Even though the whole experience seems to have passed quickly, the last week in Oaxaca seemed to last less than the blink of an eye. All the students met together in the hostal for the last week and we made up for all the time that we had been apart. The only stress we still had left was our final presentations (and I had to go first!!!!). But once I finished my presentation, I was able to enjoy the other student's projects and relax a bit. Most of my days were filled with presentations, shopping for presents, eating at my favorite restaurants, stopping by COMI, saying goodbye to my Spanish Becari teachers and spending time with my friends.
Three nights before my flight, Giovanni (Nancy's brother) called me and asked if I wanted to get some coffee. I decided that there wouldn't be any harm in spending a bit of time with him (especially because Nancy had been so wonderful to me). The 'date' wasn't too bad and the coffee and cookies were really great. We went to an outdoor restaurant with a balcony overlooking a guitarist playing and singing some Mexican classics. It was a nice environment and Giovanni and I talked about lots of random things (Nancy, his job, his goals for the future)... It was a good indicator of how much I had improved because I was able to hold a conversation with him for almost an hour... and understand the majority. After we finished eating, he took me to the lookout over Oaxaca and we talked. (The only awkward moments of the evening were (1) when he tried to feed me cake with his fork (2) when he mentioned that his nephew still needed a godmother meaning me and (3) when he wanted to go for a walk with me around the lookout I politely declined)
I spent one night with Jackal and Wendy, eating pizza at a restaurant in the zocalo and then guarding the Casa del Migrante with them. The people who usually live there had taken the weekend to travel to the coast for their once a year vacation. It was nice to spend time with both Jackal and Wendy... we represented three different perspectives, three different generations (Jackal - 45 and finishing his bachelor's, Wendy 28 - and finishing her doctoarate and I - 21 and finishing my bachelor's).
The second to last night in Oaxaca, our whole group had finished all of our presentations and we were ready to hit the town and enjoy our last moments together. We went to a bar called El Gato Loco (The Crazy Cat) and it really was a crazy cat!! We danced all together as a group. There were a few times where we danced with people outside of the group, but for the most part we all stayed together. Next, we went to another club called Elephante (Elephant) and met up with some of the guys we had met at the radio station. I danced with a guy named Nahu for a few dances and I really had a great time with my friends.
The last day, we spent some of the morning recovering from the long night (we had been out until 5:00) and I finished preparing packing. I got a few last minute gifts then went to our favorite restaurant Cafe Brujula with Christian. The party seemed to arrive faster than I had expected and I got there to see my host family already waiting for my arrival. We spent the evening eating, dancing, talking, and hitting pinatas. There was a traditional pasada and Christian led our group through the pasada while we all sang and lit sparklers. When it came to hitting the pinata, everyone was blindfolded and told to only hit the pinata once (and I followed directions even though I think you are supposed to ignore them and hit the pinata as many times as you can). I was the only person who went twice because my host dad kept encouraging me to go again... At the end of the party, there was a band playing some traditional music and I danced with my host mom and dad.
Once the party had finished, my host family drove me to the COMI Christmas party to say goodbye to the staff at COMI. I dropped in while their party was winding down and was able to say goodbye to everyone except Jackal and Nancy (who had already left). Padre Fernando was dancing a mean Kumbia when I walked in and Joaquin was rocking out on the guitar. It was sad to say goodbye, but everything seemed to be passing so quickly.
My host family had waited for me to finish with the COMI party and then drove me to the hostal to say good-bye. It was hard to say goodbye to them because we had spent so much time together over the past 3 months. My host mom had gotten me a green scarf because it's my favorite color. (We had gone shopping for poinsettias and Christmas presents and she had asked what my favorite color was). Even though it was difficult to say good-bye, I am pretty sure that I will return one day and see them again.
Back at the hostal, we helped Jennie and Sarah catch a cab headed for the bus station. They were going to spend a few extra days in northern Mexico. After they left, everyone continued packing and we all stayed up and talked until we were too tired to keep our eyes open. At 4:30 A.M. Grace, Katy, and I went to the airport and waited for our flights. The two of them left at 6:00 and my flight left at 6:30. I had four flights for a total travel time of 20 hours and arrived in Cleveland at 12:00 pm. When I got off the plane, I smelled winter and knew I was back in Ohio ready to spend Christmas with my family, finish college, then find a way to get back to Mexico...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Time with family...
In my last week, I went out with my different families (family from COMI and host family). My host mom and I were supposed to go see a concert together, but I ended up going to the concert with my host dad because she was sick. Finding the concert hall was quite an adventure because the concert was held in one of the spare rooms of a clinic a little north of the city. After going to the wrong clinic then walking around for a while, we finally found the concert.
