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.