June 8 and June 14
8 de junio de 2006
Well, I’m feeling better about my time here. An intercambio is a person who is learning to speak Spanish and we meet with them one hour, every day to speak for 30 minutes in Spanish and 30 minutes in English so that the native Spanish speaker will help the person learning Spanish and visa versa. My intercambio’s name is Ita and she is the nicest, cutest person ever. She’s 23 and has a long-term boyfriend and she LOVES to talk (this is definitely a good thing when you’re talking to someone for 5 hours a week- I don’t think I talk this much with my own mother!). Anyway, she told me today that her English teacher told her that he can tell an improvement in her English and then she looked at me and said “And your Spanish is every day better.” It was a sad time to correct her but we do what we must. She’s very helpful and that little compliment made me feel so much better.
Wednesday night the whole group from Madison had plans to go out together. I, on my way home, saw my friend Miguel that I met in Azukar (a salsa dancing club). He told me that Kim and Alison were going to watch his soccer game and invited me to come along. I waiting up for Kim and Alison and they too said they’d be really happy if I came along so off we went. But the teachers here have been sleeping in the streets for the past two weeks to get more money and were marching yesterday, blocking all the routes to Miguel’s soccer game that he knows well so we ended up basically in the foothills of the mountains that surround Oaxaca. If I have been surprised that Mexico is nicer than I would have expected, that changed my perception. Parts of Mexico are still in dire need of help. There were houses back in those foothills that Americans wouldn’t let their animals live in. Doesn’t seem fair sometimes. Anyway, long story short, after we asked about a million people directions, we all made it to his game (on time!) and had a grrrreat time watching some amazing soccer! These people really know how to play! This was just a local community team, nothing special really, but man are they good! So that was interesting and afterwards we met up with our Madison group and had a blast. The bad thing, however, was that I didn’t get to bed until 3:30 this morning and Rubin wanted Allison and I to go to the orphanage for our service job while he figures out something permanent for us to do. So I definitely was attempting to function on 5 hours of sleep- and I more or less did it!
Allison and I never did make it to the orphanage though. No one really knows where it is and there are four orphanages in Oaxaca all with the same (more or less) name. The guy who works at our Institute accidentally gave us the information for the wrong orphanage. When we showed up there, they almost wouldn’t even let us ask directions to the other one. Then, they gave us “directions” to the other orphanage and Allison and I walked around for 45 minutes until we decided we were 30 minutes from the Institute (which is another 20 minutes from the house) and it was time to return. So hopefully, this service thing will get straightened out. But until then, no more walking in random parts of Oaxaca. Oaxaca is generally a nice city but as with all cities it’s not entirely safe to be wandering about in parts that you don’t know well. That’s all for today. ¡Buenas noches!
14 de junio de 2006
It has been so long since I’ve written! So many things have happened! We had some trouble with our visas, which was resolved without too much difficulty (except that now I’m a bit angry with University of Wisconsin Madison for reasons that I’m not allowed to share here) and los maestros, whom I’ve never really written about because they don’t impact my life really, were attacked! Los maestros are the teachers from the state of Oaxaca, that have all gathered here in Oaxaca city in order to protest for higher salaries, better benefits for the students, and better retirement packages. Well, because this is an election year, they have stayed longer than is the “norm” of two weeks. My intercambio, Ita, also told me that they have stayed because they are receiving salary whether they are there, in the Zocalo, or teaching so they don’t really care. But last night, the governement decided that they had enough of looking powerless and attacked the teachers with tear gas. Never really seems like the best option to me, although it does clear out Madison streets quickly. However, it must have worked too well, because two or three people were killed in the mele. Now, everyone’s pissy!
Anyway, on a more personal note, there’s a very special someone that I have no other way to say Happy Birthday to but I wish I did! :) Hope it’s a good one!
Well, I’m feeling better about my time here. An intercambio is a person who is learning to speak Spanish and we meet with them one hour, every day to speak for 30 minutes in Spanish and 30 minutes in English so that the native Spanish speaker will help the person learning Spanish and visa versa. My intercambio’s name is Ita and she is the nicest, cutest person ever. She’s 23 and has a long-term boyfriend and she LOVES to talk (this is definitely a good thing when you’re talking to someone for 5 hours a week- I don’t think I talk this much with my own mother!). Anyway, she told me today that her English teacher told her that he can tell an improvement in her English and then she looked at me and said “And your Spanish is every day better.” It was a sad time to correct her but we do what we must. She’s very helpful and that little compliment made me feel so much better.
Wednesday night the whole group from Madison had plans to go out together. I, on my way home, saw my friend Miguel that I met in Azukar (a salsa dancing club). He told me that Kim and Alison were going to watch his soccer game and invited me to come along. I waiting up for Kim and Alison and they too said they’d be really happy if I came along so off we went. But the teachers here have been sleeping in the streets for the past two weeks to get more money and were marching yesterday, blocking all the routes to Miguel’s soccer game that he knows well so we ended up basically in the foothills of the mountains that surround Oaxaca. If I have been surprised that Mexico is nicer than I would have expected, that changed my perception. Parts of Mexico are still in dire need of help. There were houses back in those foothills that Americans wouldn’t let their animals live in. Doesn’t seem fair sometimes. Anyway, long story short, after we asked about a million people directions, we all made it to his game (on time!) and had a grrrreat time watching some amazing soccer! These people really know how to play! This was just a local community team, nothing special really, but man are they good! So that was interesting and afterwards we met up with our Madison group and had a blast. The bad thing, however, was that I didn’t get to bed until 3:30 this morning and Rubin wanted Allison and I to go to the orphanage for our service job while he figures out something permanent for us to do. So I definitely was attempting to function on 5 hours of sleep- and I more or less did it!
Allison and I never did make it to the orphanage though. No one really knows where it is and there are four orphanages in Oaxaca all with the same (more or less) name. The guy who works at our Institute accidentally gave us the information for the wrong orphanage. When we showed up there, they almost wouldn’t even let us ask directions to the other one. Then, they gave us “directions” to the other orphanage and Allison and I walked around for 45 minutes until we decided we were 30 minutes from the Institute (which is another 20 minutes from the house) and it was time to return. So hopefully, this service thing will get straightened out. But until then, no more walking in random parts of Oaxaca. Oaxaca is generally a nice city but as with all cities it’s not entirely safe to be wandering about in parts that you don’t know well. That’s all for today. ¡Buenas noches!
14 de junio de 2006
It has been so long since I’ve written! So many things have happened! We had some trouble with our visas, which was resolved without too much difficulty (except that now I’m a bit angry with University of Wisconsin Madison for reasons that I’m not allowed to share here) and los maestros, whom I’ve never really written about because they don’t impact my life really, were attacked! Los maestros are the teachers from the state of Oaxaca, that have all gathered here in Oaxaca city in order to protest for higher salaries, better benefits for the students, and better retirement packages. Well, because this is an election year, they have stayed longer than is the “norm” of two weeks. My intercambio, Ita, also told me that they have stayed because they are receiving salary whether they are there, in the Zocalo, or teaching so they don’t really care. But last night, the governement decided that they had enough of looking powerless and attacked the teachers with tear gas. Never really seems like the best option to me, although it does clear out Madison streets quickly. However, it must have worked too well, because two or three people were killed in the mele. Now, everyone’s pissy!
Anyway, on a more personal note, there’s a very special someone that I have no other way to say Happy Birthday to but I wish I did! :) Hope it’s a good one!
posted by Emma at 10:07 AM
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