Baudolino

Baudolino

Two years have passed since I started reading this amazing book: Baudolino by Umberto Eco. Two long, amazing and exciting years I’ve lived by his side, reading and almost living his thoughts, feelings and words, but now it’s over just like the last chapter title, Baudolino is not here anymore. He has left, or I left him. It’s hard to say who left who, after all in the book he leaves, but I’m the one who finished and closed the book. Finishing killed me. I almost cried. To don’t do so I felt asleep because it was 12 pm or am. It doesn’t matter since the hour on my clock was 0:00. No hours no more stories to read or tell. The next morning I woke up and saw the book by my side, closed to never be opened by me again. That feeling stroke me; I wanted to cry again, and the need to do so was much harder to contain within my heart. I decided I needed to write about it, about Baudolino. He deserves it even if he never existed, even if he was never true, but Eco wrote about him and I read it, and now he exists for me as he exists for millions of other readers. I’m sitting here, now trying to write. Actually I know what I will write, but I want to choose a letter font that deserves to write about Baudolino, It was quite hard, but I choose this one. It’s not very easy to read because it’s small and tight, I cannot follow the English rules of italicizing the book title because the font is already italicized, but it was the closest I could get to Baudolino story: the best lie of history.

Baudolino is a great liar, and so are his friends, but he’s the greatest. He never lied just to lie, he never lied to hurt; he lied for good, but never lied about great events, always about the small happenings, never something you could notice or doubt. If he existed and knew how to write correctly, he would be a great writer, but his desires and ambitions went much farther away from the parchment. He needed to live more what he lived, keep his promises and do what he wanted to do over all the things he wanted: visit the kingdom of Priest John and give him the Holy Grail and do all he said he would do, but to know what those other “things” are you must read the book; I highly recommend it to everyone but children.

I always wanted to be an archeologist and an actress, and now I know what I will do when I start my archeology career. I’ll start adapting Baudolino’s maps to modern maps and try to find Priest John reign. The adapting will start this vacation and the searching will be later, maybe in my college years. Supposedly it is around Iraq or Iran, I’m not sure. It sounds hard, but I don’t care, I’ll do it anyway, or at least try.

 If people look for Atlantis, why can’t they look for Priest John reign? There are many people in the world looking for for glory and greatness. I’m here, with hundreds of other people, looking for lost relics, places and reins. This is one of the oldest professions, and since I like ancient and old objects, I choose this.

Some quotes from the book:

“You see there are moments when perfection itself appears in a hand or in a face, in some nuance on the flanks of a hill or on the sea’s surface, moments when your heart is paralyzed before the miracle of beauty… I saw something ancient, because I knew I was not seeing something beautiful, but beauty itself, like the holy thought of God. I was discovering that perfection even glimpsing it once, and once only, was something light and lovely.” Baudolino by Umberto Eco

“There are no stories without meaning. And I am of those men who can find it even when others fail to see it. Afterwards the story becomes the book of the living, like a blaring trumpet that raises from the tomb those who have been dust for centuries…”Baudolino by Umberto Eco

“Yes, I know, it’s not the truth, but in a great history little truths can be altered so that the greater truth emerges.” Baudolino by Umberto Eco

“There, Master Nikets,’Baudolino said, ‘when I was not pre to the temptations of this world, I devoted my nights to imagining other worlds. A bit with the help of wine, and a bit with that of the green honey. There is nothing better than imagining other worlds,’ he said, ‘to forget the painful one we live in. At least so I thought then. I hadn’t yet realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.” Baudolino by Umberto Eco.

“If you want to become a man of letter and perhaps write some Histories one day, you must also lie and invent tales, otherwise you History would become monotonous. But you must act with restraint. The world condemns liars who do nothing but lie, even about the most trivial things, and it rewards poets, who lie only about the greatest things.” Baudolino by Umberto Eco

Sonrie, no importa a que.

