Well, I am staying in a Bed and Breakfast type place that sometimes has students. The taxi driver had trouble finding it because the road is odd.. it is not parallel to the other roads.. it is on a slant, and you can´t see it from either of the main roads... there is also a road next dorr with the same name. Muy confundo!
I went for a walk, originally to find the supermarket, but as I said it is hard to find the main roads... I have never been so geographically challenged! So I ended up looking for the school, which is 1/2 way between mi casa and the centre of town, and I continued to the centre. The buildings are all colonial and STUNNING. The colours are amazing, the photos don´t do them justice. Wow I am getting real apostrophes! I wonder how.. I haven´t managed these this whole time in Mexico!
The city is actually a world heritage site, so I presume that the buildings can´t be changed... even the banks, Burger King and Sony store are all in small, old buildings... it´s great.
The heart of the city is a large Catedral or Zocalo. There are two town squares by this, one which people set up stalls in, and the other has a lot of benches and one of those covers where people play music... Don´t know what they are called... probably should... The 2nd one is surrounded by restaurants. There was actually a platform with speeches going on at this time, tonight is actually the main night of festivities of INDEPENDENCE from España/Spain.. but there were Government officials making speeches.. it kinda goes on all week.
I was really far away (and there were 100s of people), But everyone started to surge into the other square, so I followed suit. A Mexican equivilent of a marching band started to play and march, but the variety of instruments was small - There were 3 girls with drums and then about 17 guys with various trumpets. Some army cadets were carrying a very large Mexican flag. We marched around the sqaure, and as we were nearing the end I realised that almost everyone had dropped off from the march except the cadets, band, officials, a husband and wife pair - and me.
I moved away when they did the salute.. the couple didn´t though.. they were having a great time! But the salute wasn´t to the forehead, but the heart. But the hand was in salute position, not American-Anthem position. The cadets then had a quite long corregraphed routine with the flag,... folding and unfolding it... which was fun because the Red end of the flag when first, then the white in the middle, with the green end last - the cadets with the green end screwed it up everytime!!! It was actually funny, they were probs embarrassed but it didn´t matter, no one minded - this is Mexico!
I returned to the house, stopping at a whole-in-the-wall run by an italian for a huge slice of pizza. No, not very Oaxacan, but very delicious. I walked home a different route and once again found myself lost and confused because I was now at the main road (and I stopped in at the supermarket... it´s amazing what you can buy.. I got my food for the week for $12) but then it was a mission to find that hidden road .
The next day was my first at the school, the school is really pretty... in a building, but inside it has a roofless courtyard that is painted yellow. I met with the Head of all Solexicos, and he let me choose what class I was going to go in. Well actually, he asked me, I said and then he said ¨No, I think you should go in this one...¨. I wanted to redo work I had struggled with in PV but he said that class is going pretty slow... I hope I will be okay.
The class I am in though, I quite like, because the teacher explains what things were and what the new sentences are in ENGLISH aswell, we also move quite slow compared with PV.
At the moment we are doing ¨Para/Por¨which are both ¨For¨.. and when you use them. Exciting stuff.
My conversation class is hil.ar.i.ous. My teacher in the morning is a calm, middle aged man.. but my teacher in the arvo is quite young and we have the same sense of humor. The class consists of me, Regina - a middle-aged Swiss (I can´t escape the Swiss peeps here apparently) and an adorable Japanese girl Emi... adorable isn´t really necessary,... aren´t they all adorable?
Well, hear you don´t really learn anyhting in Convo class, you just converse.. the first day we were talking about Japan and the rest of us (and most the world ) thought that Geisha´s were prostitutes... Emi hardly ever knows what we are saying but always just nods furiously and says ¨Siiiii , si, si, siiiiii¨and laughs continuously. The conversation went on for ages with us asking about whether Geisha´s wear lots of clothes etc because despite her happy ¨Si¨s..we knew she didn´t know what we were talking about .. It ended up being a hilarious conversation coz she was saying how she wanted to be one etc.. wish I had it filmed! They are actually just traditional dancers (with a lot of Geisha education she said) but every answer she gave just made it more hilarious, it wasn´t until the last second of the class that she typed it into her fancy dictionary and was HORRIFIED! Classic.
