Friday 9/19 and Saturday 9/20
I left SFO at 11pm(PST) on Friday and arrived Mexico City at 4 am (GMT) and then connect to Oaxaca at 7:40 am (GMT) on Saturday. My host mom, Eva, picked me up and we arrived to their home in the centro historico of Oaxaca City. I am smack dab in the middle of the colonial historic district, and makes life really easy for me since I can walk just about anywhere but is also a nosy, busy street. The weather is cloudy and humid, with a light breeze that feel amazing after a long walk.
Lemme just say this- Oaxaca is not the Mexico I know and definitely has exceeded my expectations. After hearing about how poor it is here and how many people live in rural areas, I expected some shady living conditions. But not at all, I live in a beautiful restored colonial home right off a busy street. After going up a flight of stairs (Oaxaca is NOT ADA friendly) you enter in the common area, which is completely open air, with a safety gate. There are 5 bedrooms in the main house and 2 side rooms separate from the main house. We have our own bathroom and shower and wireless internet, waaay sweet! Another student from my program, Alexa, lives here, as well as a nun in her 60s from Chicacgo who will stay here another week. I am glad I have someone from my program living with me, she is really great and we have been exploring the city together. Her Spanish is really good, she was a Spanish-immersion elementary school system and I have a deeper respect for programs like that after seeing such a fine example.
For this week only I live inside the main house, and will move to the separate building on Saturday, but being in a home with children is part of Oaxacan life. At the first breakfast on Saturday, the family said that is was a "casa de locos" (crazy house) because there is never a dull (or quiet) moment. There are two little girls, 3 and 5 years old, and they are SOOO much fun. The youngest is a total goof ball and the older one is a little shy, but they are sweet! The oldest daughter is 14 and we havent really talked too much, she did show me around the city on my first day, but she is kind of reserved. She listens to a lot of rock: I often have breakfast listening to Nirvana, The Doors and The Eagles blaring from her computer speakers! When we are not hearing rock music, the little girls out on their children's music which consists of songs that teach English to preschoolers and tropicana music that Eva plays will doing chores.
For this week only I live inside the main house, and will move to the separate building on Saturday, but being in a home with children is part of Oaxacan life. At the first breakfast on Saturday, the family said that is was a "casa de locos" (crazy house) because there is never a dull (or quiet) moment. There are two little girls, 3 and 5 years old, and they are SOOO much fun. The youngest is a total goof ball and the older one is a little shy, but they are sweet! The oldest daughter is 14 and we havent really talked too much, she did show me around the city on my first day, but she is kind of reserved. She listens to a lot of rock: I often have breakfast listening to Nirvana, The Doors and The Eagles blaring from her computer speakers! When we are not hearing rock music, the little girls out on their children's music which consists of songs that teach English to preschoolers and tropicana music that Eva plays will doing chores.
Sunday 9/21 
Today was our first day of orientation. It began by meeting at Becari language school at 10am, which is 5 blocks from where I live. We walked 30 mins to the hotel where we are having UCD classes and had a mini-orientation, and I ate grasshoppers!!! Chapulines are a traditional Oaxacan food that are highly nutritious, high protein, low fat and are widely available. There was a contest to see which girl and guy could eat the whole bag of chapulines and I won! They are super crunchy and are really salty, not unlike chicarrones, only with little grasshopper legs that get stuck in your teeth. No lie, they did.
I am really excited about the people in my program, they are a really fun and friendly bunch and we are already planning extra trips together! We are planning on going on a bicycle tour this weekend and possibly Mexico City and Chiapas. We will be spending a lot of time together and I have a feeling we will become inseparable, even when we go back to Davis.After our orientation we walked to the Zocalo, or the town square, which is the hangout of Oaxacans. We went to Marques del Valle, a fancy traditional Oaxacan restaurant with some amzing food. The groups favorite was a molote, a type of small roll stuffed with potato and red sauceand topped with guacamole and crumble cheese. You can see Massud grubbing on somemolote, and the salad was also really tasty. OMG, Oaxaca cheese is amazing, definitely more to come on Oaxacan cheeses.
After dinner, Alexa and I went to our house to relax and then hit the streets to explore! We saw this huge statue of a woman in traditional Oaxacan dress and at her feet was an artist cooperative store that represents the 7 regions of Oaxaca. More to come from this store in the future.
After dinner, Alexa and I went to our house to relax and then hit the streets to explore! We saw this huge statue of a woman in traditional Oaxacan dress and at her feet was an artist cooperative store that represents the 7 regions of Oaxaca. More to come from this store in the future.
It was a quiet night, since it was Sunday evening, but we decided to go to the market to hang out. On our way there, a caged bed of a truck was driving around and advertising for a local circus. They carried to live, full sized cheetahs around for people to see! I was a little shocked, but animals are not respected in the same way as in America. They hardly ever name their pets!
When we finally got to mercado 20 de noviembre, it was pretty dead. Most stores were closed and the food court area was the most action we saw at the mercado. This was a row of meat vendors that sell their meat raw and cook it right in front of you, inside the market. It was really smokey inside, like having a BBQ grill in your home, and the mixture of raw meat and cooked meat scents in one giant bubble felt strange. Raw meat and smoke seem like "dirty" things and cooked meats and indoor areas are "clean" things, and this blurry line between these distinctions feels strange to me.
So far, so good, but damn, I am tired! I just finished talking to Mom on Google Talk and am ready for more to come!
