Thursday, May 31, 2007

People in funny suits, again

Houses at the baseball game. For most of the game, they just 'sat' in the stands. Very surreal.



And, at a pedestrian mall in downtown, on a Sunday....



posted by Michelle @ 7:40 PM, 0 comments

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Suggestions for nice steak or Mexican high cuisine in Monterrey?

Anyone? Brian and I are looking for a nice place for dinner later this month. Not for the study abroad group. Any suggestions?

posted by Michelle @ 11:36 PM, 3 comments

Las luchas!

Last night, our study abroud group went to the luchas here in Monterrey. I think the students had a good time, at first. They were worn out by the second to last set of matches and couldn't hang for the main event. I guess you have to build up your stamina.



posted by Michelle @ 11:33 PM, 0 comments

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Back in Mexico, and you know what that means...

People in funny suits and scantily-clad women.

Last night, some of the study abroad group went to a Sultanes baseball game here in Monterrey.



posted by Michelle @ 6:34 PM, 0 comments

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Monterrey traffic laws

I'm reading the traffic regs for Monterrey and have found that:

Los conductores de vehículos tienen prohibido lo siguiente:.... XIV. Circular zigzagueando....

Rough translation: Vehicle drivers are prohibited from the following....driving 'zigzagging.'

Mexican laws are so nice and precise.

Updated to add this additional prohibition:

....XXVII. Manifestar una conducta evidente de hostigamiento hacia otros conductores haciendo mal uso del vehículo que conduce...

Or, showing evidently harrassing conduct toward other drivers making poor use of the vehicle they drive.

Also updated: The fines are adjusted according to 'economic capacity, social condition, education,' etc.:

ARTÍCULO 139. Al aplicarse la multa, deberá tomarse en consideración, la naturaleza de la infracción cometida, las causas que la produjeron, la capacidad económica, la condición social, educación y antecedentes del infractor. Si el infractor fuese jornalero u obrero, jubilado o pensionado, la multa no deberá exceder del importe del salario de un día. Tratándose de trabajador no asalariado, jubilado o pensionado la multa no excederá de su jornal o salario de un día.

posted by Michelle @ 4:28 PM, 0 comments

Monday, May 14, 2007

Study of bilingual bloggers

One of my colleagues here at Tech just finished a study on code-switching by bilingual bloggers on the interweb. You can read the full paper here. Here's a taste of her conclusions:

In analyzing Spanish-English bilingual blogs a few evident conclusions surface. First, and answering the former research question posed at the beginning, yes, bilingual bloggers switch languages when writing these public journals. I speculate that while code-switching has often carried a social stigma in oral production, such stigma does not seem to obtain in informal written expression, especially in such a democratic forum as the Internet.

posted by Michelle @ 4:54 PM, 3 comments

Current wherabouts

Somewhere in Central Texas--frantically buying unsweetened Silk, cereal, and violin strings before our trip; dropping $1K on car maintenance; and hanging out in the lobby of the Mexican Consulate to get car papers.

We're heading to Monterrey by car this week to prepare for the brand-spankin-new Georgia Tech Summer Study Abroad program at Tec de Monterrey, directed by yours truly. The students arrive May 22.

We'll have a class blog that should be up and running in a couple of weeks so others can follow us on our adventures. I'll post the link here.

posted by Michelle @ 4:48 PM, 0 comments