I Love My Job

Another piece of my international love belongs to my work at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos or la UAEM, as it’s called here. I go to school four mornings a week, Monday-Thursday, commuting an hour each way by bus. This was not an initially welcome lifestyle change for me – my commute in college was a two minute walk – but I have grown to enjoy my morning and afternoon travel routine. Packing onto the #13 bus that brings me up the hill to school and back down again to my apartment gives me a sense of being in solidarity with the student and working class communities. Usually when I board the bus around 7 in the morning, the majority of the passengers are taking naps and I happily join them, although finding a comfortable position can sometimes me tricky. I need more leg room than the average Mexican.



It took a little while for me to connect with my students. I was hoping they would love me right away, but in typical Latino fashion, they were initially skeptical of me as a newcomer and warmed up to me little by little. Now that I have gained the students’ trust, I have the pleasure of hanging out with groups of them in between classes outside of our school building. As many students are not allowed by their protective mothers to go out on the weekends, the school day is central to their social lives. I love it when the students include me in their gossip sessions or invite me to eat tacos with them after class. When two of my students confessed their crushes to me the other day, I knew I was finally in!



While I work relatively few hours – about 16 a week – I believe in what I’m doing at the school and I think it’s being received well by the students and teachers with whom I’m working. I assist in two English conversation classes a week in which I typically give Power Point presentation on some aspect of U.S. American culture that is relevant to the lesson being presented by the main teacher. When the class was learning how to describe places, I talked to them about my hometown of Chicago and showed them pictures of the “El,” the Art Institute, the Cubs and our local celebrities. I wasn’t surprised that they were familiar with more faces than those of just Oprah and Obama. The fact that they recognized Steve Carell and Vince Vaughn reminded me how much U.S. pop culture has permeated their society.






The best presentation yet was last week when my friend Hannah and I dressed up as a bunny and cat, respectively, and celebrated an early Halloween with the students. We told them about typical costumes and treats, parades and party games. Then we played scary music, read them ghost stories and shared with them my favorite Halloween treat, caramel apple pops, brought to them by Hannah all the way from Chicago. U.S. American Halloween was a big hit with my Mexican students!



In addition to those two classes, I also have the privilege of teaching an advanced conversation class once a week to about 12 students. My hope was to give these students an opportunity to participate in more challenging dialogue than what they were accustomed to in their other English classes and to give them practice speaking with and writing for a native English speaker. In the three meetings we have had, I have been pleased with what I’ve seen and heard. For their first two assignments, I asked the students to write about an aspect of their culture that is important to them as Mexicans and later to present to the class a song or music video that was a uniquely Mexican profile or story. What they shared blew me away. I was moved by the pride I saw in my students, pride for their country and pride for being Mexicans in the face of the negative stereotypes that exist of them in the world. It angers them that many people think of narcos when they think of Mexicans. “We are so much more than that!” they said. My students told me with their pictures, videos, songs and stories that they want the world to know that the Mexicans are extraordinary cooks, dancers, artists, writers, musicians, scholars, celebrators of life.

In the fourth class I attend, I participate as a student and not as a teacher. It is a sociolinguistics class taught in Spanish by a brilliant, witty PhD named la Dra. Norma Angélica Juárez Salomo. She has traveled extensively, speaking at conferences about international educational exchange and Mexico’s role in this globalized world. The language used in class is technical and unfamiliar to me, so I often don’t understand what is being discussed. Nevertheless, I feel privileged to learn from such an interesting woman and to work with such dedicated, talented students. Taking a class, as I understand, is not part of the normal duties of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant; however, la Dra. Norma invited me to participate as part of my quest to exchange cultural understanding. She believed the immersion in a Spanish-speaking classroom and the experience of being overwhelmed and confused by the language and discussion would allow me to stand in the place of and identify more with the students I am here to teach. She was right! My Sociolinguistics class has helped solidify my relationship with the students and teachers at la UAEM as a true partnership.

I am In-ternational Love

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post, and there’s a reason for this. Over the past two months I’ve been transitioning to the post-grad lifestyle and falling in love with my new home in Mexico. To prepare you for the gushing that is to follow, please listen to this song. My roommate, Chino, is an aficionado of Latino reggae, and I have – yes – fallen in love with it too.



There is so much I have to catch you up on, readers, that I have divided this ode-to-la vida mexicana-post into a mini series of postitos (the diminutive of “posts,” if you will).

My international love… where to begin? Here!



I am convinced that Mexican food has more flavor, color and variety than any other in the entire world. Mexican mealtime is pretty extraordinary too. Most people eat a hearty breakfast in the morning, which might include a hot dish like tacos or chilaquiles (fried tortillas bathed in salsa). Then around noontime, many eat a snack-like lunch followed by a big, lengthy meal called comida in the mid- to late-afternoon. A light supper happens around 8-10 p.m. and typically consists of sweet bread and milk or maybe a taco or two.



Give me a moment to describe afternoon comida and sobremesa to you. Most students and business people go home to eat comida with their families, and it’s typically a lengthy, relaxed affair – a far cry from our familiar work-day power lunches. The meal usually starts with fruit, soup or small plate of pasta and is followed by a plato fuerte or main dish. This is often some sort of meat with a side of vegetables and tortillas. Oh yeah, and there’s always homemade salsa and some type of agua, water flavored with hibiscus flowers or blended with fresh fruit and sugar. If you’re not at home for comida, you can find many mom and pop restaurants which serve comida corrida (the Mexican equivalent of fast-food but much healthier and tastier) which includes all the elements of a complete comida for 35 pesos (around $3)



Once the meal is over, people don’t jump up and move on with their days as I am accustomed to doing in the U.S. They linger over the unwashed dishes, sometimes for hours, and enjoy relaxed conversation or sobremesa. There’s laughter, there’s good-natured arguing and there’s always more cerveza to go around.

This practices of comida and sobremesa are consistent with the strong Mexican value of family and relationships, and they are some that I hope to bring back with me to the U.S.


After learning about the stages of entry into a new culture last spring with the esteemed Dr. Linda Parkyn, I realize that I am still in the honeymoon phase with my life in Mexico. I know I'm scheduled to hit the crash-and-burn phase of entry (okay, I don't remember the technical terms for these stages, but you get the idea) sometime this month. Even now, not every moment is peaches and cream (my purse was stolen last week, for example), but what can I say? Right now I'm smitten! If you can handle more of this love fest, reconnect with the güera again tomorrow evening to hear more about la maravillosa vida mexicana.