More work at school

Wow. I sure haven't been doing a good job of keeping this up to date. It's more work than it seems like it would be. Maybe if people would leave more comments so I know someone is actually reading it... :) :)
Anyway, on Sunday I went out to Zaachila again. And missed all of Mexico's game in the World Cup. I guess it's okay, though, since they won. And since I got to get nieves again (guanabana and leche quemada again). I think it's kind of interesting how big the World Cup is down here. It seems like almost everyone watches it, and they show almost every single game on public TV (no satellite or cable or anything). It's bigger than anything I can think of in the States, even the Super Bowl. That comes every year, but this just comes once every four years... it comes even less often than the Olympics.


Yesterday I didn't really do all that much. It was another lazy day. But today was not lazy at all. We went in to school to help out, and they put us to work digging a trech in the front yard of the school. We had picks and shovels since the dirt was so hard. Half way across the yard from the school, the dirst gets better and grass actually grows, but the part closest to school is horrible. It's so hard that unless you use the pointy end of the pick it almost just bounces off! Oh, and did I mention the bricks? Apparently it's a commono practice here in Mexico that when you are finished building something you dispose of the surplus and broken bricks by burrying them at the construction site. We kept on hitting big chunks of brick that we would have to pry out. Literally (almost) back breaking work.

I did have some fun, though. The juniors and seniors sell candy, junk food, pizza, and (sometimes) hot dogs on certain days of the week while school is in setion to raise money to go to the beach at the end of the year. They kept all their stuff in a closet that the seniors forgot to empty out when they left, so we got our pick of some snacks and candy. Also the school was getting rid of a couple of old computers, and we took them. My friend (the one who I'm staying with) and I took apart one of th ecomputers so now I have a Pentium 3 processor, 256 MB of RAM, and a few other pieces of computer sitting on my desk. The computer was already dead so we kind of used a pliers to get some stuff out. I doubt anyone else would find that fun, but I thought it was interesting!

First pic: Oaxaca; the view from the roof of the school.
Second pic: The front "yard" where we were diggin. Also a view of Oaxaca from the roof of part of the school.
Third pic: One of the many interesting designs on rugs from Teotitlan.

Teotitlan

Teotitlan at last! I've been wanting to get out there pretty much ever since I got here, and I finally made it yesterday. I don't know if I have mentioned before, but they make rugs there and I have some friends out there that I wanted to visit. Since no one wanted to go with me (or drive me) I had three options for getting out there. I could take a taxi, but that's kind of expensive for that distance. If I wanted a taxi but didn't want a high price, I could have taken a communal taxi, which is just $5 or so, but there are other people riding with you. Since I'm so cheap, I decided on the third option, buses, even though I'm not all that familiar with bus routes here, I didn't know exactly which buses to take, nor did I know exactly where to catch the buses. Still, using buses just cost me under $2.50 the whole day, and even if I hadn't ended up in the right place I could have explored wherever I wound up. :) :)

I did know where to get on the first bus though, so I just walked up to the main street to get it. I knew it had to say "Gigante" (a store), and "VW" (a VW dealership here), but I didn't know if I could get on a bus with just "Gigante" on it. I did, and I might just not have seen the "VW," but it was still a relief to get to where I was going, the baseball stadium. From there I knew I had to walk one block in some direction to get the next bus, but I didn't know what direction. I walked a block in the direction that seemed to have the most buses... and since I didn't see any buses to Mitla (which go by Teotitlan), I assumed it was the wrong direction. I did ask someone where to get the right bus, but that was the only time I had to ask for directions. :) Most of the buses I took were full so I had to stand lots of the trip. It's not as bad as you would think...

We went by some kind of gas refinery/storage place where there were tons of people. I think it was the teachers out there striking. And slowing down the traffic. And on the way back packing onto the bus like sardines (by then I had gotten a seat, thankfully). Anyway, on most buses there is a guy that yells out the door where the bus is going and helps them get their stuff on the bus if they have very much. On my bus out there he was nice enough to let me know before the right stop, so I could get off there. Now you might be thinking, "Oh, good. He finally made it!" But no, they had merely dumped me at the side of the highway out in the middle of almost nowhere, with the the hot sun beating down on me, with dirt and dry stuff all around me, and with nothing to drink....... For the wimps who can't read more than three paragraphs per post along with picture captions, scroll down to the next post to find out how the hero (me) avoids almost certain death in this bleak, dry situation.

