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!

Interpreting en Pointe

Eh… what?

Yes, “Interpreting en Pointe”. Why not? Oh wait. You are asking me what all this is about. Ok, fine, let me explain it from the beginning.

So… you know, I am studying Translation and Interpreting and I am in the middle of my training to become a conference interpreter… or something like that. Why do I say it this way? Well, simply because I have not decided yet if I will become an interpreter or a translator… or both. I will have to make that decision in September. The fact is that I truly WANT to become an interpreter, but I am WAY better at translating documents. This means that during summer I will have to follow a very strict schedule to make my foreign languages (French and English) a lot stronger. I have thought that a blog written in both these languages would really help me; or at least, my writing skills and vocabulary will improve considerably. In addition to this, I will have to spend some hours a week practising with real speeches in both languages, so that I will not feel lost when the next academic year begins.

But wait, what does the “en pointe” thing mean? It is French for “on the tip of the toes”, and yes, I am talking about ballet shoes. But what has ballet to do with all that? Well, they say that interpreters always have an unusual hobby that helps them relax and forget about their job. Some of them sing operas, some others play piano or different kinds of flutes, and I even met one that went scuba diving. Some of them say that these hobbies even help them feel more comfortable while interpreting. Why? Well, let’s see this from the musical point of view: people who study music are able to multitask, their heads are better organised, and many of them are more used to listening to foreign languages, aren’t they?

So for me, this random hobby is ballet: my passion and my love. Because I am in LOVE with ballet and I cannot help feeling free and amazingly happy when I dance. Because it helps me forget everything and get rid of the stress that the interpreting booths cause. Because it is wonderful. And because at some point I have found myself interpreting with my headphones on and my ballet slippers on my feet at the very same time.

On Tuesday 31^st May (today, or yesterday, because it’s 3:50) I did my simultaneous interpreting exam. I will receive the results on the 2^nd June. These are probably among the most important results of my life, because depending on my mark, I will decide whether or not to become an interpreter and whether or not to make this summer adventure. I hope the results are satisfactory and if so, I will see you here, talking about headphones, booths, speeches, tutus and ballet shoes... and Tamara Rojo.

[…]

Yes, I love her.

And you should too.

Nerea