Crossroads

This particular group project has been one of the most interesting and different of all other that I had participated before.  We’re always sharing experience and trying to be cooperative with each other.  In order of being responsible we all are always communicating each other. We try to help each other because we are a group who wants to improved our knowledge. Social media is one of the factors that help us to communicate and be productive in everything.  

    I’d remember the first activity that we made together and how we connect just immediately even though it was the first time we meet. We were all stressed because we had just a short time to do the assignment and we all did something. So when it was the time to choose a role we made it quickly and each one know how to made their part correctly.  We are five and we all have our role on the group, all members are: Alexandra Knight, Jose Oyola, Ashley Diaz, Francellys Maysonet and me (Janeliz Roman). We choose Crossroads as our names, because we are very different but this journey in this class make us to intercept and share this in common.

    Each members has something special who made the group feel completely, Ashley is always trying to keep each other informed, Alexandra is the person who have new ideas and keep the folder and assignment organized. Francellys is the person who research about everything, Jose always add those details that are missing in our works. Their roles teach me to improved my knowledge also to always look for a new adventure.  This group project is one of the aspect that made our university a place to increase your desire of travel and discovered new things in this journey.

Journal Reflection

    For the English Literature class, we needed to keep a journal. In which we could write everything, could write in class or at home. We promised to accept the anti-rules and we will follow them. These were: 1)Keep your hands moving, 2)Don't cross out, 3) Don't worry about grammar, spelling punctuation, 4)Don't get logical, 5)Don't get rational, 6)Don't think, 7)Go for the jugular.

    When you are trying to do a Journal Reflection with rules that are not familiar to you, everything gets complicated.  My experience with the Anti Rules was definitely satisfactory although at first it was not like that.  At the beginning they all were so difficult to completed but if you kept practicing eventually were easily.  The two more complicated ones were: “Don’t stop. Keep your hand moving.”(number 1) and “Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or punctuation.” (number 3).  These two rules were so difficult because I’m always trying to correct myself at grammar, spelling and punctuation, also crossing out words because most of the time I don’t feel sure if they’re well written.  However, this project made me search for new words considering that writing the same words every time was not something good for me. 

Meanwhile, I started to look for synonyms of every word I kept repeating.  The consistency of repeating words is something hard for me because when I was on middle school I’d remember having a teacher who always correct that and you couldn’t repeat the same word or a phrase all over because she’ll notice and made you look for a synonym.  I’d believe that my writing has changed since I initiated to do journals. I didn’t know I was capable to write for 10 minutes without stopping.  The difference of all my English past works and all recent ones its huge.  I’ll say that one of the thing that I earned from this work was confidence, the confidence of not being afraid of writing or thinking that you can’t do it because it’s in English may be in another time it could get me nervous of not being able to do it but now is not an aspect that doesn’t let me finish my works.

When it was the time of doing the Life Compass in the Journal’s work, I was trying do always to ask myself about what I feel.  My Compass were written from all the things that made me happy or sad, excited or cheerless. Some times you fell like talking to nobody and journal were my friend who listen to you and help you to feel better. At least it’s a work who capture your attention and you can be freely about your own topics.

On a walk

I decided to walk a stretch of my route back home. I live in the rural area in the metropolitan area. There is a lot of vegetation and the roads are one way. I have lived there since I was born. At the beginning I thought that nothing of what I saw would surprise me and that everything was familiar to me, since I have been taking the same road to my house since I can remember. Just like Alexandra Horowitz, I realized how ignored this path has been for me. I focus more on the vegetation, since the houses of my neighbors are scattered and far away. Although my knowledge about plants and trees is very limited, I am amazed to see so much variety.

I noticed some trees that continue to recover from Hurricane Maria. Others are already flourishing and bearing fruit. I am amazed by the resilience of the vegetation to recover after such a great catastrophe. I had never stopped to capture and observe carefully the roots, branches and leaves of these great trees that are still recovering. I saw many others that were just beginning to germinate and others who were along the road because they did not resist the phenomenon.

I saw a lot of sizes, colors and shapes in the flowers and it was what caught my attention. There were large, medium and small, some beginning to wither and others barely budding. Some had a single color and others had multiple colors ranging from the most opaque to the brightest. I'm sure some color of those flowers has not yet been imitated or used by humans. As I watched the flowers, I saw a few bees doing their great and impressive work and I was so curious that when I returned home I started looking for information and research about pollination, which bees are responsible for. I took a few flowers to investigate and at least know their names. This exercise helped me to realize how alienated I was from what surrounds me. I took the opportunity to learn and investigate.

