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Hola!
How are you all doing? People continue to whine about the cold here, despite the wonderful weather. On Saturday I hiked up one of the big hills overlooking the city, and got another sunburn. One thing I like about Oaxaca (unlike Lyon), is that there's a lot more nature here. I don't have to walk very far from my house to find myself in the middle of the wilderness, and there's trees all over town. And also dogs. Lots of dogs. Frequently on rooftops, for some reason that
undoubtedly makes sense to the locals. One walked past me carrying the rotting carcass of - something - in its mouth.
On Sunday, I went to church with my host family, which was extremely interesting. I could follow along pretty well, because most of the sermon and songs were printed in the handout they gave us. It seemed a lot less formal than Catholic churches in the U.S, although that may just be because bright colors and Mexican music aren't things I'm used to associating with formality. And also because of the dog walking around the church throughout the sermon.
After church, we went to Sam's Club. It's in the middle of an extremely Americanized section of town, with McDonalds, car dealerships, multiplexes, electronics stores, etc - which I kind of have mixed feelings about. One part of me thinks how horrible it is that all these foreign corporations are coming in to crush local businesses. But, on the other hand, the fact that my family had to drive 25 minutes to the Sam's Club to get meat, paper napkins, and a blender says something about the state of local commerce. There are virtually no large stores (and by large, I mean 'having more than one shelf') in the city. The food stores consist of one shelf of fruit and junk food. The shoe stores consist of one shelf of shoes. The clothes stores consist of one rack of clothes. The novelty stores have one shelf of things that look like they should come with Happy Meals. And that pretty much sums up the shopping options here. I have yet to see a bookstore, music store or movie theater in town (although there are lots of dentists and notary publics). The only real alternatives to Sam's Club that I can see are the local markets, which appear sporadically around town and have all kinds of stuff I wouldn't normally expect to see in a market (including surprisingly low-priced all-region DVDs of King Kong and the Chronicles of Narnia).
Speaking of shopping, I finally decided that I'd rather not starve to death. I found a bakery store (shelf) with pastries for 30 cents each, so I've started stopping by there for a snack on my way home from school.
Oh, and I also ate fried grasshoppers.
At home. Before I found the bakery. In my class this week, I was the only student. I doubt it will continue that way next week, but it was really nice while it lasted - I had essentially four hours a day of private tutoring. I'm hoping that the class stays small next week. In Salsa class, our teacher is leaving after this week, so next week will be with another teacher, probably repeating the stuff we've learned already. I'll see how that goes - if it's too boring, I might switch to another workshop midweek.
I hope you're all doing well.
Hasta Luego.
How are you all doing? People continue to whine about the cold here, despite the wonderful weather. On Saturday I hiked up one of the big hills overlooking the city, and got another sunburn. One thing I like about Oaxaca (unlike Lyon), is that there's a lot more nature here. I don't have to walk very far from my house to find myself in the middle of the wilderness, and there's trees all over town. And also dogs. Lots of dogs. Frequently on rooftops, for some reason that
undoubtedly makes sense to the locals. One walked past me carrying the rotting carcass of - something - in its mouth.On Sunday, I went to church with my host family, which was extremely interesting. I could follow along pretty well, because most of the sermon and songs were printed in the handout they gave us. It seemed a lot less formal than Catholic churches in the U.S, although that may just be because bright colors and Mexican music aren't things I'm used to associating with formality. And also because of the dog walking around the church throughout the sermon.
After church, we went to Sam's Club. It's in the middle of an extremely Americanized section of town, with McDonalds, car dealerships, multiplexes, electronics stores, etc - which I kind of have mixed feelings about. One part of me thinks how horrible it is that all these foreign corporations are coming in to crush local businesses. But, on the other hand, the fact that my family had to drive 25 minutes to the Sam's Club to get meat, paper napkins, and a blender says something about the state of local commerce. There are virtually no large stores (and by large, I mean 'having more than one shelf') in the city. The food stores consist of one shelf of fruit and junk food. The shoe stores consist of one shelf of shoes. The clothes stores consist of one rack of clothes. The novelty stores have one shelf of things that look like they should come with Happy Meals. And that pretty much sums up the shopping options here. I have yet to see a bookstore, music store or movie theater in town (although there are lots of dentists and notary publics). The only real alternatives to Sam's Club that I can see are the local markets, which appear sporadically around town and have all kinds of stuff I wouldn't normally expect to see in a market (including surprisingly low-priced all-region DVDs of King Kong and the Chronicles of Narnia).
Speaking of shopping, I finally decided that I'd rather not starve to death. I found a bakery store (shelf) with pastries for 30 cents each, so I've started stopping by there for a snack on my way home from school.
Oh, and I also ate fried grasshoppers.
At home. Before I found the bakery. In my class this week, I was the only student. I doubt it will continue that way next week, but it was really nice while it lasted - I had essentially four hours a day of private tutoring. I'm hoping that the class stays small next week. In Salsa class, our teacher is leaving after this week, so next week will be with another teacher, probably repeating the stuff we've learned already. I'll see how that goes - if it's too boring, I might switch to another workshop midweek.
I hope you're all doing well.
Hasta Luego.
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