Business Cards!

I got my new cards in the mail! They're so cute.

What do you think? Anyone want to design a really cool card for me for my next batch? It needs to be profession, but light-hearted too so as to not scare people away and have them think that I'm some scary big corporation... but still professional looking enough to help me land corporate contracts. If I like it, I'd probably buy the design from you.

Language Courses

So I'm really starting to seriously consider quitting my job and teaching full-time. I just need more clients and a little more stability. But in any case, I'm advertising like crazy. Anyone want language classes? I do individual, pairs and small group classes in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Catalan and English.

My rates look like this:

$50/hour (individual)
$30/hour/student (pairs)
$25/hour/student (3-6 students)

My rates are, of course, negotiable if you want several hours a week or make me an interesting deal. I sell time in blocks and the more time bought at once, the cheaper the rates. For individual classes, for example, this is what I normally do:

Block of 5 hours: $50/hour x 5 = $250
Block of 10 hours: $45/hour x 10 = $450
Block of 15 hours: $40/hour x 15 = $600
Block of 20 hours: $35/hour x 20 = $700

I'm even beginning to offer a new service online that I find kind of interesting. Conversational English courses online through VOIP software such as Skype. My target clientele are students with some English knowledge but who lack the opportunities to practice their spoken English and listening comprehension with native speakers. It gives them a chance to really apply what they learn in class and improve their fluency.

One of the really cool things is that they can pay me online with debit or credit through Paypal!

For that service, my rates look like this:

Block of 5 hours: $35/hour x 5 = $175
Block of 10 hours: $30/hour x 10 = $300

This one is negotiable too, of course.

If you know anyone interested in lessons, refer them to me and I'll pay you a finder's fee (that means 10% of the first contract!) So if you find me a student who commits to 20 hours at $35 an hour, you get 10% of that $700! So, that's a nice $70 for having done nothing except making a phone call.

Keep me in mind, guys.

First posting for 2008

Well guys, another update finally. It's been overdue for a while.

Well, what's new? In my quest to find people to practice my Catalan with now that I've left Catalonia, I discovered an organization called AICS (the American Institute for Catalan Studies). It's like a cultural center for Catalan things here in Houston (or a casal català as they call such things in Catalonia). Anyway, they had one of their semi-annual cultural events in December, which I attended. Wow, how exciting. I met a lot of Catalans and had a great time. I met the board of directors of the organization as well and they adored me, being that I'm a Texan with no real connection to Catalonia other than my crazy love story and linguistic interest but I speak Catalan pretty fluently and am interested in their culture... so I left them with a really great impression.

Then they made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

The president of the organization asked if I would lead the youth portion of AICS and help organize stuff for the youth in Houston's Catalan community. Awesome stuff. And now they want to send me to a conference for casals catalans all over the world as their youth representative in April for five days in Catalonia! Awesome stuff some more!

Well, the fun doesn't end there! In December, a reporter from Catalonia doing a documentary on Catalan products sold outside of Catalonia found me on the internet. She was sending a camera crew to do interviews with some guy who sells Catalan nugats here in Houston and while they were at it, they wanted to interview some Catalans living in Houston and also people interested in Catalan culture. Well, this woman searched on Google for "catalan" and "houston" and up popped my blog. She read my story and watched my videos about my story with Rubèn and she said that it was such an interesting story that she asked me if they camera crew could film me and do several interviews with me in various parts of Houston. And on top of that, she offered to pay me money to just hang out with them and interpret.

Well, they came, and it was an awesome week. We had so much fun and I feel like I made three new friends who live in Barcelona. You know, I've learned three very important and practical languages (French, Spanish and Portuguese) and nothing too interesting every came of it. And now, I just recently learned this little bit European language and suddenly all this cool stuff is happening because of it. Who could have imagined that speaking Catalan would bring so many fun opportunities to my life. Maybe I should learn another small language!

So what else?

Well, there is my weight loss. In 2007, over all, I have last around 50 pounds. When I got back from Catalonia, I had lost about 55 total, then I gained like 15 back in September and October... and since then I've been working to lose it all again. Well, I lost about 10 of those pounds and I'm almost back to where I was. 2008, I plan to lose thirty more pounds maybe. We'll see what happens.

