As I have said before on several occasions regarding my experience here in the beautiful Oaxaca City: I love life.  I visited a great archeological museum at the Santo Domingo Church, visited the ruins of Monte Albán, learned a few phrases in the indigenous language Zapoteco and have been making friends with loads of local Oaxaqueños.  On the way back from lunch today I even walked through a Calenda which is a kind of parade, this one happened to be religious.  This is truly an amazing city and my dream place to work.

As I am fascinated by languages, I have come to love the Mexican Spanish spoken here.  It is quite different from the Castillian Spanish that I have become accostomed to in the south of Spain and the Cordobés accent from Argentina that I picked up 3 years ago.  This mezcla of accents and distinct jargons have made my communication somewhat peculiar to my new Mexican friends as I interchangeably use the different pronouns: Vos, tú, Uds, and Vosotros and formulate sentences made up of slang from these 3 different countries: “¡Che boludo!  ¿Qué onda güey?  ¡Pero tío, qué fuerte!”  Needless to say, I have been the butt of many jokes, but the learning process has definitely been a fun one.    

After working here for about a month, my friends and I decided to take a holiday trip to this small beach community called Mazunte.  We were able to relax on the beach, go surfing in the neighboring San Augustinillo beach and take an adventurous hike to see this secluded whirlpool.  It was quite amazing to spend time in a hot beach climate for Christmas.  The community in Mazunte is made up of many people from all over the world which made for some great international cuisine.  We were all especially impressed, and obsessed, with the Argentine empanadas which quickly became our favorite food.  I can’t wait to return to Oaxaca during the summer to hopefully explore much more of the country and definitely return to Mazunte.