International Student Teaching Fall 2009

Hello again,
Just finished up week 3/4 in Ireland. Dana and I traveled to Belfast this past weekend. That was our "mandatory trip to Belfast". I am so glad we went; we had the time of our lives. We went up on the bus and arrived in Belfast around 3 o clock without a clue where we were going to stay, or where any hostel was. We wandered around Belfast with all of our luggage on us. I think we walked in a circle about three times before we decided to stop and ask where a hostel was.

There was only one hostel near the centre of town and we happened to be about a block away when we asked for directions. It didnt look too promising at first as it was deep into an alley off a main street. We dropped our luggage off and went to tour the town. It was an amazing city, top 5 of all the cities I have been to. We came to a conclusion that the reason we liked it so much was because it had blue lights everywhere.

We arrived during the middle of the annual Belfast international festival. They had food from all over the world, along with other arts and crafts. We decided to eat kangaroo which was quite interesting--a new taste for me. Beside the festival was the Belfast wheel which is a huge farris wheel with indoor compartments that goes up with an amazing overlook of the city. We happened to go on it right as it was getting dark so we saw all of the lights. It was quite a view.

After that we went back to the hostel and cooked dinner in the hostel kitchen like experienced travelers would do. After we ate, in came about thirty girls trying to watch the X Factor on the only TV in the hostel. X Factor is the American Idol of England and Ireland. Needless to say the girls were obssessed and glued to the TV. It turned out there was a huge group there from a college in Dublin on a class trip. We made ourselves a couple more friends for the trip. We had a great time that night. We woke up the next day but all of our new friends were gone once again.

We toured Belfast on foot again. They had a lot of malls there, it was more Americanized than Dublin. It was easy to tell that Belfast was a English culture, also it was twice as cheap which was good for gathering souveniers. We on another walking tour that night and saw the bridge all lit up, we went for a ride on the huge fish that was beside the water(I don't think we were supposed to, It was marble).

The next morning we had got up and booked a mini coach tour. We went to the Carrick a Rede rope bridge, the Giants' Causeway, the Dunluce Castle ruins, and Bushmills Whiskey Distillery which is the oldest one. We made a couple friends on that trip as well. All of those places were amazing. We took a ton of pictures but Ifeel like none of them did the places any justice.

Giants' Causway was awesome, definitely a must see. We also paid the few pounds to walk across the rope bridge which was well worth it. We got lucky because this was the first time the bridge has been up past October. Again we were extremely fortunate with the weather considering everywhere else in Ireland was flooded. That was about the end of our Belfast trip. Don't know what we might get into this weekend.

As for school and life in Glenageary, it went quite well. We had Tuesday off because of the national strike, and we may have next Thursday off for another national strike. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time with the students that need a little more help with reading and writing. They come down to a little room in groups of three. They are actually improving quite well. I have only been here a few weeks and already notice a difference in their reading abilities. About every morning I am with the same six kids. They are senior infants and first class students.

I play Simon Says with them at the end and they love it. After break I usually have a PE class everyday. It is much easier when the weather permits us to go outside. The PE hall is smaller than most classrooms which is ok for the younger kids but not the older ones. With the older kids I taught a few basketball skills this week which they enjoyed. There is only one class I still attempt American football with. I do a lot of lessons on soccer if we are outside. All of the second graders are better at soccer than my high school students were in America. If we are stuck inside I usually stick with team handball.

All the teachers here are really nice I don't know if I mentioned earlier that I am the only male teacher in the school. On Mmonday I am subbing for the second class. They are usually well behaved which should be good. Its hard to believe there is only two weeks left of teaching here.

My family is still really cool. They are all quite busy most the time. The girl Rachel is a college student and goes on college sailing trips all over Ireland every weekend. The boy Alphy just made the A team for rugby at his school. I guess that is like varsity which is really good. He has practice everyday, and weekends he goes to sailing if he doesnt have a rugby game. The dad works for Lucozade sport which is a sports drink that rivals Gatorade over here. He is an avid hunter and shooter as well. The mom just started her own jelly and jam business with a friend. She has made and packaged a few new flavors of jam every time I come home from school.

