Oaxaca posters for Simone

Back in late Oct/early Nov when I was in Oaxaca the first time and I met Jake and Simone, Simone pointed out all the cool posters Oaxaca has. It seems to be the way they advertise music and political stuff here, and there are new posters all the time. They are mostly pasted onto the stone walls, but sometimes they are hung in shop windows. Anyway, I am putting some photos up here in honor of Simone so she can see what is up these days.

oxaca 7

Haha- here is a picture that my friend Lucy Pickles took. She was fascinated by this man selling balloons in the Zòcalo and looking bored and pissed off. She threatened to sit next to him and strike up a conversation but we were able to talk her out of it.

Pictures 2-7 are of this amazing corner covered with all kinds of beautiful stuff. I think it has been changing, because one part looks different from the first time i saw it two weeks ago. I am going to make a habit of walking by to see if there is anything new.

Up, up, and away!!!! Hooray for ninjas!

Today i discovered that i am a slave to caffeine. I didn`t drink any coffee today because i slept in late and by the time i had a throbbing headache, it was too late to drink coffee. uuuuuuuuuuuugh. I feel like the picture above, minus the gun.

I didn`t do much today but last night i was walking around and took some pictures of more graffiti. Yesterday was the celebration of Noche de las Luces (Night of Lights) and there was a parade complete with marching band, of course, and they were passing out these cool candle holders with windguards shaped like flowers. Sadly, i did not take any pictures so you will just have to rely on my one sentence description.

Some classmates and I went out for dinner and i had the best wood-fired pizza ever. Thank god for wood fired stoves and goat cheese!

I went to the big movie theatre today and it was wonderful to watch a movie. I saw ´Web de Mentiras` or `Body of Lies`. It is weird because i haven`t seen any ads for movies in 2 months so i had to just guess which movie to watch.

Also something funny is that they guard the exits when the movie ends, so you have to go out of the theatre. I guess they really don`t want you to get a two-fer while you`re there.

Tomorrow I start my last week of Spanish class. It is a little bit sad because I really like the people at my school, and class has been fun.

oaxaca 6

Hi! The virgen of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. Yesterday was her big day, and here in Oaxaca they had a giant fair in her honor at a park near my house called El Llano. The best part was the ´toritos´ (little bulls) and the giant tower of fireworks.
There is a torito in the picture above, right before it is set on fire. So, they light it and all those little white things start shooting sparks and someone holds it on their head and runs around (i guess you could call it dancing...) in the street with it as it shoots fireworks all over the place and the wheels on the thing spin around. It is pretty amazing really, and I got video of it on my camera but i can`t figure out how to post it on the blog (Albert Simply Put, please help!).
Then, they have this big tower thing set up with wheels and fireworks all over it, and they light that on fire and it whistles and spins around. It is deliciously dangerous and fun to watch. One of the wheels actually flew off and went spinning (on fire of course) into the crowd, between two fire brigade members, and onto the leg of an innocent bystander. We would never allow this to happen in the US and it is one of the reasons why we are no fun.

Before the fireworks, I went to my teacher Nora`s language academy to watch her sing in French for her school`s posada. Some of my classmates went too. clockwise starting with me, because you know who i am: me, Laura, her boyfriend Carlos, Alyssa, Nora.

A donkey at the fair.

These are two of my classmates. They are Juri and Kaori from Japan. They are probably the two cutest people I have ever met.

oaxaca 4?5? can`t remember...

Hi! I am experimenting with the picture placement and i don`t know where things are going to end up. Sorry if it is unreadable later.

Today our language school set up a tour of the ex-convent Santa Catalina. It was a convent at one point, then when Benito Juarez became the president of Mèxico, he made all the Catholic buildings public and the convent served as Oaxaca`s City Hall and the jail. Then, years later they city decided to restore the building and today it is a hotel. The cool thing is that there are a lot of ghost sightings here, and although our tour guide was extremely nervous about talking about ghosts (for public relations reasons), we got him to tell us a story about a family who saw nuns with blood all over themselves walking around the hotel. The family thought it was a show of some sort, and wrote a letter to the mgt. that `the nun show was inappropriate for children`.

After the tour, some of us went to get a drink and we saw one of the many marching band parades snaking it`s way down the street. (There`s a picture above along with the angry line of traffic behind the parade.) This particular parade was to educate people about some sort of ritual cleansing. They were burning sage and splashing the sideliners with plants dipped in special herb water.

The top picture is me with some of my classmates (left to right:Jenny, Lucy (eng.), Shirley (hk), Chris (eng.), Kaori (jpn) and Juri (jpn).

Also featured is a fountain in El Llano, a cool park up the road from my apt., Lucy in a funky little coffee shop around the corner from there, and more street art.

There are sooooo many cool things to see in Oaxaca. I am discovering more every day. I`m really glad i decided to spend a whole month here. I`m also really appreciating having a routine with school in the mornings and hanging out with classmates in the evenings. It is also nice not to pack up every 3 days and move.

I found a neat little lending library that has a lot of books in English. It was a huge blessing becuase books in Mexico are really expensive (like 30 usd) because of taxes, but my book only cost 10 pesos (less than a dollar!).

Well that is all for today. There is a big festival for the Virgin of Guadalupe coming up on Friday- I will be sure to take some pictures and post them soon.

Hope everyone is doing well!

oaxaca 4

Let´s see, what is new here....

It´s a new week in Spanish class and now i am learning about the subjunctive.

Today i found two cool coffee shops, one of which shows movies for free.

