Scarf Complete, Vacation!

Hola a todos!

Time keeps flying here in Xalapa and we have now reached the midterm break point in the university. We have 2 weeks of vacation, the first week I will be spending with my parents in and around Xalapa for the most part and the 2nd week, the BCA group will be going to the Yucatan Peninsula to visit Merida, some surrounding sities, and passing through a bit of the north part of Chiapas!

The weather continues to get hotter here and the pase of the life never ceases to slow down. My host parents are also quite busy with their food business, these next 2 weeks they have to prepare food everyday for about 150 people using the kitchen in our house. This evening, I just got done helping them make 200 quesadillas, we had quite the assembly line going with the whole family, reminded me of my days working in the Marshalls factory, only with better hours and no restrictions on bathroom breaks.

I´ve also continued going to the weaving workshop, this past thursday we worked extra fast and got the scarf done! It turned out really great, I´m really excited about it. Hopefully I can continue to go to the workshop and buy a set of the sticks to bring back to the states. Recently I´ve been spending a lot of time with a few Mexican friends doing a variety of things, watching soccer games, going salsa dancing, going to concerts, watching movies here and there and generally hanging out and having a good time. My classes have been going well, occasionally it´s frustrating the lack of organization that a few of my classes have. The dynamic is very different than my classes in Goshen. Students are constantly in and out of the classroom, we still haven´t gotten a syllabus (by this time I think it´s too late), professors regularly show up 30 minutes late, etc. It´s difficult to describe exactly how the classroom atmosphere is and I don´t want to sound overly critical, although coming from a really well organized university system where everything generally runs smoothly, it feels like a lot of time is wasted here.

Anyhow, I´ll leave this entry a bit shorter, I should get going here. In the next entry I should have pictures of my parents arrival and time here! I hope everyone is well!

Pictures:

1-The completed scarf

2-A picture with a band from xalapa who we saw in concert

3-playing a little guitar at the weaving workshop