My Journal from 19 of May to 22 of May, 2006

19 de mayo de 2006
My journey has officially begun. It was so odd, looking out at my family, looking at me, leaving them behind. It is the oddest feeling, especially for someone so connected to her family such as myself. You may laugh at me for being quite so innocent but the truth is I’ve never traveled without family or friends before. I’ve traveled alone I mean but always with family or friends as the endpoint or, at the most drastic, a short, two-day trips by myself. What I’m really worried about is that I’ll let the fear that I’m feeling hold me back from making new friends but it encourages me that I know that I have to be careful about that. The first step towards fixing a problem is realizing you have one- even before it is actually a problem. Also, I guess I’m being a little overly dramatic. One of the guys who is going to Oaxaca with me has been in one of my Spanish classes before. However, we never really got to know each other very well so it’s only a little solace. However, the bus driver, John, is kind and quite funny. He’s got quite the announcer’s voice and man does he seem to know it! He reminded us that the bathroom door should be locked (do they have many problems with that?) and that he can adjust the temperature. Really, as long as luggage and passenger arrives in one piece (and together!) to O’Hare airport with two hours to go before the flight, I’m quite satisfied. All for now.

20 de mayo de 2006
Well, I had the absolute best intentions of getting back on the computer tomorrow night and telling all about my first night in Oaxaca. However, the plane that we took from Oaxaca was so small that by the time I arrived in Oaxaca, I was so tired from worrying that it was difficult to speak in Spanish. The thought of turning on my laptop to jot down my thoughts tired me out immensely.
My family is so sweet and I’m actually sharing the house with another student from Temple. La madre, Paula, cooks very well and always makes sure that we have plenty to eat. She speaks quickly but I catch enough of what she says to be very proud of myself. La padre, Ricardo, is quiet but speaks a lot in bursts. They’re both very caring and polite.
At el Instituto this morning we, the students of UW- Madison, had our orientation. We were all gathered outside the gates and one of the students walks up holding his head and says, “So is anyone else hung over?” We all exclaimed, “You can’t be serious!” and I for one totally expected him to be joking. But no. Despite arriving at 10:30 last night (and probably not getting to the family’s home until about the same time I did, 11:15 ish) he and the kid from Temple that are sharing his house went out to some hotel bar. They were well provided for by locals that wanted to practice their English, had tons of fun, and made friends with a local doctor. A good idea, but I’m still glad I got sleep last night.
Here, they eat meals very separate. It is 3:00 in the afternoon and I just finished eating “la comida”. As I said, Paula is an excellent cook. Breakfast this morning was mango (oh so good), pan dulce (sweet bread), eggs (what she called la torta), and papaya juice. Lunch was sopa de calabasa (not sure what this means yet, but it was excellent and a little spicy), angel hair pasta in a white sauce, and delicious and spicy spinach with chicken. She showed me how to put it inside the tortilla to make a burrito kind of thing and it was the perfect combination of tasty tortilla and spicy chicken. I could eat my way through this country I think. American “Mexican” restaurants just don’t do justice to real Mexican cuisine.
Some girls from Madison and I are going to go to the Zocalo markets. Earlier we went to the Gigante to get soymilk and full size bottles of shampoo. Things are fairly expensive here and it is all made no easier by the fact that I’m not at all used to converting foreign currency in my head. I walked into the Gigante with 500 pesos and was terrified I hadn’t brought enough… I spent 150 and I got enough stuff to last me well through the two months! However, I couldn’t bring myself to pay $20 for the butt-ugly watches that were available at the Gigante (the lady called them uni-sex). So, my host family gave me directions to a watch shop that is very near to the Zocalo markets since I, being a genius, did not bring anything except my cell phone; which I am only going to turn on in case of emergency. Sigh. So now I’ll be buying a watch, hopefully with alarm or hopefully I can figure out how to make my laptop ring at the proper time since for the cultural workshops we have to be there by 10 and for the volunteer positions we have to be in place by 9.
I’ll definitely be taking my camera along and so hopefully, if I post this to my blog, I’ll also be able to post pictures of the mercado!
The list of things I’m not sure about yet: Missing my mom, my family, and Louis; missing my cell phone; crossing the streets; and putting used TP in the wastebasket. I’m definitely outside of my comfort zone there!
Things I love: the food, seeing the mountains all around, the houses (which all have walls right to the sidewalks so that they’re very private), my bedroom here (coral, light blue, and a yellow green), actually feeling like I’m making some progress every now and then, and that small shops are so pervasive!
¡Viva México!

