csheila’s blog

As I was sifting through ideas of topics to write about for this blog regarding the differences in Mexican culture and American culture, I realized that I have not mentioned the favorite topic of many: food!  Of course!  Food is such an intricate part of Mexican culture that when I arrived, I realized that nearly all of my language problems revolved around the meal times because I did not know the Mexican food vocabulary.  It’s practically a whole other language in itself! 

First of all, the food is spicy…very spicy!  Everything is made with chily, and there is quite a variety of types of chillies for all the different seasons and regions.  A hot sauce and a lime is served with just about everything from fruit to popcorn, and it’s super good; I fear that I will never be able to make nor find such salsas or sauces in the U.S. and I won’t be able to enjoy my food without their proper condiments again.   And the food is nothing like the food served in Mexican restaurants in the U.S.A.  I have yet to see nachos served with a meal, and tortillas are practically the utensils at every meal of every day.  Another surprise was that Coca-Cola is always present at every meal (including breakfast) as Mexico is the number one consumer of Coca-Cola; it is the “water” of Mexico just as much as the tortilla is the “fork”.

One stereotype that is true about Mexican food is that everything is fried.  Empanadas, gorditas, stuffed chillies, tacos (the tortillas are fried), etc.  Those are all examples of some of the main Mexican dishes in which the tortillas are made with various recipes, but all containing corn, and they are fried differently to the point of being soft, blown up, hard or crispy.  And then of course the main ingredients vary in types and amounts but they often include black beans, cheese, beef or chicken, and chillies.  Vegetables are usually served in the dishes but not as sides…and eating vegetables raw with a dip disgusts most Mexicans nearly as much as the concept of peanut butter and jelly (until they try it).  Ah, and my favorite part of every meal is the salsa served with these dishes!  They are usually made with natural ingredients of cream, chili, tomato, and salt all put into a blender and then later broiled over the stove.  An oven is nothing more than a storage unit for Mexicans as everything is cooked on the stove.

In class this week at the main university, our professor was showing us pictures from a book of all the food a typical family might eat in each country.  When the pictures of the “typical American family” and of the “typical Mexican family” came up, it was hilarious to see our various reactions.  One other American girl was in the class with me and the rest were Mexicans.  I found myself enraged that they all honestly believed that we eat fast food non-stop and that our daily dinner is composed of a hamburger and fries.  Well, our Mexican classmates also found it a bit disgruntling to see their country’s stereotyped image to be a bit skewed as well as there were food ingredients on the table that nobody even recognized.  However, they were all agreed on the tortillas, the vegetable oil, and the Coca-Cola as being likely products in any Mexican home.  They were also not thrilled about how the only Mexicans in the picture were all indeed fat, reinforcing the stereotype of the short, fat Mexican, and all we Americans could say was: “Join the club.”  Americans are portrayed as the fattest people in the world no matter how many of us are actually not overweight.  I guess that just goes to show…we need to visit and see for ourselves to understand where all these ideas come from and to accept every stereotype with a grain of salt. (Lame food joke, I know).

 

 

After nearly 3 months of taking business and marketing courses in the main University with Mexican students, I can definitely reflect on the differences of the customs, exams, and schedules between BGSU and the Universidad Veracruzana (UV). 

Well, to begin, my first day of classes, I remember walking in and feeling slightly uncomfortable being the only foreigner in the majority of my classes.  However, the students were all so welcoming and inquisitive that I began to feel at home soon enough.  However, I must say, the first differences of how a Mexican classroom is run and how an American classroom is run were obvious:  Class started 20 minutes after it was scheduled when the professor finally arrived and the students began to file on in.  And then it dawned on me that even after the professor started speaking that the level of noise and chatter in the classroom never died down.  It seems that the professors are just accustomed to continue speaking as well as the students- now this is not true of all profs and classes but definitely for 2 of my 3 classes.  Also, it is perfectly acceptable for students to just get up and walk in and out of the class at any given time to get a drink or to make a phone call outside.  Many spend half of the classtime outside of it.  It was a bit distracting at first, but I got used to it.

Now this is not to say that we don’t learn; we just learn in a more conversational and informal way.  I like it because we students have the opportunity to interact more with the professor and to be more relaxed.  The point of the class is to learn the material, not just to take a test.  That’s what I love.

Other differences are that there is far less homework and far more emphasis on the exams which are usually two during the semester and then the one big final that is worth 40% of the grade.  There are participation grades but I have not yet figured out how they are factored into the final grade.  The grading system is from 1-10…I get the impression that the majority of students get 8’s with little to no effort.

