Merida, Maya, Mexico: A Journey in Language Immersion

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 My focus and near canvassing of the entire country of Spain over the past five years and interest for varied cultural expressions make me yearn for more of the Spanish influenced world and especially our neighbor to the south, the vast and diverse beautiful country of Mexico. It also helps that I have increasingly been gaining a lot of Spanish speaking friends here in Madison, both at work and social situations.

To begin my foray into learning Spanish I thought a short formal introduction would be in order; where else to do so than nearby Mexico, where I could combine a short vacation with a studious immersion into a new cultural experience. Packing another layer into this planned experience, I settled for a place that also preserves a veritable indigenous culture that is living and breathing and not just a relic of the past, the Maya people and their culture.

This was why Merida, the capital city of the state of Yucatan, in southeast Mexico was the perfect choice. I paired

this off with a choice to attend the Spanish immersion course at the Spanish Center Merida, a school that is run very efficiently by professionally certified Spanish language teachers. To close the loop, I also chose to be accommodated in a Spanish speaking family home for informal day to day interaction in the language and culture of the people as they go about their regular life. Perfecto!

Arriving late Sunday evening at the Manuel Crescencio Rejon International Airport and clearing the

custom and immigration protocol in a matter of minutes, I was picked up by Siegmar,  director of the Spanish language school, Spanish Center Merida, who drove me across town to the home of my host family in Colonia Itzimna.

The next morning, my host family walked me the four blocks to the Spanish Center Merida, pointing out the land marks around, especially the Colonia Itzimna square that is very well kept with an old but well maintained church that seems to be the center of activities in all the Colonia (district) squares dotting the city. The Spanish Center Merida is tucked in a quiet mixed office and residential neighborhood on 13^th Street.  Its an immaculate building, with broad paintings on its clear white walls, well ventilated and spotlessly clean. It features many classrooms upstairs and a big hall downstairs with a bank of computers for language lab activities set to one corner overlooking a small swimming pool set right next to the back porch door. There is a melding of homeliness as well as class room officialdom about the space, very ambient for study and occasional relaxation for needed breaks.

Being off-season, I had two professors to myself, working me through grammar, comprehension, phonetics, writing and the nuances that a beginner needs to have a good grasp to make the language learning an enjoyable experience. Profesoras Tatiana and Telma, who are professionally certified educators not only know the subject very well, but have a great deal of experience teaching foreigners whose culture and language background are markedly different from Spanish-nuanced Mexican culture.

Not sure what to expect initially I was surprised when they launched right into Spanish in their

classroom instructions with me. When the shock wore off, I realized that in a Spanish language immersion course, it was the best way to learn the language rather than the irony of being taught Spanish in English. With that mental adjustment it surprisingly became easier following and comprehending the instructions in Spanish. That truthfully surprised me. To ensure the knowledge they were imparting were sinking in, we ended everyday with home work, or Tarea as it is called that I was assigned to be turned in the next day.

The informal part of the immersion program continued at home as I chat with my host family over lunches and dinners and routine house banter. We also regularly drove around town visiting cultural sights, malls, plazas and neighborhood concert venues around the city. The exposure and hearing people speak and interact without affectation reinforced the formal lessons in language and culture earlier discussed in class.

It was an unforgettable even if eerie experience to think, talk and carry on daily tasks in a language you are not conversant. But it challenged me to communicate differently and forego that which I could not easily express. It also reinforced the age old truism that you long comprehend a language before you could actually speak it. Slowly people I encountered on the streets started reacting to me very positively on noticing my attempts to reach out and communicate in their language. Especially folks at the stores I frequented, bus and cab drivers as well as regular folks I ask directions on walking about town.

Not once did I get a negative reaction from anyone, not even the stare strangers occasionally got in foreign lands. To the credit of Merida, I find the people extremely friendly, polite and the city was particularly very safe and easy to navigate, day or night. Believe me, I tested the limit and came out very impressed.

The cultural hub of the city centered around the downtown district formally known as Centro  The grid pattern, age of the building and general ambience of El Centro leaves no doubt that that was were the city originated and thrived before its further expansion in all directions. The core of this historic district is the Plaza Grande, which is the central plaza with all the primary institutions that stamp the officialdom of the city from the ancient times to the present day. On different sides of the big square plaza looking in are the Cathedral of San  Idelfonso,  that was built between 1561 and 1598 and reputed to be the the oldest cathedral on the American continent. It was like a phoenix that was built with stones from ruined Mayan temples and pyramids.

Historico (historic center) or simply as El Centro.

The 16^th century Spanish conqueror and ‘founder’ of Merida has his family house, Casa de Montejo overlooking the square from the south flank. The original façade of the house is still intact but pats of the interior now contain a bank and an obvious museum preserving its history.

On the north and western flank of the square facing into the plaza is the Governor’s office and the city hall or the Palacio Municipal. Inside the interior walls of the Governor’s office building are elaborate murals depicting various historical scenes from the history of the city of Merida.

