A • P E R S O N A L • R E C O U N T

As part of the Journey into Literature, a Literature course offered in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, we had a course assignment that consisted in creating and running a blog. We had to total 10 entries, 11 with this one. A blog is a personal space for anyone to write and express their ideas, thoughts or emotions, etc. This can be a personal blog, where no one but the author is able to see the writings, or a pubic one, where anyone can enter and read your posts and/or wish to comment on their thoughts on your post, if you wish for them to do so.

This experience to me was a new one. I use to write my thoughts, but to myself, not for everyone else to read. But nonetheless, apart from a single post that I pulled the courage to upload for everyone to read, it was fun to write and run a blog. Also, I found it greatly entertaining for me do decorate and basically decide the layout and the aesthetic of the blog perse. Blogging has become a recent modality for many people during the recent years, and I've never expected to go though the experience of running one, and having so much fun while doing so.

Since this was part of a class requirement, most of the post were related to readings discussed in class and special assignments from the professor. From my perspective this way is an innovative and interesting way to make students interested in writing reflections and implementing technology to do so. Having students run a blog, makes it easier to transmit their thoughts and impulse their creativity both when writing and setting the blog to their personal tastes.  After the end of the class, I will most probably run back to my blog to express and convey anything that I feel like to share with anyone who is interested in reading my posts. I greatly enjoyed this experience and plan on experimenting more with blogging

• F R E E L A N C E R S •

During a cold morning on November 14 at around 5:30am The Freelancers decided to get together in Caguas, Puerto Rico to go up in a hike to the "Arbol Solitario" or Lonely Tree in Cayey/Salinas Puerto Rico. We got to knew each other on a Literature Class named Journey into Literature in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. Once the professor called our names and told us we would be a group, we quickly got along marvelously. Since our friendship grew, one of the members suggested that we go on a hike, that he would lead us on the way. We all got very excited and scheduled the hour and date, so that we would go chase the sunrise and see it from up in the mountains. 

The date of the hike had to be postponed once because of academically work, since we are students from different faculties and each got a packed schedule all of a sudden. But this didn't matter, because once we found an opening, we jumped at the chance. The hour may seem quite early, but it was just the perfect hour. "El Arbol Solitario" was a place I knew one could go up on a hike, but before getting to know The Freelancers, I didn't know how to get up there, nor I had friends that were willing to go and explore those uncharted lands that none of us knew.

"El Arbol Solitario" is a tree you see when you are cruising along the PR-52 interstate highway. Once you are going down the mountain on the highway, after you pass the Monument of the Jibaro, you'll see a lone tree up on the mountain. This tree doesn't have other trees of its stature near by, hence the name The Lonely Tree. This trail is accessible through an emergency ramp right after the monument that I mentioned earlier. To my surprise, this hike is marked and easy to follow. I have been to only a few hikes in my life, but I would consider this trail an intermediate, although is not all that difficult. 

Once we reached the top (at around 7:00am) the view was breathtakingly beautiful. We could see the highway and all the beautiful green scenery that Puerto Rico has to offer. Also, since it was sprinkling rain, we got to view a beautiful rainbow engulfed in some of the early mountain fog. All the work done to get to the top was worth it. There is no greater pleasure than to work for something and get such an amazing reward as the reward, in this case, the view. If you are a local, and never have been there before, this hike is definitely a most do; also if you're a tourist, this is too a must do. This is a wonderful opportunity to witness the beautiful sunrise or sunset, whichever your preference, this is something you won't be disappointed in doing.

Photo Credit: George Arnaldo

"The best view comes after the hardest climb"

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Thanks George for the amazing opportunity. 

• B U T H A N •

 Upon reading the book written by Eric Weiner, tiled "Geography of Bliss",  I came to the understanding that happiness is something relative. Happiness depends, on my opinion, on your particular feelings and how you take your life experiences and what you make of them. Weiner on his book, describes how Bhutan was a city rated as one of the happiest in the world. This is something that Weiner felt very interested about, and decided to visit. Upon arriving at the country, he was greeted with the great hospitality and friendliness. But to me, this seemed as it was a forced happiness. The Bhutanese, to me, appeared as if they were happy because their king was happy, they didn't feel happiness because they genuinely felt it.

