not a free territory, but a commonwealth. fancy word meaning that North American millionaires wave cash in front of our deliciously corrupt politicians, who bow their heads and say "Yes, of course you can build your enormous hotel right on the beach! There are fishermen there? To hell with them! There's endangered species there? Ah, they'll find somewhere else to nest in! What's that? There's no beaches left for the people? Bah! We live in a freaking island! They'll find a beach soon enough!"

So, we've got these beautiful hotels, and no beaches to go to. I live, literally, like 500 meters from the ocean, but if I want to go to a clean, free-of-cost beach, I have to drive for almost an hour.

We get laws thrust upon us, laws we have to obey even if they don't really apply to us, because the US government says so. But the funny part? We don't get to choose the president. Or the Congressmen. Or anything, really. What we get is a Resident Commissioner, who represents us in Congress.

We don't get a chair in the UN because we're an acquired territory of the US, but we aren't really in control of our own island. But you know what? That's beside the point. Waaaaay beside the point.

Thing was, we, like decent ladies, didn't make a fuss about it. But when I said what I said, the Prof saw the girl giving me the Deathglare and he says, "But Wilmarie, the context of the President's statement was the terrorist attacks of September 11."

It ticked me off, 'cause now I felt I had to justify myself. And after class, I did, directly to him. I say, "Look, I'm sorry if I offended her, but what I was trying to say was that Bush said that, and then he invaded Iraq and hung Hussein. He did nothing about Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, who took responsibility for Sept 11. Bush Jr. was simply finishing what Bush Sr. started a few years ago!"

So the Prof goes, "Yeah, I know, and I agree with you, for the most part. But Sept 11 is a touchy subject for North Americans."

I don't give much of a crap for sensibilities I hurt, whenever it's a dispute about someone trying to force-feed me something I don't agree with.

And that's it for today! Hopefully this will be a nice blog experience and I won't lapse into weeks of forgetfulness.