That is definitely the theme of this year: challenges and milestones. In the beginning my experience consisted mainly of challenges, but I think I have finally reached the point where I’m starting to see the milestones.
Although my last few posts may suggest otherwise, I am busting my butt in school. This semester I am taking the following classes:
“Flujos de Comunicación en el Continento Americano” (Flows of Communication in the American Continent). Essentially what the name says, we are studying the flow patterns of mass communication – mainly television so far – back and forth between countries, especially in the Americas. In other words, we are learning about the exportation and importation patterns of various media, from their history up to the present day, while analyzing their impact on the economies of various countries.
“Seminario de Comunicación Internacional” (International Communication Seminar). This class has a philosophical focus; we discuss and analyze international communication, starting from the concept of “nation.” Actually, we even started as basically as “what is the purpose of education?” and it was interesting to hear the perspectives of Mexican students and if/how they differed from mine.
“Investigación Cualitativa de Comunicación” (Qualitative Communication Research). Whereas last semester I took quantitative research, this qualitative research class covers the basic stages of a qualitative research investigation. We are simultaneously reading an absolutely wonderful book called “Los Hijos de Sanchez” (“The Children of Sanchez”), by anthropologist Oscar Lewis, in which he transcribed years of interviews that he conducted of the Sanchez family, who lived in a poor neighborhood in Mexico City. I highly recommend the book to everyone; it’s available in English and Spanish, and gives you a firsthand sense of one of the many cultures that reside in Mexico, as well as the culture of poverty in general and what it’s like to live from day to day not knowing where your next meal will come from.
“Responsabilidad Social Corporativa” (Corporate Social Responsibility). This class teaches us the historical and contemporary concepts of corporate social responsibility, while forcing us to question and analyze the pros and cons of this increasingly-popular idea in the business (and organizational communication) world. We even had a debate in class a few weeks ago!
I wanted to share with all of you a particular milestone I had a few weeks ago, not to brag about myself by any means, but rather to give you some insight into what it’s like to take classes in a foreign language.
Last semester I didn't participate in class. Not because I didn’t want to; I firmly believe that participating in class is one of the best ways one can learn a subject. But rather, by the time I understood what the teacher was saying (the Spanish of it), processed it, synthesized it, analyzed it, etc., they had already moved on to another subject before I had a chance to say something. It was frustrating to say the least, but that is part of the language learning process.
I cut myself some slack because I was the only non-Mexican in my classes, meaning that I was the only one who didn’t understand perfectly. I tried very hard and made progress, but even by the end of the semester I still had to ask one of my classmates every once in awhile, “What was that homework assignment, again?”
I began my second semester determined to overcome that “disability”, especially since in one of my classes we receive 3 points for participation every single class (and we get a 0 if we don’t participate). After a few weeks into the semester, I finally felt that I was understanding the class on an analytical level, and even worked up the courage to ask one question. Nevertheless, my teacher came up to me and told me that I needed to participate more – even in English was fine, but I need to participate. Well, I did not come to Mexico to participate in class in English. And although it was uncomfortable that he called me out, I was determined not to let it get to me, and to prove to him that I could do it.
It also happened that I had to do a presentation for the next session of that class as well. The way the class works is that we’ll have one assigned article that everyone has to read, which is the one we discuss, and then a student is assigned to read another article and do a presentation on it (i.e. teach the class). So, I decided to spend all weekend – literally – working on these assignments so that I would not only prove to my teacher that I could step up to the challenge, but more importantly, prove it to myself.
I was surprisingly nervous about participating in class (imagine, just a little thing like class participation can be a much bigger deal to a person in another language and country), especially since it was really the first time I had forced myself to participate. However, during the next class session, not only did I feel that I was really able to engage in the discussion on an intellectual level, but I also thought that my presentation went well and that the teacher really liked the discussion I led at the end of it. One of the greatest senses of accomplishments I’ve felt, though, was when I checked my grades online: not only did I receive a 3/3 on participation, but I got a 12/12 on the presentation! But for me, the reward was not as much in the number that my grade was, but in the fact that to me it showed that he saw and appreciated how hard I was trying, and that I had succeeded in overcoming this personal challenge that I had set for myself.
I wrote this story to give you insight into the challenges and milestones that come with studying a subject in a foreign language in a foreign country. I felt that on that day, I reached a very significant milestone in the language acquisition process, and with the confidence I gained in proving to myself that I could do it, I now participate in class on a much more regular basis. Climbing over that “bump” was uncomfortable to say the least, but after the first awkwardness of class participation, it gets easier every time.
