Nerd Alert

(Warning: This is a pretty geeky and technical entry, but you may find interest if you are a language nerd like myself.)

Let's say you're at a party and you see two people, one pretty drunk. Maybe he's being very loud. Suppose someone says to him that he needs to lower his voice. Then he turns to his friend and asks if he's being loud.

If the friend says Habla como quieras.
This means 'Talk however you want.' However there is an indication that the friend does not know exactly how he will be acting. There is a degree of uncertainty.

But if the friend says Habla como quieres.
This also means 'Talk however you want.'  However there is an indication that the friend knows how he is going to talk and is suggesting that he is always loud and obnoxious when he is drunk.

What's the difference between the two? Only that 'a' or 'e'  on the root word 'quier'.
This is the use of something called the subjunctive mood. This is something that we have in english also, however we don't use it as widely. Here's an example in english.

You are happy. (indicative mood)
I wish you were happy. (subjunctive mood)

The were in the second sentence is the subjunctive. In English we use the past tense to make the subjunctive. Why the were? We're not talking about the past after all.  It's because it's a situation that suggests desire or a hypothetical situation, ie. I wish I knew spanish fluently, if I did I wouldn't sound like a clown.

But in spanish the subjunctive is used extensively, plus it's conjugated in its own tense, not the past tense as in english. This makes it very difficult for us, because when we talk about any situation that involves emotion or desire or hypothetical situations we have to remember to insert the special tense, not the Spanish past tense.

Further it's used to distinguish degrees of certainty. The 3 sentences below would all be translated in the same way in English. "We will have been here for 4 months when we leave."

Habremos estado aqui 4 meses cuando salgamos.
Habremos estado aqui 4 meses cuando salimos.
Habremos estado aqui 4 meses cuando saldrémos.

Why the different endings of the verb salir (to leave)? The sentence at the top means, we mean to leave but who knows what the universe plans. The one in the middle means we will definitely be leaving.The one on the bottom means we are positively sure and confident that we are leaving, so you'd better not suggest that we're not. You can see where things can get confusing.

Spanish is a bit more explicit in situations, whereas in English you have to read between the lines more. This can get confusing, because the Mexican culture is more indirect than the American culture. This is all a bit paradoxical. Basically it calls for a lot of forethought before you ever even begin to decide what word you are going to use. You need to decide what mood you are going to use.

Semana Santa

Our Semana Santa (Holy Week) Trip. We'll have the next week off from Classes and will be visiting nearby Puebla and Mexico City. We're leaving tomorrow morning and will likely be back in Oaxaca by Thursday. We'll be visiting museums, ruins, historical landmarks and other such things. I hope to post a couple blog entries along the way if we can find internet cafes. 


View Semana Santa in a larger map

No such thing as a free lunch

Since I've been here I've written perhaps 40 or so blog posts, kept track of family and friends through Facebook, emails and Skype, and used a variety of websites and programs to improve my Spanish  I've kept up with news back home and here in Mexico and have been able to stream my favorite music as well as my favorite radios shows from my favorite Louisville station, WFPK. Twenty years ago much of this would've been impossible for a student abroad.

We all have many reasons to be grateful for the internet  it saves so much time and resources. It keeps us all connected. But like most things that offer so much, it comes with a price. The price is not always evident.

There have been many situations where I had an  invitation or the opportunity to do something new or at least get out of the house, but I decided against it because it's easier to stay in a comfortable space where I can stream any aspect of the English speaking world that I want. There have times when it's easier to watch something on Netflix in English than to go watch a telenovela (soap opera) with Ruth. Let's face it: there have been many times. Also, it seems my Spanish acquisition is starting to plateau. So, I want to spend more time this last month focusing on my Spanish, spending more time with my language exchange partners  reading more in Spanish, watching only Spanish TV and films, going out to events more, etc.

