saturday

ultimo dia!

just wanted to get in some more reflections from this amazing trip. to start, i will add a few more photos.

this is lynne, val, and myself taking notes and discussing information in our literature class. the class was taught by Doctora Helena Lázaro Platón whom we got to know very well over the course of the week. The class was taught entirely in Puerto Rican Spanish- a great learning experience for the four of us (Bonita is here too; not shown in pic). The topics covered by Dra. Helena were all very interesting and she made the two-hour sessions go fairly quickly. She gave us a thorough perspective on Puerto Rican literature in just a week. We also had time to talk about Spanish that is unique to Puerto Rico such as their dialect and slang and what is "acceptable" on the streets among Puerto Rican youth; words that would not have been acceptable vocabulary fifteen years ago. We had a lot of good times laughing with Helena and soaking up her knowledge of her field. One special memory I have of this class and Helena is when Val's eye was bothering her (turned out to be pink eye), Helena drove us all to the pharmacy and then dropped us off at the dinner venue where we were supposed to meet up later. It was extremely kind of her to go out of her way. When we were dropping Val off outside the door, I remember we had to keep circling around because there was no parking, and it was during those "vueltas" that Lynne and I learned a lot about Helena's personal life. It was neat to have a professor do that kind of thing for us in the first place let alone open up about her own life and struggles in Puerto Rico.

That night we had a very special culminating dinner with the whole team and some of Dixie's family. We were having great times bonding with everyone - we didn't even notice that the food was taking rather long. The service was still excellent and everyone seemed to enjoy the fare. Mine tasted rather amazing... I had a vegetarian plate with avocados (healthy!) and some "local cerveza." The waiter seemed pleased we were all supporting the local drink, Medalla. Can't get it anywhere else!


On Friday we had the opportunity to visit El Moro a little closer. El Moro is the big fortress at the edge of the city past Old San Juan that was build during colonization to protect the land.

Inside, we learned a lot - much more than anticipated - about Puerto Rican culture AND national pride. I really loved all aspects of this visit. The view was grand, the history, our professor and tour guide Ignacio, and the gift shop with all the Puerto Rican trinkets you could imagine to represent their nationality. Going there with the group on this last day was fun and bittersweet at the same time! This next picture I have to show you is one of my favorites. I think it's rather artistic the way everyone is walking towards knowledge...


With Professor Ignacio in the middle talking to the group, answering informal questions and imparting his formal knowledge on us all, everyone with their satchels and capris, the wind blowing as we are nearing the sea; this helps me remember my week in Puerto Rico as a learning experience I will forever take with me as one of the best things of Summer 2009. The unity of our team and everyone's eagerness to learn was a big encouragement to me. I think because of our blogs, the conversation we started in Puerto Rico will have a chance to continue. I am grateful for these learning opportunities that will help us become better educators in our diverse classrooms. There is so much we will take with us- and we can't wait to present some of that information to you, even as we are still tweaking our blogs for the world to see. Thank you for joining us!





(This is Ronald from across the street from the university, eating a fried plantain for breakfast... reminding us to peace out.)

so I really enjoyed today very much; i think it was my favorite day overall. the day began 45 minutes later than normal and i was able to have TWO full cups of coffee before starting the day (i've been having trouble getting places on time especially in the morning because i am slooow moving before 8am). we got in the van and made our way to Abraham Lincoln, an elementary school K-6 in a small community called La Perla (The Pearl, in English) and met with the school's directors and several of its teachers. the children were not there yet because the school will open next week. i found this "field trip" very educational and perhaps the most relational and practical of all the places we have been. indeed, all the places we have visited have really given us a great perspective on puerto rican culture; even the literature class with Dr. Helena i am thoroughly enjoying (more reflections on that later, i've got several from our 3 two-hour sessions!). however, this school visit was invaluable in that it provided many doorways in what will likely be an ongoing discussion between teachers in puerto rico and teachers in the united states. what we need is to strengthen our connections and our means of collaboration and i truly saw that happening in our dialogue in the school library. that is the kind of stuff that i truly enjoy because it is more relational and i learned so much useful information... about their school system and their culture in just those two hours than i may have learned in the historical places altogether (again, not that they were not educational; i do believe you must learn the history of a people to understand the context of the current cultural movements). i feel as though i could have spent several more hours there discussing solutions and strategies without feeling like much time at all has passed.

After our visit to the school, we did meet one of the community representatives of La Perla and he shared with us a bit more information and statistics on the area. i had asked about student populations and how many people comprised the community (800-1000, or 200 families; 120 children, 60-70 of which attend Abraham Lincoln).

