Do not use Google Translate!

Please.

Believe me, the world will be a better place.

Please, rely on real translators.

Thank you.

Nerea.

PS: I had to blog this. It appeared while doing a research for the previous blog entry.

Ballet and interpreters are everywhere!

So recently my fellow ballet blogger Nina wrote this nice post about ballet being everywhere.

That is so true. Ballet is everywhere and so are interpreters!

I went to Brussels and I visited the European Parliament. You can think: "but no wonder there were interpreters at the EU Parliament. It's the biggest interpreting service in the world!"

I know, yeah. That's why I was so excited!

I mean... look at those amazing booths!

But there was something else I hadn't thought before travelling to that country!

You know, Belgium has got three official languages, therefore in its parliament there must be some interpreters! So I was able to go inside the building just to check it out... because I'm that cool! Nah, I'm not. On Thursday they had their National Day, so public buildings were open for everyone! So I went into the Belgian Parliament and it was very cool! You could see micros and headphones everywhere... and those horrible "booths"! Actually I don't know if I can call them "booths", because they consisted of a table, two chairs, two consoles and a pane of glass in front of them. And that's all! I mean, no walls, no door... NOTHING! If you're an interpreter there, you must suffer a lot doing your job! You can hear everything around you!

Actually I think I couldn't do it, as I got distracted by my classmates' voices when they were interpreting in adjacent booths! It's sad but it seems that in the professional world this happens a lot. Our teacher told us that she's had to work in these situations more than once. Not fun. AT ALL.

And regarding ballet being everywhere, in Brussels I saw something I never thought I would see. There was a freakin' ballerina in the Atomium! A freakin' ballerina doll, you guys! Yeah, there she was, with her leg on the barre, doing some stretching:

And she's got pointe shoes and everything!

And I could see the poster of "Romeo and Juliet" by the Moscow Ballet everywhere in Brussels. The performance will be in December, though. I wanted to steal a poster, but they where pretty much well stucked.

Also, I found this lovely photo of a plié in fifth position in Bruges. I had to take a picture:

Girl likes hard work. And torn leg warmers, haha!

And that's all for now, guys!

I'm back. I like having you around.

Nerea.

Boring holidays… but Brussels!

As you know, I am on holidays. I arrived to my village five days ago, and as I predicted, I don’t know what to do here. No ballet classes, no interpreting lessons, not even a single text to translate. I go to the swimming pool for an hour or so every day, but the water in León is cold, so I don’t enjoy it very much. I don’t really like watching TV, so it’s off all the time and I don’t have Internet connection at home, so I spend my time reading, which is nice, but I don’t like lying on my bed with a book the whole day. By the way, at the moment this book is “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”, by Salman Rushdie, if anyone’s interested.

But I have something to be happy about! Guess what! I am going to Brussels in less than two weeks! You know what? Brussels is a very nice place to visit when you want to become an interpreter or a translator, because it’s the capital of the European Union and its Parliament is there! Plus, they speak French over there, and it’s been a while (two years) since my last visit to a French-speaking country. As you may know, it’s my first foreign language and I feel really close to it. I want to “need to speak it”, if you see what I mean!

As regards my interpreting training… I have been doing some speeches these days, but maybe not as many as I should have. My headphones are broken and I will not be able to interpret a lot until I buy some new ones. You might know that earphones are not very comfortable for this… at least for me, they aren’t. Anyway, I am still using the speeches of our lessons. I can’t use the Speech Repository of the European Union without Internet. This is horrible.

Also, I have been doing some ballet barres on my own, but it’s not as fun as in class, because there’s nobody to correct me and I lack of imagination for the choreographies. As a result, they are repetitive and very boring. Another problem is the space. My house is big, but there are too many things inside and I haven’t found a single place where I can do a grand battement without breaking a vase. Not fun times at all.

I have the feeling that, when July finishes and I come back from Brussels, I will need the holidays to be over as soon as possible in order to go back to Salamanca with my friends and my studies. Until then, I will try to enjoy my time here, even though this is the first time EVER that I want it to finish quickly.

See you!

Nerea.

PS.: Harry Potter 7.2 will be out in ten days. I’m excited and happy, but at the same time I’m sad, because I don’t want it to be over! You know, after more than 10 years… it’s the LAST Harry Potter movie ever!