Introduction

Hi! I’m Laura. I’m from Lima, Peru, and I moved to Vancouver about four years ago. I’m currently a third-year student pursuing a BA in Economics with a minor in Commerce. If you read that and thought, “This person does not scream literature,” you’d be right. I’m not really a “literature” person, and like many of you, this course is my literature requirement. It wasn’t always like this, though: I used to read a lot. Somewhere along the way, as other responsibilities took over, reading shifted from things I genuinely enjoyed to Econometrics textbooks and other very unromantic topics. Besides Econ and all that, in my free time I enjoy music and like to play guitar, piano, and a few other instruments. Outdoors-wise, I love skiing and swimming in the ocean (I miss the beaches back home, and ofc, the food).

Going back to RMST, when I first learned that the course involved one book per week, I honestly considered dropping it. I’ve always felt a bit out of the loop when it comes to “literary” books. But after listening to the first lecture, I was convinced to stay in the class for two main reasons. First, I was caught off guard when the professor mentioned Inka Cola (the #1 drink in Peru, and somehow triple the price in Vancouver, btw). It was such a random detail that it made me think this was kind of an unusual course, especially with a grading scheme I’d never seen before, and I wanted to see what other random things might come up. Second, I get to read some books in Spanish, which I would much rather than the English translations. Spanish is my native language, and although I went to an international school where English was the main language, my English isn’t perfect. Hence, writing has never been the easiest way for me to express my ideas fully or show my “true personality”, especially in another language. But hopefully, as the semester goes on, these blog posts will start to sound more and more like me.

Now, to answer the question, where is the romance world? My absolute first thought was the logical “in every country where they speak Romance languages”. However, the answer feels too obvious, so I assume I will have a much broader understanding of all this at the end of the course. I am excited to see if I can follow the contract, or will end up giving up during spring break.

Thanks for reading!