#15 Blog Reflection

When I was first assigned to write a blog for my Journey in Literature class a lot of things came across my mind; from the idea of it being seen publicly (since it's a blog) to the fact that what was going to be seen were going to be my ideas on various topics. This was soon overcome since we were told that our classmates (especially the Sunshine Travelers) were required to comment on my ideas on the class topics. From the activity the part I got the most from was the comments I left on my classmates' blogs, since I not only commented on my thoughts but also heard feedback and even made a type of conversation with my classmates. This helped us compare and contrast the different perspectives each of us had related to the topics discussed in class. Since we were encouraged by our Professor to be creative on our blogs, it was also nice to see the personal things everyone shared on their blogs related to their pastimes and to their interests. I did a blog before for another class but it was not in any way as this one since we were not encouraged to participate from our classmates' blogs as we were for this activity, and in my opinion this is a great way for us to not only see the true identity of our classmates, but also the external and internal journeys they experience.

#14 Travel Book: Hermit in Paris

Italo Calvino’s book gives the reader a vivid example of how the major events from his diverse life experiences occurred. In Hermit in Paris we see how an author, who was born in Cuba but soon taken to Italy by his parents, where he lived for more than twenty years, and whom also travelled from place to place, including France and the United States, narrates his life through the perspective he gets as a tourist/traveler from the cities he visits or those he lived in and the othering he partakes in during his travels, but also by the sense of home, the identity, and the external and internal journeys he overcomes throughout his younger years, since these are the years that shape the world of his imagination, even though he clearly states that New York, one of the many cities he visits, is his city.  Calvino also adds that even though he included some places he traveled to, like New York and Paris, in some of his writings, he is not inspired completely by neither the city nor the events that occurred while traveling, by being a tourist or from even living in these cities. The author not only portrays his perspective as a native of a country, but also shows his experiences as a tourist and a traveler during his two years in America, which gave him enough time to compare the two clashing cultures, the Italian and the American, from which he describes, through othering and stereotyping, his experiences and opinions upon traveling through the different cities in the United States. Calvino also portrays his experiences as a traveler in France and how, even though he spent many years in Paris, where he got married and even procreated, it never felt like it was his home.

#13 Group Reflection (Sunshine Travelers)

I can say that the Sunshine Travelers is the best group! We were always organized and prepared for what we had to present or discuss in class and we all were always eager to do the work that was required in order to present any of the themes discussed that day or those that were assigned for us to present. The best group activity was the one for Puerto Rico's Perspective since we all are Puerto Rican's but share very different ideas on how Puerto Rico is viewed by us and by others. This activity was a nice head start for the group because not only was it a good theme for group discussion but also it brought us together since even though we didn't share the same ideas, they all came from the same place, from undergraduate students living in Puerto Rico.

In general, my opinion of the groups is a very positive one because we sometimes tend to take our classes and leave without even seeing who was seated next to you for a whole semester, and being in a group "forces" you to see your classmates in a different perspective from what you would see them by only taking the class without saying anything to each other. This may also influence our internal/external journeys because we find out that even though their perspectives are different we all share the same internal journey, the need to graduate and become something in a near future, which is sometimes hampered by our external journey, The University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus. To conclude I may say that after being in a group, that was chosen by my professor, made up of other classmates whom I'd never before talked to, my perspective changed because it is not the same to pass by a class without talking to anyone than sharing your ideas and thoughts, related and unrelated to the class themes, with other classmates!

#12 Old San Juan as a Tourist/Traveler

It was a Sunday morning when I decided to go for the tourist/traveler role on the Old San Juan in Puerto Rico. There are some places and activities in this tourist zone that are a must do if you are here for your first time. Among these is El Morro, which is on the top of the main attractions in Old San Juan; followed by many other things of which I had the opportunity to experience from another perspective than the one I am used to being treated with. ElMorro is the street name given to the Castillo de San Felipe, and though many people tend to think of it as a fort it was actually built to serve as a castle but confused with a fort by the U.S. government. Families now come to the grounds leading to the entrance to fly kites or even enjoy a nice picnic under the shinning sun. 

