a weekend in oaxaca & más

what to say about this weekend?

oaxaca is the state directly to our south, but the roadtrip took us more than 4 hours through winding mountain roads. at times we were winding through mountains covered in stick straight green cactuses (toothpick-like). at other times, i felt like i was in utah because of the beautiful rock formations (i believe i saw some hoodoos!) and the red dirt. these were some of the most bizarre mountains i have ever seen, with rocky cliffs climbing out of their peaks. it was pretty much the most beautiful drive ever.

we stayed in oaxaca city, the state´s capital, where there were widespread strikes (beginning with the teachers, then i think they spread) and rioting earlier this year. the city thrives on tourism, so their local economy plummeted over the past few months because they lost so much revenue. i´m happy to report, however, that it seems as if the city has rebounded greatly and is crawling with tourists again. on saturday night, the zócalo was swarming with people, tourists mixed in with the locals, listening to live music in the central gazebo, watching a performance of local dances, and there were tons of children running around playing with balloons. sidenote: i am completely weirded out by hearing english spoken in the streets and this makes me rather worried for the reverse culture shock i´m going to experience when i fly back to chicago in may...

we visited FOUR archeological sites this weekend, the largest and most well-known being monte alban and mitla. monte alban is HUGE and reminds me somewhat of teotihuacan, just because of how extensive the site is. every time you climb up and over or around another pyramid, there´s an entire new part of the site to discovere! and at dainzú, a smaller site we went to see, there were no guards and no fences and ¨no toque¨ signs, which means we could climb all over it and discover tunnels and have the time of our lives! i wore a skirt on sunday, which apparently makes me want to climb things even more. i think i did the most exploring i´ve done yet. it was grand. i might want to do that forever.

oaxaca has a largely indigenous population, which means it is famous for its arts and crafts! one of the most unique crafts is its so-called black pottery, which is ... obviously ... black in color. it´s created without a pottery wheel (the mexica and zapotec indians living in the area didn´t use the wheel), but instead two plates are placed on top of each other (back to back) and spun around. we saw a demonstration, and the potter created a pitcher in under 20 minutes. it was pretty impressive. (i took a video for you to see, leah reynolds!) once it´s baked in the oven, they allow it to set for about 3 days, then rub a quartz stone over it and this somehow produces the black hue. it´s pretty intense. there´s a huge market at this site, so we all went shopping.

speaking of shopping, kelly and i discovered an english language bookstore that took credit cards and let´s just say i managed to spend $40 on books. there are worse things, right? while we were in there, a huge parade of dancers and large (10 feet tall) body puppets passed, so we followed that for awhile. i love the spontenaity! and for dinner, some people ate chapulines (toasted / spiced crickets), but i didn´t partake in the fun. later, alan (mel´s boyfriend visiting from valpo) watched me put together my taco (chicken, cheese, onion, peppers, guacamole, 2 types of green salsa, cilantro ... in that order!) and mentioned that it´s like watching an artist at work. hmmm, i suppose you could look at it that way.

while we were in a museum, we suddenly heard a ruckus (if you will) outside near the church, so we rushed to the patio to see what the fuss was about: it was the procession at the end of a wedding. there were dancers and musicians and those huge puppets again, and the bride and the groom were standing at the exit of the church greeting people. it looked like so much fun! again, with the loveliness of all the random music and dancing here...

there´s still quite a bit of graffiti on the buildings further away from the centro from the strikes and riots. downtown, they´ve mainly covered it all with more paint, so it´s not unlikely to see 5 buildings in a row with the first level covered in random patches of white or red paint. it´s a really posh city though! so posh, in fact, that they have a gelato shop on the zócalo. i ate el sabor de guayaba (guava flavor), which flashed me back to brazil. marvelous.

pat bought a bottle of mezcal, oaxaca´s famous liquor, on saturday. it comes from the agave cactus and is similar to tequila, with a stronger flavor and a higher alcohol content. i tried some and it definitely tastes like what you´d think the inside of a cactus would taste like if you let it ferment. very ... interesting. something you should try if you´re in oaxaca, but otherwise, i wouldn´t make it a priority. (unless you feel like tequila lacks flavor?)



looking ahead, it seems as if i have quite a bit of homework this week. there´s a business test on thursday, a paper due for my VU class on thursday about cultural homonyms, a paper about animal rights activists and the zoo due for my comm class sometime, and a research proposal for my final community service paper due ... today? i´m doing the service but not taking it as a class for credit, yet somehow i still have to write all the papers for the class. basically there´s no motivation because a grade doesn´t matter in a not-for-credit class. either way, the research on education in orphanages should be fun, i just have no incentive to turn anything in on time. i wouldn´t complain about that measly amount of homework, but valpo´s on spring break so i feel like i have a right, eh?

tomorrow´s back to the orphanage for some soccer + mathematics fun (the chiquitos are still hep-ish, pienso). this weekend is 3 days long and i´m headed into mex city for a pumas game (i´m in hooligan training this week to prepare for this life-changing event), and then the weekend after that, we´re going to veracruz for 3 days as well. the next weekend begins spring break in puerto excondido! after that, i only have a month left here. ooooh, how the time flies.

and i believe that´s all. miss stenzel is ill, so i´m going to fix her a peanut butter & nutella tortilla. oh, and if you ever get a chance, you should buy a bottle of salsa valentina (or just some hot sauce from taco bell if you feel like being a poser) and put it on cheese pizza. i´m telling you, everything is better when it´s spiced!