maddiemingo

On Jan. 24, my Spanish V class went on a field trip to South Omaha. We visited many exciting places, including The International Bakery, Jacobo’s Authentic Mexican Grocery & Bakery, El Museo Latino and Filmstreams, for their showing of “Los Olvidados.” The entire day my class had to speak only Spanish. For any tostados we wanted or for any preguntas we had, every word had to be in Spanish.

The day started off at Marian where we departed from the school at 8 a.m. Unfortunately, one of my classmates fell ill, so it was only myself and two other classmates adventuring with Sr. Andrew Bauer for the day. Our first stop was La Panadería Internacional, the International Bakery. We each were given a serving tray where we could pile on as many pastries as we wanted. I chose a muffin, a donut, a piece of cake and something that appeared to be a giant croissant rolled in sugar. Every delicacy displayed was extremely affordable! My donut was only $.50 and I believe the muffin was $.75.

After enjoying the delicious donut, I saved the rest of my purchases and headed to Jacobo’s with my classmates. When I arrived, I was astounded by the number of salsas and giant piñatas they had. Every shelf housed authentic Mexican food, and in the back of the store, there was a kitchen where you could order whatever authentic cuisine you would like. We all left the store carrying a bag of homemade corn chips and a jar of salsa.

Our next destination was El Museo Latino. Here, we explored many art exhibits, including a section dedicated to contemporary photographer Lizette Abraham. My favorite part of the trip was definitely El Museo Latino. Seeing the amazing bead sculptures and reading the histories behind the art captured my attention and kept me wanting to look at more. However, when 10:30 a.m. came around, we had to say goodbye to the museum and make the journey to our next destination: Filmstreams.

We were greeted by cold turkey and cheese sandwiches along with bottles of water when we entered the theater; Filmstreams offered free lunches to all the students and staff members who arrived to watch their showing of “Los Olvidados.” The movie was a black and white, 1950s adaptation of street life for children in Latin America. I found it to be very depressing, but as we talked about it in the discussion with other students from schools across the Metro afterward, the movie had many underlying messages.

Overall, the day was a lot of fun! I saw parts of Omaha that I had never seen before and enjoyed a day out of school with my classmates. I would definitely go again if I had the chance.