Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Princeton in Latin America redirect
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Monday, February 16, 2009
Mass Valentine's Day LGBT Wedding in Santiago de Chile
The wedding was organized by the Unified Movement for Sexual Minorities (MUMS). MUMS is an NGO dedicated to advocating for the human rights of lesbians, gays, transsexuals, bisexuals, and all others who feel underrepresented in a society that the organization characterizes as heteronormative, patriarchal, and machista. Operating since 1991, MUMS served as the first instance of activism against discrimination in Chile and provided LGBT individuals with a network for promoting the rights they felt they had been denied.
The Valentine’s Day event, called “Love in Colors”, took place in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral on Saturday, beginning at 11:00 and ending at approximately 15:00. Five couples were symbolically married to represent the acceptance of the diversity of loving partnerships. An animated woman from MUMS dressed as a male-priest performed the services.
According to Alejandro Osorio, coordinator of the organization’s Human Rights Team, “The purpose of the event was to highlight the logical demand for equal rights, the recognition of same-sex couples, and the possibility of having the right to matrimony.”
Throughout the day, MUMS members passed out informational flyers and condoms to pedestrians walking through the plaza. Thousands of people stopped by to observe the wedding, listen to music, and watch the comedic performances of two transvestite MUMS members. In between events, pop and hip-hop music blared through the plaza, inspiring many onlookers to dance. Several social organizations, such as Amnesty International, also participated with informational stands set up around the plaza.
The proceedings were accepted warmly by a generally curious and smiling public. There were no disturbances or demonstrations against the wedding or the participants.
The members of MUMS, a diverse group of LGBT individuals along with some heterosexual allies, seeks to engage in reflective discourse on the legal and cultural elements that have defined alternative sexual lifestyles as abnormal, a concept that has resulted in systematic segregation and characterized the heterosexual model as the only valid one.
MUMS has a list of several concrete demands, which includes advancing an anti-discriminatory law currently being discussed by the parliament. MUMS insists that the law be revised to explicitly include sexual minorities, which would provide legal protection to LGBT people from discrimination in the work place and acts of violence. However, the revision has been met with opposition from right-wing congress members and social sectors, especially the Catholic Church.
Only recently has MUMS campaigned for the right to marry. The movement demands that the Chilean government alters the appropriate constitutional article so that marriage is between “two persons” rather than between “man and woman,” as the article currently stands.
Although there are MUMS members who do not believe in the institution of marriage, the organization has decided that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, should be afforded the right to marry. MUMS envisions the LGBT wedding on Valentine’s Day to be an annual, symbolic event that, while informal in nature, will be performed every year until the LGBT community achieves the formal right to marry.
Legislation for civil unions was presented to Chile’s National Congress in 2006. Despite Michelle Bachelet’s previously expressed support for civil unions, the legislation for allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions has been stalled, again by the Catholic Church and several right-wing congress members.
According to MUMS President Fernando Muñoz, “In Chile there is a lack of political will to change things. Cuba, for example, has just legally approved of sex changes, as has been done in Brazil. All in Cuba there is a national forum on sexual diversity, which shows that Cuba is incorporating the LGBT world and with public funding. Colombia and Mexico, with rightist governments in charge, have laws against discrimination that are much better than the one proposed in Chile – they are more complete and come equipped with resources, infrastructure, and the creation of national commissions against discrimination.”
“There are nations that are very different from Chile, a progressive and developing country, which have policies and legislation that are much more accepting of the LGBT community,” Muñoz added. “This proves that it one thing to talk and it is another thing to act, because so much has been spoken but nothing has been done.”
MUMS hopes the Valentine’s Day LGBT wedding will inspire the Chilean state to take swift, progressive, and transformative action to honor the human rights of all its citizens.
“This event has been wonderful,” said a Chilean observer named Anabela. “I think every individual should be free to live his or her own way of life.”