First pic: My friend working on a rug on a traditional loom.
Second pic: They make a wide variety of sizes of rugs, from the little coaster in the lower right hand corner, which was made by the youngest kids, to the huge rug that's underneath all of them and can be seen on the left, which was made by the most experienced weavers.
Third pic: The whole family. They're my good friends from Teotitlan del Valle, the village that makes these rugs, or tapetes.

Teotitlan continued

All was not lost though! I still had my own two feet to walk into town with. I started walking in, and after about ten minutes of walking by the side of the road, I was sweating and wishing for something to drink. After fifteen minutes I realized that my friends lived farther from the highway than I remembered and I was awfully hot and tired of walking. After twenty minutes I had been passing some places along the road, and I started wondering if my friends were still there and still sold rugs. And if they were still there, would I recognize their place. And if I did find it, would they even be there??!!!

Thankfully I did recognize their place, even though they had made a large addition to showcase some tapetes (rugs). Thinking back on it, it seems rather funny. I left their place two years ago, saying I would be back and visit in a year. I never showed up, so they must have thought I was gone for good. Then one ordinary day a year after I said I would be back, the father is outside, leaning on a pillar and talking to one of his friends. Up the dusty road he sees me, a young white kid, walking towards him. I almost walk by, but hesitate a moment, and approache a little uncertainly. At first I don't seem to know what to say, but eventually ask, "Do you know me?" I honestly had no idea if he would remember me, but he did. He even remembered my name! As soon as we greeted each other, he called his son out (who is probably around thirty) and they invited me in. Almost the first thing I could say was ask for something to drink. Twenty five minutes of walking out in the hot sun is no easy thing!

It was just so neat; he (the son) got me a drink and invited me in to watch the World Cup with him. And this after I just show up out of the blue after two years, and expect to be welcome! We watched some World Cup, and we talked for a while. Eventually he had to get back to work weaving rugs, but he told me to make myself at home, and take pictures wherever I wanted. They had a tourist group come so I took long than I expected, but then they wanted me to stay for something to eat. I had to meet a friend back in the city so I couldn't stay, but they invited me back for the town's holiday, said I could stay with them any time I needed a place to stay, drove me back to the highway, waited with me until the bus came, and told me to call next time I came out so they could drive me in from the highway! I'm sure it was an act of God that they were so receptive and kind to me!

Weekly set of pictures

vOn the drive back from Mexico City. It really is a rugged beauty. If you click on the picture to make it full size, you can see the details better I think.
At the Museum of Anthropology. A vessel carved entirely out of one piece of obsidian. It was amazingly beautiful to see in real life.
Another pic from the drive back from Mexico City. It was hard to get good pictures driving because of our speed and the fact that I was taking pictures through the window, but some weren't all that bad.
The museum had some outdoor parts like this, but they were closed the day we were there.
More from the drive back. I still stay it's beautiful, from the hills in the other pictures to these moutains.
Inside the museum. It's very nicely put together. Not surprising considering it is called the most outstanding museum in the country.
Another one of the many, varied exhibits.
Out by the street where you turn into the museum. A sign and staute.
A sculpture in a park near the museum.
More inside the museum. It was fascinating, especially with all the interesting things like these painted walls.

Busy with nothing to do

It doesn't make sense that I haven't been doing all that much interesting, and yet I still feel like I'm running out of time here in Mexico. Let me explain; I have ten days here in Oaxaca city until we're planning on going up to the village. That brings us to the 17th, and my parents come just ten days after that on the 27th. Then we just have exactly two weeks until we leave, probably for good (except I don't think it's good). Since my time is pretty full while my parents are here, and I can't explore Oaxaca city up in the village, I have approximately ten days to do whatever I really want to do here in Oaxaca. Depressing...

