Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time I did a short stint as a student in Mexico; Tepotzlan, Mexico to be exact. Nearly ten years ago, I began my first real travel experience out of the country. I had never flown alone before and had certainly never been out of the country alone before. It was truly uncharted territory I was uncovering.

Tepotzlan is situated about 30 minutes from Cuerna Vaca and is technically not even large enough to be considered a town, but rather a municipality. Many spoke Spanish, of course, but many more spoke native languages indigenous to the region. I stuck out like a sore throbbing thumb, blonde and pale thing that I am, and had a terrible terrible time adjusting. I never realized that visiting a country so physically close to your own could cause such terrible culture shock. I nearly went home shortly into the visit. But I toughed it out and still remember this travel experience as one of the most important I've ever had.

The school. (that's not me in the picture but another gringa looking quite similiar to myself)
I've not kept in contact with anybody who studied there with me. I've no one to share memories with about the trip. Let me rephrase that. I've plenty of people to tell about this time but no one to talk about, remember this and remember that? It's the only trip I've no one to do those things with. I often dream about Tepotzlan where I'm back there walking the streets back to my house. I miss that place more than I realize sometimes.

About ten years before I arrived in the village, the locals uncovered a pyramid atop the mountains that surround the town. In the picture above, you can see it in the mid left region of the photo at the top of the mountain. They built a very crude hiking trail to the top which takes about an hour or so to hike, depending on the number of people ahead of you. We went on the 'free' day, thus our hike took a couple of hours as there were SO many people with the same Sunday afternoon plan. Once atop the pyramid, we sat on it, and stared down at the village we had called home for 5 weeks. We left Mexico the following day.

My time in Tepotzlan taught me more about myself than I thought possible in one trip. I learned that I can do it. And by it, I mean anything. And I can do it all alone. And in many instances I have. And I can do it again. I learned what it felt like to be the minority. I know what it feels like to be stared at unrelentlessly because of the color of your skin. I know what it's like to be so frustrated with not being able to communicate your point because of a language barrier. I feel like this trip, among others, taught me lessons that would eventually serve me in being the best teacher I can be; it taught me to put myself back in the student's position as someone who is not a master of the culture's language, who is trying to figure out cultural norms and who is trying to figure out themselves.

I've been wanting to blog about my travels for a while now. I call myself Worldygirly yet I've seen a mere 10% or so of the world. I feel like the title I've bestowed upon myself though goes much deeper than how much I've traveled or how much I've seen. I feel like it also includes being sensitive to those that share the world with us or having the willingness to yearn to learn about other lands. Through conversations with my students, I feel like I step a foot into other worlds every day. Teaching ESL gives me more than a paycheck, more than the satisfaction of helping someone learn, but it also fulfills this insatiable desire to learn more about the world through the amazing and diverse people who fill it.

I plan to write more on Tepotzlan and the adventures that surrounding that experience. I also plan to talk about other travel experiences I've had over the years. If blogging had been around during all of these trips, I probably would have blogged about them then. Too bad for you blogging wasn't as grand as it is now which means you get all of my past travels now. I'm going to wrap them up with a pretty bow for you. Consider yourself gifted. By me ;)

Population & Peace

I've been thinking about things I'd like to post about and one of the things that keeps coming back is to blog about some of my past travels. I journal as I travel and I love to go back through my memoires so I think this would be a nice way to share my experiences in a reflective manner and will be a good motivator to get old trip photos finally scanned in! What do you think? Think you can put up with more of my babbling? ;)

So at this point, I've only had a digital camera for about 4 years and have only visited 4 countries during that time. Before that though, I had visited 7 others so I've got lots of scanning to do!

Now don't worry, I'll still share tidbits about dancing, beading, teaching, parenting animals & a husband, and all of the oh so exciting things that accompany my life.

So what trip reflection to share first??? Such a difficult thing to choose!

I just went back to the first trip I had a digital camera on (2004) and here you go...my first travel post! The first trip I took with a fancy schmancy camera was to Switzerland and India with a dear dear friend of mine. This picture comes from the India portion of that trip. There was so much that happened on that trip that it will take many many posts to cover it all but here's a taste.

When I tell people about India, I tell them that there are three 'P's that can't be explained in words. Those are Pollution, Povery and Population. This picture obviously catches the population P.

One evening, my friend, her aunt and myself traveled to a mall of sorts for dinner and to meet some other family members. I had Pizza Hut (which, if I recall correctly, was the only true blue 'American' food I had on the trip!) in the food court and did lots and lots of people watching. When we first arrived, the mall was not near as crowded as the picture shows but I began to notice that hoards and hoards of people kept showing up! It wasn't long after that that a stage emerged and a new Bollywood singer named Shaan took the stage. Apparently he was quite the Indian hearthob at the time! By the time Shaan had taken the stage, the place was more full than anywhere I've even been I believe. When the show ended, the place cleared out like you could never imagine and we were back to being comfortable.

That's a taste of how India was though, packed. It runs on some sort of organized chaos that I don't know if I'll ever fully understand but I will always fully respect it. There's this amazing balance that just works there. I don't know how they do it, but they do. And I'm grateful to have experienced that balance.

Thank You America

Eight years ago and I could have cared less about politics. I knew very little except that Clinton got his kicks with someone other than his wife and the nation went nutso. He shouldn't have lied, yes, but seriously folks, get over it. I was slightly oblivious to Bush and what he was all about because like I said, I could have cared less about politics at that time. Bush was elected and life didn't change much for me until 9/11 and then it changed like it changed for everyone else. The word terrorism became a daily utterance throughout the country, red alert, orange alert, bombs, threat, defense, war, blah blah blah. These words were immediately ingrained into the minds of the American people.