Mientras vivas sonrie, no importa lo que pase, ni que esteas cansado en tu lecho de muerte, pues cada momento valera la pena, princialmente el ultimo, donde veras muchas caras tristes otras con una sonrisa, pero triste porque te vas, pero todas reales y todas amandote, no importa que. Y entre esas caras reales, veras otras caras que son arte de tus recuerdos unas posiblemente estaran tristes porque saben q te vas or mas que no estean ahi, pero otras estaran sonriendo felices pues te esperan en donde sea que estean, sin importar donde estan. Sonreiras pues sabes que todas esas caras, reales o no, te aman y porque esperas ir a donde te esperan.

Sonrie y todos te van a sonreir, en sus y tus peores momentos.

Last day of class

Look at the year in the end of it makes it look really fast and short; look at the year in its beginning makes it look extremely slow and long

The academic year is finally almost over , it feel wonderful and still really stressing; my mind looks like a hurricane from my point of view, it’s horrible and quite frustrating, but I can stand it enough time to let it call me down. After all this time, when I try to remember the first day of school I feel it was yesterday, even when I don’t remember it very well, but when I remember how I felt back then it is interesting because for me it was lasting an eternity. The first semester, especially the first month, I was literally lost! I was extremely bad in everything I did, except for Spanish and math class, which I weren’t that good, but surely better than the others. Right know I look back and think: “what have I improve? What have I changed?” Well my whole life I see life in one way, if I don’t improve, if I don’t get better at something, I didn’t tried my best, and I feel that always trying your best will always give you the best. It is like a goal, because, in my view, everything you give will come back to you, maybe not in the same way or in the way you expect, but surely it will be back. I’m sure this year I gave my best in everything I did because every time I went to my house after school I was exhaust, and this is one of symptoms that prove my great effort.  Well getting back to the topic of how well I’m doing in school, I personally think that I’ve improved in all of my class, except in chemistry which I find interesting but I can’t understand a thing about it, but the class I feel I’m really better at, the one I’m really proud of the improvement I did is English, I have the ESL class (or Sheltered Immersion) which I think is a great class to have because it helps me a lot! I remember how everything of my English was and when I compare it with what I can do know I feel really happy, proud of myself and almost satisfied! Well when I think about other classes in which I wanted to be better I get a little frustrated but I say to myself “You haven’t seen the last of me”-Cher, and try to improve, what has become harder and harder to do, but here I am, standing after falling so many times, and I’ll keep doing it till Life stop trying me. Because of all my achievements I thank all my teachers because they have being extremely helpful for me. I also thank all my friends because without them I wouldn’t be able to survive this wonderful war we call Life. Thank everyone, I hope this year end great fully for everyone and I hope next one to be better for everyone, happy vacations. Enjoy it as much as you can, after all it’s my month…

Andromeda Nebula

This is a paragraph I needed to write with some words of the vocabulary, I enjoyed writing this and I’m proud of it because I think it was a good story which I would like to read. The thing of people of other world and the meeting, came from the inspiration the movie “Thor” gave me. I think it is really interesting the idea that other worlds with living beings exist. Hope you enjoy it.