The music had already started when we arrived and my host dad and I snuck into the only two seats left. It was an interesting venue... the medical equipment had been pushed to the corner and the medical curtains were serving as a backstage area for the performers. There were four performers: a violinist, a clarinetist, a pianist/clarinetist and a man who played the bagpipes. The guy who played the clarinet and piano, also served as the MC for the concert and he introduced the songs and explained the purpose of the concert...
The wanted to educate the Oaxacan population about classical music, so that day they were playing songs written by Johann Bach. He explained each song and gave us some background information about Bach. (An interesting story was that Bach went blind towards the end of his life and the MC said that he and Beethoven would have a hard time watching concerts together because Beethoven was deaf and Bach was blind). Part of the concert included an explanation of each instrument and how it worked. My host dad was really excited about the piano because he has been taking keyboarding lessons for almost a year. The finished the concert with two fun popular songs to keep the interest of the audience. They were going to continue their concert series the next week with a session on Beethoven...
After the concert, my host dad and I stopped at a taco stand on the street. We got two tacos and watched the beginning of a soccer game with Cruz Azul. He also convinced me to try a jalapeno pepper.... it was soooo hot. But to be a gentlemen he bought a coca cola to cool down the spiciness. It was really nice to spend the evening with him.
Later that week, my adviser's sister came to Oaxaca to spend the weekend at the beach. Before they headed out to the coast, Susan and Randy wanted to take us out to lunch. So Wendy, Jackal, Susan, Randy, Susan's sister and brother-in-law, and I piled into Randy's tracker and went to a little restaurant on the outskirts of town. The food was served in buffet style and I decided to try as many things as I could. The food was really wonderful and it was nice to learn a bit more about Susan.
The next day, Susan left for the coast and Wendy, Jackal, Nancy and I were in charge of the office. The rest of the week went pretty well and I spent my weekend working on my final project. During my study breaks, I hung out with my host family... Denise and I went to see Crepusculo "Twilight" at the movie theater. After working hard all weekend, I took a break Monday after work to go to lunch at Nancy's (the secretary's) house.
Jackal, Wendy and I split a cab and bought a tray of cookies to bring to the house. Nancy's mom made us memelitas with dough that she had prepared at home. They were amazing and it was fun to hang out with Nancy and her family. She has a 13 year old son (Jesus or Chucho) and a six year old daughter (Frida). Also at the lunch, Nancy's younger sister and her children had some memelitas too.
About half-way through the lunch, Nancy started talking about her younger brother Giovanni. Her dad told Wendy that she should think of dating Giovanni (to practice her Spanish). But Wendy mentioned how she has a fiance and is about to get married in May. As the other female (non-family) option, her dad then said that I could date Giovanni... As always, I wasn't very good about being direct and so I just laughed and said that I could definitely use help with Spanish. We joked about how Mexican weddings are really fun and last for almost a week. By the time they were about to finish joking about me becoming their daughter-in-law, Giovanni pulled up on a motorcycle in his police uniform...
He was definitely an attractive guy, but I wasn't planning on dating anybody... especially during the last week of the program. I thought that they would stop talking about me marrying their son when he was at the table... but I was wrong. Nancy's mom ended up asking me if I thought her son was good-looking and if I wanted to be her daughter-in-law. I just kinda giggled and mentioned that I would have to ask my boyfriend if it would be ok for me to marry Giovanni... but they still didn't get the point...
After lunch ended, I played tag with the kids and spun the little ones around in circles. We went back to the city center by bus and then walked back towards the zocalo all together. The kids were going to see all the poinsettias decorating the center. (I'll put some pictures of all the flowers). The entire zocalo was covered in red with poinsettia trees in the middle of the walkways. Wendy, Jackal and I said good-bye to the kids and stopped at Wendy's house. She helped edit my paper and give me suggestions (as a doctorate student she has quite a bit of experience with writing research papers). I spent a very long night (without sleep) working on my final paper.
The next day I turned in the paper and then spent the evening with my host family. They dropped me off at the hostal at 11:30 that night with all my luggage packed. I told them I would come and visit before the going away party scheduled for a few days later.
The music had already started when we arrived and my host dad and I snuck into the only two seats left. It was an interesting venue... the medical equipment had been pushed to the corner and the medical curtains were serving as a backstage area for the performers. There were four performers: a violinist, a clarinetist, a pianist/clarinetist and a man who played the bagpipes. The guy who played the clarinet and piano, also served as the MC for the concert and he introduced the songs and explained the purpose of the concert...
The wanted to educate the Oaxacan population about classical music, so that day they were playing songs written by Johann Bach. He explained each song and gave us some background information about Bach. (An interesting story was that Bach went blind towards the end of his life and the MC said that he and Beethoven would have a hard time watching concerts together because Beethoven was deaf and Bach was blind). Part of the concert included an explanation of each instrument and how it worked. My host dad was really excited about the piano because he has been taking keyboarding lessons for almost a year. The finished the concert with two fun popular songs to keep the interest of the audience. They were going to continue their concert series the next week with a session on Beethoven...
