Playas Y Alemans
Well you wouldn't know from Zarhas blog how amazingly beautiful this island really is. So many wonders are lost on children, maybe the virtual world is too hard to compete with. However from an adults perspective, one who likes sunny warm places this is a magical land. There are many beaches all around the island and each beach is very unique and offers something different. One beach we went to is the sailing and kite sailing capital of the world. It was a little annoying to try to swim with all these water crafts flying by but it was fun to watch them and experience the power of the wind on that beach. That is also where zarha discovered sand dunes, that beach was called el Yaque. Yesterday we went to a beach town called, Juan Griego that is the town where our Venezuela host father was born. It reminded us of a mix of key west and San Diego. The town had cute shops and little streets and we had our best Cesar salad in all of Venezuela made table side,with our feet buried in warm sand under our table. The mountains along the coast here are beautiful! It is also a place where many boats come into to dock, the old style boats, I saw the wooden houseboat that I dream of living on with andy. As long at is an old bohemian style boat we can feel ok naming it the goofy names we call each other; Bobo and Bimbo!
Today we went to a beach that had strong waves that reminded me of the Atlantic on the eastern coast of Florida. The beaches went on endlessly, they are much cleaner than others and are very private. Once we walked past the lounge chairs and little beach food stands we were alone. Andy and I continue to marvel at the beauty of this while zarha just sees more sand and water. smile.
Well, tomorrow is my last day of Spanish at this other school. CELA. what a huge difference between the language schools. The school in merida was better organized for teaching, cheaper, and fewer students per class. The school in merida is owned by a north American while the one on margarita is owned by a German. In Merida everyone at the school spoke English during breaks and the teachers would clarify things in English if need be. Here everyone primarily speaks German during breaks, of course they all speak varying levels of English but don't use it much. That is better for me, because then I dont speak english as much! Some teachers are German, which I would be opposed to if it was my teacher, luckily I have a Venezuelan. I think that learning languages from native speakers is imperative! I am the only native English speaker in my class the other 4 are Germans. One is Swiss German.
This one week has shattered some of my naive illusions about Europeans and I am trying not to hold a grudge from this experience. The first day of class one of the german students thought I was German, this is nothing new as I get mistaken for German everywhere. There are many German tourists in Venezuela, mainly Merida and Margarita. One student kept talking to me in German asking about Spanish words and from context I knew what he meant so I would give him the meaning of the Spanish word in English. However, it took him a few exchanges before he realized I was American and it was funny when we realized his mistake. I am only one of 2 from the States in the whole school.
we were getting on fine, despite the German arrogance for languages.wink. If they are doing well at the exercise it is because language comes easy and "they know so many" or if they are struggling it is because "I know so many languages I am getting them all confused." I was a bit annoyed at their competitive arrogance but hey, that's nothing I am cant hold my own at! Most of my classmates have lived in spanish speaking countries for significant periods of time and one women as studied for 5 years. I hope to be good with that amount time too!
Shaky ground became worse when I brought politics into the equation. I made a Spanish sentence about Chavez speaking the truth in a an exercise with verb conjugations. That set off the Swiss German who started to declare how he adamantly disagreed with Chavez because he is keeping people poor, not using the money to make the country better, doesn't allow the media to speak against him and doesn't allow other countries to invest in Venezuela. so obviously this guy watches fox news (which is one of many US stations frequently seen here) or reads all the conservative anti chavez papers here in Venezuela, which according to him don't exist, because this guy had no facts and kept comparing Venezuela to Cuba. What infuriated me most, which I have heard from many middle class and elite in Venezuela, but it is much harder to except from a clueless tourist, is that it is only because Chavez is clever that he has figured out how he can get so many people to vote for him. The arrogant way this is said is that the 70% of the people that voted for him have really been manipulated they are too poor and plain stupid to know better!
Of course that set me off and my chavista teacher and we started to passionately disagree and inform him otherwise. He also wanted to hold Europe up as the shining example of democracy which also set me off, I personally think in many ways the EU is just as complicit in the war in Iraq as the United States. almost. During all this the other Germans remained quiet. I tried to get their opinion and they said "we are just listening."
It turned out their listening resulted in complaining to the owner of the school that they didn't come here to talk politics (although the whole conversation was in Spanish!) and if it continued they would leave! so my teacher was reprimanded (she told me privately later) not to talk politics. what bullshit!
I guess it shouldn't really surprise me that I found a bunch of sand moles against chavez I mean this is a tropical island where people come to escape the woes of the world. I mean I am escaping the snow and leaving all those snow buried folks up north and I don't really want to think about it either. I guess what surprised me is finding that same media brainwashed ignorance from Europeans who I had thought were getting a better diet of truth and world events. Apparently this is not the case, they are fed and devour the same shitty junk that that we get in the States, yet claim they to know the answers. For this guy, Hillary Clinton is going to be the great change the United States needs and at that point I realized the division is so great. The gulf of understanding between each other is going to take more modes of transportation than we had time for. sigh. This represents the same division that I saw between those that supported Chavez and Rosales, those that support Bush or Kerry, or whatever illusion of a different face they advertise to us.
It is a very polarized time.
I guess the grudge thing is not because they think differently and buy into the corporate driven media lies but they are upset the topic comes up. Personally the only real motivation I have in learning Spanish right now, is to be able to speak the language of revolution, which I believe Spanish to be. The attitude of most the students in this class is no different than a colonizer taking land, ¨lets conquer this language so I can buy your goods and have a relaxing time on your land but don't tell me what you really think.¨ It disgusts me! When I was in Merida I talked to many teachers that were opposition and I was grateful they could be open with me and tell me the things they didn't like or feared about the government. I can decipher for myself what I believe is true and what I think is hyped by the media and corporate interests. But to shut out discussion and to be opposed to it is another thing. Naively I thought Europeans didn't do that. Germans, wow, and so many of them.
My teacher told me she can´t talk sex or religion with them either. They are very serious and only want to work on the language structure. What else is left to talk about?!
I know the European radicals working for change, fighting for the other world that is possible are far from burying their heads in the sand in Margarita. They are my inspiration, they are in the streets taking tear gas and rubber bullets and who knows what else, I will meet you there one day, I want to grow up to be just like you.
posted by DAZ at 5:27 PM
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