Lost in Reverie

LOST IN REVERIE

The Cult News| October 2014

By F. Charravía

At 8:15, the alarm woke me up and a gleam of light touched my cheek. The alarm song that I had set up to wake me up every day was "Here Comes the Sun." That song had a special meaning for me. Every time I would wake up by its tune, it would remind me that either my hands or my feet don't have a purpose if I stay in bed. That particular day I looked around my room and noticed everything was quiet and cold. However, I  resisted the seductive warm of my sheets and headed out at once. My body rushed and my hands fixed my hair to a messy-bun look, and then I went out for a walk.

As usual, he was reading the newspaper in the balcony and she was watching out the pass of time through the lattice window. The neighborhood seemed like a market of old but energetic people; people like those who love habits and routines. When I arrived to the park, I couldn’t help thinking about those moments when simple acts turn into a cycle that consumes us, like the habit of making decisions. Some are automated choices and some others are way more complex. This reminded me that I’ve been always a wishy-washy person. I have issues trying to make up my mind and coming out with the right end. The idea about decisions turning into a one-way plan have tortured me in different chapters in book of life:

¾    Coffee or tea?

¾    Novels or poems? Maybe, short stories?

¾    Iceland or Argentine Patagonia?

Sometimes I worry about trivial matters, but the frustration increases when I have to make big choices related to my future. I thought  that choosing the right major and university were the most important to-do in order to have the right job, but what happens when a cycle comes to an end and you have nothing but dreams? No job, no master programs, only dreams.

There was I having trouble picking out a bench in the park. I sat on the grass and discovered it was wet. There was also a dog exploring the outdoors, and I trying to do the same with a busy mind and an exhausted body. I kept daydreaming and playing with a stick, when someone came close to my direction. A pregnant woman with short gray hair approached the bench that was in front of me. She was wearing a nice flower dress and a black hat. She sat under a tree, stared at me and started writing. It was intimidating, but the fear of talking to strangers didn’t stop me from beginning the talk. I wanted to know her fictions, and she was willing to share them with me.

¾    So glad you came to say hi —she said with a peaceful tone of voice as if she knew me— I was going to start writing about you. I rather not knowing your name. It would ruin our conversation, don’t you think?

¾    You are right. Who are you? I have never seen you around.

¾    I can be an eager traveler who wants to breath in the world and hold it the longest possible or I can be just a lady who comes with her journal to straighten herself up and compensate her confusion through the appreciation of nature and fiction stories. Which one would you rather me to be?

¾    I think you could be both. That can make you even more interesting. What were you going to write about me?

¾    I was going to write about the girl I saw sitting right there playing with a stick in the dust, not about you, sweetheart. You just changed my perspective… —she said with a gentle smile— well dear, I don’t want to be rude; I’ll introduce myself. I’m a writer who travels in order to collect stories from people around the world and give sense to others’ lives with what I own. That is the reason why I consider myself a giver. I love giving others whatever I can, like blood, love, words… whatever that makes them feel satisfied. I had lived in the land of ice and brought warm in the hearts of  those who felt meaningless. I had lived in the land of fire and gave water to the thirsty. I’ve learned to live with joy in times of abundance and poverty. I’ve learned that greatness are not the things we do or we have; greatness is shaped by an almighty hand that has the purpose of creating a humble heart. I’ve been in different parts of the world and I’ve seen many faces, and I have realized that there’s nothing more deceiving than the human heart. You just know it when…

¾    Mommy, look at this caterpillar  —a soft gentle voice interrupted her monologue

¾    There you are —she looked at her with a huge smile and then she talked to me— so glad I had the chance to talk to you. Hopefully, I’ll see you someday. I’m eager to hear your story.  

She left singing “Here Comes the Sun” and I just felt my soul rest lighter. Everything was back to normal pace. I hastily turned around and switched the alarm off. It was late and I had to start getting ready for my graduation. The stuff in my room was in place, except for my dress that has slipped off its hanger.

Worship the Night

WORSHIP THE NIGHT

Late in the night, pondering starts

Feeling loneliness, just like the stars

Miles away in the darkness they stand

Just staring at life, as I do in my stance.

Silent and still, revolving thoughts come upon,

Instants vanishing as I reckon.

Misty eyes are never apprized,

For some souls are never enticed

Allurement, my decision

While I lay in night vision.

