I moved out of the flat this morning and took a taxi to the homestay. This is a bright blue building, very easy to find, just up the hill from one of the prettiest parts of the town. It’s on a big road which can get noisy, but my room is at the back of […]
Alone in Oaxaca
The following day my class was a little better and less discouraging. I did a spot of memorising, and have most of the prepositions somewhere in my brain if not always readily accessible. This was overshadowed by the GF’s departure as he left for his nearly-month long travels to New Zealand for a conference. The […]
Bad day at school
It was a bad day at my Spanish lesson and I returned home feeling quite downcast. All the words just seemed to have slipped from my mind and much of the grammar as well, though I think the latter was the unusual experience of trying to speak before my thought was completed. Not my usual […]
Dream home
This morning, or rather afternoon, we caught a colectivo to San Augustin Etla. By morning I mean afternoon, but it was the first thing we did this Sunday after brunching. By catching a colectivo I mean we stumbled around in the general area where the colectivos left from until we were shoved into a taxi […]
On the fritz
I’ve been on the fritz for a couple of days, throwing mini strops, mostly silently, like a well-bottled beverage. One little eruption actually took place on Metafilter, where there has been a longrunning pair of threads on the site’s white middleclass American orientation and the moderators having only one solution: applying copious amounts of goodwill. […]
Long day
Yesterday I had a second class with the new teacher and while she is very sweet and also very good, spoke to the owner of the school that I’d prefer to return to the old teacher. At the time she said yes certainly, though we will see what happens. I was then up late at […]
Slight disappointments
A couple of disappointments when I went in to Spanish today. For one, I had completely forgotten everything learned the previous week. More importantly (as I think it will come back to me), my teacher had been changed. The new one is very nice and capable, but somehow I didn’t quite click with her, and […]
To market
Sunday morning and we went to the market. This is the big Sunday market at Tlacolula, a small town about half and hour from Oaxaca. We took a colectivo with surprising success and arrived at around 11 when it was still relatively cool and there were few people around. It is a very large market, […]
Hamster wheel
A slightly overwhelming week. My classes are for three hours in the mornings, then it takes me about two hours to be finished with clearing the brain and having lunch, then work, work, work, which is falling behind. I will catch up this weekend but will have to consider how best to manage it all. […]
Back to school, redux
Woke early, had a leisurely breakfast and then walked the 2 minutes to my Spanish lesson. It is on the same street, conveniently close by, and is located in a small house overseen by a rather flustered but kindly woman and a handful of teachers. There were three other students at the school, luckily all […]