Labels: Chile, gay movement, LGBT
Monday, October 13, 2008
Life in la Republica: A Consensus on the Census
PiLA fellows Tim Cheston (front row, left) and Emilie Aguirre (front row, second from left) stand with the Parent's Association of the Dominican Literacy Project in Barahona, Dominican Republic. With the sunshine at our back, the wind in our faces, and the beautiful Caribbean waters in front of us, it's hard to think we're not living in a tiny piece of paradise. Then the stark desperation of the situation lying before our eyes brings us back to a different reality: one where 20 adults, the majority of them undocumented Haitian migrants, are sitting around the middle school tables ready to learn the alphabet for the first time. My PiLA fellowship has taken me to the outskirts of Barahona in the Dominican Republic to work for the Dominican Literacy Project (DLP, for more info, go to www.dominicanliteracyproject.org).
The DLP is a rather young organization, barely four years old with only a handful of people in its staff in the Dominican Republic, that stands at an important crossroads in its organizational development. Having established its place in the community and having achieved a series of early successes, the organization is looking to expand its services and apply for bigger grants. The basic premise of my work, subsequently, is to conduct a year-long, multi-pronged census of the local community that will be used to help direct the future expansion of program services for the organization. The census work will additionally gather the necessary demographic information for grant applications, particularly economic information to ensure large foundations that the population being served is indeed poor (which unfortunately is not the hardest task ahead of me).
On a daily basis, then, I'll be conducting personal interviews throughout the community, although primarily with program beneficiaries, to talk first-hand about how the DLP can better help them help themselves. Nonetheless, I took this position with the DLP not only for the tremendous first-hand experience of the position and the importance of my work for directing the future of the organization, but also because of the unique circumstances of the community, which I would be remiss not to mention. The DLP works with a population of Haitian migrants or refugees, who largely lack documentation even though many of them are second or third-generation Dominicans. The problem stems from the fact that any child born in the Dominican Republic to undocumented Haitian parents is not granted Dominican citizenship as a birth right, and yet neither are they Haitian. Instead, such a child lies in the abyss of statelessness, where registration for school and access to public services such as health care becomes an elaborate process that often results in covert and even overt discrimination and extreme social marginalization.
Despite the gravity of the situation, though, we have still found several ways to enjoy ourselves. Whether its trekking to the nearby beaches, playing pick-up soccer across the street at the Olympic Village, or playing in the big local baseball league under the lights, every day is a new adventure...and I'll be sure to share the stories as they come.
Co-PiLA fellow, Emilie Aguirre (second to right), meets with the Education Minister of Barahona (yellow shirt in center) along with fellow teachers at the Dominican Literacy Project in order to take the first steps toward the certification of the school. Tuesday, August 26, 2008
"El Juez y el General"
Sebastian and I met later that night in the basement of the Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda. We arrived early to assure that we would have seats, which was fortunate because I was able to meet both Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco, the directors of the film. I shadowed Sebastian through the growing crowd of people who stood outside the theater’s doors and was introduced to a good number of surviving victims and family members of victims who suffered at the hands of the Pinochet regime between 1973 and 1990.
An unshaven man wearing glasses approached me to ask what I was doing at the premier, assuming that I was a journalist. I answered and then asked him the same curt question in return. “Patricio invited me because I was tortured!” he exclaimed proudly. Then he pointed to the profound scars that ran up from his hands and under his sleeves, indicating through gestures that they wrapped around his body like a prehensile serpent.
The atmosphere was enthralling. I came to learn that politically several audience members had supported Salvador Allende, Pinochet’s socialist predecessor who was overthrown and murdered during the September 11, 1973 coup d’état. The same was not true, though, for one of the audience members in attendance. Interestingly, that person was Judge Juan Guzmán, the film’s main protagonist and the first judge to prosecute Pinochet after the dictator’s return to Chile following over a year of house arrest in London.
Initially Guzmán supported Pinochet’s military takeover, as he thought Pinochet would be able to resolve the Manichaean conflict between the Chilean military and the Communist revolutionaries who posed an ostensible threat to national security. The film follows the investigatory processes that Guzmán undertook in deciding whether or not to prosecute Pinochet for violations against humanity. It was a journey that forced Guzmán to question both his family’s conservative leanings and the military’s reasons for pursuing a politics of extermination.
