aquí, ahora:here and now

I just got back from the 9810 District Conference. It was fantastic! I had no idea what to expect and was a bit nervous about speaking to 600 people, but everyone was so lovely and supportive, and I had a great time. Thanks to all at Glen Waverley, the club that sponsored my trip to Mexico and took me along to the conference, DG Dick Garner, Scholarships Chair Peter Murie, and the rest of 9810.

Never want to see anyone in a mini-tunic and red pantyhose again, though…

Fundación Comunidad held its tenth annoversary AGM-type event a couple of weeks ago. I made a presentation for them with a bunch of their photos, and was a last-minute ring-in to do all the IT stuff on the night, which was a recipe for disaster… We managed to get a spread in the paper, and the most *ahem* important bits are below.

I’m so well indoctrinated. Taxis here are freaking me out. There is a serious need for a public safety campaign about seatbelts!

The Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos (Morelos State Uni) has a department of conservation and environmental studies that’s very active in local rural communities. One of the projects they’re working on at the moment is an education campaign that will travel around to primary schools, educating kids about how important it is to keep domesticated animals in paddocks and stables. One of these animals is the cow. The main message is that cows are not originally from Mexico.

How do you teach kids about this? Why, you set up a travelling puppet show and have a foreigner do the vocals for the cow character! Of course!

So I spent all afternoon in a studio, recording the lines and being told to be “¡más gorda! ¡más gorda!” (”fatter! fatter!). Apparently my voice is that of a skinny person. Huh.

I don’t know if this is something all language students go through, or if it’s a symptom of early onset dementia, but I keep forgetting words. It’s not that I can’t remember them in English — that would be OK — but that they’re gone. Completely and utterly erased from my mind in both languages. Just today I lost ‘prejudiced’ and ‘menial’, and it took me ages to explain what I meant. Sometimes it feels like I’m in a a long game of Taboo!