It’s time to be brave

Hello! Remember how I told you I’d be here in less than a week?

Well, fortunately or not, I haven’t fallen in love again, or at least I don’t think I have. I have been wrong about this before, but this time I hope I’m not. I’m happy with my current situation for now.

Well… actually…

Let’s start with the beginning, or the end if you’re reading this as a serial. After the events on my last post I was thinking for a long time about Whovie. And by long time I mean two days. I went through the five stages of grief in less than 36 hours and then I didn’t feel anything about it. Nothing at all. I coped with my rejection in record time considering I was crazy about this girl for almost two years.

This made me wonder about the way I react to situations and I noticed something. I was not afraid of being rejected by her. I was afraid of asking. It was the action that held me back, not the consequences. And this started driving me crazy. Why did I act this way? Or better, why did I not act? What’s wrong with me that I can’t talk about something even when I know it’s going to be Ok and I won’t care after a few hours?

And then I realized the real problem with me. I’m not brave. I don’t have the courage to act about my feelings, or pretty much anything. I chose my major by luck, I started my business because I didn’t want to work for someone else and now I can’t tell a girl when I like her. I spend ten minutes at the store trying to decide if I want Lays or Cheetos. So I decided that before I keep going on my pursuit of love, I will take a break and focus on something more important: the road to bravery. I need to become brave. I need the courage to act upon my wishes and beliefs. I must become able to do what I want. I saw a pocket watch I loved a few days ago (remember, I’m a nerd with hipster tendencies) and I had the money to get it in my pocket. I told myself “Just YOLO up and buy the darn thing!” but after a few seconds I chickened out. It was a watch, for the Lord’s sake! I hate that. I hate not being able to buy some fancy, useless shiny object when I can afford it just because I’m scared. So my new goal is to become a brave person, and I will avoid romantic feelings until I do.

Saturday I went with Toph to a picnic her church was organizing, and it was pretty fun. It reminded me of the camp I go to every summer, so I invited her and she said that if I can convince her mother she will come. I hope she does because it gets amazing; I’m kind of a celebrity around so that’s the only place where I feel brave and act the way I want. It’s where I first asked a girl out. It’s where I sang in front of a hundred people and didn’t get nervous about it. It’s where I’ve written and presented several plays and the only place where I play sports. So I want to be there again this year, and I want her to see me at my best.

On school topics, I failed at signing up for the CILS exam, so I won’t be presenting it even when the teacher said that “io parlo ottimo l’italiano”. I will at least be at the reading marathon this year, so that’s something. And on Japanese I’m sad to inform that my exposition about Okonomiyaki will be postponed indefinitely. I was having fun with it, so too bad 😦

On happier news, I reconnected with a friend from primary school! Well, sort of. Ten years ago, I moved to her town and for three years she was behind me. Not in a literal sense (as far as I know) but she was this happy girl who tried to cheer me up when I was too serious and with whom I had a school rivalry, sort of like Hermione and Harry on “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” (I believe I already talked about it). We were pretty much even in almost any academic aspect, because I had the advantage of having read more books than most people do in their lives by then, and the problem of being too lazy to do my homework. Anyway, we had our ups and downs, and now she’s studying on my campus and her English class is next to my Japanese class. Things have changed and now she acts the way I did back then, pretending she doesn’t like to have me around, but she’s had plenty of opportunities to get rid of me and not only she hasn’t, yesterday she asked me to walk with her to class, so I’m pretty sure she’s just being a bit tsundere about spending time with me. We’ve been having a good time, and even though she says she doesn’t care about me, she keeps asking about my past and telling me hers, and that’s enough for me to consider it a solid friendship.

The writing club is stuck. Not because they don’t work, because they do, but they don’t upload their stories and we haven’t been able to start publishing. On the plus side, we have now two honorary members, so that’s good. But I am concerned that they might not care enough of the project to continue it. Next Thursday I’m going to try to talk about it, and I hope we can settle it before it’s too late.

So this week I learnt three things:

1.- Friendship can come in many forms, and even if it doesn’t look like it, it can be cool of played smoothly.

2.- Love might be the most important thing, but without bravery, it won’t be able to grow.

3.- Sometimes bravery comes from a place or a person, not only from ourselves. Finding a source of bravery can be the key to happiness.

Peace,

Ècrivain

Ps: What do you think about the new theme? Comment!

