We've been in Oaxaca for a week now. Our apartment is very nice in a ho hum neighbourhood, but with great views from our third floor location out to the mountains surrounding the city.
Oaxaca has somewhere around half a million people and is supposedly in one of the poorer states in Mexico, but compared to Nepal, this place looks prosperous. Streets are clean, there are plenty of relatively new vehicles around and I haven't seen any street beggars yet. Stores are full of goods, the food is great, and I haven't been approached by anyone trying to sell me something. Yet.
The city is rather noisy, though. We arrived on a festival weekend and firecrackers and fireworks were common. Some sirens, traffic noise and yappy dogs, but it's nice, at least the parts we've been in.
We have a half hour walk to school where we struggle with Spanish verb tenses and conversation for a few hours each day. We visit markets and walk around, shop for food and generally expose ourselves to the culture and the language. I'm quite enjoying it. The picture is our class room.
Our experience is that almost no one speaks English. Fine by us, but it's not what we had heard. Some facility with the lingua franca is a real asset here.
Anyhow, estoy muy consado. Time for bed.
1 comment:
Sounds great, except for the going to school part :-)
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