Playa del Carmen (Day 23 - 20/1/14)

Playa del Carmen: Surfer's Paradise of Mexico

Yikes. The bus station is really overwrought. It's not a large station, and there are young American backpackers and older tourists all spilling out onto the road. We scoff some empanadas and try to navigate our way to some tickets and the correct bus. There are too many buses for the station, about 4 in enough space for only 3. Tulum seems to be breaking under the weight of the influx of tourists.

It's only an hour north to our next stop, Playa del Carmen. We're now in the thick of the Maya Riviera; it's a bigger city, very commercial, endless stretches of restaurants along pedestrian-only streets. It's a very far cry from all of our previous Mexican stops. I would liken it to Surfer's Paradise, only with a lot more white people. The other real differences are that Playa del Carmen has spectacular bleached Caribbean beaches, and the locals aren't really restricted by the same laws as we are back in Australia. You can put your feet in a tank full of carnivorous little fish that eat all of your dead skin off (we did this), hold a baby Capuchin monkey or pat a lion cub (yeah, we did that too, although I didn't really want to), or just lay on the public beach while waiters bring you drinks (guilty as charged). Everywhere throughout the city there are American, Canadian, European and British tourists in swimming costumes. I don't really notice any other Australians today. At one point we see a group of American women in matching pink T-shirts proclaiming that they are on a Mexican hen's party. Some of them are 60 years old, some are clearly about 15, and one has a pram with a baby in it. What kind of hen's party is that?! Why would you go all the way to a Mexican party zone with seniors and babies? Like, why go all the way to Mexico to have a crap time when you can just have a crap time at home?

The shop assistants are full-on here. They all have different tactics to try and get you into their shops. Some are overly friendly and ask questions like, "Where you from?", others are smart-alecs, "You been everywhere, even Disneyland?" Some try to lock you up in their shop and subtly block your exit (this happened twice to us, with the proprietor shunting us into a hidden back room and then trying to close us in there!). 

I think I'm glad we only have a few days left now. I feel like we've left the real Mexico behind us... the Maya Riviera takes U.S. dollars everywhere, is full of fellow tourists, and the Mexicans all speak English. What's the point of coming to another country if all you're going to do is hang out in a commercial district modeled on the worst excesses of America? It doesn't make sense to me.

Either an albatross or a frigate bird. If you know, let me know!

 

Lobster... oh yeah!

Ceviche is an uncooked seafood dish where citric acid is used to prepare the food. It's common across Central and South America. We can say we tried it now. Never again.

Laying a Foundation: Context and 1984

Image from the film version of 1984

I'm about to teach the Intertextual Perspectives 1984 and Metropolis comparative study for HSC Advanced English, and boy am I excited. Studying 1984 could not have come at a more relevant time... okay, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, the time in which 1984 was written was probably the most relevant time for it to be read, but my point is that Trump's gobsmacking rise to Presidency in the United States of America has suddenly rendered George Orwell's 1984 a lot more pertinent.  

In just the last week alone, the words 'Orwellian' and '1984' have permeated a near-unprecedented number of news articles and think-pieces, and all in connection to President Donald Trump. 

Here's a quick selection courtesy of a Google search:

2017 isn't '1984' - its a lot stranger than Orwell imagined - The Conversation

Sales of '1984' spike after Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative facts' - Sydney Morning Herald

Orwell's '1984' and Trump's America - The New Yorker

Amazon's Bestseller list takes a dystopian turn in Trump era - CNN

13 Quotes From '1984' That Are Horrifyingly Relevant in 2017 - Bustle

George Orwell's '1984' is a best-seller again. Here's why it resonates now... - PBS

I said to some of my students a few days ago that we're really lucky to have this happening right now because it links really well with what we're learning this term (dystopia, totalitarianism, power and control, etc.) Of course, America and the world in general is a lot less lucky than my classroom because Trump is now one of the most politically powerful figures on Earth. But, you know - small wins. 

My mentor and close friend Kira Bryant once told me that Advanced English hinged on context (I think her exact words were "Context, context context!") Thinking critically about where a text is coming from, the reasons why it was made, how the author intended for it to resonate with audiences, and how it actually resonates with audiences are all things that rely on a strong understanding of context. This is one of the reasons why Modern History and Advanced English are probably so beneficial to one another when students undertake both subjects. Modern History provides a lot of ideological background for texts studied in Advanced.