Valentine’s Week, Part 2: A revelation, an advice and a crew of writers

Hello, fellas! This is part two of my last post. Feel free to read the introduction in The Legend of Korra’s narration voice.

The last time we saw our hero he was struggling with indecision: an unexpected proposal arrived with unclear intentions, an emotional episode got him into school privileges and a group of his associates had been reunited. But what turns would interfere with his mission, and what perils would endanger his club?

So, the last time I wrote I was talking about how my guy friend’s Valentine card was affecting my self-esteem. It was an awkward, depressing situation and I couldn’t find a way out because I didn’t even know if I was really in it. And to add to all of this, later that day I went with the Hipster crew and Whovie was there, talking about how she likes bad boys and describing exactly the type of guy (or girl) she’d date as my exact opposite. I spent all weekend thinking about all of this and I couldn’t even sleep well until I finally got the courage to ask Magikarp for advice, and she had really wise words to say:

“Are you gay? No. Are you a homophobe? Not that I know. Then this shouldn’t be affecting you. In fact, you should be flattered: someone out there thinks you’re attractive. I have those ‘am I really that ugly’ moments some times, but I finally realised that we’re students, and we’re only supposed to love our majors. There will be plenty of time for dating when we graduate, but until then, we have better things on our heads, like the Japanese homework we didn’t do.”

I was shocked for the truth of her words. I mean, I do care a lot about love, because I suck at socialising and if I ever get married it will definitely be with someone I met before leaving the uni, but it made me realise that I’ve been thinking it the wrong way. So what if I’m not a chicks magnet? I already knew that. But I’m smart, good with business and an artist, so I have nothing to worry.  I will find someone; I must not let my impatience make me think otherwise.

The writing club, by the way, is growing faster and better than I thought. I presented them the Project: a collaborative novel in which we will work weekly. They all loved it and we spent several hours defining the characters and the plot. We still have to discuss publication, but I’ll try to make it known here in case we do it. For now we’ve talked about poetry and our next assignment will be to express our character’s feelings. This will be awesome.

Coming to school topics, the Italian teacher told us the uni is preparing an arrangement with an Italian university so we can apply to make an internship there, and it will be ready by the time I get the necessary credits. It would be amazing; not only because I could meet the places and learn the language, but because being there I can visit all of Europe. I would need to save money, and probably make more there (I’m thinking on selling Mexican food), but it would be worth it. So from now on my only goal is to improve my notes and get an Italian CILS certification so I can apply.

And yesterday I woke up with a new gained confidence. I had a weird dream, and I can’t easily explain all of the details, but it showed me what I was doing wrong and how to fix it. I’m working on most of my weak points and I think I can do a lot of self-improvement. But there’s one thing, one decision that will mark a difference forever.

I will tell Whovie about my feelings.

Until now, I have never directly done that, and I have lost three great opportunities for being a coward. Curlz was the most recent, but I have a sad past that I don’t want to bring up to the blog yet. The point is, I never tell anyone how I feel until it’s already too late. I’m going to break that pattern. I will tell Whovie that I really like her, for real, not just a discrete asking out. I know I will probably get rejected, but isn’t love about taking risks? This time I will take action in my own hands. I need to find a moment when we both have the time to talk about it, but it will be as soon as possible.

So, the three things I learnt these days were:

1.- Being loved is never a bad thing, even if it comes from an unexpected person. The important thing is to accept it and keep going.

2.- You don’t get anywhere in love without taking some risky chances. It might hurt, but it will hurt less than silence. Everything hurts less than that.

3.- I need to learn more recipes besides tacos and chilaquiles. If anyone around knows the grade of difficulty of getting corn flour in Venetia, I’ll be very thankful.

Peace,

Écrivain

First Week report: I’m going bananas

There’s a type of relationship where you love someone so much but you still feel a need to strangle that person. You know the kind: GLaDOS and Chell, Christian Grey and Anastasia, Jack the Ripper and… well, all those prostitutes…

I have that relationship with school. (What did you think I was going to write? I’m not that sick!) I love school, particularly my uni; I love learning and spending time with people with the same interests I have. That being said, there is nothing I hate more in this planet that waking up at 3:45 because someone at the government decided we should have 60-minute lessons (instead of the standard 50 minutes) and that we needed to start at 6 a.m. to be useful to society. It destroys the genius, I know. I need a couple of rats and electrodes to prove it, but you’ll see someday.

