Day 5. Day of Culture

Hello from Oaxaca! This is Lucy Candeto. I want to tell you readers about our day here in Oaxaca. We started the day with a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and watermelon. After that we got ready, piled into the vans, and headed to the mountains! It was really neat to see Oaxaca City as we drove past it. Winding our way up the mountains was exciting! We arrived at the mountains and began our tour. Our tour guide knew so many things about the ruins. Did you know that “Yucatan” means “I don’t know” in some language? We saw an arena where ball games were played many years ago, climbed up the steepest steps I’ve ever seen, and got a magnificent view of Oaxaca from the mountain. After our tour, we ate our lunch, looked at the jewelry and other souvenirs that people were selling, and then headed to the market.

What a fun experience that was! I bartered with a lady in Spanish for the first time! Since she knew little English and I hardly know any Spanish at all, it wasn’t your typical bartering experience. I had no idea what price she named, so she wrote it on her hand. Then I started to walk away, but she motioned to me and pointed to a “100” that was written on her hand. I still thought that was too high, so she told me to name my price. I grabbed a pen and wrote “70” (Pesos) on my hand. We finally settled on 80 Pesos. It was exciting and confusing! We continued on through the market. My group didn’t realize this at the time, but we took a turn that caused us to walk right past some whole dead chickens (feet and all!). I tried not to breathe as I walked past.

About an hour after arriving at the market, we headed to a chocolate shop. We tasted Mexican chocolate and learned a little bit about it. The chocolate that had vanilla in it was my favorite. It was so delicious and most definitely the best chocolate I have ever tasted!

Once we finished at the chocolate shop, we went to dinner at a Mexican buffet. I’d never seen so much food that I couldn’t identify in my life (all of the signs were in Spanish!). I had a delicious flauta, cucumbers, watermelon, bread, and potatoes with Mexican sausage. After eating I headed to the dessert table where I had some amazing jello and some other wonderful treats. When dinner was over, we headed out of the restaurant where there was an old plane that you could go in. We played in that for a little bit and then explored the rest of the property. After a while we piled 16 people into a van and rode back to Armonia. The ride was VERY bumpy and VERY fun!

When we got back to Armonia some of the students were playing guitar. John Seligson went and joined them with his drum, John Youderian came with his guitar, and soon there was a group of Armonia students and St. Paul’s students gathered in a circle singing praise songs in English. We then switched to singing Spanish songs. They had hand motions and it was really fun to be able to sing praise songs in a different language with people who don’t speak your language. Just a few minutes ago we had to say goodbye to the three girls who were here from England. They were sad to leave and we were sad to see them go. Right now some people are playing cards and others are playing soccer (or “futbol”) with some of the Armonia students. That’s what we did today! It was a wonderful day! Thanks for reading! Adios!