New summer, new grant!!

I was thrilled to learn I received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to travel to Oaxaca, Mexico this summer for five weeks! The sponsoring university is the University of Oregon, and the logistics of this grant are pretty different than the Fulbright-Hays to Morocco last summer, but in a good way I think. For one thing, this is FULLY funded :-), I don't have to pay for this one! Woot!

There are 30 teachers in this group, from all over the US, yet most of us seem to teach the Visual Arts or Spanish, but there are other subjects represented. More information about the grant, schedule, day trips etc. can be seen here:

http://whp.uoregon.edu/mesoinstitute/

We'll be studying and researching Architecture, Film, Visual Arts, and Ethnohistory and Culture.

I will be arriving a week early to brush up on my very rusty Spanish at this language school:

http://www.vinigulaza.com/index.htm

Classes are only in the AM, so will have lots of time in the afternoon to get a feel for the city etc. before others arrive. Though I do know a few of those in the group will also get to Oaxaca abit early too, so I hope to meet up with them.

I have already put a deposit on an adorable apartment for my stay there:

http://casitacamila.com/

I already got my airfare (Props to Continental for having a straight 2 1/2 hour flight to Oaxaca!), which was cheaper than my upcoming flight to Lexington, Kentucky! Go figure...

And, for those of you concerned about my safety (ahem, Mom... G-pa, G-ma!), Oaxaca is very far south in Mexico (see map below), so no real worries or concerns about the border drug wars etc. that are happening across the border.