Emily.

19 sec.

Hi, My name is Emily Rieven and I'm from Munford, Tennessee. Most people have never heard of Munford, but they have heard of Tennessee. It's north of Memphis and it takes about 30 minutes to get to Memphis.

Emily.
51 sec.

Um, I grew up...I was born there in Memphis and then I grew up in Mumford and then when I was about four and a half, we moved to Pennsylvania and my dad pastored a church there., and we lived there for two and a half years. Then we came back to the same town, same house, and they've been there every since. and I have two brothers and they're both older. I'm the youngest in the family and my oldest brother is forty-three and my other brother is thirty-four and I'm thirty, and so that's our family, and my oldest brother, he's, he's a fireman for the city of Memphis and my middle brother, he works in construction.

Emily 3.

53 sec.

I went to college at Blue Mountain College in Mississippi and got my undergratuate degree in education to teach from kindergarten to eighth grade, so from kindergarten to middle-school, and I taught for two years, no three years, excuse me. Three years. Two years I taught, well, one year I taught for the city of Memphis and I taught Spanish to kindergarten to second grade and then I taught two years in Siskin county which is North of Memphis in the area where I was, where my parents live, and I taught Spanish to kindergarten through eighth grade and then I taught last year, this last year I taught second grade only and I decided I want to do just Spanish.

Emily 4.
2:12

Tell me about your first days here in Querétaro.

Well, um, I enjoyed it, you know. I enjoyed the time here and

What were some of the surprises when you got to Querétaro?

You know I didn't really have a lot of preconceived ideas. I wanted to just kind of experience it. But I do think the climate is one thing that kind of surprised me. Because right before I came I wanted to get a different kind of face (cream), you know, because my skin was dry in the winter you know, and the lady at the make-up store said "oh no, don't get it if you're going to México, you know, like it's hot and humid there". And it's not humid at all. It's actually quite dry and I wish I had gotten the other make-up now because, well in the winter, in January when we got here and my skin was dry, pealing up and so forth and that's so

Because Mississippi and Tennesses are very humid.

Yes, it's very humid there.

What do you like particularly about Querétaro?

I like the food. Actually probably I would like any area in the world if I had, like, a traditional prepared food. I like to try different foods, and I like the people. They're really friendly and helpful. Everyone here is, and if you are looking for a certain place. you might not be able to understand what they say, like "go here, there, over yonder", kind of like when you're in the South, but, but they're helpful. Sometimes even, I think, somebody told me, "even if they don't know where something is, they want to try to help you". Even if they don't know. I like how they are very accommodating and friendly and I like the, I don't know how to say it in English, but the chiles rellenos with queso panela, oooh, I guess chiles stuffed with panela cheese. I really like those, and milanesas which is a special thin meat cooked in grease. Yum.

Emily 5.

What's the food like in Tennessee and Mississippi?

Well, uh, I think the different regions do have their special foods, but, wow, definitely they do, but I don't know, in my family my mom always cooked at home, she's always tried to stay on top of health, and so forth. Traditionally the South is known to have very greasy food such as fried chicken and just, also chittlens I think is a Southern food

Do you like chittlens?

Well, yes, ...try it, no. Chittlens are the intestines are the intestines of pigs and you have to prepare them just right or they taste awful, and of course that's obvious why. They...you have to clean them out inside and I have a story to tell about that. My older brother one time, David, he wanted to cook some chittlens. He wanted to try out how they tasted. I think some people call them chitterlins, but I just call them chittlens, and uh, he was living in an appartment at the time, he was married and he didn't evidently know how to clean them out properly and so after he cooked them all the whole appartment smelled very awful.

Did he eat them?

I don't think so. I don't think he could get past the smell.

Oh, grits is also another southern food.

And what are grits?

That's a good questions. I've heard of "eat my grits" kind of like I think in your gums or something, but also grits is, it's a white, like, food that you cook. Kind of like, you pour it out of a box.

Corn

yeah.

It's course, ground corn.

mmmhum, Yeah, prepared a special way and you just. . . I don't eat them much, but we're known for eating grits and people up North, even in the same country, United States, don't know what grits are somehow.

And we eat corn bread. We do have something in common with México because you all eat lots of corn tortillas and in the South we eat corn bread and when I was younger I said "That is my favorite food." Because my Mom would make hommade cornbread. It's about this thick. You can make it thicker but mama makes it thin and I like it that way because its...you have lots of crunchy crust on the outside and when it's thicker you don't have as much crust and it's too much, too much doughy in the middle. I like it thin and crunchy.

Christopher 1.

36 sec.

My name is Christopher Rashad McFarland. I'm from San Diego, California where I grew by the beach. It was rather nice. I went to an elementary school. I learned Spanish from the age of 5 and so I've been speaking Spanish for a while and I've continued my studies of Spanish through my High School and my university career and now I'm coming up on the end of my undergraduate education and we'll see what happens in the fall because I got accepted into graduate school in Chicago and from there hopefully I would like to teach Spanish on some level.

Christopher 2.

1:19

So, what about your family?

