The last few weeks have found us teaching our shopping conversation; a variety of phrases from "How can I help you?" to "I'll take it." We do at least one period of a fun review (usually in the form of a game) for each conversation. For this one we decided the best way to engage the students would be to set up an actually store in class. $600 pesos, generously donated by Norman and Toby Campbell, bought us pens, pencils, erasers and candy for grades 3 through 6. We gave them fake money and they had to make the transaction completely in English to receive their goods. They were thrilled to get to keep the supplies! For this week we developed a jeopardy-style game to review all of the English they've learned so far. It's a bit, as they have no idea what jeopardy is or how it works, complicated to get the directions across, but once they get it they really get involved. It's funny how putting a competitive spin on the material makes it so much more appealing :).
In mid-February we took a weeks vacation to do a tour of central Mexico with Richie (Sarah's boyfriend). We hit Morelia, Michoacan; Queretaro, Queretaro; and Guanajuato, Guanajuato. They are all beautiful colonial cities. Walking downtown in their historical centers is more reminisce of Europe than other parts of Mexico with all the brick and beautiful architecture. In Morelia, the boys went to a Mexican rodeo. They saw two teams, local and out of town, compete to lasso, hog-tie, mount and re-lasso a dozen bulls. The show was much more about the lassoing than the riding, to show, none of the riders were bucked, they all rode it out (often just sitting on a standing bull) until it was re-lassoed by the team. Guanajuato was our favorite; it's a hip college town packed with people our age, an element missing in Zihuatanejo. We took a tour of the city which included going to the "mummy" museum, actually just well preserved bodies (see Richie´s picture). Several are bodies the government took from the graveyard when the families couldn't pay their required rent. There are some special qualities in the air and soil that naturally preserve the corpses, so there are mummies hundreds of years old with their skin, hair and clothing still intact. The end of the tour brought us to a massive stone statue overlooking the brightly colored town.
In mid-February we took a weeks vacation to do a tour of central Mexico with Richie (Sarah's boyfriend). We hit Morelia, Michoacan; Queretaro, Queretaro; and Guanajuato, Guanajuato. They are all beautiful colonial cities. Walking downtown in their historical centers is more reminisce of Europe than other parts of Mexico with all the brick and beautiful architecture. In Morelia, the boys went to a Mexican rodeo. They saw two teams, local and out of town, compete to lasso, hog-tie, mount and re-lasso a dozen bulls. The show was much more about the lassoing than the riding, to show, none of the riders were bucked, they all rode it out (often just sitting on a standing bull) until it was re-lassoed by the team. Guanajuato was our favorite; it's a hip college town packed with people our age, an element missing in Zihuatanejo. We took a tour of the city which included going to the "mummy" museum, actually just well preserved bodies (see Richie´s picture). Several are bodies the government took from the graveyard when the families couldn't pay their required rent. There are some special qualities in the air and soil that naturally preserve the corpses, so there are mummies hundreds of years old with their skin, hair and clothing still intact. The end of the tour brought us to a massive stone statue overlooking the brightly colored town.
We traveled between city by bus, economical and way more comfortable than most airplanes. We stayed in hostels, which we really enjoyed because it is so easy to meet so many interesting people. Despite all feeling a little under the weather, we still really enjoyed ourselves.
We just have three weeks until the school´s spring break and only two weeks in Mexico after the break. So quickly the last three and a half months went!
