It's true, I want these reader Spotlights to go on forever. They really are my favorite things on the blog. If you still want to join, please do; I'm easy to email with, swearsies. Or if you want to do anything else on the blog, that's cool; it can be tied to the books or whatevs. I love a good guest post.
Today's spotlight is Ms. Chiara. She's recently been educating me in languages and ways to say "I love you," so that has been fascinating. Here are some questions I recently posed, and her fab answers:
You live in The Netherlands. What's something people don't know about your home that you would love to share? I'm always very proud of the fact that The Netherlands is
quite progressive, one fact I'm particularly proud of is that The
Netherlands was the first country to legalize gay marriage in 2001.
Another little tidbit is that the Dutch love to ride bikes. There are
about as much bikes to be found in The Netherlands than there are
inhabitants and there are separate parts of roads that are for bikes
only. Oh, and the Dutch eat their peanut butter with chocolate sprinkles on
bread. Well, not all but it's sort of a Dutch thing.
Hooray for all this! I'm coming over this afternoon. I think the flight is only, ohhh, fourteen hours?
Are you an expert in any one area? Can be big or not big at all. Mmh...this
is a hard one! I teach English, Italian and Dutch so to my students I'm
probably a grammar and vocabulary expert but I wouldn't call myself an
expert. Some people tend to call me a language expert but I was raised
bilingually so Dutch and German were giving to me as a "gift". I kept
mulling about this question but I really don't know what I'm an expert
on and I honestly find it hard to see myself as being an expert in any
kind of area.
This is a fine area for expertise. My husband speaks pretty excellent German and one of my two best pals lives in Berlin, so I keep thinking I need to take a class. Perhaps when I'm on a book break I shall. Thanks for the inspiration.
You're a writer and you've talked a bit about your approach in the comments. What's your favorite thing about writing? Any tips? Well,
I'm not a fiction writer and I'm probably not the kind of person to get
writing tips from. Ever since high school, I've been that person that
just starts to write (or not because of lack of inspiration) and then
gets stuck with her pen in her mouth or nowadays a computer screen and
none typing hands. I write weekly articles for Wit & Fancy (mostly
about animal/environmental issues and feminism with the occasional
recipe or book review). If research is involved, I obviously need to
work more structured but if it's more of an opinion kind of thing, I
usually just tend to start writing and let things come as they come
until I'm done. Afterwards then I edit because I might sometimes get too
passionate and carried away about certain things and not really think
that much about what I'm doing. I'm also working on my PhD and there I
basically do the same thing unless I'm working with sources obviously.
Once I'm on a roll, I just like to let things out so anything and
everything I feel that needs to be said is out there. I can make it look
good afterwards.
All interesting to me. I think "just starts to write" are key words; I worry too many writers get stalled in the "thinking about" stage. I know I have. Planning is essential, but getting to the typing part is the biggest hurdle.
Are you about the sweets or are you a savory/salty fan? Actually
I don't have a big sweet tooth, except for ice cream I guess, I've
always loved ice cream. I'm not a big savory snack person either,
besides tortilla chips. So I can't really say I'm either this or that. I
take a real meal over any kind of snack!
I don't have a huge sweet tooth, either. I like real meals. And dips. That's no lie. I lovelovelove dips.
What's the key to a good attitude in life (when a good attitude can be hard to find)? I'm an optimist (comes with the territory of being a Sagittarius, speaking of star signs, what are the Wilfair people?) so for me the glass is always more than half full and I just can't stay sad for too long. As bad as life can be, it will always get better and people should keep remembering that I think. Also, keep smiling! Whatever cards life deals you, try to keep your head up and smile.
Optimism, always and forever. As for star signs? I'll do a post! Thanks for the suggestion.
Can you sing in front of other people? If so, what's your go-to song? Oh God no! First of all, I'd be way too shy to actually sing in front of people and secondly I can't sing! Only times I sing is at Gianna Nannini concerts but nobody hears me anyway with all the noise and my friends sing with me so that makes things very different but please don't have me stand up and sing in front of others, I might die from embarrassment and people would probably run away.
I also never sing in public, except Christmas carols, and then I sing real, real loud. Ear-screeching.
What's the moment you know that a person you've met has friend potential? A mutual sense of humor is one thing. I read something on Facebook the other day which I loved: "If you have someone in your life who laughs at the same crap as you do, no matter how messed up it is. They are your soulmate." So basically this. Also being able to trust somebody completely but that's obviously something that comes later on and wouldn't count as friend potential.
Again, yes, with the laughing. I'm a firm believer that "common sense of humor" should be the first consideration in any matchmaking or friendmaking. It encompasses so much.
Wilfair question: You've kindly mentioned Sutton Von Hunt in some comments. If you were to spend the day with our fruitcheress in your neck of the woods, what would you two do? Awesome! I'd probably show her around my university town because it's much more exciting than my own town and for lunch I'd probably take her to the vegan restaurant I recently discovered (since Sutton eats healthy and you said she had the vegetarian sandwich I assume she'd probably like that) and after lunch we'll either hang out in Aachen some more and I'd take her to some other cool places nearby, like the point where Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium meet. For dinner, probably my favorite Asian place. If she's still up for something I might find a good party, hopefully she's visiting on the day there's an awesome 80s music themed party.
I know she would like all of this. '80s music party! One of my favorite things. PS There's a dance music party to come in "Fairwil." Because there must be. There must.
Like I said, I'm flying over immediately. Meet at that vegan restaurant in, oh, fifteen hours? Although it'll probably be breakfast by that time.
And thanks so much, Chiara! Love these answers. We think alike on much. I love the commonalities I'm seeing on this blog, for sure.
