About gitanarosanna: I grew up on homemade applesauce, Spanish Christmas Carols (my mom loves them, so we hear them all year long), mystery novels, babushka dolls, and old ghost movies. I have a debilitating penchant for raspberry pineapple smoothies and vintage sunglasses, though I'll drop both in a flash to dance the foxtrot. To my friends I am "Rose," the compulsive eavesdropper who talks to strangers, wears very large earrings, and often sings instead of leaving a standard voicemail. To my family, especially to my little brother, I am the lovable yet sometimes irritating, over-achieving big sister who tries to teach him French and quizzes him on SAT vocabulary words at dinner. I am 23 years old, but my dimples beg to differ. When I get excited, my eyebrows shoot up towards my hairline, but the left one always manages to go higher than the right. As a result, I've nicknamed them cosine and tangent. I get most excited in situations that reveal small but precious discoveries, like the convoluted origins of a word that decrypt its relation to many others. Though I am training to be a journalist, I don't write articles, I tell stories. I will never be the investigative reporter that uncovers a large money laundering scandal at a 5-star seafood restaurant; I'll be the journalist that profiles the lobsters, and who through their exits and entrances into the tank, tells a story about money laundering. While English is my favorite language because of its vast lexicon, I am very aware that having knowledge of other languages enriches this ability. French, for example, is by nature more figurative, and has taught me to refine my syntax. Whereas as in English we say, "to window shop," the French say, "faire du leche-vitrines," or to "window lick." Though this is only a difference of one word, it evokes the salivation that one experiences before a tantalizing store window far more effectively than the pedestrian, "shop." Since languages are inextricably linked to the cultures in which they are spoken, they can be learned only by living within a culture; understanding the traditions, gestures, intonations, and facial expressions associated with it -- this is what I strive to do.