This story also gave me a lot of empathy and appreciation for all the foreign students with whom I’ve ever had a class. Even if one’s conversational abilities in a language might be 99.99% perfect, mastering that language on an academic, intellectual level is a whole different ballgame. And I feel that I am one step closer to that goal.
**Side note: I posted various pictures from this semester so far: ice skating (yes, in Mexico!), gift exchange with Rotaract, my new house, and a cabin weekend . Check them out here**
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Tour de México Part 2
I hope you all have had enough time to read my last post about Part 1 of my holiday travels around Mexico. If not, go back and read that one first! :)
Like I said last time, after Puebla, a town in central Mexico about an hour south of Mexico City, I flew to Memphis, Tennessee, where I spent Christmas with my dad, my brother and sister, my dad’s girlfriend, and her two daughters. I was debating for awhile whether or not I wanted to go home for the holidays, but ironically, Mexico made me decide to go. The culture here is so family-oriented that it has really made me appreciate my own family, and I couldn’t imagine spending the holidays without them.
After Christmas, my brother, sister, and I flew to New Hope, Pennsylvania, to where my mom just recently moved. There we spent New Years with my mom, her boyfriend, his daughter, and my boyfriend, who flew up from South Carolina. Needless to say, my family is rapidly expanding! And I love it.
However, as this is a blog about Mexico, I won’t go into too many details about my time at home. Just know that I had a wonderful time, and it was a great refresher to kick off my second semester in Monterrey.
Cancun: January 1-3
On January 1, my brother, sister, boyfriend, and I flew from Pennsylvania to Cancun, Mexico, where we met my dad for a week of traveling through the Yucatan peninsula. I was very excited to show them the country that to me has become like home. However, my one previous time in the Yucatan peninsula was 6 hours in Tulum off of a cruise ship, so this part of Mexico was almost all new to me too!
Cancun is divided into two parts: 1) downtown Cancun, which is the main city, where all “normal” life goes on, and 2) the “Zona Hotelera” (Hotel Zone), which is a peninsula jutting out into the Caribbean, where all of the tourist resorts are.
We spent our one full day there wandering a few different beaches in the Zona Hotelera, and discovered that the stories are true: Cancun has amazing beaches. However, as great as the beaches were, we also discovered that Cancun is best if you have money to splurge on the beachfront resorts (which we didn’t). Instead, we stayed in a basic, but cute, locally owned hotel in downtown Cancun, and enjoyed getting to know the more “local” culture. We did, however, still enjoy a great seafood meal at a water-side restaurant in the Zona Hotelera and watched the sunset!
Tulum: January 3-7
From Cancun, we took a bus to Tulum, which is a few hours south of Cancun. It is another incredibly beautiful beach town, but with a much more relaxed, “hippy” vibe (great for my family, which is made up of a bunch of people who should have been born in the 60s ;) ).
One of the things that Tulum is famous for is its Mayan ruins site, which was actually just about a ten minute walk from our hotel! I had already been there once on the cruise a few years ago, but it was still amazing to go back! Not only is it fascinating to see the ruins of an indigenous tribe that were built hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but the ruins are on a cliff overlooking the clearest green water of the Caribbean Sea and the whitest sand I’ve ever seen.
In my opinion, Tulum is one of the best places in Mexico you can vacation to. There you can relax on some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world while walking through an extraordinary piece of Mexico’s history. After we walked around the ruins, we walked down to the beach below and relaxed for the afternoon.
The next two days in Tulum we spent renting bikes and discovering that there were even more spectacular beaches! In fact, Tulum was set up along a long strip of beach, so we could ride our bikes on the road next to the beaches and pick where we wanted to go! Just like the beach by the ruins, the sand was the whitest I had ever seen and the water the clearest. There’s not much else I can say about the beaches except that it was paradise. I highly recommend Tulum as a relaxing vacation get-away; it is my idea of perfection. In fact, we ended up staying an extra day because we couldn’t pull ourselves away!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something else that Tulum was perfect for: a marriage proposal! My dad’s girlfriend Jennifer flew in on Wednesday, January 6, to spend the second half of the week with us. That evening, on the perfect beach, under a perfect sunset, my dad proposed! We kids were all waiting for them at a beachside restaurant, where we celebrated with a wonderful dinner, wine, and live music.
Chichén Itzá: January 7
On Thursday, January 7, we rented a car to drive to Mérida, the capital of Yucatan, located on the west side of the peninsula about 30 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico.
