Saturday we had nothing planned. I just hung out at my house in the morning and then met up with the girls later in the day. We went to Parque Juarez which is also known as El Llano. From there we walked to El Zocalo and walked around for awhile. It seemed like it was finally going to rain, and we did feel a few drops of water but it never really happened. We grabbed some ice cream (two of the other girls tried Chili Mango ice cream...it tastes about as bad as it sounds) and we people watched for awhile. We then decided to head back to 100% Natural, the restaurant we had been at the day before for some alcoholic beverages. I had a Vampirina which was a bottle of Corona mixed with pineapple sherbet and orange juice. Soooo delish.
Sunday we had our excursions to Monte Alban and San Bartolo Coyotepec. The drive from our school to Monte Alban was only about 20 minutes and was mostly through the city though a lot was up the mountain side. We got there early before there were many people there and it was still rather cool. I can't imagine spending time there in the afternoon. The pyramids were huge and the whole place was breathtaking. It was definitely way more than I expected it to be!
There was a lot of information given to us about the history of the pyramids and such, but honestly I don't remember much... between being hot and wanting to take picture it was hard to process it all enough to remember anything. But it was an awesome experience and was super beautiful to see!
The journey down the mountain to San Bartolo Coyotepec was rough. We were hot, thirsty and hungry and the roads were very windy. If Dramamine didn't take an hour to take effect I would have loaded up on it. Instead I tried to not puke, made a new 5 year old friend (no one tell Taylor or she might beat me up), and managed to spill half my water bottle on myself. It was very cool to see the technique that they used and the pottery was beautiful. Most of it wouldn't hold water, so the pretty vases I could have bought would have been pointless and most of it was simply decorative. I wish it all wasn't so fragile or I would have bought a ton more!
Yesterday was our first day of classes, nothing major. In our cooking class we toured the markets again and watched them make Oaxaquen chocolate. I was stupid and forgot to put the battery back in my camera so I couldn't take pictures. It's a really neat process and the chocolate is awesome. I plan to buy some to bring home (to make hot chocolate with). I also got to try some mole.
At lunch yesterday I was given some tortillas with what looked like some beef and beans in it. I started eating but quickly stopped when I discovered something sweet that definitely wasn't beef. I kept trying it to try and figure out what it was, but the taste was so odd. For a minute I thought it was supposed to be a tortilla with just mole or chocolate in it. I asked my senora...turns out it was sweetbreads... I asked her what it was but didn't understand... after looking it up I was glad that I didn't try to eat more.
I have had the same tomato/beef broth soup every day except Sunday in some form or another...
This morning I got up and got to school by 9 as we were supposed to be starting our volunteer work. I will be working at a place called Instituto de Saludo de San Felipe. It is basically a seguro social health clinic. Anyone in Mexico who is employed, their children under 18, and their parents who are too old to work are eligible for this seguro social which is basically free health care. So Lucero, the owner of ICO, drove us up to San Felipe. It was a little frustrating because we were at the ICO at 9, but Lucero is a busy lady and it was probably 10 before we actually left for San Felipe. It's a cute little pueblo that used to be it's own little entity but with the growth of Oaxaca it has now become part of the city. It has it's own Zocalo and church and market. We got out of the car and walked the short way to the clinic and saw that the gates were closed. As we got closer we saw that there was a sign up basically saying that sindicato had closed them down for and undetermined amount of time due to a strike that was happening. Lucero was having none of that and thought well maybe they'll want the girls to help out around the clinic anyways. So she proceeded to reach through the gate and open it...and as we walked in remarked "I hope we don't end up in prison for trespassing." We entered the clinic to find one doctor just chilling out. She basically said that she was there just in case of an emergency in the town and that there was nothing for us to do. It's an adorable little clinic-- 2 consult rooms, a birthing room, a dentist room, and a hospital room. I'm pretty excited to work there.