As expected, the Plaza Grande is ringed with shops and restaurants and other entertainment venues that draw scores of city folks and both domestic and international tourists to soak in its vibrancy and charm. The relaxed life and pace of the city is most noticeable at night as hundreds of people lounge around the plaza, shooting breeze or enjoying a love rendezvous, in unique chairs that are made of concrete and linked together for direct private conversation or stolen kisses right there in the open. On Sunday evenings, elaborate stages are set up at one flank of the plaza featuring live bands and public dancing that further confirms that the people know when to let their hair down and make merry until the start of the next week.

It is said that over 60% of the residents of the city are of the Maya indigenous heritage. The evidence

is so obvious by the distinct features that are noticeable. But of course not every one of those has total Mayan blood so you could also notice a blend of multi-ethnic features of others. There is no mistaking the fact that all of the people are proud of their city and generally have the same welcoming embrace towards guests in their midst.

Without prompting as I took in the gentle breeze caressing the Plaza Grande,  some Mayan folks sat near me and noticing that I am a foreigner took time to tell me about their culture, their struggle with non-Mayan Mexicans who some curiously referred to as Mexicans, as though they are distinct from them, and also proudly expressed the reach of the Mayan culture that extends southward beyond Mexico into Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and other neighboring Mexican states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Chiapas. They recommended some of their meals that I must try, as I indeed had tried and enjoyed Pollo Pibil and Huevos Motulenos. They capped our conversation with a recommendation that I buy and take a Hammock home with me to to the USA.

To further appreciate the Mayan culture and life even without visiting their intricate pyramids and other structures are Parque Las Americas (The Americas Park) and the Maya Museum. This not even counting the intricate Maya sculptures at roundabouts and major road intersections in the city. I will definitely return to Merida.

Postscript: Forgot to properly set my camera date stamp, which stamped 2008 on the pictures. That is wrong. The pictures were all taken in April 2013.

Orient Express: Last Stop In Istanbul

You probably have heard of the world famous Orient Express either in movies, historical references, literature (Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express) or just in popular culture. Well, I was right inside one of the pioneering international train’s most popular stops, indeed, the final stop, Sirkeci Gari or Istanbul terminus (Istanbul Gar). 

I was giddy approaching the ornate building of the train station on sighting a sturdy locomotive engine parked invitingly by the outside walls of the majestice edifice and got more excited when I made it through the the main door with the inscription Istanbul Gar and wandered into the hall where passengers waited to catch their trains, studied the intricate patterns of the interior orientalist-architecture, played with various memorabilia that were once functional items  both in the stop and inside the trains and reviewed magical photographs of the epoch when luxury travel oozed opulence.. The bells, the plates, glasses, wine servicers, train manifest, menu lists telephones, clocks and various nick knacks that defined luxury travel at the turn of the century transmogrified me back to that era.

Ironically, this train station, popularly referred to as Istanbul Gar is not a relic of the past but a still active train hub in Istanbul from which trains depart and arrive on a daily basis till this day. The terminal building which rises on an area of 13,000 sq ft is considered a famous example of European Orientalism and has influenced similar designs across the world.

Orient Express evokes the glamorous era of long distance travel in Europe that exuded class, luxury, adventure and international ambience. Stepping into the still elegant yard of the Istanbul Orient Express final stop  brought conjectures of passengers alighting from several days train ride from Paris traversing  major several major European cities as it bridged Western and Eastern Europe and indeed stopping less than half a mile away from crossing into the Asian continent. Just the narrow band of the Bosphorus strait keeps the train on the European side with Asia clearly visible from the station.

The first voyage of the Orient Express took off in Gar de l’Est in Paris France on October 4, 1883 and arrived Istanbul covering a distance of 3,094 kilometers after truncated moves which included long stops and ferry rides to complete the passengers’ journey. It was not until June 1, 1889, that the first non-stop train to Istanbul left Paris. Istanbul remained its easternmost stop until May 19, 1977.. The route usually traversed the well known cities of Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest among other smaller cities and ending in the Sirkeci neighborhood in Istanbul.

For a train that originated from the western edge of Europe traversing central Europe towards the eastern edge of Europe, its services were expectedly suspended  by the two world wars that were centered in Europe. The orient Express services were suspended in 1914 at the beginning of World War 1 and resumed right after in 1918. Again the Second World War ushered in another suspension in 1939 but services resumed in 1945

The end of this epic saga of the Orient Express coursing through Western and Eastern Europe and terminating in Istanbul had its last hurrah in 1977. After that what continued as the Orient Express ran shorter routes, none venturing as far as Istanbul and did change hands quite a few times. Even at that on 14 December 2009, the last surviving train service with the moniker Orient Express ceased to operate and the route disappeared from European railway timetables. Obviously it could not stand to compete with other faster means of transportation especially the high-speed trains.