We all still make time for the family dinner every night though, followed by quality television time in the sitting room(living room). I definitely missed Thanksgiving back at home yesterday though. It was ok though because we had tacos for dinner. Thats about second best to a Thanksgiving dinner. All the food I have had at home has been quite delicious. I have had every type of potatoes you could imagine, and I am still not sick of them. The dessert has been pretty delicious as well. They call dessert pudding no matter what it is. Well I hope all is well with everyone elses travels.

Good luck in your last two weeks....cheers....Brett
Also I am still unable to upload pictures from here. Dana and I have a lot of the same ones though.

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! Today marks the beginning of our free time here in Costa Rica and I am very excited about the American meal we´ll be having tonight with some of our friends here in Nicoya!

Monday of this week started out with English Day at San Ambrosio. It is a day which highlights the English program and gives students the opportunity to present their English skills to their classmates and teachers. At the beginning of the assembly, there was an opening speech explaining the benefits of students at San Ambrosio learning English. After that they presented the Guanacaste and Costa Rican Flags and sang the anthems for Guanacaste and Costa Rica. Each grade level then had the opportunity to present a song, poem or scripted play to the school. This assembly for the school was great overall, and gave evidence for the work that students put into it.

My preschool group sang a song called ¨At The Zoo¨ which talks about different animals they see at the zoo and the types of things those animals do. For example, seals swim and monkeys swing. The kindergarteners sang a song called ¨On This Farm¨ about different animals and things you see on a farm, like a field and a horse. Both of these songs are pretty basic, but it helps students to build up English vocabulary that is easier for them to remember since it is in the form of a song.

First grade read a poem about a duck. The class was divided into 4 groups and each group had a line to read. They were all able to line up and read their part, but once the first row read theirs, they just turned around to look at the rest of the rows instead of moving to the back so their classmates could be seen when they read. Not exactly ideal, but its not always going to be when you´re working with kids! Second grade read a poem called ¨Little Frog¨. We divided this group similarly, with each group reading a different line in the poem. This class had forgotten which lines they were supposed to read though, so everyone read the whole poem all together.

Opening speech that Kayla and I put together.

Yesterday was actually our last day with the students at San Ambrosio. I only went to one class period, with my first graders, where we did a final journal entry for them to talk about vacation. After the first class period the whole school walked over to the Catholic church for mass. After mass everyone went back to the school and there were groups of students who did dances and skits for the teachers, the madres, and their peers. I think I speak for all three of us here when I say that it was distasteful and that there isn´t really any pictures I would feel comfortable to post from it. The dancing was done by 4th & 6th grade girls along with a group that had come from Santa Cruz. It was something you would usually see out in a club and it was very inappropriate for their age and given the setting... I mean, we´d just come from mass! Anyway, this was our last week with our students at San Ambrosio, and tomorrow Kayla, Jerry and I are leaving in the morning to go to Ostional since the last day at school is just a big party for all of the kids. And today is Thanksgiving, so of course we´re having a Thanksgiving Dinner over at Karla´s with as much American food as we can eat!

Overall I have enjoyed the cultural experience and working with the students at San Ambrosio. One of the most important things I think I will take away from this is the importance of classroom management. We talk about it in our classes at App, but aren´t necessarily showed how to implement it. Some people may get good experience wtih it in one of the internships we have, depending on their cooperating teacher. I knew that it was important before ever coming to Costa Rica, but my appreciation for it has definitely sky-rocketed.

It is absolutely imperative for teachers to set the standard on the very first day of school and post the (short) list of rules in their room as a visible reminder all year long. It is just as important to be consistent in disciplining students for their behavior or they won´t take the rules or you seriously. Then the rest of the year will be one giant headache. Students need to realize that there are consequences for their behavior, which can be rewards or punishments, and they will receive what is appropriate and necessary in order for the class to go smoothly.

