Hey there, everyone. Somehow, it’s already my sixth week in San Cristóbal de las Casas. To echo previous bloggers’ sentiments, it’s a little startling how quickly the weeks blew past. Honestly, I haven’t taken a lot of time to reflect on much until now. There’s too much I want to write about to fit in one blog, but I hope I can still provide a glimpse into my time abroad in Mexico under the Loewenstern program, along with highlights of what I’ve learned and experienced these past few weeks. ¿Mi chapalot xa?

Ecology

The ecology in Chiapas has been exciting to watch! The hardest part has been taking pictures of critters without their scattering, flying away, hiding behind tree branches, or shifting at the most inopportune times. Even after I would give up taking pictures of them, I’m not well-versed enough to be able to identify as many of them as I would like to. Still, it’s thrilling to see a new animal show up for me to admire. I saw hummingbirds that zip past our window from time to time. I saw lizards and moths of all sorts of sizes and colors. There were also several daddy-long-legs in my bathroom, which was fun to discover while I was showering.

There’s a natural overlap between the flora and fauna of Houston and Chiapas, even as far south as we are. I got to see plenty of familiar monarch butterflies and prickly pear cacti. Even so, there were plenty of other new faces like the white-throated magpie jay (Calocitta formosa) and Bocourt’s emerald lizard (Sceloporus smaragdinus). I even got to see a white-nosed coatí (Nasua narica) at Las Cascadas de Chiflón! 

Challenges

¡Provecho!

Breaking out of my comfort zone was a big personal goal of mine coming into this trip. To this end, I’ve been spending a lot of time doing just that–intentionally and unintentionally. When I first arrived in Mexico, I was only fairly confident in my ability to speak Spanish, and that was my main concern initially. I quickly realized, however, that the true challenge was figuring out how to work in a kitchen with a total of one knife and dubious tap water. I barely know how to cook in general, so this was a trial by fire that I threw myself into with varying levels of success. But now we have a microwave and actual knives, so things are on the up and up. 

 

 

Other parts of life in San Cristóbal haven’t been easy. Most travel blogs I’ve read have advised preparing for digestive issues while in Mexico, but I did not expect it to hit me basically immediately. To avoid providing any overly specific details, let’s say I overestimated my digestive tract on Week 1. That’s been a fun ride, and I still can’t look at mushrooms for the time being. So word of advice for any travelers as overconfident as I was: buy some stomach medicine and BRAT foods as soon as you arrive.

 

 

Some more unsolicited advice: be careful with your credit card. Honestly, I think this is mostly just bad luck on my end, but I managed to use my card around three or four times before someone tried spending 1000 pesos with it. (The transaction name said it was for some fantasy sports betting site? If that’s the case, I hope the bets worked out for the dude so that it wouldn’t be a complete waste). In any case, San Cris is a very cash-friendly town. Outside of large and cumbersome transactions like groceries at a supermarket, I’ve been able to use regular pesos for most of my purchases. So it’s not as bad as I might be making it sound by complaining for a whole paragraph!

Language Concerns

Experience with Spanish

Using Spanish daily is fun. I finally managed to remember (most of) the preterite conjugations, but it’s still hard to catch up in a conversation. I found that it’s hard for me to distinguish Spanish words from each other when someone’s speaking. While I was trying to find ways to improve, someone at a bar told me that when he practices English, he tries to think in English as well. Sounds like a brilliant idea. Why not try this out myself? It turns out that the main issues that I’ve come across are that I’m a little forgetful and that my head’s kind of empty a lot of the time. It’s a bit of a work in progress.

One goal I set for this trip was to improve my ability to listen in Spanish. While I definitely hear Spanish every day, after a bit more than a month, I don’t feel a notable improvement in the words I can make out in a conversation. Combine this with a variety of outside conversations or the rattling of outside traffic in a colectivo, and it almost feels like I’m fighting for my life out there. Still, it’s been a great opportunity to practice in a trial-by-fire sort of way, and I’m looking forward to doing just as much for the rest of my trip. Who knows? Maybe I’ll wake up one morning and have shed all my knowledge of the English language. (Like a snake or something. Is that how that works?) 

Experience with Tsotsil

So with all of these concerns in mind, I decided to take Tsotsil language classes! Tsotsil is an indigenous Mayan language that’s frequently spoken in San Cristóbal. You may wonder what this has to do with improving my Spanish skills, and the truth is that I don’t know either. But it’s been a lot of fun learning some basic phrases and grammar. There’s a lot of cool challenges with the pronunciation; it’s very different to any other language I’ve learned, and yet it’s also quite similar to Spanish. It definitely intrigues me in how the Spanish and indigenous Mesoamerican languages have influenced each other.

The vocabulary itself has also been challenging because of all the different regional variants within the language. For example, my teacher is teaching the variant spoken in Zinacantán, a town to the west of San Cris. On the other hand, one of the workers at Cántaro Azul speaks the variant from San Juan Chamula. Despite the towns’ being only about a 15 minute drive from each other, the vocabulary is surprisingly different! In fact, I’ve learned that there’s a lot of different ways to say “How are you” among the Tsotsil variants. The Zinacantán variant is “K’u xa-elan,” but the Chamula variant is “K’uxi avo’onton?” Dictionaries online usually do not make note of any specific, and some resources I’ve been using say that they get their vocabulary mainly from friends and vendors around San Cris. So who knows what sort of mixture of Tsotsil that I’m learning? You won’t hear me complain, though. It’s been a fascinating ride.

Anyway, I’m hoping that by the end of my time in Mexico, I’ll have at least some of the basics down. Somehow, I don’t have high hopes that I’ll get many opportunities to use it at all back in the United States, but it’s been good in the meantime. 

