A Little About: Foreigner in My Own Backyar

As our final project, we had to choose a non-fiction memoir in order to read it and discuss al the topics learned in class. I chose a self-published book titled, Foreigner in My Own Backyard, which is very current and seemed very interesting.

As the back cover states:

"A family crisis brings Travis Casey back to the land he used to call home after living in England for the past two decades. His parents need him – not as a career as he expected, but as someone to drive them from Florida back to their home in Minnesota. Just as well; he’s not a caring person, but he is a damn good driver.

But the country is not how he left it…

Casey uses his own brand of humor to explore what has changed in America since he lived there – that’s when he’s not recounting the chaos that occurs as he attempts to reestablish himself as an American. He discovers that entering the United States with his British wife is more difficult than he had anticipated.

      ***

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

--Chinese Proverb

A journey of seven thousand miles begins with a trip to the US Embassy

-- Travis Casey Experience"

As I read this book I laughed so much. It is very witty, sarcastic and hilarious the way the author expresses his feelings and thoughts. Both his internal and external journeys are clearly seen in the book as he talks about his return to the place he used to call home. He no longer feels as part of this culture, but he never quite fit in with the British. He finds himself in a very awkward situation as he begins his road trip to return his parents home; he says he isn’t American enough to fit in or British enough to fit out. I was able to integrate many topics used in the course to analyze his situation. I was also able to identify with his story, since I’m not Colombian enough to fit in or Boricua enough to fit out.

I hope you get the chance to read this book and find for yourself how identity, ideas, and many journeys change throughout the novel. I will continue to write about this book in my final paper which I will hand in soon!

PS: You can find reviews on the book on Good Reads or buy it on Amazon if you just follow the links. 

Blog Reflection: Serendipity

One of the most important things that I learned during the Journey in Literature class is that identity and perspective can change in a second. Our internal and external journeys affect each other and us in ways that alter our way of thinking. Writing a blog has been a great tool to reminisce about my journey this semester. As a read my early posts, I see how reserved, proper and neutral my tone was. I paid more attention to answering the question or assignment than entertaining my readers and be true to myself. I didn't let my internal journey affect my writing in any way; I didn't provide any opinions or thoughts beyond the necessary. It is really amazing to see that as the topics during class had more connection to my life, what I wrote in my blog had more detail, discussion and opinions. I wasn't being reserved with my thoughts and opinions. I didn't write just to comply with a job, but I wrote to express myself and let my internal journey be free. I saw how my beliefs, feelings and emotions fought back to obtain a place in my writing. 


Thinking back I also learned about blogger and creating a blog. I had no idea of what and how to do it. At first I was completely lost and didn't know how add layers to my writing. Deciding that the url would be Literatureparadise.blogspot.com and naming my blog "Serendipity" were no easy tasks. At first all the names I could think of were either already being used or not good enough. I decided to go very literal with the url and very ambiguous with the name. I chose serendipity because it means 'fortunate happening' or 'pleasant surprise'.That was exactly what my blog was for me a serendipitous encounter with myself and my journeys. With this activity I had the opportunity to express my opinions and continue a discussion outside the classroom. While just following instructions on an assignment, I happened to find a place of free expression and reflection.  This has been a great experience I hope many get to do. 

Working with The Fortunate Travelers: Reflection

As part of our Journey in Literature Class, we were assigned to a group of students to work with during the whole semester. I believe that part of the experience consisted on not choosing your "team mates", but rather getting assigned to a group with bunch of strangers. Meeting new people is always scary, but when you have to work with strangers to earn a good grade it becomes ten times more frighting. At first I was a little disappointed because none of my few friends in the class were in my group. I was scared to meet new people and nervous to see if I would fit in. I didn't realize at the moment that this was an enormous opportunity to grow personally and academically. 

My first encounter with my group was a little formal, but a good start. During this opportunity we all shared our names and contact information. We also came up with our name: Fortunate Travelers. As time progressed we started talking to each other through messages and in the classroom. We started to act a little friendlier with each other and talk about other things besides the work assigned in class. Having so many different people in a group means having a huge amount of different ideas and suggestions. Coping with the fact that we each had to compromise our ideas to fit this mixture of thoughts gave me a little stress, since I'm a little control freak. With time I learned that everyone in the group had great ideas and that sometimes letting things go is better. As one of the note takers I still had a little of that control, but gave the other group members power in the decision making process. 

Our final group oral presentation about Carl Jung's travel to North Africa is the best lesson I will take with me. We all wanted to get better grades, so our goal was the same. We decided to meet up during the weekend and work on our presentation so we would make no errors. After many laughs and joking around, we got to work as a group. Everyone shared their own interpretations of the text and we wrote down a analytical written work. We also talked about what we were going to say during the presentation and prepared a poster to visually help our class discussion. I believe during this activity I learned a huge lesson. Working in a group and letting go of my control issues makes the work load seem smaller and ideas flow easier. We got the work done in no time and we made a good presentation in class. 

