Tuesday, May 27

Today I went to Solexico for Spanish class and I am happy to report Paco was not waiting for me when I got our of class.  We had cooking class at 2pm and learned how to make green mole.  It’s actually wicked easy… you just put every green vegetable and fruit you can find, put it in a blender and then heat it on the stove, and serve over chicken, potatoes, and green beans.  I think this is the first truly Mexican food I have tried and I really liked it!

Just letting it simmer.

Green Mole: not something I would
think to order off a menu.

After class, the cook pulled me aside and told me Paco had walked in, looked around and saw I was busy and then left….  I’m happy I didn’t see him and I’m going to count this as a Paco-free day.

Looking over the balcony at the museum.

One of the girls from our school, Noami, invited me to go to a museum with her at 4pm.  I accepted and met her at the San Pablo museum after I dropped my school stuff back at home.  The museum was not as large as I expected, but the exhibit was very interesting.  It was about preserving the languages of the world because apparently every 14 days a language goes extinct!  The indigenous language of Mexico is Zapotec, and there are so many dialects of it, and none of it even sounds like Spanish, but they had clothing with Zapotec writing stitched into the patterns, it was very pretty.  Not to mention how beautiful the museum building was.

 

American Chopped Suey

On our way out we passed by a restaurant that had Lebanese food.  It’s definitely a place I want to try, but I had hamburger sitting in my fridge that I needed to cook.  So instead, I parted ways with Noami, told her I would meet her at dance class, and headed home to cook some American Chopped Suey.  I made so much of it, that I had to freeze 2 tupperware containers because there is no way I would be able to eat that much in 1 week.

At 7pm, I went to Zumba and liked it just as much as I liked it last time.  The women are still old and the instructor is still very out of shape.  But earlier in the day I had walked up and down every street from Independence to Constitution and came up empty handed!  I’ll have to ask Mrs. Irma tomorrow to help me find a new place.

I'm pretty sure he was trying to tell me something,
but I have such a hard time understanding all
the Spanish that I just started to smile and nod.

After Zumba, I went home and got Rocky and we started trudging our way through the rain, AGAIN, to go to dance class.  Tonight we learned how to Bachata, which is a very sexy dance.  Well, it’s supposed to be sexy, I looked more like a challenged duck in a room full of graceful and sexy swans, but I tried my best and definitely did better than yesterday!

 

This is how we Bachata!

When I got home I dug into a GIANT bowl of sweet strawberries while skyping with Gabriel.

3 mosquitoes were killed in the making of this blog post,

Maria Katerina

Monday, May 26

Red Shirt, Blue Jeans, White Bow: GO USA!

Happy Memorial Day!  In Oaxaca, it is business as usual and there is no day off from school.  So at 9am, I was sitting ready to start learning Spanish instead of being back in the States at a BBQ and soaking up the sun and taking out my bathing suit for the first time of the summer.  To represent, I wore Red, White, Blue…. As best I could.

As expected, Paco showed up at Solexico after class and it was time for me to make things very clear with him.  He asked we how my excursion was yesterday and I told him good, he asked me if I wanted to sit and I told him we should go for a walk… we only made it to the front door when I finally told him my perfectly practiced phrases.  He told me that he still likes seeing me, but he understands.  I hope this will be my last blog post that includes Paco.

After class, I was absolutely exhausted and took a nap.  And by nap, I mean I went to bed at 1pm and didn’t emerge until 6pm….  It was much needed, and let’s just call it a Monday Siesta.

It is a huge Thunderstorm outside!

I quickly changed into work out clothes and headed to the gym for Zumba class from 7pm-8pm.  It was a Thunderstorm outside and I really need to start considering better footwear.  After this Zumba class, I realized I don’t really fit in and should probably try to find a new Zumba class.  The women are all old and much more chubby than to be expected….

After Zumba, I wandered over to a park a few blocks away because I heard they do dance classes every weeknight at 8:30pm for 2 hours.  Unfortunately it started to down pour, so the instructor quickly picked up his stuff and took us to an indoor location… which appears to be a bike shop during the day, but I’m not quite sure.  We learned how to Salsa, and I didn’t think I was going to be great at it, but I was absolutely horrible at it!  I still had fun and met a lot of really nice people.  Tomorrow they are teaching us how to Bachata.

“You’re just too good to be true…. Can’t keep my eyes off of you” –Muse,

Maria Katerina

Sunday, May 25

Today was a fun filled day and filled with culture.  Rocky and I signed up to go on an excursion with Solexico to visit 5 popular destinations.  I took a lot of pictures and I think I’m going to let this be more of a look and learn blog post than me typing a lot:

We met up with 3 other students from our Spanish school at 9:50am and were picked up by a van at 10am.  There were 10 of us in total, including 5 of us from Solexico, a med student from North Carolina, a couple from Japan, and couple from Germany.  They all were very nice.

Our first stop: Arbol del Tulle- a ginormous tree with one of the widest girths.

 

A little church located next to the tree.

The grounds surrounding the tree are very pretty too.
Especially with the mountains in the background.