I am smoking Faro brand cigarettes, which is a Mexican brand that one of my Spanish teachers first smoked when he was 10. The ones I have are menthols which aren´t my favorite but I really wanted the tin box (...pretty) so I am pushing through.

This weekend I went to Huajuapan for the day. It is a smaller city to the northwest of Oaxaca, to visit a friend of a friend of Joon´s. There wasn´t a whole lot to do there, but the drive was really gorgeous. So far, I´ve driven in and out of Oaxaca 6 times and I am always in awe of the mountains. Actually, they look a lot like California. Kind of a cross between the chaparral in southern Cali. and the Sonoma area just before you hit the redwoods on the 101. Blonde hills and oak trees, plus throw in some nopal and there you have it!

Today I visited the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo and there was some cool video stuff. Also, the paintings/drawings of a man in the woods above. The weird toy picture is of bubbles with toys attached to the caps. They were selling them in the Zócalo this weekend. And last but not least, a photo of a ¨catrina¨ that I saw today. So mexicana....

Oaxaca 3

Here is the patio of my new apt. It`s not the most flattering picture to start with, but i don`t have a lot of knowledge about blog technology and haven`t figured out yet how to put things in the exact order i want. Anyway, it is a view looking into the kitchen. Note the water jug to the right side of the door. This is a source of glee for me every time i use it! Access to plenty of drinking water has been one of the things i miss most about home. Here you can`t drink right out of the tap, you have to buy water or boil it. Since I`ve been staying in hostels, I`ve mostly been a slave to the bottled water industry lately.

And here is the kitchen. It has everything I need... except an oven. No baking for me in Oaxaca, but there is the stove and cooking utensils.

My bedroom. The bathroom is on the left side of the picture, where the door-that-you-can`t-really-tell-is-a-door is.

The dining table.

The sitting area.

Don`t be fooled! This apt. looks a lot bigger than it is when you split it up into little pictures. It`s actually quite small but plenty big for one person. It is clean and quiet and my own space, and I love it. The landlady`s name is Sra. Lulu and she is really nice and mom-like. She has a tiny black dog named Rocky that is obsessed with a certain black rubber ball and he has the run of the place.

My first attempt at making home made totopos (nachos). They turned out ok and I made some guacamole and beans and rice for dinner last night. Avocadoes here are 25 pesos for a kilo, which translates to $2.50 for 6 avocadoes! Needless to say, I`ve been gorging myself while i can...

Here are a couple shots of a guy making chocolate in a chocolate shop. They have the machines out in front for the tourists like me to see how it`s made. They put cacao beans, cinnamon, and sugar in this grinding machine and mix it all up. Oaxaca is famous for it`s chocolate and it is really, really good. It has a lot of cacao in it so it`s kind of coarse and a little bitter.

Here is a shot of all the students at my language school. We had just finished an activity of textile painting. The señora in the middle was our teacher for the activity.

Oaxaca is still beautiful. The weather is really dry and hot in the daytime, and cold in the mornings. It`s weird because inside any building it is really, really cold, but as soon as you step into the open air it`s warm, and hot in the sun.

Yesterday I saw a young guy (early 20`s) helping an old lady cross the street. He looked like a ruffian and yet he was helping this little old lady. Why doesn`t that ever happen in the US?

Language school is going well. I`m not learning much new grammar stuff, but the 4 hours of hearing Spanish spoken and having conversations about things other than what I want to eat and how much is a dorm bed is really helping. In the conversation part of the class, though, I keep searching for words and not only can I not find the Spanish word, but sometimes the English word escapes me too. I guess sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.

Other than that, life here is pretty tranquilo. I am eating well and sleeping a lot.

I hope things at home are good for everyone too. Only a few more weeks until Joon and my family get here and I`m looking forward to it a lot. Until next time...

Oaxaca 2

Hi, People. There will be no pictures because the fancy new digital camera is temporarily out of service. All the new pictures I take say: Unidentifiable Image instead of showing me the image and if anyone knows how to fix this, please leave a comment or email me.
Anyway, now for an update on how Jenny is doing.
I found a really cute one bedroom apt this weekend. It has a little kitchen and a little dining room/living room, and a bedroom and bathroom. Its in a big apt building that is much more attractive and open than the apt buildings I am used to. The land lady is really nice too, and there is a little dog named Rocky who lives there too. I move in tomorrow, and I am very excited.
More exciting news is that today I started language school. We had some grammar review stuff and a conversation part where we talked about how rural Mexican families have 12 kids and city families only have 4 or less. We also talked about how the American economy is screwed and how it affects Mexico.
I like the other people in my class and today i got to hang out with one of my classmates after class was over. We had lunch together and she accompanied me while I walked around asking people where you can get a digital camera fixed.
Oaxaca is still beautiful. I am feeling really inspired by all the art here and the colorful buildings. I found more stencil graffiti and I am in awe of it. I took a lot of pictures but I can`t see any of them yet. I am planning on going back if I have to and stealing some techniques for future silk screening projects.
There are also a lot of free museums and tons of galleries. Today I went to the museum of textile and saw some ridiculously ornate, handmade textiles- everything from blouses to chaps.
The warm weather is holding up, which I am happy about. It`s a little dry but the dry heat is welcome after the humid Carribean coast where nothing really drys all the way.
Well that is all for now. I hope I`m not blogging too much. Just trying to stay in touch and when I write in here it makes me feel like I`m talking to everyone from home.
Well I am heading back home for a delicious cheese and avocado tsangwich. Until next time...