  Everyone experiences happiness in different ways, and definitely culture, country and religion greatly influence this. I live in the country and small island of Puerto Rico. We often are celebrated as being one big happy country that if given the opportunity, celebrates anything and everything. As everything, not always its all fun and celebration. Puerto Rico has been under public scrutiny for over so many years because of the debt caused by the corruption of many politics. But even given this situation, I am grateful to be called Puertorrican, because even in the greatest adversity, we manage to face our everyday lives with a smile and great joy of our country.

  But happiness is not always "measured" you can say, the same way. As I mentioned before, happiness is relative. What makes a person happy, might make another angry. In Weiner's chapter describing his visit to Bhutan, we can see how the Bhutanese people don't ponder much into the reflection about what makes them happy or nor, they just go on in their everyday journey enjoying everything that life and that day has to offer. We must not worry too much about the things that make us sad or keep us from resting at night. We must understand that sadness is temporary and that everyday the rising of the sun gives us another opportunity to go about our day and experience our new happiness. Because sometimes, all this worrying and overthinking causes us to miss those opportunities and/or experiences that would've granted is happiness, even if it was just for a moment. It's those little moments that we must embrace, because when we're older, most probably what we remember the most, will be those little moments, thus we have to make every day count and not delve  too much on sad and stressful things, and make everyday, a happy day.

"What doesn't kill you not only make you stronger, but also more honest."
                                    – Eric Seiner

A • D A Y • I N • A • B A K E R Y

 

"Quesitos"

I have had the privilege and opportunity to travel to various countries and places with my family. While being on another country, one is a tourist, and usually stand out. Since in between the to and fro of things, we stop to try new foods, to take pictures, basically, do anything and everything to stand out. As part of a class assignment, I was instructed to play the part of tourist for a day. I decided that I wanted to try and play off my best impression of a British accent, and decided to go to a bakery not too far from my house, and not to far also from the common tourist area of Isla Verde. The name of the bakery was "Panaderia Metropolitana". I discovered this bakery while on a volunteer work one night, and what impressed me the most, was that it as a 24 hour bakery.

  While in the line, I was getting cold feet. I was so nervous, I could hear the sound of my heartbeat in my ears. I wondered if they would look at me funny, if I would be so nervous that I would start to laugh; so many other things filled my head in that moment. I had never felt so nervous! When it was my turn to order, I started speaking in a British accent, and I stated that I found this bakery while driving without aim in order to see other aspects of the island. I noted that the person looked at me in a weird way, and I started to panic a bit, because it looked as if she didn't understand me. It was here that I to panicked internally. She started to flash at me with her hands that she didn't understand me, and started to look for someone that did speak English. She finally found someone in the back that spoke English,  at this point I gave up on trying to do the British accent impression. I told that I wanted to buy some sweets, but that I didn't know which. He then proceded to recommend me "quesitos", "tembleque", "tres leches" and "flan de queso".

"Tembleque"

  Although my impression of the British accent was kind of off in parts of the conversation because I was so nervous, I think that they really didn't believe I was a tourist, and the way they would look at me made it even more true. Fortunately, the lady that took my order first didn't understand my English, which prompted the change in the person, and thus made me regret speaking in the British accent, because it made me really self conscious. While pretending to be a tourist, I experienced first hand the different treatment that is given to tourists, even though I think that they didn't believe me, they went along with it. Even though I think I got a treatment that was a little courteous and more friendly than usual, I don't think that the treatment, in this particular place, was not going to be much different than the treatment that a local would get. Regardless, I was glad to have the experience to be a tourist in my own town. This experience is one I will certainly be doing for fun in the future.

T H E • C A R O U S E L • R I D E

           One way or another, everything in our lives is a carousel ride. We jump, we get excited, and we are desperately waiting in a line. We wait for the ones who are riding the carousel to end their ride so that we can go climb our horse (or whatever creature is on the carousel) and start our ride. When we were little, very very little, we didn’t know what a carousel ride was. Our eyes would look with great wonder and amazement at that foreign object that we had never seen before, and get excited and wait for our turn to get to enjoy the ride.