Here's a visual aid to help things out. I started it over. At first I only wanted to lose 50 pounds... well, now I've gotten there so I've upped my goal. I think I should weigh around 120 with my height... actually, I just want to lose my fat. So whatever weight I end up with after I lose the fat is good for me. In any case, I made a ticker to show what's going on. :)

And... well, here are two new photos just for fun. :)

This is me playing with some blue contacts. I think it made me look kind of evil. Hahaha!

This is me when I went out to the Red Door with that camera crew and some other people we met. Miquel (Miki) is the one right behind me with his hand on my shoulder and then there is Enric next to him, this one with his tongue sticking out and the crazy face. The girl and the guy with the cigarette are some people we met through interviews and stuff. Anyway, Enric and Miki are awesome. I miss them!

Heartbreak and Portugal

Well, I know you guys have been waiting for it. Here it is. Any questions? Ask, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

I'm here!

I am here! Oh my god, I am finally here.

I have been waiting for almost a year. It seemed like it would never come... and then I met Rubèn and the wait became more intense. But finally, on Friday, I arrived here in Catalonia.

At the moment, I'm sitting in the study of my home this summer. I'm in a town called El Vendrell in the region called Tarragona. I'm very close to Barcelona... 25 minutes by car, an hour by train... something like that. I haven't learned to use the public transportation yet. I've been so busy just settling in, trying to get over jet lag and just spending time with Rubèn. We have so much kissing to catch up on.

I don't know where to start!

Well, my flight was frustrating. My original itinerary was Houston-Miami-Barcelona. Well, my 10:30 flight to Miami was cancelled so they rerouted me Houston-Frankfurt-Barcelona. But I had to wait until 3:30 to flight to Frankfurt... it was so annoying having to wake up so early for nothing and then wait there all day so anxious and kind of freaking out. Oh well, it wasn't that bad. On the flight, I was sitting next to some Portuguese guy who had several glasses of wine with me on the flight and we both got kind of drunk and stupid. It's good times laughing with strangers and drinking. Anyway, when I arrived in Frankfurt, I was freaking out about my flight because my ticket had a certain gate written on it, but the gate had changed and I didn't know and everyone was speaking German and... well, finally I figured it out, just five minutes before departure!

I finally arrived in Barcelona at about 12:15pm, Catalonia time or 5:15am in Houston. I was exhausted... however, I was greeted at the airport by Rubèn and Prema. Prema is one of my favorite people on Earth. He is so special. We met while I was living in Brazil. He's a native of Belo Horizonte who, by coincidence, is now living in Barcelona. Life is perfect sometimes. Anyhow, I am so happy to see him.

And Rubèn... oh, Rubèn... we saw eachother and I think we didn't know what to do. I couldn't stop smiling or say anything, I was so nervous... until he greeted me with his usual "Hola, bonic" (Hello handsome). He put his arms around me and I melted. He gave me a little kiss on the neck while he hugged me. In that moment, he conquered me. I'm so in love with him.

I feel like it's not the first time we're meeting. It seems like we've already been dating for a while. Well, I mean, in a way, we have been (virtually, at least). We've been "together" for about five months and really it feels that way... except now we can make out all we want. He's such a beautiful person. He's so patient with me and treats me like a prince. He makes me laugh, he's smart, goofy, sweet... everything. Not to mention that he's handsome, tanned, has very blue eyes, and has a body like pornstar. No, really. He does. His body looks like art. It's even more beautiful in person than in photos. And he, this perfect man, thinks I'm perfect. It's amazing.

Anyway, so we spent that day (Friday) in Barcelona. We walked all over. It's such a beautiful city. It was so fun spending the day with Prema and Rubèn. We laughed so much. It was kind of strange, though, since Rubèn speaks to me exclusively in Catalan, I speak to Prema almost totally in Portuguese and sometimes English, while Prema and Rubèn speak to eachother in Spanish. We managed to communicate and still have a lot of laughs, though.

