External Journey Reflection

During this second semester of my last year in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus, in my English course, Journey in Literature, we learn important concepts like: inner and external journey. Both concepts are related with our identity. To discover and understand better our external journey we were assigned to create and write on a blog. Our principal tasks were to reflect about our daily and academic experiences and write about them in our blog. My blog’s name is That Road Trip Called Life. I came up with that name because I think that if we just stay in one place, taking up oxygen from others, without discovering, without reflecting about our journeys and social problems, it is not the right way of living a life.  

In my web page I write blog’s reflections about movies, books, traveling memories, academic activities, and daily experiences. I had the opportunity to understand concept like identity, “othering” and clearly see the difference between a traveler and a tourist with every single blog post reflection. Nevertheless those concepts help me not only to understand better my assignments, but also to understand and react with good ground to social problems. Also after writing those post I clearly saw how my writing and analytical skills improve. This blog also helped me to understand better my daily situations and to derive and put to words my concrete position about them.

From my blog, the post that I must enjoyed was the one of a “Day as a Tourist”. This reflection consisted of having a day in Puerto Rico but with the one and only condition that you had to spend that day as a tourist. On that day I had the opportunity to understand better the identity concept. I realized that even thought Puerto Rico is a small island, most of us still have a lot to discover from it. Also I realized that what make you the person that you are is not only the language, the food, the people you are surround by, your history, your culture, but instead the sum of them all.

I know that I will continue using this blog as a way of expression and for me to people hear me out. This blog had helped me to understand better myself, discover my external journey, and to get in harmony with my internal journey. I encourage everyone that is reading me and does not have a blog, to immediately create one and began to write. This is an excellent tool to open and express better your ideas and feelings to the world. 

 

Annual Literary Contest Awards Ceremony Reflection

On Wednesday, April 9, 2014 in the College of General Studies, Amphitheater 4, I had the opportunity to attend to the 47th Annual Literary Contest Awards Ceremony. First of all the amphitheater was almost completely full, something that encourage the speakers, but also the audience. Therefore the positive vibes was something that everyone in the audience was feeling.

Dr.Cynthia Pittmann, our professor, began with an introductory presentation about the benefits that writing in the mornings could give you. Some of the positive things that this practice could bring us are: develop your creativity, get over the routine, unlock yourself to new ideas, get to know yourself better, clarify your intentions, discover hidden motivations, know what is bothering you, make your ideas and dreams real, and be in a more pro-active attitude to solve problems. One of the things I loved most about her presentation was when she compared this practice of writing every morning with a morning surfing section. I think it was an excellent metaphor to use because in both cases you need to wake up early, dark, cold, and you don’t know what you are going to write about, or what wave you are going to surf.

I’m a fan of the UPR Tuna and seeing them in the Annual Literary Contest Awards Ceremony was, like always, so amazing. I had never see them singing in English language, nevertheless they performed really well. After the UPR Tuna presented, Elsa Luciano, a professor from the UPR of Arecibo gave a speech that the purpose was to inspire others to write. Her overall message was that in order to someone began to write, he must first become an expert reading on any theme. She also encourages the audience to create a blog because it will help you to express your ideas and open to the public.

After those welcome and introductory speeches the Literary Contest Awards were presented. There was three sections in were the students could participate in and submit their job: poetry, essay, and short story. One of my classmates, Claudia Cruz Rivera, won the first place in the short story section. It was such an amazing experience to see one of my classmates won such and incredible award. Claudia Cruz must be really proud of herself. Activities like this are the ones that encourage the students to be better persons and to discover new thing they didn’t known they were good at. 

  

            

Internal Journal Reflection

During this second semester of my last year in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus, in my English course, Journey in Literature, we learn important concepts like: inner and external journey. Both concepts are related with our identity. To discover and understand better our inner journey we were assigned to write five times a week in a journal notebook.  Our principal task were to write in the notebook without thinking, keeping our hand moving, without worrying about spelling, and to loose control, all this for ten consecutives minutes. For our external journey we were assigned to create this blog and experiment and reflect about our daily experiences.