   It may sound bogus, but think about it… In life, we get to experience things once, others more than a few times. If we are satisfied with the experience we look forward to our chance to experience it again. But if it just so happens that we made a mistake while on the ride or while getting of it, we ponder our mistakes and try to not make them again when we ride the carousel again. This, I have come to understand it and ponder it myself for a while now. When we are little, we look to others as role models or we look in others for things that we want to do or try because we saw another person doing it. Sometimes, this may lead some to a few experiences that we may come to regret. But in the end, everything is a learning experience.

    Just recently, I had a fight with a friend. I know, you may think is your common fight when you don’t agree with something, right? But no, this was different. The things he was saying, it was as if he was wishing upon himself great misfortune. I didn’t want him to keep saying those things because I would not know what would I have done if something did happen. To make matters worse, he blamed me for overreacting. It wasn’t my fault for the things he said, but the words hurt more than anything at the moment. One thing lead to another, and matters were resolved. But what leads me to the carousel is that, no matter how many times we get into fights, into being hurt, sometimes little things like that don’t matter because we want to keep experiencing the ride more. But the most important thing, is that no matter the situation, one can’t change a person. The person if he wants to change, he has to do it by himself and by his own free will. Even if its for their own good.

     We can’t try and change someone… that is a lesson I learned the hard way. Now, I may look like a selfish person because I’m trying to change someone and not trying to accept them as they are. Sadly, the truth is, that there is not a day that goes by that I try to put myself in his shoes, trying to understand, but just like a carousel, I end up in square one. Sometimes we want to ride the carousel in hopes that this time would be different, sometimes it is, and sometimes it’s not.

    Experiences are not fun and happiness all the time, but they make us who we are. We have to take up the ride in the carousel as never ending experience, because whether we want it or not, we always end up in a carousel ride. But whether is good or bad, we must make the best out of the situation so that we don’t end up in the carousel back to square one without getting to learn something out of the ride.

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P.D. It was not easy writing this, nor it was easy posting it for everyone to read. But as everything in life, not everything is simple and a "piece of cake". In posting this,it is proof that I am over the situation and that I have learned and forgiven, and that I have returned from the carousel with a learned experience, and had not let that ride go in vain. Thank you all for reading. 

A U T O B I O G R A P H Y • A N D • F I C T I O N

"I have no memory at all. That's one of the great defects of my mind: I keep on brooding over whatever interests me, by dint of examining it from different mental points of view I eventually see something new in it, and I alter its whole aspect. I point and extend the tubes of my glasses in all ways, or retract them." 

                                                                               – Stendhal, The Life of Henry Brulard

   Is with this quote that V.S. Naipaul opens the first chapter of his book, Reading & Writing: A Personal Account. The quote greatly expresses and fit the line of thought Naipaul gives in this chapter. Across this brief but deep chapter, Naipaul recounts to us, the reader(s), about his experiences with his Indian family in his new home, the island of Trinidad. He also recounts his experiences while growing up in the island and the diverse memories he had while in school and in the university. As one keeps reading, the reader finds that Naipaul is recounting his inner journey while he is discovering a side of himself that he had been having trouble with since he was a child. This side is his own desire as a writer. He recounts how he has several anthologies of parts of books that he liked, and how this would differ from the own likings of his father. 

    His father served a rather special role in this journey. His father served as his role model, and his inspiration for the things he wanted to achieve. We can observe in this chapter as he struggles while wanting to become a writer, not having nothing to write about but his experiences, which frustrated him greatly. But what's rather impressive in this chapter is how Naipaul uses a rather peculiar way to recount his tale. He gives real people characters, and uses a rather peculiar way to tell his journey.As one keeps reading, one gets caught up in the stories, which makes it more interesting when reading, since it provokes an interest in the reader to keep reading and find out what happens.

     While reading Naipaul's chapter, one may think is rather easy to write this way, but it actually is a rather difficult task. I find it rather hard to write a personal experience as a story and assign real people characters in that story. While Naipaul uses his rather fun and entertaining way to write, we can see in other authors like Carl Jung, that there is a tendency to exaggerate and even have the possibility to alter the memories or alter the success of events as they really happened. I personally think that this is a normal part of writing an autobiography, since most of the time we can't remember the event in full detail; I make the remark that some people do possess this amazing ability to remember everything in full detail. That's why we must be careful when writing, even more so if it's an autobiography, because we can get caught in writing everything as a fictional tale and forget the actual event, and start exaggerating or change the actual story when writing about it, just so it can fit more into the fictional tale we are trying to tell. 