It’s my time to be alive,

While others live their own life

My thoughts are prancing,

While I decide to start dancing.

My skin gets brighter

And I sense the air lighter.

Time freezes.

My feet feel the pieces.

Myself, mesmerized,

Happiness not improvised.

Sentimental disapproval,

No! I’m just looking for renewal.

Finding myself in motion,

It’s definition of emotions

My bed’s space is eternal

It is where I run feral.

It’s my time, it’s my place,

Every night is a new race.

In solitude I feel …

The company of the world,

Like stars in the galaxy,

Vibration unites the whole.

Morphosyntax I: From Myth to Reality

Morphosyntax I: From Myth to Reality

The Cult News| March 2015

By Prof. Héctor Alvarado

For those who are about to start their third year of the major, there is one subject that has become a sort of a mythical beast: Morphosyntax I. In fact, for some people it is the “math” of the grammar courses. However, it turns out that it is not such a monster and, on the contrary, it is a very useful class, just like the previous two grammar courses, for what is to come as professionals of the English language. There are two main components of Morphosyntax I, therefore, that I would like to point out for every student who is about to take this course: Morphemes and verbs.

First, Morphosyntax I deals with the essence of words; how they are formed and how they are used in a sentence or within a given context. In this sense, it is more like a game where you have morphemes (basic units of meaning) put together to create words. For instance, if you take a greek root such as chrono (time) and you add a prefix (syn) and suffix (ize), you can have a word such as synchronize that works as a verb. Moreover, you can also take that word working as a verb (synchronize) and add another suffix like ion and create a noun such as synchronization. In this case, you changed the category of the word for it went from being a verb to a noun. This type of change is known as  morphological derivation for the word changed its essence. The opposite of a morphological derivation is the change known as morphological inflection in which a word remains within the same category. To illustrate this type of change, let’s take the same word derivation and add the inflectional suffix “s” that stands for the plural form of a word, then the new word is derivations; the word changed from singular to plural, but it is still a noun. In a word, the change did not create a new category. To know this is extremely important because it allows you to master the language in a proper way.

There is one key element, moreover, that every student has to pay attention to when taking Morphosyntax I, and that is the verb; for it tells you all you need to know about the sentence you are reading or analyzing. A verb is the DNA of a sentence. Once you have identified it, you can see what the sentence is about: transitive, intransitive, types of complements it can take, inner structure, and the type of sentence it is.  Verbs are the heart of every sentence; they turn a group of words into a living idea, bringing life to any language. Of course, there are other important components of Morphosyntax I such as the form and function of words but they all come into action as part of a cluster of elements within a sentence that enrich and expand it.

At the end of the day, a language is just a colorful means through which humans are able to communicate, and Morphosyntax I gives us the opportunity of learning how to elaborate our ideas and feelings into bridges of words that are full of life and color. So all you have to do is just be ready to discover it, for it goes beyond the myth to be part of our reality.

Passport Stories

Passport Stories

The Cult News| October 2014

By D. Blandón

In my mind, I had lived that moment a thousand and one times: A large group of people would be holding red flags and signs randomly, and perhaps someone would be playing a rattle while waiting in the crowded lobby of a gigantic airport –Because in my mind, everything in the US had to be gigantic. However, then, I passed through the glass doors to the modest lobby of an airport that did not have trains or subways because they were not needed. I ran into 2 people in their twenties with tired, friendly faces, wearing a matching red shirt with the International Orientation Monmouth College’s sign on them. Our eyes met wondering if we were the people each one was expecting. One of them was a blond girl, Sarah. She did all the initial talking with a very soft voice, slowly, as if she were thinking how to say things properly. By then, I thought she was being polite to make sure I would understand, but after having her as my favorite neighbor for 9 months, I learned that that was just the way she spoke.

“I will get your suitcase” said the tall man in a cap and shorts. “Thank you. It’s all wrapped up in plastic,” I said. I felt proud of the natural way I had spoken and how well I had pronounced the phonemes in the sentence. Those were the first words I told one of my now closest friends whom I plan to visit someday soon in Canada. When we headed to Monmouth College, I noticed there were no big buildings everywhere, and when we got to campus, it wasn’t as cold as I had expected it to be.  Two of the chaperons assigned to my group guided me to the apartment –It was “my apartment,” as I used to repeat to myself with a smile.

