Grade 3, Montessori School, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico It’s 12:30pm and we’ve all been here since 8am, four and a half hours with one and a half left to go. Recorder music drifts through the open door, one of the students is practicing her mad recorder skills on the step outside. A few minutes ago she came up and asked me my name in English and in Spanish. She already knew my name so I think it was more and excuse to talk to me and show me she has some English. Four girls are in the corner next to me are [View Full Entry]

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I have found myself with some extra time due to a disagreement with my stomach, and I have decided, now that I am able to come out of the foetal position, to fill you all in on the past few days. There is a lot to tell. Well more then a week seems to have gone by in the little town of Oaxaca. Tuesday morning we all met up in the north end of the city to attend a workshop with one of the secondary schools we will be working at. CIBETIs is a public technical secondary school in Oaxaca and [View Full Entry]

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After an attempted escape from my house at 4:30 in the morning, Saturday, October 11th, I was escorted to the Zocalo by both Mexican parents, mama because she wanted to bring me and papa because he can drive. I had tried to make my break and walk with Bridgette and Jason, but I couldn’t get the door unlocked and I was called at from upstairs to “hold on and we’ll take you” in Spanish by my groggy mama. Arriving downstairs she kept prying me with snack food until I showed her that my snacks bag was the same size as my [View Full Entry]

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It was an interesting weekend, one that included our first day off since we’ve been here. Saturday morning we arose extra early in order to head out to the pueblo of Teotitlan. After meeting at Omar’s school we climbed into our ‘cochas’ and headed for the mountains. It was an overcast morning but warm and we had the windows down with the radio blaring old Cranberries tunes. I wouldn’t have taken our young driver for a Cranberries fan but hey, people surprise me everyday. As “Zombie” finished we drove up the cobble stone streets of Teotitlan. The da [View Full Entry]

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It doesn’t feel like only a couple of days since I posted, it feels more like a week or two! So much to see and do and experience and take in. Monday we started our Spanish classes and they are amazingly intensive. No English is spoken and we have gone on trips to markets and a pueblo that we will be working in. I have noticed, in the last few days, that learning a new language requires a certain sort of self degradation. It is impossible to learn a new language without making a total and utter fool of yourself most [View Full Entry]

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Today we all got up bright and early, even though it was Domingo (Sunday) and headed off to our first ruins. My Mexican mother stuffed me with food once again, fresh fruit, pan (sweet bread), cereal (frosted flakes this time), mango juice and a fresh Oaxacan cheese and avocado tortilla. How does one explain in Spanish that a big breakfast to me is yogurt and granola? I met up with Christina and Chelsea at Chedraoiu (the local version of Canadian Superstore) and walked the 30 minutes to our meeting spot, just south of Santa Domingo. Being early (that’s right, early!) we [View Full Entry]

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Yo quiero mi familia host! Nada? I love my host family! They are so patient with me and I am really enjoying attempting to have conversations with them while they are enjoying all my Franglais Spanish. Tonight I gave them a few things from Canada, the obligatory maple syrup and smoked salmon (which we are having for comida tomorrow), a 2010 Olympics bear bell, BC ferries pen that has a double-decker bus floating by the legislative buildings and mini vibrating plush ferry on a key chain. Which one do you think they liked most? Nope, wrong, the bear bell was the [View Full Entry]

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Hello all, I guess it’s been a while eh? A lot of fun and crazy things have happened since our return from India and Thailand, so much so that we haven’t written a peep! So sorry, mea culpa, but I have good news: I am about to set off on another trip (yes, I know…..yayy me!). I am going to Oaxaca, Mexico for two months, and the best part is that I am getting school credit for it! Yup, that’s right, not only did I get into my number one choice for the one year teaching program, but I also got [View Full Entry]

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Wow, well after an amazing time in Koh Tao, and an awsome Full moon party on Koh Phangyan (don't know if I spelled that right), I am now back in Mumbai. I leave today for London and am looking forward to it but also sad to be leaving Asia. I loved Thailand, and some how India as well. I know I will come back someday (Divemaster next year!) but it is still odd to be leaving, it feels like it has gone by so fast (though I am sure it felt slow a month ago!). I am excited to go home, [View Full Entry]

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What a week! After finishing the Open Water course, and having nothing better to do, I thought I would go ahead and take my Advanced Open Water diving course. Good choice. more dives, less classroom and most of the same people. We had our last instructor again and two new ones so that we could split up into three groups. The first day we did two dives, one of which was a navigation dive requirement. After that was done I swam off with one of the instructors, Shirly, to check out the site. The visibility was good and we saw [View Full Entry]

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