Escuela

Well I am in my second day of school at the Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca. I have a total of 8 hours each day of class and discussion sections and it is proving to be a bit tiring but also pretty interesting, challenging, and exciting. My group class that lasts from 9-1 has two other students and a teacher, Guadalupe. I placed into the nivel 5 class which was feeling overwhelming to me yesterday but i found that by the end of my first day i had even better comprehension than i started with. At 1 I have an hour of clase privada and i think that is going to be so helpful. Today my maestro, Hector, and I went over the admission process at my school and discussed how to talk about it in spanish. After that my dad and I went to lunch at the Hotel California Oaxaca which we did not choose for its name but for its proximity to school (1 cuadra) and its fixed price menu. 45P for una sopa de elote, pasta, enchilada (sin tortillas, un poco raro), postre, y cafe. Afterwards, we hurried back to school where we had intercambios with students learning english from 3-4 and then i had my discussion section from 4-6 while dad took his cooking class. I really am enjoying the conversation section though it is frustrating at times to not have the words for the political discussions or, por ejemplo, when i was trying to talk about casual carpool during our discussion of personal space in various cultures.

I am now at my dad´s hotel which I love using their one public computer with internet which they offer gratis to guests (and their hijas--i was specifically told i can use it). I love this hotel because their rooms are super clean, very reasonably priced (30-50 us per night) and the owner(?) is so kind. I am going to stay here on Friday night when my homestay ends and then again Sunday-Wednesday. On Saturday night we are going to stay in the weaving town of Teotitlan del Valle about 20km outside of Oaxaca city. The next day we will visit the ruins at Mitla and then return here. I think we will visit the ruins of Monte Alban in the morning of Saturday.

My homestay is going well though i have to say it feels a little bit funny staying in the home of a family that i hardly know. The homestay is a 5 minute walk from school and 4 blocks from my dad´s hotel so we are pretty well ubicado.

I have really been enjoying walking around the streets of Oaxaca and seeing the very mixed architecture. There are a ton of churches from the 16th and 17th centuries and i have yet to visit them. There are also some great museums that I want to visit. It is a bit difficult when i don´t finish with school till 6pm. Next monday and tuesday I will have class only until 2 so i should be able to do a little more visiting of sights.

I think i am going to go now, in a few minutes my dad and i are going to walk to get a tamale. I´m not sure i will have one but i will enjoy the walk. i have fairly sucessfully gotten into the local eating times of a huge breakfast and lunch and little or nothing in the evening. We have lunch at 3. For breakfast yesterday I had 2 quesadillas and cantelope and cafe and today i had scrambled eggs, black beans, watermelon, tortillas, y cafe. La vida buena.