On February 24, we left for a month-long vacation in Oaxaca, Mexico. We went to learn Spanish at the Instituto Cultural Oaxaca, but we also went to relax and learn more about the city, the culture, and especially the food.

This was our first international trip together and Jim's first study abroad experience. Fortunately, we weren't disappointed. Sure, there were plenty of times we didn't completely understand what we nere nodding and saying "Sí" to, and everything we encountered was "Oh, muy interesante," but those were minor issues, completely normal during our navigation of a country and language that were unfamiliar. A series of puzzling conversations with a waitress, scorpions dancing on our patio, and the bewildering second-class bus station were easily put into perspective over dinner with friends from school.

We would also like to apologize for the bluriness of some of the pictures. Many of the indoor pictures were taken in very low light, and therefore didn't come out as well. Hopefully they still get the feeling across of what we saw and experienced. You can reach Jim at jdorenkamp(at)gmail(dot)com if you have any problems with the site. It was created mainly on Windows and Linux computers using Firefox (which is an excellent alternative if you are annoyed by Internet Explorer in Windows) as the default browser.