I found that my first exams were a bit rough.  They were open-answer essay questions and the majority of content in my Marketing and business courses is composed of lists of factors and characteristics of different business strategies….so I felt like I was learning lots and lots of lists within lists of concepts and I needed to be prepared to just regurgitate it all.  This has its bonuses and negatives…I feel that I learn far more of the material and the details with these kinds of tests than I would normally with a multiple -choice test (which are also used here).  However, I don’t have to apply the concepts to the real world… maybe that is more for upper level classes- not sure.  The negative is that I often feel like I am just memorizing material from my notes and regurgitating…but hey I save money on not buying text books (they’re not used except for the science and math majors).

I have noticed that there is a concept acknowledged and known by Mexicans called “la cultura de menos esfuerzos” (culture of less effort).  What that means is that there seems to be an overall cultural attitude that people do not need to work that hard to reach their goals.  I talked with some of my peers and teachers about it, and it is something that they admit is real and common in Latin America.  For example, there is a stronger correlation of students cheating through various means and of the teachers not doing anything about it, the buying off of grades, the frequency of classes being cancelled for festivals 2 hours away from the city and spontanous concerts in front of the school, etc.  I even have one professor who is a very good prof when she comes, but rarely comes to class herself.  We have had 5 class sessions in 2 months.  She’s the only one who is that bad with assistance- my other 2 classes are fortunately not like that.  The problem with the education system is that the teachers can’t really be fired very easily…and there are no negative consequences for not showing up to class.  Obviously this attitude of less effort needed carries over into the kids and the culture. 

 I think a part of the problem is that most people do not have the hope of ever working for a big multinational corporation, as one of my professors pointed out in class.  He said: “99% of you in this room will go on to work for small or medium-sized companies, often run by family members.  But 1% of you (playfully indicating me, the only foreigner and American in the room) would actually need and care to learn this material about the mega-businesses well.”  (Except this was all in Spanish). 

It’s interesting how the perspective of education and its importance is different here.  I think that people still value education strongly here, but they see it only as a means to an end..and it is not that impressive of an end so they just get through it by barely scraping by.  However, in the U.S. the education system works hard to protect against that by literally failing students who do not pass.  We also have standardized testing that I previously condemned but now value after seeing how the standards can vary too greatly without some sort of system of checks and balances.  To conclude, I enjoy my materials and the variety of my classes here in Mexico; however, I think that I will have a harder time adjusting back into the more difficult school system of BGSU in the fall. 

Madre Mia I have been here in Xalapa, Mexico for six weeks now and with the way my world has been turned upside down, it feels like 6 months!  (But in a good way).  I can’t tell you how weird it is to be writing so much English at one time seeing as how I truly never speak it here as I am only with Mexicans all the time outside of classes.  I apologize in advance for my spelling errors- Spanish has made my English worse haha. 

My trip began on February 3rd when I fly by myself into Mexico City with two big bags on wheels and a heavy duffle with my laptop (hidden of course).  Now picture that for a moment: Blond American girl with lots of luggage alone in Mexico City, one of the most dangerous capitals in the world.  Ok, but fortunately I am smart and I knew how to make myself not look alone and to not trust anybody (including people in official uniform).  I got into a taxi from the airport to the Bus station and realized that I had forgotten to look up what a normal taxi price would be for such a short 15 minute ride.  “Crap!” I thought to myself when the taximan said that he wanted 500 pesos (about $40 U.S. dollars) and I didn’t know if that was correct or not- I doubted it but I had nothing to go on so I paid about half of it and said that I didn’t have any more cash.  After I got out in the bus station and checked my luggage for the 5 hour bus ride to Xalapa I was waiting around for a couple hours in the first class bus section (safer) and I asked someone what that taxi ride should have cost, and the response: $50 pesos.  Ah!  Welcome to Mexico, Sheila.  My first lesson was to always do my homework and know what things cost.  I am blatantly American and therefore, every price in the street for any product or service climbs high simply because they can. 

I had a Mexican friend Ana, who was my cultural assistant last year when I came with a class, who has been a lifesaver and certainly one of my most trusted friends here in Xalapa.  Ana and her adorable mom picked me up at the Xalapa bus station after that very long day in planes and over-charging taxis and the 5 hour bus ride and fed me a spicy Mexican dinner late that night.  The next morning Ana and I got up and started going through the newspaper ads to look for a room or apartment to rent for me to make my home sweet home for the next five months.  She made all of the calls so that the  rent prices would not jump again when the landlords hear my American accent on the phone.  As Ana made call after call, I remember thinking to myself, “I wonder if I will always feel this dependent on people no matter how well I learn the language.”  Fortunately since then I have learned that my confidence and knowledge of the way things work here are far more influential than my American accent every could be which is a wonderful lesson about life.