Anyway, today we went over to school even though it's over, because they had a job for us. One of the classrooms plus two rooms storing books are on the third floor of a separate building from the main part of the school. This is the top floor of the building, and as I said, it stores basically all the text books and most resource books for the school in two smallish rooms. New, these books would be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, the roof above this upper floor where they are stored is very bad for drainage, and has been for many years. The problem is that the people we rent from haven't fixed it. I remember when I was here water would seep in through the sheet rock ceiling after almost every heavy rain. Now the ceiling in both of the rooms where the books were has gotten so heavy and slightly moldy from the water that parts have actually fallen in. And other parts are hanging slightly off of the ceiling and dripping. So we had to go in there and work for almost two hours (I think) caryying books from those rooms out to the main room where it looked like it would stay more dry. All I can say is that the teachers next year are going to go crazy trying to find their books!

It really makes me thankful for what I have at Minnehaha. No dog poop on the stairs (from the resident puppy that people from the seminary we rent from own), no big earthquakes, no leaking water and collapsing ceilings, plenty of computers (the computer lab here contains a grand total of 6 computers), and a building that isn't half underground. Anyway, that was the most interesting part of my day.

First pic: A friend carrying a huge stack of books to the other room to keep them dry.
Second pic: The room I stayed in in Mexico City. Tiny...
Third pic: Quite a bit of the room that we filled with books. There were a ton of books and lots of stuff that I have no clue why it was kept. Someone needs to sort and throw stuff away!

Coming home

We finally got home yesterday, early afternoon. I guess it really hadn't been very long, but it seemed like it was a really long trip. On the way back we had to get up at 3:45 to leave by 4. We had to make sure we were out of there before the cops started checking license plates for the cars that weren't allowed to drive that day. Thankfully we stopped at the Italian Coffee Company coffee shop at one of the gas stations along the highway.

For breakfast we stopeed in Tehuacan, where the family I'm staying with worked before. There was a lovely hotel that they used to go to a lot to eat. It had a very relaxing, seemingly colonial, atmosphere with a fountain, lots of plants and flowers, and rows of birdcages with beautiful birds in them. The food was great, too! I had a dish called chilaquiles, whichare basically eggs, red salsa, and tortillas cooked together with cheese on top. It was less than 30 dollars for all six of us, but we all ended up being very full. After that we drove around town a little, with the family reminiscing about the time when they lived there.

Throughout the whole drive back, I was struck by the immense , rugged beauty of the landscape around us. It's very dry, almost desert-like, but it has a beauty all its own. There are big mountains with gorges and steep valleys between them. There are places with red sandstone type rock worn into ruts by water running over it. There are armies of tall, straight cacti sticking up everywhere like toothpicks. There smaller rolling hills and valleys, too. I'll try to post some more pictures of those things soon.


First pic: The place where we ate breakfast, just under halfway home. It was a lovely place with a fountain and lots of birds... Oh yea, great food too!
Second pic: The bridge that marks the state line between Puebla and Oaxaca. It's gigantic! there's a river in the bottom, but you can't see it in this picture. There might also be a car going across it, but the car would be so small in relation to the bridge that I can't tell.
Third pic: An interesting piece of grafitti in the town where we ate breakfast.

Museum of Anthropology

Today we took advantage of already being in Mexico City, and we went to the Museum of Anthropology. I had been there one time when we were here before, but I think I saw a whole lot more than last time. Best of all, it was free because it's Sunday! It's built in a big rectangle around a central courtyard, half of which is covered by a large roof. The roof is really amazing, though, because it is all held up by one big central column. It's built so that all the rain water from the roof runs toward the center, where the column is, and falls down onto the floor of the courtyard where there are drains. It's really cool.

Speaking of cool, some young adults asked to video tape an interview with me for their English class. While we were talking I mentioned that something was cool, and the guy had no clue what I meant! Anyway, the museum is huge and fascinating. They have exhibits about anthropology in general as well as more specific exhibits about the people in Mexico from all time periods. My personal favorite was the more modern day things, because they had all kinds of stuff on display about indigenous Mexicans from around the present day. Lots of the stuff seemed like it could have come from Oaxaca.

