Bienvenido a Pablo/Ryan - el estudiante nuevo a CFHS periodo uno!! A
Also, check the comments section from the last blog entry if you had questions/interesting commnets(Eva!) as I have answered them there!



It's a beautiful sunny day here - again! It has been a completely different Mexico being on the coast. There is not as much visable history here. The town we are leaving today - Bucerias - was the capital of the kingdom of Hueytlaltonazgo de Xalisco (trying saying that 3 times in a row!). It's original name was Temichoque meaning town next to the sea. Aztec emperors sent missions to this area to collect the Burgado sea snail, which produced a purple dye that was used exclusively for the emperor's clothing and his high priest's robes. Anyone else who used it risked the penalty of death! And from what I know of the Aztecs, I don't think I'd want to be put to death by them!



You don't even want to look at the photos this week. As I mentioned we spent the week around the Bucerias area exploring the small fishing villages. One cool thing that happened relates to Mrs. Nelson (art teacher at the H.S.) Last year she returned to a small fishing villaged named Chacala. I say returned because she had been there 20 years before for a quarter abroad program at her university. Well, when she went back 20 years later, she met a woman named Aurora and stayed at her hospedaje (lodging). After visiting again, Mrs. Nelson made one of her awesome letreros (signs) for Aurora to hang in front of her hotelito. I had no intention of going to this village, but we ended up there this week and I got to see Mrs. Nelson's work hanging here in Mexico! I also got to meet Aurora who spent the whole time talking about how awesome Mrs. Nelson is! I had to agree! It makes the world seem smaller when things like this happen!



I saw some firsts this week. One was this HUGE green fruit known as the Yaca. It has green spikes all around it. If you can actually cut it open it's bright yellow inside. The flavor? Well, a mix between a pineapple and a melon. I didn't get a picture of one yet, but I will!

Also, saw a dulce vendor on the beach. He uses a wheelbarrow and walkes around and for $40 pesos you can get which ever of the 30 something dulces he has in his wheelbarrow. Check out the photo.

I've had a couple of people wonder if we were totally safe as there is a Travel Warning for US citizens going to Mexico right now. I will be honest that many of the towns we have been in have had several murders in the time that we were there. However, we are making good choices to stay in visible places and traveling only be day. In fact we were to take an overnight bus to Mexico City next week, but we decided to get a short flight instead as there have been some problems with the night time buses here getting stopped and robbed. However, each day we feel no fear, the people here are amazing, kind and generous and we would stay longer if I didn't have 150 incredible students to get back to!!

So, I will try and write one more time from the fishing village. They just got electricity there 2 years ago and have just got one (apparently very slow) internet cafe set up. I'll find it and send you some more messages before I go!

My new spanish words of the week:
Hot Cakes - guess what it means? But that's the work used here for pancakes!
Cruise Chips - Not a miss spelling! The "sh" sound is very difficult to pronounce for native Spanish speakers so they refer to ships as "chips". So guess what shorts are called? - yep, chorts!
acompanado:the word to used to order food on the side
nieve - we all know that it's snow, but also is used as ice cream here!
playera:t-shirt - camisa is more like a shirt with collar here.

muy bien - entonces mis estudiantes fantasticas - que tengan una buena semana!
Hasta Luego!
Sra. Koch