jamie's wanderings

 I wandered this weekend to just a few meters from my own home, and went to a conference meant for real estate agents. Since 2021, I've found myself counted in this group of individuals, and I've attended meetings, parties and gatherings, but on a local level. This time was national, and as a linguist I was both overwhelmed and fascinated by the dozens of accents and ways of speaking just in Spanish alone, let alone the few of us foreigners that have infiltrated the scene. It was to put it briefly, overwhelming. Even though I am 20 years immersed in this Spanish speaking world, I still find myself in situations that I have no effing clue, or that I feel I've been thrown into the deep end or a very rough sea, and made to survive. Although the crowd was probably around 30 percent women or more, I still found myself at a table full of men for lunch, and in both languages I can hold my own in those situations. However, even though I've been here a very long time, I've g

 The unholy holy....a phrase given to me by someone whom I respect very much...and it's rolled around in my head this weekend and today again. My current home city has been that for almost 20 years, this week in fact we complete 20 years here. I've grown nostalgic on another post, so I won't do that here, but instead I will wax eloquent about it. It's one of the most beautiful cities in the world, so much so song, poetry, dance and more have been created about it. Conservative and elegant, yet cutting edge and growing, it still never ceases to amaze me. But compared to where I grew up, it's a different world. I've been catcalled and chased after asking if I want boyfriends. Recently in a street in one of the nearby towns, I was presumed to be a prostitute, in the middle of the day, the men in the car were insistent that I join them. Once, a few years back ( long time actually) I wore a beach dress into the supermarket and even though my beach dress was modest on