Friday, January 30, 2009
Valladolid
I have some great plans for this weekend. Tomorrow morning at about 5 am, we will be packing up our wares and heading off to Valladolid, a city about two hours to the east of here. This is a colonial town with a lot of history in an area that is rich in both ruins and cenotes. To add to all this fun, there is an annual festival going on, so we will certainly not have a shortage of things to do. I have high expectations for this weekend... My only concern is running out of space on my camera! I am thanking God for that external hard drive, especially with all of my computer problems... I think my computer would break down into tears if I put MORE media onto it. Well, wish me luck. This is Indiana Jones signing off for another weekend of the unexpected... stay tuned for the next episode, coming Tuesday! (Oh yeah, I forgot, we have Monday off for the holiday, so we are pulling a three-day weekend...wahoooo!)
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Brand Names and Layouts
Wow, precious few have the moments been that I have not been ill here for one reason or another (so John-Curtiss, you are no longer permitted to say that your illness is due to the cold weather). The weather took a sudden change for the humid this week... and now everyone is sick! Emily and I are both sneezing up a little fury, and my nose is running like a faucet... cute!
On the brigher side, I am now doing layouts for the magazine at my work, which has been fun. A lot of it I would never consider putting into a portfolio because the Mexican style of design is so drastically different. I hope that my designing habits here aren't drastically affected by the layouts that I am doing. I think my J233 professor would have a heart attack if she saw some of the designs done here. I will try to load on my most recent project so that you all can see what exactly I mean... it looks nothing like an American magazine!
Finally, here is my little culture note: there is no such thing as copyright here. Well, there kind of is, but everything is pretty much fair game. If I pull a picture off the internet here at the magazine to be published, I don't have to cite it. In fact, there are hardly any citations in the entire magazine. Pirated DVDs and CDs are sold all over the streets here and brand names such as Coach or Armani are duplicated all the time... sometimes very convincingly. I have seen a lot of products that I am not sure if they are real or fake. (That is why you should NEVER buy any regular priced brand names here!) The DVDs and music are perfect in quality. For three dollars, you can get a disc that contains all three Pirates of the Caribbean...or three Star Wars... or any triplet that goes well together. If stores like these opened in the United States, there would be no measure how quickly your little business would be taken OUT!
Ah well. Sorry that today's entry is kind of boring. There is truly not that much to talk about since all I did yesterday was eat, sleep, and watch Twilight... which was better than the book, by the way! I am really having such a wonderful time here, though... this experience is truly singular :)
Till tomorrow, then!
On the brigher side, I am now doing layouts for the magazine at my work, which has been fun. A lot of it I would never consider putting into a portfolio because the Mexican style of design is so drastically different. I hope that my designing habits here aren't drastically affected by the layouts that I am doing. I think my J233 professor would have a heart attack if she saw some of the designs done here. I will try to load on my most recent project so that you all can see what exactly I mean... it looks nothing like an American magazine!
Finally, here is my little culture note: there is no such thing as copyright here. Well, there kind of is, but everything is pretty much fair game. If I pull a picture off the internet here at the magazine to be published, I don't have to cite it. In fact, there are hardly any citations in the entire magazine. Pirated DVDs and CDs are sold all over the streets here and brand names such as Coach or Armani are duplicated all the time... sometimes very convincingly. I have seen a lot of products that I am not sure if they are real or fake. (That is why you should NEVER buy any regular priced brand names here!) The DVDs and music are perfect in quality. For three dollars, you can get a disc that contains all three Pirates of the Caribbean...or three Star Wars... or any triplet that goes well together. If stores like these opened in the United States, there would be no measure how quickly your little business would be taken OUT!
Ah well. Sorry that today's entry is kind of boring. There is truly not that much to talk about since all I did yesterday was eat, sleep, and watch Twilight... which was better than the book, by the way! I am really having such a wonderful time here, though... this experience is truly singular :)
Till tomorrow, then!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Culture and Language...
So here are some amusing and somewhat deep thoughts for today...