The only bad thing about getting in free was that all the outside areas were closed except for the central courtyard. Still, there was a ton of stuff. They had lots of reproductions of parts of buildings from archeological sites; they had reconstructions of cities; they had lots and lots of sculptures, pottery, and arts/crafts. We stayed for almost four hours I think and we still had to rush through parts of it! After the museum we went to eat with a Mexican family that know the family I'm staying with. Now I'm just relaxing here at the place w're staying. We'll either leave for Oaxaca tonight and stay overnight in Puebla, or we'll leave at 4AM tomorrow morning. :( The reason we would leave so early is because we couldn't drive in Mexico City after 5, and it would probably take almost hour to get out. Depending on the license plate of your vehicle, there is at least one day a week that you can't drive it. Unless you want to get fined a small fortune. And we, being white, would be especially likely to be stopped here in Mexico City, where they stop you for being white, having too much luggage, or anything else they can think of.


First pic: A small part of the museum. Statue in the foreground, and a carving of the Aztec calender on the back wall. I'll post some more pictures later to give you a better idea of what it's like.
Second pic: I intended this to be last, but I can never figure out how Blogger determines what order to put the pictures in. Anyway, it's the stairway coming up to my room here in Mexico City. We're staying at a Wycliff/SIL owned duplex and that staircase goes up two floors to my room. It's very small, and I have to say that I am extremely thankful I'm not clastrauphobic...
Third pic: A fountain thing in front of the entrance to the museum. The white slab in the foreground has the museum's name on it, if you didn't see that at first. Also, if you look in the middle of the picture, just above the roof, you can just see the top of the column holding up the roof in the courtyard. The roof is just below where you can see, and you can see some of the many cables stretched out from the column to hold the roof up.

SAT

Well, I took the SAT today. It went pretty well, but I didn't quite finish the essay. Even though almost all of the questions are relatively easy, it's very exhausting to be taking test for nearly four hours. We were at the school for the test from 8AM to after 1PM. Too long.

I've kind of been relaxing the rest of the afternoon, but not with the blog here. Tomorrow we're planning on going to the museum of anthropology, but I'm sure I will have plenty of time to write a few post and get caught up. It seems like I haven't written much recently.

Tacos

Okay, we got home from graduation related affairs at 2AM this morning and I'm writing this after 3AM, so I have to get to bed. A post on graduation will come in the morning between eight and nine, hopefully.

I just wanted to post something about the meal we had a couple of nights ago. We went out to a taco place that seemed pretty decent from the outside. Inside it was okay, too. They have such great food! My friend and I split two things. He ordered ten tacos al pastor, which are tacos filled with meat sliced off a spit on which thin slices of meat and fat are layered. They also have cilantro and onions in them. At the table they had a really good red salsa that had just enough kick to be good, along with a delicious, slightly smoky taste.

I ordered a Charro Oaxaqueno. It was basically a plate filled with al pastor meat, spicy Mexican sausage (chorizo), bacon, Oaxacan cheese, and onions all mixed together and cooked. It came with plenty of tortillas, too. As are most of these foods, it was delicious. There was one salsa that had chunks of stuff in it, and I tried some. Unfortunately, that kind is not cooked
so there is a higher possibility of getting sick. I haven't gotten sick yet, though, so I think I'm fine!


Picture: The al pastor meat thing.

Teacher strikes

Wow, I just realized that I haven't written anything about the teacher strikes yet! They just seem so normal to me that I didn't think of writing about them. Anyway, sometime starting in May each year the teachers go on strike. It's an annual event that occurs whether they have a legitimate reason to strike or not. For example, this year the teachers had just received a raise, but they still went on strike. That's one reason why the Mexican school year goes so long; they have a (pretty much) guaranteed vacation in May and part of June.

