This summer, 12 students and two faculty members are traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico to immerse themselves in the culture and language of Oaxaca, Mexico and develop their conversational fluency and understanding of daily life in Mexico by living with Oaxacan families and attending class at the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez. Please enjoy this blog post from Josh ’27 as he shares about a joyful day of language learning through play, connecting with local children, and exploring Oaxaca’s vibrant streets and flavors.
Hola Familias!
Like every day on this trip, we started our day with an awesome breakfast– eggs with tortilla for today, with multiple types of salsa of course. After that, we went to school at 9. Today was the first day that we had to take the bus to school ourselves, but it was no problem after being shown the past 2 days.
The class for today was enjoyable, and more than a bit unconventional. We started our class by describing our childhood games in Spanish, after which we played them. At the end of our class time, two of the classes played freeze tag together, with the catch being there is NO ENGLISH allowed. Nada, zip, zilch, nein. Every day I feel like I am learning so much, and the process is the most fun I have ever had learning too. Having small classes (fewer than 6 students) is very helpful.
After class, we went to a nice spot (shown below) to have a picnic. Our host families made us packed lunches and a lot of us got fun drinks from a café nearby. After that, we learned about an organization that helps children in need of financial support for their educational journey, and then we got to play with the kids! It was difficult due to the language barrier, but Grey ‘27, Aidenne ‘26, and I played heads-up with the children. After that, we all got ice cream together as a group, and then we were off to our own devices. Grey ‘27, Aidenne ‘26, and I walked around for a while. We headed into a few markets, explored the streets, and tried all new types of food. Every time we thought we were finished we found a new shop that sold something irresistibly good for an even more irresistible price. Even just on day 4, I have already tried so many new foods, I am excited (and a little nervous) to see what I am going to try next.
Because of the time of year, it has been raining a lot here. Today it got so bad we had to abandon our plan of walking home in exchange for a taxi ride back to our homes to end our day. Like usual, our dinner was unique and delicious.
All in all, today was a blast. I learned a lot (in a way that was super fun), I tried a lot of new foods, visited the children’s center, and walked around the city. I can’t wait to see what the next week and a half has to bring.
