maresia

I moved to England in 2012. I was fluent in English by then after studying it for 9 years, but I soon realized that the English taught at school isn't exactly the English people speak in England. I struggled greatly with the Essex and Scottish accent, proverbs and slang. I remember one day that I assumed a woman was slightly senile because she told me she wanted to spend a penny at eleven pm. "You have to wait until the morning when the shops open" was not the answer she was expecting. I had to improve my English, but spending time with my work colleagues or watch TV was not the best way to do it. Eventually, I turned to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice . I already knew the story, of course, and the 2005 adaptation was one of my favorite movies. Besides, it's a classic and I have a soft spot for them. Ten pages hadn't passed when I came across the word 'acquaintance'. Now, this was a word that never crossed my work colleagues' lips! After he...

I should have liked this book, after all I love classics, but I just had no patience at all for Holden Caulfield. It all started when I was a university student. Holden Caulfield was just a name stored in the department of my brain called "To read books", and then one day I met a Holden Caulfield.  This Holden was 20 years old and it only takes a brief exchange of words to conclude that, 10 years later, he is still 20 years old. This Holden had parents that could afford his multiple attempts at different universities, but he soon lost interest and spent the rest of the year wandering around aimlessly and attending university parties. This Holden had brief infatuations that disappeared into thin air after a slap in the face from reality. He soon disliked what he once thought to be a source of pleasure.  While I was reading The Catcher in the Rye  I couldn't picture the characters or New York. All I could think of was the person I met 10 years ago still wandering...