I don't think that most of the teachers strike out of conviction for their cause, but because their union leaders say they have, even if they teach in some village hours away up in the mountains. They all come down here and take over the Zocalo. This year I think there are about 70,000 of them all camping out on the streets near the Zocalo. They block off those streets, fouling up traffic, and sanitation is horrible since they don't have proper ways to deal with trash. Almost every day they go on marches, blocking off more major streets, blocking (closing down) big stores, and burning political posters. Needless to say, it's a big mess.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a full SAT practice test, well over three hours long. My only big break was for lunch. Most of the questions are pretty easy, but when you have over three hours worth all at one time, it's really tiring. We scored it and I got well above average, so we'll see how I do on the actual test. We leave this Friday to go to Mexico City to take it. We're going to stay until Monday, though, so we can have some fun and explore the city.

First pic: A 'bici-taxi' in Zaachila.
Second pic: Some other kind of taxi in Zaachila.
Third pic: If you enlarge the picture, you can see that the thing in the middle of the road is a 'moto-taxi'. It's just like the bici-taxi except with a motorcycle instead of bicycle.

Last party at church

Well, I guess today was the last party at church. I went out to Zaachila again, today. I had to take a taxi to where I could connect with some friends; from there we took a bus to a place where we could catch a bus to Zaachila; from where the bus left us off, we had to walk to the church. In short, I am of the opinion that a car is a very useful thing to have in Mexico.

The people I went out to Zaachila with are staying for a few days in the house that we lived in when we were here, so it was interesting to see how it's changed. When I got there, we went out to buy some tamales for breakfast from the corner vendor. The tamales de mole are made in banana leaves instead of the normal corn husks, and they always seem to get part of the tamal in every little corner of the leaves, so it's quite a challenge to eat them without leaving anything behing. :) After church we had some kind of stewed chicken cooked with lots of avocado leaves and served with some kind of home made refried beans (no, they're not the same as refried beans from the States). Of course we also went to get nieves after this. This time I tried guanabana with leche quemada. Guanabana is a rather large green fruit with medium sized seeds surrounded by white meat. It has a slightly sweet, tangy flavor. And as a nieve it was quite good.

On the way back from Zaachila we took a bus to one part of Oaxaca where the people I was with had to catch a differnt bus. Instead of me taking a taxi back, I took a bus. Even though I didn't know exactly which bus (I figured that any bus that says Santa Rosa would work since that's where I'm living). And I didn't know exactly where to get off or where it stopped (I kind of remembered, but you never know in Mexico...). Anyway, I did get home okay, and I don't think I will ever take a taxi again. I can save over four dollars one way each time I take a bus over a taxi! This Tuesday I might go back over to the house these people are staying at to have dinner and talk with some Mexican friends of theirs. They do an interchange with these friends each week where they speak both English and Spanish so they each get better at the language they're learning. It sounds like fun!

First pic: Walking down the street in Zaachila. Notice the huge bougainvillea, the tree with oragne flowers, and the adobe wall.
Second pic: The back yard of the house we lived in. Huge in comparison to most yards in Oaxaca. There are more plants and the grass is better now, because they had the phicus tree (the huge one) girdled and killed so there would be more light.
Third pic: When was the last time a guy passed by your church with a herd of cows after the service?

How many people fit in your car?

How many people do you think fit in a VW Bug? Maybe four? Two in the back and two in the front since it's a little small in there? Nope! Well, what about five; two in the front and three squished like sardines in the back? Still too low! How about six; three in the back, the driver, and two people in the front passenger seat? Come on; you can fit more than that! We actually got seven people in a VW Bug. The driver, two people in the front passenger seat, three in back on the seat, and one sitting on someone's lap in back. Suffice it to say that it was very, very cramped (it was a long drive too since we were coming from the baseball game and we had to drop someone off)! And we kept scraping on the topes (big speed bumps that slow people down since speed limits and police don't).

