El Regreso

The next day I felt a lot better, but was still ready to go home. I had to be at the airport by 9:30 AM and my family drove me, Margarita and her husband, Beto. I thanked them, said goodbye, and got in line with some of the other Cabrillo students who had already arrived. I was glad to be less sick the second day, or it would have been a much harder day of travel.

In this first picture, I am in the women's restroom at the Oaxaca airport. It's  the smallest airport I've ever been to with the smallest toilets too! This one of course is, sólo para niños. I just thought it was so cute, I had to get a picture.

Our plane left Oaxaca airport (see bottom left side of map) at 12:25 PM to Mexico, D.F. (Mexico City, red star on map), which is only a hour flight. We had a four hour lay-over there, but after lunch, walking around, and a few hours of card games it was time to board onto the next plane. From Mexico D.F. we flew another hour to Guadalajara airport. The layover was only an hour there, and we went to one gift shop before we got on the plane. The longest plane ride was from Guadalajara back to San Jose airport. I made the most of it by starting a new book and talking with some of the people on the trip. I got in a few good laughs that I really needed.
I was really happy to go home, I almost couldn't wait to be back in California, especially after my last day in Oaxaca. As you all know though, I had a great time overall, even with its ups and downs. 

I got to San Jose around 9:00 PM and my mom was waiting for at the door where we exit from the high security at the airport. She was relieved to know I felt better than the day before. 

I was really happy to go home to Boulder Creek and sleep with my cat in my own bed. Besides seeing all my beloved friends and family, it was the little things I missed: being able to brush my teeth with the tap water, New Leaf sandwiches and Jazzercise. I'm happy to be home, but of course, I have had unique experiences and learned more about the Mexican culture and Spanish language. I am grateful for being able to indulge in a personal goal and have a great time doing it. Thank you to all who contributed to this incredible journey, it's made memories that will last a lifetime. 

El Último Día

El último día (the last day), I woke up to go to school after one of the worst night's sleep I had gotten the whole trip. I had strange dreams and I felt over heated all night. There was definitely a change in weather the last week and it had really warmed up compared to the rest of the month, especially during the night. I felt weird that morning and told Margarita I wasn't going to eat any breakfast, just go to school because I had to take a final exam. By the time I got to school I felt worse and I realized I was experiencing what's known as Montezuma's revenge (if you don't know what I mean, google it.)

When class began, I began to deteriorate and feel even worse than before. Betty approached me right away when she got to class to tell me that I didn't really have to take a final exam because she had to submit my grade already with Consuelo, and had just based it off of my participation and previous work in the class. I was relieved to hear this, and I left soon after to go home and lay down. 

I didn't realize how sick I was when I layed down and feel asleep for four hours. I woke up and still felt tired and really out of it. Margarita saw that my bedroom door was open and stopped by my room shortly after I woke up. I was packing my suitcases while I could muster up the energy. She asked me how I was feeling and told her about my symptoms. She had been sick with something similar for the last few days, but did not have a fever like I did. She told me that she was pretty sure I had an infection because of the fever. Luckily, since she and her husband are dentists, they had antibiotics and I took some Cipro, which I was recommended before I left in case this happened. I took the medicine and ate a little bit of food. 

I was really disappointed when I woke up that I felt even worse and that I was missing the last day of school, a small celebration that the school was putting on and any last dinner or event that some of my Cabrillo friends were doing on the last night. All I wanted to do was talk to my mom and tell her how terrible I felt. I couldn't get any of my calling cards to work from my house, so I walked like a zombie 15 minutes to the nearest store with a phone booth where I could pay cash by the minute. When I heard my mom's voice on the phone I burst into tears. I really wanted to be home more than ever. I had been counting the days, but I was feeling pretty desperate at this point. After only a few minutes I told my mom I had to hang up because I was feeling dizzy and then I started to sweat and see stars. I told her I was going to hang up because I was going to pass out (she says she doesn't remember hearing that part.) Within seconds, everything went black and I dropped the phone. I picked it by finding the dangling cord with my hands, but I couldn't see the phone receiver to hang it up. It was the strangest feeling and I wanted to get down on the floor and curl into a ball, but I didn't because I was in a public phone booth. I finally hung up the phone, stumbled backwards knocking over the stool in the booth, and somehow dug some money out of my purse to pay the lady that worked in the shop. 

When I got outside, I broke into a cold sweat and felt like the dizziness was lifting. I still felt slightly nauseous, and incapable of making rash decisions, decided to walk home because I thought a taxi would make me more nauseous. Somehow I got home, it was kind of like a dream, and I went straight back to bed. I was woken be knocks at my bedroom door telling me my mom was on the phone. She thought I had passed out in the phone booth, and since I never answered her back after I dropped the phone dangling to the floor, she wasn't sure if I ever made it back to my house. I felt bad for making her worry, but I hadn't realized how it seemed on her end, I only had one priority: bed. My mom calmed down after she found out I made it home, and I went back to bed. 

I got up for less than an hour one other time that evening and then went back to bed for the rest of the night. I can't remember being sick like that before, but I was glad to get antibiotics and rest before I had to get on a plane the next day. At the time I was disappointed about missing the last day's festivities, but maybe it was for the better.

El Horno

On Thursday, after my regular routine at school and comida at home, I went to a play right across from the Benito Juarez park in the uniquely named Juarez theater. It was a large, red building with a modern design compared to the majority of the buildings in the city. I found out about the play through the school, and when they described where to go, I knew exactly where they meant.

There were a lot of people waiting outside when I got there. I even saw Belen , Betty's roommate, when I got there. She and I talked for a while. There were two other teachers involved in the production, one of them was in charge of costumes and stage managing, and the other was one of the actresses seen in the pictures. I didn't take a lot of photos on Thursday, thinking I would have time for any last minutes shots on Friday.

I ended up sitting with two of my classmates. There were two other Cabrillo students that went to see it, but I think it was really difficult for them to understand.  The play was called "El Horno" ("The Oven"), and notice the oven is not in the same place in the two photos, the table never moves. It was written by a local Oaxacan man as a part of the theater workshops of the community. 
We were told ahead of time that the play was surreal and not to take every word they said in the play literally. I was glad that I knew that before I went because I was able to pay attention to the symbolism. I understood most of the dialogue, which made it easier to follow the details that weren't as obvious. At the end of the play I had a pretty clear idea of the various images and symbols that were used in the dialogue and on the set. I spoke with the teacher who invited us, Paco, after the show to confirm my thinking. He told me that I understood a lot of the ideas and he thought I was pretty right on about symbolism. It's encouraging to know that my oral comprehension and critical thinking in Spanish were good enough to comprehend something on this level. 

This was one of the best pieces of art I saw in Oaxaca, even compared to all the artisians in town selling their pottery, weaving, paintings, embroidery, jewelry and alebrijes. Well, maybe that's an overstatement, but it was a good production, and it was more creative than all the same kinds of artesian arts and crafts that are sold on every street corner. As many of you know, I am also a long-time fan of theater, so perhaps I have favoritism for the theater arts.

After the show, I went to a pizza restaurant with a friend from Cabrillo, Derek. I got to see one of the greatest classmates I had, Tomás, for the last time that night. He was a young man from Finland who had lived in Oaxaca for the last 6 months and was dating a teacher from the school. He was always very kind to me, and the only student in my class anywhere close to my age. It was great to say goodbye to him one last time because he was one of the best people I met in Oaxaca.