The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) has a campus in Chicago. Who knew?! I saw an announcement in Facebook about a public lecture being held there in a few weeks. The topic was the Spanish exile to Mexico after the defeat of the republican government in Madrid. This was strongly relevant to my interests of 20th Century Ibero-American history. Javier joined me at the event, despite his relative disinterest in the topic. The lecture presented us both the opportunity to dress up a bit and perhaps meet interesting people. It would turn out that only the first part happened.
The lecture material was pretty interesting, though the presentation itself put one to sleep. Reading a powerpoint presentation ought to be prohibited outright. Powerpoint makes everyone doze off, keeping themselves awake by looking at their phones. Someone at Microsoft should develop a anti-Powerpoint. Anyway... I felt proud for understanding the vast majority of what the lecturer was saying. It was all in Spanish, of course. In fact, I found myself wanting to ask questions about what I heard. Javier also noticed my anticipation. In college, people sitting closest to me knew when something was on my mind as -- I hadn't realized this earlier, or, hadn't much incentive to react -- it manifests physically. I tap a pencil, shake my foot, or make some other motion indicating of wanting to jump out of my own skin. At the most embarrassing times, I imagined some poor sap nearby wondering if I were experiencing a seizure. Javier tapped my leg and asked what I was thinking. I confessed to having a few questions; but, felt conflicted at standing up in front of a room full of strangers and asking a question -- in Spanish -- to an eminent professor. The situation was both a dream and a nightmare. To his great credit as a friend, Javier assured me in a hushed voice that I would be fine.
At the end, I stood up and asked a question. The question came out while choking out an apology for Spanish not being my first language. The lecturer acknowledged my nerves while giving a pretty good comprehensive answer to my question. I knew the answer in advance but was curious as to whether another perspective would appear. It didn't; though, a decent conversation amongst others did come out of it.
I should have left before the social event began. The sole person that engaged us in conversation was a person who bored us with his criticism of the event and its arrogant attendees. This person also had asked a question that seemed intended to blame the professor for not sharing their opinion on a pretty esoteric aspect of the lecture topic. There's always that guy (sorry for the gendered language here). We all know him: the pontificator blathering for far too many minutes providing context designed to affirm their own intelligence yet boring everyone else because we already know this shit. God. Shut up and ask your goddamn question. I knew that the crank would seek me out and that's exactly what happened, so I got away from him quickly so that we could find ways to introduce ourselves to other attendees. Sadly, that didn't happen. My social skills have improved a lot in the last five years but seemed to fail that night. Nobody seemed interested in chatting with me - who knows whether they hated my question, found my Spanish subpar, or saw me as tainted by the weirdo guy. Javier and I left after about 10 minutes.
I did get a good photo out of the experience.
The lecture material was pretty interesting, though the presentation itself put one to sleep. Reading a powerpoint presentation ought to be prohibited outright. Powerpoint makes everyone doze off, keeping themselves awake by looking at their phones. Someone at Microsoft should develop a anti-Powerpoint. Anyway... I felt proud for understanding the vast majority of what the lecturer was saying. It was all in Spanish, of course. In fact, I found myself wanting to ask questions about what I heard. Javier also noticed my anticipation. In college, people sitting closest to me knew when something was on my mind as -- I hadn't realized this earlier, or, hadn't much incentive to react -- it manifests physically. I tap a pencil, shake my foot, or make some other motion indicating of wanting to jump out of my own skin. At the most embarrassing times, I imagined some poor sap nearby wondering if I were experiencing a seizure. Javier tapped my leg and asked what I was thinking. I confessed to having a few questions; but, felt conflicted at standing up in front of a room full of strangers and asking a question -- in Spanish -- to an eminent professor. The situation was both a dream and a nightmare. To his great credit as a friend, Javier assured me in a hushed voice that I would be fine.
At the end, I stood up and asked a question. The question came out while choking out an apology for Spanish not being my first language. The lecturer acknowledged my nerves while giving a pretty good comprehensive answer to my question. I knew the answer in advance but was curious as to whether another perspective would appear. It didn't; though, a decent conversation amongst others did come out of it.
I should have left before the social event began. The sole person that engaged us in conversation was a person who bored us with his criticism of the event and its arrogant attendees. This person also had asked a question that seemed intended to blame the professor for not sharing their opinion on a pretty esoteric aspect of the lecture topic. There's always that guy (sorry for the gendered language here). We all know him: the pontificator blathering for far too many minutes providing context designed to affirm their own intelligence yet boring everyone else because we already know this shit. God. Shut up and ask your goddamn question. I knew that the crank would seek me out and that's exactly what happened, so I got away from him quickly so that we could find ways to introduce ourselves to other attendees. Sadly, that didn't happen. My social skills have improved a lot in the last five years but seemed to fail that night. Nobody seemed interested in chatting with me - who knows whether they hated my question, found my Spanish subpar, or saw me as tainted by the weirdo guy. Javier and I left after about 10 minutes.
I did get a good photo out of the experience.