Also, the people I was with told about a time when they were driving back from camp (annual school camp together with a Christian school in the state north of us) in Puebla, the state just north of us. Apparently their bus driver was drunk. And it was even on a private bus, too. The parent chaperones thought it wasn't too bad since they couldn't smell alcohol. That is, they didn't think it was too bad until he started driving. Weaving in and out of traffic, he hardly knew how to drive he was so drunk. Needless to say, they called the bus company and said, "Hey, you gave us a drunk driver. We're stopping at the mall until we get a new driver!" Another time when I was with them, we were driving on the extremely curvy roads through the mountains in a pretty big bus. There was a big truck in front of us going slowly, so our driver decided to pass him (of course, it just had to be while we went around a bend!). Keep in mind that these roads have very little shoulder, so they are very narrow. Just as we were passing the truck, an eighteen wheeler came around the bend in the other direction! Thankfully we didn't crash, but I think one of the female chaperones almost had a heart attack seeing us, a big bus, between two big trucks on a narrow curve...

Anyway, one week from today is the SAT. I know I don't have to do well since I can take it twice more, but I know I'll be really mad at myself if I don't do really well. I guess I just have to do my best... Tomorrow I get to go back out to Zaachila for church; it's the last week with a part, this time as a send off for a couple that are kind of missionaries but are returning to the States for a while. I try to do something interesting in the next few days so I can have some good pictures to post.

First pic: The VW Bug into which we fit seven people, it has been said nine people have been fit into it, and we think it could hold eleven... :)
Second pic: My plumbing at school. The pipe used to just stick straight out of the wall. I did the same thing for another pipe, too.
Third pic: Baseball game. Sorry about the bad quality. I'm going to see if I can get a mini tripod or something.

More baseball (and new friends)

What a night! Last night we went to another baseball game. We got home really late so I didn't have time to post anything then. I had a great time, though! And as usual, the actual game wasn't the most interesting part. We sat in the very top row close to an opening so you could see out onto the street right outside the ball park. Usually we just watch all the foul balls go over the side of the stadium and comment, "There goes another car!" This time, we actually got to see a ball hit a bus driving by outside. I sure would have hated to be the person sitting at the window where it hit!!

I was sitting next to a couple of my friends, and for the first part of the game we made some kind of comment each time the beer vendor came buy to sell beer to the people sitting around us. So we knew that the guys next to us had had quite a bit. But then, about halfway through the game, the guy two seats down the row from me started talking to me. He actually was very cordial and nice, even with the beer. I found out that he is a teacher from a school in the Mixtec region of the mountains about six hours away. There were around five younger guys about my age with him (not drinking beer) that he said were his students. They were almost all from remote parts of the state; not 'city slickers.' He's actually from Juchitan down on the coast. He's thirty, has five kids, and speaks very, very fast!

It was really interesting to talk with him, and it was great for my Spanish because he talked so fast. They mentioned that they thought my Spanish was really good, so that was encouraging. We talked about the game, about where I'm from/why I'm in Mexico, about Oaxaca, etc. He also asked me if I had been to the bad parts of town like the night clubs and such (When he was on subjects like this, my Spanish struggled most. A slightly different vocabulary than I'm used to...). And of course he said that I should go with them to the clubs because there's lots of beer, dancing, and women. :) :) When in doubt about what to say, smile and shake your head "no."

First pic: My new friends. The guy in white is the teacher and the person I talked to most of the time.

Second pic: Two of the guys with me at the game. The one on the left is visiting from Michigan and the one on the right belongs to the household where I'm staying.
Third pic: Tato, the Guerreros mascot

Another slow day

Still not too much happening. But I suppose that it's okay to have a break from a lot of action for at least a couple of days...

Anyway, I've been playing around with a new program I found that lets you change the appearance of Windows XP. Right now I have my desktop looking a lot like a Mac desktop, and if I buy the full version of the program, I can make it look even more realistic. :) Probably not of much interest to those who don't care about computers, though.

