Dicey
Last spring, my application was accepted to go on a study abroad trip to Oaxaca Mexico for the winter term this year (January through mid-March). I would live with a family, take three classes in Latin American Civilisations (fulfilling a graduation requirement for civilisations studies), take a Spanish class, live with a Mexican family, do a bit of traveling, and maybe take some cultural (cooking, weaving, dancing) classes available at the language school in the city.
As you may or may not know, there has been a spot of civil unrest in Oaxaca. Continue
If I’d known you were going to split it like that, I would have come up with a more sinister cliff-hanger….
Canning sisters: there is a Spanish-translation challenge on the other side of the link….
Comment by pesky godson — October 20, 2006 @ 2:49 am
Next time we’ll better coordinate our efforts. Now, if you do go, and for the sake of a more sinister cliff-hanger for the blog I must urge you to overlook all those red flags and board that plane, then ….
Comment by michael — October 20, 2006 @ 6:40 am
Oh, that was plenty cliffhanger enough, PG. Exciting, though … !
I know it’s a distant gringo’s narrow window of awareness, but I collect Oaxacan carvings, and I’ve often wondered what the land they come from and the people are like. I hope the trip’s still possible, and I look forward to your recounting your experiences.
Comment by adam — October 20, 2006 @ 8:11 am
For what it’s worth – I’ve sent some birders to Oaxaca recently and they had a great time. No troubles. Granted, birders are going to spot every bird, but will readily ignore a riot on the streets… so perhaps their view of the world is not particularly helpful!
Comment by BirdBrain — October 20, 2006 @ 3:22 pm
Years and years ago I went to Oaxaca to see an eclipse of the sun. We camped out in the hilly desert a few miles south of town. Didn’t get to meet the makers of those nice black pots, though. Pity.
Comment by rakkity — October 20, 2006 @ 3:27 pm
In 1969 my parents made arrangements for my sister, age 16, to leave Western Mass and spend the summer on an archaeological dig in New Mexico. At the end of the summer she called and said she wasn’t coming home. She came home in just in time for Thanksgiving, 30 pounds thinner, having learned backstrap weaving and to knot shawls (like macrame which wasn’t yet popular) from the Zapotec Indians in Mitla, Oaxaca. She sometimes regretted not marrying the nice young Zapotec man she had fallen in love with. She was able to persuade an alternative school to give her credit for the photo-essay she put together about life in Mitla and able to graduate from high school and go to UNM. Five years later I went with her for a brief visit (for Christmas break, after I had left home at 16 and gone to live with her near UNM). He was married with 4 children or so.
Comment by Jennifer — October 20, 2006 @ 5:20 pm
Charlie. You might be missing out on the future Mrs. Hopkins.
Jennifer. What rich detail. Like syrup you use to make root beer, you could’ve added a few more words and posted it as the day’s entry.
Comment by michael — October 20, 2006 @ 5:55 pm
Oi, achei teu blog pelo google te1 bem iansresentte gostei desse post. Quando der de1 uma passada pelo meu blog, e9 sobre , mostra passo a passo como criar uma bem maneira. Ate9 mais.
Comment by Ron — December 29, 2015 @ 3:10 pm