I have three sisters. My father lives in Michigan and my mother lives in Ohio. They're not married at the current moment but it doesn't matter, never at any time in my life and we get along pretty well, family reunions twice a year, three times a year because all of the us kids live in different cities.

Are they grown?

Yes, all of us are older. I'm the youngest, I'm the only boy. Monique is twenty-seven, Gina is thirty-two and Nicole is twenty-eight.

So you really are the baby of the family.

I'm definitely the baby and the only boy, so I get lucky at that.

Were you spoiled?

No

for sure?

No, never, never, no.

Tell me about San Diego.

Um, It's a great city. It's growing a lot. It's coming to a point where you have to make a whole lot of money before you go there because you can't go there and make money and live at the same time.

ah.

One of those kind of cities.

and um it's nice. They have the Padres, I'm a big fan and Chargers, I'm a fan of both of them

The Padres are . . .

Baseball

Baseball. I'm not much of a sports fan... Are they a pretty good team?

Um, They're getting there, they're doing better after the first.... Well actually, they went to the play-offs so they got a little better.

Oh

they got little better

and um the Chargers are really good themselves so then you can't really complain about that.

Christopher 3.

1:30

Tell me about school.

School here or ?

Well, both places.

Oh, well I go to Western Michigan University. It's nice school. I really don't mind it. The Spanish department is great though, so it's a good experience with that. It's supportive and they really want you to do a lot of things wih your Spanish. I also studied economics and philosophy at the undergraduate level and those departments are a bit different, a bit smaller and there's not as much attention given to the students.

Not as much attention in a smaller department, how odd?

No, it's really odd but

ah, it is

yeah, but it works out, and here I'm just studying Spanish, linguistics, trying to get a little bit better at that. However, linguistics is really hard in Spanish because it's a different theory, a different philosophy and I really didn't get any linguistics in English so you put the two together [brand new] and it's a little bit confusing but I'm working my way through it. The city in Querétaro is great. I really like it. It's um, everything's concentrated so you really can't get lost, um

Did you get lost in the beginning?

No I didn't actually. I've never really gotten lost in Querétaro. I've always know where the Universidad was along the Saragosa and I live right off the Saragosa so

So that makes it easier.

Yeah, it's not that bad.

No I live on the Avenida los Arcos Esplanade, so I have a little ways to walk but I've learned the city too that way.

Christopher 4.

48 sec.

Have you any, like, experiences when you were a little kid you'd like to talk about? Funny ones or sad ones or weird ones?

Oh, uh, well, one time, when I was younger we used to go to the beach frequently and there's this beach called La Joya up from San Diego that has... It's an open beach, it's rather large. However, if you swim across there's, if you use your boogie board, your surfboard you can go to the cove, and we went to the cove and there was this huge whale that was just dead [a whale, for heavens sake?] and it stayed there for about six months [ooo, yuck] and it was just this big thing and you got to watch it disappear you know over half a year and then it turned into bones and then the bones bleached out and it was just.....[gone].

Jessica L introduction.

12 sec.

My name is Jessica Lau and I’m 23 years old. I’m originally from North Dakota but I attend school in Oregon which is now my home, I consider it my home, I’ve lived there for four years

Jessica L 2.

25 sec.

I’ve got quite an interesting family situation. I’ve got a father and a mother and a brother who are biological but then when I was 16 I moved in with my best friend and her family. They took me in and raised me for the latter part of my teen age years and so they’re now my family as well. So I have two other sisters and Mary Joe Kyle and they’re not quite mom and dad in name but they really are like my mom and dad.

Jessica L 3

34 sec.

My sisters Jenna and Alisa are awesome. I’ve always wanted sisters growing up cause I always had a brother that was 6 yars older than me, so it is awesome to get two sisters at once. Alise has two children so I’m an aunt of Riley and Chase. I have yet to meet Chase. I’m going to go back home in May for my brother’s wedding.l’m very excited. He’s marrying a very wonderful woman and then I also get to see Chase my other nephew. (When was he born?) He was born last September.

Jessica L 4.

28 sec.

Yeah, so he’s a little Virgo and Ryan is a scorpio. So I now live in Oregon. I love it there. I went for a visit after I graduated from high school and fell in love with the landscape immediately It’s so wonderful out there. Any of you that get to visit the United States, you have to visit the Northwest., particularly Oregon . . . so beautiful. I fell in love and moved up there and have been living there very happily every since

Jeff introducción,

24 sec.

Ok, Hi, my name is Jeff Platt. I'm a student here in Querétaro but I attend the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon and I've lived there for about 5 years. I'm a Spanish/International studies major there and I like it very much. Eugene is a great place. It's very green. I love the mountains and trees, lots of music, and biking, hiking and all those great things that I love to do. Lots of water.

Jeff 2,

22 sec.

Um, yeah, my family. I'm originally was born in Minnesotta. Right now I'm 27 if I haven't said that already, yeah But my whole family lives in Minnesotta. I went to high school there, graduated and after did a lot of traveling I decided to change where I was living in the U.S. So right now I'm enjoying being on the west coast.

Jeff 3,

48 sec.