As an international student, I was requested to arrive a week earlier than my roommates. Therefore, it was all empty and quiet. It wasn’t at all like I had expected it to be and I was loving it. I unpacked my clothes, thinking of the days I would wear them and found a place for my notebooks and pencils, inspired  by the thought of  how much I would study and learn that year. That night, I lay down on my brand new set of bed sheets, noticing for the first time the whistle of the train passing by. It was then that I started believing that this was indeed happening to me. It was the start of an exciting 9-months journey.

Indeed, those empty walls from the apartment started getting filled with memories and fun stories, with pictures and lights. Ahead of me were the awkward self-introductions in a room full of international students, -So many times we had to introduce ourselves as a group to the university staff that I can still hear everyone’s voices, stating their countries of origin as if they were their last names-,  the adaptation process of living with three more women from very different backgrounds, the nights spent looking at the ceiling of my room with my roommate on the next bed talking my homesickness away, the seemingly endless minutes I got lost without a phone in Chicago because my friends have long legs that walk faster, the unforgettable nights out, the empty space in my stomach during Watson’s  American Contemporary Literature class, where all the students were clever, critical and participative, and that one day when they turned their heads to the unheard voice of the Costa Rican girl that dared to speak in class even with her accent, the nights at my host mom’s house eating and talking to her intellectual friends, the crunching sound of snow under my boots, the glorious feeling of being able to ski smoothly down the hill with a hurt leg, the jokes and puns I never got in class, the library that opened until midnight, the cafeteria at the library and all the life-lasting friends I met.

And then I finally came back home. I walked through the Juan Santa María Airport with the same passport that I took with me to leave in the first place, yet I was not the same Daniela. I left my old suitcase at campus because it was too small. I came back carrying not only a bigger luggage, but also bigger ambitions and ideas for my future.  Amidst kisses and hugs from my family, I put an end to the 9-month experience that once seemed so unreal. I knew that this was not the last time that my country would welcome me back.

Prisoners with an Instinctive Grasp of Fashion

Prisoners with an Instinctive Grasp of Fashion

The Cult News| March 2015

by G.Cocozza

Today, 70% of the total prison’ population in Costa Rica complete their sentence and return to criminal activities. However,  solutions such as Down to Earth Wear also known as TO Products,  pledges to put an end to the cycle of poverty and crime that many inmates face in Costa Rica. TO Products offer a great variety of bags that feature high manufacturing technology and materials that are 98% biodegradable and recyclabe.

This project lead by Fundación To, a national private company, together with the government aims to improve the rehabilitation process of prisoners, through trainings about entrepreneurship and the acquisition of news skills for the production of clothing. Besides, enrolling in the TO program also  enables prisoners to provide for their families during their jail time while undergoing a successful reintegration process upon release.

The TO products program renders a down to earth solution for the broken national justice system that struggles with the same challenges many countries across Latin America face, such as prison overcrowding and high recidivism rates. This initiative strengthens the role of prisons, which is to supply an appropriate environment for rehabilitation to decrease crime rates.

Five Benefits of Joining a Book Club

Five Benefits of Joining a Book Club

The Cult News| March 2015

by B.A. Umaña

The Cult News is creating a book club for students of UCR that will be convening for the first time on April 1, 2015. Book clubs gather lovers of literature that want to share their opinion on fictional and non-fictional stories of all types while making friends with similar likes and interests.

To commemorate the upcoming meeting, here are five benefits of joining a book club that will make you consider joining ours.

#1: Be exposed to new literature

One of the greatest benefits of joining a book club is getting to read literature that you never even imagined existed before. Due to the many ways book clubs choose their readings –such as taking turns to choose, or nominating books, every member of the group ends up encountering a book they had never heard of before. What is wonderful about this is how well-read you will become; and who knows, perhaps one of these books might become your all-time favorite.

#2: Get intellectually stimulated

With every new read and its analysis, book club members are enlightened with new knowledge about the world. Sheila Malloch, member of the West Side Stories Book Club in Toronto says “By reading about life in different cultures and societies, my understanding of the world has been enormously enhanced” (O’Niell, 2015).

Also, book clubs are cultivating grounds for free thinking and the creation of new wisdom. When one makes a critical analysis of a book, one is not only questioning the book’s content, but the culture, and the values that come with it. Book clubs provide the intellectual breath of fresh air that many need.

