Book Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a book where a summary would give away the story, and with it, its meaning. But to explain, Gabriel Garcia Marquez follows the mystical and miraculously uncommon, commonplace lives of a doomed family in town of Macondo, a make-believe town situated in the tropics. You get to experience their sometimes dull, sometimes incredulous lives while also receiving information on various events that are actually disguised commentary of real happenings and feelings of real people. It is a must-read book that somehow manages to confuse, bore, delight, and upset all in one go (or in many, as I had to due to the number of times I put it down due to simply feeling frustrated or tired of it).



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A Little Taste of Catracho Cuisine

If I asked you to tell me about Honduran food, assuming you, reader, are not Honduran, would you be able to? Would you say tacos? And if you did, would you expect the thing you get at an American restaurant? What else? Probably something spicy and doused in hot sauce and intense seasonings, no? Well, I am here today to tell you that nope, the Catrachos (Hondurans) do things a little differently here.



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“Mora” About Mora-Timed Language

Timing, AKA isochrony, is a key part of producing (and perceiving) non-written language. In English, we time our speech by the stress on the words, usually smushing together the unstressed bits so that there is equal delay between each stress. English isn’t the only language to do this– German, European Portuguese, Arabic, and many more do, and for this reason are called “stress-timed” languages. Timing can also be divided by syllable, where each syllable gets an equal amount of time. These “syllable-timed” languages include Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, and more and are easily identified by their bouncy, consistent sound.



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Blogs I Like

As someone who writes their thoughts and rambles on the internet, it makes sense that I would enjoy the thoughts and rambles of others who do the same. I personally do it for a variety of reasons: using it as a personal journal (admittedly, it’s very cathartic), documenting my experiences (for others and so I don’t forget details), sharing something I find interesting (because if my friends and family hear me geek out one more time they’ll probably lose it), and to stay active and creative in my writing (nowadays my writings are large, scientific projects, and I sorely miss English-class-type writing). It has become a no-pressure hobby of mine, something I add to when I have time or need an outlet, and I’ve managed to keep it up for some time. I mean, I switched over to this domain in January 2021 but I had been using my Weebly site for at least a few years prior, on and off.



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Sometimes things happen quickly…

Monday night I was put in contact with a school who was looking for a teacher to fill a last minute vacancy. Tuesday morning I scheduled an interview, and by afternoon I was given the job and told the school I was volunteering at immediately that I would be leaving. Wednesday morning I took a bus with one of the other teachers from the volunteer school and arrived in Santa Rosa de Copán. Thursday I settled in, and Friday I began teacher prep. Sometimes things happen quickly. My decision to leave Garden School Victoria was by no means an easy one, but as I reflect on it after, it was definitely the right one, and hopefully will continue to be the right one.



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Book Review: 21st Century Guidebook to Fungi, Chapter 2

Chapter 2 starts from the beginning of the universe, detailing how our little plot of space was created and why its conditions were crucial to making it what it is today. To walk you through, 13.77 billion years ago, everything began with the Big Bang. As this novel thing called “time” progressed, we see the creation of the first atoms (hydrogen) and, depending on the density of certain spots in space, small variations overtime could become much more exaggerated and form galaxies. Nuclear fission in stars made new elements, providing us with the chemical evolution that later spawned life. Some of these, mostly iron and silicates, formed Earth 4.5 billion years ago. Both some radioactive elements as well as the impact from Theia (the planet that hit us and created the moon) melted much of the iron and gives us our molten iron core. This is why we have the magnetosphere protecting us from solar wind and along with the ozone stopping UV-C (germicidal radiation) at about 35k altitude. Without it, living cells wouldn’t be able to exist. Additionally, our planet is a “Goldilocks Planet,” as it is in such a position that it is not too hot nor too cold for life. Our axis provides us with seasons, and our moon provides tidal effects in water and rock. Without all this, life would be unlikely to have formed all those 3.5 billion years ago…



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Book Review: 21st Century Guidebook to Fungi, Chapter 1

Over the last few months, I’ve been looking into various grad school programs and labs that fit my interests. I managed to find one that I really like and the PI already told me to apply! I am keeping my fingers crossed, because I genuinely want the position but I still won’t know for some time if it’ll come to fruition. Anyways, while we were chatting, I asked him for book recommendations, and he gave me the title of the textbook he uses for his class: 21st Century Guidebook to Fungi 2nd Edition. Like the good little student I am, I purchased the textbook and brought it with me to Honduras to start cracking into. Since mycology is hugely understudied (and I need a more foolproof way to take notes here given my original notebook got a bit waterlogged from an unexpected and extremely sudden downpour), I figured I’d write little summaries of each chapter here on the world wide web.



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Bubble Wrap

It’s been about three weeks since I left Chicago. In reality, it’s not that long of a time– some people even go on vacation for three weeks– but it has felt significantly longer. When I first got here, it was like entering a new world; I was an alien trying to figure out how to be. Culture shock is real. I remember doubting that I’d ever feel it when we talked about it a year ago in my TEFL course, but sure enough, it happens to the best of us. It feels isolating. It feels like an anxious knot in your stomach. You question why you’re here and what you’re doing. I looked at plane tickets online and thought about returning home. I know the feelings of culture shock aren’t over yet, and I’ll probably go through this again, but at the current moment I am doing a lot better. Having started teaching has given me more of a schedule, and I’m using this change to form new habits, hopefully with time for productivity and relaxation. All in all, I’d say it is helping me handle the differences and build a temporary little life here. So yay! Assimilation and positive changes! But we’ll get back to that later.



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Wandering in Copán

Shortly after arriving in Honduras, I was informed that the next week was a school holiday. All the other teachers would not be returning until the 10th of July, so I was essentially free to either stay alone in the volunteer house or take the time to travel. On a whim (and fighting an overwhelming urge to be stay home and “be productive,” whatever that is supposed to mean when you’ve hardly settled into life in a new country), I booked a bus ticket with Hedman Alas to a place on the west side of Honduras called Copán Ruinas. Other volunteers had done the trip prior, and they were able to give me very clear instructions on how to finagle it myself.



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Adios Chicago, Hola Honduras!

There is no other way to begin this other than “greetings from Honduras!” And wow, does it feel strange to say that! Although I’m definitely getting used to the changes, I know that mentally accepting the fact that I’m here will take some time.

I left Chicago Tuesday morning, and after some issues with Spirit I was moved to a later flight. My time in the airport was relatively uneventful. I had a long layover at LAX and decided it was better to just camp out there than risk trying to explore. The time, tiredness, and loneliness did get to me, though, and I had a fun little cry about 20-something hours into my airport adventures. I kinda realized that some important people in my life would be in a different place when I return to Illinois and that I had some feelings I didn’t really know that I had. Nevertheless, post-tears and overpriced airport snacks, I made it to Honduras around 7am Wednesday.



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