Ah, the ups and downs of a Fulbrighter at large! The ups and down of a human being! For a few moments this week I began to slump thinking that my honeymoon period of a relatively easy and manageable work schedule was over. Things picked up on the school front. A handful of new “groupies,” as I will refer to my non-class students still eager to reap new services in English, came to join my tutoring sessions and cultural workshops. Because I don’t teach any of them in my traditional classes, but rather only know them from bumping around campus, I had to start getting creative with some of my instruction strategies. For example, one of my new friends, Olmer, is a closer-to-middle-aged Professor from the UPB’s Political Science Department. Concerned about preparation for a big-time PhD scholarship to Germany, he came to me excited for some practice in professional dialogue in English. I guided him through three different afternoons of mock interviewing and pronunciation coaching to psych him out for his pivotal Thursday afternoon “moment of truth.” (See, Pitzer Admission Fellows, the practice really does pay off in the real world!) I will say that one other new student, for whom I will lovingly apply the generic alias Pablo Guillermo, a younger cat struggling to pass the English section of his Education Department course, quickly became about two-and-a-half handfuls. You’re talking about a guy who is probably about 24-years-old with the attention span of a toddler watching Saturday morning cartoons on satellite. When asking questions about one topic, Pablo Guillermo would quickly interrupt my steady explanations to ask questions about a plethora of unfolding subtopics, much like a baboon hastily unpeeling 100 bananas but never seeming to find that one that was just ripe enough. Arriving panting at my office door three mornings in a row with a potato sack full of questions about grammar exercises, this poor fellow has obviously been waiting for some supplementary help for a while, and has either not found one, or has had such a hard time fleshing out distinct topics that he has tired each of the faculty members to try before me. All of this was fun, refreshing, and, needless to say, tiring, at the same time. But I value the challenges, overall… Teaching is supposed to be patience testing and exhilarating at the same time, right? Furiously sipping coffee (the bland, light roast kind, because all of the good stuff is being vigorously exported to the US and Europe) and pacing about my desk, I can still say that meeting students with unique needs is rewarding. Exposure to new learning styles helps me to be self-critical in a constructive and positive way. This new week was about deepening my understanding of how to best serve even my most rambunctious of new students.
One academic centerpiece of the week was a totally new experience: a field trip out and about Medellín with my favorite group of students! On Thursday afternoon, the gang from Oral Communication 2 and I headed to EAFIT, in ways the UPB’s major rival across town. The purpose: attending an English teaching strategy presentation titled “Helping All Learners Succeed,” hosted by Pearson Longman—yes, as in the textbook company. Because my students are all in the UPB’s Education Department, training to become docentes (teachers), this was an appropriate outing for the Gringo-Brazilian professor and his soon-to-be-certified whippersnappers (yes, I get to use that word… Even though at least three of them are older than me!). We are all English instructors, in a sense… Hosted by two professors at the Centro Colombo Americano, an English service institute in town, the EAFIT lecture started off great, offering dynamic tips on communicative and interactive exercises we can all use to better engage English-as-a-Second-Language students… I got hyped and took some notes… Then the talk descended into boredom and nonsense and I nearly fell asleep in EAFIT’s oh-so-modern auditorium. Oh well! I was feeling great by the end of the afternoon to have a greater chance to connect with the bunch people who make me jump around to grab their very attention in our class!
Carrying on, this week was all about making cultural comparisons. My Popeye’s spinach of the workweek was getting to Friday to receive a much anticipated guest: fellow Fulbrighter Gabriel Hurst, a research grantee studying Afro-Colombian history in Bogotá. Hosting a guy who I feel like is one cousin biology never gave me was great fun. I can happily say Gabriel shares my passion for Latin American Studies (as, admittedly, do many of the 2010 Fulbrighters to Colombia), my love for grad programs at Georgetown (where he will attend the Center for Latin American Studies in the fall of 2011), my eye for sharply piercing intercultural analyses, and my zeal for laughing and crying about global pan-African struggles. As could nearly be expected, a dominant topic of discussion between us became the startling differences between Bogotá and Medellín. Gabriel, instantly in love with Medellín’s milder climate, quieter streets, and colorful design schemes, remarked constantly about how amazed he is with the difference between Colombia’s two largest cities. Perhaps most important was his claim that Medellín’s paisas are simply more patient and hospitable than the capital’s rollos. I don’t blame him, for I do find it is true that people in Medellín predominantly value this noteworthy eagerness to help others. It makes it especially easy to be a stranger here, whether you look ethnically ambiguous like Gabo or not! To drive this conversation home, the analogy that I keep insisting upon is that while Bogotá, the country’s political and financial center, is something akin to a DC-New York City hybrid, Medellín, a landlocked industrial might marked by palpable cowboy chivalry, a Southern-hospitality-like feeling, and much warmer, dryer weather, must be more the analogue of Dallas, Texas. Most funny of all to me though is that in either of the cities, or elsewhere in Latin America, folks take first glances at Gabriel and either assume: 1) He is “valluno,” from the Cali region, 2) that if not that, he must be “costeño,” from the Caribbean Coast, or 3) if neither of those, he simply must be “Brazilian”… Now, finding a friend with whom I can really relate about the irritations and hilarious joys stemming from ethnic ambiguity is just too damn funny and too damn rewarding. The bottom line point is that Gabo and I, despite our mutual extreme frustrations with the unpunctuality and wavering inefficiencies of the Colombian air market, will be visiting one another’s cities multiple more times this year. To know that here in Colombia, I have a “Brazilian” brother from another mother in Gabriel, and to know I will have a place to rest my head when I get back over to International Education Week in Bogotá in November, I could not be happier.