#3: Better your communication skills

Book clubs provide the perfect opportunity for everyone to practice self-expression. The open and tolerant ambiance of a book club helps individuals who do not give their opinion much to speak without being shunned; and for those who speak plenty, book clubs provide that perfect space for you to hone your talking-skills. In that sense, book clubs will make one a better, more efficient speaker.

#4: Improve your writing skills

If you write, you have most likely heard that “the best way to improve your writing is to read.” Book clubs, therefore, are a goldmine for writers-to-be. With every book read, members of book clubs get to know not only new and unique writing styles that they may be inspired by, but they also get an insight on what readers want. The opinion of every member of your club can be taken as the opinion of the general public one may want to write to. Listen to them, and you will be listening to everyone.

#5: Make friends while having the freedom to be honest

In book clubs, one of the main objectives is to speak as truthfully as possible. When a member of the group shares his or her opinion, one may have the right to differ with that person, and even debate the topic, but the opinion must be respected. That means you can be yourself without being shot down.

If you can be yourself, that means the friends you make in the club will know who you truly are, and will be okay with it. Friends met in book clubs can therefore last a lifetime.

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Be sure to visit The Cult News’s stand on either the 16^th or 19^th of March to sign up for our book club. The club can only accept a limited number of individuals, and we work on the basis of first-come first-served.

Arts and Tech: What You Can Expect this 2015

Arts and Tech: What You Can Expect this 2015

The Cult News| March 2015
by Natalia Fernández

As future-oriented individuals we are, every year, we anxiously wait for the comings in technology and arts. This 2015 brings a wide range of innovations in regards to computers, video games, useful apps, movies and theater.

Here are some of them:

In Technology

Microsoft releases its Windows 10 for free

As announced by Microsoft, Windows 10.0 will be released during the second half of this year. Among some of the features of this OS are the return of the traditional Start Menu as well as the new apps for “Office 2016,” which will run in a virtual desktop. Also, Microsoft said that Win10 will be compatible with Xbox One, enabling gamers to play the same video games through both their PC and their console. Users of Windows 7 and 8 will not be charged when downloading the latest operating system of Microsoft.

Long Awaited Video Games are Coming

In regards to video games, a great variety of options will be offered this year. Assassin’s Creed Victory is expected to be released this 2015. However, no specific release date has been given by the developer, Ubisoft. Some leaked information- later confirmed by Ubisoft itself- says that this time, the game’s setting will be London’s Victorian Era. This game will be available for PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. Other games will also be released this year such as Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda, Mortal Kombat X (announced to be available worldwide on Apr. 14, 2015), and Warner Bros’ Batman Arkham Knight (Jun. 2, 2015).

Pronunroid Helps to Improve IPA Learning

As people learning languages, phonetics apps are highly useful, especially for those oral courses where transcriptions are a daily life practice. This app is not new, but it is surely something college students would not like to miss. Just by typing a word, the app provides the phonetic transcription for it, alongside the option of listening to the correct pronunciation. It only requires 1.73 MB and can be stored in the cellphone’s external memory card. This college student’s tool is available in Google Play Store for free.

In Arts

Films

Film lovers in Costa Rica will have the chance to choose from animation to drama. Among some of the releases, 2015 will bring:

-          Cinderella (April 2)

-          Avengers 2:  Age of Ultron (April 30)

-          Minions (July 9)

-          Hotel Transylvania 2 (September 24)

-          Peanuts (November 6)

-          Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. (December 2015)

In addition, a new involving movie experience is being brought to Costa Rica at Cinépolis, Terramall. Those who want to go beyond the traditional experience may find this place attractive. This cinema introduced 4DX technologies, making spectators perceive elements of the movie such as smell, wind, water, movement, light, and fog at their own seat. For movies featuring this technology, look for 4DX theaters in Cinépolis.

Theater

Teatro Expressivo will feature "Bodas de Sangre" by Federico García Lorca and directed by Jose Pablo Umaña during the months of February and March.

"Crónica de una muerte anunciada" by Gabriel García Márquez and directed by Carlos Salazar Z. will be featured in April and May.

On the other hand, Teatro Nacional, will feature “Romeo & Juliet” with the interpretation of the Russian Classical Ballet on March 21 and March 22. Prices may vary.