Latino Language, Pedagogy and Culture Immersion Institute in Puerto Rico

I started the day with an early-morning walk with Camilla and Julie. Our hotel is only about a ten-minute walk from the track at the university, so it's very convenient. On the way we drew lots of stares, some friendly, some curious. It was a little uncomfortable attracting all that attention, but it's hard to escape it when you look thoroughly American.

We had our first Spanish class this morning. After writing an introduction about ourselves using as much Spanish as we could, we broke up into the two sections, a beginners' class and an advanced class. The beginners' class enjoyed looking for familiar words in a weekly flyer from a local grocery store (which we would go to later) and sharing their introductions with the professor. In the advanced class we listened to a song and read a story that both addressed the experiences of Puerto Ricans who moved to the United States and had difficulties adjusting financially and culturally. This helped me to better understand the experiences of my Puerto Rican students who move back and forth between Puerto Rico and the US, and I'm looking forward to further discussions on this topic.

After lunch we listened to a lecture on the history, geography, and culture of Puerto Rico, by Michael Campbell, a professor who was originally from the US but has lived in Puerto Rico for over 20 years. It was helpful to hear the perspective of someone who is very familiar with many aspects of Puerto Rico but still comes from somewhat of an "outsider's" point of view.

For dinner we all went to a local Puerto Rican restaurant, el Cacique (a Taino word for "chief"). I think we just about overwhelmed the owner with about 15 of us coming in at once. He gave us a separate room and was very patient in taking our orders as we struggled clumsily with the unfamiliar words on the menu. In addition to my own meal I tasted a little bit of everyone else's around me, so by the end of the night I had gotten to try some typical dishes like mofongo (mashed plantain filled with your choice of meat, pictured), mamposteado (a rice dish), rice and beans, tostones (mashed, fried plantains), and carne guisada (very yummy meat). Delicious!

posted by Jerika at 9:26 PM