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Published: March 14th 2007
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Oaxaca
Bird´s eye view of the entrance to the paper making factory. ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?
So the past week was really tough for me. After several weeks of a new environment, new food, little sleep, lots of homework, and lots of stress, my body decided it had had enough. Last Tuesday night, which happened to be the night before taking a huge test and turning in 4 weeks of homework, I caught a nasty cold that’s going around. I’m almost over it, but it’s definitely taken a toll on my energy level. Since I was also still battling stomach problems (yes, I had the famous Moctezuma’s revenge), over the weekend I finally took my turn going to the popular English-speaking gastroenterologist to fix my tummy. He gave me an antibiotic, but after about a day I realized it was making things worse and had to stop taking them, as I had the wonderful side effect of being extremely nauseous. So much for that idea…Fortunately my stomach has been much better the past couple of days so hopefully I won’t have to go back. On top of the cold and the stomach issues, I also had to go to a dermatologist yesterday because the little cyst above my eye decided to become infected
Oaxaca
Where I bought my spiffy paper. last week, which means eventually I need to have it removed. However, the doc gave me some drugs to help the infection and said I could wait it out until I return to the states to have the surgery, which was a relief. I was proud of myself because the dermatologist didn’t speak any English but I managed to communicate well enough to come out alive. Anyway, sorry if all that was too much information…
Despite being sick and drugged up on lots of cold meds, I decided to go on the Friday excursion. It was a long day and I had trouble retaining any amount of information, but I managed to survive and take some pictures. We went to various locations in the Etla Valley, which is one of the three valleys branching off from Oaxaca. First stop was a paper making place. They make paper by hand just like they did in Pre-hispanic times. We watched the entire process which was very interesting. The paper is thick and rough, so really the only people that still buy it are tourists, and of course as a typical tourist I couldn’t resist buying a large book to use as
Oaxaca
Outside where I bought my spiffy paper. my Mexico scrapbook. In the same town we quickly visited an art museum/school in a building with amazing architecture. There were lots of fountains and walls of water, which is strange to see here with the water shortage. The entire valley however seemed much greener than the valley of Oaxaca. Next we visited some ruins, as no trip would be complete without them. First we went to Cerro de la Campana (I think that’s the name). The van had to drive up a steep rocky road and then we had to hike the rest of the way up the mountain. I was exhausted and felt like a wimp between my cold and the high altitude. The impressive part of the ruins was the large tomb of a noble family, which is not open to the public (we’re special- our prof said probably less than 50 people in the world have ever seen it). It’s in amazing condition with beautiful paintings and writing carved in stone. We could only go in four at a time and couldn’t take any pictures, but it was well worth it. After lunch, we made one last stop and to San Jose Magote, a fairly famous
Oaxaca
Smile chicas! archeological site. There was a small museum in an old hacienda and some ruins, but I didn’t find it extremely impressive so I don’t have many pictures of it. All I really remember is that there was goat poop everywhere and one girl got a nasty glob of gum and poo stuck in her shoe. Icky.
Monday I had to teach the 3rd grade girls since the teacher was sick and had to go to the doctor. Even though it was for 2 ½ hours, it went much smoother than last time because I knew the class and routines, and they called and warned me beforehand. It’s exhausting but a really good teaching experience. Another girl who is a nursing major is volunteering at a small hospital. Even though she hasn’t taken many nursing related classes yet they are teaching her to do a lot of cool things, which may be a little scary for the patients, but she’s also getting great hands-on experience.
By the way, we had a HUGE storm yesterday. Lightning, thunder, lots of rain...no one was expecting it and we got completely soaked and muddy on the walk home. It caused rivers in the
Oaxaca
Que bonito. These pretty purple trees are everywhere in Oaxaca. street and lakes on the sidewalks....reminded me of home! But since I don´t miss the rain, I wasn´t too happy.
Well to wrap things up, all I can say is it’s not fun to be sick in Mexico, especially when you have to suck it up and do homework. On top of my regular ginormous heap of homework I had a huge essay due yesterday in Spanish...bah! The homework never ends! Ok, sorry for all the complaining. I’m actually very happy now that I’m finally feeling better so I can have some interesting non-sickness-related stories for next week. We’re only a week and half away from Spring Break and I know that will be an adventure!
Besitos,
Janna
P.S. I apologize if my writing skills are deteriorating. English is suddenly really difficult for me, especially spelling- I tend to want to spell things like they would be spelled in Spanish. I guess that’s a good sign, except that I have to teach English…Anyway, thank goodness for spell check!
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