Michigander in LA

You can find my new blog here:

http://tlexa.blogspot.com/

Para siempre,
Alexa Hook Santos Chi

Pablo Neruda : Poema 20

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche. (Poem 20)
By: Pablo Neruda

I will post this poem in Spanish and English. Clearly it is more beautiful in Spanish, the language in which it was written, but a lot of those I know and love don't speak Spanish.

I really love this poem. It was introduced to me about a year ago and I immediately fell in love with it, and I just recently found it again. So I'd like to share it :) With anyone who may still check this blog, that is.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Escribir, por ejemplo : 'La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos'.
El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.
En las noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.
Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.
Oir la noche immensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.
Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche está estrellada y ella no está conmigo.
Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.
La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos arboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.
De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto al amor, y es tan largo el olvido.
Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Aunque ésta sea el último dolor que ella me causa,
y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, 'The night is shattered,
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.
She loved me, and sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes?
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost
her.
To hear the immense night, still more immense without
her,
And the verse falls to the snow like dew to the pasture.
What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
That night is shattered and she is not with me.
This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the
distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.
The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.
I no longer love her, that is certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.
Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes,
I no longer love her, that is certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
Because through nights like this one I held her in my
arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer,
and these the last verses that I write for her.

not quite the end

Hey everyone. So before I close down this blog I want to go back and write down some memories that I haven't gotten around to writing about yet, many of them funny stories that I've thought of since returning.

But I wanted to say now thanks for all of you have read my blog while Ive been away, it really means a lot to me to know I have friends and family who care and are interested in what i'm doing! Seriously, it made me happy every time I found out that one of you had read my blog during the semester. So thanks! Love you all!

love, lex

quin bomb bomb bomba

I can't describe in words the joy I feel every time I hear word from my friends and family in Mérida. I also can't describe to joy I feel every time Oliver, my mom's new dog steals my dirty underwear and brings them to Brian, my mom's new husband. Welcome home Lex!

But since I already started a BOMBA!! theme, I want to share some bombas i've received on facebook from friends and family :)

para ti by : jaret
hermosa flor de `pitaya

blanca flor de zaramuyo

en cualquier parte que vallas

mi corazon es tuyo
BOMBA !!!!

Translation (won't be very good I'm going to do this super fast as I'm leaving in two minutes)

for you by Jaret (my cousin in Mérida)

handsome (beautiful) flower of pitaya

white flower of zaramuyo

wherever you go

my heart is yours

BOMBA!!

Yes...this is much prettier in Spanish. It just doesn't translate well. Well, and I'm not giving it any poetic love.

And this one is from mi querida amiga Nora:

BOMBA

del cielo callo un pañuelo bañado de mil coleres y en todos ellos veia a mi mesticita de mis amores... BOMBA

Life back in michigan

I talked to my family back in Mérida on the phone again today. They asked me what they should buy me for lunch tomorrow and it was precious and also made me want to cry. I told them puerco con frijol, which of course I still say wrong, it's frijol con puerco, or beans and pork. It's a traditional "tuesday" dish. I think Tuesday. Also, my papá told me they found this blog of mine (HI PAPÁ!!) and were putting some entries into free translation. They translated the entry about the rat. I wonder how that ended up in Spanish. Actually, I might just go try it myself. But in the mean time, here is a bomba!!! - a very Yucatecan form of poetry. I love bombas. They often have dirty / adult humor in them, but this one is innocently funny. So here is my shout out to my family and the Yucatan in which they live!

Me gusta el pan de progreso... 

jaja caiste?

de verdad:

Bomba!!

ayer al salir de misa

te vi muy sonriente

pero entre tu sonrisa

había un frijol en tu diente

(yesterday leaving from mass i saw you very smiley but in between your smile there was a bean in your tooth)

Love. Amor.

Hugs and Kisses. Abrazos, Besos, Loch.

Alexa

my birthday in november..same day as brittanys

This is the cutest and saddest birthday cake I’ve ever eaten.  It’s a cheesecake with strawberries and whipped cream. It’s from my family here in Mérida because they’re not going to be with me on my real birthday. They told me to eat a lot so that I could keep the flavor with me until April. I’m really glad my papá shoved my face in the cake because it prevented any tears from leaving my eyes. I cannot believe I’m really about to leave this place forever. Well, sure I can come back to Mérida. But the experience of really being a daughter and part of this family…that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to revisit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

thanksgiving in mexico

Here is my most recent funny story.

( I haven’t written for some time,  but when I found out that Grandma Marlene checks my blog daily / really often, I decided to write another post!)

Last night in honor of el día de acción de gracias or thanksgiving , some of us students from calvin got together and cooked an entire thanksgiving meal for 24 people.

One of the things we cooked was stuffing, relleno. It was really tasty the night of the dinner, but over time for some reason, it started to get really soggy. Well I brought some home with me excited to have my family here try some “Traditional American Food”. Since everyone was sleeping, I put it in the back of the refridgerator, showered in icy cold water (which im finally getting the hang of), and went to bed.

Today, after a nice little nap in my hammock, my family woke me up to eat.

“Oh, I have some food for you guys to try!” I tell them.

“Oh... the vomit? Your mamá asked me earlier if maybe you came home last night and got sick in a bag and decided to put in the refridgerator” my papa tells me.

 

So of course my papá was kidding, but it really did look like vomit today! My family plopped it out on a plate and took the smallest bites I’ve ever seen them take of any food. “oh, yeah it’s pretty good.”

 

After eating lunch my dad took out some postre, dessert, from the fridge and my hermano who hadn’t touched his food wanted some. “No” my mom said “you didn’t eat your lunch, you didn’t try alexa’s vomit, you cannot have dessert”.

 

It has become the joke of the day.

 

And yes, vomit is now the mental image of American Thanksgiving for my family.

 

Haha, not really. But it made me laugh pretty hard, all of this.

 

Love you all!!

 

Alexa