"An autobiography can distort, facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies. It reveals the writer totally."

                                     – V. S. Naipaul

T R A V E L • J O U R N A L: A N • E X P E R I E N C E

      A journal, is a book or a notebook, in which we write our personal experiences and thoughts. As part of a class assignment, we were supposed to keep a Travel Journal. This journal was not our typical "diary". In this Travel Journal, we had to follow a few guidelines, given to us by our professor from the book Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg. We were meant to follow these rules, which were called "The Anti-Rules"; this prompted us to do the following:

1. Keep your hand moving

2. Don't cross out

3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar

4. Lose Control

5. Don't think, don't get logical

6. Go for the jugular (which basically means to "go into difficult emotions")

At first, these rules were really hard to follow, specifically rules #2 and #3; at least for me. I'm a person that strikes out misspelled words almost automatically, because I'm what you call a grammar freak. I like my writings and works to be properly written and punctuated, and since we had to write without thinking and just flowing with whatever thoughts popped into our head, these two rules were hard to follow at first. 

     As the weeks passed, these two rules that gave me so much of a hard time to follow, got progressively easier to overrule. I slowly but surely, learned to just ignore my misspelled words, and if I wrote something as it wasn't supposed to be written, I would just stop writing the word, and just keep on writing. Another strategy that I found useful for myself, was that when I would write a word and I knew that it was spelled wrongly, I would write a dash (–) and keep writing after it. This experience was something interesting, since I had never done something like this before. 

      Another part of the journal, was to do an activity where we had to do draw something called a "Life Compass." The drawing is as follows:

As one can see, it's very similar to a normal compass, but instead of North, South, East and West we have S, M, E and P; each letter means spiritual, mental, emotional and physical, respectively. According to what we were feeling in that moment, we would appoint a number with 3 being the maximum and 1 being the lowest to each letter. When all the letters had a number, we would sum all and obtain a total. This was our "number" and with this, as we progressively did more compasses, we could compare the results and see the areas where we had been lowest and try to reflect upon this and try to see if we could make a change so that the numbers went up, instead of down. 

      

      For me, I noted that the days when I obtained the lowest of numbers were the days where I was sleep deprived from staying up until late in the night to study, thus affecting severely the numbers on some compasses. Over all, the experience of the Travel Journal is something I may keep on doing in the future. It really helped me ease my stress over the things that were bugging me on particular days. This experience is something I will encourage some friends to do also, while following the "Anti-rules" because it's like a form of therapy that really helped me relax and keep on going through out the day, and I'm confident it will do the same for my friends. 

Travel Journal: Front Cover

Travel Journal: Back Cover

L I F E • I S • A N • E T E R N A L • "C A M I N O"

    During the course of our lives, we change paths quite often. Most probably when we were little kids, we didn't realize the paths or "caminos" that we were heading into. As life goes on, our paths keep changing and changing with our experiences and our environment. The book: Life is a Trip: The Transformative Magic of Travel writer by Judith Fein recounts precisely this.How travelling to unknown places, made her understand and see that of which as foreign to her. On a more personal thought, we should all aspire to do precisely this. Is by travelling that we open ourselves to the unknown, which can greatly propel us into a more cultural and wise being. 

     While reading some of the chapters, I felt most compelled with Chapter 13, The Other Side of the Pilgrim's Road in Spain, which talked about the "Camino de Santiago de Compostela". Santiago "El Mayor" or James "The Greater" was one of the Apostles of Jesus of Nazaret. Santiago was the one of the Apostles who took it upon himself to go and spread his gospel thought Israel and subsequently "finis terrae", or what was considered the end of the world int hose times. Later on, Santiago went back to Jerusalem where he was beheaded by Herodes. Santiago was one of the first Apostles to die; later after his death as a martyr, his followers gathered his remains and brought them back to Compostela, Spain. While reading this chapter, I was so deeply moved by the accounts of the author. I've heard of el "Camino" and have also heard from a friend and family members that have gone, and how incredibly hard and painstaking walk that have to be endured for days. But while reading, I felt transported to the surroundings and accounts that the author was describing. I felt this urge to go grab a suitcase and leave.

