It’s been a long time since my last post, so here is a debrief of my past few weeks:

I will start backwards, as I am sitting in a hotel room with Covid right now. While I have felt pretty sick and just lost my sense of taste, I am feeling very glad to have had the past few days alone in a hotel. With only two more weeks left of the program, my solo time has been the perfect time to reflect on what has happened in these past 3 months.

A few weekends ago I flew home to Eugene to go to my family’s Passover seder, and it felt like the best weekend of my life. It was rainy and the tap water tasted good and I got to roll around in the mud with some of my best friends. I knew that when I returned to Tucson after my weekend home, I would only have one more month left, which was crazy and exciting and sad all at the same time. I’ve been trying to make the most of my last few weeks and do more things that I’ve been wanting to do this whole semester. Those things include:

-swimming in the UA gym

-running

-going swing dancing

-hiking to see Arizona’s super bloom

-going to hot yoga more (this has been the craziest character development of my year because I used to hate yoga and the heat, and now I am addicted to hot yoga)

I made it a week of swimming every day, but then came my positive Covid test. So, let this be the start of the greatest two weeks ever.

I will write a much longer debrief soon, but for now I am going to continue to watch cheesy rom-coms in my nice hotel bed.

I have moved homes, gone on a trip to Oaxaca, and started spring break since writing my last post! I’ll break each one down:

Moving homes –

I moved into a house in the south of Tucson that is much closer to the other students and overall a much better environment for me. I am now living with two other students, and our host parents speak only in Spanish (a contrast to my previous English-speaking home). My host parents are Conchita and Oscar, and they are an adorable 78-year old couple who love soap operas and their three dogs. The transition into this home has been easy because they have been so welcoming to me, and I pretty instantly felt happier as soon as I moved in. I have been excited to use my Spanish more, and although sometimes I have no idea what Conchita and Oscar are saying, I have learned to just laugh along. Oscar’s favorite joke, which he says to us every night, is “buenas nachos” instead of “buenas noches.” He laughs every time he says it.

Trip to Oaxaca –

We spent the last week in Oaxaca city!! We talked with many different organizations each day to learn about the work that they’re doing, and they ranged from feminist organizations to wind farms to artists. This trip was super fun because the 13 of us rarely get to spend time with each other outside of the classroom, so we all really enjoyed getting to know each other outside of an academic environment. The hostel we stayed in served us a delicious breakfast each morning, and we usually spent the majority of the day out and about. For two nights we went to Juchitán, a coastal town 5 hours away. There we visited their early morning fish market and got to walk around a lot. At the end of our trip, we stopped at a migrant shelter and talked to the founder about how it runs. We didn’t get a chance to debrief this visit after, but we were all feeling pretty conflicted about how to feel. A topic we have talked a lot about on this program is extraction – visiting this shelter felt pretty uncomfortable and extractive, as we went for our benefit and toured the living space of hundreds of people.

Overall, the trip to Oaxaca was super fun, and I definitely think that I got closer with the other students.

Spring break –

Spring break!!! Yesterday I flew back to Tucson and met my parents there. I introduced them to Conchita and then we drove a few hours to Sedona, where we’ll be for a few nights. I am very glad that spring break is coming directly after our trip to Oaxaca, as it was fun but also extremely exhausting. It has felt great to be with my parents and feel 100 percent comfortable in my space, but I am also looking forward to resuming my life in Tucson for the rest of the semester.

Those are my most recent updates! The past few weeks have been exponentially better since moving homes, so I am looking forward to the rest of the semester!!!

This blog post requires me to start with: what a few weeks it has been! I am now a month into the program and I have many feelings to share as I settle into my new normal routine. A spoiler before I start: I am currently in the process of personal rebranding.

Rebranding Step 1: Moving homes

From the beginning of the program I struggled with my host family placement because I live very far away from all of the other students. While my commute is short and very simple, commuting home at night often feels scary to do alone, and I have felt pretty isolated from the group. So, I am moving homes sometime next week. I am not yet sure where I will be moving, but I will be closer to other people and will be living with two other students.