I stick out like a sore thumb here. There is absolutely no hiding the fact that I am totally a gringa of some seriously German/Non-Latina descent. I feel like my stubby brown ponytail is a little flag that hails the presence of a foreigner, and my slightly sunburned nose is like a little gringa-alert. In case someone STILL wasn't sure, all they would have to do is check out my outfit. See, my outfits are actually match and contain to glitter, sparkles, jewels sequins or feathers of any kind. It kills me how sparkly and feathery everthing is here right now. And as always, the colors I wear are pretty muted... bland compared to what they wear. And the vests and the boots. HAHA! I love it! It depresses me whenever someone askes me in English 'Wair ard jew fdum?' I always answer back in Spanish, but that is never a guarantee that they will continue in Spanish. If I ever spoke to someone in Spanish in the US, and they responded in English, I feel like I would probably understand that they wanted me to speak English.
Here is one more thought: In the US, I know I myself have complained that children do not learn a second language. I still feel that way. It is very ethnocentric of our society to teach no other languages, and learning a second language can prove to be a very useful (and salary-boosting) tool. This being said, my views about the DEGREE of this ethnocentrism have changed somewhat. Let's be honest for a moment... at the risk of sounding conceited, the United States of America is currently the largest world power. What we do, how we manage our affairs and who our leaders are DIRECTLY affects so many countries in very big ways. For this reason, people from other countries (such as Mexico) keep up with US news. The main complaint of the Mexicans about Americans is that they are ignorant of the goings-on in other nations... while I agree that it is a good idea to be knowledgable about our world, I feel that what happens in Mexico, who is elected, and how they manage their affairs... hardly affects my life AT ALL. I feel that the future of the world economy, for example, does not rest in Felipe Calderon's (Mexico's president) hands... whereas Barack Obama... all eyes are on him to turn the world economy around!!!
Secondly... I rarely encounter Spanish in the United States. I jump at every opportunity to use it, and perhaps it will prove to be very useful in the business world, but those opportunites are few and far between at best. HERE, in contrast, EVERYTHING is in English. Movies, TV shows, video games, any sort of product... everything is American. Even t-shirt logos are all in English. It therefore makes a lot of sense to me that the people here need to learn English... because they encounter it multiple times EVERY DAY.
Finally and most importantly... while they KNOW a lot of English, I get frustrated when they ask me why more Americans don't take a second language 1.) because they are TALKING TO ME, I am an American and I am proficient in two languages and 2.) because I have met very few Mexicans in my four months spent in this country whose English could be called proficient. (The Meixcans in the world of tourism speak a lot of English, but I feel that can be said for any person in tourism... they speak the language of the tourists that come!) In short, I speak much better Spanish than many of them do English. This has been a frustration for me this year because I feel like now that I am out of the academic environment, my Spanish is expected to be perfect, and when it is not, people comment. Sometimes I just want to scream, 'HOW MANY LANGUAGES DO YOU SPEAK???' The answer would most typically be one, or one and a half!
Done = true;
I stick out like a sore thumb here. There is absolutely no hiding the fact that I am totally a gringa of some seriously German/Non-Latina descent. I feel like my stubby brown ponytail is a little flag that hails the presence of a foreigner, and my slightly sunburned nose is like a little gringa-alert. In case someone STILL wasn't sure, all they would have to do is check out my outfit. See, my outfits are actually match and contain to glitter, sparkles, jewels sequins or feathers of any kind. It kills me how sparkly and feathery everthing is here right now. And as always, the colors I wear are pretty muted... bland compared to what they wear. And the vests and the boots. HAHA! I love it! It depresses me whenever someone askes me in English 'Wair ard jew fdum?' I always answer back in Spanish, but that is never a guarantee that they will continue in Spanish. If I ever spoke to someone in Spanish in the US, and they responded in English, I feel like I would probably understand that they wanted me to speak English.