After the concert, my host dad and I stopped at a taco stand on the street. We got two tacos and watched the beginning of a soccer game with Cruz Azul. He also convinced me to try a jalapeno pepper.... it was soooo hot. But to be a gentlemen he bought a coca cola to cool down the spiciness. It was really nice to spend the evening with him.
Later that week, my adviser's sister came to Oaxaca to spend the weekend at the beach. Before they headed out to the coast, Susan and Randy wanted to take us out to lunch. So Wendy, Jackal, Susan, Randy, Susan's sister and brother-in-law, and I piled into Randy's tracker and went to a little restaurant on the outskirts of town. The food was served in buffet style and I decided to try as many things as I could. The food was really wonderful and it was nice to learn a bit more about Susan.
The next day, Susan left for the coast and Wendy, Jackal, Nancy and I were in charge of the office. The rest of the week went pretty well and I spent my weekend working on my final project. During my study breaks, I hung out with my host family... Denise and I went to see Crepusculo "Twilight" at the movie theater. After working hard all weekend, I took a break Monday after work to go to lunch at Nancy's (the secretary's) house.
Jackal, Wendy and I split a cab and bought a tray of cookies to bring to the house. Nancy's mom made us memelitas with dough that she had prepared at home. They were amazing and it was fun to hang out with Nancy and her family. She has a 13 year old son (Jesus or Chucho) and a six year old daughter (Frida). Also at the lunch, Nancy's younger sister and her children had some memelitas too.
(pics of memiltas)
About half-way through the lunch, Nancy started talking about her younger brother Giovanni. Her dad told Wendy that she should think of dating Giovanni (to practice her Spanish). But Wendy mentioned how she has a fiance and is about to get married in May. As the other female (non-family) option, her dad then said that I could date Giovanni... As always, I wasn't very good about being direct and so I just laughed and said that I could definitely use help with Spanish. We joked about how Mexican weddings are really fun and last for almost a week. By the time they were about to finish joking about me becoming their daughter-in-law, Giovanni pulled up on a motorcycle in his police uniform...He was definitely an attractive guy, but I wasn't planning on dating anybody... especially during the last week of the program. I thought that they would stop talking about me marrying their son when he was at the table... but I was wrong. Nancy's mom ended up asking me if I thought her son was good-looking and if I wanted to be her daughter-in-law. I just kinda giggled and mentioned that I would have to ask my boyfriend if it would be ok for me to marry Giovanni... but they still didn't get the point...
After lunch ended, I played tag with the kids and spun the little ones around in circles. We went back to the city center by bus and then walked back towards the zocalo all together. The kids were going to see all the poinsettias decorating the center. (I'll put some pictures of all the flowers). The entire zocalo was covered in red with poinsettia trees in the middle of the walkways. Wendy, Jackal and I said good-bye to the kids and stopped at Wendy's house. She helped edit my paper and give me suggestions (as a doctorate student she has quite a bit of experience with writing research papers). I spent a very long night (without sleep) working on my final paper.
The next day I turned in the paper and then spent the evening with my host family. They dropped me off at the hostal at 11:30 that night with all my luggage packed. I told them I would come and visit before the going away party scheduled for a few days later.
Los raices and San Jarocho
RAICES!!!
There was a musical group called Raices almost like the Von Trapp family. They are a family from Veracruz who played alot of protest songs during the uprising in 2006. We went to see them four different times while we were in Oaxaca. In that final month, I watched the group with my host mom at a big book fair.
The next week, Jennie, Joshua, Christain, Sarah and I went to an abaondonded railroad station turned into a museum for a 'jam session.' Raices was there with many of their fans. It was really cool because they were just playing and dancing with everyone. There were five or six non-members of the group that had guitars and just started playing with them... one guy was a short little chubby American with gray hair. My favorite part of their performance was the pateadores the 'steppers.' The daughters, mother, father, and one of the brothers all took turns 'stepping' on a wooden platform. It was cool to watch them and the percussive element it added made the music even more exciting. There were about 8 guitarists with guitars of different sizes, and the mom played an interesting percussion instrument (she used a stick to strum the teeth of a cow skull... it sounded kinda like a xylophone)
This is not Raices, but you can see the box that they step on...The concert at the railroad station was so much fun that we decided to go see them play in the center another time. It was a bigger concert and there were more people, but Raices put on a great show again. I have their songs on my itunes but I couldn't find a video of the group on youtube so I have an example of a group that sounds like Raices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z7rptEKE1Y&feature=related
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