Rebranding Step 2: Moving field sites

Tuesdays are our field site days and we are expected to work about 8 hours there a week. My supervisor – very calm, loves tea – decided that in order to avoid the heat, starting the day at 8am would be the best option. The garden is a short 7 minute bus ride from my house, but it does require me to leave the house at 7 due to the bus’s infrequent schedule. When I arrived to the garden last Tuesday, my supervisor, who always has tea on him, had no tea. This was my first clue that something was different about this week. The second clue was not a clue but rather a statement: the garden was not in a good place to have a BSP intern there this semester. Efren’s reasons were thoughtful and understandable – the organization was going through some changes and the gardens were so understaffed that my supervisor had multiple projects to overlook.

Rebranding Step 3: My new field site

I now work at Las Milpitas, a community garden that has 6 acres and many community plant beds. Yesterday was my first day working there and there are two other BSP students there. We planted watermelons, nasturtium, and composted a lot. The garden is beautiful and I’m very excited to be working there.

My rebranding is on hold until I actually move homes.

Trips!

In the past few weeks we have gone on a few trips! We have no classes on Fridays and usually have day trips instead.

Ajo – We spent one night in Ajo, AZ and the next night in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. We continued to learn about Indigenous land and the Tohono O’odham peoples. Tohono O’odham land spans both sides of the border, so we stopped in Sonoyta, Mexico to talk to a few members of the Tohono O’odham living in Mexico. One of the speakers explained to us how difficult it is for them to access high-quality medical care: they have to cross the border into the United States and then go through various other checkpoints after, which means having to be frequently harassed by Border Patrol, and they need to have a letter from the tribe’s local governor for every appointment they have. Our speaker told us that the presence of Border Patrol is enough of a deterrent for many people to not go to the doctor, which often results in the onset of chronic illnesses.

The next night we drove to Puerto Peñasco, or Rocky Point, and stayed the night in a beautiful science institute right on the beach. We swam in the ocean and slept outside on the deck, and it was a perfect day to reset.

Nogales – Last Friday we spent the day in Nogales, both in Arizona and in Sonora, Mexico. The city is about 20,000 people on the U.S. side and about 250,000 people on the Mexico side. The city is cut in half by the border wall, which was and incredibly unsettling and jarring part of the landscape. Right after crossing the border into Mexico we went to an art museum that aimed to integrate art into public spaces, ate lunch at Marycruz Sandoval’s house (she is a labor activist and gave us a brief history of the city), and then toured a maquiladora.

Other things –

The weather has been stormy and rainy and cold and it reminds me of home in a very nice way. My dad once told me that he loves when the sun in shining but the clouds in the background are dark and dramatic, so I now also appreciate that because it reminds me of him. Yesterday it downpoured for a few minutes, the roads flooded, and then the most vibrant rainbow I’ve ever seen appeared. To celebrate, Soleil and I got ice cream.

Host families –

This week we were introduced to our new routines that we’ll be living for the next few months, and it is both incredibly exciting and also incredibly overwhelming. This past Saturday (1/28), we met our host families for the first time over a brunch of tortillas, eggs, and fruits, and we all anxiously chatted amongst ourselves until the first brave student decided to wander into the crowd of host moms. We were then driven back to our respective homes to settle in.

My host family consists of Yanira, my very funny host mom who hates the cold weather (what she describes as cold is what I describe as perfect – high 60s and sunny), Jorge, my 13-yr old host brother, and Gilberto, my 9-yr old host brother. They live close to a golf course, park, and the commute to downtown is an easy 20-minute bus or bike ride away. The transition has been pretty difficult as I have moved out of constant socialization and into many hours of solo time. However, each day seems to get easier and more comfortable, and last night I bonded with my host brothers over harmonicas, grapes, caramel sauce, and Valentine’s Day (Gilberto was planning on asking his friend to be his Valentine, but he told us he is no longer going to because she has “too big of a head”).