Here is one more thought: In the US, I know I myself have complained that children do not learn a second language. I still feel that way. It is very ethnocentric of our society to teach no other languages, and learning a second language can prove to be a very useful (and salary-boosting) tool. This being said, my views about the DEGREE of this ethnocentrism have changed somewhat. Let's be honest for a moment... at the risk of sounding conceited, the United States of America is currently the largest world power. What we do, how we manage our affairs and who our leaders are DIRECTLY affects so many countries in very big ways. For this reason, people from other countries (such as Mexico) keep up with US news. The main complaint of the Mexicans about Americans is that they are ignorant of the goings-on in other nations... while I agree that it is a good idea to be knowledgable about our world, I feel that what happens in Mexico, who is elected, and how they manage their affairs... hardly affects my life AT ALL. I feel that the future of the world economy, for example, does not rest in Felipe Calderon's (Mexico's president) hands... whereas Barack Obama... all eyes are on him to turn the world economy around!!!
Secondly... I rarely encounter Spanish in the United States. I jump at every opportunity to use it, and perhaps it will prove to be very useful in the business world, but those opportunites are few and far between at best. HERE, in contrast, EVERYTHING is in English. Movies, TV shows, video games, any sort of product... everything is American. Even t-shirt logos are all in English. It therefore makes a lot of sense to me that the people here need to learn English... because they encounter it multiple times EVERY DAY.
Finally and most importantly... while they KNOW a lot of English, I get frustrated when they ask me why more Americans don't take a second language 1.) because they are TALKING TO ME, I am an American and I am proficient in two languages and 2.) because I have met very few Mexicans in my four months spent in this country whose English could be called proficient. (The Meixcans in the world of tourism speak a lot of English, but I feel that can be said for any person in tourism... they speak the language of the tourists that come!) In short, I speak much better Spanish than many of them do English. This has been a frustration for me this year because I feel like now that I am out of the academic environment, my Spanish is expected to be perfect, and when it is not, people comment. Sometimes I just want to scream, 'HOW MANY LANGUAGES DO YOU SPEAK???' The answer would most typically be one, or one and a half!
Done = true;
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Header
I hope you all enjoy the picture I added above today. It is the Yucatan... the big bald spot on the left is my city. If you follow the little line up, you will come to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico... and a little twig poking out into the gulf. That my friends is the world's longest pierre. If you follow the coast to the left you will see a dark region on the coast... that area is the Rio Lagartos area, where the gulf is teeming with wildlife. If the map showed one inch more, you would be able to see the Cancun area to the far east of the peninsula... ugh! There is a reason "Cancun" in Mayan means "snake's den."
My Birthday in Merida
As it turns out, most of my fellow Americans were not feeling so hot this weekend. A lot of sore throats and fevers. This being the case, we decided to forgo the distant travel and spent the weekend in Progreso, which is the beach that is closest to Merida on the Gulf of Mexico. Last year, it was famous for it´s mangy dogs, annoying tiburones, seaweed covered beach and annoying vendors... but NO MORE! More or less...
The water has its good days... when the sky is blue, the water is an amazing color of turquoise. The beach is now canine free, both pleasing and sad because you know were all those poor pooches went. They are now cleaning the seaweed off the beach, and there are all sorts of new restaurants and shops. In short... it got cute! The tourism increased so much in the past year that they have been trying to improve it. Progreso, which is home to the longest pierre in the world, brings in cruise ships chock full of Americans several times a week. The days that Americans come, prices mysteriously doubles, tiburones increase tenfold, and vendors are more annoying than ever, so I suppose it hasn´t gotten any better in that respect. The vendors are worse. I can´t remember anyone ever having been so crude or disagreeable than a few of these people are. Some of the things that were said to me made me angry enough want to whip out my store of Spanish profanities from work (it really was that bad)... but I wanted to be better than that, AND I don´t want to give them one more wrong impression about Americans. At the very meanest, I was very cold and told them to have a nice day. I can´t ever recall being insulted like that last year. Still, we passed a great weekend. It was really relaxing, which was just what I needed, since my Spanish seems to have been stressing my out lately. AND... All my life I have wanted to get a hair wrap, and I finally did in honor of me becoming an old maid yesterday.