We came at the end of their school year, so it is near impossible to implement new rules and have them adhere to them when you only see a class for one period a day. I dont feel as though our being here has had that much of an impact on the students´ behavior in class or on their respect for their (English) teachers or each other, but I can only hope that it will improve in the future. The kids here are happy, sweet and fun to be around, but they have some room to improve in the classroom.

Hello from Ireland!
I am now in my fourth week here at Rathdown Junior School! It is getting colder and colder each and every day so it has become slightly more challenging to walk to school and back each day! Today is actually Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving is not celebrated here in Ireland. People at school have said Happy Thanksgiving and I have gotten some questions about what my family and I usually do on Thanksgiving so it has made me miss being in North Carolina on this special day! However, I am still enjoying myself oh so much here in Ireland!

This past weekend was my busiest weekend yet! Ericka and I went on a three day paddywagon tour to Southern Ireland, which including Killarney and Galway. Some amazing sights that we got to visit included the Cliffs of Moher, Blarney Castle, Phoenix Park, Lahinch(surfing capital), Killarney National Park, Hill of Tara, Trim Castle, the beautiful town of Galway, famous Galway Bay, Cork and Kerry Mountains and Clonmacnoise(symbol of early Christianity).

So I felt like I had done so much at the end of the weekend, that I really had to think hard to remember all that we did. My favorite site that we visited were the Cliffs of Moher. They were absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect for us upon our arrival. The Cliffs of Moher are 214 meters out of the Atlantic Ocean and provide a beautiful view of County Clare in all directions. I also really enjoyed visiting Clonmacnoise, which was a site symbolizing the beginning of Christianity in Ireland. The ornate crosses and the beautiful landscape added to the peaceful experience I received at Clonmacnoise. I thoroughly enjoyed my three day tour and it will be one that I will always remember due to the amazing places we visited, the wonderful people I met, and the scary flooding experience we encountered on Friday.

I was able to meet people from Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Canada, and America. I had never met people from Australia or New Zealand and I actually met some good friends through the tour so when I go visit those places one day, I will have a place to stay during my visit! We had many good laughs throughout our time together!

On Friday, the scary flooding experience involved our bus driver attempting to drive on a road that had been recently flooded the night before. Well, our bus ended up getting stuck and turned completely off when we were stuck in the water. We ended up being stuck for three hours until finally a tractor came and pulled us out. It was a good bonding experience for all of us, but definitely could have done without it! All in All, I would recommend a paddywagon tour for anyone due to the amount of fun I had and the amazing people I met!

This week at Rathdown School, I have been teaching some classes and observing others. I am glad that I get to visit several classes in one day, but I do miss just teaching one class every day. It is challenging to connect to the students on a personal level when I am unable to spend much time with them each day! However, I had a neat experience at the beginning of this week in the P6 class. The class, as well as the teacher, was having a hard time figuring out how to find the interior angles of certain geometric shapes. I was able to check my understanding on the Internet and then teach them the correct way to understand how to find the measures of the interior angles. The students and teacher seemed to understand the confusing concepts after I explained them in a thorough manner. I found much joy in that experience!

Also, I have continued working with my two Peru students whose English continues to improve each and every day! The four year old and I now are able to have a short conversation before we start reading a book or reviewing alphabet flash cards. It is so encouraging to see her progress that she has made over the past few weeks! The nine year old has also made so much progress in English and math. She was recently able to write her own story during our time together with very little help!

Throughout my time here at Rathdown, I have gotten to know the faculty and staff more and more each day! I have really enjoyed making some close friends who I feel that I can truly lean on during my time here in Ireland! It is also so nice to ask questions regarding Ireland and Rathdown School. The teachers seem to really enjoy working here and seem to have that real passion for teaching children and making differences which is what every teacher should strive to achieve.

