Tourist for a day-ENGL-3135-005

The task consisted, as the title says, to disguise oneself and become a tourist on my very own country. I decided to wear some lose clothes, consisting of a sleeveless shirt and some short pants as well as a backpack where I carried all my belongings. The places I visited were all around my hometown of Quebradillas. First, I went to the park of "El Merendero" were I walked through the serpentine asphalt roads that pierced between the trees of a cliff overlooking the sea. I quitely took some photos and video of the area and then went on a hike through the edge of the cliff which lead down to the shore where the river "Guajataca" connected with the sea. Later, I proceeded to walk through an old tunnel where a train used to pass by called "El túnel de Guajataca" it connects straight to the beach in the neighboring municipality of Isabela. I headed back and went straight to buy a "piragua" cause I was very thirsty and then went to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant called "La Quebrada". Next, I went to a placed called "Monte el Calvario" which had a nice view of the land, I could even see the sea from up the mountain. Then, I went to the local stadium and exercised in the nearby running track. Finally, I visited the water park in the town and drank some frappe and went home to rest. The overall trip was fun and relaxing. I enjoyed the sights and food, staying quiet all the way. Nobody looked at me funny since there where some tourist other than me. We all seemed to blend in and did not bother each other. I did get a sunburn, cause I never get out of the house and wear short sleeved shirts, but it was still an enjoyable experience to visit my home town's natural, historic and recreational sites.

ENGL-3135-001 Class journal blog and graphs: "A Journey through my Journal Journeys"

I found the Life journal to be an entertaining and interesting experience. I've always wanted to have a diary but never had the motivation to do one, so I felt that this was a good approximation to that. At first it was a little difficult to comply with all the anti-rules but, once you start to get the hang of it and let go it was easy to follow the rules and have an enjoyable writing experience. Like I said in class, writing in the journal is extremely similar to drawing for me, because I draw almost every single day and it's a place for reflection, relaxation and self-expression for me, that is what the journal felt to me. It was somewhat relaxing to forget about the external world and only focus on the task at hand which is to write. Since I spent a lot of my time alone, it's not that weird to me to listen to my thoughts and to record them on paper. It's similar to having a one sided conversation with oneself. I never found myself with a reason to stop writing and jump from one topic to the next without caring if the previous topic was unfinished. Overall, the journal entries were overall fun and relaxing to me. The life compass was a unique way to track one's mood throughout the week. I enjoyed drawing in the circle and considered it a challenge to see what I could draw inside or outside it. My mood were fairly consistent throughout the weeks and months and I felt more connected to the mental side of the compass than to any of the others. Concerning the data, overall I wrote 42 journal entries and 29 life compasses. The life compasses totaled for 220 points, 41 of these were from spiritual (S), 65 were from mental (M), 54 were from emotion (E) and 60 from physical (P). My average was 8 for compass number total. Spiritual had the most one's, physical had the most two's and mental had the most three's. I had a total of one five, three sixes, eight sevens, twelve eights and five nines. The most repeated number in each of the life compasses parts was 2. Up next is a graph illustrating the compass total per day written:

Thoughts on "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid

In chapter one of Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place the author talks about her homeland Antigua and the tourist that visit the island. Kincaid describes the problems that modern day Antigua suffers from. There is corruption, evidenced by the control of the government of the only two car dealerships in the country and the fact that the banks promote and overall make more accessible loans to buy cars than loans to buy houses. The people that live in the most luxurious houses in the island are either members of the government, drug sellers or women that seduce the members of the government o attain power. Corruption is also evidenced by the fact that there was once a scandal of people obtaining illegal licences without having passed their driving test. We see problems in the conservation of drinkable water, which is a scarce resource in Antigua because it does not usually rain there. There is a lack of facilities such as hospitals who's three doctors neither Antigua's people or its government trust. Schools also lack proper bathrooms having only some latrines outside the school also, the library in the island was destroyed by an earthquake and never repaired. We see poverty as people have "better" cars than they have houses. The cars they use require a gasoline that is not even available to the people of the island. Roads are small and are not maintained and water is not disposed of properly. All of this shows that there is a problem of inequality and government abandonment in the island. On the topic of the tourist the author shows great distaste toward them, criticizing and belittling them. She describes the tourist as selfish, and naive for they consider Antigua as exotic and a refreshing change of pace, despite of the many problems the country faces, only because they get to leave the island and do not really experience what it is like to live there day after day. Kincaid also says that while the tourist may find the natives strange the natives find the tourist even stranger. Natives even mock tourist for the way the talk and act. Natives also envy the tourist for they have enough resources to escape from their "boring" everyday life spent in comfortable modern cities while they are stuck in poverty in their country unable to leave.

