THE INNER WORKINGS...

bumps in the road.

I'm currently preparing for my first research paper of grad. school. I'm pretty sure that the last time I wrote a research paper I was looking at Romanian consonants. Romanian as in Eastern-European. Consonants as in not vowels. I know, I know. You're squirming in your seat just wishing that you had been a Linguistics major, too. But not everyone can be as cool as I am. I thought you would have known that by now.

Anyway, the research paper that I'm currently working on is dealing with cross-cultural counseling. More specifically, counseling Latinos in the States. I don't know about you, but I'd rather counsel Latinos in Latinoamérica. But alas, they don't offer that class in good ol' North Carolina. So, in order to do research, I'm reading the book Latino Families in Therapy, by Celia Jaes Falicov. It's much more insightful than most books I've read so far in grad. school, which may or may not have to do with the fact that Ms. Celia is from our beloved Argentina. And everyone knows how I feel about that particular corner of the world.

I just love the way that she describes moving from Buenos Aires to Chicago. Even though I'm not Argentine, I didn't live in Capital, my name isn't Celia, and I'm most certainly not covered with three feet of snow in Chicago right now, I can identify with a lot of what she says. Take, for example...

"...when I came to this country, it was so much like starting all over again. Even simple behaviors were no longer automatic. I felt, for example, I had to learn to walk from scratch. I was accustomed to Buenos Aires's streets - the large tiles, full of bumps and cracks. Growing up there, I had found over the years exactly the right angle that allowed me to look up and down simultaneously to avoid either falling down or bumping into something or somebody. The streets in the States were too flat and smooth, too clean and intact. There was no need to look down. I missed the bumps." 


And I admit, even though it's been raining here in North Carolina lately, life hasn't been nearly as exciting as it was in La Plata after the rain, risking my life (or maybe just my clean pant leg), trying to dodge the baldosas flojas. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can gain some cheesy insight here.) And in a weird way, I too, Celia, miss the bumps.

posted by Courtney @ 3:12 PM