I am continuing to learn new words each day and I keep noticing how some words in English are spelled differently here in Ireland! For example, airplane would be spelled aerplane here in Ireland. I also think it is so interesting how the same popular music bands and groups in America are also popular here. For example, the kids that I worked with in America were obsessed with Hannah Montana and the kids here are likewise very impressed by Hannah Montana!

Well I can't believe I only have two weeks left in Ireland! It is hard to believe, but I am so thankful to be here each and every day! It has been a great learning, challenging, and exciting experience for me! I hope to continue to gain more insight here at Rathdown School so that I may apply some great teaching strategies back home in America!

The three pictures above are all from my three day Paddywagon Tour! The pictures represent the bus I traveled on, Clonmacnoise, and the Cliffs of Moher!

Ta Ta for now!
Heather

First, I cannot believe that I only have three more weeks left. I have been having such a wonderful time, I have lost track of the days.

On Thursday, November 19th, after teaching my 3rd class their English lesson, I promised them that if they behaved, they would be given a surprise at the end of the day. I had decided to teach the children about the U.S. currency, as well as show them my driver’s license. I had obtained this idea from getting bus money, at the end of the day, from my wallet.

Every time I would open my purse, I would notice curious faces with prying eyes, wanting to see what was inside. The students were absolutely amazed and fascinated, and their hands reached out all at once to touch the money. I showed them a $1, a $5, a $10, and a $20, as well as a penny, dime, and a quarter (Unfortunately, I did not have a nickel.). Originally, I was not going to give the students my driver’s license, but they requested to see it. In Ireland, the driver’s license is on a sheet of paper; therefore, it is different from our plastic cards. The students’ also requested to see my passport, but I did not bring it to school. However, I told them that I would bring it in for them to look at.

Also, on Friday, Heather and I went on a 3-day Paddy Wagon Tour. The tour was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. Our tour bus was 45 minutes away from Galway, when we came across a road that was closed, because an accumulation of rainfall had flooded the area. Our bus driver, Phil, asked a Garda (police officer) if he should attempt at driving through the water.

The Garda told him that if he put the bus in first gear, he should be able to make it across. After talking to the Garda, Phil asked us if he should drive on, or turn the bus around and find another route. Most of the tourists, minus Heather and I, yelled at Phil to do it. My heart stopped when Phil put his foot on the pedal and drove right through the water. I saw the water come over the hood of the bus, and then, the engine stalled, and the bus was surrounded by water on all sides. We were stranded for 2 hours, until a tractor was finally able to pull our bus out of the water.

However, the bus was deemed dead; therefore, we had to take a school bus to Galway. We arrived at Galway around 7 o’clock, and after having checked into the hostel, most of the travelers (including myself) decided to find the nearest laundry mat. We needed to find a laundry mat because the trunk of the bus had been flooded, and most of the tourists’ suitcases had been soaked. I shared the cost of the washer and dryer with Steph, who was from Australia. I had spent 2 hours at the laundry mat.

Saturday, the second day of the tour, was much better. We saw the Cliffs of Mohr, which were breath-taking. Actually, I was really surprised at how windy the cliffs were. I was told by one of the teachers at school that many accidents occur on the cliffs because of the heavy wind. Seriously, it felt as though I was about to take flight.

Also, I learned a lot about Irish folklore and superstitions. For example, Phil (our driver) pointed out several fairy trees and circles. It is a bad omen to disturb these natural wonders. He also drove us to a wishing well. Similar to the Trevi Fountain (in Rome, Italy), you make a wish on a coin, and then you throw it over your left shoulder, and into the water. I also kissed the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle, which guarantees me 7 years of good luck.

Overall, I had a great experience with the Paddy Wagon Tour, and I am hoping to go on another tour in a couple of weeks, in the attempt to explore Northern Ireland. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to make new friends, as well as have fun, and learn about the history and experience the beauty of Ireland.

