A PSA from your friendly neighborhood CSR

So as we move into the Holiday season, that time is upon us when we spend more money than we have all year to give people things we're pretty sure they'll like, in some cases things we know they'll like.  And many times, we'll do it online for some reason or other.  And, because it's the Holiday season, there will be a chance you'll end up calling into a company's Customer Service center to talk with an agent about something.  So, on behalf of CSRs across the country and abroad, I thought I'd compile a list of things to keep in mind before, during, and after you do your online shopping over the next couple weeks.

BEFORE YOU SHOP

1. Figure out where you're going to do your shopping.  This sounds like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised.  Bear in mind that if you choose a third-party retailer at a place like Amazon.com or eBay.com, you *will* have issues if something goes wrong.  Be especially careful of anything third-party.  What seems like a better deal can cause more hassle than it's worth in the long run due to "restocking fees" and "shipping and handling".  In other words, know where you're buying, and who you're buying from.
2. Don't leave your online shopping for the last minute.  This will become clearer later on in this post, but this is something to keep in mind before you do your shopping.

The End of an Era

"Xavi se despide del Barça por la puerta grande"

I always figured this moment would come sooner than I would hope.  The day my favorite athlete, my favorite footballer, would stop playing for my favorite club.  He's not retiring, but he is pretty close.  He's moving to another country, to another league, but thankfully for all the right reasons.  It's something to be optimistic about, anyway.

I've posted about my feelings before.  And to be honest, it's not something that I feel adequate to talk about right now.  I'm going through a lot right now on a personal level and I've stopped writing like I used to.  My thoughts don't flow as smoothly, my mind is a mess, and nothing makes as much sense.  But I feel like I somehow owe him something in his departure.  I feel like I need to say something about this man, because of so much he's given me.  And it feels so weird to say.  Awkward, even.  I've never met him.  I doubt he even knows I exist.  I'd be shocked if he did, really.  And to be honest, I don't even really care that much.  But none of that matters in the end.  What matters is that this man, this footballer, has given me so much.  He's brought me back to a place I never thought I'd be in, he introduced me to a whole new world, a whole new culture, to the extent that I honestly do feel like I know him.

The sad part is that the last couple years I've been so busy trying to take care of my life, trying to make something of it that I let things fall by the wayside.  I ignored the things I loved thinking that one day I'd come back to them, only to be chewed up and spit out by the very life I thought I wanted to live.

At the end of the day, the story is this: seven-and-a-half years ago I was planning my first trip back to Spain in almost four years.  I was getting back into football, if one could ever say that I was ever into it, and found a name that popped up on a roster for the Spanish National Team during a Eurocup qualifying match.  I recognized it from nearly nine years prior.  "That couldn't be the same guy...could it?"  It was.  What happened next sent me spiraling into a world that I'd only marginally known existed.  And what ended up happening was that I would end up taking a trip to Barcelona with some friends, sitting in the nosebleeds at Camp Nou, watching 90 minutes of beautiful football that would turn out to be a precursor to the legendary season that gave FC Barcelona their first treble.  And who would score the first goal in that match I saw on a May afternoon in Barcelona but the man who essentially forced himself into my life.

From that point on, I found myself immersing myself in Catalan culture.  In the language, history, and culture of a nation I barely knew and understood and would find myself defending.  I found myself within months being able to converse in it, and by the time I would return to Barcelona two years later I was told by native speakers, Barcelona locals, that they had no way of knowing I'd never lived a month in Catalunya.

So here I am, finding myself trying to figure out what's going to happen next.  It sounds trite, and bizarrely dependent on sports to find some kind of meaning in life.  But here's the truth.  And everyone who follows football knows this to be true.  Football is more than just a sport.  It's more than what American football and baseball and basketball and hockey purport to be.  Football is so much more than that.  I'm not even going to bother defining it.  It means something different for everyone, and that's what makes it the Beautiful Game.  But I honestly don't know what's going to happen now that Xavi no longer plays for FC Barcelona.  Oh, I'll still follow Barcelona.  That club has become such a huge part of my life I will never be able to let that go.  And I'll still plan my next trip to Barcelona, and I'll still speak Catalan, and I'll still support Catalan independence.  But it won't be the same.

I know he's off to a better place.  Not Qatar per se, but knowing why he's going there...to play the game at a level that Barça isn't letting him play at anymore.  To play a more managerial role so that he can segue into coaching, so that within the next five years we'll see him coaching at the Miniestadi and subsequently at Camp Nou.  So that, who knows, given the streak Barcelona's been on with 1st-year 1st team coaches winning trebles, he'll go on to win one himself.

So to this I say, in the language of his people:

Gràcies, Xavi.  Gràcies per tot.  Gràcies per tot el que ens has donat i pel que ens tornaràs a donar.  Ets tota la llegenda que mereix aquest club i tota la persona que necessitàvem.  Gràcies per ser la persona que has sigut.  Molta sort al teu futur.  Mai t'oblidarem.