On Looking

In "Amateur Eyes" by Alexandra Horowitz, she talks about how the most common can become the most ignored and least observed. She concluded that the path she took daily with her dog was more unknown to her than to her dog. Who unlike her, looked at everything, even in the trash of neighbors. She did the exercise, in which she tried to observe everything in detail, as her dog did. With this exercise, she was able to observe common details in her neighborhood that had been there for years, but she had never noticed them. According to Horowitz, "we see, but we do not see: we use our eyes, but our gaze is glancing, frivolously considering its object. We see the signs, but not their meanings. We are not blinded, but we have blinders”. The daily routine, the eagerness, and the hustle weary makes us walk like using skates and makes us ignore the small details of the ordinary of life. The eagerness makes us forget "the events unfolding in your body, in the distance, and right in front of you” and “an unthinkably large amount of information that continues to bombard all of your senses". I have always said that the Hurricane category 5, María, was a wake up call, to get up from our daily routine. It allowed me to see how blessed I am, how ephemeral life is, but also to pay more attention and care to what surrounds us. The most that suffered for this phenomenon was nature. When we went out of the house, after the hurricane, I was astonished. When living in the countryside, many houses and places were covered or not visible by vegetation. I was amazed because all the trees, palms, and bushes some were naked and others very beaten and shrunken. I saw houses and places that in 19 years I had not seen and not only because they were covered by vegetation but because I had not stopped to observe everything on the road. I was very busy thinking about reaching my destination, I never stopped to observe everything that was hidden behind the large trees and vegetation. According to Alexandra Horowitz, "our ignorance / concentration enables us to just notice the scrawls on the page”. The eagerness makes us “miss the possibility of being surprised by what is hidden in plain sight right in front of us”. We need to stop and not allow the eagerness, the daily routine and the hustle weary make us to not pay attention to what really deserves it.

Perfumes

Throughout my life, I have had objects with many and great meanings for me. Its meaning is not how much it costs, but the value it holds and the moments it saves. Something, so insignificant, that keeps too much value and importance for me are the perfumes. It can be important for the person who gave it to me or for the day, place, moment, or stage where I used it. But it can also be significant because of the experience I experienced with that smell.

The smell of a perfume is something I never forget. I remember the baby cologne I used to use in my days in elementary school. All the memories I have in that school have that peculiar smell. The first teachers, the first friends, the first disagreements and even the first loves. Every time I smell that perfume, I go back to lunch times at my elementary school. It is truly amazing everything that can save the most economical and most common cologne in those days.

The first perfume I had, after the baby cologne, was one that my mother gave me. My mom and I share the same taste in perfumes and I love that. I loved the smell of this perfume so much that I bought it several times, it had the simplest packaging that my eyes have seen. I used that perfume the first days of middle school, oh how much nerve felt! I remember those days as the scariest, fearful and frightening of my life, and once again there was the smell of that perfume to remind me, of those days, all my life.

There are other perfumes that remind you of people, perhaps because it is the one they usually use. In my case, I have a perfume that had a great significance for me, but recently it has become more important than all the perfumes I have had so far. It is a splash with a smell of sea breezes, my grandmother gave it to me, she died a few weeks ago. My grandmother was one of the most important and influential people in my life. Now that she is not with us, I promised to keep it forever. Another perfume that I will never forget was the one that she used to use. For my taste it had a very strong smell, but, from now on, that perfume will remind me forever of that great being.

I had not realized how important perfumes were to me, until I did this exercise. I realized that perfumes, in my life, contain experiences, memories, and people. The perfumes have marked my life and my stages. I'm glad that I can remember those memories and experiences through perfumes. I enjoy that they keep more than a simple fragrance, that they keep people and moments.

Tourist for a day

   

Condado, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Today I am going to act as a tourist in my country. I must prepare myself physically and mentally for this adventure. To change my Puerto Rican look, by the way, very difficult to hide, I will wear a shirt that says Puerto Rico and a bathing suit that could be seen below. I used some shorts, a hat, glasses and flip flops. Use sunscreen as a body lotion. I went to spend the day in Condado, San Juan, a place frequented by tourists. 

I went to breakfast in a nice and comfortable place, I started to speak English, but my accent and my Caribbean look did not help at all. They treated me kindly, but I could still see their faces the discomfort for making them speak English even though I look like I knew Spanish. The server was very cordial, and it did not take her by surprise when I asked for the menu in English, she spoke fluently, and I could see on the spot many tourists speaking English as well.

 In the second place I visited, it was a clothes shop, I decided to change my accent to Cuban, which I mastered quite well. As soon as I entered the girl welcomed me in Spanish and asked me if I was looking for something specific, she was very attentive. When speaking with that accent I could see in their faces that attitude of equality and not otherness as I saw it in the previous place. There were Americans there too and they were treated with the same attention as me, all the employees spoke English. 

At the end of the day, I bought an ice cream in a walking cart on the corner of the street. The man who was selling was promoting himself in Spanish and English. He said all the flavors in Spanish and English. It had a long line, there were many tourists and they preferred the tropical fruit ice creams. I decided to ask in English and it did not take him by surprise, nor did he change his expressions. I think he was used to receiving tourists of different nationalities.    

By analyzing each of these experiences, I can say that being a tourist in my country is good and pleasant. People make you feel welcome and try to help you, for example, speaking your own language. In the first experience I can say that the discomfort of the server, to hear me speak English even though I have a Caribbean look, I can understand, and I would also be uncomfortable. I received a fair, attentive, and quality treatment even in the ice cream seller. I could see the kindness with which they treat other tourists, even me with my Cuban accent.