on the edge

Oaxaca: Language School & Change of Residence

When I got up in the morning of the first day, after lying in bed for 10 extra minutes because it was very cold in my room, I dashed across the intervening space between my room and the building where the shower was. Standing there shivering, I waited for some warm water to come, but there was none. Reluctantly I got dressed and decided to skip it. Later at breakfast I mentioned to Angela that there was no hot water. She took me into the bathroom and showed me what to do. My conclusion was that I had done something wrong. In the afternoon I took my delayed shower, but the next morning I did the same thing and again there was no hot water. I reached the conclusion that the person who turned the hot water heater on in the morning was probably getting up about the same time I was and it took about half an hour to get hot water. That night I had difficulty getting to sleep because there was someone occupying the room next to mine and there was a doorway between rooms with a very thin plywood door. I could hear people breathing, the wood was so thin. In the evening there were about five people sitting around talking loudly with the TV on and this went on until almost midnight. At around five in the morning the dog next door started barking and continued until I finally get up at 7:00. Again there was no hot water so I reluctantly made the decision to find new quarters. The distance between the language school and my home stay was around 14 blocks and after two days of walking back and forth twice a day it became clear that this along with the other issues I had with the home stay wouldn’t work for two weeks.

Oaxaca: On the Way, Arrival & Home Stay

Taking off in the morning from Puerto Vallarta, we always take off toward the Bay, unless rarely, the winds are coming out of the mountains. We circle 180 degrees and climb out over the coastal mountains. The mountains are always misty and ephemeral before the sun burns off the mist. We head almost directly west to Mexico City. I change planes in Mexico City, just a short, less than an hour layover.

Taking off from Mexico city we circle around and head south-east right past the major volcano in the Mexico city vicinity: Popocatepetl ("the smoking mountain"). It was not smoking today, who knows, maybe it gave up the habit. Somehow I doubt it. In just over an hour we descended into the Oaxaca valley.