Summer session begins tonight

No one is arriving by bus, but bus training is one of the top agenda items for Monday morning. I am expecting 13 students....six for intensive language training and seven taking part in the first ever ethnography field study. They will be here until June 25. Pray everyone stays healthy in the face of 100+ degree weather.

New York, New York

I took photos the first morning and didn't take any others. This does not mean we stopped seeing and doing wonderful things. On the contrary....we went to three plays, toured Brooklyn, ate great meals, cruised through the Frick, the Met, the Museum of American Folk Art, the MOMA Design Store, only a few shops. Because of the perfect location of our hotel, we were able to walk just about everywhere. We did have some rainy days, but no enough to stop us. We walked, talked and walked and talked some more.

30 Rock

Bryant Park

Dorothy...a friend since 1979! I would travel with her anywhere. She made this trip happen.

The public library

OK...a few more random shots

Yes, more wedding photos

Marty White, a close family friend, walked Devin down the aisle.

By this time, the professional photographer was in charge of photos. We will have to wait to see the formal photos.

Wedding Day Continued

Wedding Day

Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner

The Mother of the Bride

Patti and I have been friends since 1974...37 years! With the exception of her own wedding day, I have never seen her look as happy and proud as she did at Devin's wedding. Everything went beautifully thanks to how well she and Devin collaborated to make it all happen.

FYI

1 pint Haagen Dazs = 28 points plus.

Did I binge over the suicide of Tiffany's mother? No. The death and funeral of the host father? No. The craziness of the last week of classes and departure of the students? No.

What finally put me over the edge? A disappointing dye job after three long hours in the salon.

Yes, the ice cream tasted delicious. Yes, the binge ended there. Yes, I actually had activity points to cover those 28 points.

What is a family?

This is the definition we use to prepare students for their homestay experience: "Families abroad are defined in as many ways as families in the United States. Some are widows with a large extended family that visits often. Some are single parents with young or teen children; some are traditional 2-parent families with young or grown children. Some are single women. All are families."

Students with their home host/s

Of the 16 students in the program this semester, 11 lived with home hosts. They truly develop warm, loving, positive relationships....and greatly improve their Spanish. More student/home host photos to follow.

Next stop: Broadway!

What a roller coaster of a week! From such an awful beginning to a wonderful close last night. As a part of our farewell party, students presented the world premiere of their original musical, "The Corn Grows Ripe: The Musical." The musical is based on a children's book we read in preparation for our weekend in the Mayan village of Tinum. The book tells the story of a young boy coming of age after his father is hurt in an accident on the piece of land he farms. Written in 1954, what impresses students most is that village life, methods of farming, total dependence of rainfall, multigenerational families living together, and cooking over open fires has not changed one little bit in hundreds of years. This group is so creative and enthusiastic they decided even before we left Tinum that they would produce a play by the end of the semester.

The result was incredible....4 song and dance numbers, participation in some capacity by every student, great attendance by our instructors, homehosts, friends, language assistants.

Of course, we finished the celebration with food, more music and more dancing.

Tale of Two Tragedies

The weekend was incredibly quiet until late Sunday night. I received the first call at 11:03 pm. The host father of one of my students had died earlier in the day, and while the family was at the funeral home, their house had been robbed of everything that wasn't nailed down and a few things that were actually nailed down. My student had been away for the weekend and had just gotten home. She was devastated as she felt part of the family. She was also upset because her laptop, study visa and passport were among the items stolen. She was even more upset because of the damage this incident would do to the already damaged reputation of Mexico in the eyes of the US. I settled her in to the Central House for the night and immediately started gathering the information needed to obtain a new passport and visa as she leaves on Sunday, May 8.

As my head was spinning with the huge task ahead of getting all of the paperwork in order before her departure, I received a second phone call at about 12:15 am from one of our homestay "mothers." The mother of her student had been found dead at 11:30 pm! The poor woman had committed suicide. As I headed to her house, the word was going out among students. They organized themselves to hold a vigil with the student while I worked to get her on the first plane out of Merida, to pack her things, and to help her simply put one foot in front of the other.

Luckily, there was a seat available on the earliest flight to the US, and the student arrived home at 2:00 this afternoon. Makes one count one's blessings, doesn't it?