Friday was our final day of classes and then each class presented a skit—-our class created a trivia show and then ended with two songs.  The staff and teachers surprised us with lunch outside and a visit from a mariachi band!  Bishop Enrique and Bishop Mary presented us with our diplomas and we celebrated Eucharist together.

Thursday evening we went to a beautiful restaurant at La Hacienda de Cortés, a former sugar mill hacienda founded by Hernán Cortés in 1530.  I think my favorite part were the huge Amatl trees!  We strolled the grounds, ate, and danced!

Last sunrise in Cuernavaca and a prayer before we leave.  And now car, bus, plane, car to arrive home by 11:00 pm hopefully!

Todos son bienvenidos!  All are welcome in the Anglican Diocese of Cuernavaca!  This joyful mural was painted just the other day outside of the Anglican Center where we are staying.

Playing “Ahorcado” (Hangman)!

Our little classroom—-including a picture of the whiteboard at the moment my brain just shut down and said “nope—-I’m done for the day!”  (I managed to regroup, but for a few minutes I couldn’t conjugate verbs or come up with answers in English or Spanish!)

In México, Valentine’s Day is called “El Dia del Amor y la Amistad” or “The Day of Love and Friendship”.  We celebrated the past few days by playing Amigos Secretos, similar to Secret Santas, leaving little treats, gifts and notes.  My Secret Amigo understood the assignment!  Gracias , Kyle! And Feliz Día del Amor y la Amistad to all of you who fill my life with friendship and love!

After spending Saturday resting and recovering, I am feeling so much better!  Sunday we divided up into three groups: Bishop Mary Glasspool, Rev Este Gardiner, Lela Lewis and I traveled about 45 minutes to Yautqpec to worship at The Church of the Resurrection.  The priest and people were so welcoming and encouraging as we practiced our Spanish!  Two teenagers showed me pictures of their youth group and I showed them pictures of our youth at St Thomas.  Today was back to grammar and vocabulary classes followed by a large group music class and then a fascinating lecture (in English by a priest who lives in Mexico) on Nueroscience and Spirituality.  Whew!

Off to church!  Feeling mostly better after two days of rest.

So the reason there wasn’t a México update yesterday is because I succumbed to the same virus two others on the trip have…hit me like a ton of bricks so was in bed all day yesterday.  We’ve stayed behind while the rest of the group ventures to Mexico City today—hopefully will be feeling better for church tomorrow.  Resting, sitting outside, reviewing my lessons and working on my Lent Madness bracket! (Other pictures from Thursday’s trip to the market and center city Cuernavaca to practice our language skills!)

Ayer fuimos a Los Jardines de México.  Son magníficos!

Spending hours each day thinking, speaking and writing in Spanish is challenging to be sure!  And, I’m finding that switching back to English is challenging too!  Even as I’m writing this post, I am thinking of the Spanish words and sentence structure.  Hats off to all of my friends who are bilingual—-I admire your brains immensely!

Every morning starts with morning prayer and then after breakfast we have two hours of grammar lessons—followed by an hour and a half of conversation.  Today we reviewed past tense and when to use the two forms of past tense.  My teacher Jerson is great—-he makes it so much fun.  And he is gentle with the corrections on our homework!!!

Today was our first day of classes!  My brain is tired but energized at the same time—-old words and grammar lessons from my high school Spanish are coming to the surface—-I can almost feel my language synapses firing!  After Morning Prayer and a delicious breakfast of homemade sopes, we began the morning with a presentation by the teachers and some conversation and then broke into small groups by levels of experience for grammar and vocabulary lessons.  Bishop  Enrique Treviño Cruz joined us for a delicious barbecue fiesta.  After a dip in the pool, it was time to work on the day’s homework—-writing an essay about “un día typica” and choosing a Spanish song to share with the class tomorrow!

Fotos de ayer.  San Miguel y Todos los Anjeles.  Everyone was given a candle and salt to remind us that we are salt and light and called to bring those into the world.

After a 14 hour travel day yesterday, I, along with eleven others from the Diocese of New York have settled in for a two week Spanish language immersion program at the Instituto de Español de la Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico (The Spanish Language Institute of the Anglican Church in Mexico).  So grateful to the vestry and people of St Thomas for supporting this continuing education adventure!  I was planning on blogging while I was here but managed to forget to retrieve my Chromebook from security at JFK so will be limited to what I blog on my phone—-so more photos, less words!  Off to mass at the cathedral in Cuernavaca!