Oaxaca!!

 Hello dear friends and family! 

We are breathing life back into this old blog so that we can share a little bit about our family adventures in Oaxaca, Mexico--and to have a solid forum for enforcing some writing time for Aurora and Rowen since we are "worldschooling" while we travel. Because, parents have to be obnoxious like that, right? 

Abram, as you might have sensed, is a more goal-oriented person, and I'm more of a feel-oriented person. It has been my dream to take the kids to spend some time in Latin America for the past 5 years, so as our departure got closer and closer, he kept asking me, "Why are we doing this again?" 

My hope has been for us to have a long enough time in Mexico that the kids will start at least a foundation in Spanish, develop a sense for how different life can be in other places, and begin to appreciate some of the cultures that exist here. I also, of course, have hoped that we can share some wonderful experiences as a family while the kids all generally still like us and each other ;).  It felt important to go this year as I've been just taking graduate courses online and could take a pause, and it's our last year before we have a highschooler.  

So, here we are! We are now a month into it and I'm finally sharing some photos and pieces written by Rowen and Aurora. We also hope to share a little bit of the beauty and learning we are experiencing here. 

We spent our first three weeks in the capitol city of the state, Oaxaca de Juarez. It is a central area for art, history, excellent food, and culture. 

Walking from our AirBnB house the first night. 

                  Lunch out after the first day of Spanish language school for the kids--everyone is super hot                                                                   and tired (surprise!). 

            Those balls are giant paper mache ornaments. The Metropolitan Cathedral is in the background. 

                                         Admiring a large mural by the mercado closest to us. 

We walk a lot now, which is awesome. We also catch taxis, collectivos (collective taxis that have a more set route), and occasional buses. 

This is us waiting for our first bus on our first excusrion out of the city. Our friend Bacchus is patiently waiting in the background as Abe gets more and more "psyched" about adventuring with the kids. 

It takes a lot of mental energy to be constantly trying to figure out how get places or where to find the basic things we need.  And we are also embracing the not-knowing and not really having much control over our timing most of the time. 

The kids are pretty into trying out the treats. They are becoming more adventurous about trying other foods as well. The favorite treat in the city were the churros sold by our usual spot to catch a taxi to Spanish school. 

                                         I'm pretty crazy about all the street art in Oaxaca city.  This kids were pretty tired after school this day and we were on our way to visit a market because Eve wanted to buy a purse and the girls all wanted to do a little shopping and exploring. 

Landscaping in our neighborhood--love all these tall cacti. 

"La noche buena" is the name for Christmas Eve and this plant that we call poinsettas. Most of the streets in Oaxaca are cobbled like this. 

Our sweet house on Huerto Los Mangoes, complete with bouganvillea. We loved being in a quiet little neighborhood off the beaten path. We rarely ever saw other foreigners, AKA "gringos." 

Art installation. 

Agave is a very important agricultural and cultural plant here. 

El Templo de Santo Domingo--most iconic church in the city. 

Theo loves getting rides from Bacchus, our friend who encouraged us to come put to the coast of Oaxaca as I began to plan the trip and then graciously came up to visit us in the city as we were getting our traveller's legs under us (we will be staying in the same town on the coast and look forward to lots more Bacco time).