August 28th, 2017.

‘First Day of School’ like never before.

Cross the street Héroes de Chapultepec, enter through the gate, up the path lined by palm trees, and ya, here we are. On the patio of the Cultural Institute of Oaxaca (ICO), our group of twelve nervous, but excited students awaits instructions.

First thing first was the placement exam. This was nerve racking considering the majority of us spent an English-drenched summer, quite the long respite from Spanish classes. But hey, it wasn’t that bad:

• Circle this word_________________.
• Find the imperfect subjunctive form of conocer
• Write your opinion on the facial expressions in the following picture
• Sum up the following comic

 

…en español.

Nothing we couldn’t handle. Ends up we were pretty evenly split up into two classes, led by professors Herman Luis Martínez Cruz and Marycarmen Olivares López.

Term I. Intensivo.

The details of class are a little different for all of us, but the basic gist of it is as follows:

9am – 10:40am.

Get to class by 9am, coffee in one hand, an Oaxacan pastry in the other, and ready to delve into today’s material. We go over grammar structures, the dreaded subjuntivo, cultural aspects about Oaxaca, new vocabulary.

Huicha.

Sitting in class, engaged while also trying to keep up my comprehension, I suddenly feel this fuzziness brush up against my leg.

¡Huicha!

ICO’s resident cat, Huicha, is always wandering from classroom to classroom, and receiving all the ‘awww’s’ that she can get. She has a fan-base of students every year.

10:30am.

We hear the small, but powerful, ring from the ‘break-bell’ (literally a hand-held bell that one carries around to announce the 10-minute breaks). ¡Descanso! YES! We head to the café to buy some coffee and cookies to refuel our hard-working brains.

11:40am – 1:00pm.

Another 10-minute break, then off to discussion-time. This part doesn’t involve grammar or textbooks, but instead we use games and conversation to practice what we learned in class. Usually discussion time is out on the patio, amidst the warm sun and surrounded by palm trees. It’s practically paradise.

Intercambio.

After discussion time, I head to my homestay to have lunch. I walk there, and then walk back to ICO for Intercambio hour at 3pm. The Spanish word intercambio stands for ‘exchange.’ This makes sense considering that, at this time of the day, each one of us meets with one of the local university students here to practice Spanish conversation. We alternate between thirty minutes in español and then switch to inglés (or vice versa) for the remaining 30 minutes. It’s an exchange of questions, knowledge, vocabulary, and cheesy bilingual jokes.

When are the biggest festivals in your country and what do they stand for?

¿Cómo se dice ‘napkin’ en español?

¿Cuál es your favorite parte de tu country?

 

What a gift intercambio hour is.

En la tarde.

After the hour is up it’s time to gear up for salsa class. Salsa dance class lasts from 4pm-6pm, and is a great way to express your inner Eddie Torres. It’s excellent exercise and a wonderful two hours. At 6pm we say gracias to our dance instructor and then it’s freeeeetime! Usually we explore around the Centro area and find somewhere to eat. We pretty much choose a different one every night. Variation is the spice to life. And after walking home again or exploring more, thus ends our day.

Por la noche.

At night, I come home and chat with my host family.

Set the alarm.

Sleep.

Wake up to do it all again.

It’s definitely not monotonous, though. There are so many new sights, sounds, food, dance-moves, grammar, and people to encounter every day. Whew! Full day and full joy.

‘How we live our days is how we live our lives.’

By the end of Intensivo, we were one month into the program. I was already developing a better understanding of the aspects of Oaxacan culture, history, and its environment, both the familiar and the more unfamiliar ones, and what my place is amidst it all. Since then, all my interactions with my host family, my professors, the staff at ICO, our community, and my peers have allowed me to dig deeper into ideas about globalization, immigration, identity (national and individual), hospitality, and social change. From such reflections, I am able to better understand how my actions and words, or lack thereof, influence the world around me.