Working with a group is something that during college is done very little. I had never worked in the university with a group of more than 3 people. Being set in a group of 6 members was a little nerve racking since I didn't know how things would go. In the end, we learned how to effectively divide the workload without being unfair to each other. We taught each other lessons about respect, opportunities and how to listen to others. This experience was very enriching for me and I have no bad comments about it. I hope everyone gets to work with a group for a class as I did. It is the chance to meet new people, work on your control issues and learn from other students! I owe this wonderful experience to Alessandra, Manuel, Antonio, Liane and Hector. It was a pleasure to work along side with you guys.

                                                    How to use group projects effectively 
                                                    Group Projects: Helping or Hurting?

Spending One Day As a Tourist

Puerto Rico a little paradise on The Caribbean. Living in paradise isn't as idyllic as it sounds. The day by day rush compels us to overlook the beauty and perfection. We don't appreciate what we have and how tourists may feel when they come to visit. As part of an assignment I had to spend a day as a tourist. I decided to visit the colonial section of our capital known as Old San Juan with my boyfriend. We went to visit on Saturday November 8, 2014 it was a sunny morning so we decided to dress the part; we wore shorts, t-shirts, tennis shoes and the cherry on top a map of the city.  We arrived at the parking around 11:00am and we started walking towards The Morro. 

Beautiful Colonial Streets 

As we started to walk down the narrow streets, we went into tourist mode. We started to take pictures of everything with our phones and camera. Soon enough we noticed how the locals were looking at us in a very judgmental manner. They didn't wait for us to take the pictures and in many occasion they even ruined the picture by walking into the shot. We were completely othered by them as they gave their judgmental looks and mean actions. We were acting as the stereotypical tourist paying attention to every thing, smell and person. We always spoke English and when we tried to ask for directions people suggested we ask other tourists or they claimed they didn't speak any English and couldn't give us the information we needed. By taking this action, in group themselves and consequently out grouped my boyfriend and I. We felt a little unwanted, but as an excited tourist this wouldn't ruin my day. 

Our external journey through this little city was fun and exciting. We were getting thirsty in the hot sun, this is when we noticed that there are no signs available for tourists to find places to eat, bathrooms or information centers. I decided to do a little experiment, I told my boyfriend to go into a souvenir shop ask for the bathroom and some prices for some key chains. They gave him overly expensive prices. I went in and started to speak in Spanish and asked for the same key chains, to my surprise they gave me a cheaper prize. At this store they try to rip off the tourist by selling their souvenirs at bigger prices. Overlooking this incident we finally arrive to our destination.

Failing at kite flying, but still enjoying our time 

We saw a little cart selling some ice cones or piraguas. In the hot sun this seemed very appealing and delicious. We bought two of different flavors and sat on a little bench to enjoy our typical puertorrican treat. As we sat there we discussed how perspective shifts within the eyes of the viewer. Being there flying kites and enjoying the scenery as if everything was new changed our points of view about the island. We knew that natives are very proud of who they are and their culture. This is why they seem a little defensive towards outsiders

In the end being a tourist is all about ignorance. This ignorance as they say is bliss, let's you enjoy every second and experience in your trip. Being a tourist in my own home was a great experience. I now know how people who visit our island feel once they set foot in this colonial beauty. As they say Puerto Rico is paradise!

Greetings from El Morro 

Reflection on The Rum Diary

As we discussed in class the meanings of othering, identity, in group, out group, perspective and location, the task of watching The Rum Diary and use these terms to discuss the movie was assigned. We meet Paul Kemp a failed American writer that ends up getting a job in local newspaper in San Juan. Sala tries to get him acclimated and after checking in in the Hotel they start to drink alcohol. They are then immediately othered by the editor of the newspaper who believes he is better than those two alcoholics. The identity of this new man in town is judge pretty quickly by his co-workers. Chenault, the woman who caught Kemp's attention early on in the movie and who met him already, out groups Kemp by pretending to meet him once again. Because she is now with her fiance Chenault complete changes her perspective towards this man. 

As time passes, Kemp starts to understand the perspective of the locals. San Juan is not all about tourism and sightseeing he realizes the poverty that affects the people living here. He starts to understand their true location and their perspective in the whole tourism business. He also understands what the newspaper wants him to be and who's side he should take. In order to keep his job Kemp must stay in group with his superiors and remove any type of sympathy for the people. He must keep his perspective in tune with promoting tourism and othering the poor. Moburg finds left over filter from a rum plant and his alcoholic friends join him. He rants about killing his boss, because he was fired. 

