Just before I finally came out, I noticed three (count 'em) spiders round the ceiling edges in the six-bed dorm I have to myself tonight. Fortunately all are spindly enough that measuring in at maybe 1.5 inch diameter I can afford to ignore them. I hope this is just bad luck/poor cleaning of the dorm rather than a Oaxaca thing... I just may try my feeble insect spray on the buggers later but probably not, especially if they haven't moved.
19:50. I need to recount the happenings of the day but too lazy right now. I cannot believe the sheer number of street vendors and beggars here.
20:15. OK, let me cast my mind back.
While wandering at about 8 or 9am after having checked in but not having a room available, I went for a wander. I saw a Spanish language school and suddenly thought "I wish I had maybe one something like that". As I had breakfast, I thought "well, why don't I? I could stay here two weeks and still have a bit of time left. I am a bit sick of this continual hopping around every few days." Oaxaca City also reminds me a little of Guanjuato where I first came here to study.
I popped into the school afterwards, but the street door was only open for some adjacent businesses. Not too surprising really.
I have been musing on and off about this all day. The more I thought the more uncertain I got. But I am kind of thinking now that I might do it. Well, turn up at a couple of schools at say 8am tomorrow (it being a Monday, which is fortunate) and see if I can enroll on the spot. If I can't then well no harm done.
I wonder a bit if I will get bored if I am stuck here for two weeks. But I didn't get that bored stuck in places for 3-5 weeks before. I think I will sign up for a week and see how that goes. If I suddenly decide I hate it, worst case is I've wasted about GBP150 which isn't the end of the world.
Not that I am basing the decision to try for the schools on this, but it just occurred to me this evening that although my flight back is for 23rd June, there is nothing to stop me extending for a week or two, assuming the ticket allows that. I don't have to be back in the UK until Andy's wedding on 10th July and financially an extra week or two would make no real difference. At the same time, it also provides a convenient hard limit which avoids me worrying that extending the trip will lead to the slippery slope of extending over and over again.
I am slightly, not quite homesick, but a touch weary, even if I am generally having a good time. But maybe a week or two settled in one place would alleviate that and I am not so desperate to get back that a week or two would be a killer. Two weeks would be pushing it slightly in terms of the wedding, but a week or even a week and a half (it's only because I sketched my itinerary out in whole weeks that I booked all my main flights for Wednesdays) would not really be a struggle in those terms. It may piss some recruitment agents off but they're bound to be pissed off anyway one way or another.
This feels a bit decadent assuming I am allowed (by the ticket) to do it, and that I actually decide to do it. But an extra two weeks tops is negligible in terms of money or getting a new contract ASAP so I can do something like this again in 18-24 months. Besides, at least I am stealing from the future to have two weeks abroad now, not to have two weeks sitting around at home.
Two different if slightly related issues here of course. But I think I will try to get into a school tomorrow morning for a week regardless and take it from there.
While wandering after breakfast and a couple of post-prandial teas I stumbled across Museo de los Pintores Oaxqueños so I went in there, after some confusion on the door. Not bad if not totally gripping and one or two quite cool paintings, some of which I photographed (feeling guilty, but there was no 'no photography' sign).
I then had lunch and a couple of beers in the Zocalo and felt a bit run down before getting back to the hostel. I was there charging my phone and surfing and briefly checking out a couple of local Spanish schools on the web til I came out tonight.
I seem to have a sort of plan now anyway, even if I am still slightly dubious about it. I think I have to go with my initial "it would be cool to do that, oh, and I can" thoughts re the Spanish school, and ignore any of the doubts I seem to have fabricated later about it maybe being a waste of time or doing it because I feel I "ought" to, which certainly wasn't the case when the idea occurred to me.
Was musing vaguely despondently about the costs (direct and indirect) of the trip on the bus this morning (of course, never the most optimism inducing time or place to speculate), but if I'm already fucked (no property, no pension, age nearly 34) another week or two won't make it significantly worse.
Oh, had a quick look at the F&CO web site for Mexico today. Oaxaca state has a warning about some human rights convoy being attacked about 50 miles west of here (the distance is from a hasty look on Google Maps, not the F&CO web site) back in April and saying to use caution when visiting the area, but I am going to assume (probably correctly) that means 'the area round the town where it happened'.
Oh, in terms of the school using up time I could have used to do other things (assuming I don't extend the trip), while I was heading for Guanajuato and it would be cool to revisit and maybe some of the places en route would be cool too, there was nothing in the 'must see/do' category on my vague itinerary. Besides, although it seems a little 'inelegant', I could maybe fly out somewhere after my time here, or even just put in some heavy days on the bus, and still make it over there. I will still have 11 days before I fly back after two weeks studying here, if I leave on the Saturday.
Two weeks studying would mean I will be here studying on my birthday a week tomorrow but really no big deal. I didn't have any special plans to visit anywhere on my birthday or anything.
Of course, all this assumes I can get into a school tomorrow. But if I can't, I can't, it was a last minute idea and so if it's not possible it's not the end of the world. It has already been semi-beneficial just as an idea since it's made me at least consider the possibility of extending the trip, which hadn't even crossed my mind before. (And I suppose if I really wanted to study and can extend, I could extend then book up for a school elsewhere a week or two in advance.)
Just have to see what happens tomorrow morning and take it from there I think.
20:42. I am going to count the beggars and hawkers for a bit. This will either demonstrate the problem or put a stop to it. :-)
Hawkers: 2
Beggars: 1
21:15. I close my count. I may have exaggerated to myself earlier, but not as much as the above might apply. I either got lucky, doing the count put them off or time changing made a difference. I half suspect they are repeating and I'd already fobbed most off.
All this non-story material in Les Miserables reminds me of Moby Dick. The convent/religion stuff is at least fairly interesting (if a little facile to my mind in its outright dismissal of atheism), unlike the Waterloo stuff. The probably factual accounts of covent life tally with and remind me of things I saw and was told while visiting various convents on the trip.
At the same time, at the risk of revealing myself as a philistine, I want to know what happens in the story and at least on this first read through I am therefore irritated by this superficially extraneous material.
I must say that while the idea of extending the trip by a week or a bit more is probably getting the upper hand, and I may do it even if it means discarding my return flight and buying a new ticket (though that would be a bit more of a push somehow), at the same time the idea has a certain disappointing quality, postponing something I am sort of looking forward to (being 'at home) and also a bit like postponing all the crap I have to go through (finding a new flat and a new job) which in some sense I just want to get out of the way. But as I say, overall it appeals, a week or so's delay is nothing and if anything may just enhance my appreciation of the slightly dismal prospect of returning to the UK and a 'normal' life.
21:55. Surprisingly busy in the Zocalo (should I capitalise that? It looks wrong). This bar/cafe has never been that busy but the one on the corner was and is rammed and there are loads of people sitting around in the square. I am tempted to describe it as 'vibrant'.
22:55. Bit shit. Just got the bill. Guy said 8 beers in a hesitant way, I said thought it was 7. I paid for 8 which was exactly 200 and left no tip (I have no change at all). Not out of pique. He may be right. Feel a bit bad but I guess it's done. I will have to return and tip next time. This isn't like that damn bar in Mexico City. For my own memory, this is the bar second from the corner nearest the street leading to my hostel.
Wouldn't be leaving now but I guess I didn't sleep much on the bus and it is almost stupidly important to me to be up in time to try the schools tomorrow. My gut feeling says of course they will let me in. But of course I have to be there in plenty of time anyway.
23:20. To bed and whatever happens tomorrow I hope I at least get up early enough...
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