The same thing happened the next day in class too, more geisha talk and when she was talking about Christmas she was explaining the presents that you give your friends in their bedrooms in a very bizarre way. I was crying I was laughing so hard, and our teacher Javier couldn´t breathe! Regina the Swiss also contributed too, when Javier asked ¨What is the first thing you are going to do when you return home?¨ and she answered, I was confused with what she said, but thought I misunderstood. Javier said ¨Are you sure? COz that´s not possible¨
She tried to say "I´m going to hug my husband", but instead said ¨I am going to IMPREGNATE my husband¨.
The director of the School Liz (and American), told me that I can take a tour in the afternoon, lead by students from the university. I had two hours before then so I headed back into the town square and got a whiteboard deal meal at one of the restaurants. It was a great place to people watch - Musicians, people selling arte and hammocks and rugs... really interesting.
The deal was Juice, Soup, Main and Fruit. I got this because one of the main options was Enchiladas Mole, which I had learned to make in Cooking class in PV, but it is the famous dish of this region. I didn´t really like it in PV, but I did like it here! I still can´t really work out what it is made from but it (Mole Negro, as I learnt - because it is only Mole in PV, but here their are 7 types) definately has Chocolate, lots of spices and Mezcal (which is the alch spirit of Oaxaca, like Tequila is to Jalisco, the state of PV) originally I thought it was red wine, until I realised there is no wine here!
It is rich and quite bizarre, I felt it was kind of similar with Lamb Shank sauce (not that I´ve had that in quite a while) but with more spices and choco.
The tour with the students was really great - ALthough I though they weren´t going to be able to speak English, they were actually studying it, so the aim is to give a tour in English to someone who can correct them. I would of rather been attempting to speak Spanish, but I didn´t mind too much. We passed churches and famous restaurants - and hit up the Market! It is just off one of the squares, but I never would have known about it otherwise! It was fabbulous.. a typical market really, but I tried different chocolates, chocolate milk, Moles, cheeses (Oaxaca is famous in Mex for it´s cheeses) and Grasshoppers. Yum, yum - big ones and small, flavoured with salt and spice and lemon. They were really hard to chew and swallow... but bugs are widely eaten here.
Yesterday afterschool I headed home, made myself an Enchilada (Mexican, not NZ), then headed back to town where I knew there would be more festivities. Entering the square I was went to take a picture of a busker (with a crowd of about 200), when he noticed me doing so, posed and then dragged me into the show. I was his assistant for a good 45 mins... providing some entertainment too when I was playing dumb to his tricks.. but Mexicans are easily entertained. It was fun though, something I always hoped I would get picked for but never have.. this time I didn´t even try - being tall and a foreigner was enough. It was the closest I got to being ¨on stage´´ for a while.
The crowd goes nuts at the smallest things, he getting them to count ´Uno, dos, tres´then in English (which is so cute with the kids´mexican accents) Waan, too, frree, and then Japanese (which I guess was a joke) and I was the lone ¨Ichi, Ni, San¨and the crowd went nuts - hooting and hollering and clapping... it was odd but cool. I hope I didn´t ruin the gag. The clown made me some balloons, which kids swarmed me for after and then popped their new toys virtually instantly. It was cool though because for the next few hours wandering the squares, markets and nearby streets people kept giving me huge grins and saying ¨Hola Maria!¨.
And boy, was town lively yesterday! People in the square buying Mexicana coloured items for fiestivities tonight, everyone decorates their homes and shops too. Lots of people from around the state have come into town too, there are lots of families sleeping in their cars.. I passed dozens this morning.
We just had a lecture on the history of Mexico, it was very intersante and very sad too. Like all stories of the indigenous are... Although many people´s lives didn´t change after the Independence from Spain (namely, the indigeous who were at the bottom of the caste system, and still remain there), it obviously did close a chapter in bad history where rich Europeans dominated. A man by the name of Hilgado knew about the Spanish plans to start are war (he was European-Mexican aka Mexitale?), where they killed all the Mexicans.. he told the Mexicans and they were prepared and defended themselves...that is a very short version but basically Independence came soon after .. 16th Septiembre 1810, and here we are 200 years later getting ready to fiesta!
There is a party at my school which is going to be great for mi Español!!
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