As a documentary that portrays the famous judge under a less deifying light, the film provides a humanizing lens through which Guzmán boldly acknowledges the mistakes of his past. During the course of his research, Guzmán discovered documents that he had written during his earlier years as a lawyer that denied habeus corpus, the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action, to victims of Chilean human rights atrocities. At one point, Guzmán even admits that he too would most likely have taken innocent lives if he had been ordered to do so by the military.
Simultaneously, the film captures Guzmán’s exemplary qualities as a judge who rigorously systematized efforts to acquire testimonies, initiated Chile’s commitment to international human rights law, and responded officially to all public matters as a chief liaison between Chileans and the law.
Two central stories provided the fodder for Juan Guzmán’s eventual decision to strip Pinochet of his self-declared immunity from war crimes allegations and to charge him with the continued kidnapping and disappearance of political dissidents. One investigation involved the killing of Manuel Donoso, whom the military claimed had perished in a car accident. Upon examining Donoso’s interred remains, however, Guzmán and a team of forensic scientists determined that Donoso has been shot through the head with a bullet.
The second investigation involved Cecilia Castro, a disappeared law student whose mother, Edita, was forced by the military to divulge Cecilia’s location in order to safeguard the life of her grandchild, Cecilia’s daughter. After learning that the disappeared were often tied to rails and left to drown in the ocean, Guzmán organized a diving expedition into the Pacific where he encountered conclusive evidence that innocent people, and possibly Cecilia, were tied to rails that dragged them to the depths of the sea.
Emotionally, the captivating and visceral stories provoked strong reactions from the predominately Chilean audience. Inside the densely packed theater, viewers could be overheard sniffling and sobbing in response to the real life tragedies projected before them on the movie screen.
Claims that Pinochet was psychologically demented and too weak to undergo judicial processes protected him from having to face the consequences of his actions until 2004. It was not until then that Guzmán, who had strangely begun to sympathize with the former dictator who was the same age as Guzmán’s mother, saw a Miami-based interview where Pinochet articulated his responses with clear capacity and deliberation. Unconvinced that Pinochet was mentally ill, Guzmán initiated the legal process that resulted in the revocation of Pinochet’s dementia status at the Court of Appeals. That opened the door for a renewed series of trials and the presentation of evidence supporting the allegations of Pinochet’s crimes. Ultimately, Pinchot was charged with kidnapping, torture, and murder but died on December 10, 2006 before ever being convicted.
Another important aspect the film touches upon is the continued rift in Chilean society between pro and anti-Pinochet factions. The film begins and ends with Guzmán watching a scene of pro-Pinochet protestors who have taken to the streets. The demonstrators never justify the actions of Pinochet or the military but simply emphasize the fact that Pinochet was never convicted. According to Guzmán, such people are ignorant and have not learned anything from their country’s tragic history.
Judging by the question and answer session that followed the screening, a satisfactory response to one question still eludes Chileans: “Why was Pinochet never convicted?” The question was asked to Guzmán twice in succession, and he responded by elaborating on the intricate legal details and how the courts delayed trying Pinochet on several occasions due to his age and the presumably fragile state of his health. Guzmán also articulated numerous complexities within the Chilean court system that slowed the legal process.
“There were three kinds of judges in Chilean courts,” Guzmán stated. “First there were the collaborators, who worked with and benefited from the military regime. Second were the ambitious judges who carried out proper legal investigations and committed themselves to holding violators of the law accountable for their actions. Third were the judges with no character. This type of judge was concerned only with the thoughts of the majority and failed to support the rights of minorities who merit legal representation. In my opinion, this judge is the most dangerous kind of all.”
In a continuing legal process where over 600 military government agents having been indicted and over 30 convicted and imprisoned for their crimes, it seems that Guzmán has sparked a process that will help Chile to overcome years of repressive rule and arbitrary state-sponsored slaughter. “El Juez y el General” seals Guzmán’s courageous commitment to his nation and human rights, as well as his type of character as a judge. Ambitious, to say the least.
