15th of July, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #20:

  Today started off as usual I got up, ate breakfast, then got on the metro bus, and went to spanish. I am noticing that my mornings are very routine. It's good to have a routine every once in a while I guess though. After class I worked on a project for the end of the immersion program. My uncle was working so I had to keep busy for a while. When he was done with working we went out to lunch with Leticia and her children. It was at this little restaurant that was very cramped and the eating table was about the size of two elementary school desks. It was very uncomfortable fitting five people at this tiny table. The food was pretty good though, I started off with a cream of Broccoli soup which was delicious especially with bread. The next dish was kind of like a big sandwich. It had chicken, lettuce, bread, and two types of sauces, one was spicy, one was not. For dessert we had bananas mixed with some sort of banana cream. After lunch we went home and my uncle took a nap so I caught up on this show Teen Wolf that I had missed the past three weeks. After watching that my uncle went to go write at a little restaurant nearby so he didn't get distracted. When he left I watched the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It was such a good movie and was a somewhat sad but touching movie. I would highly recommend it to anyone who needs a good movie to watch. I am happy I watched it now too because the next one comes out pretty soon and it had really good reviews. 

  When my uncle arrived back home we went to the mall next to his house to go eat, but before we went to eat I checked out this electronics store to see the difference in price of things in Mexico to the U.S. I noticed the electronics are much more expensive here like the video games converted to dollars would be around sixty or seven dollars and there was a dramatic change in consoles like the Xbox One

. I was very surprised, I was hoping it would be cheaper but I guess if I want cheap electronics I will have to find another country. After we left the store my uncle asked if I wanted to get my haircut so I did. It was nice and bad at the same time because now it feels good to let my head can breath a bit more but I also feel like I look a lot younger and that is not good. Until I turn 25 I want to look older not younger! Oh well I guess it will grow back. When I was finished we went upstairs to get food but almost every place was closed except for McDonalds and this chinese food place. We decided to get Chinese and it was kind of like a wannabe Panda Express but it still tasted okay. The only thing that bothered me was the egg roll's vegetables were kind of cold and hard. When we got home I ate and watched some shows and then started blogging.

14th of July, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #19:

  Today was my first day riding the MetroBus alone. It wasn't that bad because it was just like tri-met back home. It also helped that I only had 3 stops and have ridden it almost everyday now so far. I didn't really enjoy it because it's not fun being alone, worrying if some one will ask you a question or something in a language that you do not speak but in the end it worked out fine. When I got to the campus it was like usual and I went to spanish and learned more about clothes and colors. After spanish class we had a discussion on what we thought the number one challenge in latin American communities as well as the number one thing that would help. We had to write each thing on these sticky notes and then we put them on the board. Then we seperated them in to different categories. After all the categories were made we got 3 dots of different colors. Each color meant a number of importance, (red=1, green=2, yellow=3) we then put our dots on the categories we thought were most important. The top 2 for challenge were Poverty and Language/Culture. The top 2 helpful things were Community Resources and the second was a tie between Fare immigration policies and Therapy. It was a very interesting conversation and it was nice to see other peoples perspective on these topics. 

  After the discussion we watched this documentary called Crossing Arizona. It was a very sad movie on illegal immigration to the U.S through Arizona. It was a very depressing movie and it showed real people trying to cross the border for better life, more money to support their families, and one man was trying to get money so he could pay for his wife's surgery that she needs. It also showed the people who are trying to keep the immigrants out. It was really sickening to watch and hear these people treat the Mexicans like they aren't even humans. One man talks about how he wants to deport all the children in the schools and he said "I will even go to the hospitals and take the IV out of their arm and kick them out myself!" This to me was very absurd to hear and it made me feel really bad for these people who try so hard to get to the U.S just so they can be paid fairly. Personally it makes me think if they were able to get in to this apparently "really secure, intelligent, strong" country they deserve to be there. Most people who live in the U.S could not walk for days with little food and water just to attempt at getting in to a different country. Also if it weren't for the illegal immigrants working those hard labor jobs. The U.S would be much different with vegetables being much more expensive because no one wants the job to go harvest them, and all of the businesses close to the border would probably be shut down because they do not have any customers. Even though we saw some really ugly people in the video we were able to see some nice people as well. For instance this man would go around to different stations along the desert and set up water sights, where if they have ran out of water and are thirsty they can get some there. There is a lot more stuff about what I could say on this topic, because I have a very strong opinion on this topic but it would take me forever to explain all of my feelings for immigration.

  When we were done with our discussion after the movie Leticia and I went to go excersise and we did a lot of running, push-ups, burpees, squats, planks, sprints, etc. It was a lot of fun and it felt really good but it was hard because I am still not used to this high altitude and all of the pollution/smoke. Leticia worked me really hard and it was good, even though every time I have done this so far I've felt like I am gonna throw up it is good for me to excersise. I  also have seen how my diet is really affecting my fitness so now I am trying not to drink soda out here, and try to stick to agua. So now I am going to start doing it three times a week so then I can stay in shape and hopefully I won't have trouble with this after a few times more. After that we went back and went to go look for an Arjen Robben piñata

 but we could not find one. So then we went to have some really good ice cream. I got cotton candy and chicle (the gum.) When we finished our ice cream we went home and I started watching a movie while uncle Jason tried to type but kept getting very distracted. Then we headed to the pizza groove language exchange like every monday and I talked to a few people I met previously and also talked to this guy named  Tomas. He was really cool and had played soccer in high school and enjoys theater. So he was kind of like me and he talked to me about his experience in oregon at Ashland for the Shakespeare festival and he also talked to me about Portland and how he enjoys biking. After that we headed home and ended our day.

