Vintage Businesses on Historic Route 66

(1) The reason I chose this article is because I love road tripping!!! I know it sounds boring and uncomfortable, but it’s the best- and the cheapest- way to get to know a country. During your car trip, you can get to see the landscapes, everyday people and shops, weird places, “kitsch” places, different kinds of motels, etc.

(2) When I started reading this article I actually didn’t know what I was about to find. I guess I was expecting for a description…And I got a really good one! The article described 13 places you MUST visit if you are in the “Mother Road” like: totems, a county fair, a drive-in theatre, special stores…and even a haunted natatorium!! These kinds of places give you a very entertaining glance of the USA and it’s pop culture.

(3) In my opinion, the most interesting stop was the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. There you can paint old cadillacs that are buried halfway into the ground!! (if you have talent, of course…you don’t want to ruin a Cadillac, that’s like a sin). Anyway, I think this is a very creative way to express yourself and your ideas, and it’s also a very American way to do it (like the “American chopper”). The Cadillac Ranch was created by a San Francisco art collective called “The ant farm” in the 70’s and rapidly became one of the “nation kitschy culture”.

Vocabulary words:

1) Stretch: an extent in length or area
2) Dub: to call by a distinctive title, epithet, or nickname
3) Fountain: an artificially produced jet of water and also the structure from which it rises
4) Wrapping: to envelop and secure for transportation or storage
5) Batter: a mixture (as of flour and egg) used as a coating for food that is to be fried
6) Cozy: enjoying or affording warmth and ease
7) Custard: a pudding-like usually sweetened mixture made with eggs and milk
8) Entrepreneur: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise
9) Boast: to speak of or assert with excessive pride
10) Passerby: one who passes by
11) Depict: to represent by or as if by a picture
12) Whimsical: full of, actuated by, or exhibiting whims
13) Novelty: something new or unusual
14) Wigwam: a hut of the American Indians of the Great Lakes region and eastward having typically an arched framework of poles overlaid with bark, rush mats, or hides; also : a rough hut
15) Facade: the front of a building or any face of a building given special architectural treatment
16) Weary: having one's patience, tolerance, or pleasure exhausted
17) Pier: a vertical structural support: as: the wall between two openings,a vertical member that supports the end of an arch or lintel or an auxiliary mass of masonry used to stiffen a wall
18) Speakeasy: place where alcoholic beverages are illegally sold during the period of prohibition in the United States

http://travel.howstuffworks.com/13-vintage-businesses-on-historic-route-662.htm

Hi!, I'm Ana and I'm trying to understand this blog thing. Now, the typical information about me...well, I'm studing psychology and this is my 3º year. Before psychology, I studied "Bachi" and Music's Theory...I hope finishing this one. In my free time I play piano, at least I try playing it, it's very difficult when you don't have much time. About psychology... I can't explain why I chose it! It's interesting, but there are many things (maybe most of them) I don't agree with. But there are others I really enjoy, like construccionism, psychoanalysis (specially the freudian one) and critic theories about everything. Maybe in the future I can get to join this two things (music and psychology) and make contributions. And I also want to get to study in Europe, specially in France or Italy (ejemmm, we should have the chance to learn those languages too...but, it's ok).

About English ("witn capital E")...I hope we get to practice speaking a lot, I don't have many chances to do that and it's important. Actually, I haven't practiced English since my school days (a really loooong time!). Now, about the class, I'd like to get to know you (or at least most of you) and that we can make this interesting and funny ( we really need that in the afternoon!) Bye!