That's right, yesterday was my birthday. The next birtday I have to look forward to is 25 when my insurance goes down and I am officially allowed to rent a car. Yippee. Also, a note to my novio: Now it seems like you are only FOUR years older than me instead of FIVE. Maybe you aren´t creepy after all ,)
Here are some of my birthday adventures: My roommate, Emily, decided to get me a birthday present and wrap it up in a page of a magazine (I THINK that´s what that was!) Anyway, it said FELIZ CUMPLE in the lazy Mexican way (they abbreviate everything). It was another elephant bracelet!!! I lost mine the week that I got home to OU last year, and I literally cried about it because I was so disappointed! MY DAY WAS MADE! Anyway, I am not wearing it right now because I am afraid it will fall off again. I am going to fix a chain to the clasp this afternoon so that even if the clasp should slip, it won´t fall off. I am going to treasure it... thank you, Emily, best birthday present EVER!
At work, they just bout gave me aheart attack by breaking out into the Mexican Happy Birthday song. We also had some yummy cake... it was supposed to be terramisu flavored... it was delish. I frolicked home to a wonderful lunch with mama and family, where a giant, sparkly piñata awaited me. Emily (once again) had snatched it on the way home from work and filled it up with Mexican candy. We still haven´t broken it because it is just too pretty. Mama also got me a pretty necklace and earrings and bought me a fudge cake. As if ths weren´t enough sugar, Fernandito (12, great grandson of my mama) brought over ice cream from El Colon, which is the gourmet ice cream shop here in town. I spent the afternoon reading emails from family...thank you all!!! At the end of the day, my fabulous novio and I had a Skype date and the internet cafe, so I rushed out the door after a quick quesadilla and went to the Italian Coffee. As it turned out, John-Curtiss had thrown me a surprise birthday party in his apartment so that I would get a chance to talk to all of my friends from back home. I drank piña colada flavored tea as they drank the real McCoy :) (John-Curtiss makes the BEST piña coladas!) I ended the night by staying up way too late for no good reason, talking with my roommate and my neighbor.
All in all... a GREAT birthday. Thank you one and all :)
And NEXT weekend, we are going to Valladolid, a growing city halfway between here and Cancun. It is famous for its cenotes, especially Cenote Dzitnup, which is inside a multicolored cavern. There will be a festival going on that weekend... supposedly the whole 9 yards. Bullfights, performances, all that jazz. On top of all that will be a trip to Coba, a ruin that I went to see several years ago... but has now been completely excavated. Cenotes plus bullfights plus ruins equals a perfect weekend.
Finally, check the Post, I published yesterday :)
Hope all of you are enjoying the chilly weather... :D
The water has its good days... when the sky is blue, the water is an amazing color of turquoise. The beach is now canine free, both pleasing and sad because you know were all those poor pooches went. They are now cleaning the seaweed off the beach, and there are all sorts of new restaurants and shops. In short... it got cute! The tourism increased so much in the past year that they have been trying to improve it. Progreso, which is home to the longest pierre in the world, brings in cruise ships chock full of Americans several times a week. The days that Americans come, prices mysteriously doubles, tiburones increase tenfold, and vendors are more annoying than ever, so I suppose it hasn´t gotten any better in that respect. The vendors are worse. I can´t remember anyone ever having been so crude or disagreeable than a few of these people are. Some of the things that were said to me made me angry enough want to whip out my store of Spanish profanities from work (it really was that bad)... but I wanted to be better than that, AND I don´t want to give them one more wrong impression about Americans. At the very meanest, I was very cold and told them to have a nice day. I can´t ever recall being insulted like that last year. Still, we passed a great weekend. It was really relaxing, which was just what I needed, since my Spanish seems to have been stressing my out lately. AND... All my life I have wanted to get a hair wrap, and I finally did in honor of me becoming an old maid yesterday.
That's right, yesterday was my birthday. The next birtday I have to look forward to is 25 when my insurance goes down and I am officially allowed to rent a car. Yippee. Also, a note to my novio: Now it seems like you are only FOUR years older than me instead of FIVE. Maybe you aren´t creepy after all ,)
Here are some of my birthday adventures: My roommate, Emily, decided to get me a birthday present and wrap it up in a page of a magazine (I THINK that´s what that was!) Anyway, it said FELIZ CUMPLE in the lazy Mexican way (they abbreviate everything). It was another elephant bracelet!!! I lost mine the week that I got home to OU last year, and I literally cried about it because I was so disappointed! MY DAY WAS MADE! Anyway, I am not wearing it right now because I am afraid it will fall off again. I am going to fix a chain to the clasp this afternoon so that even if the clasp should slip, it won´t fall off. I am going to treasure it... thank you, Emily, best birthday present EVER!
