Adventures in Mexico: Part 3

          A couple more days on the road after leaving the motel and rat behind, Mark and I finally reached Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, and continued our adventure.  It is one of the largest cities in the world, with more than 20 million inhabitants. There were skyscrapers everywhere. We had no idea it would be so big. If you have ever been to New York City, Mexico City is larger and a lot more difficult to drive in because everyone drives so fast and no one obeys the traffic rules and signs, not even the cops. Mexico City was an exciting end to our adventures in Mexico.
         To avoid driving in this crazy traffic, we parked my car to visit different parts of the city using the subway (Metro), which is very modern, clean, cheap, and has lines that go everywhere in the city. When we got down in the Metro, we were looking around, and we had no idea how to get a ticket or where to go.  I'm sure we looked very confused and frustrated.
         After a few minutes, a short, old man with white hair walked up to us and in perfect English said, "Are you boys lost?"  We couldn't believe it. We told him that, yes, we were very lost.  He offered to show us around the city on the Metro. We followed him. We were a little scared because we didn't know him and thought he might be taking advantage of us. We traveled with him on  different lines of the Metro to different interesting places like Chapultepec Park, the Zoo, the Museum of Anthropology, and the National University of Mexico as he explained everything like a tour guide. We were getting hungry and found out that people in Mexico usually eat lunch around 2pm. He took us to a cafe he liked and ordered for us. The food was delicious. When we finished, he asked for the check, and told the waiter "Traeme la cuenta y un policia" which means "Bring me the check and a policeman." It was a joke. The waiter laughed and brought him the check. This kind man (I can't even remember his name) paid the bill and asked us if we had a hotel to stay in. We didn't. He said, "You can have dinner and stay at my home tonight if you'd like. I live on the outskirts of the City."
          Mark and I looked at each other. Could we trust this stranger?  Why was he being so nice to us?  We decided to accept his invitation. After all, we didn't have hotel reservations yet. He drove us in his old Volkswagen (at that time, almost everyone in Mexico drove Volkswagens) to his small home, in a poor area outside the city. We met his wife and six children and tried to use our best Spanish to talk with them, but the man had to interpret for us most of the time.
          We found out that he had lived in the US for many years when he was a young man, so that's why he spoke such good English. His oldest son was a motorcycle policemen and was living there with his family,  too. He showed us his motorcycle. We had a delicious dinner, spent the night, and the next morning the man drove us back to Mexico City and said goodbye. We thanked him for all that he had done for us. We offered to pay him, but he wouldn't take our money.
          To sum up, this was the best part of our Mexican adventure, visiting the capital of Mexico. We never saw this kind man again. I believe he might have been a guardian angel. Whether he was real or a guardian angel, we learned from him how kind and generous Mexican people are. I will never forget the experience.

Adventures in Mexico: Part 2

          After we finished our first delicious lunch in Mexico, Mark and I headed on down the road towards Mexico City, several hundred miles to the south.  We wanted to get there in a couple of days, so we decided to drive until midnight. We didn't know what a surprise was waiting for us.
         At midnight we got to a small town with one motel, so we decided to stop and sleep there. It wasn't a very nice motel, but it was cheap. We were very tired, so we went right to sleep. About three o'clock in the morning, I woke up when I felt something run across my face. Something with soft little feet. I was terrified. I sat straight up in bed, turned on the light, and saw a rat the size of a cat run across the floor and into a hole in the wall. I remember it had a long tail with no hair.
        So I yelled at Mark to wake up, that there was a rat in the room. I explained to him what had happened. We kept on all the lights in the room for the rest of the night and sat up in our beds talking and reading books we had brought. And watching that hole in the wall. We couldn't go back to sleep.
        We were still tired at seven in the morning, but decided to get up and hit the road. We didn't even stop to complain to the motel manager. After our experience at the cafe the day before,  we thought we probably wouldn't be able to explain in Spanish what had happened anyway.
       That was the second funny thing that happened to us on our road trip to Mexico.  It wasn't funny at the time, but it is now!

Talking to strangers

          This morning I had an interesting experience. I was returning some merchandise to the Costco store on Michigan Avenue. As I was walking through the parking lot towards the store with my cart and merchandise, a young woman passed me leaving the store pushing a cart piled with stuff. As she passed by, she looked at me, smiled, and said, "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" It surprised me a little, because I didn't recognize her. After a pause, I replied, "Yes, it is a beautiful spring day!"  Then I looked at her again, and asked, "I'm sorry, Do I know you?" because she acted like she knew me and she didn't look familiar to me. She said, "No" laughed, smiled and went on her way to her car. This made me start wondering why we don't say "hello" or just make a simple greeting to people we don't know. So I decided to do a quick experiment. After I returned the merchandise and got to Ivy Tech, I decided to say hello to 10 random students while I walked to my first class. These are the results of my experiment; five of them said "hello" back to me and a couple of them smiled and said, "How are you?" Three of them looked at me and didn't say anything. Two said "hello" but didn't look at me. They looked down at the floor. So I started thinking about the years that I lived in Mexico, and that it was common to greet strangers you passed by on the street with some pleasantry or comment about the weather. When I got to class, I told my students, who are from many countries around the world, about my experience and asked them what they thought. They said that in general, most Americans are friendlier to strangers than people are in their countries. One student from an African country insisted that in his country you would never greet a person you didn't know or had not been introduced to. It would be considered bad manners. A student from another African country said that in his country it was common to say "hello" to anyone you passed in the street, whether you knew them or not.  Obviously, this is a lot more complicated than I had originally thought. You can't just say that Americans are this way and everyone else is a different way.  Many times our international students complain that they don't have American friends, even if they have lived in the U.S. for several years. So I challenged them to just say "hello" to 10 American students, as I had,  as they walk around campus, and see what happens. I told them that, who knows, they might start up a conversation with one of these "strangers" and make a friend. Just as it was for me, it might be uncomfortable for them to say "hello" to someone they don't know, but it might be a risk worth taking. What do you think?

