Other news: social and cutlural calendar

-Said goodbye to Veronique this week. I am doing ok, but the week before she left I had a good cry at least three times.

-Went to the Fiestas of Pitic last night. It’s the town’s five day festival. All of the events are free, and they get some pretty good, and famous, musicians and others to come in. The one I got to see was Lila Downs, the singer who did the sound track for the movie Frida. She had a wonderful concert. I wish I would have been able to take advantage of the festival more than just last night.

-Next week is the last week of classes. I am hoping to make some extra time in the week to say my offical goodbyes to my current and former classmates. Although I am ready for no more class assignments, I will miss the community that I have gotten every day. (Even though I will be here until July, I probably won´t see many of them once finals are done).

-BGSU work? Hmmm….between all the other things going on (both expected and unexpected) the past several weeks, suffice it to say that I haven’t been spending too much time on school work. However, the deadlines and requirements continue to come sooner and sooner. Time to step it up again!

School Update

With my stolen laptop, I lost the document with the calendar of my self-designated plan of action for my BGSU papers. As a result, I needed to remake it and reflect on where I am in the process. Well, more or less, I need to write a paper a week for the rest of the time I am here ( at the moment 5 papers, 6 - 7 weeks). Needless to say, that freaked me out. It`s also frustrating as that means my previous plans aren`t cutting it, but I still needed to let go of some things to create more time. The only thing left to cut was my class work here.

So a week and a half ago, I talked to all of my teachers about the need for me to do less for class, my asking for their help as I don`t like to and don`t know how to not give my all, and then either told them the ways I thought I could do less and asked for their permission to do that, or if they had a better idea. I also acknolwedged that it would affect my grade, which is fine.
All of them have been very supportive. It looks different for each class, but it will definitely help.

This has all been, hopefully, a step in my "perfection management"; you all know my tendency to do everything to 110% of my ability, sometimes for others, but often just for myself. "Slacking off" in classes and writing less than perfect papers is imperative, whether I want to or not. However, I as I wrestle with the negative side of this perfection, I am proud of the fact that I have accepted, albeit out of necessity, a plan to do a less than perfect job.

Strike Update

They’re still on strike. It’s been two weeks. The judge declared it illegal this Thursday, but the union leader failed to acknowledge the decision by immediately claiming the strike legal and failing to turn over the University, as well as rejecting the University’s most recent proposal. Seriously? I don’t get it.

I still feel good about the work I’ve gotten done, but I’m more than ready for classes to resume (as are all the majority of students). I had hoped that the ruling would mean we’d be back to classes this Monday, but that appears to not be the case. Although the University president can use police to force the Union to turn over the University, it appears he is avoiding it for now in hopes that the union does it voluntarily. Again, who knows, except that this strike seems to be very political, and I find that extremely irritating.

STRIKE! (And we’re not talking about baseball, however it seems Hermosillo is a fan of both.)

For your reading pleasure this entry has a shortER and long version. The underlined sections are for those of you that want the shortER version. The long version is for those of you interested in some of the details of the strike. Not sure if it’s cultural, but it’s definitely complicated. The bolded is just for organizational benefit, or the really really short version!

The big news here is that the workers of the university are on strike, since last Thursday the 3^rd, which means the school is completely closed. Everything is inaccessible, under lock and key, plus patrolling union members. As a result, I have had a week and 2 days of no school.

Here’s a little background information: there are two unions here, the teachers’ union STAUS and the workers’ union STEUS. However, there are also other employees who fall under neither category. Both the teacher’s union and the worker’s union voted last Thursday whether or not to accept the University’s budget proposal regarding their salary, benefits, and other compensations. Both unions were requesting for more than the university was offering, but in the end, only the workers’ union voted to strike.

However, the strike is much more complicated then salaries and budgets.

One, the strike was immediately declared illegal because they didn’t strike under the established procedures, supposedly. That decision was appealed. This past Wednesday the judge was to give his verdict on that, however, that day was pushed to Thursday. However, the University president failed to show up on Thursday so the meeting between the two parties (and the judge?) has been moved to next Tuesday, the 14^th. That means I for sure don’t have school until the 15^th.

Two, this strike is both politically entangled with the state and nationally supported. The workers union is supported by several other Mexican university union equivalents, Canaea’s mining union (which has been on strike for several months) and PRD, one of the national parties. PRD is involved because it wants the strike to reflect poorly on Sonora’s governor Bours, who is with the PRI party, and is up for reelection next year. (Hermosillo is the capital of the Sonora, the state). All this to say: it’s quite complicated.