I also found it very interesting that even within this small community the diversity the teachers at Abraham Lincoln face is quite similar to that of what teachers in the United States deal with in our multicultural schools. At Abe Lincoln, one of the English teachers was describing that the school is made up of all different socioeconomic levels, races and languages. We can probably learn more from these teachers than we may have thought initially. I am excited at the possibility of continuing any type of collaboration or connection with these professionals who want the same thing for our students as we do... the very best.

la perla - the pearl community

These are some of my favorite pictures I took from La Perla and the surrounding neighborhood.

museo de arte - art museum

today we explored the art museum and several things surprised me. first, i was impressed by the cleanliness and architecture (compared to other art museums around the world, this was one of the finest). second, as i started to explore the paintings and other displays, i realized how interested i was in how exactly some of the work was capturing the identity of the puerto rican people. i found myself wanting to know more about the artists themselves through the centuries. another thing that surprised me was that i enjoyed the older art more than the modern art. i tended to be drawn to the art that inspired reflection on the simplicity and beauty of puerto rico as it was years ago. lastly, one painter stuck in my mind as being an important part of the cultural history of puerto rico, and that was a man named francisco oller (1833-1917). one of his famous pieces is intitled "The Wake" and i noticed a modern artist, through mixed media installation as his medium of art, made this display in the corner of one of the central rooms on the 4th floor, an intricate three-dimensional homage to this painting and he called it "Visits to 'The Wake.'" His name was Rafael Trelles. I was highly enthralled by this modern reproduction of Oller's art. I'm still pondering the significance of such an odd and graphic piece of work (both of them).

I also stumbled upon a lovely children's display at the bottom of the museum and I'd like to learn more about this program for children that apparently takes place in the museum. It seemed as though several talented children created pieces of their own and so I fell in love with the display downstairs but did not have much time to spend there as I only came across it with ten minutes remaining of our stay. At any rate, this gets me excited to come in contact with more children at the school to see what they are like. I am interested to know what sort of approaches are taken to bilingual education and how that can help me in my approach in Spring Grove, PA. I would love to provide a good, bilingual education to my students who are growing up bilingual, but there seems to be no congruency with how this type of program is really accomplished in the US. How does Puerto Rico meet the needs of so many of its bilingual students? This is what I'd like to learn more about.

I love that the art museum was a window into more Puerto Rican culture, and it was so neat to see art displayed through the ages - and, coincidentally, BY all different ages. :)

P.S. Here is a cool site I found on more Puerto Rican art (and craft) features-http://welcome.topuertorico.org/culture/artsc.shtml ...you'll notice the greeting from the coqui right away! :)

new method

Greetings one and all:
I am excited at this opportunity to reflect without anywhere to be at the moment! It has been a wonderful half week so far-- so much so that I haven't taken a breather to reflect properly and process all the new things that I'm seeing. As a disclaimer, mainly for my own purposes, I must inform you regrettably that this will not be chronological. For me this will be quite the challenge as the beginning of rhyme and reason in my writing often begins with me being organized - principally by time. However, this blog is intended to create a collage of pieces of culture and will not necessarily be presented chronologically. I say this mainly for my own brain to begin processing, but also to warn you in case some parts do not make sense because they're out of order. I will try my best to keep the facts straight! With that said, welcome to the rest of my Puerto Rico blog. I hope you learn something new and experience San Juan a little through the way I saw it...

tuesday evening thoughts

well, finally getting internet squared away
and there is lots to update you.

i feel like last night i got to experience the "real" Puerto Rico-- meeting real people and having great conversation with people in the neighborhood surrounding sacred heart. met such beautiful people with stories to tell of what being Puerto Rican means to them. it's fantastic.

this is the four of us who ventured out in the area and came upon a little mom and pop grocery store that sold food outside. we hung out and got to know the woman who served us. she was dominicana and we were glad to ask her questions and get to know about her life in PR.

the next place we ended up was a small store across from the university, and we met people closer to our age. we bought four of them a beer including ourselves and had a nice chat on the porch outside. we must have hung out for about an hour connecting and feeling a part of their culture. it was my favorite part of the trip so far.

monday

literatura 8-10
historia 10-12
almuerzo 12-1
el tour old san juan 1-4
el tour bacardí 4-6
cenar 6-8

un dia largo pero muy interesante
aprendi muchas cosas nuevas

es muy divertido estar en puerto rico.