Adios, Morelia

The time has come to leave Morelia and move on to explore other parts of Mexico before returning home. We had our last interactions with students on Thursday and said our goodbyes. Shayna and I had a fun, and very late, night out on the town that night with some of our students. We went to an eclectic restaurant/bar and an even more eclectic club where there was a band playing cover songs on request interspersed with dance music. It was nice to unwind and see another side of these great people we've been working with. We had many, many laughs.

Tomorrow Shayna and I will head to Guanajuato, a couple hours north of here, and spend at least two nights there. From there we will likely make a stop in San Miguel de Allende, a very popular tourist town. We are told there are something like ten or twelve thousand retired Americans living there, which is normally not a selling point when traveling, but we hear it's also quite beautiful. We may add another town to our list, and eventually will make our way back to Mexico City to spend our last days with my boyfriend's family and see a few more of the sights. It is safe to say that both Shayna and I are looking forward to getting home.

The storms here during the rainy season are epic. We've gotten pretty good at reading the weather to know how much time we have before we need to find shelter. This storm was rolling in the other day as we were heading out for lunch.

Forgot to reserve your mariachi band? No problem! Just drive around the streets of Morelia and you will find groups of musicians on various street corners waiting to be hired.

Telma, one of my students, doles out champurrado for us on the last day of school. It's a thick chocolatey drink made with corn and a hint of cinnamon. Delicious.

It was also one of my student's birthday on the last day we went in. Apparently in Mexico the tradition is for the birthday girl or boy to lean in and take a bite of their birthday cake while someone smashes their face into it. Here Monserrat shows off her lovely cake face. The cake was delicious, by the way. It was tres leches, which may be my new favorite dessert.

Last night we went up into the hills to have a nice dinner out. The view of downtown from there is spectacular.

On why we're here

All I've been blogging about since we arrived is our adventures in travel, eating, and the people we've met along the way. What I've failed to talk about, however, is our students, which is the real reason we are here. It's taken a little while to get the ball rolling, but now we've got a good thing going and some really nice and interesting students. Tomorrow we start going to the North American Cultural Institute to do a short 1/2 hour of conversation with some of the English classes in the morning. In the afternoons we usually meet individually with the students we are tutoring. Shayna meets with Susanna to help her prepare for the TOEFL, Candace meets with Gabriel for the same, and I am now working with Mireya, the lady who works here at the inn, basically helping her with the English she would need to interact with guests here. I also sometimes work with Miriam, Susanna's cousin, who has lived in Miami and is looking to practice her in English some more. In the evenings we have a conversation group and the participants keep changing. Froy, our most faithful participant, is kind of like a Mexican Deepak Chopra, full of wisdom that he wants to share. Tonight we had two new people join. One was Jupiter, a very cool guy that we met at the organic fair yesterday, who makes and sells instruments, 7-seed energy bars, and jewelry. The other was Azael, who runs a juice and sandwich bar just down the road from us. He is the one who makes and delivers green juice when we call and order it. Super, super nice guy as well. In the evenings I also sometimes work with Dani, who does movie and film festival marketing here in Morelia and in Tlalpujahua.

So all in all, a fantastic group of people. It's work, but mostly it's fun helping them with their English, and along the way we learn a little Spanish as well.

I can't get this image to rotate, but turn your head to the left and you are looking down the leaf of a giant maguey, also known as agave. These things are so impressive... almost a little sci-fi they're so huge. I took this today at Tec, the school where we meet Susanna and Miriam.

On the way back to our hotel just before a huge thunderstorm broke out. An interesting, though perhaps dangerous, way to sharpen a knife.

Taken one night during our conversation with Froy. A nice glass of wine lit by a funky Absolut bottle candle holder.