When will this end? Potentially this coming Tuesday. However, if it is declared legal and they don’t reach an agreement, they are proposing a strike until May 8^th (supposedly a strikes come in time increments, such as 15, 21 days…I don’t get it.)

So how has this impacted me?

The good part is that it has given me some time to study without worrying about classes. I have taken full advantage and have put in long, fairly successful days, working ahead on school work, including reading the next novel for my lit. class, as well as finishing one paper and starting the next.

The bad news:

Bad news #1: The library is closed, and although I have many books to read for my papers yet, not having a library means what I have is what I get to work with.

Bad news #2: I have zero access to the school library, which means I can only use what I have. I do have many novels to read, can write my opinions, but I would have to save most of the research and support for later. (Plus I can’t work at school, which is always a nice option.)

Bad news #3: The strike has potential to last until May 8 (and maybe longer), depending on what happens this coming Tuesday.

My opinion on this all?

Primary opinion is quite selfish. I was glad for a week of no classes, but I am ready to get back so I can have as much as possible of June to use for Bowling Green papers.

Regarding the union and the university: both have some just fair reasons for some of their requests and actions; however, both have also failed in how they have approached and responded to the entire process. Overall, I support the university over the union.

Again, we’ll see what happens on Tuesday. It’s hard to say what’ll happen. Everyday it changes, so until this ends, this is just a whole lot of drama!

March 15, 2008 quickie

Hello all...
Sorry for the lack of updates. Unfortunatley, today's will be short as well. The reason being that I am off to a much needed vacation (my flight leaves at 4:30!). It's spring break here in Mexico for all universities and schools, plus many others as well. I am headed down south to check out Mexico City, Veracruz, and Xalapa with my college friend Carissa. With the three cities, it will be a little bit of a hi/bye, whirlwind tour of southern central/eastern Mexico. However, with time at the beach and in the mountains it should be relaxing as well. We are also going to meet up for a day with my friend Andres from last semester.

Life here:
-Still stressed about my papers...don't expect that to change, as I feel like I get more and more behind in regards to the time I will have left, and the time it takes for me to read, research, and write them.

-My computer keyboard has been impossible lately with the q interrupting every other letter, so that has meant more time at school, and more rigid planning of computer time. Thankfully, I got a new keyboard finally came in and so now I have a computer again!

-I didn't get as far as I hoped to on my Bowling Green papers before this vacation, in part due to being sick, in part due to it taking longer than I had hoped. However, no fears...I won't have a computer while traveling, so the work I will be limited to will be reading novels, and that's pretty enjoyable, plus I don't have too high of expectations of the amount I hope to get read.

-This week, we had a Literature/Linguistic Student Forum Conference, and I presented! thanks to the encouragement of my classmates. It went well. The good news was that because time is limited to 20 minutes, almost everyone reads their paper. Boring and harder to listen to in my opinion, but much easier for me to present in a clear understandable format!

Ok, that's it, until I get back. Thanks to all of you who regularly check the blogs and your faithful support and encouragement. I appreciate it a lot!

First Week of Second Semester

1) First day of class: Anyone remember my first day of class back in August? Words to describe that day would be: anxiety, shock, overwhelmed. First day of second semester: normal, easy, routine. What a difference a semester has made! So it was very fun to reflect of the growth I have made!

2) Courses:

After much planning and debating about which classes were best for me to take, I finally know my schedule and courses for this semester. Most importantly, I am quite pleased about it, especially regarding the content! They are classes a) of personal interest to me, b) related to my BGSU assignments (except the Soc . class), and cover a variety of educational fields. So, the classes I am taking are Mexican Literature 4 (1960s to current), Writing Workshop 2, Spanish Morpho-syntax (Linguistic study of the how words and sentence are formed) and Sociology of the border/migration. Furthermore my schedule is from 8:00-1:00 Monday through Thursday with an hour break at 9:00, and on Friday I only have two hours of class. This means that every afternoon I have a big open block of time, which is helpful for studying. I still need to figure out if I am going to incorporate a possible PE course, which would break that up, but would be beneficial in carving out time to exercise.

3) Classmates:

Two of my classes, Mex Lit 4 and Writing Workshop 2, are continuations of the classes I took last semester. This means I have class with two of the same groups of students (about 50 students altogether)! This is really nice as it means that I get to continue those relationships instead of having to meet two more sets of students. Furthermore, both of the groups are quite fun and I definitely enjoyed the class atmosphere. (In one class, I have the same professor, but in the rest the professors are all different). Returning to the topic of students, in my Morphosytaxis we are only three students. I guess I’ll be doing al my homework in that class!

