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