We hope you're having a great week! It was another fantastic week onsite for us! We hope that you don't think we're just saying that--we truly mean it! Both of us can't believe how great a group of students we have. From the classroom to afternoon activities to excursions, we are continually surprised with this group of students. Many heartfelt thanks from us for sending your students with us!
Over the weekend, the host moms had another busy weekend planned! On Sunday the program-suggested activity was the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya (The great/big museum of the Mayan world), that students were supposed to visit with their families. We leave Saturdays open for the host families. Some of the host mothers really took the lead, and have organized group activities for the students almost every day that there isn't a program-mandated activity. We are so greatful!! It keeps the students happy, busy, and out of trouble!
A look inside the museum, courtesy of Youtube.
On Saturday, a group of them went to a tramponline park (I think that's what we'd call it in English? See the video below). Not many photos (I think its hard to take them when the students are bouncing!), but one of the host moms sent this video of some of the students!
A visit the museum of music in downtown Mérida! We think this was Saturday, but its hard to keep track!
Niara in one of the plazas in Mérida!
Group photo in the Mayan Museum! We need to ask the host moms how they got the students to look this happy and stand this close to each other!
Katie and Ainsley!
Devin and Claire!
Emma!
Piper is hard to get in photos. We noticed that she's a little shy--soemehing we'll have to work on!
Claire is always ready for a photo!
Olivia! Doing the moon walk, maybe?
Cecila!
Ariel!
Katie! Look at that pose!
Malachi is a big thumbs up kinda guy.
So is Devin!
Niara again!
Learning about traditional Mayan dress!
"Hola padres!
We found Ceci and Olivia while they were leaving!
Jaigh and Cassidy!
Kaleigh!
Spencer--still not ready for photos, but he's improving!
Aaron! After looking at a few of these, I don't think the host moms gave them a heads up before snaping the picutre.
Aaron was ready this time!
Ice skating!
Finally done!
Sundays are for family! We think this was a father's day party.
Something funny just happened! We don't know what, though.
In Literature class this week, we worked with our first genre, the narrative! We'll be reading a short story by Juan Rulfo, a very well known Mexican writer. The short story we're working with (¿No oyes ladrar los perros? / Didn't you hear the dog barking?) commonly appears on the AP Spanish exam, and features a number of common theme's in Rulfo's writing. On Thursday, students had a chance to practice their writing, as they were asked to write a short narrative about an event in Mexico, following the narrative arc and paying attention to the tone of the their narrative. Tone is difficult in a native language, but they did such a good job!
In culture, they started with clothing vocabulary, and the cultural reading and discussion was focused on the effect that tourism and shopping can have on differnt countries, especially indigenous cultures. It's especially relevant to the Yuctatán, because of the strong Mayan presence. However, the culture that we see around Mérida and in the archeological sites is performative, and meant for consumption by tourists, which changes the meaning of culture, in general, and especially the culture that we see. Its an excellent topic in general to stretch language skills (lots of critical analysis, comparison, and opinion making), but also very relevant to help the students understand the experience they're having!
Practicing clothing vocabulary in the green group! Students had to memorize what their partner was wearing, and then recite it back without looking!
In linguistics class, we talked about the difference between dialects and language. Its an important distinction because, especially in Mexico, there's a lot of misinformation floating around about the indigenous languages, and many people will tell you they're "dialects". We also talked about register, or the ability to vary language according to context. Daniel will be working with them the rest of the summer on learning how to perform different speech acts (requests, apologies, compliments, refusals, etc.) and vary their language in appropriate ways.
In grammar, they covered the past tense! The past tenses in Spanish always tend to cause problems, and both instructors identified this as a major area for improvement for the students this summer. They started the week, however, with a conversation day. We noticed that all of them had a habit of letting their hands and non-verbal communication do the talking (haha), and we wanted to start pushing them to express themselves with words. Odalys grabbed a video of the red group!