Kemp decides to participate in a real estate scam along with Chenault's fiance and Sala. They end up in jail after a fight. Kemp gets to see the poverty, not only in San Juan, but everywhere else as he heads towards the pier to go to St. Thomas. After a lot of drama, Kemp and Sala are thrown out of the deal, and when they return they find out the newspaper is closing. Under the influence of drugs Kemp decides to change his perspective and write an article about the shady deals and poverty. They obtain he money to publish by winning a cock fight, but they are wanted by the police. Kemp doesn't give up and leaves the island on a boat. He later publishes his articles in Ne York finding his voice and earning success. 

A Little on "Teaching" and "Helping"

Down on The Island by Jim Cooper is a memoir about a continental American Professor teaching an English Literature course at The Colegio of Mayaguez during the 1950's. As I read the chapters on Teaching and Helping, Cooper clearly shows what he thought of the country, political issues, The Colegio, other professors and the students. "Teaching English to students whose culture is as foreign to him" as his culture was to them was a challenge Cooper must take on. The key to overcoming the multiple obstacles and impediments faced through their story is learning to understand their differences and working with them rather than against. Jim Cooper explains that he is forced into this position where he was the "veteran" around and was supposed to have all the answers.

In the chapter titled, Teaching English, Cooper explains that on his second year teaching at The Colegio he was left as the only continental professor with previous teaching experience. This is the reason why it was his job to write a new syllabus that would help the students and the system get along. He explains that his boss was on of the professors that "didn't believe Puerto Ricans were capable of learning anything anyway," so he was left on his own to finish this task. He tried to tailor the syllabus to his students' needs, but the problem was much bigger than difficult stories and poems. He talks about how a few years earlier Puerto Rican government had set Spanish as the vernacular and English as a second language. This milestone meant that the students that arrived at The Colegio, if they came from the public system, wouldn't have any type of English knowledge. That it was rich students that had study abroad or in private schools the few students that were available to do well in class. The pronunciation was also suffering from the poor decisions made by the system, he talks about how students could understand the difference between rich and reach or seat, sit. 

This problem was not reserved exclusively to the students, he talks about how a professor from the Spanish literature department during a meeting talked about how students were 'shitting' on their tests. What he meant to say was that cheating is a big problem that keep on going in The Colegio. Cooper says that the problem wasn't that the students were cheating per se, but that they considered their actions as helping. He says that students mix having a good grade with the professor liking them. That when a student failed a class they would normally blame the professor because he doesn't like the student. They didn't understand the difference between getting a grade and earning a grade. Many students agreed that they cheated, but they argued that if their work was good then why didn't they receive a good grade. 

After reading these two chapters, I can agree that some of the issues that affected teaching fifty-years ago are still getting in the way of a good education. Many students today are still cheating in order to pass a course, many don't even understand very well the language they are studying, and some professor have already given up before even trying to help. I still see students fighting the system because a professor gave them a bad grade and the reason is always "he doesn't like me." I find it very interesting that problems like these just keep getting handed down from one generation to the other. In order to break this vicious cycle we all must do something about it. We must teach students that helping is not cheating and that there is a fine line between the two. Professors must also understand that the education system is poor and students are not to blame for their lack of knowledge. We must learn how to be in the same page and help each other overcome this decade long issue. 

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'Cheating' Can Be An Effective Learning Strategy

Final Reflection on The Journey Journal

So for the past couple of weeks I've been spending 10 minutes doing a free writing exercise on a notebook. At first, I had a couple of problems following the rules, but now I can say I have mastered the technique. It was really hard for me to lose control. I kept trying to make paragraphs in order to have some sense of organization, I also kept checking my spelling, punctuation and grammar. Letting thoughts unfinished, trying to make them logical and keeping my hand moving at all times was also a struggle. My hand hurt so much even before five minutes had passed! When the professor assigned this journey journal I thought I wouldn't learn anything from it, but as I kept writing and following the rules I realized that I had a big lesson ahead. 

I started to read my entries several days after I made them. I could then connect them to my external journey, see how the situations I was going through affected how I was feeling. My journal gave me insight on my feelings, thoughts and dreams. Trying to remember my dreams through my free writing was the most helpful part of the whole experience. I discovered a great value to spending time thinking about the messages my subconscious mind was trying to send me. Dealing with many of our fears and desires imply acknowledging what our mind is saying through dreams and nightmares.

After finishing the journey journal, I was able to losen up my writing, let my thoughts roam free and record them without thinking about rules, grammar or logic. I was also able to remember a great amount of details in my dreams in order to interpret them using my internal and external journeys. This exercise is effective in connecting yourself to your spiritual and emotional part of your life. This way building a path to a more serious evaluation of your life, journey, and how to del with both.

OWL: Remembering Dreams Guidelines