This week things were starting to be better for business. I’m starting to sell a bit more and I think I might be fully recovered by the time extra classes start. What I fear is that I’m losing some of my most loyal clients… because every time I get to one I see them with a cupcake. Whovie claims that we’re not direct competition but I guess she doesn’t see how her presence affects me. My business is oriented with people with hunger, crave for sugar and not much money; most of my clients buy me things because they can get a decent lunch for a few cents. But if she comes before me, those tiny, expensive cupcakes are irresistible. I have to start making new regular clients right now or I’ll lose all my business to her.

The bright side of this is that I’m working harder on my advertising. I figured out that since I’m trying to run six different businesses I could use a Facebook page. I’m working on doing samples of everything I do so I can post tem.  School hasn’t let me work faster but I’ll do just fine.

And I have good news too: the writing club’s first session was great. Everyone read what we had made as a sample of our work, we talked about different topics related with books and I exposed the Project to them: we are going to write a book as a group. They all loved the idea and now we’re all going to present our characters for next Thursday.

And you probably are wondering what I’ll do for Valentine’s Day. The answer is… I’m not sure. First I have to stop being mad at Whovie, which I know I shouldn’t but it’s still happening. Then I have to figure out if I really want to do something with her, because lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Magikarp. She’s a really cute girl; she’s smart, funny, beautiful and one of my best friends, I can always count with her and so she can count with me. And we have a lot of fun together, more than what I have with most of my female friends, including Whovie and Curlz. In my mind she’s the kind of girl I would want a relationship with.

And that’s exactly the problem. It’s in my mind. I rationally know she would be perfect for me, and she might like me if circumstances were optimal, but I don’t feel anything. Nothing at all. I don’t have that wild, crazy desire that I have for Whovie, or that naïve, awkward curiosity I feel about Curlz. I know Magikarp is awesome, but I don’t feel it. Is this normal? Does love work that way? I’ve been thinking a lot about her recently, but I just can’t get my mind to do that. Maybe I’m just lonely and saw something where it can’t be. I don’t know. I need some advice.

Back to school topics, I already had all my classes, including the online class I couldn’t access to. It looks like I won’t be doing too much this semester except in Italian class. I got the best Italian teacher in my school and I loved his method. He says we’re going to work through Dropbox and there’s almost no homework. He even gave us the first unit of our book (downloadable for free on their website) so we have enough time to get the money. He only speaks Italian in class, and very fast, but it’s really easy to understand, although it takes a while to get used to the speed. Yesterday he gave us a talk about semantics that made me wonder about time. We have like a dozen tenses in English. Seventeen in Spanish. Nineteen in Italian. So why do we only conceive time as a linear progression of past-present-future when in reality it’s like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff? It’s highly illogical. (You see what I did there? Doctor Who + Star Trek quote!)

One of my goals is creating a certain fictitious language for one of my book series, and when I do I will fix this problem. There are a ton of pasts, present doesn’t exactly exist per se, and future can at least be divided into possible and certain. I will come up with a vocabulary that can explain concepts we understand but cannot talk about without using quantum physics or advanced Linguistics. And I will make it the official language of Mars. Ok, maybe that’s too much, but I could give it a try.

So the three things I learnt this week were:

1.- Business is hard. It’s difficult to compete with friends, and it’s more difficult if you have feelings for such friends. But competition makes a business grow, and that, after all, is better long-term. Besides, she’s just selling this semester.

2.- It’s not easy to be a writer, or at least, not as easy as I thought. Talent is not enough, you need discipline, inspiration and support. But team working can make even the loneliest of hobbies easier.

3.- Sometimes the mind and the heart disagree. Sometimes you know what’s best of you and don’t want it, or you know something will hurt you and still pursue it. But there’s one thing you most remember: no matter how hard it is to listen to one of the other… it’s way harder when they’re both yelling like nuts three days before Valentine’s Day.

Peace,

Écrivain

What Grownups call love

I’m happy today. Happy, happy, happy!

Let’s sum up things: My sister’s birthday was Ok. We went to the movies, ate hamburgers and got cake. Our plan was going to the Chinese buffet but for some reason it was closed. The only bad thing was that she lost her phone, but at the end my dad gave her one of his own (he had two). The next day I didn’t have class for national holiday, and we made a little barbeque. She was still mad about her mobile but she’ll get over it, I hope.

Anyway, yesterday I found out about great news: the teacher gave us two extra days for the research paper! I spent a lot of time working on it yesterday and today, and I believe I’ll have it on time. I have not been selling too much lately, but I don’t even care after what happened today.

