Thursday, January 2, 2014: Cuenca
Yet again, today was another fun filled busy day in Cuenca. Today was also my first day of school CEDEI. I began my day by waking up at 6:30 am to get ready and then eat breakfast at 7:30 am. By the time, breakfast was over at 8:00 am, my roommate Emily and I had to leave to walk to school. It took us 20 minutes to walk from our house to CEDEI. Class began at 8:30 am and lasted until 10:00 am. Then our class took a field trip from 10:30 – 12:30 pm to Mueso de Culturas Aborigenes where we learned about many artifacts that have been found and preserved through hundreds of years. In class today we mostly talked about identity in communication and culture in communication. I learned there are four different types of cultural communication but here in Ecuador my class is focusing on intercultural communication. That means two different cultural groups are coming together, which can be through: race, gender, nationality, religion, social class, and sexual orientation. Through the study of identity, we leaned how there are interactions, perceived stereotypes, and experiences. I can relate our talk in class to the way age is stereotypes in the U.S. compared to age in Ecuador. In the U.S., people tend to not want to grow old due to the negative stereotypes perceived. For instance, Americans think when you get older your health will decline. However, in Ecuador people want to grow older because they believe they are much wiser and when you are older, your family members want to take good care of you in any way possible because they “appreciate” the elderly more. We also related our class talk about identity to a field trip we took this afternoon at 3:00 pm to Mueso del Banco Central. We toured the museum looking at all the different identities found throughout Ecuador over time. It was very interesting to see how things changed over the years and how identity changed or did not change in some instances over time. In class, I learned there are two types on identity, primary and secondary. Primary relates to biology like sex, race, ethnicity and health, which are static and can, change over time. For example, you can be a student but that can change to you becoming an employee, or you are a Christian but that can change to you following another religion. Secondary is socially constructed and dynamic which does not change. For example, if you are a sister and daughter you will always be a sister and daughter. That does not change. Today was the day we took our class photo and got our pictures taken for our CEDEI student IDs to use to get discounts at many places around the city. After we visited Mueso del Banco Central, our CEDEI guide, Austin, gave us a Cuenca orientation tour of the best places to eat, shop, go out to at night, and visit anytime during the day. It was very helpful because Austin lives in Cuenca so he showed us the best places. After the city tour, Emily and I walked home to have dinner with our family. We ate fried rice with chicken and drank orange juice. Throughout the day, I walked a total of 3-4 miles. My feet hurt a lot and I am very exhausted. I am sure I will get a great night sleep tonight! I am very excited for tomorrow because we get to take a dance class at school! Today was an awesome day to see the city and get to know the place. I am starting to feel like I live in Cuenca. It is a wonderful feeling!