     As many people embark on the long and strenuous "Camino" wether to do it as a pilgrimage, to explore something new, to find ones inner self, or just to see what so many people talk and recount, this is sure to be the trip and experience of a life time. I'm baffled by how many people decide to do the "Camino" each year, and hopefully I will join all those people who have experienced this marvellous journey someday. But the "Camino" is not just done in that particular place, because we are forever enduring a "Camino" throughout the course of our lives. Life is a "Camino" just as hard as the "Camino de Santiago" itself. Life is full of many lessons that shape into who we are, just like the "Camino" does each year to the many people that walk it every day. This being said, we must embrace each and very opportunity that life gives us, and make the best of it, whether it be good or bad. Every experience is a lesson needed for the improvement of our selves, just like the "Camino" was for the author.

  

"Pocas cosas hacen falta, para el Camino de Santiago. Pocas, como realmente pocas son las que necesitamos para ser felices en la vida. Una mochila, con lo que creemos que utilizaremos en nuestro día a día, y un bordón, que nos ayude a caminar en momentos difíciles. Los paralelismos con nuestra vida son inagotables en este Camino de Luz." 

 –Victor Nuño

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"Few things we need for a "Camino de Santiago". Few as what we really need to be happy in life. A rucksack, with what we think we need in daily life, and a walking stick, a help for walking in difficult moments.Parallelisms with our life are endless in this Path of Light."

– Victor Nuño

W H A T • E X A C T L Y • I S • A • P U E R T O R I C A N?

Puerto Rico, a little island in the middle of the Caribbean. We are taught in school that we Puertoricans are a mixture of composed of Spaniards, Africans and Taíno (aborigine), this may be partially true, but on my opinion it isn't. We are not just a mixture of those three great cultures, but we are a mixture of a whole spectrum of cultures and races, and that is something we are proud of. Being a Puerto Rican, we have the outmost pride in our culture, our island and ourselves. Were ever we go, we are proud to call our selves Puertorican. We are caring, lovable, hospitable and loud people, but that is what makes us so incredibly unique. We celebrate anything and everything we can, thus making us one big happy country.

We have great landmarks and places that make our little island wonderful. For example, we have the Tropical Rainforest, El Yunque, filled with waterfalls, cold waters great for the summer heat, and green trees everywhere you look. Also we have El Morro, a very old fortress build by the Spaniards to be in the look out for any enemy ships that would be visible from the horizon. We also have great beaches that we can visit year round. We are a island filled with great culture; a culture we embrace to the very core of our being. The Christmas time on the island is one filled with joy, parties, friends and most importantly food.

Puertorican food is also a big staple of our island. Some foods like "arroz con gandules" can be eaten year round, but is basically the main dish during the Christmas time. Around this time of year, is where most of the festivities of the island take place. We celebrate the The Three Kings Day and after all the little kids (and some grown ups like my self) put out shoe boxes filled with grass for the camels, to wake up the next day to see our presents, we usually go to other family member's houses to enjoy the rest of the day. After this, we celebrate something that is called "Las Octavitas" which starts the 7th of January (the day after the Three Kings Day) and culminates 8 days later with "Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian". This event is an event that gathers people from all around the island and tourists from all around the world. It's in this event that we let our culture, loudness and happiness break free (not that we don't do it round the year). Here you get to see the typical dances ("Bomba y Plena") and also Salsa and many other. We enjoy the event with family, friends or both.

Needless to say, for me, what characterises my island, my people and myself is our ability to make the best out of any situation, whether it be good or bad. Puertoricans are naturally happy people, and this is something we carry wherever we go. Care to visit? You won't regret it!