Our uni has an interesting system, I don’t know if it is a universal thing but at least for me it’s a brand new way of justice. Every semester all the students have one anonymous chance to grade their teachers based on a series of criteria. Our group had its chance today, and I think I can say I was fair. Curiously I ended giving the best commentaries to the Logic teacher. He took an insufferable subject and turned it into a challenge, and I believe that deserves some recognising. At the end, the worst part was for the Methodology teacher. She might know a lot about her subject, but she just can’t teach. I hope she gets better someday because she could be on the top.

But what made my day was what happened right after the evaluation. I went to the library with some friends (Up until the last year I did not even know that sentence was possible) and I was looking for a table when I saw her. Whovie. She was right in front of me, and Magikarp went to say hello, so I thought it could be the best opportunity to talk to her. I casually asked where she is going to see “The Day of The Doctor” and she told me that at home; she does have the channel. I decided I was not going to invite myself to her house after all, and I said that I meant a website. And then we started talking about Doctor Who for the first time since I met it. It was wonderful; we both agreed in several points and it was amazing that, for the first time, we did not fight at all. It was our little private moment; literally nobody around us could understand what had us so excited and chatty. She showed me a video she made (She’s really good, it was her first fanvid and almost made me cry) and she confessed that the reason behind curling he hair was River Song. I wish I had more time with her, but she was late with some homework and I didn’t want to interrupt; besides, I had to study for my Italian oral test (that at the end I didn’t have). But it was great. Really, really great.

After today, I remembered why I like Whovie. It’s not because she’s weird, although that’s awesome. It’s not for all her energy, although it makes her fun. It’s not because she’s smart, because sometimes she can say really dumb things and that doesn’t turn me down. No, it’s something else. Something unique about her, something that makes me want to be with her forever. She just makes me smile. No reason, just her presence is enough to brighten my day. I tried so hard to get over her that I forgot how amazing it feels to be around her. When we’re together I feel like I know everything, like I can do anything I want. She reminds me how even the darkest place has a bit of light. She makes me want to be a better person. It’s not even her intention; she doesn’t know any of this, but just her mere presence turns me into a giant. Normally I think too much about everything, but for her I could take down the Great Wall of China without even stopping to figure out why. With Curlz I don’t feel like this. She’s better than me in any aspect; she just makes me feel insecure and ignorant. But Whovie, Whovie is like a drug for me. Everything about her drives me crazy; her face, her eyes, her voice, her ideas and her sexy, sexy curves just waiting to be touched. I feel awesome just by having her near me, even when we’re angry with each other. I think that this is what the grownups call love.

After all those feelings running inside of me, I thought nothing could make my day better. Well, guess what? I got a 100% on my written Italian test! Not even a single mistake. We had a little talk about prepositions and we left early. Later, in Japanese class, Magikarp was trying to be mean to me because I was too happy and she was not, but I didn’t care. My day was great. During French class I had everything right and I skipped Portuguese to come home early to work on my project. And surprisingly, all the information that I hadn’t found in weeks came to me in minutes! I just made a pause to post what I wrote for yesterday that I forgot and then it all became work. And you know what? Maybe Research is not so bad. Maybe I just needed some inspiration. My work is going to be great, and if everything goes right I’ll get to recycle it for another subject in the future. I feel so great that I bought a lotto ticket, even though I don’t believe in those things, because I thought that if I bought it today, having so much luck, my chance was bigger. We’ll see what happens. For now, I have a paper to focus on, so I think this is all for today.

So, the three lessons I learnt today:

1.- Magikarp thinks that eating tacos is sexy. She’s really funny.

2.- Love can be a tricky thing; it’s easy to forget, but once you feel it you get addicted to it.

3.- Whovie is going to be mine. It’s not a project, it’s not a wish, it is a statement. At some point in the future, I will be able to present her to people as “my girlfriend”, and maybe even more. I just need to be patient and keep it positive.

Ps. I had told I was going to say what Magikarp stands for, but I don’t see myself making a retrospective about her, so her it comes. Magikarp is one of my best friends, and she’s very talented; she sings beautifully, although not often, she is great at school and her most notorious characteristic is that she draws like a professional. The only problem is, she’s too lazy. I call her Magikarp because she has the potential to become powerful and awesome, like a Gyarados, but she’s too lazy to train her skills. Maybe someday she reaches her full potential. I would love to see her evolve.

