Thanksgiving: Well…we had a great Thanksgiving. We had grammar class in the morning, then we went to lunch with 7 other students to a nice restaurant here in town. The food was fabulous, and it was fun to be with some friends. Unfortunately, the Dolphins�game wasn�t on TV here, but at least we heard that they won. It was a good day.
Buses, Trains, and Automobiles: Yesterday, we came all the way to Mexico City again. We took the hour and a half bus ride to the subway station, where we rode the line all the way to the end and then took a taxi to the mission office. Overall, the trip took about 2 and a half hours. We came to pick up our car. It sure will be nice to not have to do all that again. Now, hopefully we can find our way back to Cuernavaca on Sunday.
Whew! Lots has happened since the last time we updated the site. Sorry it’s been so long. Hopefully everyone has signed up for our email update list so you can know what we are doing even if we don’t update the website. We have almost completed our 2nd month of Spanish training at Cuauhnahuac. We would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning Spanish. The program is great (frustrating at times), and the city is really pretty. It’s close to a lot of really nice places to visit, and there are plenty of things to do in the city itself. Last weekend we went to Taxco, a city about an hour and a half from where we are. It is the city where they have a lot of silver mines. We went there to see the city and buy some gifts for Christmas, and it was definitely worth the visit! Here are some pictures from our trip there (click a picture to enlarge it):
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Mexico City AGAIN:We made the one hour and fifteen minute trek to Mexico City once again this weekend. That one hour and fifteen minutes is on the bus. It is another hour to where we are staying in Mexico City. The worst part is we started watching The Pledge with Jack Nickelson and didn’t get to finish it on the bus. Oh well, guess we’ll have to rent it and just watch the end. So we’re here to pick up our visas tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get some house shopping in, too, but there’s no telling.
Spanish classes are doing fine. We have 3 weeks left, and maybe more. That’s not a very long time. It will be over before we know it. Hopefully we will have learned a lot in that time.
We got to talk to our church last night on the phone during prayer meeting. It was great to hear from our friends, and we look forward to seeing them when they come in June.
Saturday, September 13, 2003
We spent today at a place called “Las Estacas.” It’s a spring-fed river about an hour away from our language school. We went with most of the students from the school, and the place was beautiful. They say that it is the place where some of the original tarzan movie was made. The water was cold, but we had a great time. It was good to get away for a while and just have some fun. When we got home, we watched the Scorpion King movie with the family. Tomorrow (Sunday) we are planning on going to an English speaking church. It starts at 8:30 am. We’re also supposed to get the Miami Dolphins game on TV here tomorrow, so I’m pretty excited about that.
Language school is going well. We’re doing a lot of studying and learning. We have off of school on Tuesday for Mexican Independence Day. On Monday night, there many big parties celebrating Mexico’s Independence. At 11 pm, the President goes out to the square in Mexico City and shouts, “Viva Mexico!” I’m looking forward to being a part of the celebration here in Cuernavaca.
We just finished our first week at Cuauhnahuac, and boy are our brains tired. We’ve been studying a lot, and have come a long way in one week. There’s just still so much to learn. There’s only about 20 students in the school right now, so we have plenty of one on one interaction with teachers (too much). Apart from school, we’ve really just stayed at home most of the time, playing “uno” with the family we are staying with. We did get to go to our friends’ church on Sunday. We rode the bus for about an hour then took a taxi to the church. It was pretty cool to see them again, though. We plan on going there again tomorrow. Last week we had barbacoa, something sort of like barbeque. It was for a party for a little girl who turned 3 that day. They eat barbacoa on special days, and it is made of all sorts of different kinds of meat. Sometimes it’s beef, sometimes it’s not. We’re not sure what it was we had on Sunday, but it was really good.
The last two Saturdays we have gone to downtown Cuernavaca to eat at our favorite churro place in the central part of town. It’s got a good view of all the activities that are going on there, and the churros are only 4 pesos (40 cents). A bus ride downtown only costs us 3.50 pesos (35 cents) each, so it’s a pretty inexpensive trip. Oh, last Saturday we caught a movie for 17 pesos each ($1.50), and it was in English with Spanish subtitles. There movies are a little behind those in the US, but we saw the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Please keep praying for us as we are cramming our little heads full of Spanish. It’s really intense, but we are having a lot of fun while we learn.
Pics of the week: One of the daughters in the house where we live, the cathedral in downtown Cuernavaca, and the view out of the back of the house. If you look hard at the middle of the last picture, you can see Popocatapetl, one of the two volcanos near us. Don’t worry, we think it’s dormant. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