At work, they just bout gave me aheart attack by breaking out into the Mexican Happy Birthday song. We also had some yummy cake... it was supposed to be terramisu flavored... it was delish. I frolicked home to a wonderful lunch with mama and family, where a giant, sparkly piñata awaited me. Emily (once again) had snatched it on the way home from work and filled it up with Mexican candy. We still haven´t broken it because it is just too pretty. Mama also got me a pretty necklace and earrings and bought me a fudge cake. As if ths weren´t enough sugar, Fernandito (12, great grandson of my mama) brought over ice cream from El Colon, which is the gourmet ice cream shop here in town. I spent the afternoon reading emails from family...thank you all!!! At the end of the day, my fabulous novio and I had a Skype date and the internet cafe, so I rushed out the door after a quick quesadilla and went to the Italian Coffee. As it turned out, John-Curtiss had thrown me a surprise birthday party in his apartment so that I would get a chance to talk to all of my friends from back home. I drank piña colada flavored tea as they drank the real McCoy :) (John-Curtiss makes the BEST piña coladas!) I ended the night by staying up way too late for no good reason, talking with my roommate and my neighbor.
All in all... a GREAT birthday. Thank you one and all :)
And NEXT weekend, we are going to Valladolid, a growing city halfway between here and Cancun. It is famous for its cenotes, especially Cenote Dzitnup, which is inside a multicolored cavern. There will be a festival going on that weekend... supposedly the whole 9 yards. Bullfights, performances, all that jazz. On top of all that will be a trip to Coba, a ruin that I went to see several years ago... but has now been completely excavated. Cenotes plus bullfights plus ruins equals a perfect weekend.
Finally, check the Post, I published yesterday :)
Hope all of you are enjoying the chilly weather... :D
Friday, January 23, 2009
So Here's a Creepy Topic...
Morbid as this might be, I´d like to blog about burial rituals here in Mexico. My interest in this topic first began in Acanceh last year (some of you will recall) where we went to visit a graveyard and we found a decaying human body in a box. After this past weekend in Santa Elena (the mummies), I had to ask around a little more to figure out what the heck is up in this country.
First of all, most people here in the city are cremated. There is not enough space to bury people, and there isn’t much topsoil before you hit an impossibly thick and unyielding layer of limestone. I explained this in an email home last year, but I will debrief new followers: In the small pueblos, they rent graveyard space. Usually each family has one or two plots. So if granny dies, they put her in a cement box in the graveyard. If gramps follows shortly thereafter, they pop the lid of granny´s tomb, put her in a box, and put gramps in there. They might put the box of granny in with gramps, but they also might just leave granny on top of the grave. To me, this is very strange, and almost frightening... the graveyard in Acanceh was littered with human skeletons.
Secondly, the churches. I never understood last year why I would see stone slabs inside the church, lining the walls and floor that had epitaphs on them. I just thought they were commemorative plaques, so to speak. Come to find out, behind and underneath these epitaphs are cremated remains. Someone told me that they sometimes just body parts, such as a hand or an eye, but I don’t think that I really buy that.
Finally… the Day of the Dead on Nov. 2. Isn’t it so interesting that this day is celebrated widely? The fact that death is something to celebrate in general is kind of a foreign concept. I can’t ever imagine thinking: “Well, I guess I will cook a feast for my great grandfather. I hope he likes tacos.” They leave food, flowers and presents out this day for their loved ones who have passed on. This day is celebrated with MANY colors… every color of the rainbow, which is quite different from the typical morose black and shades of gray that are so commonly seen in funeral homes.
Who knows? Some of the cultural differences between Mexico and the US are very interesting…!
