oaxaca – Lakesidegirl

What I’m Into: February 2014

As I publish this post, it’s mid-March. The internet hasn’t been great here, so most days the thought of fighting the internet to upload pictures in order to blog is just too much. Hence, this post about February is nearly three weeks late.

February was a great month in Mexico. After months of classes and hard work, I have graduated from Spanish School. As I’ve said every month, I still have far to go in my ability to speak and understand, but after completing Level 4 I have all the tools I need become fluent. I just have to keep practicing! While I’m not fluent yet, I’m on my way and I can understand and communicate so much more than I could when I started school in September. I’m staying until the first week of April to keep practicing my Spanish (I knew back in September that I wouldn’t want to leave as soon as Spanish school was over) and to just enjoy living in Mexico for a little while longer.

In other good news, my sister returned! In the middle of February she was able to finalize all her paperwork and come back to Mexico as a temporary resident. Part of the reason I came here to Mexico was to spend time with sister, so it’s great to have her back!

This month, I successfully found someone in Cacalote who cuts hair, made an appointment for a hair cut, and asked for a specific hair cut, all in Spanish. To top it off, I also got the hair cut I asked for, which means I can speak Spanish after all! For a day or two, my hair cut was all people wanted to talk about at Spanish School—not a lot happens here, so any change is news.

Look, Emily came back! And my hair is short.

Books

I finished five books in February. This pace is still not quite where I need to be to read 100 books this year, but not being in Spanish School anymore might help me with that goal.

Books I finished:

My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock, 3 stars
Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey, 5 stars
Lean In by Sheryl Sand berg, 4 stars
Prodigy by Marie Lu, 4 stars
The Good Nurse, by Charles Graeber, 3 stars

Oaxaca

To celebrate my graduation from Spanish School, Emily and I went on a weekend trip to Oaxaca City, the capital of our state. It’s a beautiful city that is unfortunately only reachable by a terrible mountainous bus ride. I’m almost done with a post describing our trip—until then, enjoy these pictures from beautiful Oaxaca City.

Olympics

Those who know me well know how much I love the Olympics. I have watched every Olympics (Winter and Summer) religiously since the Atlanta Games in 1996. Alas, I don’t have access to satellite or cable television, the internet is slow, and even if the internet wasn’t slow NBC doesn’t allow people outside of the US watch its broadcasts online. Our weekend trip to Oaxaca, though, coincided with the last weekend of the Olympics, and our hotel had fast internet AND cable TV. We caught snippets of different events, but it was just a treat to watch some of the competitions.

It’s quite different watching on not-NBC, where they show every contestant in an event, sans effusive’ commentary and replays. One of the main events being shown was downhill skiing, where we watched many skiers slide off the track while others finished the course many seconds from the medals. As soon as one skier finished (or didn’t), the camera went straight back to the top for the next competitor. Even if there was a spectacular wipeout, we didn’t see it in an instant replay. It’s surprisingly fascinating to watch the same course being skied dozens of times.

This is a sight never seen on NBC, where the tapes of the winners and Americans are packaged for a prime-time American audience. I missed that familiar packaging and story-telling but it was entertaining to see a different side to the Olympics. I look forward to watching the Rio Olympics in 2016—but I had no idea I’d be in Mexico for Sochi, so who knows where I will be for Rio. I just hope not actually in Rio de Janiero: I learned Spanish, not Portuguese.

Looking Forward

March will be my last month living in Mexico. I had no idea last year that this would be my life, but I’m thankful for it. I hope that after spending this extra month practicing Spanish after Spanish School, I will feel more confident in my Spanish speaking and understanding abilities. I’ve enjoyed my time here in Mexico, but as I get closer to April I’m more excited to return and see what’s next for me in Tulsa.

What I’m Into: January 2014

I began January in my cold home of Oklahoma, waiting to go back to my much warmer home in Mexico. Winter used to be my favorite season, but this year, going from the warmth of Mexico to the shock of frozen weather in Oklahoma was just too much. Who knew that I, who used to love cloudy, dreary days, would miss the sun so much? By the end of my time in Oklahoma, I was over the weak sun and early sunsets. So off I flew to my other home in Mexico (a couple days late, but that’s another story) to finish up Spanish School and enjoy the beautiful weather. January was pretty great: Here’s What I Was Into inspired by Leigh Kramer.

Travel

My travel to Mexico was supposed to be simple. I would take two short flights, then get picked up at the airport about 2 hours away from my final destination of Roca Blanca. However, thanks to bitter cold, changes in the FAA’s rules for how long pilots can work before they have to rest, and incompetent airlines, my travel became much more difficult. My first flight from Tulsa to Houston was cancelled the night before it was scheduled to leave, and despite the promises of United’s website, I could not just easily rebook online. And when I tried calling (approximately 15 times), the automated system asked me a number of questions then simply told me it wished it could help, but operators were too busy, call back later, CLICK.

It was very stressful to go to bed not knowing if I was going to travel the next day or not, or if I would have to wait another week for the next flight to Huatulco. When my mom and I went to the airport the next morning (a Monday) to talk to an actual human to fix my flights, it was 5 degrees. All I could think was: I was supposed to be in 80 degree weather today!