While writing 42 entries and drawing 26 compasses I had the opportunity to known myself better. At the beginning, the first couple of entries were really difficult for me to write them in a coherently manner. Nevertheless with the practice, the needed concentration, and focus I improved in an incredible way. This technique helped me not only to know and discover myself better, but also to improve my writing, and it also gave me a moment to relax myself. During this semester I was having a   tempestuous relationship and this journal helped me tremendously to overcome it. I was not capable to hear my parents and family advise, but the only thing that I really needed to just pass the page was to listen to myself. At the beginning I felt that this journal was a lost of time, but I just needed one week more to realize that it was my perfect medicine. The compasses consisted of a brief resume about your daily emotions, physical, spiritual and mental state in a scale number. I am not a spiritual person when it comes to talk about a specific religion. Nevertheless through out this journal I saw the spiritual state with a different perspective. Therefore through all this semester I made community service with a friend in “La Via” in Aguadilla, I reconnect with nature, and I had the opportunity to appreciate the power of silence.

           

I consider that while making my internal journey in the journal I improved my external journey in my daily life. Both concepts, internal and external journey, are so correlated that you cannot think about the first without talking about the second. My journal helped me to resolve love problems, family and social problems. It also helped me to put in paper and start up to live my dreams. All this things form an integral part of my identity. I discover that identity means: dignity, culture, friends, love, beliefs, etc.  Nowadays this journal and blog activity forms and integral part of myself. Concepts like internal and external journey and Identity, are terms that I currently use in my other classes and daily life. I encourage everyone that is reading me to use this techniques and I guarantee that you will never regret.

Panel: "Mini-sagas"

          I had the opportunity to see the Mini-saga panel on the student conference of the English department. It was such a really amazing, funny and also enriching experience. Their task was to prepare a short anecdote, problem or experience and transmitted to the audience in a unique way. The students that were participating as panelist were Kathyria Sánchez, Paula Mysonet, Ashley Dalmau, Maricel Vargas, Manueli Cabrera and Brian Aldiss. I found so amazing how they all find inspirations in daily situations, problems or funny things. The topics presented in the panel were themes very strong and sentimental. For example one of the students delighted us with a personal situation of her mother. Other student told us about the difficulties that woman have to face when it comes to find the perfect match. It was one of my favorite performance and mini saga; therefore I will copy it here:

Expectations
By. Ashley Dalmau

Some are intelligent, some are dumb.

Some have manners, others don’t.

Some are loving, others rude.

Some are gentle, others sour.

Some are handsome, tall, strong, energetic…. Others careless,

Small, fat, lazy.

Some love the family, others love their PlayStation.

Expectations?

Challenge evaluation…

The cruel reality of finding a husband.

              

           One of the things that I think was the most difficult task was to resume the problem or theme in those short lines.  Nevertheless one of the students presents a mini-saga really interesting about the importance of saving lives. She presented really well the compromise that our present and future generations have with the nature and ecosystems. I think that the real meaning of her mini saga was to inspire people to do their best and always help others. The most amazing thing about this panel is that the mini-saga groups were students of pre-basic English and they realized an excellent job. I think that everyone have the capacity to do a well job like they did, the only thing that you need to do is practice and have determination. Activities like this are the one that encourage the students to do it better and compite for the excellence. 

Class Panel: "Interrogating the Journey"

      The Department of English on Tuesday March 25, 2014 offered a Student Conference. The activity was called Interventions in General Studies: Interdisciplinary Project and Creative Initiatives. I had the opportunity to see our panel class "Interrogating the Journey: Literature and Personal Experience", supervised by our profesor, Dr. Cynthia Pittmann. The panelist that were presenting their essays were: Laura, Sylvette, Carla, Sahara, and Lorna. 