Also, I found out that my USB external port (on my laptop) is not reading my camera or my card reader. Therefore, I am going to try a computer at school, and hopefully, it will work!

Well this week was very eventful. I did lots of school and lots of traveling. In school I introduced a few new PE activities to the students in using a parachute with a game called popcorn. I also showed them a game focused on teamwork. I let the students pick the name and they picked chain link. The students lock at the arms and i put a hula hop on one end of the students who are in a line. They have to get the hoop through the line without breaking the lock and without using any hands. I divide a class into two teams and they compete or I make the class into 4 teams and they play a round robin tournament. It is a lot of fun and teaches flexibility and teamwork.

In the traveling part I visited Glendalough which is an old church/graveyard. The church came about in the 1200's and parts of it are still standing. The next day I visited Sally Gap where the scenery is amazing and you can see mountains for miles and we visited The Great Sugar Loaf. On 11/18 Brett and I went to a pub to watch the World Cup qualifier for Ireland and France. The game ended in a controversial call that the refs did not see. It has been all over the news all week.

On 11/20 Brett and I went to Dublin for the night and caught a bus to Belfast for the weekend. We made it a weekend through Tuesday because the teachers in Ireland were on strike that day because their wages have been cut. In out trip we visited The Giant's Causeway, The Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, Dunluce Castle and The Bushmills Distillery. The sights are unreal and amazing. I can not explain the sights because they are unreal so here are some pictures.

The school year here in Costa Rica and at San Ambrosio is winding down. Even though Costa Rica is in the northern hemisphere, they are now entering into what they call their summer, the dry season. There are only two seasons here, rainy season and dry season. I am pretty sure it has stopped raining for good now, but we may get one or two more short rain squals.

There is only one more week left at San Ambrosio and it is getting more and more frustrating for me as an art teacher. As with the schools in the U.S., art programs are on the bottom of the list when it comes to priority and class time. Like I said last week, I only get one day a week with each grade and some grades I have not even seen once yet due to testing. This was my last week with more than half of my classes because they have testing next week. I have been doing my trademark graffiti project with 7th grade through 10th grade and most of them are going to have to finish their stencils at home if they want to spray paint next week one day after school.

Being at San Ambrosio has been different in just about all aspects compared to the artistically gifted and flourishing Durham School of the Arts where I taught for 10 weeks before arriving in Costa Rica. I know that there are plenty of less fortunate schools out there than San Ambrosio but Durham School of the arts is basically the promise land for any public school art teacher.

Aside from teaching I have been playing some basketball with the secondary and elementary students. Let’s just say that they are way better at soccer than basketball.

The family I am living with has 4 kids, one 13 month old granddaughter, 1 other guest student studying at Nicoya University and then there is myself. This is really not shocking at all and almost as amazing, active, and hectic as the Rosell/Ballance household that I am accustomed to back home. For over two weeks now I have been playing soccer with the two teenage boys that I live with and all their neighbourhood friends, young and old alike. This has been great. They sure do love soccer down here. I play about 3 days a week and every time I have played they will not quit playing until you cannot even see anything in front of you because it is so dark out.

Mary Paz, the grandaughter

Last week one of the maintenance guys from San Ambrosio asked me to play on his team on Sunday in their local soccer league. So last Sunday, the maintenance guy, Domingo is his name, picked me up and we drove 40 minutes to Santa Barbra to play in the league. Little did I know but this was a 35 years old and up league, ha! I got there and I was the only gringo in sight for miles. The name of the team that I played for was the Veterans, and it was legit. They had uniforms and everything.

I hope I am doing as well as some of those guys out there when I am their age. There was one guy who was 60 years old running around playing soccer! It was so hot, but it was an awesome experience. We actually played two games and some of my team mates would smoke cigarettes before and in between games and just about everyone had a beer in between the first and second game!