With 1984 there is a lot to wade through in terms of covering the values, attitudes and events that have influenced Orwell's magnum opus. I've seen various resources that cover everything from Italian fascism to emerging Cold War surveillance technology. All relevant, but all also reflective of each resource-designer's personal context. As teachers we suffer from selection-bias, just like everyone else, and what we choose is reflective of ourselves and not the population as a whole. This isn't a bad thing; our professional qualifications and ongoing professional learning put us in relatively good stead to be imparting knowledge of this kind. Selection-bias does however bear keeping in mind as an explanation for why no two teachers approach the teaching of context in the same way, especially in a subject like English. In short, there's no definitive way to approach this.

The way I prefer to look at Orwell's context for 1984 is as thus:

• Totalitarianism: Looking at this as a form of government with a particular focus on conformity, lack of freedom, and the concept of a one-party state. Students should first engage with this ideology from a relatively objective standpoint - evaluating the benefits and disadvantages of this form of governance before developing their own opinion. 
• Fascism: The terms 'fascism' and 'totalitarianism' aren't mutually exclusive despite being closely linked. It's worth mentioning that the two most famous totalitarians, Stalin and Hitler, occupied horizontal extremes on the political spectrum (with Stalin representing the extreme left, while Hitler was the ultimate in right wing politics). Defining fascism can be a bit challenging as it's a lot more nebulous than socialism, and this is partially due to the fact that it lacks a unifying manifesto like Karl Marx's theory of communism. Most simply put, fascism is both authoritarian and extremely nationalistic (whereas socialism in its purest form rejects the concept of nationhood). 
• Methods of Enforcing Totalitarianism: This is where a little case study of Stalin and Hitler (and maybe, depending on the enthusiasm level of your class, Franco and Mussolini) can come in handy. The 'personality cult' surrounding the leaders of totalitarian regimes is particularly relevant here as it links closely to the way Orwell constructs the figure of 'Big Brother'. Something else to consider is the way that Stalin used propaganda to manipulate the public's perception of Soviet history.
• The Cold War: The way that Eastasia, Oceania and Eurasia relate to each other throughout 1984 is deliberately reminiscent (and remarkably prescient) of the power blocs that emerged during the Cold War. It's no coincidence that the CIA formed just after WWII; this came about in response to the thinly-veiled antagonism that was bubbling away between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. In terms of 1984, the Cold War's relevance is made clear with references to atomic war and the technological advances brought about by the rise of espionage - things like CCTV, the drug LSD, voice recognition systems, lie detectors, etc.
• George Orwell: Finally, it's worth looking at the context of Orwell himself. A lot of 1984 was fueled by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, as a military policeman in the British colony of Burma, his time living as a homeless person, and even his personal health. Many allege that writing 1984 was so taxing for the chronically ill Orwell that it actually killed him, and it's not difficult to see Orwell's poor health (driven by smoking and tuberculosis) in the sickly nature of 1984's protagonist, Winston. 

Resource

Context - here is a reading/summary sheet on the wider context of the novel. I'll upload a more specific one that links Soviet history to plot points in 1984 in the next week or so. 

Stalin's Purges: Making Connections

French Cartoon from the 1930s, caption reads: "Visit the Pyramid of Russia"

Teaching the National Study in HSC Modern History, no matter which option it is, can be a daunting task. In my mind this is predominantly due to the sheer endlessness of historical thinking. In other words, the more I look into something the more there is to see. You could read about Soviet Russia forever, delving into records of the past to construct a simulacrum of increasing depth. The past itself, however, can never be brought back to life. All we can do is try to replicate an impression of it using the available details. 

I don't know about you but I find that hard.

When I'm programming for History I'm always grateful for the information provided in the syllabus but, even with this seemingly finite guide, I'll start mining sources and won't know when to stop. And that's because there is no 'when' to stop - this is history we're talking about. It's not possible to collect all the information because we can't go there and see it for ourselves. We can't ever get to a point and say, "Well, that's it. I've finished finding all the facts". The facts are legion, and I haven't even mentioned the impact of postmodernism.

So what's the lesson here?

Do I try to teach my students everything? How can I when it's not possible due to the nature of history itself?

Do I just give students a list of facts and get them to research everything? Well, that doesn't work for every student.

I don't have the answer. At least, not definitively. What I do know is that my teaching and learning cycle allows me to continue refining what I've taught. In the case of teaching the Russia and the Soviet Union study multiple times I've been able to observe how different sets of students react with different sorts of material and task requirements. Despite what some might say, this teaching lark is not a science. Getting a unit together and teaching it to one class will not be the same as teaching that very same unit to a second class. The conditions can not be replicated because every individual is unique, and every combination of individuals produces a unique class room. We can refine our materials in these conditions over and over again, getting closer and closer to something that really works quite well, but perfection just won't ever be achieved. It's impossible. 