39

Andromeda

I started packing everything I needed for the conference, I already packed all my clothes and now I needed to find a way to pack all my papers without messing them up. On the last ONU meeting they asked me to do some specific research for the aliens explaining: what is exactly an omnivore, why most of humans are omnivorous, and how and why we differ between meat and vegetables since both come from living beings, how everything worked in the marsupial animals system, like if it caused some side effect when the marsupials kept the “baby” in a pouch after birth, and if it was possible for the aliens to mutate themselves in that way if they liked the marsupials, and what phloem is made of and if other living beings can use it as a tissue that conducts food to other parts of the body. I did this research till I reached the plateau of knowledge that humans have about it. I closed my bag and went out of the house. The rain had just stopped and the smell of ozone filled my nose. A taxi picked me up, I sat in the back seat and looked at the rearview mirror, with some polygonal figures hanging from it, to see if I could recognize the driver, but I’m not sure I’ve seeing him before. He was listening to some news about nocturnal animals and how they survive in daytime on the radio, but he was quite upset because someone kept talking with him like a parasite. The person who talked with him through a radio had many quandaries of the decisions he wanted to make, and he kept asking him about everything he should do as if it depended on the driver. When the driver finally decided he couldn’t stand this person anymore, he shot the radio and apologized for the nuisance of his friend. I finally got to the airport and I had only 10 minutes to get to the gates on time so I started walking fast and maneuvering through the crowd. When I had the tickets and did everything to get into the spaceship I had 40 minutes left. I started watching the news on a T.V. and the news was about a murder, the reporter showed some images of the mutilated body and I thought that the killer must had been inspired by Jack the Ripper, for the outrageous way he killed that young women. Suddenly a familiar face appeared, it was one of the company agents. He was nice but sometimes he annoyed me because he kept talking in metaphors, and he told me it was time to aboard the spaceship. I got in the spaceship and quickly fell asleep. I woke up and ate something before we reached the point of arrival: the future Andromeda Nebula, one of the greatest clouds of interstellar gas and dust in our universe. We walked in the bridge and I was able to see the meeting point, the buildings looked amazing. They were like palaces made of mosaic made of different colorful shining rocks, it was beautiful. I got to my assigned room and got ready for the conference, after that I was introduced to the new king of Althort. He didn’t talk any of our languages, so a translator from his nation helped us to communicate better, but it wasn’t a good translator because he just knew to talk using past participle which was confusing and annoying. Then the conference started, everyone presented what they had to show and the discussions about what was supposed to happen between the Worlds started. The real problem is that some kings or representatives of their nations thought they were the only protagonists of the story, but they weren’t, and they will never be again. I was getting tired of all this mess and decided it was time. I searched for my friends and the fair kings and representatives, and told them it was time and asked if they wanted to stay. Some said yes and others decided they preferred to come with me. We went to the spaceship and pulverized the bridge. When the bridge was destroyed the Andromeda Nebula was created, from the pieces of an old bridge and know there was no possibility to get in or out of the mosaic city. If they decide to live in peace they may find a way out, but they also may not find it because the way out may not exist.

Tan Imposible, Tan Irresistible

 Unhappily I don’t know what inspired me to write this poem since I was almost sleeping in the middle of a car trip, which lasted four and a half hours; I was looking to the  panorama and since spring flourished I noticed it because the flowers, the trees and any plants here in Venezuela get extremely beautiful and colorful, so what happen is that I was looking to the view thinking about nothing and suddenly the idea of the poem came in to my mind and started writing it and trying to imagine it to describe it, so I think it is not bad and I tried to translate to English since I wrote it in Spanish. And maybe Margarita is right, maybe I’m waiting for my first love xD (it doesn't have to be true). Hope you enjoy it :)

La piel dorada que cubre su cuerpo, caliente junto al mío,

sus brazos me rodean en un abrazo protector,

su altura, su ternura,

su sonrisa juguetona,

sus cabellos no mucho más claros que los míos,

sus ojos verdes como los árboles en primavera,

su aliento fresco que golpea delicadamente mi rostro,

su voz un poco ronca y acogedora declara palabras en mi oído

que harían mi cuerpo erizar si no estuviera en su abrazo caliente.

Sus labios rozan suavemente mi oreja y se sellan en un beso sobre mi mejilla,

cerca de mis labios, provocándome,

a él le gusta ver cuánto puedo aguantar, para no entregarme a sus labios, a sus ojos, a su amor,

miro sus ojos,

pongo mi cabeza sobre su pectoral y escucho lo que su corazón me dice,

el habla rápido y me cuenta cuanto me ama, cuanto me quiere,

pongo mis labios sobre su hombro y cierro los ojos, pensando en cómo sería hermoso

si pudiéramos estar juntos sin tener que esconder nuestro amor de los demás.

