Arrival

Last night was a blur of flights. I left LAX at 11:45pmàGuadalajara around 4amàMexico City at 7ish amà finally Oaxaca City at 12pm (which has a +2 hour difference from CA). Even though I was exhausted, I was too excited to go to sleep once I got here. 

Ice drink with "tuna" flavoring.
Turns out the tuna is a fruit,
 not the fish.

I’m staying with the Cuevas family in a lovely home – two homes actually! My room, bathroom, and essentially living space is at the Senora’s sister’s which is right next door. And then I just go to the Cuevas to eat. As soon as we got home she fed me spaghetti, chicken, beef tortilla, AND fruit. I couldn’t finish the fruit, I thought I was going to burst! Also, that was the best tortilla I’ve ever had. Why has the US been depriving me of legit tortillas??  Talking about things the US has been lying to me about: Spanish. It is spoken at a 100x faster speed than I’m used to from American-Latinos. I’ve said “Si” to a lot of questions I probably should have said no to. Hopefully I’ll get used to it soon!

The tourist road

I spent the last 2ish hours walking around downtown as the Cuevas live about 10-15mn walk from the center. Oaxaca, at least the amount of it I’ve seen, has such an authentic feel. Which is a powerful thing to have kept since it is packed with tourists. I held myself back from buying EVERYTHING today, but will probably do so by this weekend! Unlike most, I didn't travel here with a group so I hope I make some friends through the program to hang out with. As much as I love traveling alone, Oaxaca has the feel of the kind of place you want to share with people. 

Overall, so far, so good. I’m still kinda trying to understand my living situation because I don’t just want to be a moocher. But it seems as if the family is comfortable with me just doing whatever I want to do and then calling out to them if I need something? I don’t even know where anyone is right now. I also forgot that the program technically only has the families providing breakfast/lunch so I may have to go fetch my own dinner at some point, if I feel hungry. I’m still full from that brunch!

PS. I’m SUPER glad I took a refresher Spanish course before coming! Today would have been so much more intimidating if it had been the first time I’d heard Spanish in 3 years.

Santo Domingo