Luke's Stay 6/19/03- 7/17/04 The people I lived with

Afternoons

Here is the family I lived with. I'm in between my mom and dad.  They have a son, Alex and a daughter, Andrea.  They were very hospitable, at no time did I feel that I was a burden to them.  In fact, one weekend when the rest of the students went to Acapulco I stayed behind and they took me to visit an ancient monastery, I didn't even have to ask.  On the right is my grandmother Ofalia.  She is a GREAT cook.  She came every day to cook lunch and dinner.  She would never let me stop eating- I think I grew half an inch!I couldn't talk with her very well at the beginning of the trip but by the end I could understand a lot. She is incredible- she never sits down- and she can dance!

Norma, Luke, Enrique y Ofalia.

Here are the three students that were at the institute at the same time as me. In this picture I believe we were returning from our "wrestling" experience (more later).  Notice the graffiti.  There is a lot of it down there.   To some people this and other qualities of Cuernavaca may be turn-offs.  It should be noted that Cuernavaca, like all foreign cities is unique unto itself and should be enjoyed with an open mind.  If one arrives with certain expectations, they have set themself up to be dissapointed.  On another note, there are many wonderful things to see and experience there that  you could never find somewhere else.

Joanie, Ariel and John

Here I am during spanish class.  Due to the fact that we only had 4 students the classes sizes were very small.  Very, very smal1! On this day, Joanie, the other student in my class, was in Acapulco so I had class alone. Classes are held Mon.- Fri. from 9-12.  Due to the class size we could go as slow or as fast as we desired.  I was able to skip a whole year of highschool spanish (I was the youngest student- the others were ages 18, 22 and 24.).  During my stay there were 3 classes, adv. beg., and intermediate.  The average class size was 1.333333333333333333337.   On to the afternoons

Me and Victor