13th of July, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #18:

  Aguas! Is what I hear when walking up the pyramids. Today as you could infer we went to the Pyramids and I heard Aguas! because that is what is said when you need to look out. The origin is from when they used a chamber pot to go to the bathroom and when they were done they would throw it out the window and yell "Aguas!" To warn anyone around. Anyways back to the pyramids. Today before we headed out my uncle had me wear a shirt that said "Who Would Jesus Deport?" Kind of like they saying What Would Jesus Do? This was more about prompting dialogue and that's what he wanted me to do. He wanted to see who would ask me about my shirt and see if I could start a conversation with them. If any of the students asked about it I would say "Yeah it's actually a Freriean dialogue prompt" and then to tease them a little I would say "You know who Paulo Freire is, don't you? Then if they wanted to I would start a dialogue with them. (Nobody started dialogue with me though). If we would have been talking I would probably mention NAFTA making U.S companies coming into countries and taking over the family-owned businesses so then those people can't afford to live anymore because they have lost all they had. And how they are forced to immigrate where they can get enough money to support their families.

 We arrived at Teotihuacan (the pyramids) around noon and walked all around it was a really spectacular sight to see. It amazes me how these were made over 2,000 years ago. The detail and architecture is spectacular. The design is also so amazing for their time and it is still able to stand over 2,000 years later. It was really cool being able to walk up the sun and moon pyramid. It was so huge! I was able to see so far around from the sun pyramid and it was beautiful. I was so happy to be able to experience this huge, amazing, historic piece of land. After the pyramids we headed to eat at this place called La Gruta it was this restaurant that was in a cave. During our meal these people were dancing around and going on stage throwing fire. They did a couple cool different dances and eventually the males asked a few girls to come up and dance and the females asked a few males to come up and dance. I was one of those males and it was really fun we were all in a circle dancing and cheering. After that I watched the World Cup final where Germany took home the cup. It was so awesome because I knew Germany was gonna win from the start so it made me really happy!

Grandpa I did write this on my own!

12th of July, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #17:

  Today was a very exhausting non-active kind of day. It started off with my uncle saying to me 

"I thought you might be getting a little homesick so I made you a breakfast that you usually have" which was a muffin. It was really good, and made me really happy. We then headed to the University and picked up Quinn and Briella while Leticia was teaching. When we got the kids we headed back home and they just relaxed for a couple hours and then after a little while we went to the movie theater and watched How To Train Your Dragon 2. We watched it in spanish but the kids didn't really care and it was all the same to them. It was pretty good but my head kinda hurt after because I didn't really understand what they were saying but it was all good. Then we had to head all the way back home because we forgot their stuff. So we did and then headed back to the campus and got ice cream after. We tried a whole bunch of different kinds like avocado and cactus but I ended up getting cookies and cream and coconut. It was really good! For the rest of the day my uncle and I were pretty exhausted so we ended up just watching a whole bunch of youtube videos, sand, talked, and ate. This is probably one of my shortest blog entries but not much happened today.

12th of July, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #16:

  Well my perfect bloggin each day award has now been broken. I wish I would have been able to get home a bit earlier but I took too long. Even though it's only a couple minutes it is still late :( 

Anyways today was a very fun eventful day. I woke up and we went and had fruit smoothies and fruit salad for breakfast because my uncle wasn't able to go grocery shopping until later today. Then I went to spanish class and after that me and a few of the gang went to Chapultepec park. We started off with eating a little and looking at things to buy and then we came across a Lucha Libre mask stand and we were going tonight so we thought we should buy one. So we did and we were ripped off 5 pesos each because the guy saw a whole bunch of people from the U.S who don't think to bargain. After that we saw these amazing aerial type dancers who do a ritual where they play music and go up the top of a pole and they glide down spinning very slowly (attached to rope.) It was very neat and it made me kind of sick just looking at them being upside down for so long. It was a very peaceful dance and was really cool to see. We then headed in to the Museum of Anthropology. I saw so many things there it was really amazing. I learned all about the Mayans, a little about the Aztecs, Oaxaca, Teotihuacan, many different things it was crazy full of information.

 One thing that I enjoyed was this game of ball that was played with your hips and you have to hit the ball through theses two rings on the side. It was very interesting to learn about. When we were done with the museum everyone except Tania and I went home. We walked to the zoo across the street and saw not very many animals either because they were hiding or sleeping or many other reasons. It was kind of a sad zoo that was very dirty and the animals didn't look like they were well fed. They also looked like they weren't taken care. Maybe a few times a week but rarely. We then headed to the paddle boats but you paddled with your feet like pedals on a bike. It was fun and we went around the whole lake. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Tania she is really cool and hilarious. So we had a good day so far, then we headed home and ate. 

