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.

I took my last walk down the hill to class. The walk was really very beautiful. It’s hard to walk anywhere around the old centro historico and not be taken by the beauty of the old buildings. My path took me down a beautiful old street that went underneath the old aqueduct that was originally built in the middle of the 18^th century to bring water from San Felipe at the foot of the mountains to the city of Oaxaca. A block past the old aqueduct I took a right on Macedonia Alcala, most of which is a pedestrian walk. The first thing on the walk is the incredibly beautiful Church of Santo Domingo. Oaxaca in the beginning was a Dominican town and this was a large and active monastery. They had been sent by the Spanish crown to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. To accomplish this they created a vast courtyard that could possibly have held 5,000 people. The plaza in front of the church is very quiet and beautiful, planted with beds of different types of Agave cactus and small trees. In my first walk into town on the Sunday I arrived, the plaza was the first place I stopped. It has a very peaceful feeling much different than the Zocalo. 

The Language school is on Abasolo which crosses Macedonia Alcala a block south of Santo Domingo plaza. A left on Abasolo, 5 blocks east of Macedonia Alcala is Vinigúlaza. I had checked in the day before at the language school and had been assigned a class with two other students, both in my age group and at a similar level. In the two weeks, there were only two other people in my class which made it a good learning experience. Our teacher, Veronica, was particularly good and spent plenty of time practicing conversation with us, asking us questions and having us ask each other questions. Enrique, who was the coordinator for the school was a master at juggling people at all different levels of expertise and a faculty of teachers so that everyone got what they needed. He seemed to do this effortlessly although I’m sure it was difficult at times. In addition to coordinating and keeping things running smoothly, Enrique also ran an extracurricular activities program for students. All of the classes were held in the morning, there being a choice of 3 hours or 4 hours of classes. In the afternoons, Tuesday through Friday (and sometimes on Saturday or Sunday) there were opportunities to do other things to explore and experience Oaxaca and the surrounding valley. The school van was small, only holding 6-7 people so the group was small. It gave us an opportunity to do things and get an insight into things that we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to do in a large group.

I talked to Enrique about my home stay issues and told him I was going to look for another place. He was completely understanding and took me to a small posada about a block from the school. They had a room and in no time I had a better place to stay. The place was named "La Casa Del Arbol" or “The House of the Tree”. It consisted of 5 rooms encircling a courtyard with a large avocado tree. The courtyard was a sunny and pleasant place to sit and relax. There was also a shared kitchen with refrigerators and a small dining area so I could fix myself breakfast. Each room had its own shower with hot water and it was beautifully clean and well cared for. The kicker was that this was only $4 a night more than my home stay. Several of the residents there were also taking Spanish language courses so we had the opportunity to practice our Spanish. Life was good!

Many people who come to Oaxaca often choose the home stay because it gives them a chance to be in an environment where they will be forced to speak Spanish. I found during my trip that home stays vary widely. I met several people who were in much different environments and who had good experiences. I don’t want anyone who was considering a home stay to be discouraged by mine. There are very good home stay situations available and it pays to check them out.