Between 9/11 and today I have traveled to 10 different countries aside from my own. I have found myself in countless situations where I am discussing with someone from another land the US, their policies, their actions since 9/11 and the perceptions others have of our country. I've tried to break the American stereotypes that other countries have about us, I've tried to represent us in an accepting and loving way, I've tried to be what I think the American is supposed to be; a person open to all and respectful of all. Unfortunately, over the past 8 years, this is not the overall theme of what I've seen Americans to be. Perhaps that has some to do with where I'm located.

In the middle of the country in a red state I find myself biting my tongue relentlessly. Remember, I teach English to people from other countries. Often when I tell people this, some of the reactions I get just blow me away. And not in a good way AT ALL. How are people from other countries who are studying in our country supposed to form positive perceptions of Americans when our general attitude is rarely positive towards them? I feel for these people who come here for whatever reason immensely and am embarrassed when my fellow countrymen who are supposed to be accepting, tolerant and forward thinking utter things that make me want to take them in a back room and give them a stern talking to. No violence, right? ;) I don't want to spend my time talking about this though because I will go off on a tangent about No Child Left Behind, English only laws and so on. This entry is meant to go another direction.

It has been during these past 8 years that I have become interested in politics, much like the rest of my countrymen. When Bush was reelected, I can't tell you what sadness I felt, what disappointment I had in my country and what a strong desire I had to become an expatriate. I still have the hardest time understanding why that ever even happened. But the past is the past.

I am proud to say though that today, I have found my pride as an American again. I am so so grateful to be alive today and to be witnessing a moment in history being made. America, you've made me proud. You've made me want to share my pride of my nation with everyone. You've made me infinitely happy for the children who will be growing up during this time. I hope we teach them well our history and the change that has come. I don't think that Obama is Superman though; he can't save the world in one leap and bound and I hope that people don't think that will be the case. He can though, help us all to begin to save our country and our identity as a nation as a whole. I look forward to being a part of that.

There's a reason the past 8 years had to happen though, this I realize, as you cannot have the present as it is without the past as it was. We wouldn't have this collective desire for change if we hadn't had an ineffective leader. We wouldn't be where we are at today. I'm so glad we are where we are at today.

So thank you America. Thank you for bringing back hope. Thank you for choosing change. Thank you for giving me the desire to believe in you again. Today, I am proud to be an American.

May 2009 Be the Year of the Artichoke

I suppose since it's the end of the year, I'm expected to review the year and list expectations for the new year? Well, here's at least an attempt at that.

Needless to say, this year has been a crazy one! Luckily we went through no major deaths like last year but there was lots of healing to be done this year from hardships that have occured in the recent past. Not completely healed but on the way :)

Let's see, this year several things have occured: I got MARRIED for one :) This is wildly important because I'm the type of person to never have a realy relationship, to never allow myself to be loved by someone else and here I am, happily married to my best friend. Truly. Knowing we'll always be each other's side kicks makes me happy every which way possible. We celebrated having our 80lb puppy for over a year now. Never thought I was a dog person and never thought I'd have a big dog but look at me now! I love our beast love having him as part of our lives. I completed an internship in Hungary focusing on English teaching practices in the country. I did this a little less than a month after being married and left the mister at home due to money constraints. I missed him terribly but find comfort in the fact that we can survive away from each other from time to time if needed. The trip was an amazing experience and I fell in love with the country. Perhaps one day I'll return :) What else? Well, this was the year that my father had an argument with a large firework and ended up in the ICU burn unit on a ventilator for three days. That was a tad bit stressful. But all turned out fine and became a reminder of how lucky we are to have each other, near or far. The mister, the beast and I took an 11 hour road trip across country for a wedding days after I returned from Hungary - it was the longest time the beast had been in the car which he did wonderfully with! The mister and I amazingly do very well on the roadtrips if I can keep my anxious little mouth shut about my car fears :) It was a great trip and is always nice to get away. Of course we all know that this was the year that I completed my comprehensive exams and graduated with my Masters in TESL! NEVER thought I would finish any type of schooling let alone a MASTERS! I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself for completing that endeavor :) What else, what else? On a lighter note, I cut off over a foot of hair again, was recognized for my jewelry work, met Pharrell Williams (who I'm secretly in love with), finished my first year of teaching, rearranged a few rooms, discovered my husband is a master juggler (seriously) and discovered that artichokes and brusselsprouts are long lost friends of mine. So there's my year in a nutshell.

What do I expect for 2009? Nothing really. I do hope to overcome some of my fears through having my thyroid regulated again - I haven't been proactive with working with it in years and am VERY suspicious that regulating that will help many of my anxieties...I hope, I hope. I hope to continue to be a successful teacher and continue to learn from my students while learning what works best for them. I hope that our marriage continues to be as enjoyable as it has been and that we become better partners than we already are. I hope the jewelry biz keeps kickin like it has been. I hope my family all finds the happiness they are seeking. I just hope for good and to be able to see the good.

So a New Year's Resolution? Not sure that I have any. Just want to continue taking care of myself and raising the best beast, mister and fuzzbuckets that I can. And I'd like to learn how to prepare artichokes from scratch. I suppose that's my resolution.