After that we all met up to go to Lucha Libre. It was so much fun and was pretty much just like WWE except in spanish and a lot of the people were swearing at them. It was an awesome experience to have and I really hope I get to go again.

10th of July, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #15:

  Wow today was a very interesting day. Where do I start? Let's see I will start off with breakfast. Today started off as a normal day I got up, got dressed, took a shower, and headed downstairs. Then my uncle started making breakfast and he cooked the turkey bacon first and let me eat it while it was still hot. Then he started cooking the vegetables for our omelette and went in to the fridge and realized there were no more eggs. So we just ate the omelette ingredients minus egg. It wasn't very good eating these vegetable with out egg and it was weirdly spicy without egg. So we just went to the school and had breakfast across the street and were joined by Kortney and Susan. It was also nice because my spanish class was set 30 minutes later than usual because the professor had an appointment so we got to sit, chat, and eat for a bit longer than what we would have. Anyways after spanish class we had a LGBTTTI (which is Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual Transvestite Transgender and Intersexual) panel. So we talked to a few people who had some of these sexualities and it was very interesting to hear all of their stories. As we discussed I kept thinking about how these people are really not very different than anyone else. The only thing that makes them different is who they are attracted to but that isn't even anybody else's business besides their own. I mean why is it that they have to explain who they are to people and have to say that they are gay but we don't have to explain ourselves and say that we are straight. I think it is a very interesting topic and I do not know why these people have to be discriminated for who they are.

  After that I went to go excersise in the park with Leticia and on our way it was very weird because I saw this girl staring at me when I looked at her and we were making really weird eye contact and I started feeling weird so I looked away. Then I looked back and she was still staring at me, and we were walking in her direction so when we got to her I told her I only spoke a little bit of spanish. So in the end she was just trying to hit on me and apparently like "fell in love with me" when she saw me and wanted to talk to me and say hi. It felt really weird because it is rare for a girl to come up to a guy back home (that they have never met) and try to flirt with them. So it was very interesting and really weird but it was cool I guess. 

  When we started working out we ended up doing a lot of like push-ups and planks and burpees and stuff and this guy there with a remote control car kept running in to us and we thought he was just trying to entertain the kids but he kept doing it and messing around and in the end it was just a like prank show and were gonna be on TV in december on this show called like Impractical Jokers but the s. So that's cool but also weird that I didn't notice any of the cameras that aren't ever in the park until after we were told we were on a hidden camera. 

So it was a very different day for me already. Two really weird things within two hours. We then headed back home and Leticia had to teach so my uncle and I watched Quinn and Briella and we had a good time for the most part. Then when we headed back to campus I was walking and notice my pants had ripped so I walked around for a while with ripped pants. It was really uncomfortable and I tried my best to hide it. Especially when we went to dinner and it was really bright inside. So in the end I had some weird uncomfortable experiences today.

9th of July, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #14:

  Today for spanish class we went on a field trip to El Morro churrería. It was this really good churro place by the Seguros LatinoAmerica (the second tallest building in Mexico.) We took the Metro there and when we got there we could already smell and see all the delicious churros all over. So how it works is you order a chocolate drink and then you get churros and you are able to dip your churros in the drink. The kinds of drinks they had were Especial (bitter), Francés (regular), Mexicano (sweet), Español (very, very sweet) We all tried to order something different so we could taste the others and I ordered the Español y 4 churros. It was so good the churros had very strong sugar and cinnamon and it was very delightful. It hit the spot every time I ate one until the last few because I had eaten too much junk in one sitting. 

When we headed back the students and professors had a class type thing so Quinn and Briella and I played with play-doh, drew, and watched videos. It was fun and they are so adorable. When they got back we went to eat at this place called Italiano's and they had really good fettucini Alfredo it was almost as good as my moms home cooking. While we were there we watched the Argentina vs Netherlands game and weren't really cheering for Argentina to win we just wanted to see the Netherlands lose. We wanted Arjen Robben to have to feel the misery the Mexican players had to feel because of his flop. During halftime we headed home because we thought why are we sitting here in this uncomfortable chair, where we can't boo with passion at Robben every time he comes on the screen, when at home we have a nice couch to lay on and we can scream at him all we want.

 So that was nice but we ended up falling asleep because it got really boring until the penalty kicks where Argentina won it and is going to the championship against Germany! We are now super happy and hope Brazil crushes Netherlands in the consolation game too. Later in the night we went to go eat with Dr. David/Hoskins and went to have tacos at our favorite taco place. When we were done we went over to uncle Jason's friends Kettie house. She is from Venezuela and is really nice and cool. Since I didn't learn anything new today he told me to learn two new things about Venezuela so we asked her boyfriend and he  said that number 1. The women are very beautiful. Which was a funny/great answer and number 2. Mostly everyone their is very friendly and friendship is thought of very highly there. So today was a good day and I didn't have as much work. I hope I can have more days like this!