21 de mayo de 2006
Well, last night we went to Zócalo markets. It was insane, only made better by the fact that there was some sort of festival going on. On the way there we saw the Santo Domingo Cathedral. The inside is decorated with worked gold made into picture frames, the inside of which are painted with scenes from saint’s lives and also from the Stations of the Cross. It was amazing but I was only able to take pictures of the outside. Then, we went to Restaurante de Alex which was good but a bit expensive. We had “comida corrida” which is rice and soup with your choice between entrees. At the end, you also get your choice of postre or café. And, I found a watch with an alarm! It’s not feminine but it’s small and it was somewhat cheap so it’s okay.
Today, all the student from Madison went together to Monte Alaban which is a famous Zapatocen ruin. It was absolutly beautiful and we had a great guide. He told us about how the Zapotecs designed a calender based on how long it takes women to gestate and a caldendar based on the sun. Obviously, the two were very different but every 18,980 days they concide (52 years of our calendar!). Every 104 years a comet (or possibly a star, I wasn’t clear which) passes overhead and this event is used to reset the calendars. The next occurance is in 2012. Hopefully, in six years I’ll remember this! Then, the guide tells us about how several years ago, architects found a tunnel of children’s skulls. They couldn’t figure out what it would be from since the Zapotecas didn’t do sacrifices. Eventually, they realized that a warring tribe killed off a whole generation of children so that they implement their new rules. He showed us a carving of a jaguar, a symbol of famine and disaster. I think he said they made sacrifices to it to keep these away. A bit over, there’s a history stone of a woman who has a jaguar at her feet. It means she had power, possibly a governor, and was good at what she did. Next there was an old basketball court that the Zapotecas used to settle land disputes and who should be sacrificed.
Next, we all went to San Bartolo. Here, they make black pottery which is very beautiful. The man whose mother is responsbile for finding the technique used to glaze it still runs her old shop (she died in 1980) and he did a demonstration for us that was probably about 20 minutes. He was so talented it was amazing. He told us that on average, getting the clay ready to be worked takes two months. Then, to work it, another month. It was all very exciting and by the time we loaded back into the vans with our souveniours everyone was drained.
I’m very proud of myself today because I climbed one of the Monte Alaban ruins and was only a bit winded at the top. Also, although I forgot a bag to carry everything in, I remembered a rainjacket (which I forgot last night and was miserable walking home at 10:30 in the rain) and tons of sunscreen. I don’t think I got burnt hardly at all.
Time to go look at what I ended up with in pictures. I’m realy hoping to get all these on the web soon so that I don’t have to worry about losing them! Best to all.

22 de mayo de 2006
Well, today we began classes. They hadn’t figured out the schedules right with the kids from Temple yet though so the Madison kids had the morning off. I forgot to mention I’m living with one of the kids from Temple. Her name is Erin and she’s very nice but doesn’t talk very much. Anyway, I had the morning off so I figured it was the perfect time to figure out what was going on with my computer. Man was I wrong. I had a late breakfast at 9:30 with Paula and then dragged my laptop to the Institute but couldn’t get the wireless card to detect the very weak internet that is there. So, I went to an internet café instead, just so that I could email everyone and let them know I’m safe and I miss them terribly. But the computer in the wireless café didn’t work either! It froze up for twenty of my thirty minutes so I ended up only getting to send really short, quick emails and got charged 50 pesos on top of it. It’s amazing how money runs here, but I keep reminding myself that I really wanted to just do this and not really worry about money. That doesn’t mean I’m being foolish though (well, not too badly). Hopefully, after this week of buying school and health supplies, I won’t have to spend too much more. We’ll see. Anyway, I was totally flustered and had to walk all the way back home at about 12:30 or 1, when it’s the hottest, carrying my laptop that was useless anyway and just getting in a worse and worse mood. It’s funny, I don’t know if when I’m in a bad mood, its so obvious that people don’t whistle or that I just don’t hear it because I’m in a bad mood but it seems like I never get whistles when I’m mad or rushed. There happens to be a correct way to be sexually inappropiate perhaps.
I got back to my house and changed into a cooler shirt and splashed water on my face and then went and had comida with Paula. We talked about how silly computers are and the education system in México vs. the US. They have a very similar system here although highschool is a year shorter and college a year longer. And different names for everything of course, although their names almost make more sense (Primera- first, Secundaria- second, Preparatoria- prep for college, and Universidad- I hope that one’s obvious!J)
By the end of la comida I felt much better and I came upstairs, did a little of of journaling for my independent study, and just laid down. Then, at 3 I had my first classes!
The first day is always boring because they go through the rules and stuff but I loved it because I really am noticing a marked improvidness in my Spanish (although I’m making up English now). My 311 class is going to be hard I think because it’s four essays that count for 30% of the grade. That’s an essay every two weeks, plus my 465 class! Actually though, I think 465 is going to be fun. We have a cool teacher and he prepared half of the class and then sat down and said “What do you think is the biggest social problem in North America?” Then, “What’s the best thing about North America?” Our homework for 465 tonight was to ask those same questions of our host families, but about México instead of North America. Their answers were the corruption in the government *the problem and the traditions and the values *the best thing. I could have guessed the traditions one. Méxicanos are suckers for tradicions and having a stong culture it seems like.
After I finished with classes, a small group of us hung out in the courtyard of el Instituto doing homework (I had homework for 311 too- a short essay about who we’d like to be, from any time. It’s hard- try it!). There are three class times, 3- 4:20, 4:30- 5:50, and 6- 7:20. I have 465 at 3 and 311 at 4:30 so we were doing homework and technically waiting for everyone else to get done. So when those in the last class got out we went and had dinner. We all agreed that we wanted to start trying cheaper places because although we don’t want to get sick we can’t afford to spend 70 pesos every night. ($7 USD) So we walked down one of the main streets and found a little Taqueria (place where tacos are made) that seemed cheap where the owner seemed friendly. WOW! It was excellent food, his wife was a sweet heart, he himself was very friendly to us, and I spent 27 pesos with a drink. ($2.70 USD) I can’t eat like that in the cafeteria in Madison. So now I’m back at the house, having done my homework and ready for bed by 9:30. I feel like I got so much accomplished today.