I found the dog's pee corner tonight. In Mexico they don't train their dogs to go outside. Princess! You would love this place! Cat's don't use litter boxes either! But I am constantly stepping in dog urine. They just go wherever. But tonight I saw in the kitchen there is a a spot up against the wall that is completely saturated with urine. I am assuming this is where they are supposed to go. Their pee corner.

I'm taking this anthropology/community service class at Emiliana Zapata, where we do our service work. The class definitely has the potential to be great. We discuss poverty, racism, and how to effectively help a community. The class is strictly discussion based, and the professor continuously encourages heated debates.  The first day these debates were completely reasonable, after an economics major from our group argued FOR sweat shops. But even when we all agree the professor still tries to get us to argue... and then everyone ends up repeating things over and over just so they can get their participation points (this is assuming we get participation points... I have no idea where I stand or how I am graded). Last week when we discussed where racism emerges I shared my viewpoint. All I said was that humans are biologically wired to protect their own kind in order to procreate. This is why we are biologically prove to be attracted towards our own race. I didn't add that last part to my argument, but its true. I did say this however- the biological reason I would jump in front of a bus to save my brother over a random stranger isn't because I love him or know him more (love you Zack!), it's because I would want his genes to be carried down over someone who does not possess my genes. Then I explained that although race is a social construct, and technically we are all the same race, the truth of the matter is that most people don't look at homo sapiens from an evolutionary standpoint and simply see someone of a different race as the other.  While it is not correct, its the reality of the situation. And this is a possibly theory as to why people will protect or prefer someone of their own race over  another.

While this is a whole other discussion on its own, my point is that it is difficult to truthfully express my opinion in this class. Reason being, the following day, while taking a walk with someone in my class (of minority status mind you) suddenly I had the label, "racist" being thrown at me for my views expressed in the class the previous day.
          "So you would save a white person over me?"
          Sigh. "No, because I recognize the fact that we are all equal. All I am saying it is instinctual to protect a person that is viewed as your kind rather than as an outsider. I don't view other skin colors as outsiders."
         "That's still kind of racist."

I guess the whole situation is very interesting because we are all coming from very different backgrounds and have been trained to think very different due to our majors.  This kid is a psychology major, a social science that tends to take a different path than anthropology. Even my anthro classes will criticize the psych field as over generalizing and not looking at human action as a result of a social construct. Its a much deeper discussion, and I by no means am saying that Anthropology pwns (owns) Psychology, but it makes sense that given his academic upbringing, he would automatically diagnose me rather than looking at the situation of racism on a much bigger picture. It is a very interesting mix to have so many different majors in a discussion-based class. Just look at the Econ major who says "Sweat shops give people jobs."

Because we have such different backgrounds and different opinions, they often times indirectly criticize one another. One bi-racial student who is closely tied to her Indian heritage says she finds it sad when people who do not actively practice in the customs of their ancestors and therefore have no sense of identity. "When you can't identify with your background you are invisible. It's very sad." She describes being seen as invisible by society because she has to check "OTHER" when filling out a form that requires her to put her race.

When I brought up that I believe you should identify yourself with the customs of which you partake in people got pretty upset. I have Romanian blood and yes, I think garlic is pretty tasty, but I do not speak the language nor practice the customs. Does this mean I am invisible? Does this mean I do not have an identity? According to some members of the class yes, but when I tried explaining that one, I always check the race box, "prefer not to answer," and that I identify myself as an American, because I speak English, am learning Spanish, go to American schools, and love cheeseburgers, I suddenly had a kid with a white mother who was adopted from El Salvador very offended and asking me what he is.

The first thing I noticed with the class was that if I didn't want to upset the teacher, I would have to suck up to her. Expressing our concerns or obstacles when discussing how our community service is a big no-no. For an hour and a half of the class we can only say, "how good to feels, I just love helping people, I look forward to going." Okay, obviously this is true, but is this at all productive or a valuable use of class time. I also have to write 3 pages a week on "How my community service is going." AKA, not how it is going, but how I am feeling. This week I have to write a reflection on one of the readings she assigned. A reading that talked about how people without money in America are seen as valueless and mindless people. This image, according to the reading is created by the other class of people, the people with money. And then it goes on to blame the media for a couple pages. No real evidence, facts, or deep philosophical reasonings, just "this is what I feel, this is how it is." We have been warned that if we want a good grade we need to suck up to our professor as much as possible.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, I guess I'll get back to my homework, hopefully post some more later!

Mexico has been absolutely hectic over the past couple of weeks. School is in full swing and I just finished one of my Spanish courses. Each Spanish class only goes for 5 weeks but meets more often given me a total of 8 credits for my Spanish classes. This is a great way to get a bunch of credits out of the way... however, it means I have a midterm and final every other week. Awesome.

From Wed to Friday I went to Cozumel to visit with Weston. My friend Bianca accompanied me. It was a little over a 5 hour bus ride to Playa del Carmen and then we took a ferry to Cozumel. What an adventure. After a little bit of searching in Cozumel, we finally found a hostel. Of course there were closed. Who can guess what famous scene this is closely resembles? As soon as we got to the door we saw a man on the other side. We knocked and asked to let us in, but he just shook his head and continued to ignore us. This lady suddenly appeared out of nowhere coming out of a door next to the hostel. I asked her if this were it and she let us in. She was just a visitor but helped us get situated showing us where the keys and bed were. Because the manager wasn't there, we had to sleep on a bare mattress with nothing else, but hey, we had a bed.

That night we went to a bar Weston showed me called, No Name Bar. It is a bar that was made by a couple of cruise members who were sick of going to ports and having nowhere to escape the tourists. The place is strictly for crew members or locals, but hey, we went anyways. We are Mexican locals. The place was absolutely great, fantastic to meet people you can actually have a conversation with and who aren't trying to get shit faced. However, being accustomed to not needing to look at a menu to pay attention to prices (in Merida drinks are rarely over 40 pesos) we ordered one margarita each. THEY WERE 105 PESOS! This was just the begining of our wake up call to how expensive tourist places are. Everything in Cozumel was ALWAYS at least triple the cost then what it would be in Merida.

THE NEXT DAY I SAW WESTON!! MEJOR. DIA. JUNTA.

I arrived back safetly last night. It ended up being just under five hours to get back to Merida but was made up in time with the traffic from Carnaval.

Tonight Bianca is having a potluck dinner for the study abroad students and me and her's tutors. I'm making Deviled Eggs but with a Mexican twist... jalepenos and cumin and garnished with parsley and chili powder! Hopefully they turn out well. Estoy nervosa!

Afterwards there is a parade. We are all dressing up despite the fact that we are only spectators. I have the best outfit ever. Full body spandex cat suit. Don't worry your pretty little heads off... pictures will definitely be posted.

Afterwards everyone is going to the disco but I think I'm going to wander around with my tripod and snap some photographs. I am writing an article on Carnaval for DePaul's newspaper. However, because its for the schools newspaper I'm going to have to make it, "DePaul Student's Experience Carnaval" and focus it on what we did. Umm.. hopefully I'll be able to find a way to get out of going to the clubs tonight to report. Sigh. But needless to say, I'm pretty excited to run around in my spandex cat costume shoving my voice recorder in people's faces. Meow!

por favor?