Oaxaca Trip - DAY 1

This year I was lucky enough to get to travel with the 11^th graders to Oaxaca for their generation trip. Every year each generation goes on a weeklong trip to somewhere in Mexico. In 11^th grade they go tot Oaxaca and it has a business and art emphasis. I was asked to go so I could put some more business into the trip for the next year. It was, Mo (my head of department), Geo (vice principal), Adrian (principal), Laura (art teacher), Monica (discipline counselor) and myself from the school that traveled with the kiddos. We hire a company to help us coordinate the trip named Ecoclub. I was very thankful for them because they are the ones that keep track of the kids and keep them in line; that means us teachers from the school are just there for support. It really works out perfectly!! I apologize for the delay in getting these up; I was just waiting for some pictures from Adrian so you can actually see me in some pictures – proof that I was really in Oaxaca. These seem to get long, so I’ll post day-by-day…

Day 1 – Monday October 24

Time of Start: 2:00am

Agenda:

·      Arrive in Oaxaca – after 10 hour bus ride

·      Benito Juarez Market – Downtown Oaxaca

The part of the day that I was most nervous about was having to call a taxi to come pick me up at 1:30am and bring me to the school. Where I live is literally in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Whenever I go home in taxis they usually don’t know where I’m talking about and I have to bust out my map. So, I was slightly concerned that I wouldn’t be able to communicate where I live and successfully get a cab to pick me up. Turns out I did a great job talking to the very nice lady on the phone … all in SPANISH and I got to school on time!

So the long bus ride began… IT WAS SO COLD ON THAT BUS!! Think about it we are driving in the middle of the night, here in Mexico you get all four seasons in one day. It cools off big time at night, I think it’s probably around 30-40 degrees. I was SO cold on that bus I thought I was in the middle of a Minnesotan winter without a jacket on! I was trying to sleep, but I was waking up a lot to count down the minutes until the sun would come up to warm us up!

 

The sun finally came up and we all started waking up just in time for me to watch us swerve up and down the mountains. I really was regretting not brining my little blue pills! A LONG 10 HOURS LATER we finally arrived in Oaxaca!

We dropped off our bags at the hotel and had some lunch and got back on the bus to wonder down to the Centro to have a look around. The town was absolutely gorgeous!!

Here is one of the churches the Cathedral of Oaxaca.

All the arches inside were covered with lilies! Emily you would have LOVED the smell in there!

Even though there were signs all around that said please don't take the flowers (in spanish) people were coming out with the arm loads! I even understood the signs!

Still the Cathedral of Oaxaca

This is Santo Domingo Church

  

Mo (my department head), Geo (the vice principal), Adrian (principle) and I went our own way without the kids and went for a coffee; much needed after a long bus ride with little sleep! On the way there we saw filming… our guess was that it was for a telenovela.

After a nice quiet coffee in the cutest square we headed into the Benito Juarez Market. 

Before we left our place where we had coffee I ran to the bathroom and found these guys... 

It was like most other markets I’ve been to BUT this market had a few specialty items… Chapulines (grasshoppers), Oaxaca Cheese, Oaxaca Mole, and Mezcal (Oaxaca Tequila).

¡¡Chapulines!!

I tried the cheese, I tried the mole, I tried the Mezcal AND I EVEN TRIED CHAPULINES!!! The kids thought I was pretty cool for doing it. It is definitely something to try, but something I will never eat again! They are really really salty and they SMELL really bad!! One girl was so nice, I think she could see the disgust on my face and asked if I wanted a piece of gum… I couldn’t get it in my mouth fast enough!

After they chanted my name for a couple minutes I gave in and said I would try them

I could only do the REALLY small ones!!

Get ready... get set...

GO!!!! I DID IT!!!

We also say the start of some Dia de Muerto decorations. 

The town was just gorgeous! Here are a few more pics of from the Centro! 

Before we left, one on my students gave me a flower... he wouldn't pose with me when he gave it to me on his knees ;)

 

After looking in a few more stores we got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel. I wasn’t the only one that was super tired; the kids even asked if they could just go to bed early. I figured if they were going to bed at 8:30, it would be okay if I did too. So that’s just how I ended my first day in Oaxaca! 

End of Day: 8:30pm