Last weekend was an eventful weekend. Saturday they had the day long festival called Pica de Lana. The pictures do it better justice but basically half the town goes way out into the country and parties, prepares their ox and carts for the parade into town at noon and chops wood for the carts that the ox tow. Do not really know the significance behind it all but it was fun to watch and participate.

This past week was our second to last at San Ambrosio.. before beginning the week we had the chance to experience of Pica de Leña. It was this past Saturday, November 14, 2009. It is a festival of woodcutting where people of Nicoya get together to chop wood, load up ox carts (some of them painted) with the wood, dance, sing, and have a parade of the oxcarts and dancing horses through town. It was great fun and exciting to experience another part of the culture here in Nicoya.

During school this week we tested in 1st and 2nd grades. I´m assuming pre-k and kinder students aren´t tested for English.. it would be unnecessary to do so. The students´ English speaking skills are at a bare minimum at the age level I am working with. They do not push themselves.

This week has been good and has gone by really quickly. There was an assembly on Thursday.. none of which I really understood, but everyone prayed together, sang, gave a couple different speeches and let some white balloons go at the end. Friday, today, is Teachers' Day and there were no classes. All the teachers from San Ambrosio got together at one of the 11th grader´s houses and hung out by their pool/poolhouse area. It was a nice change to hang out with the teachers away from the school setting. They made fresh pork rinds, which they had me help to stir around in the big skillet. There was also a lot of dancing and lots of throwing people into the pool, fully clothed.

I´m still enjoying the culture and my time here.

ciao!

Let me try this again. I have written many emails and blogs that have been lost before I sent them. This past week went really well. Last weekend I was able to scrounge up tickets to the Ireland vs France soccer match for the world cup qualifier. It was a great game except ireland lost 1-0. The crowd was electrifying. 80,000 Irish cheering for their soccer team, you could imagine the passion in Croke stadium.

It was probably the coolest sporting event I have ever been to. The entire stadium had noise makers and signs that said c'mon boys in green. I had a friend that was able to find two tickets to the sold out match at the last minute. Sunday was exciting as well. We went to the Ireland vs Austrailia rugby match. It was a great match, Ireland tied it up in the last minute for the draw against a great austrailian team. We all bought Ireland scarfs to support Ireland.

This week in school went pretty well. Some classes are better than others. They just get soo hyper when they come in for PE once a week. Its only bad when they have PE inside in the tiny PE hall. It barely fits all the students. Things go a lot smoother when it is outside.

Murial took me and Dana to Sally Gap which was amazing. The wind was almost blowing us over. We also rode through Powerscourt Gardens, and Eniskerry. There were lots of good views, especially of the big Sugar Loaf. This weekend Dana and I plan to travel to Belfast. It should be interesting seeing the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Tuesday we have off school for the national teachers' strike. This weekend we should be able to see quite a bit. The weather is going to be aweful though. It is flooding both south and west of us. Hopefully the north is safer. They say things are cheaper in northern Ireland too which is awesome. Off to another class right now. Hope everybody else's trip is going great...cheers

So, my third week in Nicoya has been a busy week and has passed by rather quickly. Over the weekend we went to the Pica de Leña festival. We got to watch men of the town chop wood and they loaded it up into beautiful handpainted ox carts that paraded through the town.

This is one of the hand-painted ox carts!

Last week I wrapped up the English Day project with fourth grade and the pen pal letters with third grade. The students at San Ambrosio are bringing the school year to a closing and have been finishing up their exams this week. At the beginning of the week I spent a lot of time reviewing exam topics with my students and getting them ready for the tests. I have been trying to do fun activities with my students to help them prepare for the test. But it has been a task to do these things becuase the students are not used to these types of activities in the classroom. Also, although we are in the final two weeks of school, I am trying to implement classroom managment strategies. I have also been talking with my cooperating teacher and giving her ideas on things to do next year with her students. I gave Karla and my cooperating teacher some of the documents that I created in my Classroom Management Notebook from Block II, to give them some ideas on things to do! Fifth and third grades were assessed Wednesday and fourth was assessed Thursday. Now, that testing is over I am going to work with third and fifth graders on their English Day presentations. We are having Teacher´s Day tomorrow and we are off school and going to a ranch with the other teachers. I am anxious to see what that is about and what we will do!

