Last Few Days!

We are all relieved that our oral exams are over, and our compositions have been turned in!!!
Yesterday was our final day, and we enjoyed our last night in Cuernavaca.
Over the weekend we visited a Medicine Woman and climbed a Mountain!!! It was a lot of work....I kind of feel out of shape.
Sunday we returned to Mexico City to see the Folklore Ballet in the morning and visited the Cathedral, National Palace (government), and the remains and museum of the Major Pyramid of the Aztecs.
Today we arrived in Puebla and have been relaxing at the hotel, before the hotel, we visited the University of the Americas. That is where our two student leaders studied for a semester.
Tomorrow is our free day!!! We are all very excited, but not about waking up at 2 am in the morning to get to the airport.
Everyones' stomachs have recovered for the most part, and we are all ready to return.

See you all soon!

One week left!

I cannot believe how fast time has gone here. I know for sure that many of us are ready to be done with the school part of our trip. We have all had an amazing time....and have gotten a taste of summer!
We have been working on our final compositions which have to be 750 words in spanish!! The length is the hard part, but really, the paper is about all our experiences, and the same with the oral exam, so many of us are not too concerned about them.
Today we had another little quiz over our homework: it was the 5th one since we have been here. Tonight some people are going to take a salsa class, and some are going bowling.
We have one week left, and we actually leave Cuernavaca early Tuesday morning.
This weekend we will be going to Mexico City again, but this time to say a ballet and other historical sites!
Many of us are excited for the city of Puebla, because we get a free day off, I believe it is Wednesday, since we have to leave at 4 in the morning Thursday to return to the United States!!
I am excited to come back and share my experiences!

Hello again finally! It has been really hard to access computers, but I found an Internet cafe where I have more time to write. This past week was really busy with activities and this week is a little more relaxed since it is our last full week. Then, our final paper is due, along with a oral exam on the 21st! Time has really flown by.
This weekend we climbed the pyramids: la luna (the moon) and el sol (the sun). We had a very nice day for Teotihuacan, it wasnt too hot for climbing the pyramids and we all took some wonderful pictures! (sorry that I am unable to post them)
Yesterday we went to a huge orphanage, played basketball, soccer, tennis, and volleyball, we also watched the little kids break pinatas that held a lot of candy!
Our emersion into the Mexican culture has been wonderful and we have all learned a lot. There is a lot of history to Mexico, more than I realized...the history is very important to everyone here.
Everyone´s spanish speaking skills have improved greatly as well.
We have a little over a week left, but it will go by fast. There have been a few more stomach aches and pains, but all of them have been taken care of.
Today we had our second cooking class and Thursday we have another dancing class!
We are looking forward to the rest of our trip.

Hi everyone! We all arrived safetly to Mexico and have been very busy. We visited the city of Cuernavaca and the museum and cathedral. Then we went to Mexico City to the Museum of Anthropolgy and also the first palace in Mexico. Then we visited the city of Taxo which is known for all its silver. Many of us bought a lot of gifts there.
Our classes have been going well, and it stays pretty hot during the day. Last night we went to Spiderman 3 and it was in English with spanish subtitles!!!
Everyone has been quite healthy and we are looking forward to the rest of our activites for the week. Possibly visiting and orphange, Friday we have a dance class and Saturday we visit Teotihuacan to climb the pyramids.
We have had problems with the computers and getting pictures on the blog, but I hope I can write soon!

Preparación (Preparation)

Today was our first class session before we leave on Thursday. We also recieved schedules of what we will be doing in Mexico, as well as what the course objectives are. For classes in Mexico we will be reading a lot and doing activities out of our book every day. By the end of the month we are expected to write a 750 word composition about our experiences. We will also have a final oral exam which is part of the course grade. By the looks of our schedule, time will really fly bye!
The intensive spanish conversation has already begun, and just from today, we are all learning to adjust to speaking spanish once again.

We also met today so that we could ask questions about the trip. Many of us are curious about our host families and what everything will be like in Mexico.

Carol Johnston is from UNI, orginally from Peru, and she will be another advisor who will be traveling with us. Dr. Boerigter and Carol Johnston each have a group to be in charge of for excursions and activities since we have such a large number of students traveling this year.

Two more days of classes here at Wartburg, then we are off to Mexico. We will meet at the school by 6:45am Thursday morning!

Getting Ready For Mexico!

I am one of many traveling to Cuernavaca, Mexico for May Term. Everyone is very excited now that our trip beings in two weeks! We have been enduring our week of finals, and hopefully all do well on our spanish final as well.
In order to prepare for our trip we have continually discussed the trip throughout the semester and have talked about what we will be doing in Mexico and how we will handle potential situations. We recently received an e-mail reguarding how we should pack for the trip; although packing is not my favorite thing to do, I will be excited to pack my summer clothes!
I am excited for this opportunity to keep everyone informed about our trip and hopefully I will be able to share some pictures with you as our trip progresses!