Translation Finished!

I finally just finished the translation job! It's really consumed me for the past 9 days. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just out of practice with working because I think, gee it was only 9 days. But I've realized that it's really hard work. It's tiring to be in front of a computer for hours on end, day after day, thinking really hard. I've also realized that it's not the type of work that just anyone could do. It's one thing to have the knowledge of Spanish. Yeah, I might have been a little over my head in that realm (but not too much so; I think most of my translating was pretty good). But it also requires a psychotic attention to detail and ability to concentrate on minor details for hours at a time. My years of working with data in an office prepared me for that. And I learned how much like writing something original it is. Maybe it's even closer to the technical writing I did for my job because you're very constrained within certain boundaries of what to say.

Anyway, I hope this will also encourage me to write that article about the drummers. And even if that doesn't get published, it will be good experience.


Tomorrow I teach class from 1:30-3:30 and then I'll go swimming at the pool. Recently I've been pretty good about getting back into a routine with that. Last week I swam 3 times, about 500 meters each time. I'm finding it easy to do after class (which I teach twice per week) because I just walk down the hill from the restaurant to where the pool is. It's a nice way to wind down after class too. It's hard to fully describe how wonderful it is to swim there. The pool is a soothing blue tile, the water is crystal clear and a pefect temperature (slightly cool at first but not too warm even after swimming all the laps). It's an amazing feeling to be propelling myself through the water. Most of the time I feel like I'm underwater with just brief moments of surfacing where I see the sky and the palm trees overhead.