Oaxaca

So it is a 5 hour bus ride to Oaxaca... we all knew this but none of us quite grasped the magnitude of 5 hours on a bus... Although I am glad I made the trip with the school and not on my own... the state border crossings were really scary!! The have tons of military guys with machine guns and angry faces glaring at you. not something I would have wanted to face on my own! At 12:30 1 ish we stopped for lunch at El Patio, a retaurant that serves authentic Oaxacan cuisine. It wasn't too much different from the other mexican cuisine I have had here. They brought out a plate of fresh tortillas and a plate that had two types of cheese and some chilipepper looking stuff. We passed the plate around and everyone started filling their tortilla... I opted for only cheese as my stomach had been a little on the queasy side and we still had 2 more hours on the bus. They served Jaimca (really not sure if I spelled that right...)juice, which is really tasty. After a few minutes of munching and talking Rachel looks down at her plate and says -ummm guys, thish chili pepper has eyes... and legs...- Turns out it was cricket that had been sauteed for awhile. The rest of lunch was good and bug free. We had a chicken soup and a skirt steak of sorts. Ot the way out of the restraunt I noticed that the fence around the restraunt was mae of these tall vertical cacti that had two horizontal boards nailed to it. Turns out the majority of the fences we saw were like this. Our next stop was the villaga of Mitla. We did some shopping there and wondered around in some ancient tombs... it was pretty cool... there were some amazing views from the tops of the tombs! However the inside of the tombs... especially the parts that were underground... were quite stinky and dirty... the anchients need a better cleaning service. My stomach was begining to rumble as we got back on the bus to head to Oaxaca City, where our hotel was. As we pulled into the mainpart of the city you couldn't help but notice the huge numbers of people. We had to park 3 blocks away from our hotel and walk with all of our stuff, the busses just couldn't get through all of the people. Our animadore told us as we were getting off the bus that there was a teachers strike going on in the square and that we all needed to remember the name of our hotel incase we got seperated from the group and got lost. But he said not to worry because all the people were teachers... and "what is a teacher going to do with you? give you homework?" We made it to the hotel safely. And got to see a good bit of the strike on the way. After we checked into the hotel Hillary (my roommate at the hotel) and I wondered around talking to the teachers about what was going on and why they were striking. Turns out teachers from all over the state had come to strike for higher wages... better school programs... adn better facilities for the kids. They had been living in the square for several days and planned to stay as long as it took. It was really facinating!! Some of them had brought tents but most of them had just strung up tarps between trees and buildings and signposts and were living in sleeping bags underneath them... It was amaxingly well organized too... they had walkways and cooking areas and places where they were giving talks and where they had entertainment going on. Jason (Hillary's friend) finally found us and we went in search of a restaurant. We headed away from the strike... somewhat to just explore the area and somewhat to find a restraunt that wasn't crowded. We turned down one of the side streets and fireworks caught our eye. We had waled smack into the middle of a parade. We watched it go by for a miute when some little mexican ladys grabbed us by the arms and suddenley we were in the parade! We walked along for a few blocks when a little restaraunt above a shop caught our eye. The sign said La Olla... live music inside. It was the most amazing restraunt I have ever been in. The service was supurb and the food was amazing!! The waiter asked what we were doing in Mexico and we told him we were here for a language imersion program. He got very excited and spoke to us very slowly in spanish and then explained anything we didn't understand in English. We then spoke back to him in spanish and he corrected any mistakes we made. There was a cello player in the corner playing bach... the windows were all open and there was a delightfully cool breeze blowing in... It was a very surreal experience. I had a drink that was a lime and mint juice! (My mouth is watering just thinking about it!!) After dinner we met back up with the group and went to a salsa club called Azucar. It was alot of fun but HOT... SO HOT... I cannot tell you how amazingly hot it was. We only stayed about an hor and then couldn't take anymore. We caught a cab back to the hotel showered and crashed... Ok so it was so hot there that when I wokeup in the morning the clothes I had worn were still wet... The alarm went off at 8 and we trudged to breakfast... packed up and left at 9. The morning was spent exploring the ruins of Monte Alban. Monte Alban was a religous center situated at the exact point where the 2 north american mountain ranges intersect. It was HUGE! and beautiful! Our guide was great... such a character! I could have spent all day listening to his stories. but our animadores kept us to our time schedule and hearded us back to our busses. Our final stop in Oaxaca was at a workshop where they make this black pottery... the clay itself is black and once they fire it it is some of the most beautiful stuff I have ever seen. We watched a demonstration on the pottery techniques used and then we bought pottery of our own. Between the market and here I spent sooo much money this weekend!! The last 5 hours on the bus were miserable.... I had worn my contacts all day and My eyes hurt... I went to take them off and my left one got stuck in my eye... it took like 20 minutes to get in seperated... I was tired and couldn't sleep... and I was very very cranky.... luckily they turned off the lights and put in a movie... we watched Freida and Daddy Day Care. It was a strange combination of moves but hey it helped the time pass a little quicker. We got back at midnight and my dorm never looked more like home!