This trip, I’m extremely grateful for my Loewenstern partner, Shivani. Without her, I wouldn’t have any idea of what is happening in the city or what restaurants have been vouched for. She’s very in-the-know about things! I admit that it’s difficult for me to socialize, especially in a new language. However, I’m hoping that as I turn over to the second half of my time in Mexico, I’ll take more proactive measures to find even more new experiences and continue to kick down my comfort zone. See you later/Hasta luego/Jlikel to!

This week will be the start of my fifth week in San Cris. As of now, I’m feeling pretty settled, and I’m excited for the next few weeks to come. I also cannot believe time has gone by this fast. Looking back, as I was planning my trip in the spring, one of the main things I was concerned about was how I would find community. I would be traveling to a new country where everyone speaks a different language that I do not have fluency in. But since I’ve arrived here, I’ve found a lot of different opportunities to meet people – students, travelers, and locals. In this blog post I hope to share some of the experiences I’ve had so far during my time in San Cris with the people I’ve met.

Exploring the area with fellow Rice students

My Loewenstern partner and I were lucky enough that the times we planned the trips coincided with a Rice study abroad program  led by Dr. Lloyo and Dr. Hunter that was also going to spend most of May in San Cristobal. It was really nice to have the company of the other Rice students, especially at the beginning of the trip when we were just settling in. Dinners with their groups and general hangouts have really made my time here in San Cris special.

Two weeks ago, we were also able to take a day trip to visit Cascadas el Chiflón y Lagunas de Montebello. We booked a trip with a travel agency that provided a tour van and guide. We left at 8 AM and drove about 3 hours to El Chiflón. We were able to hike up and see three waterfalls (so so beautiful!). Then we drove a couple more hours to a lake and spent some time kayaking. After that, we went to another lake that bordered Guatemala. We were able to walk a bit into Guatemala as well.  All in all, it was a really cool trip and a lot of fun to do with the other Rice students! I hope to do a few more day trips while I’m here.

The engineering study abroad ends this week, so the students will be heading back soon. I’ll miss having them around, but I’m so glad they were here at the same time as us and we got to meet!

Colleagues at Cantaro Azul

Everyone at Cantaro Azul, our host organization, has also been incredibly welcoming. From warmly greeting us every day to giving us restaurant and event recommendations, they’ve really helped us settle into the city. We’ve been spending most of our days working somewhat independently, but every morning we have breakfast together. Through my interactions with colleagues at Cantaro, I’ve realized that the hardest Spanish for me to understand is not the technical jargon –  most of the chemistry words are English cognates. It’s hardest to keep up when everyone is speaking conversationally. Nevertheless, I’m always grateful when they slow down to include us in the conversation, or inform us about certain cultural norms, such as greetings and other intricacies in Mexican Spanish.

This Monday, June 5, was Cantaro’s 17th anniversary. We ate a lot of cake together (Tres Leches is so so so so good), and it was really cool to see everyone in the organization come together to celebrate.

Classes/workshops

After my first day at work at Cantaro, I kind of freaked out at my lack of ability to understand conversational Spanish. That Monday evening I realized there was a Spanish school literally across the street from our Airbnb: Tu Mundo Spanish School. They offer a 5-day Spanish intensive (3 hours of class a day). During my classes, I learned a lot of grammar and also improved my conversational capability. But most importantly, my interactions with the instructors really smoothed my transition to San Cris. They told me about Facebook groups to join and events happening in the area. The Wednesday of my first week, they also have a little fiesta with tamales and traditional Chiapanese snacks and drinks. It was really great to meet the instructors and students, and we had a great time together!

Although my classes ended a few weeks ago, I’ve kept in touch with my instructors, and it’s been great to spend more time with them. Last Sunday, two of my instructors and another student (originally from Estonia) visited El Arcotete, a natural park about 20 minutes away from the city center. We grilled some veggies, corn, tortillas, and nopales, and had a really cute picnic on the mountainside. I think it was some of the best guacamole, pico de gallo, and salsa I’ve had. We hiked around the park after, and it was so beautiful. I wanted to paint it, so hopefully I can find some art supplies and take a painting trip to a natural park.

Two weeks ago, I also started belly dancing (mainly because I realized there was a belly dancing studio also literally right across from my Airbnb). I could rave on and on about it. Our instructor is fantastic, it’s such a good workout but also a lot of fun and visually stunning (very pretty costumes!). It’s also been a great way to meet some other people. The class is pretty small – around 5-6 people, and it’s made of both locals as well as a few international people like me. I’ve loved the opportunity to get to know some of the other people taking the class, and we’ve had some great conversations before and after classes. And I may have discovered a new interest to perhaps continue in Houston.

Final Thoughts

The thought of moving to a new place without really having an established social circle has always been pretty scary to me. Through these past few weeks, I’ve learned that when I am in an unfamiliar place, it’s important to be incredibly intentional when forming relationships. In a college setting, I’ve found it much easier to meet people and form friendships — I’m in a setting with a lot of people similar to myself, and I’m constantly running into them. In San Cris, I’ve learned that I need to place myself in settings that are conducive to forming relationships – like classes and workshops. I also need to be more proactive and intentional about reaching out to people to make connections. I’ve learned that the city itself is pretty friendly. In general locals seem to somehow all be somewhat connected to each other (kind of like the vibe of a small town). There are also a lot of international travelers who have been pretty fun to meet as well.  But the energy put in is definitely worth it. Times where I’ve taken a chance or been more outgoing or friendly have resulted in some of my favorite and most memorable experiences in San Cris.