Labels: Chile, Guzman, Pinochet
Friday, August 01, 2008
Sitting on top of the world
I don’t know when exactly we decided to make the journey to Paucartambo. From various rumors I had heard it was a big festival, lots of drinking and partying, and an amazing sunrise. Although the city is small, thousands of Peruvians gather there yearly to celebrate Mamacha del Carmen between July 15th and 17th. When we left Cusco around 9:30pm on Tuesday night, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
I suddenly awoke to the crackling sound of fireworks as we pulled into Paucartambo around 1am the following morning. The three and a half hour bus ride had taken us over 110km northeast into the Andes Mountains. I was not conscious for but five minutes of it. We got of the bus and followed the mass of traffic walking along the road. There were two of us, Jacqueline my leader and I her sidekick. She had been to the festival at Paucartambo twice before, and I therefore left all decision making in her hands. She informed me that we had to get on a bus headed for Tres Cruces, and that we had to do so quickly in order to catch the 4:30am sunrise. We quickly found one such bus and unknowingly chose to sit with the driver. It was a mere fifteen soles, just over five dollars, for the trip there and back. Our journey took an immediate halt as we came face to face with a Volvo on the one lane street leaving town. This was not your typical Volvo, the notoriously safe station wagon necessary for every practicing “soccer mom,” but rather an industrial sized monster of a vehicle that had no business being on these small Andean roads. It took over half an hour to figure out how to pass this metallic behemoth. About fifteen were required to move a small SUV onto the sidewalk, and the problem was finally sorted out. We eventually departed Paucartambo around 2:00am, my best estimate.
My seat next to the driver refused to recline, thus sleep was not an option. I used this time to check again my belongings. The contents of my backpack: an extra fleece, spare shirt, boxers, and socks for the next day, a warm beanie and gloves, a hat, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s The General in his Labyrinth, my camera, sunglasses, sunscreen, toothbrush, eye drops, and toilet paper. The skateboard straps also fastened a thin sleeping bag I borrowed from work. Apparently the distance to Tres Cruces is only 45km, yet the nature of this road made the journey much longer. It was pitch black outside, and the only light extended from the high beams. I stared ahead. With each twist and turn we climbed higher into the Andes. The road, barely larger than our bus, was littered with mud, rocks, and potholes. This did not deter our driver, however, as he continued on as if he were navigating a regular highway. He would have to slow down for especially bad sections of the road, where a combination of our three defining elements were sure to make one cautious. The bus tipped back and forth as the tires were made uneven. My nerves would act up now and again. At times, I would look left at shear cliffs and right at mountain walls. There was nowhere to go but forward. I learned to trust my driver, as our fate lied completely in his hands.
It was 4:00am, so far so good. We successfully made it through the mountains to the turnoff a Manu National Park. We had been driving about twenty-five minutes on this new road, and with each turn I expected to see our destination. I had no idea it was a further 13km to the viewpoint. At about ten kilometers in our driver was forced to make a quick u-turn. In a moment of confidence, he took the turn too sharply and the back-left wheel went off the road. Something underneath was disrupted, and all power shut off. This certainly startled the passengers, but our driver remained unphased. As he threw us in reverse, the bus slowly tipped to the left about twenty degrees towards a ditch. Enough was enough, and everyone quickly decided to get off before any more fatal corrections were made.
Fifteen minutes freezing my butt off. It was evident that our bus would not move for a while. Some cars were able to pass, but the process was slow. Half of our group decided to start walking to Tres Cruces, but I knew not all hope was lost. On this one lane road, the line behind our bus was quickly building up. I decided to take a walk to see what I could find.
About five cars back I ran into a pickup truck with an empty bed. The man behind the wheel was reluctant to open his window as I knocked, but eventually he allowed me to explain how we were stranded with no way to the viewpoint. He kindly let us climb into the back of his truck and eventually we were able to pass our infamous bus. I couldn’t hold back my smile as we easily sped past all those passengers slowly trudging up the mountain. I could see the jealousy in their eyes. I felt like nothing could stop us now. I was wrong. The journey lasted a little over a minute as we were suddenly stopped again. I looked ahead to see what was wrong but could see nothing. Two more women climbed into the truck, so I stayed put in fear of losing my place. Eventually the walkers we had left behind were passing us, and the time till sunrise was slowly ticking away. I walked up to inspect the problem. Another bus was stuck in the mud, and this time no one was able to pass. A group of us tried to push it out. It was useless, and I finally realized there was only one way I would see the sunrise.