         
        For me to see some of my classmate speaking and presenting their essays in front of a group of other students, teachers and faculty members is something that made me understand the courage and good preparation that those things need. In the panel of our class concepts and topics like identity, idea of being a tourist, lack of knowledge of some tourist, subordination, the barrier communication that exists between a tourist and a local, and the communication model were things well expressed in the conference. The five classmates that where presenting look really calm and they express very well the message that they were willing to transmit. Also the audience were listening really carefully to the message my classmates were willing to transmit. Therefore the audience were asking questions to the speakers and in a completely professional way. The only thing that maybe was affecting the continuous message of the speakers, was that students were entering to the amphitheater almost every ten minutes. But in general my classmate did an excellent job in the student conference. 

        I never imagine that an English class was capable of helping not only me, but also a lot of other classmate to understand better our identity as Puerto Ricans and to face our social and daily problems in the island with a better understanding and with solutions.  It was such an amazing and enriching experience that I know will help me in future and similar situations. 

Reflection about The Rum Diary

Mr. Paul Kemp: What you like most of Puerto Rico?”

Walt (tourist): “the bowling alley and the casinos”

Kemp: “Have you seen a lot of the island?”

Walt’s wife (Tourist): “We don’t leave the hotel, it’s not    safe”

Kemp: “But you are having fun?”

Walt (Tourist): “Oh yeah, a lot of fun”

                                                  - The Rum Diary 

In this short chat that Kemp had with a couple in a bowling alley, we could see clearly how this couple were being really ignorant about anything that implicate Puerto Rico. They were just having a fun time as ignorant tourists. Kemp is a guy that came to Puerto Rico to take a job as reporter. Nevertheless we can see how Kemp is interested in knowing better the place, knowing the culture, live in places near the people. A completely different attitude if we compare it with Sanderson, the guy that had a turtle with color stones on the turtle’s shell and a private house with his private beach. The movie shows us clearly how Americans saw Puerto Rico: as a gold mine, as the perfect place to invest and to just take all they can of the land, and then go to a different place. However the strike at the beginning of the movie gave us at least a sense that Puerto Ricans don't necessary do everything that Americans told them to do. But it also shows the aggressiveness of Puerto Ricans and the government. Another thing that call my attention was the explicit way the newspaper hide the reality of Puerto Rico and how they want it to present it as the "American dream", a thing that continuous to happen in the present even though The Rum Diary is a movie about the 60’. How Kemp want to present the reality of the kids in Puerto Rico, that they are starving in some parts of it, but instead the news want to present it as the perfect, is something that just make me angry.

The way of being of some North Americans, “gringos”, in the island gives a bad reputation to any other North American visiting the island. Therefore the clear aggressiveness that some Puerto Ricans shows to the “gringos”. The movie shows clearly how some Americans thinks that they own the island, the laws, and the people. How they feel superior to the locals, the Puerto Ricans, the same way English feels about Antigua's citizens in Jamaica Kincaid's book. Kemp want to be the voice of the silent ones and the voice of the subordinates, by his writings. Just the way Kincaid was the voice of the Antigua's citizens. “They knew the price of everything but no the value of nothing.” - Paul Kemp

A day as a tourist in Rincón

Yesterday in the night I arrive in Rincón. Rincón is a town that is two hours far from San Juan, the capital city. Therefore I’m currently staying in a friend’s apartment here, near the beach. I’m so excited because even thought I love beaches, to my surprise there was a surfing contest.  The beach, the lovely sun, the smooth sand, and the beautiful landscape… perfect combination to relax in this paradise. First thing that we, my brother and I, did on Saturday morning was to go to Rincón Bakery and order a “Media Noche” sandwich. I ordered it because its name sounds funny. Nevertheless, it was delicious. The bakery was located inside the town; therefore we visit the “Plaza”. It was a small one, but it was logic, Rincón is not a big town.

