Next Stop: The Validation Station

One of the many great things that happened to me during my first several months in Tetouan was meeting Carolina Ceca, a young Spanish artist working in the city under the auspices of a Spanish government grant. (You can see a bit of her work here. It’s worth checking out.) Before her Morocco time came to a close a couple days ago, we were meeting up once a week, ostensibly to converse in (and practice her) English but really just for girl talk. We had also tinkered with various English texts that she’d written up for grant applications and her website.

The last day we spent together, though, I figured I’d turn the tables and request some feedback on a project abstract I’d translated to Spanish. It’s something I hand out to research-related people when I meet them, since I find they often focus better on what I’m saying when I’m not actually saying it, but rather when it’s written down in front of them. As expected, Carolina had some helpful suggestions to make; however, she also surprised me with some passionate – and personally validating – insights into the Spanish side of my work.