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 Nosa ’27 where he shares about a slower-paced day in Oaxaca filled with language learning and joyful games with local children at El Centro de Esperanza Infantil.
¡Hola a todos!
After a very eventful start to our week, I think I can speak for everyone when I say we were all glad to have a day with fewer activities to rest and recover. It was slightly cooler than usual and rainy in the morning, which gave us a nice break from the sweltering heat yesterday. We started the day by taking the bus to school and having our usual classes from 9-12. In my class, intermedia 2, we had an engaging lesson where we learned about the postpretérito tense. We analyzed an excerpt of text from our textbook and then played Two Truths and a Lie at the end of class.
After our classes, we ate packed lunches from our homestay mothers and walked to our cultural activity for the day, El Centro de Esperanza Infantil. The program helps Oaxacan children who come from low-income families by giving them resources to learn and play. We had already paid the children a visit last week, so it was nice to see some familiar faces. My group played some very fun and energetic games of headbanz and connect four and before we knew it, it was time to go. The board games had surprisingly worked up an appetite for tacos, so a couple of friends and I took a taxi to a taco spot right by our house. After we finished eating, we were all very tired, so we each went our separate ways to our homestays to rest up before the evening. At around seven, I and a couple of friends met up at a local sports eatery to watch the NBA finals. Then we went back to our homestays, ate dinner, and went to bed. Although it was one of the less lively days of the trip, it was still a lot of fun to bond with the children through games and spend time with friends. As I am writing this, I find it hard to believe that we only have 2 more full days of our 2-week trip left. ¡Hasta Luego!