What's bringing this up now is the realization that we have so little time left here. Today we have one month left in Mexico. Also five new students are moving in tomorrow and supposedly none of them have computers because its a rule in their program. What a great idea! Sometimes I wish I'd left mine at home too. So, I've decided to stop using my computer except for homework. I may try not to use my own computer  at all and instead only use those in the computer lab at the school. This may turn out to be more difficult than it sounds. Wish me luck.

If I stayed home I wouldn't get to see things like this...

Provecho!

I must admit this is from another website. But once I read it I realized I could not have said it better myself...

"One of the things that I really like about Mexican culture is the custom of saying provecho to other diners as you leave a restaurant. Provecho means bon appetit or “enjoy your meal”.

Usually as you get up to leave your table you say provecho to the people at the table nearest yours, but sometimes you hear people saying it as they pass more than one table.

When I’m in a restaurant I have a tendency to forget that I’m in a room full of people. My table and my companions and my food become my temporary little world. And I think that many Americans are just like me. There’s a sense in the U.S. that people want to be left alone when they are eating in a restaurant. So the last thing you are going to do when you are dining out there is to talk to the people at the next table.

But in Mexico that spell of isolation is broken. You ARE in a room full of people. And it’s acknowledged in a polite and particularly kind way. I like that." (hiddencancun.com)

This is totally true and can at times be startling. Once when David and I were leaving a small mom and pop restaurant with perhaps 6 tables in a town outside of Oaxaca, I said Adiós to the hostess and was surprised by seemingly everyone in the restaurant responding with Adiós!. I now realize I should have said Provecho!

Panorama from the roof of the ex-convent at Cuilapam

Mexico's second president, Vincente Guerrero was shot and killed by a firing squad in the yard below.

History Shmistory!

A craft that is prolifically produced here in Oaxaca, is the alebrije (ah-lay-bree-hay). They are animals carved from the softwood of the copal tree. They are then intricately painted.

David and I were lucky enough to visit the home and workshop of a family who have been producing alebrijes 'forever´. They live in a small town just outside of Oaxaca city called Arrazola. The whole town is and has been dedicated to alebrijes since time immemorial.

Something interesting we've learned is that here in Oaxaca many towns share the characteristic of being dedicated to a specific craft. Some only make rugs and weaving, some alebrijes, some red ceramics, some green ceramics. There is one small town that is solely dedicated to creating signature ceramics from its black clay. This may further explain the tianguises (outdoor markets). They travel between different towns depending on the day of the week. I suppose if everyone in  your town is dedicated to only one type of product, it makes it more convenient to have a mixed market that comes to town every week.

While we were in Arrazola, we watched one of the shopowners, a quiet and gentle man, carve a fish alebrije from the branch of a copal tree, right in front of our eyes. He was slow and methodical with his spanish. He was easy to understand. He explained his craft and asked us some questions about the US. While we watched and enjoyed the cool of the concrete walls of his home, some kids ran through the yard. Afterwards we bought a couple of unpainted alebrijes and then painted them there in the workshop.

We could see the mountaintop ruins of Monte Alban from the patio of the family's home. It's hard to forget Mexico's history. It's always in your face, whether it's the ancients pyramids of Monte Alban on the horizon or an indigenous woman selling roasted corn cobs on the sidewalk in front of a designer shoe store.

In the US, when we want to emphasize the irrelevance of something we say "Forget about it. It's history." History is treated differently here. It's so relevant to understanding the world here today. History is tied up in all the many ethnicities, religions and languages here. If you don't understand the history you can't understand the present.

Why I am against tourism

Traveling vs. Tourism

Tourism is one of those words often easily overlooked. Many of us want to travel the world, but end up touring it instead. The idea of enriching your life, your experience, through travel is, for the majority, a lame excuse to seek the novel in life. It is easier for those in the 1^st world to travel and feel like we have pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones, than it is to push ourselves out of our comfort zones at home. It is a luxury of first-world existence.

While I admit that it is worth getting to know other cultures than your own, much of the time it is not worth the harm of travel. Tourism, besides being environmentally taxing, can at best, render local economies reliant on and subject to the whims of the market demand, and at worst, destroy preexisting local economies.