There are other problems to consider too; Modern History isn't Advanced English, it's a subject that attracts students with a range of abilities. A while back there was a course called Modern History (People and Events) which offered more scope for differentiated learning across the Senior History curriculum; from what I can gather it was to Modern History as English Studies is to Standard English. This course was phased out, meaning that any Modern History class can now have students with particular literacy needs not necessarily primed for essay writing and higher order source analysis.

My point is that in tackling something as challenging to study as Stalin's Soviet Russia we need to find 'ways in' for a diverse range of students. Ways that don't come across as too prescriptive or finite whilst also allowing students to come up with their own clear answers. It's deceptively difficult to straddle the balance between these things.

The resource I've included here deals with the Purges enacted by Stalin between 1934 and the outbreak of WWII. I wanted something that provides a seemingly simple overview but also forced all of my students to move beyond rote learning.

• The PPT gives an overview of the Purges, with each slide containing an image. The teacher takes the students through the slides while the students work through a separate resource, a document broken into a box per slide. 
• Each slide contains the image from the slide but rather than simply getting the students to copy or summarise information from the PowerPoint, the goal is that the students make connections between each image and the information from the slide. 
• By synthesising a more personal response in this fashion, students are drawing a cause and effect relationship between visual materials and the history that produced them.

Resources:
The Purges - PowerPoint Presentation
The Purges - Student sheet

Tulum (Day 22 -19/1/14)

Ruins by the Caribbean

There's not much to do in Tulum, which suits me just fine. It's a quiet coastal town on the verge of developing into something much more commercial. You can feel that the locals are ready for it, there are a plethora of shops around that sell carbon copies of the same range of items. The locals are relentless in chasing me for a sale... "Almost free," "I give you good price on three cigars", and "Only a dollar". When I emphatically state that I'm not interested they still continue. A selfish Australian part of me wants to just shout "Get out of my personal space. I'm Australian, we need space!" I don't shout anything though. It becomes tiring, I refuse to make eye contact a lot of the time but it still doesn't stop the dogged haggling. 

The one thing that is worth checking out in Tulum is their Maya ruins. These ruins aren't particularly grandiose but they sit out on a beach cliff top, overlooking an impossibly blue sea. This is the Caribbean, the Atlantic Ocean... we eagerly head down to the small white sand cove to touch the water.

Gulf bridged. I have now touched another ocean. I have gazed out onto the Caribbean Sea and it's really beautiful.

The ruins are crowded with tourists, not as many as Chichen Itza but still a substantial amount. These ones are mostly loud and crude... every time I spy some wildlife a lumbering American or careless Mexican will shout and come crashing over, scaring it off. It's frustrating, but I also feel like a hypocrite complaining about it - obviously I'm a tourist too and this isn't my country. Should I be annoyed when I see a group of 20-somethings climbing onto off-limit ruins to pose for photos? Honestly, it drives me mental. Why can't people just be more cool about things?

One great thing about the Tulum ruins is that they're covered in Iguanas. These lizards seem to be claiming the city as their own, lounging on the ruins, pathways... yawning indolently as they get their photo taken. I estimate that we see at least 30-40 of these lizards.

I also spot an Agouti off a more secluded pathway, but no one around us seems interested in the shy cat-sized rodent.

Agouti are found throughout Central America. They are exceptionally strong for their size, and can open Brazil nuts with their teeth and hands. They are a relative of Guinea Pigs, Capybaras and Chinchillas.

After the ruins the Duck and I return to Tulum, drink pina coladas, get sunstroke, feel sick. The day spirals down gently as the sun sets in a palette of pinks and oranges. We take a taxi back to Luna Llena (our accommodation) and laugh as the driver makes an unannounced stop upon seeing some guy on a bicycle. He apologises in halting, sheepish English to us, and flags the bicycle-guy down. They talk for a few seconds, the bicyclist opens up his backpack and pulls out about 30 CDs. They discuss something and then our driver pulls out his own CD, and they swap discs before saying goodbye. Random.

Our hostel in Tulum. Dog came free with accommodation.

These shops are everywhere.

Nice Turtle street art.

 

These guys climbed up to the top of this pole and then dove off the top to spin around on some short ropes. Terrifying.