Before arriving in Mérida, though, we made a stop halfway at Chichén Itzá, the most famous of the Mayan ruins sites, and one of the new seven wonders of the world. Chichén Itzá is so much more than the ruins in Tulum, and so much more than just another ruins site. It is strongly recommended that you hire a guide, which we did, because he will explain to you all of the archeological intricacies that make the site so unique.
It is made up of temples and pyramids that are ingeniously crafted to coincide with the Mayan astronomical calendar. For example, on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes every year, at particular times of day, the sun shines on the main temple, El Castillo, in such a way that it produces an illusion of a serpent crawling down the temple’s stairs:
**I took this picture from http://www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/kuk.gif so that you can see the snake on the day of the equinox. Can you see it there towards the left??
In fact, the whole structure of El Castillo is essentially designed to be a Mayan calendar, where each of the levels and staircases are the days and months of the year.
The acoustics in Chichén Itzá are also very scientific. For example, in the Gran Juego de Pelota (the great ball court where the Mayans would play an ingenious ball game, although no one is sure exactly how it was played), if you clap you can hear the clap echoed clearly 7 times.
Every night at Chichén Itzá there is a light show, which you can attend for free if you toured the site that day. We decided to stay to see it, and we were so glad we did! The temples and structures were lit up in different colors as the whole history of the place was told:
Whereas I believe that Tulum is one of the best beaches you can go to in Mexico, if you’re looking to experience Mexico’s rich history, I highly recommend Chichén Itzá.
Mérida: January 7-9
Mérida is a great colonial city, much like Puebla (which, if you remember, was the last place I went in central Mexico before going home for the holidays). As it is the capital of the Yucatan, it is very rich is traditional Mexican culture. We spent the few days that we had there walking around and taking pictures of the central plaza, the many churches, and the beautiful architecture of the houses:
We also did a bus tour around the city which gave us a great overview of the sites and history. Like Puebla, Mérida has many beautifully-colored houses and churches.
Mérida is also known for its great hammocks (in fact, I think it’s the hammock capital of Mexico), so if you want a hammock, it’s a great place to go. We also found some great hand-woven blankets for very cheap.
Unfortunately, as we only had about a day and a half in Mérida, we didn’t have time to explore the many museums and a great many other things that the city has to offer, but we did get a wonderful overview during the time that we were there, which I will soon show you through my pictures.
Like I said last time, after Puebla, a town in central Mexico about an hour south of Mexico City, I flew to Memphis, Tennessee, where I spent Christmas with my dad, my brother and sister, my dad’s girlfriend, and her two daughters. I was debating for awhile whether or not I wanted to go home for the holidays, but ironically, Mexico made me decide to go. The culture here is so family-oriented that it has really made me appreciate my own family, and I couldn’t imagine spending the holidays without them.
After Christmas, my brother, sister, and I flew to New Hope, Pennsylvania, to where my mom just recently moved. There we spent New Years with my mom, her boyfriend, his daughter, and my boyfriend, who flew up from South Carolina. Needless to say, my family is rapidly expanding! And I love it.
However, as this is a blog about Mexico, I won’t go into too many details about my time at home. Just know that I had a wonderful time, and it was a great refresher to kick off my second semester in Monterrey.
Cancun: January 1-3
On January 1, my brother, sister, boyfriend, and I flew from Pennsylvania to Cancun, Mexico, where we met my dad for a week of traveling through the Yucatan peninsula. I was very excited to show them the country that to me has become like home. However, my one previous time in the Yucatan peninsula was 6 hours in Tulum off of a cruise ship, so this part of Mexico was almost all new to me too!
Cancun is divided into two parts: 1) downtown Cancun, which is the main city, where all “normal” life goes on, and 2) the “Zona Hotelera” (Hotel Zone), which is a peninsula jutting out into the Caribbean, where all of the tourist resorts are.
We spent our one full day there wandering a few different beaches in the Zona Hotelera, and discovered that the stories are true: Cancun has amazing beaches. However, as great as the beaches were, we also discovered that Cancun is best if you have money to splurge on the beachfront resorts (which we didn’t). Instead, we stayed in a basic, but cute, locally owned hotel in downtown Cancun, and enjoyed getting to know the more “local” culture. We did, however, still enjoy a great seafood meal at a water-side restaurant in the Zona Hotelera and watched the sunset!Tulum: January 3-7
From Cancun, we took a bus to Tulum, which is a few hours south of Cancun. It is another incredibly beautiful beach town, but with a much more relaxed, “hippy” vibe (great for my family, which is made up of a bunch of people who should have been born in the 60s ;) ).
