Half a story of Oaxaca

Okay, so so many crazy things have happened to me....by so many I mean to or three, but still....
I think I´ll start from back to front so it´ll be easier to remember, by back to front I mean my story starting at this moment back to the last time I posted, not the literal back to front thing I did last year...that was hard.
Before I start I want to say that I really love Oaxaca and I don´t really want to leave, although I do want to see Mexico City and get that picture of me in a sombrero with a burrito in one hand and a pineapple in the other (Although finding a burrito will be a difficult job.) At least three people now have threatened me into getting the photo. Did that sentince make sense? I think I´m forgetting English too, soon I´ll just be pointing and grunting in both langauges.
Anyways.
I changed my mind, I think Oaxaca is a beautiful city it it´s own way. Don´t call me a liar if you ever do go to Oaxaca, you need to get used to it, if you Stay in Oaxaca for 2 weeks and haven´t fallen in love with it you can call me a liar...but it would still be mean.

Yeah, that little shpeil was just the introduction, I know it´s trecherous, I can´t even read over what I write to edit it, Its agonizing.

So Last night there was a band in the Zocalo, They were called Las Siluetas, and they were really good, I think that spanish words just fit together better than in English, of course the English langauge just seems to have random words scatterd all over the place to make it sound right so I suppose thats not saying much. But either way, I have come to like Mexican music so much better then anything in Usa.
I was actually able to understand a lot of the music, even if it´s because also all they were saying is ´raise your hands´, I was still happy about that.
At the end it got a little weird because this drunk person came up and started dancing with me, I actually didn´t relize how weird it was untill he offered me something to drink, I´m not sure if it´s more creepy that he thought I was that much older or that he tried to dance with me, although it´s not all bad, I learned a few dance moves, and had an excuse not to talk my gringo spanish because the music was pretty loud. Although I did end up deciding to go back to Andy and Dawn when that happened.

Early that day we went to the museum, it was interesting, although it was big (14 rooms at least) so I didn´t really get to everything, we got an english audio tape and listened to it, although all the stuff that really interested me didn´t have any audio for it (Shows how strange my interests are.) The only thing I really learned was that the people made gold figures using wax, and that what they eat symbolized what rank they were, and after the Spanish conquered (I think it was after, I wasn´t really paying attention to dates) the size of the bell you had symbolized how powerful you were, and then these people threatened to take the bells away which would be insulting to someone, but I didn´t really figure out who because I turned it off when I saw this great clock. Of course there were no audio things about it. Go figure.


Okay So I lied when I said I am going to do back to front, I think I´ll do a more......Go figure style. And just hop around a lot.
So after the museum I got a traditional Oaxacan shirt that is very green... but it could also be blue.

And I really regretted wearing it, because Andy and I walked up the hill to this statium thing, and on the way down we ran into a fence (Not my fault, I did tell Andy we shouldn´t take that way) that I wanted to clumb under so badly, but Noooooooo, and WHY? Because my shirt was to nice. That's like not letting someone eat for 2 hours after they brush their teeth, another word for it is torture. (This is a dad who has never woried about me killing my nice cloths.......granted I have never HAD any nice clothes, but still, why start worrying now?)
Then we found this great tree to climb, and I stupidly found a way around the fence, and even more stupidly, I pointed it out, so I wasn´t allowed to climb the tree. Because I had a nice shirt on, Eh, enough ranting, I still had fun....I think.
So I think one of the reasons I love Oaxaca so much (Besides the great people and nice vibe, blahblahblah) Is the music and the chocolate, I mean....if anyone tells you any kind of chocolate is the best, and it´s not Oaxacan chocolate, they are wrong. No, it´s not my opinion, it´s just a fact that I happen to agree with. (because Oaxacan chocolate is the best, and it´s another fact that anyone who has it will agree) So, the music, I think I´m becoming addicted to Oaxacan music, during one of my lost sprees in the Zocolo one night, I wasn´t that much of a rush to get home ( I never am, thats why I´m lost in the first place. Although the one time I ended up half way across the city was when I didn´t want to be lost, but thats a story for another time....maybe after this.)
And I wanted to stop and listen to music, but there wasn´t any, so I started panicing (It could have also been that the Zocolo always has music so I was worryed I wasn´t in the zocolo....) I think I actually walked around the Zocalo 5 times (That could have also been because I was lost I suppose...) Then music started and I was relaxed again, but never fear, I have a CD of Oaxacan music, So I´m all set for Rochester.
So I suppose I lied again, I´m not going to tell the story about winding up all the was across the city today, maybe later, I want to get to the spanish school and play some solitare......or maybe I won't and Í´ll just slack off, say thats why I´m going and play some Impossible quiz on addicting games. Eh, I´ll leave it to your imagination, and if you don´t have one then write the options on a peice of paper and close your eyes and pick one....or just don´t worry about it since its not all that important...that would work too...

