Hello 
I am somewhat puzzled: can I, half French, half German, teaching in Mexico City, contribute to the "one day in history", especially since my only tie to the UK would be one of my students who happens to work at the local British Council? Or is "anyone" restricted to UK citizens only?
Yours sincerely,
 
Volker
Dear Volker
Thank you for your e-mail. You are more than welcome to submit a blog and we will look forward to receiving it.
All the best to everyone at the British Council in Mexico City!
 
Marie
Wow, that was quick! I didn't even expect to get an answer! - Well then, since I'm kindly invited, on we go: first time ever I'll be posting in English (and desperately trying to remember what I've been taught in school...), the reason being the One Day In History-campaign I mentioned yesterday. This post will furthermore be stored in the British Library's Web Archiving Section, just imagine... Me, being stored next to Dickens or Lord Byron or Emily Brontë? Yes, I'm a happy honoured fellow. So I guess it's just going to be "classic diary"-style.
 
When I woke up this morning my better half already had left for work. As usual on Tuesdays, I got the morning and the afternoon off, so I kept hanging around, doing nothing special, reading magazines, checking my mail, had a nap, watched a movie, received a couple of phone calls - sorry for those who had a tough day of work... The sky over Mexico City appeared slightly greyish, and though the rainy season is officially over, I probably shouldn't leave home without my umbrella (Mexico's not so different to London, as it seems).
 
At 4 p.m. my brain finally started working. Had to prepare my "philosophy and film" class. I chose a text for next week's session, written by an essayist from Québec, rather polemic, I thought, a German philosopher probably wouldn't dare to publish something like that. Anyway, polemics lead to good discussions. Today's text is a short extract by French historian Pierre Nora, about the relation between history and memory. I searched my DVD collection for history flicks; I found a recent one, Kingdom of Heaven, and an old one, The Ten Commandments. Okay, off to work...
On arriving at the Institute, I had a coffee and a smoke and a chat with one or two colleagues, then I buggered off to the classroom, only to find it nearly deserted. Yes, I forgot, Mexican punctuality... One guy had arrived on time, Armando, the only professional philosopher in the group. He's special. There could be the worst eruption of the Popocatepetl or the most devastating quake, he still would be there on time. We went back to the cafeteria and began to talk about God knows what, hoping for the others to appear. Which they did, one after another, and yes, finally Carmina. "How's the British Council", I inquired discreetly, having the One-Day-In-History-post in mind. She told me that Britain is this year's special guest of the Festival Cervantino in Querétaro. Consequently there are lots of British musicians, orchestras, choirs and dance companies in town. She also told me that president Vicente Fox, in his welcome speech, apparently didn't know that there is a difference between "Reino Unido" and "Inglaterra". Slightly embarrassing.
Afterwards, we had a splendid discussion about remembering history, historical events recalled by family members, institutionalized historical events etc. We had a look a the two movies, discussed the unavoidable parallelisms to contemporary events in historical films, the "God wills it!" shouted out by the Templar Knights and the now rather ridiculous Cold War rhetorics of Cecil B. De Mille's prologue to "The Ten Commandments".
 
And that's all, folks. I frankly admit that to write all this, I had to, how does one say? spill my guts out. Of course, you're perfectly welcome to correct me broken English. And ere I forget: as usual, here are some songs to download, this time a special "very, mais alors very very British"
 
Ze "C'est quoi ces chansons?" department: Well, to choose just three representative songs, it's not of the pie. Starting with zat Kinks classic from 1966, and of course, us Froggies we just LOVE everyzing which connects us to Waterloo. Next is Steve Harley and I don't know exactly if it's really cockney accent or whatever, but anyway the song from 1974 is great. As is the one by Billy Bragg, out in 1983, just him and his electric guitar. So, are these songs very very British? Or just Londonian?
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