This Plant is called "Old Balls"

#LetMeTakeASelfie

Second destination: Textile Factory- by factory I mean a small shop where this man spends months making one rug at a time with natural materials.

 

Brushing out the sheep's wool.

Failed attempts at spinning the wool....

All of these colors are made with plants or insects... this white bug that lives
on the cactus makes a large variety of the colors.

This is how you weave a pattern into a rug.

The third and my favorite location: Hierve el Agua- which translates to boiling water.  It’s made up of a few natural pools located in the mountains and the water bubbles out of the rocks making an impression of boiling water…. The water is cold though, not hot.  I tried spicy Cheetos here at the concession stand…. Very interesting.

The view as we walk down to the springs.

Throw what you know!

The pools of water are formed at the edge of the mountain.

On the right, it looks like a waterfall, but it's actually just a collection
of sediment that has built up over many years.

This is our Solexico group: Me, Cogi, Jackson, Rocky, and Andrea

I can't believe how blue the sky is and how the mountains seem to continue on forever!

Rocky trying a spiced pineapple drink.

There are very few swimming pools in Oaxaca, the people come here for some fun instead.

We took a quick stop to grab a bite to eat at a Oaxaqueño Buffet before driving 30 minutes to our next stop.

Destination #4: Mitla- an archeological site.

Some of the ruins at Mitla

The inside of one of the tombs....

A beautiful Catholic church poking up from behind the wall.

Part of our tour group chilling on the stone wall.

Last, but not least, #5: Mezcal Distillery- mescal is the alcoholic drink of choice here in Oaxaca.  It’s very similar to Tequila.

This is a pile of the plants used to make Mezcal.

Many flavors of Mezcal lined up for a tasting.

The cook the plants down in this giant pit made of earth and rock.

We arrived back at Solexico around 6:30pm and walked about home.  At around 7pm, I heard the doorbell ring and peeped my head out the window… it was Paco, asking to see if I wanted to go to the movies.  Mrs. Irma answered the door and lied for me saying that I wasn’t home from the excursion yet.  I didn’t even ask her too, she’s amazing.  After she closed the door, she looked up to my window and giggled at me.  I am sooooo lucky to be living with this woman!

I headed to bed pretty early and skyped Gabriel some more.  He’s going to come visit Rocky and Me on June 9^th and stay in Oaxaca for a few weeks.

No entiendo.  Qué es un “Panty Dropper”?  Urban Dictionary for the win,

Maria Katerina

Saturday, May 24

I have officially been in Mexico for an entire week!  Time is going by so fast, pretty soon I’ll be packing my bags to head back to the United States L. 

Saturday was actually a pretty casual day.  Before I went to bed last night, I saw a post on Pinterest about Allegient, which is the third book in the Divergent series.  It mentioned something about chapter 50 and I was only on chapter 12, so I stayed up until 6am reading Allegient because I HAD TO KNOW what happened.  I only made it until chapter 40 before passing out.  And I had to be awake at 9am because Mrs. Irma volunteered to drive me to a supermarket.

mmmmm...CHOCOLATE!

The supermarket was pretty uneventful and everything is cheaper in Mexico, except for one VERY IMPORTANT item.  ICE CREAM!  1/3 of the cost of my groceries was for a quart (not even a gallon) of chocolate ice-cream.  It cost me 170 pesos, which comes out to be less than $15 US dollars, but still, $15 DOLLARS FOR ICE CREAM!  I had a craving and couldn’t resist and it was soooo worth it, but I’m still shocked by this. 

"READ ME!"

After grocery shopping, I wanted to go back to sleep so bad, but I saw Allegient sitting on my bedside table whispering how close I was to chapter 50, so I picked up my book and started reading again.  I didn’t stop at chapter 50, I kept reading until I finished, but at that time it was already 3:30 and I needed to go meet Rocky.

Lemonade from Cafe Brujula.

Rocky had met this guy named Miguel last week and apparently he plays the guitar at Café Brujula on Saturdays at 4pm.  I planned on meeting her there, but when I got to the café, I couldn’t find her.  Apparently, there was some really big soccer tournament that went in to overtime and she didn’t get to the café until after 5.  Because neither of us have cellphones that work without wifi, she couldn’t communicate that to me.  So I ordered a lemonade and played Candy Crush in the café for 45minutes.  After that, I decided I was either in the wrong place or was stood up, so I left and went to a Mediterranean Restaurant a flew blocks away from our house.  It was really good!

 

Yummy Balsamic Chicken with Veggies and Potato Puree.

Around 7pm Rocky showed up alive and well and due to the rain, we decided not to go to the Corona Music Fest with Paya the Clown, and instead went out with other Solexico students.  We went to 4 bars and had a lot of fun dancing in the last club.  We left probably around 3am and went out for Tacos before heading back home.

Gabriel dressing up like Paco... this is a
surprisingly accurate look-a-like photo...

In Mexico, bars and clubs stay open until 4am!  It’s crazy!  My body needs to adjust to staying up all night.  Later, I talked with Gabriel on Skype after he got home from celebrating Real Madrid winning that important soccer game.

“Be Brave” –Allegient,

Maria Katerina