Levanto mi rostro y le pregunto "porque?", sus ojos se llenan de tristezas,

yo dejo que el mar se libere de mi cuerpo por mis ojos y pongo mi cabeza entre su cuello, 

el me abraza fuerte en un intento de consuelo.

Nos miramos a los ojos y decimos al mismo tiempo "te amo",

pero el sigue hablando de alguien más

y yo sigo arrastrándome dolorosamente a la muerte,

sin poder satisfacer las ganas que mi alma, mi corazón, mi cuerpo, mi amor, tienen de ti.

English version:

The golden skin that covers his body, warm next to mine,

His arms round me in a protective hug,

His height,

His tenderness,

His playful small,

His hair not much brighter than mine,

His green eyes like the trees during spring,

His fresh breath hitting my face gently,

His voice a little hoarse and cozy declares words in my ear

Which would make my body hedgehog if I weren’t in his warm hug.

His lips gently brush against my ear and sealed with a kiss in my cheek,

Near to my lips, provoking me,

He likes to see how much I can stand, to don’t give me up to his lips, his eyes, his love,

I look him in the eyes,

I put my head on his chest and listen what his heart is telling me,

He speaks fast and tells me how much he loves me, how much he wants me,

I rest my lips on his shoulder and close my eyes, thinking about how wonderful it would be

If we could be together without hiding our love from everyone else.

I rise my face and ask him “why?”, his eyes fill with sadness,

I set free the sea from my body through my eyes and put my face between his neck,

He hugs me strongly in an attempt to comfort me.

We look at each other eyes and say at once “I love you”,

But he continues talking, about someone else,

And I continue to painfully drag myself to death,

Unable to satisfy the desire that my soul, my heart, my body, my love, have of you.

"Black Swan" SPOILER ALERT: I COMMENT THE END OF THE MOVIE, SO IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT DON'T READ THIS POST.

Black Swan

“I had the craziest dream last night about a girl who has turned into a swan, but her prince falls for the wrong girl and she kills herself.”

The movie Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky and written by Andres Heinz, is a about the story of a girl called Nina, which dances ballet in a company for many years and she finally has the opportunity to be the protagonist of the play “Swan Lake” but there is something that limit her to be perfect for that part, and perfect is what she always tried to be. In this play she needs to dance the White Swan, what she does perfectly, but she also needs to dance the Black Swan, which is very difficult to her, not because she doesn’t do the right dance moves but because she tries to do the moves perfectly and the Black Swan is not perfect. The teacher kept telling her “lose yourself”, so she could release the Black Swan that is trapped inside her but she can’t do it easily and painless.

The whole movie is about that, about her metamorphose from being a sweat and innocent White Swan to a free and audacious Black Swan. The metamorphose is really painful and scary for both spectators and character. That’s because she doesn’t want to become the Black Swan but at the same time she tries to act like one; it is like when you open the door for someone but you don’t let him out, and this person starts to push harder and harder to get out. That’s what she does. Nina starts to have hallucinations. And she believes that the person in does hallucinations is a girl who tries to be her friend but Nina didn’t let her because she was the perfect one to be the Black Swan after her. With that she starts seeing the girl in the hallucinations and to become paranoid about her, thinking she wants to still her part of the play. When the girl actually is supporting her and is amused about how Nina dances amazingly.

At the end before she dance the Black Swan part she has another hallucination in which she supposedly kill the other girl so she can dance the Black Swan, but Nina actually kill her White Swan, and release her Black Swan by doing that. She dances the Black Swan, everyone is amused, and then she goes back to the White Swan to dance the last part of the play: when the White Swan commits suicide because her true love doesn’t love her. She finishes the play perfectly and the White Swan dies.

Many people say she actually die, but I personally disagree. I am sure she survives because the whole movie is about Nina and her “conscience”. In the movie you can how she is control by the mother and how the mother doesn’t let her grow and live through her. So when she finally dies in the end, she doesn’t actually die; just the White Swan does, and with that she release herself from her mother and grows as the Black Swan. The movie, in my opinion is great, but I wouldn’t recommend it because it is extremely heavy, and I don’t get very emotional with movies and this time I was just in shock. It is worth watching it, but if you will need to be prepared, it’s not an easy movie and many people didn’t like it, especially because it is hard to understand exactly what is going on, if it is reality or her mind.

