Friday, January 30, 2009

A Few More Words of Explanation

Yeah, there´s a lot that´s happened, but a lot more that needs to be explained. For starters: How our program works.
It´s run through Augsburg. We have sort of a small group, we take classes either at Casa CEMAL or at Universal (a local language school for travelers). Our teachers vary some in terms of national origin, although all of them are now Mexican Citizens, I believe. We also do homestays. It´s not complete immersion, we get to assess things in our small group, but homestays do take up a fairly large chunk of our time. It´s sort of an alternative-type institution, but then again, so was Warren Wilson.
Next time: I will actually say what has happened. Stay tuned!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Quick Update

Okay, so right now I'm writing a paper on Martinez's excellent book: "Crossing Borders" so I don't have much time to talk about lessons concerning "high-context" v. "low context" society, touring the old Franciscan cathedral, my roommates (whose permission I need to publish their names) my fellow classmate who accedently ordered too many Coronas due to a garbled order in Spanish at an outdoor Salsa bar, or having local University Students lead me and a few others to a Gringo dominated hip-hop/pop club after one girl said she wasn't confident enough with Salsa. No, it's too late to write about any of those things. Buenas Noches, hope you enjoyed the teaser.
P.S. This blog will eventually have photos on it, just give me time.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

First real Post

Don´t feel like describing today yet. It was enough work just getting this blog up. but just to keep everyone the same level of up to date, here is what I wrote to my family in an e-mail recently (with a few modifications)

Hey, the flight went smoothly. I did wait a good bit, but my ipod kept me going for that time. I thought they'd arrive earlier, so I had an airport staffer announce my name. It was interesting the whole pronunciation issue. I had to explain that it wasn't Poe-oonds.

We´ve done the activity with the market prices today.The point of the activity was, using Morelos's minimum wage to try to find out if we could buy various "necessary" products at the market including shampoo, food, clothes for school. Then we came back and calculated these amounts in dollars. The dollars can be exchanged for far more pesos with far more buying power than the equivalent dollars have in the U.S.

It's what brings in tourists. It's also what drives people to migrate and then return here.Things that are cheap for us here are expensive for Mexicans making minimum wage or lower. Minimum wage is high here for Mexico, but I get the feeling that prices may also be higher.

I've taken the Spanish test at Universal (I think I did ok at everything except subjunctive).

I had a "Stupid American" experience today, when I confused the entrance for a waterfall with a gate for condominiums (thankfully the guard did not take my money). I finished ¨Crossing Borders,¨ which I thoroughly recommend, although I haven´t done the report on it due Friday. I did make it to desayuno this morning, waking up with my cell phone alarm (apparently ¨Flight of the Bumblebee¨works!).

I´ve found Cuernavaca so far to be interesting, generally easy to understand but somewhat disorienting. Typically in Tennessee and in Boston one can easily disern generally how old things are. I´ve not been to the historic landmarks, but the part of town we´re in seems to be of indeterminate age, simplistic with an occasional mock-Spanish florish here and there (especially on churches). Storefronts are nearly always painted rather than sleek ads or hanging tavern-style boards. They always convey the information boldly, except for condominiums, which as can be expected, try to be more subtle in saying that they are condominiums, instead emphasizing names like ¨El Bosque.¨

The house seems comfortable so far. Hopefully it will stay that way (we did have the talk about scorpions, bedbugs etc).

About this blog

Okay, so first the title:
I´d originally intended it to be the title of my first alblum, an all-Spanish language release. I couldn´t think of a better title for my blog for my time in Mexico with CGE, so
FYI, ¨Idioto¨ is a far worse insult in Mexican Spanish than ¨Idiot¨ is in American English. One key concept of Betty Ramos, whose work I am now studying, is that words don´t usually ¨translate¨ directly because concepts are different. Gringo is a generic term for all foreigners. I heard that it dates back to ¨Griega¨ meaning ¨Greek,¨ although I am not entirely sure. You´ll be hearing that a lot from me. It´s why I chose the title that I chose.
So anyway, this blog is for those who want to follow my adventures in and around Cuernavaca and insights along the way without me having to forward the e-mail to everyone. Someone I know who once did this program told me that everyone should go and do it, so for many this may be the closest thing.
Signing out,
Ben Pounds

Monday, January 26, 2009

Salto de San Anton


















Today I finally made it to Salto de San Anton (after some difficulties finding it) I could only see the waterfall from the top, but it's still one of the better parts of town, a popular place for flower sellers and gardens. True there was litter in places along the river and true, the water did smell slightly, possibly of sewage. But it's hard to take away the true awe that those tall cliffs inspire.