4 months update

Hello everyone and welcome back on my blog,

You might not believe it, but I'm still alive. Five months in Mexico are over and I'm finally publishing the post about my 4th month, ups! But well, better late than never. Which seems to be the motto of this blog because there are some more promised post that still aren't written. I hope I can improve this fact in 2018...
This post is going to be short, but you can look forward to the 5th months update which is going to be long and with lots of nice pictures.

Feelings

This "christmas tree" made me miss home a lot :D

My fourth month wasn't the too special. The feeling that dominated it was definitely coldness. I was freezing most of the time because our office is really cold and at night the temperatures were really low and as there are no heaters in the houses, all the rooms get quite cold as well. I'm not accustomed to feeling cold inside of building, so it was quite hard to deal with it some days. I didn't take lots of warm clothes with me as well because nobody told me it could get this cold in Oaxaca. I'm looking forward to summer already.
The fact I was freezing so often might be the cause why I didn't feel well and my motivation level was quite low for some weeks.
I was also ill and had to deal with a cold (no wonder really!) and in the beginning of December I was a little homesick because I missed the advent in Germany with all its decoration and Christmas markets. But (spoiler alert!) the rest of December was great as you will read soon in my next post.

Experiences

The fourth month wasn't that exiting regarding experiences but that's totally ok because I learned to value the little things like going to the cinema with my host mother and sister. I can only recommend to everyone to watch the movie "Coco" someday, it's so beautiful!

I also took part in church service for a 15th birthday and after that they did a parade through the center of Oaxaca in the traditional dresses of the "chinas oaxaquenas" and the girl who celebrated her birthday in her eye-catching dress. It was great to see a tradition like this in real life because I couldn't imagine how important these 15th birthdays (called Quinceñeras here in Mexico) are even though I'm experiencing very closely how the preparations work.

At the end of my 4th month our coordinator hosted a small German "Posada" (more about what that is exactly in my next post) and all the volunteers brought typical Christmassy foods which helped getting into the Christmas spirit.

Work

Some really interesting events took place at work in my 4th month. We had an awards ceremony in which we gave prices to journalists and which at the same time meant that one project that I was quite involved in is over.
I also participated in a workshop for digital security which was very interesting and I learnt quite a few new things.











Language

Someone told me in December that I had a Portuguese accent when speaking Spanish. My first reaction was sadness because I thought that it's a bad thing that I can't speak Spanish perfectly. Later I realised that this accent has a great history and it's shows that I've already spent time in Brazil and that I have the ability to speak Portuguese which are good things. Therefore I can accept it and even be a little proud of it.

As you might have noticed, I cut out one category this time because I can't remember much about this topic to be honest. But it will be back next time.

Have a good time and see you soon,

Sandra