First day of classes –

Monday (1/30) was our very day of classes, so we all met at the Historic Y (our classroom building) and prepared to be simultaneously excited and overwhelmed. Our first class was Movement and Movements, which is a seminar-based class that focuses on the political economy of migration. After, we had a group meeting with all of our teachers to go over upcoming events (a tour of different neighborhoods in Tucson on Friday and a trip to Ajo, AZ on Wednesday), and then we had an oral spanish assessment and called it a day!

Field-site visits –

Yesterday ( 1/31) we each visited our field sites for the first time. I am working at La Tierra Anita, a community garden that gives neighborhood locals easy access to fresh, organic food. I met with Efren Martinez, the community garden coordinator, to learn more about what my responsibilities will be. Over the course of the hour, he poured me four cups of tea. I’ll be working with Efren on gardening work, event planning, community outreach, and any other tasks that need doing. He also told me that somedays we will just be playing cards or reading books.

Group dynamics –

I love the group of students on this program. I think that the specificity of this program is semi self-selective in terms of who decides to attend, and it was clear from day 1 that everyone is very thoughtful, engaged, and excited to learn. I have never been in a group of people who are all so kind and willing to talk to everyone, and I feel excited and lucky to be moving through this program with them. We have all struggled a bit in our transition from orientation/group living to homestay living, and many of us have remarked how familiar and comfortable it feels when we all meet again for classes or before-class cafe work time. We have gotten to celebrate two birthdays so far, have figured out public transportation together, and have tried the cafes and restaurants near our classroom.

The week has been difficult and rewarding at the same time, and we are going to a disco-themed party this weekend so everything will work out just fine!

Until next time,

Nissa

I flew into the Tucson airport on January 24th and was immediately charmed by the large Saguaro Cacti just outside of the airport. They make the immediate “welcome to Tucson” experience an attractive yet cheesy one, and I stopped to take one photo to send to my mom. I was then driven to my home for the next four days and met the four students who had arrived earlier. We are staying BorderLinks, an organization that offers experiential learning to school groups about the difficulties of migration and the impacts of U.S. immigration policies.

As the day continued, more students arrived until all of us (except for one student who tested positive for Covid that day) were settled and ready to see what Sentinel Peak Park had to offer (it offered a lot). There, we met all of our teachers, did brief introductions, and marveled at the beautiful sunset and the chillier-than-expected weather. A siren and megaphone interrupted us to inform us of the park’s closing, but Diego, one of our instructors, kept reading his Welcome Letter anyway. After the sun had set, we went to a restaurant for dinner and ate a delicious spread of enchiladas, calabacitas (sautéed zucchini and corn), tortillas, and so much more. Once dinner was done, we headed back to the BorderLinks building to get ready for bed and get to know each other more. We quickly learned that five of us have birthdays within the upcoming month (myself included) and we had fun planning our next few nights together.

Before arriving in Tucson I was asked many times by many different people: Are you nervous? The more I thought about it, the more I was able to pinpoint specific aspects of this semester that I was nervous about, and it all came down to figuring out a new routine. I love having order in my day and knowing what to expect, and with a semester “abroad” obviously comes many unknowns. However, I have come to feel excited about these unknowns – I have yet to meet my host family, work at my field site, and figure out the long-ish commute to the classroom and around town. But, the semester wouldn’t be all that exciting if I knew what to expect from it!

Lastly, I have been having a lot of fun with the other students on this program. We’ve gotten to wander the area, cook together, and spend quality time getting to know each other, and I don’t feel nervous at all about becoming friends with them. I am so excited about what this semester has to offer, and I looking forward to drastically expanding my knowledge about topics of migration, immigration policy, geographic history, and so much more.

Until next time,

Nissa