We Love Loitering

On Mondays we always go to lectures, workshops or other things organized by The Washington Center. This last Monday we had a panel where they gave us a brief introduction to the topic we chose for our civic engagement project. I chose immigration, of course. I think this is a very important issue that involves Mexico and the US and it is very important for us all to understand it well. Although I was already aware of most of the things they told us (statistics, laws and general information), I liked the panel.

A police officer, who is son of Mexican parents, came and talked a little about his efforts to make the whole department of police more sensitive about this subject, and one of the things he focuses on is helping them understand that Hispanic cultures are very different from the dominant US culture, and it is very difficult (and a slow process) for people to completely adapt to new rules and customs. One thing I found really funny and interesting is when he said that most of the times when the police see a bunch of people doing nothing and just standing somewhere talking, they think that this group is doing something bad… but no. That is just the way we are, we really like loitering jaja. In Mexico you will never see those “No Loitering” signs, because we always like to stay in big groups doing nothing for a while--just hanging out, talking or in silence, but together. Another very particular thing is that we are very family oriented. Did you see the movie Failure to Launch? That will be me in some years jaja; no, we are not that bad, but we are very close to our families and we like big family gatherings as well.

Changing subject...last Sunday some friends and I went to a baseball game, I’ve never been to a professional one before, so that was cool. As a Scottish guy that also went for his first time said, it’s strange that the game is not always the main focus, some people go to just eat, drink some beer and hear some noise, or at least that is the impression I got too. A Canadian friend just invited us to a hockey game in a few weeks, which is cool also because I’ve never been to one of those either. In Mexico soccer has the monopoly on sports fans, so it’s good to see some new stuff.

At Voice of America (my internship placement) things have been sort of quiet this week, and that gives me the chance to find out what other people do in the building. As I told you before, where I work is a big building with a lot of people from all over the world, and it is really interesting to know how they work and to explore in all the divisions--TV and radio sets and offices. There are a lot of interesting things happening in that place all the time.

VIVA MÉXICO

Last Tuesday, September 16th, was the Mexican Independence celebration (independence from Spain in 1810, in case you didn’t know, but of course you knew, everyone knows Mexican history). The Mexican Embassy threw a very good party with awesome Mexican food, Tequila of course (for those who were of age) and other Mexican drinks. We had a lot of fun, and it is a really good feeling to be in another country with a room full of mostly Mexicans singing songs and screaming Viva México.

Patriotism always strengthens when you are away from your country; you realize how amazing your country and its people are, and you wish everybody knew it and left behind all stereotypes. So, I tell you, we do not ride donkeys and do not wear sombreros jaja.

No matter how close we are geographically to one another, there are a good deal of differences between customs of México and the U.S. Most of them are in little things—like how to greet a person. In México when you meet a woman, you kiss her on the cheek and when you meet a guy, you give him a handshake (or hug him if is he is a good friend). When I arrived and started meeting people I was trying to kiss on the cheek the girls I met, just to be polite, but I stopped doing it because most of them found it strange.

On Thursday and Friday, Mike, our supervisor in Voice of America, took another intern and me to the Online News Association convention that was held here in D.C. We went to a few presentations, some of them very interesting and some of them too technical for me jaja. I am studying marketing, and some of these meetings talked a lot about programming and things like that, but the subjects were very interesting. The new trends in this field (online news) are quit interesting because they try to get to people through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and so on.

At The Washington Center they tell us a lot about how important networking is and how it works here in D.C. At the beginning I didn’t believe things were really like they told us (every time you meet someone new you talk about your job and you exchange personal/business cards) but this convention proved me wrong. Everyone was doing exactly that during the breaks of the conferences, it was sort of funny to see people giving and receiving cards.

Ahh, and other cool thing, in this convention there were a lot of free gifts and free food, something you can never say no to when you are living by yourself and still studying.

Getting Started

Wassup people. This is the fist time that I'm doing a blog or anything like this and I don’t know how I'm supposed to start it every time; so I’ll just say hello like I am talking to someone… Hello. The first week you arrive at a new place everything is different, but after a little while you start getting the idea more or less of how things really are going to be.

This is the first time I'm living with people other than my family. Even though there are so many different things, the experience has been easier than I thought it would be. One of the main things I was worried about before coming was not getting along with my roommates--especially after reading all the warnings of The Washington Center saying that there were not many room changes and all problems should be solved between roommates. But everything has been quite good so far. The three guys are really cool people, and I don’t think we will have any major problems in these coming months. My roommates are from Iowa, Massachusetts and New Hampshire; from what I’ve seen so far it is a very different experience for them also, which is a good thing.