In chapter two of A Small Place the author speaks of  the Antigua of the past when she was little before it was freed form colonization. That old Antigua was also corrupted evidenced by the banks that were owned by the previous slave traders. There was racism toward the people of Antigua by immigrants, such as the Americans that excluded black people form entering their establishment; the dentist who demanded his wife too see his patients before him so she could clean them; and the teacher from North Ireland which compared Jamaica and here fellow classmates with monkeys on top of trees.The people of the island were, and still are, heavily influenced by English culture, customs and beliefs. They celebrated English customs without knowing why, for example queen Victoria's birthday. The English controlled what Antigua could see and what they could interact with. Furthermore, the author outright states the hate she bares to people from countries that have or are still colonizing. She expresses frustration with them when they ask why she is still mad. She feels that the British took her people culture, traditions language and freedom and imposed theirs, as well as that they were mistreated by them. The author hates how they still view the colonized as inferior and how they expect them to accept their beliefs even after the bad experiences they had with the colonizing country.

This reading relates with Puerto Rico in that both Antigua and Puerto Rico were colonized, we still are however. Their is corruption and an abusive government in both islands and we both have distaste for foreigners. We are also still forced to see things through the eye of the colonizer just like Antigua was also forced. Overall Jamaica Kincaid expresses her anger and frustration toward the state that her country is in and how the colonizers are at fault for it.

English literary contest, My reflection

The English literary contest was a weird an awkward experience to me, as all social and public events are to me. I can't recall if I've ever been to such a ceremony before. I don't think I have anyway. Since I arrived a little late I don't know what happened prior to my arrival, but the first thing I witnessed when I entered was one of the professors using a power point presentation to give pointers and advice to aspiring writers in the audience. She discussed writing methods and possible mentors. It was quite surprising to discover that she was a writer and mentor herself. I also found curious the amount of people that gather writings form novice writers to publish them in books. I could see some of the students writing down many of tips and information she gave. I think it was a nice touch. When they were about to begin the ceremony we we suddenly interrupted by the "Tuna" of the university of Rio Piedras, one of the two anyway. They were about twelve people dressed in rather flamboyant costumes with ribbons and buttons which seemed to display their status inside the group. They sang a a couple of in Spanish and one in English as well as a serenade for the ladies and between each song the oldest member of the group would say a joke or a one-liner. The experience was quite enjoyable overall. They showed impressive skill with the manipulation of the instruments they played with, some kind of guitar or mandolin maybe? They could also hit their tambourine with their feet which was amusing to watch. After the Tuna left the ceremony officially began they announced the winners and honorable mentions and gave the awards for the categories of: essay, poem and short story. It was intriguing to see that a women, currently in prison, was so overwhelmed by the recognition of er work, gives me insight on the artistic potential that people that are imprisoned might have and the stories they could tell. It was also a nice gesture of her fellow prisoner friends to accompany her in this moment which I assume was special and important to her. Once the awards were given we all left the theater and off we went with the hurry that most collage students have. It was an interesting experience but, it was also awkward to see some of my old English professors some of which I've had bad experiences with. Congratulations to the winners, special shout out too ENGL-3135-001 class winners and fellow A team members, and best of luck to those who wish to pursue their writing carrier.