Yeah, so as the week is starting to close, I`m slipping into a pattern. In the morning we go to spanish school, and learn spanish, then take a break andn have lunch, then there`s inter cambio, then I do pottery, then after the days done I try to walk home by myself and get lost.
Now you maybe be thinking, "haha. that Zarhas the little joker" Well FIRST of all. I NEVER joke, I`m always 100% serious about everything I say, I probably havn`t joked my whole LIFE. Second off, if I ever DID joke, whitch I DON`T, then I`m npt kidding about this, for the past few days I`ve gotten lost, every single time I walk home (and even once when I was going to the school) I get lost. and every single time I get lost, I always find the posada 10 to 20 minutes after it gets dark, around 7:10.
I have actually come to start thinking "ah, how shale I get lost today? Shall I do the famous not able to find the street, or the more subtle, following my street and it`s a dead end, ahh, the endless choices." I`ve actaully thought that, thats honistly how little I have in my brain to think about, lets see. Math, or how to get lost. I`s actually not a very even scale.

So Tuesday was the first time I got lost, it was the day time, but it still sort of sparked the ritual. Andy wanted to pick up laundrey and I didn`t, so I stopped at an internet cafè to look on fark for the daily news and what not (apparently when Castro stepped down it was at 3 in the morning.)
Andy told me how to get back to the posada, but I`ve sorta come to realise not to follow his directions to carefully. Yeah, he led me to a dead end. of course I figured it was supposed to be a dead end. So what did I do? thats right, I KEPT following Andys directions, I walked the way he told me for about 15 minutes before I relised Andy had gave me wrong direction, so I had to back track for a while, before I found the street I really was supposed to be on.
I finally found it, but it was the oppisite side of the street I was supposed to be on, so I had to cross the street with about 4 lanes. when everyone was stopped I had to run through the cars, it felt like and odd Frogger game. I ended up in one of those weird middle of the road gardens, and all the people driving by were laughing at me (I realised why after words when I saw that there was a cross word only a few feet away.)

So I`m running out of time to inter cambio, so I`ll save the details of the other times I got lost and just say that I was looking all around the city for a pack of playing cards, I asked soeone and they led me to a fabric shop. Eh.
I finally went into a library and asked, and they led me to a weapons store, thats right, Playing cards are now a weapon of mass destruction.
(yeah, so let me just say that I was lieing before, and I do. RARELY, but I do, joke, and this is one of those times, I need to say that because I do NOT want to be hunted down by the CIA and tortured with starbucks coffie.......look it up......)

So thats really my boring life, although I do have to say that last night duing my daily being lost time, I ran into some great music, Oaxacan music is probably the best I`ve ever heard. I learnedthe word for xilaphone in spanish, but I forgot it.

So not only did I realise that I forgot a lot of spanish, I also realised tht I haven`t learned any more english either, I feel like when I`m learning spanish it also teaches me english. I was writing notes, when my teacher leaned over and said "thats not how you spell vegitable" oops.
So I guess I haven`t quite gotten in the grove, but I feel like everythings going slowly, and I can`t beleave I still have 2 weeks and 3 days here.