I looked west, and the moon was barely hanging over the Andean mountain range. It was about 4:30am when we commenced the last part of our journey on foot. I’m not sure whom, but someone estimated it was around 3km to the viewpoint at Tres Cruces; I have no idea if this was accurate. All I know is that we walked, and walked, and walked. At over 12,200ft, the hike was unnecessarily grueling. Nothing could stop us, however, as we were determined to see this sunrise. There was no way I was going to miss it. About halfway through, I was certain we were nearly there. Around each bend I would expect to see the viewpoint, but I was repeatedly disappointed. Regardless, I knew there was only one way there and back, so continuing forward was our only option. By now, the moon behind us was gone and I kept hoping for the light ahead to wait. I looked up and saw thousands of stars littering the sky. I’ve never seen so many shooting stars in my life. In such darkness, I was not aware of space and time. All I had was the path under my feet and a direction to follow. I moved as quickly as possible.
We arrived and I had never been so relieved to not see the sun. Jackie and I laughed, between gasping breaths and gulps of water, at how ridiculous of an adventure this had been. The best was yet to come.
The view in front of me was one of the more spectacular I had ever witnessed. As I understand it, Tres Cruces is located on the last mountain range of the eastern Andes. Below it lays the vast and dense Amazon Jungle. We were standing between two worlds, towering mountains behind and thick jungle ahead. Because of the extreme temperature differences between the two climates, a thick layer of clouds had formed over the jungle. It was a sensational feeling looking down on these clouds, as if we were sitting on top of the world.
We carefully chose a spot away from the crowds so as to have nothing but this spectacular view in our peripheral vision. I was lucky to have brought multiple warm layers and a sleeping bag, for the temperature at that altitude must have been well below zero degrees. Once we had settled in, we eagerly anticipated this famed salida del sol. At around 5:30am, when we arrived, it was still dusk and tough to discern exactly what we were looking at. I couldn’t tell if it was clouds or trees, or some other figment of my imagination. Nonetheless, the skies gradually began to open up before us. As it became lighter, the objects before us took shape and meaning. The sea of clouds came alive; thick, dense, and packed uniformly beneath the horizon. My vision drifted upwards and behind us to see nothing but blue. It was like looking out into the ocean, with the sea and sky reversed.
As the moment approached, everyone focused their eyes on the horizon. A line of orange gradually formed. It slowly intensified, and the surrounding sky steadily brightened. It did this in stages; a thin layer of bright orange surrounded by one paler, followed by a pink that transformed to blue, then dark. These weak colors gained strength as the sun came closer. A small ball of yellow appeared; our first glimpse of the sun’s rays. This grew slowly, bulging out in a convex bubble. It seemed to ooze a faint haze. As this lump on the horizon swelled, the direct center illuminated to white. Alas, the sun! It rose to form the perfect sphere. I had never witnessed something so intense, but I could not avert my eyes. I kept my sunglasses low, intermittently watching from both perspectives. Above the mass of clouds, this sunrise managed to perform amazing feats. Almost hallucinogenic tricks; things your eyes saw but couldn’t manage to believe. Throughout it’s ascent, the sun remained pristine white. The circular edge, however, seemed to be boiling with the heat, radiating all sorts of fantastic colors. First orange, then yellow and green; all surrounded by an incredible blue. The colors mixed and matched to create an array of visually stunning artwork. However it saved the pink for last. At one point a faint pink emitted from the sphere. It gradually intensified and spread, overcoming all the other colors. Minutes later the surrounding sky was neon pink, with the boiling white ball lying directly at the center. I could not believe my eyes, not sure if these colors were real or in my mind. I felt completely satisfied, as if my whole life had added up to this one moment of perfection. This would not sustain though, as the sun continued to rise and the skies returned to normal. It was the most visually stunning sight I had ever seen.
