5 more weeks...

We went and watched 2 baseball games last week, which were extremely fun! I didn't realize how much I missed watching sports until we sat down and saw the players warming up. Sports are such a huge part of American culture, and yes it's been nice to have a break from watching them ALL THE TIME on ESPN (ooohhh boyfriends, haha), but I really do enjoy watching them live, and this was no exception. I've never been to a minor/major league baseball game in the United States, but I could still tell some differences between this game and ones in the US. Firstly, the food they were selling was different... Here they sold donuts with cream in them, nuts with lemon and chile, iced cappuccinos, tortas (a mexican sandwich), and even Dominos pizza, which was surprisingly home-like to me. All this they sold walking around, we never had to leave our seats. I assume that the beer they sold was the same as the US, though the only brand they were selling was Corona. Before the game, they played Spanish music videos up on the big screen, and during the breaks, they played "Funniest Home Videos". Between every pitch they played a 5-second segment of a song, and if we ever got up to go to the bathroom, we got several cat-calls. At the first game, I was so excited about the idea of pizza that I just had to buy one, as back in the US I probably ate pizza at least once a week, maybe twice. After I bought one, the guy who sold it to me walked by again later, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza! Hola," staring right at me. "Pizza!" He continued on. Niiiice.

Our team is the Oaxaca Guerreros (Warriors). The score was 2-6 in the seventh inning, but in the 8th, the Guerreros came back and got 3 homeruns, scoring 6 more points, and leading the other team by 2. The final score to this belatedly exciting game was 8-6! We were stoked... every time they scored a run, the crowd yelled this little thing... We couldn't quite make it out, but at the end it goes, Guerreros, Guerreros, ya ya ya! (Or ra ra ra, still can't tell) So we just join in at the end, pretending like we know stuff.

I've been asked from people from the US how my Easter went, and honestly, Easter sunday was like any other day here. The big celebrations are the week before, Semana Santa, or Holy Week. All the kids in the schools get 2 weeks off for this holiday, and everyone goes on vacation, so Oaxaca was more packed that normal. There are parties all week, but there are also alot of religious processions and church stuff. Every night there was a religious (I'm assuming) concert up on the ampitheater on the hill overlooking the main part of Oaxaca, and it was so beautiful that one night when me and Olivia were walking around downtown, we assumed it was from a church so we started walking towards it, trying to find where this music was coming from. When we found out it was from the ampitheater, were rather disappointed, but then continued on our way to Cheap Beer (aka 10 pesos per beer) night at Elefante, no longer distracted by the angelic music, but excited for the un-holiness of the club. PS we didn't have to buy ONE DRINK that night, because within a couple minutes of sitting down, boys bought us drinks, and our friend Edgar the bartender also liked to give us free beer. It was a fantastic night. :)

Anyways, back to Semana Santa. Thursday there are 7 churches open with their beautiful alters, and everyone goes around and visits them all. On Friday, they can only eat fish (which almost killed me, I'll explain in a bit), and there is the Procession of Silence through the main streets of Oaxaca, with candles and banners and many life-size images of Christ and the Angel that people carry around on their shoulders. I believe that every day the churches conducted Mass. It's an entire week of prayer and sacrifice and celebration. And everything is closed on Friday, which was unfortunate for me, as I was completely out of vital pieces of clean clothing and had to wait until Saturday to take my laundry in, and until Monday to pick it up, which meant hand-washing in the sink. Wonderful. ;)

So, I have to bashfully admit that I had a tad bit too much to drink on Thursday night of Semana Santa, which I'll just quickly glaze over as too much fun at Elefante with our group and people we met there. The point is that I was hungover on Friday. Which was probably one of the worst choices I could have made, because as you already know, on Fridays they serve fish, which I have decided has got to be the worst hangover food IN THE WORLD. So the story goes, that I sit down for lunch with a rather big part of my host-parents family, and the first thing I do is gulp down a glass of juice, as I'm dehydrated from the night before and am afraid to enter the kitchen to get water because it's like this mysterious off-limits place for me, and plus there were alot of people here. So there I am sucking down the juice that I know somewhere contains some water, and my dad asks me if I would like a beer, and out of habit I say, Sure! As soon as he brings it out, I remember- I'm hungover. I do not WANT alcohol. NOW I HAVE TO DRINK IT ALL. My mom then brings out the first course, soup. This soup was like chili, but with shrimp. I already don't like shrimp, but I ate it anyways, hoping the next part of the meal would be better. But no. As you already know, my mom served me fish. Which is different than the fish at home. There was also this fish-flavored rice on the side, with of course, shrimp. I stared at this plate of food for about a minute, poked at it, took a little bite of each, and then stared at it some more, trying to settle my stomach. Because on top of all of this, they were also offering sardines around the table, and Constanza was eating worms. YES. WORMS. Like it was NORMAL. "Oooh! This one has eyes!" she squealed. "All animals have eyes." My host mom said off-handedly, and Constanza twirled the worm around her fingers and slurped it up anyways. Oh. God. I try to get some more of my beer down, but no such luck. My mom looks over at me. "Do you feel alright?" NO I DO NOT FEEL ALRIGHT! I'M HUNGOVER AND YOU'RE SERVING ME DEAD FISH AND WORMS!
"Ehh, I think I'm sick." I say, looking at my plate. My dad looks at me for a second, then gives me that EYE. You know. The one that says, I know why you're not feeling well, I know how late you stayed out last night, and let me tell you, you weren't just playing cards! Whatever, like he can talk, he drinks alcohol every DAY with lunch! You keep drinking your coke and rum, Padre...
"How much did you drink last night?" My dads sister asked me, right out, startling me.
"Umm... some beer, some tequila..." I answer carefully.
"Did you have mezcal?" She asks sternly.
"Just a little bit..." I say. Who is this woman??
"Oh no. Mezcal. You should never mix mezcal and tequila!" She says, as if I've just commited some horrible error, which in her mind I guess I did.
"Yes. It's like an explosion in your stomach." My host mom says gravely.
"Well I only had a little bit..." I say in my defense. I look down at my food again. Oh jeez...
"You don't have to finish that." My mom says, watching me. "I can eat it, you're sick you should go rest!" And I don't wait for another push in the direction of my bed.
"Thank you." I say. "Buen provecho." Then I get into bed and go back to sleep. Oh the joy of siestas!

School right now is getting stressful. We have a test tomorrow, presentations next Tuesday, a decifering-zapoteca-writing assignment due on Wednesday, and then we leave for Chiapas for 10 days, and when we come back we have one 5-page paper due that week, and another 5-page paper (including research we have to conduct) due the week after that. So instead of staying here and working on these projects as we know we should, this weekend some of us are heading off to Puerto again, which makes me EXTREMELY HAPPY! We booked the hotel today, bought the bus tickets, and we're leaving tomorrow night at 11:00 pm again, so that we'll have 2 whole days there in paradise before coming back on Sunday. I figure it'll be the perfect way to get refreshed and relaxed before the shit hits the fan and we have to get down to business with all these projects. It's going to be WONDERFUL!!!! I recommend that everyone visit Puerto Escondido and stay at Hotel Ines at some point in their lives, okay? Do it. Or you will disappoint me. :)

We have 5 more weeks here, which sometimes seems like such a short time!! I really love Oaxaca and leaving will be RATHER upsetting, but what can you do? I'm excited to go home and see everyone I've been missing, but I also know that I'm going to miss this place so much, it means so much to me and I absolutely love it, just like I would love a sibling... It can get to me at times but I know that it will always have a wonderful place in my heart.