So you may be wondering `thats weird, why didn`t Zarha exclame what level she is in right away, she sounded so excitedto find out before` and that i because I DON`T KNOW. Thats right, I went through all that rigorus testing, just to find out that I was going to be with the other kids because I was a kid. Thats fine, but can`t they just tell me that right away?
Of course right after the first break they took me out of that class because I was too advanced. But did I ever find out what level I was put into? Nooooooooooo.
If I can guess, I`d say 1b, but who really knows.

On the bright side, Heroes is back on. Thats right, the writers strike is over, and on the BETTER side, the writers got what they wanted. And on the even more BETTERER side, there will be a new episode of Heroes on friday, in english. hahahaahhahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA. (why on friday and not on monday I will probably never know)

Oaxaca

Starting Spanish school I am thinking back on when we were in Marida, the days when I was so unacostumed to school that I almost strangled myself with my school back. That spanish school taught me a bit, so now I´m not so unacoustomed to school, but it´ll still be weird. This is much more like school, it´s 7 hours a day, and much more intence, I took the spanish test today, to see what level I´m in, and it was so intence, the on in venezuala I filled out about 1 third on it when I didn´t know any spanish, this one I´m sure I got at least everything wrong, maybe more. I cheeted on one part, they asked for future tences and I just said Va a and those conjunctions over and over, hey, it works in a conversation, why not a test?
There are other kids at the school to, it´s great, in Marida I was the only kid, so I felt weird during those Tuesday where we got together and everyone talked. Admittedly they probably dont have that, but it´s still cool.
The worst part is that I havn´t learned what level I´m in. I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL MONDAY.

Sooooooo, Going back a bit, When we first arrived at Oaxaca City, it was weird, everyone who´s been there had exclamed how great it was and how beautiful, I´m really the only one who liked Oaxaco right away, Andy and Dawn are still warming up to it. Of course that said, I don´t think the people were talking about Oaxaca city when they called it beautiful, Yeah, it´s music is awesome, yeah, it has deep political history, but beautiful isn´t something I´d call it.
I think the music here is my favorite music probably, I love the combination of the Xilaphones and the Guitars, and these weird things you blow into that I don´t know the names of, but rest assured, the music is amazing.

Hero

I was sitting on the beach, watching the sunset. When a wet nose started sniffing my arm, it was a dog, I think a cross between a doberman and some smaller dog, but I`m not sure, any ways, it was really nice and carismatic, and it sat with me until Andy and Dawn got back from whereever they were,when I went to go to them, the dog followed me, Dawn said it was funny to see a dog following me, but I can`t imagine why, because all the dogs here are so nice, and I`ve already made friends with a few.
Anyways. Blame Andy for the name, I know it seems like something I would name him, but I think I`ve gotten Andy obsessed with Heroes. HA.
So as we walked along this beach, Hero follwed us, occasionally jumping on Dawn or me (he didn`t seem to notice Andy at all) He followed us half way down the beach until we decided to get him some tuna, so we got him some, then left, as much as bringing Hero back home with us would make both us and Hero so happy (I know it`s weird, the dogs seem to have a great life here, there are places where people feed all the stray dogs, and all the dogs have eachother for company, but one woman who fed the dogs said that they all long for a stedy home, and the way Hero was acting, I beleave that.)

But I know that there is almost no way to travel with a dog, but I also know if I were traviling by myself I would find a way to bring around three dogs home.



So anything ELSE that happened besides Hero?
Got dragged under a few waves, climbed over a few rocks, hiked down a few beaches, same old.

We did rent a boggy bord, it was great, we swam out on it(we all took turns, we didn`t do it all together.) then a huge wave pushed us in.
A lot of times I got dragged under,(it`s the best when you put the nose on the bord under and you do a set of tworls, that sound scary, but actually just feel like you`re doing gymnastics or something) that was my second favorite to getting pushed all the way to shore, and feeling like a beeched whale.

Of course, when we were watching the sunset later, we realized that booggy bords are actually supposed to be used like surf bords, but without standing up. I suppose that was why everyone was watching us funny.