Fortunately, the human employees of United are excellent. A wonderful ticket counter attendant was able to switch my whole itinerary to fly to Puerto Escondido, an airport only 45 minutes away from Roca Blanca. That was a much better alternative than waiting a whole week more for a flight to Huatulco! My flight to Houston would leave on Tuesday at mid-day, I would spend the night in Houston, then fly to Mexico City early Wednesday, then go from Mexico City to Puerto, arriving in the early afternoon on Wednesday.

My itinerary was changed at no cost to me, but because my flight issues were allegedly “weather-related,” the airline did not have to pay for my hotel in Houston. I bet the airlines were pretty excited to have that terrible weather the same weekend as those rule changes, because it sure saved them a lot of money in hotel and food vouchers.

Once I actually got on my way, everything went smoothly. My hotel in Houston even had 2 TVs! I also got to experience the Mexico City airport for the first time, which was awesome because I could actually communicate with workers and others in the airport. Hurrah for international travel! It was a lot of traveling and a medium amount of stress, but I made it to Mexico, just two days late. It was such a relief to finally arrive in my other home.

Why yes, that is a turboprop with the Mexico City Airport in the background

Nivel 4

In January I started my final level of Spanish school! Once again, I am the lone student, which makes decisions like who in the level will give the first devotion pretty simple. My speaking is improving, but I am still struggling with understanding more complicated conversation and almost any conversation from someone speaking at a normal speed. I’m glad that I’m staying here until the beginning of April after the end of my time in Spanish school to have more time to practice here.

I’m a big fan of shows from the USA Network, like Psych, White Collar, and Monk. One show I always knew I would like be never took the time to watch was Covert Affairs. I’d seen an episode here and there with a friend, but if I were going to watch it, I wanted to start at the beginning. I bought the first three seasons on sale once, and kept them for a rainy day. Or, as it turned out, a sunny month in Mexico. I finally started watching, and promptly finished all three seasons in January. It was amazing. Spies? Strong female characters? Washington DC? Trips to the Smithsonian? Positive inclusion of a character with a disability who doesn’t constantly need help and is most often the one who saves others? SOLD. The fourth season has aired, but is not yet available on DVD, so I will have to wait until I go back to the US to find out what happens next. I highly recommend Covert Affairs.

Books

I set an ostentatious reading goal for 2014: 100 books. I basically need to read 8 books a month to pull that off, and I only finished 4 in January, so I’m going to need to pick up my pace. I might not read 100 books this year, but I definitely won’t if I don’t give myself that goal, so I’m at least going to try.

The two main highlights of my completed books in January were Shatter Me and Under the Never Sky, two dystopian young adult literature (YAL) novels. I’d been in the beginning of both of these books for quite a while, but could never get into them. Then one day that changed and I I was quickly reading both of them. This was occasionally confusing, because while they are unique, the female protagonist and strange dystopian world combination sometimes made me forget which one was which.

I loved Shatter Me more, because I thought the author’s writing style was fresh and different. For example, the main character’s thoughts that she is ashamed of or scared of are presented with a line through. It was a great way to show her confusion, without constantly having her say, oh I don’t know, I’m confused. I identified with the character, because sometimes my thoughts feel that way, words running across the screen of my mind, some of which need to be struck through because they aren’t quite right or just not ready to be thought yet.

As always, I’m currently reading many books, including Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, Sarah Bessey’s Jesus Feminist and the sequels to the aforementioned dystopian YAL, Unravel Me and Through the Ever Night . I really enjoy

Music

Thanks to church and worship services here, I listen to a lot of great worship music in Spanish. In my down time though, I prefer to give my brain a break and listen to some English. In January, I listened to a lot of Florence + the Machine, Brooke Fraser, and Alison Krauss. Apparently January is the month for female artists for me?

New

When I came to Mexico back in August 2013, the main thing I was not looking for was a man. I came to Mexico to learn Spanish, to get away, to live in another country for awhile, to spend time with my sister. Starting a relationship was not on my list of things to do. At all. Well, then Kevin came to Spanish school in October. And then we became friends. And then he liked me and I liked him and then I went home for Christmas and we communicated nearly every day and then I came back to Mexico and now we’re dating. !!!

I was here in Mexico last January, visiting Emily. My life is literally nothing like it was then, except that I’m back in Mexico. Had you told me then just how much new there would be in my life now, in January 2014, I wouldn’t have believed you. But now here I am in Mexico learning Spanish, and so is Kevin, and it’s pretty wonderful.

Looking Forward

In February I will be graduating Spanish school. I’m not returning to America right away, not until the beginning of April. I wanted to spend more time practicing Spanish after school and to spend more time with my sister. Alas, my sister is still in America waiting on things like paperwork and redtape to sort itself out. I’ve gotten really good at explaining in Spanish the whereabouts of my sister—that happens when everyone is asking you in Spanish where she is. I hope that in February I can report her return!