4) Balance of study and fun

Although overall I did a decent job of balancing these areas this week, I will need to be extra intentional in this area this semester with the work I will need to accomplish. The trick will be not burning out of too much studying and therefore making my work less efficient, being able to say no to fun when I need to work, still feeling like I am taking advantage of living here, and time to deepen relationships. What else to say…same story as always for me.

5) Cold: I don't exactly know what the outside temperature has been here in the mornings, although one especially cold morning it was 2 degrees Celsius. However, even when it warms up outside (for example at 11:00), the classrooms are freezing. So I tend to wear my winter coat or heavy fall coat and scarf (and hat) in class, and still am cold. However, I can't complain too much as soon enough it will be hot again here, and midday can often be 80 degrees Farenheit now in January.

Second Semester Stress....Already?

¿Ya empezó? ¿It’s already started? was Luz Belia’s comment earlier this weekend. She was referring to both the semester and my stressing out. Although classes officially start tomorrow, Monday the 14^th, I was already stressing this week. So, yes, Luz Belia, I’ve already started. The primary cause is related to a list of questions for my qualifying exam for BGSU next year. The good news is that is a exam that we can work on ahead of time and I have until August to work on it. The bad news is that it is 9 papers to write.

One of their recommendations was to take classes related to the questions on the exam. So, this past week (in addition to the last week of first semester) I have been trying to set up my courses for this semester. However, the challenge was that there is a wide variety of material on the exams, and as a result, one question often only related to one class. Furthermore, many classes were only offered last semester and/or conflict with other classes. I also have consulted many professors, but I found that the more professors I consulted the more complicated it became.

In addition to the challenge of stress of trying to make the ideal semester with classes, is the stress of the work it will involve, in addition to that of my classes. All of you that know me can affirm that I am not the best manager or balancer of work/fun in that I often work more than I need to and then get stressed out. So, in order to help curb this, I have already started on my exam for Bowling Green. However, I still managed to stress out for two reasons: 1) I mapped out the semester and having approximately only two weeks per question/paper (yikes!), and 2) I had a hard time finding reference material (i.e. books, articles) to enable me to answer one the questions. The lack of resources is a common problem here that I knew about it, but had forgotten how frustrating and limited it is. It’s not just a question of not having the book on hand, it’s not being able to order them. And in regard to articles, the academic journals here at the university are cataloged by articles, and I haven’t find a great internet site for getting articles in Spanish on the web, although thankfully I do have BGSU to help out with that, although Spanish articles are still hard to find.

So, yes, school and its stress have resumed. The good news is that I made a lot of head way on Friday, both in regards to classes and finding key background information on one of the questions. I was also reminded that I need to examine my goals for next semester. I know I will work hard, but I also don’t want to miss out on the great opportunities of being here. So, that’s what I will try to do. And regarding the work of the semester…I know there will be a lot to do, but after all, I am a grad student.

Hard: 2nd round

So, there have been many more times than two that life here has been really hard, but it’s the second journal entry with this name.

Life has been really hard this weekend. On Thursday, I was on Cloud 9, since my work was primarily done and I was on the home stretch. On Friday, I was depressed. I went out in the afternoon and evening and had a good time, but at the end of the night I was still sad. Saturday was the same story. Today, Sunday, I was sad again.

What’s the deal? I should be happy now that I’m on vacation. However, vacation is exactly what’s to blame.

Triggers and Consequential Thoughts: No schedule. No more classes. Not getting the random social interactions at school with the thousands of acquaintances I have. It’s the Christmas season. Too much time to think and reflect. Not having got as much exercise lately. Not having gone to church recently and missing the renewal that brings. Not having a church I really like. Being tired after a semester of hard work. An “expectations communications cultural” conflict with the family the other weekend; (it was resolved and it’s ok, but it was still a no win situation and uncomfortable.) Being reminded that I am a foreigner first of all. Communicating and interacting in a language I still haven’t mastered and in which there are still many things I don’t understand or miss. Knowing I have essays to turn into Bowling Green in August. Wanting to work ahead, but relax, hang out with people, help out in the house, travel, watch lots of movies, and wanting to do nothing, and yet something. Having too much free time. Not having people to travel with. Not being with my brothers and sister in laws during the holidays. Debating again and again about if I made the right decision to stay, or if I should change the plan, and then what I’ll miss out on if I go home. Not having Christmas as I know it and all that entails. Being reminded that I have primarily lots of fun social acquaintances, but not many close friends. Knowing that my social group of Intercambio are leaving. (At least there will be a few who will still be here.) Feeling like I should be in a better spot than I am and shouldn’t feel this way, but knowing that this moment would come. Knowing that it’s part of the process of living abroad, but that it sucks none the less.

