1) Travel's a good thing to do before you get tied down by debt &/or a job, if you can swing it! I hope that you do manage to "see the world" a little before going on the the next stage.
2) Just a lucky guess? I think I had it in the back of my mind that you were from CA, originally, but I wasn't sure whether it was northern or southern. And we all know about the famous north/south rivalry in Cali. (Nothing compared to the lasting animosity between, say, Massachusetts and Alabama, but there was a war, you understand, even if it did take place generations ago ...) Also, I fantasize about moving to Cali, if I ever feel like I can afford it. I know and love the Bay area, but haven't been further south than Santa Cruz, yet ...
3) I've always been fascinated by accents and inflections, don't really know why. In English, I have a very sensitive ear for where someone comes from--I can distinguish a South Jersey from a North Jersey accent from across a room, and I'm not bad at distinguishing various other northeastern, southern, and midwestern dialects. In Spanish, my ear's a lot less precise: I can tell Castillian when I hear it (I know that sound mostly from movies), Puerto Rican (from my relatives rapid staccato Spanglish), Argentine (my Spanish teacher with her hard "j"s or "che"s where everyone else says "y"), but not really Mexican. I've seen plenty of Mexican movies, but I never picked out what was distinctive about the way people were speaking--but I know my ear is nowhere near as sensitive to Spanish accents. Now I'll know to listen for that kind of forceful diction you describe ...
3) I should have thought of giving you more choices--but the prosecutor/defense attorney is such a classic dichotomy. Constitutional and international law sound fascinating; I'm sure that they involve their own compromises and hard choices, but they seem like less stark choices than which side of a criminal prosecution to be on ...
4) I'm sorry: Cordelia's was definitely a hard path. I hope that you're able to reconcile your conflicts with your parents sooner than she did! Fellini's seducers offer at least a more exciting prospect (Gitone in Satyricon, so many of the women in Amarcord)... although consequences inevitably ensue, don't they? But you obviously know this & have a decent handle on it.
Re: Good questions!
2) Just a lucky guess? I think I had it in the back of my mind that you were from CA, originally, but I wasn't sure whether it was northern or southern. And we all know about the famous north/south rivalry in Cali. (Nothing compared to the lasting animosity between, say, Massachusetts and Alabama, but there was a war, you understand, even if it did take place generations ago ...) Also, I fantasize about moving to Cali, if I ever feel like I can afford it. I know and love the Bay area, but haven't been further south than Santa Cruz, yet ...
3) I've always been fascinated by accents and inflections, don't really know why. In English, I have a very sensitive ear for where someone comes from--I can distinguish a South Jersey from a North Jersey accent from across a room, and I'm not bad at distinguishing various other northeastern, southern, and midwestern dialects. In Spanish, my ear's a lot less precise: I can tell Castillian when I hear it (I know that sound mostly from movies), Puerto Rican (from my relatives rapid staccato Spanglish), Argentine (my Spanish teacher with her hard "j"s or "che"s where everyone else says "y"), but not really Mexican. I've seen plenty of Mexican movies, but I never picked out what was distinctive about the way people were speaking--but I know my ear is nowhere near as sensitive to Spanish accents. Now I'll know to listen for that kind of forceful diction you describe ...
3) I should have thought of giving you more choices--but the prosecutor/defense attorney is such a classic dichotomy. Constitutional and international law sound fascinating; I'm sure that they involve their own compromises and hard choices, but they seem like less stark choices than which side of a criminal prosecution to be on ...
4) I'm sorry: Cordelia's was definitely a hard path. I hope that you're able to reconcile your conflicts with your parents sooner than she did! Fellini's seducers offer at least a more exciting prospect (Gitone in Satyricon, so many of the women in Amarcord)... although consequences inevitably ensue, don't they? But you obviously know this & have a decent handle on it.