Spanish School Family

Yesterday, I wrote about the school side of Spanish School. Now that school is explained, I want to talk about the more entertaining part: the people! I am one of 23 Spanish School students in this session. We range in age from 18 to 71, and we are a lively bunch. The group divides fairly neatly into two categories: the young people and the couples. There are four older couples (as in, they have children and grandchildren older), the middle-aged couple, the youngish newlywed couple, and 13 young people. We also have seven teachers, including my sister Emily (who is an additional member of “the young people.”

I am the oldest (by only a few months) of the young people, but I appear to be the youngest. In fact, one of the young gentlemen here asked me, upon my arrival, “So, have you graduated high school?” Because he was already friends with Emily from earlier in the year, I knew how old he was, and I had to restrain myself from saying, “Oh honey, I’m two years older than you.” (Ah the trials of appearing 16. People keep telling me I’ll appreciate it when I’m older, but I keep getting older and I still don’t appreciate it.)

Essentially, as a group we’re a funny little Spanish School family, made up of older, wiser people who are responsible and study a lot and go to bed on time (and I mean this as a sincere compliment), as well as we younger people who like to run around and be silly and study occasionally and go to bed late. We young people have a lot of fun together attempting to experience all the interesting things our area of Mexico has to offer.

I liken the Spanish School family to a large family vacation or reunion. At a family reunion, you’re with many people you like and love, but you can move around and hang out with lots of different people. There’s almost always something entertaining and/or cultural happening, as well as plenty of people with whom you can enjoy that cultural entertainment.

Spanish school family (among the young people) includes, but is not limited to:

sharing food, sometimes by literally taking food off of other people’s plates, while other times it just means giving what you don’t want to eat to the hungry young man sitting next to you
getting lost in the city and not having a meeting point planned but finding each other anyway because Emily and I were in separate groups and sometimes we can read each others’ minds
having a group Bible study in English but going to Bible study mostly because the newlyweds bake cookies and have fresh fruit (FELLOWSHIP and fruit)
throwing impromptu late night swing dance parties
having a bonfire birthday party on the beach
and more and more

Whenever you’re in such a close environment, studying, living, eating, celebrating together, you become close quickly. We plan each others’ birthday parties, throw impromptu swing dance parties, discover new restaurants and revisit old favorites, explore cities, study the Bible in English and try to read it in Spanish, learn about each others’ lives before now and where we want them to go. It’s messy and great and awkward and wonderful all at the same time.

The sad thing about Spanish School Family is that every 7-8 weeks, the family changes. Today, many of my new friends leave and move on to other adventures. The lone Level 4 is moving on to a new job in the states, the Level 3 who is my housemate (we live in the same house and share a Mexican family) is returning home (and both these people have become dear friends—today is awful because they’re going; I’ve been crying all day), and all of the older couples are going on to other adventures.

The trouble with becoming close to people, with becoming friends, with becoming family is that it hurts when you have to say goodbye. And this weekend is just the first round of my goodbyes here—I have two more sessions of Spanish to learn and new friends to make! The joys of friendship, community, and family, though, are well worth the pain of saying goodbye.

Cassie, Emily, Sarah, Jenny, Joey, Peter (front row) Nathan, Mark, Dylan, Rob (back row)

Spanish School Life

Now that I’ve been in Mexico for seven weeks, it’s more than past time to answer the question: So, what am I doing here in southern Mexico? Since the beginning of September, I have been attending Roca Blanca Spanish Language School in the state of Oaxaca. The goal by the end of my time here at the school is (obviously) to become fluent in Spanish. I want to give you a little glimpse into how I’m trying to accomplish that goal.

Spanish School is in session every day Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 1:00 PM with an hour break for almuerzo (breakfast/brunch/first lunch). On “A” days, I have gramatica (grammar), fonetica (phonetics), vocabulario (vocabulary), and laboratorio (laboratory—basically practicing speaking Spanish). On “B” days, I have gramatica, verbos (verbs), patrones (patterns), and traducción (translation). After a couple of alternating ABABAB days, we have “C”days, which just means it’s time for a test. This goes on for 7 weeks, then there is a week break before the next session starts.

Currently, I am finishing Level 2 out of 4. I was able to begin in this level because I knew enough Spanish to skip Level 1. Most of Level 2, though, has been review for me. Nearly all my grammar lessons have had concepts I’ve learned before, but had forgotten. It’s been a great way to ease back in to learning Spanish.

Next session, I will complete Level 3, then when I return to Mexico in January I will complete Level 4. I plan to stay an extra month past Level 4 to keep practicing my Spanish in this “immersion” setting. If I’m putting this much time into learning the language, I want to make sure I know it and can use it!

The hardest part, of course, of language learning, is understanding what people say and then being able to speak back. You know, having conversations? For Level 3, I will be the only student in my level, because my current classmates are moving on to other adventures and no one new is entering into Level 3. Being the only student in my class will challenge me in my language learning because I will be the only one responsible for knowing the answers. I will miss my current classmates, but I’m excited for this new part of my adventure.

Me with my Nivel Dos classmates and our vocabulary teacher — Me with my Level 2 classmates and our vocabulary teacher