Yesterday I got to go to the birthday party for one of the seniors at school. It was pretty fun; lots of food, people playing around with electric and acoustic guitars, and eight person Halo 2 going the whole time. When they had the cake, they made him do a mordida, of course. He said not to push his head too hard, but if you have three people pushing, it's still going to be a hard push! They ruined half the cake and his face was covered in frosting and cake. :) :)

Today I got to be a plumber for a few hours at school. They sure think of an odd variety of things for me to do... It wasn't all that bad, but the glue stuff was really, really strong!. I was just adding some big PVC pipe to a couple of rainwater drainage pipes so they would go all the way to the ground instead of just sticking out of the building. I don't think I've ever done anything like that before.

First pic: A rather poor picture of the sun rising from my window. Not much of a view, I know.
Second pic: A screen shot of my desktop. Looks like a Mac, doesn't it?

A typical school day for me

Well, since the past few days have been a little slow, I think that today would be a good day to post a brief summary of what my typical school day is like.

First of all I get up around quarter to seven since we have breakfast around quarter after seven. For all our meals we have an interesting mix of American and Mexican food. We almost always have delicious fresh fruit for breakfast, though. It usually takes a while to get everyone actually down to the table and eating since some family members are a little slow in the mornings... :)

School starts at eight, and since we live close by, we leave around quarter to eight. All four or five of us cram into this little, old ('78), dull orange VW Bug. I'm always expecting that one of these days it's not even going to start. As it is, it doesn't particularly like to start, and it does like to stall, so I'm always happy to get to school in one piece... :)

Anyway, first period I sit in on a conversational Spanish class where we basically just talk. It's fun, though. Second period I tutor a junior higher in Math. It's more fun assigning the homework
than it is to do it. :) Thankfully, I'm just assigning it now. Third period is PE, so sometimes I participate or help out. After that my day is pretty much free unless one of the teachers has a job for me. Otherwise, I can just read a lot or play around on my laptop. For lunch I can head over to the cafe across the street from the school to have a sandwich and a Coke. The sandwiches
are delicious! I typically get one that consists of black beans, Oaxacan string cheese (quesillo), some kind of enchilada meat, avocados, tomatoes, and the obligatory jalapenos. It's a great
combination!

After school, we have comida (lunch for Mexicans, which they have between two and four). Then I hang out in my room a lot, reading and doing stuff online, if we don't do something interesting like going to the Zocalo. I'm also studying for the SAT at least a little bit every day. After dinner,
I usually stay up until 10:30 or so. And that is my slightly boring day. Except when we go to the Zocalo or something to make it really interesting. I'm thinking about going out to the town that makes rugs sometime this week, though. That should be fun since I have friends out there from before.

First pic: The classroom where I spent most of my time when I was here before was on the top floor of this building. Being that high made even the tiniest earthquakes seem big. :)
Second pic: On the walk home from school.

Weekly set of pictures

The highly ornate and gilded interior of the Santo Domingo cathedral. It's a lot darker in there than it looks like in this picture.
One side of the Zocalo at night.
Looking across the square in front of Santo Domingo. The colors in Oaxaca are always so bright, especially on the buildings.
One of the many colonial looking buildings in Oaxaca. This one is on the walking street betweent the Zocalo and Santo Domingo.
Another view of the Zocalo, with the gazebo in the background. I can never get enough of the Zocalo. It's beautiful and very relaxing.
The cook at a cafe a few block from school. One day in the conversational spanish class I'm sitting in on we went here to get coffee and some memelas, which are tortillas with beans, Oaxacan string cheese, and some type of meat on them. The lady who runs the cafe is seen here cooking a memela on her comal (griddle). When we ordered orange juice, they squeezed it fresh right there. The coffee came in pottery bowls, and it was a little weak, but made with sugar and some cinnamon. I actually think it's very good, even though I like really strong coffee.
The flowers at Abastos really are beautiful, and the fragrance almost overwhelms you as you walk around that section.
There is also a large selection of decadent fruits available at many stand similar to this one. In here I can see right off hand, grapes, two varieties of bananas, pears, cantaloupe, apples, peaches, pineapple, watermellon, and at least two varieties of mangos.
This is the style of coffee mug I got; only one dollar apiece.
The people that run the stand where we get nieves in Zaachila. They're the same people we used to get nieves from when we were here two years ago. Great memories!