Monte Alban

Monte Alban, originally uploaded by sappycoldplaywhore.

Monte Alban was really gorgeous. (Well, duh, I mean, look at this picture.) And it wasn't too hot; I didn't even get burnt!

Classes "started" today. We took our Spanish placement tests and met our intercambios. My student's name is Sara.

I was placed in Advanced Spanish, although I don't see how, as two girls in Intermediate are Spanish majors. But I like my teacher; she told us which museums in Oaxaca are the best and where they have a cinema club every night except Mondays.

Classes begin properly tomorrow. We do two classes per day and start a new session once we've done 45 hours of class. First session, I'm taking Advanced Spanish (duh) and Practical Writing (for Spanish). I'll take History of Mesoamerica and Economics next session, and Contemporary Mexican Women Writers and possibly another Spanish class for the third session.

El mejor adviso todavía he oído

Para toda mal: Mezcal. Para toda bien: también.

Fuimos a Monte Alban y una iglesia se llama Cuilapán hoy. Poneré fotos cuando las están (estén? sí, estén) estén en Flickr.

My first Mezcal

Most of the rest of the students in the program arrived today, and this girl named Catherine gave me a call. She's an indie kid (the good kind) from upstate New York who buys loose tobacco and skins instead of real cigarettes.

We met up with Ashley at the Zócalo (that's the proper name for the central plaza) and we were chatting outside the Hotel Monte Alban when this guy named Carlos came up to us, saying he needed to talk to someone in English. Okay, whatever. He said he's from Oaxaca but lived in San Diego and Chicago, which explained his American accent. He talked to us for awhile, then came back fifteen minutes later and suggested we go out.

Okay, we said, one drink.

His brother (okay) and his father (what?) came with us and ordered six Mezcals. Which is Oaxacan tequlia. I think. Anyway, it was somewhat awkward, because we fully intended to scadoodle (and Ashley kept mentioning the movie Taken to us, like, WE KNOW IT'S SKETCH, DON'T REMIND US) after the one drink. Which we did.

But hey, first drink! Bought for me by Mexicans! On my second night here! We are fucking pro.

No es baño

No es baño, originally uploaded by sappycoldplaywhore.

Sí, no es baño. Es un lugar muy agradable. (I shot this photo walking home today. There's a freakin' time stamp on it because I'm retarded and my camera is new. That's my excuse.)

Fui a camino este tarde con una otra estudiante, se llama Ashley. Ella es de Tennessee y tiene un accento muy sureño. Fuimos al centro y miramos algunos parques y calles, y compramos helado de fresas y crema para sólo once pesos (es menos de un dolar).

Para almuerzo, mi mamá cocinó sopa de zanahorias, pasta, y poblanos lleno de queso. Estoy comiendo más verduras que comía en los Estados. Tal vez estaré sana, para una vez.



I went for a walk this afternoon with my fellow study-abroad student, Ashley. She's from Tennessee and has an extremely Southern accent. I love it. We walked around, getting acquainted with the parks and streets. I saw a poster for a ballet company doing Swan Lake. I think I might go see that; the tickets are less than $30. We bought some ice cream (strawberries and cream!) for 11 pesos, which is less than a dollar. I love cheap ice cream.

For lunch, my host mother made carrot soup, pasta, and poblano peppers stuffed with cheese. OMG, she's a great cook. I'm actually eating vegetables. I'll finally be healthy for once.

Ahora, es el tiempo por una siesta. ¡Adios!

Already left on that jet plane

It’s not an adventure without a few hiccups, right?

When we got to LAX last night, we found out not only was my direct flight to Oaxaca canceled meaning I had to take a plane to Guadalajara then Oaxaca, but Orbitz NEVER ACTUALLY BOOKED MY TICKETS. For neither the flight there nor the return trip. Thanks, Orbitz. You suck. Luckily, (I would cite god, but I don’t believe in divine intervention) there was room on the plane and the round-trip ticket was only $75 more than what Orbitz charged (even though we booked back in March?). It is now up to my mum to investigate whether or not Orbitz every actually charged us for those tickets, etc.

All things considered, I actually had a nice flight and was even able to sleep a little. I had a lovely chat with a bloke from Australia during my layover. He was going to Monterey (Buena suerte, mijo) for work, to sell cell phones or some such. He lives in Bejing and moved there without learning Mandarin beforehand. What a fucking pro.

I arrived in Oaxaca about two hours later than originally planned, which the director, Layla, told me was a good thing, because it meant she didn’t have to get up as early. I’m always glad to be of service.

As we took the airport taxi through Oaxaca, Layla pointed out the commercial area, which is completely globalised, full of European and American car dealerships and fast food restaurants. Yes, I was expecting at least a McDonald’s, but there is also a Burger King, KFC, and Pizza Hut. No In-N-Out yet though. Shame. Decent American fast food will someday make its way south of the border. And it turns out half those things I was worrying about were things I shouldn’t have worried about, because they have a freakin’ Sam’s Club here. Wal-Mart’s evil proliferation clearly knows no international bounds.