Obviously there is a balance to be had. I think we are overreaching that balance. I believe there are alternatives to the culturally dictated methods of cultural enrichment. Different cultures can be found in our own backyard. Get to know the poor, the oppressed in your own city and state. Get to know the people who live differently from you. Make friends with someone rich. Visit someone dying. Mentor someone. Our own nation is such a diverse place, replete with diverse cultural experiences. 

Visiting 500 year old ex-convents doth not a cultured person make. (No the irony of this article, written on Mexican soil, does not escape me.)

However, we Americans not just like but must believe that we are all the same, everyone is equal. The rich downplay their wealth, claim to be 'upper middle class'. The poor likewise play up their station. Everyone works to seem 'common'. Our language reflects that. When people use five dollar words, we ask them to speak English please. Lord forbid we sound intelligent. Others may think that we think we're better than them (one of the greatest fears of Americans). This serves to make Americans appear to be very united, very similar. But this in fact serves to drive us apart.

We have enough to learn at home that we deserve to focus our efforts on knowing our own place before exploring the world. I believe travel can teach one a lot about one's own place. I believe it is beneficial to see the world through another culture's eyes. Other cultures can be found here however. And many people take it well beyond the limit. Some travel to consume the world, to check it off their list, just to say they have done it. This is not the point.

One of my very favorite songs of all time

This doesn't really pertain to Oaxaca, but I just love this song so much I'd like to share it. 

Mercedes Sosa is a very famous Argentinian artist, whose music David and I have fallen in love with over the past 6 months or so. Here is perhaps her most well known song, although she had a prolific career of some 50 years. If you like this and you poke around for more work of hers, you will not be disappointed. 

Not so Far after all...

Circle indicating all points as far from Louisville as is Oaxaca (1602 miles). It's distorted because the map is 2-D. If the same were drawn on a globe it would be a perfect circle.

50 Days in...

Mexicans do the darnedest things. I just can't figure them out.

We just reached the halfway point of our stay here in Mexico. I'm not sure exactly what to say. It's been a joy at times and a challenge at others. We're definitely enjoying the weather (although we miss the wintertime coziness). Everything is still working out with our host family (although we miss everyone back home dearly). We at times get overwhelmed with the culture here, which can be deceptively similar to our own but then pull the rug out from under us. We sometimes get overwhelmed with the languages. Some days it flows so easily. Other days, for reasons unknown, it spits and sputters off of the tongue so that I feel like I'm back at the beginning.

There are so many little things that require so much more attention and thought than they require at home where we know all the answers. The more I've learned about the Mexicans, the more I look into things, and the more hesitations I have with them. Sometimes, they seem just like us. Sometimes they do things out of left field that I just can't make out.

We've read a lot on Mexican history and culture. However I still feel like I'm missing out on so much. I'm sure that so much goes right by me. Luckily I started two new courses: US-Mexico History and Relations: and Indigenous Religion and the Development of Catholicism. (Their semester works different than ours. So we had 2 classes the first half of the semester and now we have 2 new ones until the end.) With these courses, I'm sure I'll come away with a much greater understanding than what I have now. Until now we've been working on bringing our language up to fluency. Now that we can at least understand and be understood, we can begin to look a little deeper.

Wish us luck! Thank you all for your support and love. We miss everyone so much and to be quite honest, I've never looked forward to a plane ride like I look forward to the one that will take us home in April! I feel like I should have more to say at this milestone, but mostly I'm just getting into the swing of existing here. If anyone's curious about anything or has any questions for us, let us know and we'll write on them.

FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS DAVID!!!

Here are some pictures of David having a good time in Mexico. We're both sorry we're not home for his birthday, but we're still having a good time here!!!

At our school

At Monte Alban

Relaxing on the terrace at the house

Another from Monte Alban. We tried to recreate the shot of Elizabeth that Ed took there.

Inside Santo Domingo

Painting an alebrije