The crowds slowly dispersed to make the journey back to Paucartambo. We lingered a bit, taking in our last fleeting sights of the panoramic view surrounding Tres Cruces. Unfortunately, as the sun warmed the Andes, the clouds below broke and quickly surrounded us. It was finally time to go; the festivities of Mamacha del Carmen awaited. We were lucky enough to find a nice man, Ricky, who was sympathetic to our plight. He allowed us to ride in the back of his pickup truck. That sunrise kept replaying in my mind.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Update #9: The sun shines in Mexico
So much has happened since my last update. Where to begin?
IMIFAP
I'm still trucking along at IMIFAP, writing proposals and adjusting to an entire new set of colleagues that have just shuffled into the office. Right at the start of the new year, all of my fellow peons in Resource Development left me (for better paying jobs), so I was alone and quite sad. To add to my suffering, someone decided to move everyone out of the third floor, cram them into the second floor, and make our 35-person NGO feel absolutely barren of all forms of human life and compassion. Needless to say, I was not very happy living "solita" on the third floor. Then, the start of February brought relief, we hired a wonderful new woman named Nadxielli to our Resource Development department, and picked up several new bodies on the third floor, which has made going into work everyday happy again.
In January I shipped off a bunch of proposals to several donors, and now I am just awaiting responses. What was most exciting was the recent acceptance of two of the proposals that I have written during my time at IMIFAP - one to the World Bank and another to the Kellogg Foundation. I was really pleased that these were accepted because it validated my time here (and my usefulness), and the projects are truly worthwhile, in my humble opinion, of course!
The World Bank project will work with migrants en route to Mexico or the United States via the Honduras-El Salvador-Guatemala channel. Its primary focus is the prevention of sexual and physical violence, especially towards women and children, as migrants seek to ensure safe passage and their very survival. The project will train migrants that are staying in migrant shelters in each of the three countries so that they may better understand their personal rights and learn skills to help them communicate effectively and assert themselves with greater confidence in situations that compromise their personal safety and dignity. In addition, there is a special component for people living in the communities that host migrant populations in an attempt to sensitize them to the plight for people in transition and to prevent unwanted and/or unprotected sexual encounters.
The Kellogg Foundation project is more or less a standard IMIFAP training program, but instead of providing services to women in Mexico, it targets the most marginalized women in Honduras, where we have a strong partner. For this project, IMIFAP will train our NGO partners, who will then replicate the program to provide marginalized women with basic health and sexuality training. Although we have worked before in Honduras, I don't believe that we have ever had a project of this magnitude abroad, so its a big step for IMIFAP!
Otherwise, I am waiting on responses to a few key proposals that we submitted late last year. My biggest hope is that UBS will accept a proposal that would mean total re-vamping and expansion of IMIFAP methodology. I will spare you the details for now so that I will have something to share with you should it be accepted! If you are still wondering what exactly is IMIFAP, please search it on www.wikipedia.org, as yours truly has officially begun an article on our organization!!!
Politics
Life in Mexico City is much how I imagine it was long before the political upheaval, protests, and anger over the election. Reforma Avenue is bustling, no one is on hunger strike, and the greatest uproar to date has been over the increasing cost of Mexico's dietary staple - tortillas - due to the use of formerly imported corn from the United States as a source of alternative energy. I am pretty sure that they have taken care of that problem by promising to control prices.
Otherwise, there is violence in certain areas of the country due to (President) Calderon's crackdown on drugs and gangs, but not enough to substantiate a warning from the State Department, which usually freaks out about these things. The violence itself is a real problem, as you can imagine (the gangs are unmerciful and unrelenting and seek to create terror in order to get what they want), but it is also a big problem for relief and development agencies, such as IMIFAP, as we have had to suspend or alter planned activities in some states due to the violence. Anyways, I do hope that our new president knows what he is doing, and will quell the violence ASAP.