We were returning to the school when we realized that there were a few cop cars blocking our way back, before we could really see anything we thought maybe there was a bad accident. It turns out it was a protest happening in front of the large free clinic/hospital on one of the busiest streets in Oaxaca (it's basically a 6 lane highway that I cross every day). It was only that one block that we couldn't get down, so we went a different way and talked some cops into letting us go the wrong way down a one way to get into the driveway of the Institute. We went and sat on the porch at the ICO and just hung out, listening to the rally from over the stone wall. We soon saw people running down the street and intense honking. One of the guys from the Institute went to go close the gates to the school (mostly just to keep the randoms that were gathered outside out of the school...we could still go in and out so it wasn't like the school was on lockdown or anything) and we saw people from the streets jumping up on top of cars that were stuck in traffic in the middle of the intersection. We soon saw people walking by and heard lots of whistling. Lucero explained to us that the protest most likely had something to do with the clinic strike and that they had blocked off one of the main arteries of the city to make a point. After several hours of sitting at the school waiting for our intercambios (all of whom ended up cancelling after we sat around for 3 hours doing nothing...talk about frustrating) we left to go home for la comida. We walked outside and it was crazy surreal. A 6 lane highway, that usually takes a lot of time, patience, and courage to cross was void of any car traffic and instead was full of people standing around and vendors selling food. They had blocked off the 2 main roads in the city, Nino Heroes de Chapultepec, y Porfirio Diaz. It's hard to say how many people really were there because they are spread out over several blocks and are all sitting on the medians, the curbs, walking around... It was very different from any protests I've seen in the U.S. There weren't people holding signs. No one was chanting things. Every once in awhile you'd hear everyone start whistling and it sounded like a bunch of birds. You'd hear sirens every once in awhile as the hospital was still open for emergencies. While we were eating lunch my senora said she thought the protest was over because there weren't buses coming down our street anymore... so I took the short way back to class at 330...I was walking down the hill and the number of people walking up the hill (who normally drive or take buses) was insane... it looked like there had been some disaster at the bottom that people were fleeing from (like in the movies). I got down to the street and the scene was exactly as it had been. No one paid me any attention (well not beyond the normal cat calls at least) and I was on my way back to school. I asked one of my teachers about it and he said it was a fairly normal occurrence in Oaxaca. It's supposed to be illegal but no one really pays it any attention. I am prepared for many more things like this to happen as there are elections on July 4--a very interesting situation that I plan to research a bit more and fill you all in on. One of the other girls was told that they usually only last a day and are over by about 6 pm. We left to head home at about 8 and the street was still blockaded so I guess only time will tell what will happen with it. It was very interesting to see. I feel like if a situation like that was allowed to happen in the U.S. there would be violence or some sort of fighting happening...but every just seemed rather content to be chilling in the street. It was very eerie to walk out and not see all the cars and to sit through class without the obnoxious noise of traffic, but it was very interesting to watch it develop. I got some far away pictures but was too scared to go any closer to the gates to get better ones.
No worries, I still feel super safe. As Lucero said, it's an experience. I can only imagine how bad traffic actually was...it seemed horrible still on my walk home, and usually by 8 traffic has pretty much died down.
Sara, I found a place with really good chipotle hummus this evening...another reason you should come visit.
I tried quesadillas arabes last night... it was as big as Leah's head.
My phone is possibly not receiving texts currently... though I'm not really sure. Some weird symbol randomly appeared today and I have no clue what it means, so if you try texting me and I don't reply it's either because I didn't get it, I have no money left on my phone (though I'm not really sure how to check that), or I just don't like you, *cough*tom*cough*.
I got to watch the Grey's Anatomy finale last night, talk about intense television.
It is hot here. No one knows why it hasn't started raining yet.
I should weigh about 12 pounds by now from all the sweating and walking I do.
I've decided that they length of my day can be determined at the end of the night by how gross and dirty my flip-flop feet are.
I think those are all of my random tid-bits for the night.
CIAO CIAO!
Great post...I love reading about your experiences! Have you seen any cucarachas yet? I still have nightmares from my days in Oaxaca.
ReplyDeleteCheers!