Here I am again, back on a warm sandy beach. Well, technically I am sitting by the pool, but why split hairs eh? Last Monday I headed back to Oaxaca to meet up with Ruth and plan our diving vacation. As it turns out, our diving vacation has now brought me back to Puerto Escondido. I know you are all pretty sad that I can’t send you pictures of yet another sunny Mexican or Belizian beach, but that will have to wait for next time. Belize was soon scrapped in favour of a closer and cheaper idea, and then Cozumel, though [View Full Entry]

---

---

You all know I love you but this is going to be a short one because, well, because I am three feet from a hot sandy beach with crashing waves and I have better things to do! So It was a crazy last two weeks in Oaxaca, which luckily was pre empted by a two day trip to the mountains. Ixtapec de Juarez is a little eco-tourism resort run by the local town and the money generated goes back into the community. There is zip-lining, hiking, mountain biking, horse back riding and more. The cabins were lovely and all had [View Full Entry]

---

---

So there I was, deep in thought about deep listening. Thinking hard about how important it is to just listen to people and let them talk without throwing in your own experiences or ideas, when up walked one of my students to ask if I wanted to play snakes and ladders. Well, does one really have to ask?! Of course I want to play snakes and ladders! Only it turns out we didn’t play snakes and ladders, we played a game called “roll the dice and make up the rules”, and it went a little something like this: First we pulled [View Full Entry]

---

---

First of all I should say sorry for hitting you all with a very sad poem and then not writing for a few days. Yes, the poem is true, I did lose a student over the weekend to a car accident and it was quite a shock after so many days of celebration. But this blog is not about that and I have been promising to tell all about Muertos in Oaxaca and here it is. Los Dias de los Muertos, or Muertos for short, is all about celebrating with your loved ones that have past from this world to the [View Full Entry]

---

---

I can’t remember his face. My class still looks the same but something is missing. A chair stands empty, a school bin of notebooks untouched since three days. A place mat turned upside down whispers the name of its owner, but he isn’t there. “A car accident” they tell me and my head starts to swim. Memories rush into my eyes and ears, slipping tires and the slow silence before a deafening crunch. Was he afraid? Did he know? Six years was all he had, a life barely begun. The loss of a child strikes to my core, the loss [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived on the red eye from a Vancouver autumn getting colder and darker by the hour, and step into the hot, dry desert air of Oaxaca City. The baggage claim and customs area at the Oaxacan International Airport is the same size as the departure lounge and check in area of the Tuktoyuktuk City Airport. Think small, so small that we have to move in an S like formation. Pick up bags, go left, get bags scanned, go right, up to the customs desk, left, press the lottery button (which inevitably picks the people with the most luggage to search), [View Full Entry]

---

---

I am going to tell you the story about the time I tried to explain how maple syrup is extracted from a sugar maple tree, in Spanish. It took place many days ago; I think ten or twelve to be exact. It was the evening I gave my home stay mum and dad some gifts from the great white north. They were the typical assortment of smoked salmon, some ferry and double decker bus pens, a bear bell with the 2010 logo on it and a can of grade A maple syrup. Though the bear bell was the overall favourite, the [View Full Entry]

---

---

7:00 am and the alarm rings but I’ve been awake for thirteen minutes. It’s 5:00 am in BC, October 21st. I wonder if the fog is hanging over Victoria, dulling all sound. Only the distant horns of the ships can be heard calling to each other as they slowly trace their routes. 7:04 and the snooze is going off again, then again at 7:08. The house is quiet but my room is slowly filling with light. The snooze again, it’s 7:12. Ok, ok, I roll out of bed, pull up the covers, open the computer and brush my teeth, Check the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Right, so it has been over a week since you’ve heard anything from me. It has been a week of frustrations and struggles and epiphanies. In short, it has been a typical hump week. That’s right, this week was the middle of my time here in Oaxaca and, being in the middle I was in a funk. The purpose of this trip was to experience teaching in a new culture with a new language to challenge me and my instruction methods. The school I was placed in is a Montessori elementary schools' grade 3 class. At first it was an amazingly [View Full Entry]

---

---

The pavement jumps up to greet my startled toes, my body falters ever so slightly and my lips whisper ‘aiiiii!’. Old cable anchors and telephone pole stumps create extra obstacles forcing my eyes to stay trained on the slim sidewalk in front of me. Here in Oaxaca, walking is not only common but is treated as a mixture of sport and art. Oaxacan Sidewalk Walking: the new Olympic trial sport for the 2012 London Games. Remove your eyes to look at the buildings or attempt to read the random street names and kablouey! For a chronic klutz like myself, getting to [View Full Entry]

---

---