Life
woman who was about double my size in body and muscle mass alike drafting off of me! Well, for you all who know and have seen my competitive spirit know that I was not going to stand for this [insert bad/angry word here], so I immediately slowed down and got right behind her and drafted until I was sick of following her. Then she got behind me and drafted some more. Naturally, I wasn't going to deal with that, so I fell behind and drafted off of her again. This pattern continued for a very tiring 20 minutes, and, recognizing that she had obviously trained for the race, I slowed down and allowed my new arch enemy to pass me. I am pretty sure the television company aired our struggle on their broadcast of the race a few weeks later... ANYWAYS, I finished the 5K in a long one hour and 24 minutes, exhausted, bloated, and quite satisfied! As it turned out, I finished first in the 19-25 age category and got to stand on theAt the end of January, I had an amazing opportunity to travel to swim the entirety of the Bay of Acapulco with my masters swim team! I traveled with my amiga Anaid, and we stayed with two other friends on the swim team, Rosa and Isreal, at a cheapy hotel in the resort area. The race was incredible. There were about 100 competitors swimming, and they all looked tough (with the exception of some of the grannies that were swimming it, of course!) - some had even trained for this! Go figure, right?! Ha, well, not having swum more than 2.5K in the past year, I knew that it wasn't going to be easy to race a 5K...much less against people who had been training for a 5K...oh yeah, plus for the open water bit. Anyways, the race began and I had a goal to finish... Then, no more than 15 minutes into the race, I looked behind me only to find this podium set up in front of the sea! It was pretty embarrassing, however, that I was literally a foot taller than the girl who earned second place. I felt like the big gringa bully...
The original Acapulco itself is "a diva past her prime," as my Frommer's guidebook so eloquently put it. Although it's a resort town back on the upswing, it is obvious that it has been used and abused by spring breakers and lower-class tourists, who simply don't know that it is bad for the environment to throw your trash in the water, etc. In addition, I imagine that many foreign tourists would absolutely hate the locals who roam on the beach seeking to find a sucker or two to pay exorbitant prices! The new part of Acapulco, where I got to stay and visit, is still quite beautiful, although not nearly as nice as the Thai beaches. I am angry because I am now sooo spoiled, and I don't know if any beaches can ever compare! However, I am told that the Caribbean coast of Mexico is just that much better when compared to Acapulco... Nevertheless, it is close to Mexico City and Alison and I will return when she comes to visit...during spring break. I am dreading the spring breakers, but I am VERY excited to see my baby sister!To round this up, two weekends ago I returned to good old Severna Park because I just needed some time to be at home! My daddy said no, but my loving mother said yes, and I bought a ticket on Monday and was on a plane on Thursday. It was one of the more compulsive things that I have done, but with a Mexicana Airlines hub right out of BWI airport, it wasn't 100 percent outrageous! I just told my mom that I'm worth it! Anyways, home was lovely. I ate cream of crab soup to my heart's delight, got to see Kristen and Aly, visit DC, and even make a trip up north to my beloved Princeton! Coincidentally, the big HYP meet was going on that same weekend, and, being against my greatest rival in the world, I just had to make the trip. So my parents and I bundled up and took the familiar route "home" for the second day of the meet! It was fantastic to see everyone AND my girls DOMINATED HARVARD...just like they are about to do TONIGHT at the Ivy Championships! Yes, so I have been screaming at my computer like a maniac, watching some second-round excitement on the live webcam and scoreboard!
For now, I am back in Mexico, enjoying the heat and most definitely not missing the ice storms that I've been reading and hearing about in great detail! Alison, Pier, Kristen, and Hoff must be the only smart ones on this list, as they will all soon be making the trip to escape the cold winter (and humid Thailand) blues!
I hope this email finds you well and safe into FEBRUARY! Eeek! I cannot believe it's already mid-Feb! Please continue to send your updates and keep in touch!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Update #8: The round-up for a truly international year
This update, however, will diverge from the normal Mexican adventures and dramas, and tell you a little about my Christmas trip to London. As many of you know, Alison was studying abroad this past semester in London through her beloved Bucknell University. She was so upset to leave Bucknell, afraid that she would miss her friends and familiar campus, but that all changed very quickly as she fell in love with suave British men and their silly accents, and notably a man named Jameson... That said, my parents were afraid that they'd never be able to drag her home, so they decided that we would have to go and get her and drag her home, kicking and screaming. SO, Santa brought me a plane ticket to London, and I was on my way! After suffering from my first ever food poisoning at 3am the night before (sweet), I woozily boarded a plane to Texas and then to England. It was definitely a shock to hear English on a consistent basis again, although I must admit that I was sooooo happy to be leaving Mexico for a short while. I was in need of some time in a more gender-equal world, where men do not stare or call or do who knows what else, where I don't suffer differential pricing because I am tall and blonde and therefore rich (VERY bad logic), and where I can blend in and become anonymous. Heaven.