Peace,

Écrivain

Next post: So I finally watched the 50th! (No spoilers)

A fair book fair

This morning I finally decided to take care of my school life. Up to this day, I’ve never really cared about studying, because I’ve never really had to, but I realised that I need to gain more discipline and responsibility over my learning. That’s why the first thing I did in the morning was finishing my delayed homework.

During French class, I noticed I have troubles understanding certain variations of the spoken language, and since I saw on TV there will be a new French show on Cinemax, I’ll look for it and start watching it. Later, after the Italian test, I saw that my note will be great, and happy as I was I promised to take a rest to focus on the languages that give me more troubles. But first, I have to pass the oral test, and that is a team work, so my new convictions can wait until Wednesday. I’m going to work with a friend that acts strangely, though. She seems to flirt with me, but she doesn’t really like me. She has some sort of a boyfriend, and things between them are odd. Basically, He works in oil, so he’s in town only a week every month. They’re not an official couple, so I’m fine with her flirting. But I understand we wouldn’t work as a couple, and so does she, because we’re totally different. In fact, I think the only thing we have in common is Italian class. And that confuses me about her attitude. Why would a girl who is on a relationship flirt with a friend who she’s not into? Women are weird.

Anyway, the book fair is on! After my test I had a free hour and I went to check. I found out two things: Number one, books for learning are more expensive than they should. And number two, the dean will use any excuse to look good in front of the cameras. I couldn’t see all the aisles because he was taking a lot of space with his team and the journalists, but I saw enough to realise that I will get poor after this week. I had some cash and I bought two books about Japanese learning and one about Mayan culture, and I am thinking about how I will choose the other books I’ll buy. I don’t want to pay for anything that I have already read, but I can’t know that a book I haven’t read worth my money. Of course, I could just buy the first books I see, but I’ll feel empty and vain. And I don’t want to buy the popular books; reading them while they’re mainstream topic takes away a part of the reading experience, the sensation that you and the book are alone and belong to each other, and that you can have a level of privacy that is impossible with other people. Wow, that sounds incredibly weird now that I wrote it down.

Later I went to Japanese class and I heard great news: Matsumoto-san is staying! Matsumoto-san is a Japanese man who got married with an ex-student of Japanese, and they weren’t sure about where they would live. But now I found out that he’ll stay in the city, he’ll teach some martial art and maybe he teaches advanced Japanese. He’s a cool guy, and I hope I can hang out with him every once in a while. He doesn’t speak Spanish or English, so he might not have too many options to pick from. I know that’s cheating, but I don’t care. I have a Japanese friend now.

I came home with the clear idea that I was going to work on my Kanji, and I did. I learnt… ten Kanji. Ok, maybe it’s not a lot, but if I keep perseverating I will learn the basic 2,000 in less than a year. A part of the purpose of the blog was to get discipline, and I feel like it’s working. I already feel obliged to write at least a page every night.  I must now integrate the Kanji study into that routine.

Well, today was not a busy day, so that’s pretty much all I have to say. I’ll try to spend some time with Matsumoto-san and help him get used to the local cuisine. And I must keep my Kanji updated.

So, the three things I learnt today:

1.- I may or may not have a book fetish.

2.- Flirting and Love can be completely unrelated, or at least some girls see it that way.

3.- Discipline is the key to all learning.

Also, here’s a little list of Kanji. If you know a bit about Japanese you might noticed I skipped the basic, but I already know around a hundred and I don’t think I need to work on those.

耳 Ear

金 Gold, money

左 Left

右 Right

手 Hand

足 Foot, leg, limb, addition

生 Previous, forward

先 Life, to be born

赤 Red

青 Blue

Peace,

Écrivain

Next post: A wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey dilemma

Please don’t make that pun

The last two days I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want. And curiously, that wasn’t even my intention.

Yesterday I arrived to school to face the most annoying subject I have: Logic. When we started three months ago I was thinking it would be fun; most of my friends had taken it already and they talked about magic squares and playing chess in class. It turns out every teacher gets to do their own curriculum, so I got the only one who actually cared about the subject. And now we’re doing some boring exercises and the teacher doesn’t admit when I have the correct answer. I got so tired of it I even offered money to the teacher for a note (even being at the top of the group). And that made me think. Am I really the kind of person who would pay for not taking a class that I don’t understand? I’ve always valued knowledge over all, and now I’m bribing teachers because I don’t like to wake up early. After thinking it a long time, the answer is: I’m not sure. Luckily the teacher didn’t accept, and I can get that out of my mind for a while.