Result: I’ve been a wreck. Crying. Trying to remedy the situation and still being down and at the point of tears. Feeling sad, lonely, sad… lonely, lonely, lonely….sad.

Ways I’ve tried to remedy the situation: Exercising, going out with people, crying, calling home to the US, thinking of how to use my time before and after my parents are here (i.e. Read Harry Potter #7 and other books in English to take my brain off things when everyone else is with their family), be intentional about initiating hanging out with classmates that I’d like to get to know more, debating about flying home after my parents are here and the pros and cons of that, and in the end buying a plane ticket (and I'll still have a little over two weeks here in Hermosillo while not in classes).

The good news: Although I will continue to struggle on and off with not having close friends here, I feel much better knowing that I’ll be with my brothers and family over the holiday during the part of vacation which would have been the hardest (post family through New Year’s). Sunday evening and Monday have gone MUCH better!

September 29, 2007 Part 1: Good news!

The awesome news of this week is that I got to drop a class! All along, I have been anxious about my course load. I had asked about my credit requirement for at the beginning of the semester, since the credits are calculated differently here. I kept all my classes as I would be a little under if I were to drop a class. However, going to Mazatlán two weeks ago made me realize how stressed I have been and how little time I had for anything else. So, I re-evaluated the situation. Upon realizing how many strategies and adjustments I have made regarding my classes and the homework, I decided that it would be better to have the heavier course load next semester when I’ll know what to expect and have a stronger level of Spanish. I wrote my Bowling Green advisor a very lengthy email explaining the situation and requesting his permission to drop a class. He responded saying he needed to know the numbers of hours I spend in class, in addition to my number of credits. Based on the number of hours I was spending in class, he responded my saying that I could and should drop a class! Needless to say, I am thrilled!

(I know I will continue to put many, many hours of work, but I also believe this change will help me be able to narrow my focus giving me more success in the classes I do have. Above all else, I can study much more calmly.)

Classes-Week #1

The following is a what I wrote for one of my classes here about the first day of classes (translated into English of course!)
Today, Monday, August 13, was my first day of class here at the University of Sonora (UNISON). As it´s been 5 years since I graduated from Calvin College and 6 since I actually took a class, I was feeling both excited and a little bit nervous about the reality of studying again. My first class was Mexican Literature III (20th century) from 10:00-11:00. Veronique, my house mate, is also taking this class and so that helped me to not feel so alone in this adventure. However, my feelings changed as the class progressed and I soon was in shock. I didn´t understand hardly anything. I don´t have very much literature background in regards to classes and furthermore I haven´t taken the prerequisites to this class, so both my vocabulary and background knowledge were severly lacking. I though, What am I doing? and Should I even be in this class? The second class was better. It was Composition Workshop I, an hour class for incoming freshmen. As a result, many students arrived late to class and then received a mini-lecture about the importance of arriving on time and their assistance. I was humored by this and quite relieved that I have pasted that stage. Español II was next. The teacher is quite the dramatic, energetic, animated woman. Upon entereing, many students proceded to give her the warm welcome with hugs and kisses. Then in class, she commented that over the break she had missed them.....yesterday. I certainly have a variety of professors! My final class is History of the US/Mexican Relations at 7:00-9:00. I enjoyed the class and I felt better about what I understood (perhaps because I had more back ground history and perhaps because I had better expectations of what I´d understand). Anyway, I enjoyed the class. Thankfully, we got out at 8:00 since it was an introduction. So thus ended my first day of classes. Tomorrow I get to start it all over again.

Follow up: One week later, Monday, August 20, 2007
I know have been to a full week of classes. Overall it went well. However, there was definitely less homework than I´ll have normally. It has had its ups and downs of course. I understand much less than what I´ve expected so that´s the hardest part. It also means that even if I work super hard, I´m not going to get the success I´m used to receiving with more hours of work. I know that part of it results from the adjusting to being in classes (and in Spanish), but there are days, like today, that I doubt that and just think that I´m in over my head. However, professors have been very understanding and helpful and students are welcoming and helfpul as well. The other challenging part is my schedule. I have classes scattered through out the day and so that makes for a long day, but also means I don´t ever get a large block of time. Furthermore, I am still looking for housing so that takes up time as well. Anyway, as you can tell, today, I´m stressed and more anxious, but last week overall did go better than I expected.