Work and Play!!

Hola everyone! We are now in our second week of stuyding at ICO! We are getting used to our busy schedules. Here is what we do daily:
1. We each have breakfast with our homestay families. Niki has a huge breakfast offered to her each day, Becky requests fruit, yogurt and bread and gets to eat a variety daily, and Marcia eats fruit, yogurt, coffee and a small breakfast sandwich.
2. We walk twenty minutes to school on a very busy street, and we need to remember that pedestrians have no rights. We have found out that it takes six eyes to get us across the street! Every walk is an adventure!
3. Classes begin at 9 am and end at 1 pm. Niki and Becky are working on vocabulary and basic sentence structure, along with common phrases and a little slang!! Our professor is very organized and entertaining! We will be giving an oral presentation on Friday. Marcia is working on more advanced sentence structure, conversational skills, projects, and presentations. Advil with breakfast helps!!
4. We eat our large meal at lunch time, at nearby restaurants. Because little English is spoken in Oaxaca we have to use our Spanish everywhere we go; guess that's what they mean by immersion! We realize even more what our Spanish-speaking families and students at South Beaver Dam are experiencing when they first arrive.
5. We attend workshops offered at the school in the afternoon between 2 pm and 5 pm. Our options include cooking, salsa dancing, traditional painting of wooden animals, and conversation classes.
6. At 5 pm all of us have our "intercambio" session. We have each been assigned a member of the community who is wanting to improve their English speaking skills. They, in turn, help us with our conversational Spanish. We are thoroughly enjoying our opportunities to develop relationships with our intercambio partners.
6. At 6 pm we either head home or grab a snack and then visit with our senoras, study, work together, and connect with family members back home. Sleep comes easily for us, that's for sure!

The weather has been beautiful, even for Marcia! She is enjoying the unseasonably cool weather! Becky and Niki are wearing sweaters, wishing we were getting tans! We are adjusting to the daily rains, and we have all decided that we should have brought waterproof backpacks!! We even experienced a small earthquake last Friday morning!

Last weekend we participated in two excursions offered by the school. On Saturday we traveled to Monte Alban, and entered the Zapotec world where we walked through the famous ruins! The ancient city is surrounded by the Sierra Madras mountains. We climbed lots of treacherous steps and had a fabulous tour guide who spoke to us in English!
On Sunday we visited three villages. We saw demonstrations in natural dye-making and rug weaving, visited a local market of artisans, and saw the largest tree in Mexico which is over 2,000 years old! We each managed to spend a little money to boost the local economy!

This weekend we have more plans to see and experience the Oaxacan culture.

Again, we are so thankful for the opportunities we have been given.
Thanks Fund for Teachers!

Adios!

Becky, Marcia, & Niki