Saturday, I slept all day. Rubèn didn't wake me up early to help me adjust to my new time zone like I had asked. He said he couldn't because I look like such a little angel when I sleep. Too much mush. Hehehe. I got up around noon, we drove around to see some things around here. The beaches here in El Vendrell, then the beaches in Tarragona (the city), which were marvelous. Tarragona is also such a pretty city. I loved it. We had orxata which is similar to the horchata that we have back home, but I think it's not made with rice like the Mexicans back home make it. In any case, it was delicious. More sightseeing and such... then it was late and we went back home. Rubèn made us a truita espanyola (Spanish omelette) and we had a nice quiet dinner together. Oh, by the way, they have lots of Morrocan fast food places that make super good Arab food... mmm. I love me some Arab cuisine. Just thought I'd share that.

Sunday, Rubèn let me sleep until noon again. Then we got up to go and have lunch with his two best friends. Ramón and Joan. They are a cute gay couple in their forties who have been together for 18 years. They were really sweet and fun. Ramón is a great cook. He made us all this delicous seafood. We drank lots of cava (it's like champagne, but made in Catalonia) and shots of some sort of delicious liquor made with herbs. It was super smooth, well I think so. They couldn't believe that I thought it was smooth. I guess us Americans are just hardcore like that. After lunch, they went to get the desert. When they came back, they had a cake with sparklers on top for me with the words Benvingut a Catalunya, Charles! (Welcome to Catalonia, Charles!) Geez. They are so sweet. After that, we walked for a few hours along the coast of a beautiful city called Salou. It was a nice day.

Today, well, today Rubèn has to work and I still haven't learned how to use the public transportation here... so I'm taking advantage of the chance to update my blogs and let you guys know that I'm doing okay. Things are wonderful so far.

By the way, send me e-mails. I love e-mails. Or comments on my blogs. I promise to respond to everyone. ;)

Until next time.

Fins aviat!

Norma!

So, as some of you may remember, for my birthday Rubèn bought me tickets for us to go see the opera Norma together in July. While searching around, I found a video of the famous aria from Norma. The aria is called Casta Diva and in the video it is sung by Montserrat Caballé, the best Norma ever, and perhaps the best soprano ever. Oh, and she's Catalan too, by the way! Montserrat is a typical Catalan name for girls. It's pronounced moon-suh-RAT. The letter E in that word being pronounced as a schwa, (like the U in the English word "up" or "under". And roll the R... like a lot. ;)

Anyway, enjoy the video. When I listen to it, she really takes my breath away. I hope that the soprano who sings it when I see it can compare. I'm sure I'll cry like a baby when I see it live.

Update on Rubèn

So only six or so more weeks until we get to be together! We're so excited. It's amazing... even though we talk every day, often we get on our webcams, microphones and headphones to talk, and during the occasional silences we just stare at eachother and giggle. Just like the first time. We're like little school girls.

Being the total lovesick puppy I am, I totally miss him during the day. To help solution the problem a little, I put him as the background on my phone. I just can't help myself!

Technorati tags: online dating, internet love, boyfriend, foreigners, El Vendrell, Catalunya

Catalans in Houston

Several months ago, when I first began to study Catalan, I decided to make a group on Google Groups for Catalan speakers and Catalan enthusiasts to find eachother. Well, months passed without a single response until finally, a girl named Sara here in Houston contacted me! Well, she doesn't speak Catalan, but she understands a good bit and she's been to Catalonia several times and has lots of Catalan friends (none of which live in Houston still). In any case, it was a start! And so she suggested that we meet and have our first official meeting for the "Catalan in Houston" group. The very same week that she joined the online group, I had met a super cute and adorable Catalan guy named Albert at a French meetup group that I attend on Wednesdays called the French Connection. So I invited him too! And now we're three!

So tonight, we had our first meeting at The Gingerman in the Rice Village. It's a little pub type place. Sara put out her Catalan flag on the table and we had some fun discussion and conversation. Albert showed up and brought his friend, an Argentine, who also is interested in Catalonian culture but doesn't speak the language yet. But that's okay. The four of us seemed to have a good time. I really enjoyed hanging out with them.

So I'm the founder of a new little minority culture group in Houston. It's pretty neat. God, I'm such a nerd, but I love it.

 

Technorati tags: catalan, catalonia, language, meetups, català, catalunya, llengua, trobades