Eating Oaxacan style

Lunch at el mercado organico

We are in the land of great food! This morning our instructor brought us hot chocolate made in the Oaxacan tradition with cinnamon and almond. Very rich (sabroso!). Eric said it was like drinking 3 or 4 espressos. It definitely sped up the morning. For lunch (comida) at the organic market, we enjoyed tamales, tlacoyo (huge freshly made tortillas filled with wonderful stuff. You can choose from a selection of vegetarian or meat ingredients that are cooked together on a hot stone stove. It’s a little like a quesadilla but oh so much better. We washed it all down with fresh pineapple and ginger juice with NO sugar! Finally, Lynn perused the baked goods while Eric chatted with a new friend. This evening we hauled our week's worth of laundry down to the local lavanderia where a mother and daughter will wash, fold and have all of our clean clothes waiting for us tomorrow afternoon. We’ll enjoy a huge apple turnover with crema after a light dinner of leftover pizza. Jealous yet?

Beautiful courtyard of the Iglesia Xochimilco where the organic market takes place

A la noche

At night in Oaxaca, families stroll and kids skateboard on the Alcalá. The city is alive with the smell of freshly cooking tortillas and etoles (corn on the cob with butter, chili, & cotija cheese). Nuevo Oaxaña restaurants serve elegant ceviches and molés para solo pequeño pesos.

Nuestra Escuela!

Poor Alphonso tries to make sense out of our palabras!

Well, we've started school at I.C.O. with our instructor Alphonso and four other classmates. The grounds are truly lovely here and the school is full of lively students all working away at different levels of Spanish language acquisition. Based upon our "examins",  both of us are in the same class. There is a wide spectrum of skills and language comprehension in our group,  so the first day or two of practice and conversation were a little chaotic. Now things have settled into a very busy communal effort to help each other get as much as we can out of the experience. By the end of class, we are wiped out and have to have little siestas to recharge brain batteries. Our instructor has been extremely patient and very good natured. There are times when we've wondered how he has managed not to rip every last strand of hair out of his (or our) heads as we slice and dice his native language, but we ARE learning poco a poco. The immersive process is great! The real barrier right now seems to be our own native language. Most of us are at the stage where we are still trying to translate in our heads - or recall from past classes, etc. One Spanish teacher from long ago called it "typesetter Spanish": first you arrange the little pieces of communication in your head and then hit "publish".  It's all pretty messy until one finally gets enough of a handle on the structure of the language and the vocabulary to do some "Zenish" so to speak. Alphonso keeps encouraging us "not to think, just respond as best you know how." It's a great approach. It really starts to break down that barrier of trying to translate words one-to-one (ala typesetter style). As we all get to know each other, we are more comfortable making mistakes, using the wrong "palabra", getting the tense wrong, etc. etc. which further erodes the barrier. On top of that, when we venture out into the street, we are thrust into an overwhelming cacophony of sound,  only a tiny bit of which we can comprehend. But as time goes by, it seems possible to get into the flow of it all and just let it happen as it will.

Us & Them

It's another wonderful day in Oaxaca. Is it possible to enjoy too many moles or cafes con chocolate? We doubt it! We started the day slowly with breakfast with our homestay family. Ricardo, the retired math professor, sat with us as usual, insisting we speak only Spanish (very few words for Lynn the beginner, but a lively discussion with Eric). Then we celebrated our success in finding the quiet walking streets that took us to the Museo de Cultura Oaxaca for a visual tour though the history of this ancient city. The Museo is a monastery built in about 1500 that survived the frequent Oaxacan earthquakes because of it's 4-foot thick walls. From there we slowly made our way to the Zocolo, the main square where all the Oaxacan families sip jugos, listen to music, and watch the dancers dance.

Yes we’re doing our part for international relations: drinking beer and getting sunburned. God do we miss the pissing rain and freezing temps! We are already counting the days until we can get out of this hellhole. Trump is right! We need a friggin’ wall to keep these people out. Otherwise what’s to stop them from abandoning the cheap and delicious food and drink here, not to mention the endless sunshine, and mobbing us from coast to coast where they’d have the wonderful opportunity to freeze to death while munching on a MacNugget. We’re trying to hold back the flood but it’s a thankless task. We deserve a medal. Pray for us… Eric and Lynn

Everyone is a teacher; everyone is a learner

Eric and I have arrived in Heaven, otherwise known as Oaxaca. Spanish classes started on our flight last night with an 80-year old woman helping Eric with translations. Our language school oriented and tested us today - so much performance anxiety!
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Preparing to launch

A lot of planning is finally coming to fruition.  It's amazing the number of details you can drown in when preparing for two months away from home! Our trip to Oaxaca and Guanajuato will not just be a much needed break, but will also give us the opportunity to continue our Spanish practice. We're excited about being immersed in a different culture, speaking Spanish all day long since we'll be living with the Carrasco family in Oaxaca, none of whom speak a word of English! We're just hoping we don't screw up, say something entirely inappropriate or offensive. In the meantime, our trusted house sitters Julie and Andrew arrive next week for orientation and introduction to the pets. Lexi has a list a mile long of her preferences for walks and play sessions. It's a good thing they're young and energetic.