"Football" vs. "Soccer"

This is a topic that, as both a football (soccer) fan and someone who's interested in languages and linguistics, and thus etymology, is near and dear to my heart.  So let me just say, before I go further,

Both words are correct.

Yes, you heard me.  I hope it was loud and clear.  Both the words "football" and "soccer" are equally correct.  And it irks me to no end when the word "soccer" is brought up to be "wrong" or "stupid", and how apparently only Americans (and don't even get me started on the word "Americans", for that is another rant for another time) use it, which makes them, *gasp* stupid.

Now, I'm not one of those "'MURRCA" Americans, because that is stupid, because hell, I didn't have a choice to be born here, I just was.  That's the way it is, that's the way it goes, and I have complaints, I have compliments, but so does anyone.  I'm not going to relinquish my citizenship because I don't like the direction this country is going in, nor am I going to tell everyone to leave.  My ancestors came to this country for a reason, and I can respect that.  I'm here now, I have an American passport that I actually think looks really cool, I really like our national anthem and the story behind it, and you know what?  I'm American and I like it.

All that being said, I think the whole "soccer versus football" as a "United States versus the World" argument is idiotic.  Why?  For one thing, the etymology of the word "soccer".  See, most people seem to think that "football" is the correct term because it's played with the feet.  I'm not here to debate that.  I'm also not here to discuss or complain about how American football is called football even though it's more "handegg" than "football" in terms of method and tool used to play.  I watch American football (GO PACK GO), and I enjoy it.

Here's the thing.  Both words "soccer" and "football" are correct, as the actual term for the sport is called "Association football".  You know, a sport played with a ball using feet that is made up of associations.  And here's the kicker, that's where the word soccer comes from.  I know!  Crazy, right?  Mind-blowing.  I'm going to quote Wikipedia here, because I can:

The word soccer is an abbreviation of association) and first appeared in universities in the 1880s (sometimes using the variant spelling "socker").

For nearly a hundred years after it was coined, soccer was an uncontroversial alternative to football, often in colloquial and juvenile contexts, but also in formal speech and writing.[6] In the late twentieth century some speakers of British English began to deprecate soccer for reasons that remain unclear; it is possible they mistook it for an Americanism

The word "soccer" was used in Britain until the late 20th century, and then stopped becaues they thought that Americans invented the word!  And in case Wikipedia isn't good enough (I feel ya):

soccer (n.) 

1899, socca, later socker (1891), soccer (1895), originally university slang (with jocular formation -er (3)), from a shortened form of Assoc., abbreviation of association in Football Association (as opposed to Rugby football); compare rugger. An unusual method of formation, but those who did it perhaps shied away from making a name out of the first three letters of Assoc.

That's from the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anyway.  There you go.  Prefer to say "football" over "soccer"?  Say it!  Prefer to say "soccer" over "football" because you don't want people to get it confused with American football?  Okay!  Just don't go around telling everyone that the way they're saying it is wrong.

Now let's just all agree to get along!

Let's Talk Women

Confession time.  I'm a woman, and I wear makeup.

I know, I know, so scandalous.  How dare I be a woman who enjoys makeup, wears between a size 2 and a size 4 (34-36 in Europe), and is of average build.  I have a fast metabolism, I'm not in shape at all, and yes, I love my morning makeup ritual.  Which isn't so much a ritual right now because I don't have much of a reason to go out in public most days, because I'll also admit that I'm lazy.

So there you go.

My whole reason for this post is that I'm sick and tired of people posting on Facebook stuff about "real women".  Real women this, real women that, makeup this, no makeup that.

Give me a break.  I am no less a woman because I enjoy wearing makeup, nor am I any less a woman because I'm a size 2-4 and still wish I could lose some weight.  The fact of the matter is, wearing makeup makes me feel good.  I struggle with low self-esteem, and have for a while, and when I started wearing makeup, the mere application of it boosted my confidence level something wonderful.  I feel like I'm creating art on my face, and playing with colors and contours and producing a final result that I'm not only proud of on a superficial level but also on an artistic one is something beautiful.  I don't care if some women choose to wear makeup and some don't.  It's none of my business.

Truth is, I don't wear makeup because someone else tells me to or because that's what society wants me to do.  I wear makeup because I want to and because it makes me feel good about myself, which is something that I very rarely experience outside of my makeup routine.  I'd rather spend money on makeup than clothes, and I'm okay with that.  If no one else wants me to wear makeup, fine.  That's cool.  But you're not going to make me become any less of a woman, any less beautiful, by telling me so.  I'm glad you're happy and content with your makeup-free face.  But don't make this about being a woman.

A woman is a woman, no matter how she dresses, looks, or acts.  It's no one's business but her own.