Everyone was so nice and kind, that they explain us the way to the contest beach like a thousand times. So on our way to Dome’s beach we buy some “Medallas”, the local beer and munchies. When we arrive to the beach it was really crowded, but we find the perfect spot. We spot our things really close to the shore. The hut was really hot so we needed some extra sun block. For our lucky there was a girl giving free sun block. There was also a guy that was selling Puerto Rican souvenirs for $1.00, so we bought him some. A thing that calls my attention was that the speaker of the surf contest was translating all he was talking in Spanish to English. Therefore it was really easy for me to understand what were the waves scores and the fun facts that they were giving. Their reggae music and all the people chilling there was so relaxing that it never pass through my mind real issues and problems that maybe they were facing. Their educational system is a good one? The health system is universal or is a good one? They want to be part of United States? They feel part of them? But those were questions that I really was not in the mood to get answer or dig about them with the people at my surroundings. Nevertheless the last day of the contest I participate in a free raffle that the prize was a surfboard with all the signatures of the main surfers in the contest. It would never pass through my mind that I will win that raffle, but I won. It just was an amazing and beautiful weekend in Rincón.

I think that Rincón is a tourist destination, not only for foreign travelers, but also for local people living in Puerto Rico. I reach to this conclusion because a lot of the people that were serving in the restaurants were speaking in English. Therefore it was really easy for me to spend there my day/weekend as a tourist.

The view is the most important thing?: Tourist vs. Traveler

The movie A Room with a View, made by E M Foster book, allow me to understand more the concepts of being a tourist and a traveler. The movie shows us a group of British women visiting Florence: Lucy, Charlotte, etc. Right from the start we can see that they were on a vacation trip to Florence with a tourist mind. The first minutes of the movie the main issue was that Lucy and Charlotte, her chaperone, were upset because they do not received the room that they wanted, a room with a view. This might be the first example that shows us the idea of being a tourist and being hardheaded about a simple thing and just wanting a magnificent view of the place.

Later in the movie we confirm that Lucy was visiting Florence as a foolish tourist. When an Italian ask her that if she were traveling as a student of art, and she says: “No, I am afraid not. I’m here as a tourist”. Then the Italian said: “We residents sometime pity you poor tourist not a little. Handed about like a parcel of goods from Venice to Florence, Florence to Rome, quite unconscious of anything outside Baedeker. Their one anxiety to get done and flew and go on elsewhere.” This perspective that the Italian had toward the tourists and Lucy, is the same one that Jamaica Kincaid had toward tourists visiting Antigua. There was a part in the movie were I could see clearly Kincaid expressing her anger and point of view to Ms. Charlotte Bartlett and Ms. Lavish. When both women were walking in the streets of Florence and get lost, and Ms. Lavish said: “Two women lost in Florence, that is what I call an adventure”, a completely act of ignorance. How would they possible think that it would be an adventure and they will get to know better Florence in that way, if they don’t have any minimal background knowledge of the place they were. This was an ignorant act from both parts. Similarly in that part of the movie, Ms. Lavish says a horrible comment toward a local citizen of Italy: “Look at that adorable wine cart. How he stares at us, dear simple soul.” How could she refer to a person in that way, “simple soul”, like if he were something less, like if he wasn’t capable of doing something just by himself. Therefore this reminds us how English and Antigua’s tourist in Jamaica Kincaid book refer to the local citizens.

Contrary to these British women, George Emmerson is more kind of a traveler. We could see through the movie that something is changing insight him, when days passes in Italy. The attitude he had toward the fight in the street, the sweetness that he sees the landscape of Italy, and wanting to walk instead of taking a ride back to their hotel, are things that make us think that he is visiting this country with open-minded and with a different perspective than his group.

This movie resume and explain us very well both concepts: tourist and traveler. Many people think that these concepts are the same thing, but they are very different. The tourist is a person that has no background about the history of the places that are visiting and have an ignorant attitude toward it. Nevertheless a traveler is a person that wants to know more about the history, culture, inside problems and economy of the place that is visiting. 

Jim Cooper. "Down on the Island": Helping

The summer of 2013 I worked as an assistant teacher in the public school of Manti, Augusto Cohen. Before giving the elemental kids one of their diagnostic tests, the teachers made a mini reunion with us, the teachers assistant, and told us that if any of the students had trouble doing any exercise we have to “help” them. But if they don’t get it after all we had to tell them the correct answer. In the eight chapter of the book “Down on the Island”, Jim Cooper talk to us about his years teaching on the island, Puerto Rico, and one of the biggest problems he encountered here, “helping” or cheating between students. Cooper present this term as an idea of cooperation between teacher-student and student-student, without any competition in their curriculum. 

