EIL Intercultural Learning

Hola!

Greetings from Mexico, this keyboard has all the letters so I'm taking advantage and updating my blog! Well where to begin, what adventures I have had since last time. The title of the blog doesn't cover the half of it!

I arrived in Mexico City after an 18 hour journey, Dublin > London > New York > Mexico. Was like a child on my first long haul flight, the novelty of the never ending food and drinks never wore out and of course lots of movies to watch. Got to see "The Last Song" which has a scene with sea turtles being released on a beach...quite apt for me going to La Ventanilla! Finally then I arrived in Mexico City with......no luggage! All the care and attention I had put into packing that monster of a bag and the poor thing had been left in New York by the airline. I was told it would be on the next flight.....more about that later!

Was greeted by Carmen one of the coordinators who brought me to my hotel and I had a little sleep. Then up in the afternoon to meet Cecila the other coordinator for my orientation. Afterwards we went for a gorgeous lunch to meet her husband Kevin, from EIL Ireland. It was really nice to be in Mexico City with locals to show me around! Still no luggage.......

The next day my lovely "tour guide" Carmen brought me around Mexico City, we had to go in early because the match against Argentina was on and things would get a bit crazy in the centre. In the main square a giant "FIFA Fan Fest" was set up with big TV screens and the atmosphere was electric, about 1 million people headed for the square later for the match. While there we saw the Cathedral and climbed to the top to a wonderful view of the city, also we went intothe Presidential Palace which has amazing paintings by Diego Rivera depicting the history of Mexico, some people might know him from the movie "Frieda". We saw the Aztec ruins where Montezuma's palace once stood. Next it was time to leave the centre and get some delicious lunch, I'm quite fond of food and Mexico has not let me down! Here we caught the match and I was so disappointed that my amigos lost! After this we saw the Shrine of Maria of Guadalupe and then onto Reforma which is like the Champs Elysee in Paris, the Independence Angel in the middle is quite a sight to behold. I was very impressed by Mexico City. When I returned to the hotel....still no luggage. By now I needed some things and had a quick shop near the hotel to get me by.

Up early the next day for the 6 hour bus to Oaxaca, beautiful countryside and mountains along the way and August Rush on the TV in Spanish! Do ya hablo to the luna?!! Ok so arrived at my host family and really landed head first into Mexico, away from the comfort of my English speaking friends in Mexico City. When I tried to speak Spanish it came out as a mixture of French and random Spanish words. It didn't matter as my family are very nice and I settled in well. Still no luggage, when I arrived at the door my host mother said where is your bag, wouldn't I like to know!

Started at the language school the next day, I am in the beginners class, naturally! I can generally understand what people are saying and reply making little sense, but I've survived so far. Everyone at the school is really nice and I'm a novelty Irish girl among 99% Americans! I have class everyday, written, grammar, conversation and then salsa class....I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty bad...I try but I need a lot of practice, however if the guy you are dancing with is good they make the whole thing look good so it's grand! Still no luggage.......despite my efforts to track it.

I have really settled into life here, the weather is fantastic, there is always something going on and the people are very nice. There is a free cinema we go to and the other night it was Beetlejuice with Spanish subtitles, very funny and strange! Oh yeah the title of the blog, I better get to that. Well the other night there was an earthquake, 6.2 which is pretty strong, I never heard it but the next morning they said it shook the house 3 times....I can't believe I slept through my first earthquake, in school though about 50% of people hadn't heard it either! It made the news back home though! Oh Oaxaca! There were also elections here yesterday so all week there have been planes circling with announcements advertising the politicians. They also explode fireworks here like there is no tomorrow, every night, sometimes right above the house. I'm still not used to it and you jump cos it sounds like a gunshot above your head, the little girl in my house is 3 and she asked me if I was scared of them....she's 3....I was like yeah we don't have them in Ireland so I need to got used to them!!

My bag arrived in a storm at 11p.m on Tuesday, so 4 days without it, I was so delighted to see it, mostly for my own comfy footwear and the presents I had brought, New York definitely didn't need the hurls as much as Mexico does!                                                                   

Finally the excursions. Went on some trips at the weekend with the school, Saturday to 3 towns with fantastic craftspeople, I wanted to buy everything but pottery doesn't travel well, hopefully the small things I got will make it home. The wealth of artisan talent around Oaxaca is unbelievable, check out http://www.zenyfuentes.com/ one of the guys we visited, carves animals from one piece of wood. I told him if he comes to Ireland I'll promote him no problem!

Yesterday went to visit Monte Alban which is an ancient Zapotec ruins, I have loads of pictures but this computer doesn't have a space for my card so instead here is what Google has to offer http://www.raysadventures.com/mexico/MexicoTrip1989/images/MonteAlban1-Mexico-1989.jpg. It was amazing to see this ancient city and the rich history that goes with it.

Other than that I've just been enjoying Oaxaca, trying to learn Spanish and promoting Ireland and Irish culture, I brought the hurls to school today and explained it to some American and Mexicans, they all agreed it's was good fun. They hit the ball onto the roof a couple of times though! Also started my intercambio today which is language exchange with someone from Oaxaca, it was fun.

Oh and I ate my first grasshopper today! They say if you eat a grasshopper in Oaxaca you will return...that's ok with me! It was crunch, salty and had a strong aftertaste. I felt like I was on Survivor, good for protein I guess!

Oh dear I think this post is really long and also has no pictures, I hope I made sense, I've probably forgotten lots, I could go on all day but those of you who know me know that you can only listen for so long!

Hasta luego folks, take care

MC