Even though my adventure started in the morning the sun was not shy at all and was showing all its glory, due to this I had to indulge in one of the most tempting parts of my day, a Piragua, a shaved ice treat made with your favorite flavor, that came perfectly with the show off the sun was making. This is a must try in Old San Juan and there is a Piragüero (name given to the man who creates the shaved ice) in all the highly visited corners in Old San Juan. This was the first part of my adventure and I can say that my perspective changed a bit given the fact that I spoke in strict English and instead of just telling him the flavor I had in mind (tamarind, a must try!) I went ahead and asked the flavor he recommended, and the best seller. He answered that the one he recommends was coconut, which I tried and was a bit disappointed, and the best seller was Strawberry. I continued experimenting and asked him that after I went to El Morro what place would he recommend for a late breakfast/early lunch, he pointed out a bakery/pizzeria that was about three to four blocks away from his kiosk, La Tortuga. 

Piragua Kiosk from which I also bought platanutres, plantain chips made with plantains from the island.

I kept his advice in mind and went ahead to El Morro, but before that I had to ask a Puerto Rican, to please take a picture of me, my piragua, and the amazing view of the ground of El Morro. This was my second interaction and I can say it was a pleasant one since he was nice enough to not only take a picture but I also asked him where to eat, so I can have a second opinion, and he answered that he’s not from Old San Juan, and that he and his family are on their way to look for a nice place to have lunch, making me feel a bit in group since we, the traveler and the Puerto Rican, were both looking for a place to eat. 

A fun fact about El Morro is the fact that in the extensive grounds that lead you to its entrance (everything that's green behind me) was used by the U.S. Navy to build a golf club for its officer’s entertainment.

El Morro right behind me!

I continued to El Morro and asked a couple of tourists to take a picture with a nice background. After this I went to La Tortuga, and was greeted by the waiter in Spanish, but I quickly answered “Hi, do I seat on any table I want” and I felt the othering she gave me since she even changed her tone from a rushed one in Spanish to a more attentive and passive one in English, she even explained what each sandwich was made of, something I knew she wouldn’t have explained in Spanish. 

Met new people while eating!

Since my experiment was being held solo, I took this advantage and across from where I was eating, I saw a twenty-something year old guy that went in to eat breakfast (also solo) and left his surfboard near the entrance, I later asked him if there was a surfer’s beach in Old San (I know there is one but there had to be something that started the conversation). He answered that in fact there is one and he went on explaining where it was in vivid detail. I saw his enthusiasm and imagined the question he in fact made a couple of minutes after we started talking “Do you surf?” I said that I’ve tried it a couple of times but that I’m not a pro at it. 

San Juan Cemetery

He invited me to the beach in Old San Juan, located next to the Cemetery, where he explained most of the famous Puerto Rican’s were buried there, and it was also very close to a not-so-good place in Old San Juan, La Perla, a neighborhood with a very bad reputation of drugs and criminality. This interaction influenced my internal journey since I had heard of the beach in La Perla, but I had never surfed there, something I would soon have overcome, even though it is said to have good waves, due to the external journey I hadn’t overcome which involved the fear of it being next to a bad neighborhood. Before we left La Tortuga I asked the waiter to take a picture of us and after he invited to take me to the beach I broke character and told him I was doing a project and I was actually Puerto Rican, just in case he got tired of talking about the island and started questioning my false identity as a traveler/tourist for a day.

View of the Cemetery and of the surfer's beach

Extra Credit: Dr. Adam Riess

I was recently given the opportunity to hear the insights from Dr. Adam Riess, about the fact that “The Universe looks static…but it’s not!” We were introduced by the fact that the universe is not only expanding, as we all knew was happening, but that it is doing it more rapidly than before, and this may be due to the components of the dark energy Dr. Riess talks about.

"The Universe looks static...but it's not!"

Dr. Riess also talked about the erroneous number that was given to the Earth’s age of 2.2 billion years, when as he states, there are things on Earth that date older than 2.2 billion years. This date was later established to be a lot more different than the mentioned number, since as he mentioned there are species that date to have lived more than 2.2 billion years ago. This example was given by him due to the fact that while making his research he encountered the fact that something that was stated by Einstein, was wrong, and he and his team were about to uncover the real answer.

During the conference we were explained the way in which this expansion is measured using a sound mechanism for the distance of the galaxies and a formula for velocity for the measure of how far the galaxies have moved.  Another fact brought up by Dr. Riess is the way in which they found out if the Universe was accelerating was by placing a telescope in an assigned position and taking a picture, some time later they looked at the same position and took a picture and as they compared all the pictures they took through time, they were encountered with the fact that new supernovae appeared in a surprisingly increased rate revealing an accelerating Universe.