In the afternoons, we kept working on preparing for the farewell show! In theatre the kids voted and decided to perform "The colloding of two cultures", a piece written by an indigenous playwright from the Yucatán about the Spanish Conquest. It was originally written in Yucatecan Maya, but was translated into English and Spanish. You should be able to check out the English translation here.
In choir, the students kept working with the songs they've picked, and have started to gear up to start coreographing! To get them in the mood, Odalys taught them some salsa, merengue and bachata.
On Wednesday, we finally had our first round of sports! We go to a nearby park that the students are familar with that has a basketball court, an open court for soccer, and various playground-type equipment and turn them loose. The students alternated between soccer (complete with cheerleaders, which I was informed was a sport), volleyball, and at the very end some basketball.
They got so excited when they saw the playground equipment they literally dropped everything.
Getting organized
Soccer! Complete with cheerleaders.
Cheer lessons with Odalys
On Thursday, we had our community engagement activity at CECUNY. This center houses a number of programs which Diana compared to afterschool programs in the US. Their session was ending, so we had a chance to visit the final rehearsals and recitals, and the students had a blast. At one point they visited an art exhibition of 8-12 year olds, and it melted our hearts seeing them interacting with the yucatecan kids. Kids are also incredibly hard to understand in a second langauge, but the students really gave it their all. A few them quickly figured out the trick: keep asking questions, nod along, and pretend that you understood! Unfortuantely, because it is an after school-type center with small kids, no photos were allowed inside the building. Instead, a group photo while we were waiting for pick up!
On Friday, we had our excursion to Uxmal and Loltún. Uxmal (pronounced Ush-mal) is another arqueological site, and the prevailing opinion was that Uxmal was all around more fun than Chichén Itzá. The vendors at Chichén get pushy (constantly yelling), and its mostly just looking. At Uxmal (as you can see), we have a little more freedom to interact with the pieces, although Diana, our wonderful coordinator, also told us that people criticize Uxmal for being too restored. I guess some people are never happy! You can see a really cool video showing Uxmal's architecture below.
Our own excursion started, as always, in Jardines de Mérida, where the loaded the students up. No pictures of the bus this time, unfortunately, as both Daniel and Odalys promptly fell asleep.
Group photo in Uxmal! They're all there!
Walking in!
The big reveal
The main pyramid!
Ah yes, nothing like an instructor team perfectly in sync with each other.
Look at that view!
Have you noticed how beautiful the sky is in Mexico?
Devin, Claire, Jaigh, and Olivia
Ceci, Ainsley, Piper, Emma, and Niara
Ariel, Katie, Cassidy, and Kaleigh
Aaron, Malachi, and Spencer
What's that on top?
Hmmm looks familar.
It's team Mérida!
IUHPFL takes you to the top of the world!
The climb down is just never as much fun.
The students were not happy, but we thought you guys would like to see. :)
After Uxmal, it was back in the bus to get to Loltún. Loltún is a series of caves with prehistoric roots. Since it's an actual series of underground caves (with some interesting lighting choices), getting good pictures of what we saw was difficult (it didn't stop the students from trying!), so this part of the blog is rather brief.
One of the many things that makes the program difficult is the shifting schedules, especially in Latin America. Diana was at Loltún with a group of her students in the last month and her tour left at 1pm--we arrived at 12:45 and were told the next tour didn't leave until 2pm! Last week when we got rained out, I mentioned how great this group of students is and how grateful we are that they're here with us. They're so sweet, and anytime they're together is a good time. During the hour wait (during which we actually didn't hear any complaints, an IUHPFL first for long waits), someone (we aren't sure who), started a hand game (I don't even know if it has a name), and without about 5 minutes they were all going at it. Luckily, we managed to get it on video.
With this group, waiting becomes an activity the instructors look forward to!
A profesional video of the caves.
That about does it for this week! Hot as ever, but we're in good spirits! The time is flying--as of our excursion on Friday we had exactly three weeks left! It seems unreal that we're approaching the midpoint of the program! To end on a good note, the students have something to say to all of you as well!
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