Chichen Itza (Day 21 - 18/1/14)

The Pyramid at Chichen Itza

Duck has woken up with bite marks all over her. She's convinced she has contracted Dengue Fever and wont stop googling symptoms. The thing is, her body always reacts this way to mosquito bites.

I have decided that from this point on I will only wear thongs. My shoes currently have the most heinous of stinks... they haven't dried properly since Palenque and I refuse to wear them while they smell like jungle. I am not someone who usually has smelly feet so I take this blow to my footwear situation rather badly. I try to convince the Duck that I can climb pyramids in thongs or barefoot. After all, I'm sure the Mayas never wore runners.

Today is a day of meeting other travellers. At breakfast we meet an Australian expat and her retired Canadian husband. We chat with them for about half an hour and he gives us his card, inviting us to visit if we're ever in Canada. Is that weird? At the time it didn't feel weird, that this stranger (whose wife shared our nationality) would invite us to come stay at his cabin. But now, thinking about it, I don't even remember his name. Would he remember mine? I doubt it. Is this what travellers do?

Later, on a small bus en route to our next destination in the afternoon, we chat with Camilla and Josh, a newlywed couple from Massachusetts. It's like we're latching on to anyone who speaks English, eager for an easy conversation without hand signals. It's funny how language can be taken for granted. I have also noticed that there are a lot more white tourists around this part of Mexico, that the locals have also learned enough English to sell you their wares, that the entire Yucatan peninsula might just be the most touristy part of Mexico.  

We get to Chichen Itza today, a one-time capital city for the Mayas, and one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. There are 7 buildings accessible to the public at Chichen Itza, but the actual city itself is much bigger. Only 6% has been restored for the public to visit, and the rest is still covered by dense jungle. Owing to its grand stature in the world, Chichen Itza is by far the busiest of the 9 archaeological sites we have visited so far. The place is absolutely thick with people, and this is the off season! The hawkers rim the outskirts of the site - all selling the same T-shirts, handmade masks, obsidian blades, weirdly erect penile sculptures, etc., with a combination of begging and aggressive selling. One of the more laidback hawkers greets us as we walk past, and decides on a different approach to his peers.

"The best thing about this stuff? It's not made in China!"

The Duck laughs politely and we make to move on, but he isn't finished.

"We don't sweat! We don't smell!" He laughs. It's very awkward. I guess appealing to the racism of white tourists is one way to make a buck...

The ruins are impressive but I guess it's the sheer size of the entire site that accords it such a high status. The main pyramid and the ball court are genuinely mesmerising feats of architectural acumen - unlike other American ruins we've seen, these are constructed with interlocking square blocks and even have some curved outer walls. Most surprising is the fact that the Chichen Itza pyramid is built over the top of a smaller pyramid. Actually, that's not the most surprising thing at all... our guide claims that Vikings were the first Europeans to visit Mexico and uses a Maya carving of a long-haired man with horns as proof.

I've known for a long time that the Vikings landed in Canada roughly 500 years before Columbus got to the Americas but have never heard of any such Nordic landing in Mexico. I'm sceptical because our guide tells us they landed on west coast Mexico, which makes zero geographical sense in terms of the direction the Vikings would come from or where we're currently standing. Besides, the Vikings never really wore horned helmets.

The hoop in the Maya ball game is incredibly high. The game was played by warriors, and the 'winner' won the right to be sacrificed.

 

So yeah, Chichen Itza is cool and all but I think I preferred Teotihuacan and Palenque. They're equally as amazing (heck, Teotihuacan is a bigger pyramid and you can climb it) yet nowhere as tourist-flooded or overpriced to visit.

Afterwards we visit a cenote; a sinkhole that opens onto an underground river. It's a strange sight, and apparently Yucatan is riddled with these instead of regular rivers - the majority of the area's water flows through caves under the surface. We watch as people more daring than ourselves jump ten metres into the unfathomably deep cavern of water.

Cenotes are dotted all over the Yucatan peninsula.

Our hotel tonight is in the coastal town of Tulum, on the other side of the Yucatan peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo. It's a much smaller town and we begin to worry when our cab driver pulls over to ask locals for directions twice. After wending our way along some very dark, bumpy dirt backroads we finally arrive at a strangely-hidden but fresh and new hostel.

Our room in Tulum came with a towel-swan.

Tulum's answer to Flavor Flav

Merida (Day 20 - 17/1/14)

Merida; the White City

Our accommodation is a sweet, hidden little treasure in the back alleys of Merida. A mix of Spanish and French, all black grills and doors that open 12 different ways, the Duck and I find ourselves cosy and comfortable in this quiet bed and breakfast chalet run by a diffident French woman. It's just what we need after an uncomfortable 8 hour overnight bus ride.

