Hola todos

¿Como estan ustedes? Sorry I have not been able to write earlier but this is the first time I have had access to a computer. I have been really busy with all of my orientation activities. I got into Oaxaca on Saturday. My host family met me at the airport and we took a taxi to our homestay. I am staying with one other student who is fluent in spanish so he is able to help translate when I dont understand things in Spanish. Our home we are staying at is at the top of a large set of steps with a great view of the city and the surrounding mountains. We are staying with a lady whose husband just recently died of a heart attack. Her kids and grandkids are almost always around the house keeping her company.

Oaxaca is a very beautiful city. The centro (downtown) where we are staying has lots of old, colonial architecture and small cobblestone streets that cars cannot go down. Surrounding the old city are more modern suburbs.

This week we have been doing various orientation activities such as visiting the hospitals where we will be observing at, meeting the members of our group and going over the classes we will take. We are taking spanish classes, latino health classes and doing clinical rotations at local hospitals.

My group has 10 boys and 11 girls who are all from UC Davis except one who is from Santa Barbara. Tomorrow we are all visiting Monte Alban which is an old Zapotec city with ancient pyramids. The Zapotecs are an indigenous group similar to the Aztecs. Oaxaca is a very indigenous region of Mexico. 16 different languages are spoken in the state.

The food here is somewhat similar to the mexican food in the US but also has some differences. The local specialty is Chapulines which are fried grasshoppers. On the first day of class they gave each student a bag of them and had a contest to see who could eat the whole bag first. The kind of taste like sour sunflower seeds. Most meals here contain queso, tortillas, beans and some type of meat. A lot of the food is very spicy.

I will write more once I start my classes and clinical rotations. In the meantime I hope everyone is well.

Nos vemos