One of the things that Tulum is famous for is its Mayan ruins site, which was actually just about a ten minute walk from our hotel! I had already been there once on the cruise a few years ago, but it was still amazing to go back! Not only is it fascinating to see the ruins of an indigenous tribe that were built hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but the ruins are on a cliff overlooking the clearest green water of the Caribbean Sea and the whitest sand I’ve ever seen.
In my opinion, Tulum is one of the best places in Mexico you can vacation to. There you can relax on some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world while walking through an extraordinary piece of Mexico’s history. After we walked around the ruins, we walked down to the beach below and relaxed for the afternoon.
The next two days in Tulum we spent renting bikes and discovering that there were even more spectacular beaches! In fact, Tulum was set up along a long strip of beach, so we could ride our bikes on the road next to the beaches and pick where we wanted to go! Just like the beach by the ruins, the sand was the whitest I had ever seen and the water the clearest. There’s not much else I can say about the beaches except that it was paradise. I highly recommend Tulum as a relaxing vacation get-away; it is my idea of perfection. In fact, we ended up staying an extra day because we couldn’t pull ourselves away!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something else that Tulum was perfect for: a marriage proposal! My dad’s girlfriend Jennifer flew in on Wednesday, January 6, to spend the second half of the week with us. That evening, on the perfect beach, under a perfect sunset, my dad proposed! We kids were all waiting for them at a beachside restaurant, where we celebrated with a wonderful dinner, wine, and live music.
Chichén Itzá: January 7
On Thursday, January 7, we rented a car to drive to Mérida, the capital of Yucatan, located on the west side of the peninsula about 30 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico.
Before arriving in Mérida, though, we made a stop halfway at Chichén Itzá, the most famous of the Mayan ruins sites, and one of the new seven wonders of the world. Chichén Itzá is so much more than the ruins in Tulum, and so much more than just another ruins site. It is strongly recommended that you hire a guide, which we did, because he will explain to you all of the archeological intricacies that make the site so unique.
It is made up of temples and pyramids that are ingeniously crafted to coincide with the Mayan astronomical calendar. For example, on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes every year, at particular times of day, the sun shines on the main temple, El Castillo, in such a way that it produces an illusion of a serpent crawling down the temple’s stairs:
**I took this picture from http://www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/kuk.gif so that you can see the snake on the day of the equinox. Can you see it there towards the left??
In fact, the whole structure of El Castillo is essentially designed to be a Mayan calendar, where each of the levels and staircases are the days and months of the year.
The acoustics in Chichén Itzá are also very scientific. For example, in the Gran Juego de Pelota (the great ball court where the Mayans would play an ingenious ball game, although no one is sure exactly how it was played), if you clap you can hear the clap echoed clearly 7 times.
Every night at Chichén Itzá there is a light show, which you can attend for free if you toured the site that day. We decided to stay to see it, and we were so glad we did! The temples and structures were lit up in different colors as the whole history of the place was told:
Whereas I believe that Tulum is one of the best beaches you can go to in Mexico, if you’re looking to experience Mexico’s rich history, I highly recommend Chichén Itzá.
Mérida: January 7-9
Mérida is a great colonial city, much like Puebla (which, if you remember, was the last place I went in central Mexico before going home for the holidays). As it is the capital of the Yucatan, it is very rich is traditional Mexican culture. We spent the few days that we had there walking around and taking pictures of the central plaza, the many churches, and the beautiful architecture of the houses:
We also did a bus tour around the city which gave us a great overview of the sites and history. Like Puebla, Mérida has many beautifully-colored houses and churches.
Mérida is also known for its great hammocks (in fact, I think it’s the hammock capital of Mexico), so if you want a hammock, it’s a great place to go. We also found some great hand-woven blankets for very cheap.
Unfortunately, as we only had about a day and a half in Mérida, we didn’t have time to explore the many museums and a great many other things that the city has to offer, but we did get a wonderful overview during the time that we were there, which I will soon show you through my pictures.
Monday, February 1, 2010
PICTURES from Tour de Mexico Part 1!
If you all have not seen my pictures posted on my Facebook page, I finished posting my pictures from Part 1 of my travels over the winter holidays, which coincide with my previous blog post. View them by clicking on the following links:
La NANI Event with Rotaract
Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende
Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta
Cuernavaca (and Taxco) and Puebla
Hope you enjoy!
La NANI Event with Rotaract
Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende
Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta
Cuernavaca (and Taxco) and Puebla
Hope you enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