Our accommodation in Merida

We have now left the rainforest states of Chiapis and Campeche and have made it to the coastal state of Yucatan (at the top of the much larger Yucatan peninsula, the bit of Mexico that juts out into the Atlantic and Caribbean). Merida is the state's capital.

Being a sunny, provincial, colonial sort of town, the Duck puts on a dress before we head out into Merida for the day and pops her hands into her pockets. She absentmindedly pulls out a handful of black pebbles.

"What's that?" I ask.

She looks confused for a moment and then a realisation dawns on her, "It's volcanic rock!"

"Where from...?"

We both put two and two together. It's from Sunset Crater in Arizona. Duck was wearing this dress when she tripped, her pockets having accidentally filled up with bits of the crater. A week or two later, she still wears the strap on her foot that we picked up in a drugstore.

The Duck looks sad, "But it said in the park 'do not take the rocks'..."

I laugh and the Duck puts them aside, unsure what to do with them.

Merida boasts some very pretty architecture

Merida is known in Mexico as 'the White City'. Many of the buildings are blocky and European, shades of sandy grey and white and a few crumbling pastels. It's busy and metropolitan but lacks the dangerous edge of Mexico City. It's colonial but it doesn't really sell itself as a historical place of heritage in the way that Oaxaca or San Cristobal de las Casas do. There's a bit of a metro-hipster element - little stencils of birds are to be found all over the laneways, there's a few indie craft shops, and I even see a guy in a Descendants shirt. As we walk towards one of the big churches a guy standing on the corner hears us talking in English and jumps into action, keen to practise his own English on us (we've met a few Mexicans like this now so it doesn't seem strange to us). He helps us work out a few places to visit and animatedly recommends a restaurant.

We scope out the 'Mayan' markets found on the 2nd floor of a building after two more locals direct us there. The salesman inside looks more Mexican than Maya, and there is a surprising amount of penis-related sculptures dotted around the building. I don't believe this an authentic Maya market.

After this I lead the Duck to the Museo de Popular Arte, which turns out to be small but free. The curator tells us very sternly and slowly about each of the rooms before letting us in. The art is from all over Mexico, mostly sculptures. The best is a room that contains 32 separate models of the Nativity Scene from all different parts of Mexico; some carved in wood, some woven into rugs, some Asian in style, others indigenous. The unifying theme of Christianity is fitting for a Mexican art museum but the scope of interpretation represents the full complexity of Mexican cultural identity.

I have to be honest, today I felt homesick. One of the sculptures (a pumpkin) randomly reminds me of something from home and I begin to think of all the things I'll be glad to see and do when I get back to Australia. Even at the age of 34 I've never been overseas before, let alone to a non-English speaking country. It's been an amazing experience but the culture shock isn't something that I was prepared for.

Mexican art and aesthetics seem to predominantly (and paradoxically) reflect a preoccupation with death and the radiance of nature in all its colourful hues.

My ambivalence towards Merida is compounded by a trip to the city's zoological park. This is a large park divided into an empty fairground and a free zoo. I'm not sure what the deal is, but the fairground looks like it used to be part of the zoo and is now just these fading, kitschy statues. There a bunch of fairground rides that no one is interested in. Two of the statues are highly racist African-American caricatures. I feel like it's been a long time since this zoo ran at full steam. The actual zoo makes me sad.

There's one giraffe in a sandy enclosure that resembles a basketball court, its companions two zebras and a bunch of ostriches. One of the ostriches has a disturbingly bad case of hemorrhoids. There is a white tiger pacing a small cage while a child taunts it. Jaguars and other tigers also pace their tiny, cages, growling loudly. An overweight chimpanzee rattles the bars of his enclosure. These animals shouldn't be in such old-fashioned cages... why not charge entry for the zoo and use the money to do it up? Merida Zoo is a stark contrast to the nature-driven, conservationist agenda of the Palenque Ecoparque. Both institutions represent two sides of the same coin, the two extremes of how a zoo can be; the best and the worst.

The zoo actually had an enclosure with a couple of regular pet-store rabbits in it.

Raccoons!

The Coati is a long-snouted relative of the Raccoon found in Mexico

 

In the bed and breakfast we stayed at.

 

This didn't photograph very well but it was delicious. Slow-cooked pork wrapped in a banana leaf with some kind of chili-pineapple marinade. The bright pink stuff was very sweet.