Adventures in Mexico: Part 1

          I will never forget my first trip to Mexico after college with my friend Mark. We had both studied Spanish for a couple of years at college, so we thought we would go to Mexico and try it out. Well, we were in for a surprise.
          First of all, we crossed the border with no problems and after we were about 20 miles into the country we were getting hungry, so we decided to stop for some lunch at a cafe in a small town. They didn't have menus. The server greeted us and told us about the day's specials, in Spanish, of course. Mark and I looked at each other and then at her. We didn't understand a word she had said! So we just shook our heads and said "No entendemos." (We don't understand).
         So she smiled and gestured for us to follow her. She took us back to the little kitchen. Everything smelled delicious. She pointed at the different pots and told us what they had to offer for lunch. We still didn't understand anything, but we could see what looked good and what smelled good, so we just pointed at what we wanted while saying "Esto" (This one).  She nodded and took us back to the little dining room with four tables.
       A few minutes later, our food came. It was delicious! We asked for more. When we finished, we paid, gave her a tip, and said "Gracias" (thank you) and "Adios" (goodbye).  That day taught us several  things--we found out how good Mexican food is, how patient and kind Mexicans are, and how bad our Spanish was!
      In conclusion, this was only the first of many adventures that we would have on our trip to Mexico.  Understanding the language and culture of a new country can be a lot more difficult than you might think. But it is worth the effort. Have you ever had a similar experience when you visited or moved to a different country?

Ex Machina and the future

          Have we created a monster by making robots that have Artificial Intelligence (AI)?   Some very smart people who started the information technology revolution, like Steve Wosniak, Apple co-founder and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, are starting to have second thoughts about a future with intelligent robots.  They worry that robots of the future could become smarter than humans and decide that humans should no longer be in charge. They see two possible scenarios; either the robots decide that humans are no longer necessary and destroy them, or the robots make humans their slaves. Both of these scenarios are scary to us humans, of course. My opinion is that although robots may become smarter than humans at some time in the future, they will never have what makes us human--souls. So it's hard to see how robots will ever have qualities like emotions, feelings, creativity, courage, caring, and a conscience, or example. These are some of many human characteristics that make us human and don't seem to depend on intelligence, either human or artificial. There is a new movie coming out soon, called Ex Machina, that explores the future of robots and AI.  You can click here to watch a trailer about the movie.  It looks like an interesting movie and I'm sure it will cause much debate.  I am eager to watch the movie when it is released. The future is difficult to predict. That's why it can be both fun and scary to think about. What do you think about the future, robots and AI? 

Think before you drink (opinion paragraph)

       There are many good reasons not to drink alcoholic beverages. Having said that, I think it is okay to drink a glass of wine, a beer, or a glass of champagne at a social event from time to time, but drinking excessively, every day is not a good thing, for the following reasons. First, alcohol is a drug, and if you drink too much of it, you will become addicted, an alcoholic. This means that you can't go without a drink for more than a day or two without feeling sick and craving a drink. I think we would all agree that it's not a good thing to be addicted to anything, whether it is alcohol, cocaine, or work. When we are addicted, the thing controls us, we don't control the thing. Second, drinking too much can cause chaos in your life. For example it can make you to miss work if you are drunk or have a hangover, and maybe even lose your job, have family problems,  get a divorce and lose your family. Is a drink worth that risk?  Finally, excessive drinking is bad for your body. For instance, every drink that you take destroys brain cells.   And alcohol causes damage to the liver over time. Many people who have been alcoholics for years die early when they get cirrhosis of the liver and their liver stops functioning. I guess that's why they call it a "liver." Excessive drinking actually causes little holes to form in your liver, making the organ look like a piece of Swiss cheese. In conclusion, it's alright to have a drink at a special occasion every once in a while, or a glass of wine with a meal occasionally, but if you drink to excess, you will become addicted.  it will cause chaos in your work and family life, and over time it will damage your brain and liver, two organs that you cannot live without. Think before you drink.    

   

Put your cell phone away!

                    Almost everyone has cell phones nowadays, and they make our lives easier, but there are some bad aspects of cell phones, too.  First, some people spend hours on their cell phones every day and waste time that they could be using to do other, more productive things. For example, some young people spend more than eight hours a day on their cell phones, texting and surfing the net, but don't have time to go to class or do homework.  Is all that time necessary? Think of all the other positive things they could do if they cut down the time they spend on their cell phones daily.  Second, cell phone can be very expensive. For example, an Iphone or  SmartPhone might cost you a few hundred dollars a month, depending on the company, your plan, and how you use it.  For people who don't earn a lot of money, that's a big part of their budget. That's a lot of money that they could use to do other things, like going out to eat or buying gas for your car.  Finally, cell phones can be bad for your health.  Many young people are developing problems with their thumbs from texting too much. And there is some medical research suggesting that cell phones may actually give off some transmissions that could be bad for your health or even cause cancer if you use cell phones over a long period of time. So you might not want to hold your cell phone in your hand all day or always put it in the same pocket.  If you text while you drive, you are more likely to have an accident, and that could definitely be bad for your health! In conclusion, there are obviously a lot of benefits to new technology and cell phones, but they can have some disadvantages, too, such as wasting time, costs, and possible health issues.

                   I only know one person who doesn't own a cell phone. He is a professor at Ivy Tech Community College, where I teach, and seems to do just fine. He borrows his wife's cell phone whenever he needs to use one. How did we all live 20 years ago without cell phones?

What do you think about cell phones?