But hey, we`re creating a new kind of surfing, one for the people that don`t like surfing.

We also went to a different beach today, I don`t know the name and I seriously doubt that I ever will. But I do know it started with a Z and that the waves were to deadly to swim in, and I also know that people were swiming there anyways.

We hiked from there to a different beach, one that we could swim in.
As usual, we almost ended up horribly lost.
Ah, good times.
Oh, and just for his credit, it was Andy who made sure that we didn`t end up horribly lost.
OH And Dawn reminded me to say that we saw whales, we walked up to a meditation place(it was very high up and gave out a very nice vibe, it was just an open hill, but I really liked it), and when we looked out over the fence to keep people from falling off into the ocean and rocks, we saw whales coming up for air, way out in the middle of the ocean, they were far away, but we still saw them, thats how huge they were.

I think they were probably Blue whales.

ANTS

okay, so this may be an entry that talks about nothing, but what choice do I have, Andy and Dawn stuck me in an internet café to post photos onto flicker on a great day where I could be...NOT posting pictures on flickr.

I´ve stopped figureing out hpw long untill we get back, because no matter what andy and dawn stay, they seem to be planning to stay longer then 6 weeks, because we´ve already been here 3 and now they´re planning for a month more, so i´m supposing that we are gonna be here 8 or 9 weeks.
This langauge school thing soulds interesting, I think it´ll be more fun then the one we took in marida, although I´m not really exited about talking to some random person for an hour, half in spanish and half in english, I can bairly keep up a conversaton with someone I know, in english for 10 minutes. (And thats when Im trying as hard as possible)

So this´ll be interesting, I feel bad for whoever gets stuck with me.


Nooowwwwwww.... you may be wondering why this is called ants, well I suppose I better explain, I owe the ants something, because i´ve been tortureing them all morning, You know the saying ´curiosity killed the cat?´ Well I´ve decided to change it to change it to ´curiosity made the ant mad´ because this morning the ants where on my toothpaste, and I took it away, and the ants left. And I laughed, and I was curiously wondering if they can smell tooth paste. They were no where to be seen, so I put the toothpaste back AND THEY CAME BACK they have like awesome smel for things so small. But then I took it away, because I don´t want ants in my toothpaste, and they cursed the living daylights out of me, who Wouldn´t be mad when they had to trudge up a wall to food, only to have it tooken away, and then put back to be made to walck up the whole wall AGAIN (whitch much be like mount evrest to thewm) only to have it tooken away again. So then I felt bad and put it back, and they didn´t come back, I think they were to busy plotting they´re revenge.

Now I am going to back track to the phrase, ´curiosity killed the cat´
Many people wonder why the term scardy cat it used, why not a different animal. If I got killed every time I was curious, I´d be pretty awflly scardy myself.

Now that just raises the question "then why not call people cat instead of chicken?" Well I´ll answer that when I figure it out, but for now, my flickr photos are 85% nO 86% compleat (87,88)

We left acopolco today, and arrives to Oaxaca (Wa-ha-ka- weird, huh?) Acopolco was okay, but a bit to richy toristy and people were constintly trying to sell us things.....loudly. But thats all okay, because we are now on the coat of Oaxaca and I love it, excpecially the beach, nexpa (apparently it`s not nexta) was good, but this place is out of this world. I love everything about it, the fact that the waves move side ways, the way my feet sink into the sand just the perfict amount, the way you only get small bruises when you run and jump onto the sand stomach first, the way the sand sprays when you roll in it and how the sand only bairly stacks in your hair.

Did I mention I`ve only been here for an hour?

We ate here for dinner, I thought there is nothiong better is the world then Fresas (The ones in Venezuela, here they aren`t so good) BUT I WAS WRONG. I hate papaya, I really do, the only thing I like about is is the fact that it`s vivid orange.
But there`s a papya drink that they serve here called a sunset, and it is GREAT I don`t know why, I don`t know how, I just know that it made fresas taste dull.