Estoy Aqui!

Hey all! So here I am in Mexico finally studying Marxism and Socially Movements. It's funny how something can seem infinitely far away and then you blink and your program has started and you still haven't done all the readings! Story of my life.

For those of you who don't know, I'm studying abroad in Mexico. We study political economic theory (mostly Marxist so far and its looking to be mostly Marxist through out) and Mexican social movements. Rock on! How often do you get to check out a Zapatista Caracol (autonomous political and cultural center) and learn from the folks who are there why they chose to declare autonomy from Mexico and to wear those ski masks you may have seen them wearing on T.V.? Well for me I get to do it for 6 weeks before I go to Mexico City to do the same thing there, and then Tlaxcala, and then Juarez. Wait you mean like that city near El Paso that New York Times claims has all the drug trafficing problems? Well yeah and that's what we'll be studying! Among other things.

My time here so far has been as exciting as it ought to be. Almost missed my connection in Mexico City because the airport is about as large as the city (think LAX times like 10 and without the moving walk-ways and with screens that show all the flights but yours.

The people on the program are great. All Americans but some who speak Native Spanish. This is good as my Spanish could use some major improvement before it too graduates to a level somewhere in the ballpark universe near that of those who speak the Native Spanish.

I was a little nervous about doing the program because of how Leftist it is, and boy is it Leftist! But having had three debates with fellow students on the program about the importance of working within or without the system and the value of economics in general, it turns out that things should turn out ok. Not that I won the debate as all the students on the program are supremely smart; but we decided not to call it a debate anyway. Dialogue more like.

Man you should sit in on some of the classes we've had. It's like everything Berkeley is not. Except for the Marxism part. There are 7 students in a class and the class is centered around us discussing the material. Somehow it works really well and we learn plenty and the professor chimes in when its necessary and has a list of things to talk about. This must be what private school is like. Its weird having a professor who knows your name! The pedagogy of the program is based around the theories of Freire in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The course is organized around the students needs and based on the interaction of theory and practice. Praxis. And the analys is based on the ideas of dialectics. Totally mind-blowing way of thinking! You should try it sometime.

The one downside to Mexico is related to food. Not that the food isn't wonderful (it is Mexican food afterall) but it does have a tendency to do to me what one might expect would happen to an American traveling in regions where he is not meant to drink the water. We also eat beans for every meal, which doesn't help matters as you can imagine! Anyway, all this would be fine if Mexican toilets had toilet seats. Enough said.
Oh and they also don't eat burritos in Mexico.
I knew this in advance but never really thought about it before.
They don't eat burritos in Mexico.