Blogs from Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, North America - page 24

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), then head right. Out into the arrivals area we stand blinking into the crowd and I’m greeted by a senora with my last name pinned to her blouse. She looks at me with a hopeful ... read more

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 overwhelming experience because of the language barrier and new culture. By language barrier I mean that my Spanish is still very rough and neither the students nor the teacher speak English. My Spanish took a ... read more

Wow. I mean seriously, wow. This week just gone I was amazed at how different a place like Oaxaca is in comparison to the rest of Mexico. The place was a whole new side of Mexico, you could almost have been in another country, the language style was different, the people were different, the whole vibe and I loved every minute! To begin at the beginning... Wednesday afternoon at around 2pm we hoped on the bus to head to Mexico City which took in the end about 7hours, the rough plan being we'd get an overnight bus in Mexico City and somehow make it to Oaxaca on Thursday morning. The one glitch to our plan was that we figured out that in order to make this happen we'd have to brave the Mexico City traffic and ... read more

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 playing with razzberry coloured faux flip cell phones and talking about boys (or at least that what I am able to catch). Two of their classmates are outside on the step enjoying recorder music and ... read more

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 daily market was in full swing so off we went to find some bargains. I ended up buying a traditional basket and filling it with a bouquet of Jasmin and Calla Lilies, Both 10 peso’s each, Jason and Diana ... read more