We also took a tour of some mines:

At one point in the tour, they shut off all the lights to show us what the miners experienced when they worked there.  It was truly sad, to listen to the stories of enslaved humans forced to work far down in the earth with poor lighting and poor ventilation, carrying large loads on their backs.  Miners didn't live more than 5 or so years after they started working in the mines.  (Sorry for the downer.)

On our one free weekend, we took a tour to San Miguel de Allende.  On the way there, we got to visit the tomb of Jose Alfredo Jimenez:

By far the most interesting looking tomb I have ever seen!!!

Unfortunately, we didn't spend much time in San Miguel de Allende, but fortunately, it looks suspiciously like many of the other colonial towns we have seen:

Spanish school was nice.  This was the first school that had more students than just us!  There were about 50 or so of them!  The only negative was that due to that, we didn't get a true immersion experience.  So many of the students spoke English to one another, which frustrated me greatly.  We're supposed to be immersed!  So after a week in the school, we put the girls in a Mexican summer program, where they got to play with local Mexican children and had non-English speaking teachers.  There was no formal Spanish instruction, but immersion is instruction enough!

Our classes were also really nice--I got to take 3 literature classes and one Mexican politics class.  Those were my first classes taught in Spanish.  I now have a great appreciation for Juan Rulfo and Julio Cortazar. 

Did I mention our host family was wonderful?  They lived at the top of this great high hill, which was a challenging climb (but great exercise!).  They had 8 grandchildren, and we met them all.  The grandchildren were wonderful and played with FQ when we were all at school. 




They served us delicious Mexican food, including chicharrones in tacos, mole, and pozole.  Yummmmy!

The girls did so well with the trip.  They are getting better and better at adapting to different countries and different cultures.  It only took one day for them to remember not to put the toilet paper in the toilet.    They also ate really well--they tried just about everything!  They are just sweet little travelers. 

So again, we would highly recommend an immersion experience for learning a foreign language.  I would recommend going during the school year, though, and not during the summer, unless you contacted the school ahead of time and verified that you would be one of the few students.  However, even if you have to go in the summer, it is still a wonderful way to learn another language.

The school we went to was called Escuela Mexicana.  The teachers and director were great to work with! 

So now we are back in the US, recovering and awaiting our next trip--to Europe this time.

God bless,
AH