Spanish has been an important part of my life for the last few years. Of course it has to be otherwise I wouldn't be here in Querétaro. I've had a great experience here in the last four months. You people are very lucky to live here and to enjoy this beautiful, historic city. anything else

Anything else?

What about your first, your first day or two here?

First day or two here was a little crazy., a little crazy. I remember getting dropped off at the bus station and started looking around and not seeing any huge city. I was sort of especting a more urban, urban type of background, backdrop But, um, yeah it ended up being OK. I was in the hostel for a few days and sort of got my bearings that way. and, uh, just looking around. It was really great. I enjoyed the plaza there, it was very impressive at first glance.

Jeff 4,
41 sec.

What , what have you liked most about Querétaro or México in general?

México in general... Well, the people here are great. You can't really beat the people. Everyone here is really nice here. The food is amazing every day. I'm definitely going to have to .. world to salsa, rice and beans and tortillas. It's a different kind of... area. It seems like everything's a little bit different. I really like Querétaro being so, so clean and safe. This is a great place to study, it's very focused on history ... Yeah, as far as being a student, I like it, sitting in a café, reading and studying. It's very, very relaxing that way.

Jeff 5,
Sec. 41.



Jeff 6,
32 sec.

How many brothers and sisters do you have in the United States?

I have an older brother and a younger sister in the States

What about your family? How many family members do you have? (in México)

My family now, I have a great family. I have 4 members in my family, la señora de la casa, el señor de la casa, y mi hermana, mi hermano and yeah, they're all great. My little brother loves football, he lives and dies with "los chidas" and yeah, my,, my sister is 19, she's just really nice, a really great person. We get along well.

Zarina introduction,

22 sec.

Zarina 2,
26 sec.

Zarina 3,

33 sec.

Zarina 4,

1:04.

Zarina 5,
1:04.

Zarina 6,

1:09.

(There is no #7)

Zarina 8,

1:04.

Leo introduction,

49 sec.

Ok hello, my name is Leo Fraser, I'm from Maplewood, New Jersey. I go to school in Oregon, at the University of Oregon, that is in Eugene, Oregon. I would have to say that my favorite city in the world is New York City because, one, I grew up 20 minutes outside of New York City and as far as cultures and opportunities to experience cultures, New York City and the areas surrounding New York City is the best in the world because everybody in world wants to come to New York City.

Leo 2,
57 sec.

It's a place of myths and legends and quote/unquote opportunities so I'm very skewed view of other cities because whenever I go to other cities I always compare them to New York City which isn't fair really. But I would suggest for anybody to go there, check it out, because whatever you want to encounter is there, every bit of culture, every type of music, every type of art, every type of theater, every type of food which is my downfall, and the beautiful thing about New York City is that seriously, it is the city that never sleeps which is good for me because I am a person that never sleeps so if I want to go out at one or two in the morning I can.

Leo 3,
1:02.

Now, I'm in Oregon because New York City area is a very intense place to live at times because there's a lot a lot of people in a very very small area and a lot of them are very high stress so I went up to Oregon because I was looking for a breath of fresh air, so to speak, and I found it. And I would say that Oregon is perhaps one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, ever lived in, or had the pleasure to live in, because there's forests, mountains, and trees and good people and when I'm in Oregon I feel calm. I feel happy just because there's a different type of life around me.

Leo 4,

44 sec.

So life I live in New York is very intense and high powered, and the life I live in Oregon is more laid-back. I have a chance to be calm and take my time. Now both have their pros and cons I would say. In New York at times it is very hard to relax but in Oregon at times it' verys hard to get things done, so I'm very happy that I have the opportunity to live in both those places because the two sides of me get to come out in those separate places.

Leo 5,

38 sec.

What about your family?

My family? I have a father and a mother, older brother and a younger sister. My brother goes to school in New Orleans right now ? his fiancee. I'm going to be his best man in 2007 so I have to start thinking of a speech. They are studying law. My brother wants to be an international environmental lawyer and my sister is currently studying speech? in Speech Institute in Philadelphia.

Leo 6,

1:25.

We're a pretty close family. Unfortunately nowdays because we're all in our separate spaces we don't have time, so much time to be together which is something I really realized being I'm here in Mexico because here in Mexico the family is everything. You eat with your famiily. You live with your family. Chances are that your grandmother or your aunt or whoever lives next door to you or down the block. It's all very tight knit family supporting culture here and if you walk in the plaza or the street at night, at day, at during the day, during the night, it doesn't matter. You always see families walking together, spending time together, parents and children, brothers and sisters, grandmothers and grandchildren. It's very very family oriented, so I would say if there's one lesson I've learned so far here in Mexico in my two weeks I would like I bring back to the United States, when I go back to the United States s I want to try to live the family culture that is here because it's very beautiful, literally beautiful, because you can just feel that the family is of the utmost importance.

Leo 7,
29 sec.

So when I go back I want to spend more time with my parents, talk to my brother and my sister more on the telephone because we are so far away, visit them if I can. See my grandfather more, see my aunts and uncles more, because really, family is the most important. If you don't have your family what have you got? and I've learned if you don't have your family you don't have much.