I put this up on the wall of my fifth grade classroom as a way to wish them good luck on their final exam!! Each student´s name is listed in the two trophies!

Here is a picture of me reviewing the topics of the test with my fifth grade!

I have to admit that one thing I was worried about concerning this trip was the food! I was curious to know what types of things they would serve and whether or not I would like the food. Well come to find out, I absolutley love the food here. Karla is an excellent cook and has made up some very nice dishes. There is one meal though that I have liked the best and that is arroz con pollo, which is chicken rice :) But it is funny that I like this particular meal because it is seems to be that it is served all the time at parties and gatherings and to my benefit it is served at pretty much every restaurant! Because this dish is served often in Costa Rica it has earned the name arroz con siempre which means always rice!

MI FAVORITO ARROZ CON SIEMPRE!!!

Hello again from Guadalajara!

I am still having a fabulous time here in Mexico and I am learning a lot!

I am continuing to teach lots of Guided Reading Groups in my class, as well as other math and reading lessons. This past week I taught a lesson on honeybees and then we made honeybee puppets out of paper bags. The students loved their puppets!

Also, last week we got to do Reading Buddies with a fourth grade class. It was amazing to see how much the kids loved reading with the older students. It was also really fun to hear the 4th graders giving the first graders reading tips!

Each year around this time, ASFG holds an ArtFest, in which the school displays student work, alongside the work of professional artists. Then, they have an auction and sell the artwork. I am excited to experience this and see all the artwork around the schoolgrounds. In addition, the students get to attend special art presentations all week long. So far, my class has been to a puppet show and another play.

Although Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Mexico, ASFG gives its students and staff a Thanksgiving break due to its affiliation with the US and the number of staff members that come from the US. So next week will be a very short week and we have all sorts of Thanksgiving lessons and festivities planned to teach the students about the holiday. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

This past weekend was a long weekend for Mexico. Schools were closed Monday to celebrate the Mexican Revolution. So, I got to travel with my new friend, Clancy, and Danna, the teacher she lives with. We traveled about 4 hours south on a bus to a smaller town named Morelia. It was a beautiful colonial town. We spent some time walking around and exploring and had a great time! However, Morelia didnt give us quite the small town environment we had hoped for, so we decided to continue another hour south to an even smaller town named Patzcuaro. We absolutely loved it there! There were small shops and markets everywhere there, and the cobblestone streets were a nice touch, too. I even made some pretty good bargains with the shop owners. We didnt want to leave!

The cathedral in the zocalo of Morelia. It took over a century to build!

A beautiful view of the street in Patzcuaro

Me hanging out with some leftover Day of the Dead decorations in Patzcuaro!!

I had hoped to continue travelling with Clancy while we are both in Guadalajara, but on Monday when we returned, Clancy had to go to the hospital. She has the dengue. I am still healthy, and I am hoping it stays that way.

One thing that I have to get used to here is that Guadalajara is not a very friendly city. Having traveled to many other destinations in Latin America, I am very used to everyone being friendly and treating you like family, no matter how much of a stranger you are. This is not the case here, though, and it makes for a very strange environment. It is a strange feeling to be in Latin America and to say that people are not friendly.

Also, the weather here is crazy! In fact, it reminds me of Boone. Being that Guadalajara is the highlands of Mexico, it is very cold in the mornings, and then it is very hot in the afternoons. In fact, during the first days that I was here, it got down to about 4 derees Celsius every morning. That's not too cold for us, but for the Mexicans it's freezing! Its so funny to see everyone walking around with their winter coats on. It's a good thing I brought my jacket!

Cant wait for the ArtFest this weekend!

Nos vemos amigos!