Later that day, I was walking to the Languages Learning Centre with some classmates I don’t really know but I like. We were chatting a little bit, or so I thought, and I don’t know how the conversation became an interview about my life plans. Apparently, they think of me as a really smart person (I honestly am, but not in the level they see me) and they were asking because they want to take my advice. Now, I’m always asked for help in French and Italian classes, and I see that as normal because my whole life has been like that. But after talking with these guys I felt like I’m some sort of wizard. They wanted me to tell them everything: French or Italian, translation or education, who’s the best teacher, how am I thinking on getting my degree (research, exam, suma cum laude…), where do I want to go in student exchange, what will I do for living… I was shocked. I haven’t even thought about all that and suddenly I’m telling people how to live their lifes? I’m not a role model; in fact, I’m close to the opposite of that, not knowing how to interact with people and not even caring about my homework or my notes (teachers are always complaining that I don’t do my homework and somehow I get great notes at the tests). I don’t want to be a know-it-all, I hate that people. I don’t want to be seen as someone who feels superior to his peers. I don’t. Actually, I’d give up to half of my brain to be able to enjoy what I have and make a nice, calm life. But I never have enough, and even when that’s good for some things, it sometimes makes me unhappy.

After they finally left to class and I could stop answering questions, I headed to class. The rest of my day was normal, excepting for the incident that gave name to this article. I saw Neko with a male friend (I’ll make a short retrospective about her soon). She was being really cute, and I felt jealous. She came to say hello and when she left, another friend asked me if she was dating someone. I shut him up and left.

Now, this might seem normal for most people; just a guy liking a hot girl and not wanting to see her with anyone else. But it might get weird once you start questioning your definition of “hot girl”.

Neko is not the typical girl, and I mean it in every sense. She’s 1.40mts tall, she’s thinner than a model and she has no obviously attractive… curvy lines (c’mon, you know what I’m talking about). In fact, if you didn’t see her at the uni, you could probably believe she’s… a 13 year old. The only word to properly describe her is “tiny”. Her hair is too long, her eyes are too big and she has a childish look. She wears animal-printed sweaters too big for her, she has a cat-like personality and she is sometimes naive. You would think nobody in a university would seriously see her as dating material, but I’m not alone in this. There are at least four guys I know who liked her or tried to flirt with her. And realising I was on the list triggered a bunch of questions in my head. Do I like her? Or is this a fetish? Do I find 13-year-olds attractive? Am I a pervert? Would I date her? Should I date her?

Now, considering the fact that I look older than I am (someone told me I look like I’m 25) this could be a serious problem. If I decided to date her and we went out and we started kissing in a public place, in the best scenario people would give me judging looks. In the worst, I could actually be in legal problems. Not to mention my friends would label me forever as a Lolita fetishist. But on the other hand, I might be losing a chance with a great girl because I care too much about what people says. She’s a sweet girl, I like her, and I don’t like to see her with other guys. This is more complicated than I expected.

The rest of the day was nothing to talk about, and today I didn’t do too much. I had Logic class again (I hate it, I really hate it), I learnt a few words in French and I finally got to hang out with the guys. They taught me how to play poker, and it was fun. We didn’t go to the congress for money reasons, so obviously we weren’t going to bet with real money. We used Monopoly money, and we kept it to keep playing the rest of the congress time and see who won the most after the crew comes back.

Later I found out that tomorrow will be an Italian reading marathon. If you haven’t gone to one before, it’s pretty simple: the organizers pick a book and make a schedule where you can sign in. It can last from minutes to several hours, and you choose the schedule you have free (ten minutes, more or less) so you don’t actually have to stay the whole marathon. You arrive around your time and they give you a part of the text to practice. On the stage there are a few readers waiting for their part, and the rest is watching. When one ends, the next one takes the book and reads out loud. Well, I couldn’t sign in on time, but the teacher in charge told me to go anyway because sometimes emergency readers are needed in case someone doesn’t com or has to leave before reading. I hope I can participate.

Well, I think that’s all I have to say. The three things I learnt today were:

1. – How to play poker.

2.- When it’s about love, sometimes size does matter. And not in the way you’re thinking.

3.- I can read Italian well enough to have the confidence to participate in a reading marathon. I hope I do it fine. Wish me luck!

Peace,

Écrivain

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