Aaaawesome speaker

Ok, yesterday, I don't think a whole lot happened. We had a lot of lectures and more orientation stuff. I was very tired, and no tenía ganas (I didn't feel like) writing in my blog. Well, we did have oral examinations to see what Spanish class we would be placed in. I hope I did well. Other than that, nothing much happened.
Today however, was absolutely awesome. A guy named Gustavo Esteva came and talked with us. He had done various things throughout his life, including almost becoming the minister in Mexico. He also writes lots of articles and books, and is involved in a few different NGOs, and some other organizations. Some of the things he said totally made me think hard, and nearly blew my mind. He talked about autonomy of states throughout the world, and how development is really hurts more than helps countries. In fact, it should not even exist cause it causes a lot of prejudices, and futures. He was for sustainable living, and said that in order for this to happen, cities had to disappear so that we could make food for ourselves, and still have other things for the global market to get us accessories. Autonomy was of the individual, not of the nation, state, etc. Wow! That's crazy radical. How cool!
Also, we asked about peace. He told us that peace came from the latin Pax, which actually was a contract of domination and meant that "I will not destroy you, as long as you do this..." Isn't that crazy?! Also, 1/2 of the world's languages don't even have the word peace. ahhh, that's kinda sad, but makes sense. He said that the only way for there to be peace was to get rid of nations. Wow! But what about keeping everyone autonomous. It seems kinda opposing. I dunno. It's really confusing, but fascinating to think about.

So that was our awesome morning! Then we had lunch, in which I had my first mole! It was delicious! I tried mole negro (black), and mole roja (red). It's like, sweet and spicy at the same time. YUMMY!
In the afternoon, we went on a tour around Oaxaca city. We saw some places that were important community and NGO meeting places and where a lot of violence had happened. Also, we saw how the poor and rich communities were thouroughly separated. We saw some squaters that had come in 8 days ago. I totally meant to bring my camera, but i forgot. Sorry. Others did, so I might try to get some of theirs from facebook eventually. I was really rather tired then too. I swear, I came down here and immediately got into wanting a siesta after break. So, we got done with that around 6:30ish, then some of us went out to dinner where I had more mole. (pronounced moe-lay) And on the way home, we stopped and got Oaxacan hot chocolate. mmm, cinnamon hot chocolate! Delicious! What a long, but good day!