Thursday, December 17, 2009

Mexico City

We were blessed to be able to take the SMCA kids and families on a 5 day trip to Mexico City! Some of you prayed for our travels, safety, and the money to make this possible. Thanks for your prayers -it was a success and we had a wonderful time! The trip was packed full of exploring the city and learning more about Mexican history and culture. It was so fun for me to see the kids so excited about learning and experiencing some of the things that we had been learning about in the classroom.
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Day 1 was a day filled with travel. With 5 cars, 8 hours of driving, and 18 kids, we decided that it would be wise to break up the trip with some stops along the way. So we took a couple of hours to explore the city of San Luis Potosi.




We also saw some interesting sights on the car ride! These were snake skins for sale!



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On Day 2 we headed out of the city to the Teotihuacan Pyramids.

The Pyramid of the Sun.


On top of the Pyramid of the Sun.


Juan Porto is one of the teen home parents on our campus and he grew up in Mexico City. He kindly offered to be our tour guide and teach us about all of the sites that we would be visiting. Above is a picture of Juan explaining to us the history of Teotihuacan.


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On Day 3 we toured the Palace of Chapulepec, explored the Museum of Anthropolgy and ended the day hanging out at the Children's Museum. Below is a picture of Hope, Jessica, Chloe and I in the palace.



Above is all the kids with the palace in the background.


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On Day 4 we walked around downtown and visited the Federal Palace.




Inside of the Federal Palace.



Mexico City is built on top of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan. In the heart of downtown is el templo meyor. The is the site where the top of the largest pryamid is being excavated. It is incredible to think that while I was walking through the city, an entire ancient civilization was buried under my feet. Mexico City is also built on what used to be a large lake. Due to this, many old buildings have begun to sink. If you look closely at many of the buildings you will notice that they have a slight tilt to them.



Downtown we found many beautiful buildings! Above is a picture of the Theater and Architecture Museum.

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Throughout the trip we also ate some delicious... and unique... Mexican delicacies!


Jessica and I ate grasshoppers! The flavor was not too bad, they tasted mainly like salt and lime! However, the picture below will show you that it wasn't easy!



Here are all the flavors that you could order for the inside of your churro!!

The market where we did some shopping!

These are the Voladores de Papantla. They play music and spin around the pole.

Here is the historic symbol of Mexico City. You may have seen her in photos.

And just to prove that the trip had an educational focus, here is a picture of the kids writing in the travel journals that we kept throughout the trip. They used their journals for notes, sketches and reflections throughout the trip!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

November!!!!!!!

Wow! The whole month of November has slipped from me...Here are some snapshots from November...

SMCA field trip to the puppet museum

Fall Festival!




SMCA Thanksgiving luncheon

Back2Back community Thanksgiving