C A R L • J U N G : M E M O R I E S, D R E A M S & R E F L E C T I O N S

Carl Jung, was born in Switzerland, and was one of the people responsible for the creation of what we know today as the modern depth psychology.  Jung in his book "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" specifically, the chapter IX, Travels, speaks about his encounters with different countries, different cultures, and his individual and internal journey and dreams. Is necessary to mention, that this book was published after his death, but also, was written almost 30 years after these travels had taken place. Which makes the reader doubt or think that the events are slightly exaggerated, since one can't actually remember with great accuracy the events of that occurred nearly 5 years ago, imagine having to remember or attempting to remember 30 years, some stories may or may not be written accordingly as the events occurred. But nonetheless, Jung with the help journals and memory perhaps, makes a great account of his travels, indulging the reader with his inner personality and the finding of himself during his travels. 

Nonetheless, though our dreams, we remember things that were deeply buried with ourselves, or discover new things influenced by what we have lived or are currently living though. With traveling, one opens their boundaries and experiences a lot further, and this is something Jung embraced and wanted to happen, since he wanted to explore that part of him that as "unknown" even to himself. Jung got to see this "unknown" and began to experience it though dreams. Although, Jung's dreams seem to be greatly described, even to uttermost detail, as I mentioned before, since this was written 30 years after the events occurred, some of them may be exaggerated. I personally can't remember most of the dreams I have, and if I can remember them, I just remember parts; and usually remember them when I wake up, as the day goes on, I tend to forget them. 

This is why I tend to infer that he kept journals, thus helping remember his dreams better, but it's still not the same. In "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" in chapter IX, Travels , part iii Uganda and Kenya he mentions in this quote: “I took this dream as a waning from the unconscious; it was saying that the primitive was a danger to me. At that time I was obviously all to close to “going black”.” In his journey, Carl Jung saw himself as immersing too far into the country and his unconscious kept on reminding him that he was European, thus impeding himself from actually becoming this “Negro” or “going black” as he mentions in the quote. He as a traveler, he was immersing himself too much into the country, its people and the culture, and wasn’t so sure at what was happening to his inner persona. Thus inferring that he wanted to explore his innermost self, not was scared of turning into something or someone that he wasn't. This is the kind of influence our dreams and our experiences have upon us, although we may not remember them all dreams, up so some extent, they shape us into the person we currently are while having a direct influence from experiences. 

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity."

                                                       – Carl Jung

A B O U T • M E

Hello, my is Bianca Paola, I'm 22 years old. I was born in May 19th, 1993 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the present time, I'm studying at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus and I'm majoring in Cellular Molecular Biology. I have my eyes set upon becoming a Geriatric Doctor someday. You may be wondering, what does a Geriatric Doctor do? Well, basically, they are the doctors who focus primarily on the health and care of elderly citizens. Another question I get asked frequently is why do I want to be that. Well, I come from a family where almost everyone is involved, one way or another, with health related professions. Also, I live and have lived with my grandmother for as long as I can remember. Also, thanks to her, I've also have had the opportunity to travel from a very young age. Since I was about 2 years old, I went with her and my grandfather on weekly trips with an association for teachers all around the island. I was usually the youngest among all of the attendees, since most of them were elderly people.

From a very young age I've spent most of my time with the elderly, and is something I found greatly gratifying. Until about two years ago, I really didn't know what I wanted to study or become in the future, until one day I was sitting in a physical therapy room (I was receiving a parafine treatment on my hand) and I started a conversation with a gentleman that was beside me. As the conversation went on, he made me realise that wanting to care for the elderly was something I wanted to do professionally. Also, as I mentioned before, the love I have for new cultures, and travelling I owe it all to my grandmother. It is thanks to her (and my mother of course) that I've been able to see places that I've never even dreamed of going. China, Turkey, Greece, Rome, Israel, Egypt, just to name a few. I have meet great people and encountered great cultures, and I'm always after my new adventure. Hence the name for this blog, (URL actually) Suitcase Nostalgia; I'm always nostalgic as to where I'm going next or what place I yearn to visit again. As for the actual name, Walking Question Mark, is well, because I really am a walking question mark, I question everything around me. I like to know the reasons for everything and if I doubt something, I will not hesitate to ask; making me a really curious and outspoken person. Nonetheless, I love making new friends and getting to know the unknown. So please, any doubts on anything, don't hesitate in the least to comment and/or ask me anything.