Tolkien Most famous stories

“The Silmarillion” (not my favorite), “The Hobbit” (which is a great book that I can reread for all my life), the trilogy “The Lord of Rings” (love it) and “the Unfinished Tales” (I have no comments because I haven’t read it) are the most famous book by Tolkien.

“The Silmarillion” is the bible of the Middle Earth; it tells how everything was created in the Tolkien’s world: the Middle Earth. I tells how everything raised, the elves, humans, dwarves, goblins and, of course, specify how the rings and all the legends begun.

“The Hobbit” is a great book about the first hobbit that found the One Ring, but not the first one to be involved in adventures. Everything started when Tolkien was grading his student’s tests and one of them didn’t wrote anything in one of the pages but “hobbits live in holes”, he was very curious about the hobbits, what are them? He started searching about hobbits, and that’s how “The Hobbit” started. The hobbits are like a miniature of humans, they live a calm life and any hobbit that like adventures or any living been that bring adventures aren’t seen by good eyes, that’s why the hobbit Bilbo Baggins is careful about thinking in adventures; one of his ancestors involved himself in great adventures, with that he stayed with a really bad fame in the Shire and because of that all the hobbits that lived there were always suspicious about his descendants. But in the end Bilbo appealed to his Tookish side, which was the side of his adventurer ancestor, and end up finding a ring that make invisible, which belonged to a nasty creature called Gollum that tried to kill him several times. Bilbo Baggins go through many spicy adventures that make you fly in Tolkien’s imagination, you get trapped inside the book, but, as most of the books, the beginning is really boring.

There are three “The Lord of the Rings”, the first one is “The Lord of the Rings: The Ring Fellowship”, then “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and a t last “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”. “The Ring Fellowship“ is when Bilbo miss the places of his adventures and wants to go back and live with the elves, after he do that his good friend the wizard Gandalf, which convinced him to live the ring with him, what he did, and with the ring he also left all his properties and goods to his nephew. And that’s how the adventure begins, Gandalf relive the truth about the ring to Frodo, Bilbo’s nephew, they need to run a way, the finally get to Rivendell, one of the elves small kingdoms. There the Ring Fellowship rose with courageous man, dwarves, elves, wizards and hobbits. The obstacles start to get worse in their mission especially when Gandalf falls and when Frodo decide to separate himself from the Fellowship and Sam, his loyal friend, follow his decision. Then in “The Two Towers” (the triple T) it’s about the Fellowship separate, Boromir dies and the hobbits Merrin and Pippin are kidnaped by the orcs, and Legolas, Aragorn and Glimly go to rescue them since they know that they will never find Frodo and Sam. In this book everything is really different they have different adventures, Frodo find Gollum that have big intentions to still the One Ring because it causes like an addiction to it, and if you stay too much time with it you don’t want anyone to stay with it. While the other are rescued and discover that Gandalf resuscitated, and start defeating the orcs and the followers of Sauron. “The Return of the King” is when they start winning, Aragorn return to his homeland as the king, as he deserve. They go to the last battle in the gates of Mordor and defeat everyone when Frodo finally through the One Ring to the volcano and killed Sauron with that. After everyone finally where safe back in their homes Gandalf, Bilbo and Frodo went with the elves to the most ancient land to never come back again. Great! Magnificent! I just love it! Yes it is long, yes it has boring parts but still, nothing can be great if you don’t have the bad part of it.

The book “The Unfinished Tells” is a great book according to all who read it but unfortunately I haven’t read it; this book have all the stories that Tolkien wrote about the Middle Earth and he didn’t published and his son did so.

If you read these books enjoy it, if it is necessary be patient. These are great, and you can’t die before reading them.