First of all, most people here in the city are cremated. There is not enough space to bury people, and there isn’t much topsoil before you hit an impossibly thick and unyielding layer of limestone. I explained this in an email home last year, but I will debrief new followers: In the small pueblos, they rent graveyard space. Usually each family has one or two plots. So if granny dies, they put her in a cement box in the graveyard. If gramps follows shortly thereafter, they pop the lid of granny´s tomb, put her in a box, and put gramps in there. They might put the box of granny in with gramps, but they also might just leave granny on top of the grave. To me, this is very strange, and almost frightening... the graveyard in Acanceh was littered with human skeletons.
Secondly, the churches. I never understood last year why I would see stone slabs inside the church, lining the walls and floor that had epitaphs on them. I just thought they were commemorative plaques, so to speak. Come to find out, behind and underneath these epitaphs are cremated remains. Someone told me that they sometimes just body parts, such as a hand or an eye, but I don’t think that I really buy that.
Finally… the Day of the Dead on Nov. 2. Isn’t it so interesting that this day is celebrated widely? The fact that death is something to celebrate in general is kind of a foreign concept. I can’t ever imagine thinking: “Well, I guess I will cook a feast for my great grandfather. I hope he likes tacos.” They leave food, flowers and presents out this day for their loved ones who have passed on. This day is celebrated with MANY colors… every color of the rainbow, which is quite different from the typical morose black and shades of gray that are so commonly seen in funeral homes.
Who knows? Some of the cultural differences between Mexico and the US are very interesting…!
Buses
I hate taking the buses here, can I just say that? At first glance it seems cheap and easy. They charge 5 pesos (about 50 cents) for Adults and 3 pesos for students. This might sound cheap to you, but imagine taking a bus every day, multiple times a day. It really racks up. I will probably spend about $80 on city busing (at the least) by the time I leave, and that excludes bus fares on weekend trips.
Another of my annoyances with the city buses is their constant refusal to accept my student ID: There are a few who will grant me the discount, but several who take one look and me and scowl, as if I am trying to cheat the bus line out of two pesos. One bus driver outright yelled at me one morning when I tried to get my ID out. He wanted me to hurry up and pay him because there wasn’t time. Since WHEN are Mexicans in any rush to do ANYTHING? Life here runs at a much slower pace when compared to the United States!
My complaints continue: why is there no regular schedule for the buses?! They all start up at exactly the same time every morning, so a clump of buses passes by my house every morning around 9:10 or 9:15. If I am not ready at that moment, I have to walk all the way out 8 blocks to catch another one, and usually after I get to the bus stop, I wait for at least 10 minutes! That clump of buses is the last predictable moment for the bus lines each day. After that, it is just luck of the draw if and when you find a bus. Sometimes I will get out of work at 2, and not get home till 3. I could WALK home at that pace!
The only other means of transportation back home for me would be taxi. But taxis would charge me 50 pesos (a little less than $5) for a one way ride. How expensive is that?!?!
There are definitely moments where I miss walking… my bike… a regular bus schedule… bus drivers who give me donuts in the morning instead of yell at me… ANYTHING!
Another of my annoyances with the city buses is their constant refusal to accept my student ID: There are a few who will grant me the discount, but several who take one look and me and scowl, as if I am trying to cheat the bus line out of two pesos. One bus driver outright yelled at me one morning when I tried to get my ID out. He wanted me to hurry up and pay him because there wasn’t time. Since WHEN are Mexicans in any rush to do ANYTHING? Life here runs at a much slower pace when compared to the United States!
My complaints continue: why is there no regular schedule for the buses?! They all start up at exactly the same time every morning, so a clump of buses passes by my house every morning around 9:10 or 9:15. If I am not ready at that moment, I have to walk all the way out 8 blocks to catch another one, and usually after I get to the bus stop, I wait for at least 10 minutes! That clump of buses is the last predictable moment for the bus lines each day. After that, it is just luck of the draw if and when you find a bus. Sometimes I will get out of work at 2, and not get home till 3. I could WALK home at that pace!
The only other means of transportation back home for me would be taxi. But taxis would charge me 50 pesos (a little less than $5) for a one way ride. How expensive is that?!?!
There are definitely moments where I miss walking… my bike… a regular bus schedule… bus drivers who give me donuts in the morning instead of yell at me… ANYTHING!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