Publications by Dr. Adam Riess: http://www.stsci.edu/~ariess/Publications.htm

Extra Credit: Dr. James Penner

As I was suggested to see the conference on Dr. James Penner’s book Timothy Leary: The Harvard Years, it never passed through my mind the fact that the main theme of his book was such a controversial one as psychedelic drugs is for the society. I was very much impressed by the fact that an English Professor from the Río Piedras Campus of the UPR wrote about such a controversial theme that may not seem to be suitable for college and invited his and other students to accompany him in his conference.

From the many insights I got from the conference I can say that the one that impacted me the most was the use that is currently given to LSD and the comparison with what it was used before, during Timothy Leary’s years, around the 1960’s. Dr. Penner stated that Timothy Leary’s experiences with these psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, was before these drugs went underground. Nowadays LSD is mostly common with the “young crowd” and it may be a problem because most of these drugs are not made in the most adequate places, since you may end up buying a drug, such as LSD, that could’ve easily been made by a twenty-something year old in his mom’s kitchen. Another surprising insight I got from Dr. Penner’s conference was the fact that LSD is currently being used to treat many addictions and mental diseases, such as depression, and is having a positive effect on the patients its been given to. An example of this so called success, is given by Dr. Penner when he talked about nicotine addiction and the fact that of the patients that have been treated with psychedelic drugs, 7% of them gave it up, this was by a sort of epiphany they had as a result of the psychedelic drugs in which they didn’t want to smoke more.

If given the chance to vote in favor of the psychedelic drugs being used as a treatment of other diseases, I would have to vote in favor since some of these drugs, as are the magic mushrooms Dr. Penner talks about, come from nature, they are not lab derived, as are most of the drugs used to treat many diseases. There’s also the case of a terminal cancer patient whom is supposed to be left to die, but if given the psychedelic drugs, as Dr. Penner says, the patient tends to accept more his or her fate and ends up having a more acceptable death.

#11 The Rum Diary

As I finished watching The Rum Diary I could’ve mentioned a couple of things that caught my attention. From these things I can choose the one that captivated more my attention and it’s the compare and contrast given to Puerto Rico by the tourist/traveler perspective portrayed in the movie. A couple of weeks before, we were assigned to study the perspective a person gets from the Internet about Puerto Rico in the current year, 2014. Of all the perspectives I heard from my classmates the ones that I could relate most to the movie were the idea researchers get from the news articles that talk about the island and the fact that they’re all related to either corruption in politics or high criminality. Now a days, it is clearly not as dangerous, as it is seen in the movie, to go outside the tourist areas if you don’t know the island well enough but there could still be a chance that, even in the tourist areas, you may even get robbed in a street or even followed by strangers with the intent of hijacking your car, like our Professor told us happened to her. In the current years we have been also exposed to the types of corruption that is seen in the movie, but they may have a twist on what happened in the movie with the land that was wanted by the investors. Also the fact that the in the movie the media was manipulated to publish another version of the story is seen nowadays in the political campaigns the major parties or Puerto Rico have.

There are many more examples on how, I may also call it othering, affects the tourist, since an American is treated differently by the locals when they are visiting the island. This may be because of the history between Puerto Rico and the United States, which is in part portrayed throughout the entire movie, The Rum Diary. A part related to the tourist/traveler perspective the movie portrays is when we are exposed to a married couple of Americans that are interviewed at a bowling alley and all they have to say about the good things in the Island are the Duty Free shopping or the casinos they go to spend more money. In another question they are asked about what happens outside the areas they normally visit, they respond in such a way that they seem to display a scary attitude since their response is that outside from where they go it is unsafe, due to the criminality of the native Puerto Ricans. This is still something that is not only seen in the movie but it is also seen today, as in the article posted below in which the investor wanted to make an image of Puerto Rico that wasn't the real one, since the real one was not as good as what they needed it to be. 

In the following link, titled A Ritz Ups the Ante in Puerto Rico, there is a clear example of how the Media or the business sector wants to change the image that Puerto Rico has on the world as it says: “It is in a corner of the Caribbean that for decades has been more associated with grit than glamour.”

Link to article