Washington D.C. is full of great things anyone can take advantage of. I didn’t know this was such an attractive place for tourists. There are a lot of people coming from the whole country to visit all the museums, the White House, the Pentagon and all that. Every week there are concerts (a lot of them are free), volunteering events, conferences and many other things you can do. You will never get bored in this city unless you want to.

I like every once in a while stay at home and do nothing the whole day--just eat and watch TV, but this is very difficult in D.C. because there are so many cool things you can be doing instead of that jaja. So I guess I will not have a lot of rest in the next few months.

This week I did some more internet projects at Voice of America. We get to do some interesting things. In the morning sometimes we go to a meeting where all the chiefs of each geographical division talk about the most important happenings in their region, so in half an hour I get to know the most important news worldwide before anybody else. Also for my class (Global Marketing Strategies) I have to read at least three newspapers every day, so this is the fist time in my life that I know so many things about the world’s current happenings.

Voice of America is a really big agency. To be honest, I didn’t know anything about them before interning here. When they told me about the opportunity to intern at VOA I hesitated a little, but then I started doing some research about them I got excited that they had chosen me.

I have done some traveling before, but when I started talking to the other interns I realized that they all have traveled a lot around the world and they know two or more languages; they like international people there. VOA is a very international building, if you want a translation of any language you go there and it is 90% probable that you will find one or more persons that can do the job for you.

Right now I am very happy with how things are going here...good people, excellent class, cool job, amazing city, fancy apartment… I couldn’t ask for more; well, I could, but it wouldn’t be realistic jaja.

Here are some pictures of the apartment, and our view from the 20th floor. Hasta pronto.

Week 1

Que onda gente, I am Everardo Alemán from San Luis Potosí in the center of México, and I am going to be writing to you during the next 15 weeks to describe my life here in DC as I participate in a Washington Center internship. I have been here only a week, but I have some cool things to tell you about already.

As a woman said in our orientation, “These fifteen weeks are full of first impressions,” but here I'll describe for you the first of all the first impressions.

The city…
I don’t know why I had the idea when I made my connecting flight from Dallas to DC that all the people in the plane were going to be wearing suits and ties and looking very formal, but when I saw normal people with normal clothes I kind of noticed that normal people lived here also, not only the people I was used to watch on TV and in movies filmed in DC jaja (that's haha in Spanish).

While my plane was landing, I got to see the Pentagon. It was kind of strange because I didn’t know it was here in DC, so it took me a few seconds after I saw the shape of the building before I realized I was looking at a site where international military decisions are made. After only a week in the U.S. capital, I already know that you can't disregard any building here--it might be the center of national nuclear policy or something like that (it actually happened to me--I found that building when I was buying some groceries). Definitely not something you see in every city.

The first weekend we went to Georgetown and somewhere else at night and there are lots of choices of different kinds of places and all prices. We also went to the National Zoo, I found it really cool (I posted a picture at the bottom) they have all kinds of animals there and it is quite big.

The housing…
My taxi got lost when we were around two blocks away from my apartment building, so I was wondering if every building I saw was going to be my new home for the next weeks. When we finally got to Grosvenor Tower I found it really cool, nothing like my residence in my last exchange which was a little white box with a half individual bed, a shower and no toilet, jaja, really, the toilet was outside my apartment. The apartment here is very nice...I’d say too nice for a student. We are supposed to suffer a little you'd think, but this is comfortable--we have all kinds of unnecessary amenities--even a small fake tree.

When you sign up for TWC housing there’s this little form you have to fill out in which you write down your preferences in your future roommates. I wrote that I wanted to be with other exchange students because it is generally easier to get along with people that are going more or less through the same process that you are--strange country, different language, new people and lifestyles. But fortunately the people from Housing and Student Life didn’t listen to me and put me with three guys from the States, and this first week has been really cool with them.

THE JOB…
The first day of work our supervisor told us a little about Voice of America. He explained to us that was a part of the government and was in charge of broadcasting news worldwide. He told us the areas we were going to be working in…Marketing, Latin America Division (me and another Mexican girl) and YouTube. They have big projects and are reporting news through the internet in an innovative way, which is amazing--and I am going to be a part of it. Yeahhhhh.

We did a lot of paperwork the first two days and they took all of our fingerprints, they almost took my toe prints jaja.

The other interns are really cool; there are four of us in the Internet Division--a Chinese girl, a Mexican girl, a guy from here in the States and me, plus another guy from South Korea in the IT Division and one girl also from here in TV. We all have really great things to do. I look forward to the next weeks and to all that we will be accomplishing.

I’ll be writing next week, but if you have any questions feel free to comment. Cya...

Oh and here are some pictures of the week.