Lo bueno sale bien

Since I'm back with my parents we'll often have conversations about things like language learning. Everyone in my family speaks Spanish, which is pretty awesome, though we all learned at different times. My youngest two siblings learned in a couple months because they were put right into Spanish public schools at young ages (5 and 7). I learned in about 6-8 months, and it took my other brother only slightly longer. It took my parents about 3 years to be comfortable with the language, and they'll always have the American accent, something that all of us siblings eventually lost. For the most part.

So anyway, we have a pretty strong concept on what language learning is like. I may have gone over some of my memories in a previous entry. Today we went over some of our struggles, and the truth was it was pretty funny. My mom and I both mentioned our struggles with pronouns. She shared an anecdote about how she and my dad were headed to language classes in Bilbao and were behind a bakery truck, bearing the slogan "Lo bueno sale bien". In English, the best translation is "That which is good comes out well". My mom said she analyzed and mulled over the phrase the rest of the day.

What's funny about the phrase is that once the Spanish makes sense, it's an incredibly simple phrase. A pronoun, an adjective, a verb, an adverb. However, in English, well... in order to translate the phrase properly, in order for it to make any kind of sense, it has to become a rather cumbersome phrase that doesn't make for a good slogan. My amusement with this phrase comes in the complexity of the Spanish language. Spanish is easily the easiest language in the world for English speakers to learn. It's certainly the easiest of the Romance languages.  But then you get the subjunctive tense, among others, and the pain-in-the-rear pronouns. I figured out the subjunctive easily enough (I just honestly don't remember struggling all that hard with it) but the pronouns... Oh, the pronouns. Pretty sure I had nightmares for 2 weeks about those buggers. And these are exactly what make the phrase fast less simple in English. And, I'll be honest, how I can tell when someone doesn't quite have a grasp on Spanish. Not to put myself on a pedestal, but trust me, I can tell. That and often the subjunctive is conjugated incorrectly or ends up sounding forced, like it doesn't belong in the sentence (it usually doesn't; not like that).

All this to say: I'm pretty sure every language learner has gone through something similar. A word or phrase gets stuck with them and they spend all day, or at least a few hours, analyzing it. And everything makes so much more sense after that.

Media reviews

So here's a question.  While I'm going about my job search, my parents suggested I also "get my name out there" by reviewing Spanish movies/TV/music.  I feel like it's an underrated culture in terms of media, as most people have only ever heard of four Spaniards in film: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas, and Pedro Almodóvar.  Netflix has a bunch of Spanish films and TV shows online, and I have my own arsenal of Spanish music that I could discuss as well.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to use this space for it or if I'm going to create another blog, since ideally this blog is supposed to be about culture, I just never thought I'd be doing a whole lot of reviews (aside from my review of Biutiful).

So...I guess be on the lookout for that.  Not sure when I'm going to get something up, but I'll probably sit down and write up a review sometime this week.  Maybe.  Who knows.  Just thought I'd share.

Oh, and I'm actually seriously considering going on a two-week trip to Spain in September.  I don't know how I'm going to manage it or anything, but yeah, I have a feeling it's going to happen.  We all know I've been dying to go back, especially this is officially been the longest I've spent without being there since...um...since I moved to Spain in 1997.  So yeah.  Pretty sure this is happening.

Just thought I'd share.

I'm a Top 10!

So I suppose I should thank everyone and be grateful for being among the top 10 pages that Google pulls up for the "catalan pronunciation" search.

It is true that over 90% of you guys found me through this search, and I am grateful.  If "grateful" is the right way to feel.  I guess I'm just glad that people are finding my blog and seem to find my pronunciation guide useful!

I created the page because I found that a lot of other pronunciation guides were hard to understand and sometimes unclear.  I wanted to see something concise online, and given my own success with my language studies I figured I was at least somewhat qualified to create a pronunciation guide for what I feel is the most beautiful language on Earth.  I spent a good couple hours deliberating over it and I'm pretty pleased with the result.  Not like any of you really wanted to know how I feel about it, heh.  I'm just glad it seems to be useful.  That's ultimately all I ever wanted.

City Views

Manhattan, as seen from Eagle Rock Observatory, Essex Co., NJ

This is the view from the hill right behind my parents' house in New Jersey.  It's about a 5-minute drive, a pleasant walk, and probably not even a mile away.

Basically, you can see most of Manhattan from my parents' backyard.  No matter what time of day, as long as the sky is relatively clear, anytime we run to the grocery store or leave the house for just about anything, we're greeted by a million-dollar view of the Empire State Building and the Freedom Tower.

I swear there is little more beautiful in this world than seeing the skyline of a world-famous city like New York from your backyard.  I am a city girl through-and-through, and while there are definitely things to love about the country, I can never get the city love out of my system.

I could have whatever doubts I want about making the decision to move out here, but as soon as I saw that skyline, and found myself two days later in Times Square after a short train ride and slightly longer bus ride, I knew I'd made a good decision.

This view will never get old.  It's the only city in the world that cannot make me miss my life in Europe.  Words will never be able to do my thoughts justice.  I'm just so glad I have the chance to reinvent my life so close to this city.