Gabo and I enjoyed some sightseeing and traditional paisa frijoles on his first afternoon in the City of Eternal Spring. Soon afterward, I was introducing him to a great new crew of fellow Political Science junkies I am now pleased to know. Having been invited to advise my university’s Model Organization of American States team, after our first meeting on Friday afternoon I am psyched to say that I have finally met a group of young people in Medellín with whom I am 99% academically likeminded. The group will represent Brazil at the 2011 at the Washington Model Organization of American States! This international, five-day conference is to be held completely in English in Washington, DC in March of the coming year. The group has requested my assistance in organizing their research, in practicing their English, and in strengthening their debate strategy… And now all I need to do is secure some additional grants from the US Embassy and I will be on my way back to my nation’s fine capital for more intellectual stimulation and networking. YIPPEEEEEE! What could possibly be more outstanding for the visiting “professor,” Brazilian-American former Pitzer Model United Nations Team Head Delegate? I FOUND MY HOLY GRAIL FOR THIS YEAR! Ecstatic to have discovered what feels like will become my academic niche for this year, I joined a few members of the team, plus Gabriel and Raul, for a gaseosa (carbonated beverage) at the University while we exchanged cries about Latin America’s struggles with violence and drugs, cheers about President Santos’ new 8-point accord on security and development policy with Brazil’s President Lula, and laughs about the Bogotanos concealed but apparent jealousy for all things Medellín. Finally knowing that this year I will be able to mingle with a group of educated people who share my passions for Latin American politics and international relations was quite the way to start my weekend off right!
Gabo joined me to attend Raul’s much-awaited 23rd birthday party on Saturday night, a huge success. Like good Colombians, never fearing the rain, the boys and I set up an enormous canopy in the middle of Raul’s street in San Javier, allowing us to grill marinated pork, chicken, and arepas (traditional Paisa corncakes) outside until 3 am. Dancing in the living room to a latino fusion of YouTube favorites, I was happy to meet some of Raul’s old friends from Sabaneta, a municipality to the south. And best of all, we got to jump around to our favorite new jam of the season, Don Omar’s Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian experiment, Danza Kudoro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zp1TbLFPp8
Alright, truth is, while this video is plenty romanticized, it boasts a fresh pan-romance-language sound that just really gets me pumped… Truthfully, what this video makes me crave most is to get over to Puerto Rico sometime very soon… Hmmm… Maybe via a short skip on an inflatable boat, straight from the Ports of Cartagena, once Fulbright is over?
Sunday was a day of nothing but lounging and sightseeing under the Medellín Valley sun… (Though I did pick up a couple of hours with a new English tutoree later in the evening back at my place in Conquistadores.) Gabriel and I enjoyed the goofy overblown artwork at Parque Botero, dedicated to the city’s most infamous sculptor, and then headed for a view of town from atop the Line K Metrocable… I was happy to host my friend and try to connect great people of the world all weekend. Admittedly, it felts a bit bittersweet to wish my “Brazilian” brother back off to Bogotá after a final lunch of bandeja paisa this, Monday, afternoon… But oh well! This just gives us greater impetus to have to meet for a Colombian Fulbrighter reunion in Cali in two weeks, for the World Salsa Festival. Now let’s just hope Avianca Airlines doesn’t get me there to see my people 24 hours late…
Back to my dreams of teaching and networking, gang! Goodnight.
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