            Cheating in the schools of Puerto Rico was, or is, not considered a bad thing because it is viewed as a social, and a cultural cooperation. The student had been hearing since the first grades: “Starting in the first grade in Puerto Rican schools, teachers tell students to look at their neighbor’s paper if they don’t known the answer”(Cooper 80).  Therefore the children were taught and raised with this way of thinking. Helping each other in the classrooms is something that defines them, that is part of their identity. Through out this chapter Cooper tells us about two methods of learning, the competitive and the cooperative. The competitive way is the one that Cooper was familiar with in the States, it is the one in which the students are willing to be better than anyone else in their classroom and better than anyone in any other school. Even though Cooper was determined that cheating in the classrooms was something that he could never imagine or maybe accept, we can infer by the tone of the author that he at the end was convinced that the way the students cooperate with each other has its pros in the training education of the students.

            Cooper writes about Puerto Rican’s academic view and how it is different from the American’s cultural view. I think that both methods are needed to develop a good education system. A balance between the both is necessary for the student to acquire the good things that both methods can offer. Cooperation and competition is something that we see and experience in Puerto Rico every day and this book gave us the opportunity to understand that this is something that comes from way back in our history. Therefore I think this balance is what makes the Puerto Ricans so unique from other cultures: respectful, kind, friendly, professionals, and intelligent people.    

Jim Cooper "Down on the Island": Teaching English

 During the 70’, under the government and supervision of  Rafael Hernandez Colón better known as “Cuchin” , there was propaganda around the island in almost all the public schools that said more or less like this “English No, Spanish Yes”. Language in Puerto Rico had always been a delicate theme because of our status as a colony of the United States of America. Jim Cooper on his book “Down on the Island” introduces us the controversy seen in Puerto Rico back when schools were trying to teach English for the students to learn it.  “Teaching English” is the seven chapter of the book and it touches various main points that in this days we continue seeing in our public schools and in collage. One of the things that amazed me and at the same time maked me laugh out loud when I discovered it, was the issue with the syllabus and Cooper’s wanting to discussed it with the director of the English Department, Dr. Beckwith. While I was reading all his complaints about the syllabus I was just thinking: “Come on Cooper change it and don’t tell anyone, I have professors that don’t follow a bit the syllabus”. And then I discovered that some of his friends did the exact thing that I was thinking… then I realized that we continue having the same problems since 1954. 

While reading this chapter I discover some clear examples that I could related to some of the subjects we are discussing in class: the communication model and Jamaica Kincaid’s book. For example if we analyze the discovering made by the same Cooper about the way of thinking of Dr. Beckwith:  “I learned later that he was one of the many continentals then on the island who didn’t believe Puerto Ricans were capable of learning anything anyway”(Cooper, 69). We can compare this quote with the Antigua’s tourist and the English way of thinking about the poor capacity of the “Africans”, the black people, to govern a country or do something good just by themselves. Also this quote makes us think that all the previous comments of Dr. Beckwith to Cooper were all made with a double meaning. He wasn’t expressing his own invention of reality and because of that Cooper was so confused with the original syllabus, he knew that it wouldn’t help the students in the process of learning English at all. Another point were I was able to read between lines was on his narration on March 3, 1952. On that day the people of Puerto Rico were able to vote for their own Constitution and he took that day as a holiday and went to relax in the beach. Most Puerto Ricans take those “holidays” to do the same thing that Jim Cooper did. Maybe the message that he want us to perceive was that most of the people living on the island didn’t know how this new Constitution would affect them or what changes would be occurring.  After reading this chapter I discover that even though “Down on the Island” was written according to some experiences lived by Jim Cooper in 1954, there are a lot of things that we, Puerto Ricans, continue having problems with. So I think that this book gives an excellent background and base not only for English teachers but also to any other course teachers. 