My host family is adorable and they have a lovely house and my host mother is an excellent cook. For lunch (aquí se llama ‘comida’, no ‘almuerzo’) she made some chicken, rice, and broccoli, but the amazing part is that I actually ate the broccoli. I KNOW. My mother will be so jealous; she’s been trying to get me to eat vegetables properly my whole life.

This evening we went to la plaza central, where la catedral and el palacio de gobierno are. They were having “Viernes Cultural”, with a girl singing opera and some teenagers doing a badly choreographed and rehearsed dance. Bless their souls, pero necesitan practicar mucho más. Mucho, mucho más.

I’m quite enamoured with Oaxaca so far, even with its areas of blatant commercialization. I don’t want to be a condescending, liberal asshole, but I like the slightly run-down buildings and unkempt sidewalks. I feel like they have character and an understated beauty of things that are there because they are useful and no one is worried about them being pretty. I like that.

After all that, I am not going to bother writing something else entirely in Spanish, because I am too tired right now. Also, I have been speaking in Spanish all day and probably shaming todos los hispanohablantes del mundo with my bad grammar and made-up words.

¡Hasta luego!

The jittery feeling

I leave in T minus 10 hours and instead of making sure all the last-minute things are packed and all the proper paperwork copied and the Is dotted and the Ts crossed, I am sitting here at my desk, playing Tetris on my laptop.

And have I mentioned OH SHIT?


I think I need to read some Harry Potter and calm down. And, you know, finish doing all that stuff. But Harry Potter first.

She comes by it rightly

My mother has been incessantly nagging me for the past week (and cessantly nagging for the whole summer). She likes to be in control and make sure that everything she sees as needing to get done gets done. I know her heart is in a wonderful place and she's doing it solely for my benefit, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

But that's what's in her job description, I'm sure. All mom job descriptions, in fact. The OB/GYN gives it to you when you go in for your first ultrasound.

Panic and binge

I'm leaving on Thursday and the full force of all the things I've yet to do to prepare has only just hit me.

I spent today running around like a chicken with its head cut off (shut up), trying to figure out how to unlock my phone so the Mexican SIM card I ordered will work. Well, I've finally got everything working peachy keen, but now the Mexican SIM card is stuck in my phone, so I can't put my AT&T SIM card back in for my remaining two days.

I went to the bank yesterday to buy some pesos, and they told me I could exchange it there, at the bank, if I brought in cash. So today I brought in cash, only to be told that I couldn't exchange it there, I have to buy it over the phone. I called the Bank of America Customer Service line only to have them tell me I have to order online or at my local bank (um, what?). I tried it online, and found that it's $20 to ship the money.

Why companies have to make everything so ridiculously byzantine, I'll never understand. I feel like they would save millions on customer service costs and property damage if they just made things simple.


I've been on a binge of sorts of fast food; the tasty, fattening, greasy things I won't be able to buy in Oaxaca. On Sunday night, I got mozzarella sticks at Jack In The Box; yesterday I had In-N-Out at midnight; I went to Arby's for lunch today and got myself a Beef 'N' Cheddar. I only need check off McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Carl's Jr to make everything complete.

I try not to think about the things I will miss; this seemed to work when I left for Berkeley. I knew that I wouldn't see most of my friends for months, but I just tried to ignore the idea and then the day-to-day wasn't so difficult. Of course, in Berkeley, I had my best friend Hana, and a bunch of close friends with whom I went to high school. I am plunging into this study abroad program head-first, knowing absolutely no one, with only the program website to go on. It should be terrifying, but like I said, I try not to think about these things.

Every new beginning

Comes from some other beginning's end. Didn't you know? Or did you not depend on Semisonic for all you cliché, song-lyric wisdom?

Anyway, here is another new blog (ugh) in the blog-o-sphere (double ugh) because my real blog is currently having host issues. The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my journey studying abroad in Oaxaca, Mexico, for which I leave in... well, three days now.

My goal is to write in not only English for all my friends to enjoy, but also in Spanish. So that I can, you know, improve my Spanish. So those of you who speak both languages will read it in English and then read the Spanish part at laugh at how abysmal my Spanish is. And maybe my English too, depending on how much of an asshole you are.

I'm calling it 'Pobrecita Viajerita' which basically means 'Poor Little Traveler (feminine)'. I am calling it this not because I'm particularly impoverished (no more than any other middle-class university student) or pitiful (no more than any nerdy nineteen-year-old), but because it rhymed and, hey, did I or did I not mention that my Spanish was abysmal? I'm not Pablo fucking Neruda.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!