In London, we stayed with my mom's friend, Emer, with whom she'd grown up during her time living in England. Emer welcomed us as though she'd known us forever (I'd never met her before), and was a spectacular hostess. The first day, I told my mom that I needed to rest since I was on a diet of ginger ale and ritz crackers, so can you believe that they were going to leave me and go to see Windsor Palace!???! Well, I wasn't going to have any of that, so I rallied despite my dizziness and jetlag, and went to see the crowned jewels, amazing art works, stolen treasures, and absolute extravagance of Windsor Palace. We saw a lot of this stuff, which is just fascinating, visiting Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace, as well. At Kensington (where Princess Diana spent the majority of her regal time), we saw an elegant display of her gown collection, and the photos that were taken to promote the auction of her gowns for AIDS patients. It was so interesting because there is definitely a public love for the ex-princess that still haunts the royal family, which now barely acknowledges her existence. At Windsor, I was appalled to see the royal collection of stolen treasures, which included a beautiful solid gold tiger with crystal teeth from India commemorating the "valiant victory over India." My jaw dropped as I saw this and countless other national treasures strewn about the palaces as a sign of British domination. Pretty sick. Nonetheless, the palaces did not disappoint, and I am convinced that I would make a spectacular princess...
Another highlight was the opportunity to have a 407 Wright reunion in London of all places. My junior year roommates and swimming teammates, Steph Hsiao and Chrissy Macaulay, flew in from Beijing and Paris, respectively, so that we had a wonderfully surreal reunion in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, smack dab in the middle of London. Hsiao-er and CMAC spent Christmas Eve and Day with us at Emer's home, and it was great to catch up, and share stories of adventures, frustration, and life. On Boxing Day, Hsiao, Chrissy, Alison, and I ventured out to the city on our own, during which we wandered the city, sipped hot chocolate on the lake by Kensington Palace, and saw a fantastic production of Wicked in the London theater district. Great show...see it! After the play, Alison took us to her favorite Irish pub (which I'm sure many of you have read about by now), where we danced like crazy. Alison and I even tricked a sketchy American tourist into thinking that we were sketchily dancing British gals. Fun times. I was so happy to see all of my girlies, and I still can't believe that we all flew in from four countries and three continents on the globe!
We did so much more on the trip (as evidenced by my utter exhaustion upon returning home to Mexico), but I will spare you all the detail, in an effort to keep this relatively brief. We also saw Mary Poppins and A Christmas Carol in the theater, visited the British Museum, ate beef 'n ale pie in many charming English pubs, visited Oxford, and managed to eat until we nearly exploded. All in all, the trip was a success!
I am now back in Mexico, lounging about lazily not knowing quite yet what to do with all of my free time. November and December were extraordinarily crazy months...I studied for and took the GREs, prepared applications for six grad programs in four schools, attempted to buy pants long enough for this body of mine in Mexico of all places (NOT an easy task) for chilly London, and so much more. It was a whirlwind that I can barely remember. So, today I kicked off my newfound freedom by lounging in the sun and bronzing my pale white body at La Casa del Colibri, watching the birdies bathe in their bathes and hummingbirds sip sugar water from their feeders:) I could really do without cold weather for a few years I think. It was lovely. I've also been planning for the very exciting visits of four extremely important people this spring: my lil' sis, mr. DeRoo, and Kristen and Hoffy! Between the four of them, I will have the opportunity to visit countless pyramids, cathedrals, beaches, mountains, jungles, and who knows what else! I am soooo pleased to have visitors!
More about Mexico in my next update. I hope you all are well and happy in this New Year. It's going to be an exciting year...I feel it! Oh, and on a side note, I've really been stressing about global warming lately, so please use your reusable bags (and say no to paper and plastic at the grocery store), ride your bike to work once a week instead of driving, and write nasty letters to conservative politicians who don't care about the future of our planet. Sorry, that was my political statement for the day...
Until next time.