So close yet so far: Puerto Rico and Antigua

“A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid is a book that talks about the past and present days of Antigua. While reading it, it reminded me a lot about our own country, Puerto Rico. Both places have a lot in common: both are a tourist destination, are islands surrounded by similar ones, at a point both where a colony, both have trouble of identity, and external and internal racism. Jamaica Kincaid was born in Antigua as Elaine Potter Richardson, but later in her life she changed her name because her family disapproved her writing. This is something that makes us think that maybe her family where still afraid about the retribution that the English could do because of her words or maybe they have a colonized mind.

Something that Jamaica despises about the tourist that came to visit Antigua is their attitude of ignorance toward the history of her country. The way the tourist enjoy the island, the way they use the water unaware of her scarcity or to where the contents of their lavatory will end, and also the ignorance of the tourist toward the poverty that her country is suffering are some of the things that Jamaica repudiates and scream out loud in her book. Similarly some of us, Puerto Ricans, feel the same way when tourist come to visit our island or even worse when we go to United States of America and they don’t know where we are located on the world map, even though we are colony of the United States since 1898. Puerto Rico is a country that had been a colony over 520 years; fist a Spanish one and actually a North American. This is one of the main reasons why Puerto Ricans have identity problems, also like the citizens of Antigua felt when they were an English colony. After reading some pages of Jamaica’s book immediately I put myself in the situation as a tourist, and the first place that came to my mind was Dominican Republic. The way so many of us act in those all inclusive hotels, ignorant of our surroundings, the poverty of their country, and the unpaved roads that some of them had to walk miles to get there to serve us, are some things that just thinking about them now makes me sick. Another thing that Jamaica Kincaid mention in her book and relate to us is the external and internal racism. The citizens of Antigua suffer both types of racism, an example of external is the one clearly visible to everyone, the tourist and locals in the Mill Reef Club and the constant humiliation made by the dentist-doctor to the Antigua’s citizens. An example of internal racism is the continuous subordination the locals, the “minority”, felt with the English; like when the Queen came to visit. Here in Puerto Rico maybe the external racism is not that clear to some of us, but still present in some small towns like Loiza, that is a hometown for a lot of black people; even though this island is compose of a mix of cultures and ethnicities. On the other hand Puerto Ricans feel subordination towards the U.S people: either in sports or in the daily life.  Jamaica Kincaid speaks furiously of the corruption of the government and the passivity of her people. But her real anger is toward the English who colonized Antigua, and the only way she can express her anger is writing about this theme, so that in some way she could feel free.

           

References: 

• http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cal/summary/v025/25.3gauch.html
• http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/smallplace/summary.html
• http://postcolonialstudies.emory.edu/jamaica-kincaid/
• http://www.centrocultural.coop/blogs/nuestramericanos/2009/10/27/el-caso-de-puerto-rico-de-colonia-a-estado-libre-asociado-parte-i/

Traveling Memories

      Throughout my short life I have had the opportunity to travel inside and out of my island, Puerto Rico. Those experience are in some way responsible for the person I have become today. I'm currently studying biology in my fourth year in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.  I grew up in Manati a town in Puerto Rico with a lot of palm trees and beautiful beaches. Traveling inside my town and country help me to relax myself and also discover myself. In all my journeys I had the opportunity to enjoy myself in different ways: snow skiing, surfing, paddle up boarding, horseback riding, kayaking, and a lot of other extracurricular activities. For those reasons is why I think that the best way you can invest your money is traveling around the world.

Some of the places I had traveled are:

• Pennsylvania
• Killington, Vermont
• Vail, Colorado
• Dominican Republic
• Rome
• Venice
•  Italy
•  France
• Argentina
• Chile

      Out of all the places I had visited, Argentina has been the most spectacular one. I had the opportunity to visit it last summer with my friend Gabriela. The kindness of the people, the architecture, the amazing landscapes of Bariloche, the bohemian but also crazy nightlife, and the vineyards are things that just thinking about them and realizing that I was there take my breath away. Having the opportunity to travel alone, just with one friend to Argentina, was something that makes me aware of the bigs responsibilities that involve traveling. It also makes me realized how much you can learn of other cultures if you are mind opened to explore and bond with the locals just as one of them and not as a "tourist".