Ok so to make some long and numerous stories short, my second day here Ana and I found my new home with a room outside of a Mexican family’s home.  I have an independent entrance to my room but I share the bathroom with the whole family which is a LOT of people seeing as how everyone is always here in the grandma’s home to eat every meal (3 generations).  I have learned that everyone’s uncles and aunts live around the corner and that everyone pretty much just comes over to eat at Grandma’s for the big meals of the day: Lunch which is at 3:00 in the afternoon and dinner which is at 9-10:00pm. 

My first week eating every meal filled with jalapenos and chilis did not go over well with my stomach.  I had expected this to some degree due to the drastic change of diet but I did not know how bad it would get.  I could hardly walk due to the sharp pains of my stomach that worsened every time I ate or drank ANYTHING.  After a few days Ana took me to her uncle who is a doctor around the corner who has his own clinic in his home (everyone has their own business attached to their homes).  I must say that if it had not been the uncle of Ana, I might have left because the place was nothing like a doctor’s office that I am accustomed to: papers and medicines EVERYWHERE, a dusty patient’s bed (the English word for that has escaped me…?) and a computer that looked like it was from the movie Back to the Future.  However, the guy knew what he was doing and got me some medicines that cost practically nothing in U.S. dollars and I was better within a few days and eating whatever.

At the same time that all of that was happening I was also without access to my bank account.  I had tried to withdraw money from three different banks with my Mastercard and 3 times it was just outright rejected and twice the machines ate my card and I had to wait until the next day to go back to the banks and retrieve my card.  This involved many hours of waiting and talking to several managers of banks and calling my bank in the U.S. and in the end I decided to open a Mexican bank account and wire money over to this.  This turned out to be the best and relatively easy (just lots of waiting in lines) because now I can travel anywehere in Mexico and even in South America and I will always have this account with an international Spanish-speaking bank and it doesn’t charge me international transaction fees to use the card.   But I must admit, my first two weeks here while waiting for all those official changes were difficult as I was sick and having to borrow my first month’s rent from Ana and her mom and couldn’t buy anything because I had no access to my money.  I think that is everyone’s worst nightmare traveling abroad but I SURVIVED and learned who my friends were and that good people ARE in this world to help. 

Ok so in my first 6 weeks, I have started classes in the main Mexican university with other Mexican students taking a couple International Marketing courses and an International Business Administration course.  I LOVE THEM.  Hardly any homework except group projects, awesome professors, laid-back schedules and classes get cancelled for Carnivals and Festivals and for Gasoline Exportation Day (rough translation).  I also take classes in the Foreigners School, but I don’t actually spend a lot of my time there because everyone is American and they speak English all the time.  I just kind slip in and out quietly to go to classes and get out.  No offense to my fellow Americans but I’m just not here to party American-style, speak English, and stick out like a tourist for 5 months. 

I met some of my best friends here the first week of classes in the main university when I went shopping with my friend Zyanya who introduced me to all of her friends.  Since then I have gone with that whole group to the biggest Carnaval of the country in Veracruz, I have gone to the gym with them a few times, we go running together, we have gone to the movies, and we’re going to the beach, we do sleepovers and group projects together…basically I live with these people.  I even introduced them to the concept of peanut butter and jelly (which they love) and we have made chocolate chip cookies together on numerous occasions, once even selling them in our school- sold them all!  I have also gone with some other friends to climb a huge mountain that I think is about 3-4 miles high called Cofre- hard long day.  I have eaten hot dogs with the spiciest chilis of my life along with mayo, bacon, ketchup, jalapenos, onions, and cheese (very very yummy all together).  I have joined a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ here in Xalapa called la Vida Estudiantil with whom I feel comfortable to share my faith and worship God together.  I have also gone out to a club and to some great house parties with salsa dancing and merengue and some types of dancing that is just typical of Mexico. 

I would say that in my 6 few weeks here, I have already experienced a lot more than the average study-abroad student.  How did I do it? I broke off from the Americans and sought out opportunites to go with people.  I took people up on their offers to take me shopping or to give me rides (if I trusted and knew them) and opened up without a care to the world about my Spanish or accent.  I speak up in class knowing that I will not speak perfectly like my native classmates…and you know what, it’s beautiful.  How many times had I seen foreign students in my classes at BGSU speak up with questions and I thought to myself: “That person is brave because everyone turns to look at the person with the accent and yet he speaks with confidence.  I wonder what his worldview is like…”  And now I am that person.  Beautiful.